Wednesday, July 24, 2002

Warchalking in the press: round-up. Non-exhaustive list of articles that have sprung up - some are know moving beyond the initial "hey - chalk! wifi!... [Warchalking]

Library Journal: Copyright in the Balance. Q&A with Lawrence Lessig. We need to be much more aggressive in calling people on this rhetoric, because it's just wrong. It's just not the case that copyright has ever been understood to mean that if you use a copyrighted work in a way unintended by the copyright owner that's "theft." [Tomalak's Realm]

Itsy Bitsy Mobile-Size Movies. A Minneapolis Web designer has created a movie for mobile phones. No, he doesn't expect people to watch feature-length films on their cell phones, but he predicts they will enjoy 'Cell Phone Theater.' By Elisa Batista. [Wired News]

First GIF then JPEG: Who's ready for PNG?. With Forgent Networks claiming rights to JPEG and the ISO considering withdrawl of the image format as a formal standard, will people move to PNG? [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service] Every wireless device will have gif/jpg/png image capabilities soon. GIF license fees are an excepted, and largely unnoticed reality. Anyone know what that's worth these days? Here's a good overview of the GIF licensing issue. And the Unisys page for License Information on GIF and Other LZW-based Technologies.

Getting Their Vibe Across in Unconventional Ways. If a band wants to transmit energy from the stage to the audience, perhaps tunes and lyrics and songs merely get in the way. By Kelefa Sanneh. [New York Times: Arts] Brooklyn's got it goin on.

Could Hollywood hack your PC?. Congress is preparing to consider a proposal that would authorize copyright holders to disable PCs used for illicit file trading--a step critics say amounts to vigilante justice. [CNET News.com]