Friday, February 23, 2007
Copyright v. The Free Market
The Berkeley Center for Law and Technology (BCLT) invited me to give their lunchtime seminar yesterday. The audience was mostly students, and my host requested a copyright-oriented talk, having recently overloaded the crowd with patent speakers. I chose the title: Copyright v. The Free Market: A Clash of Titans. (Hey, the invitation came on Tuesday for a Thursday talk--cut me a little slack).
I promised to make my slides available. Feel free to use them subject to the following conditions:
1. You attribute Bruce Abramson as the author.
2. You direct listeners/viewers to www.theinformationist.com, where they can get their own set and see my other musings.
3. You let listeners/viewers know that I discuss these issues further in both Digital Phoenix and The Secret Circuit.
Note that my name and the website appear on every slide, and the book information appears on the last slide. Simply incorporating my last slide and leaving my footer information untouched will satisfy these minimal requirements.
For those who see some irony in my placing conditions on distribution of a talk that takes a sanguine view of copyright law, I can only say three things:
1. Removing my name and claiming independent authorship constitutes plagiarism--an issue entirely independent of copyright law.
2. None of my conditions interfere with market conditions.
And most of all. . .
3. A little bit of common courtesy never hurt anyone. People who like my presentations might also like my books.
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007
New Gig: Cities on a Hill
I seem to be moving into a whole new arena. Fred Siegel, perhaps best known for The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life
his 2005 book about Mayor Giuliani (or about New York City, depending upon whom you ask), is Editor-in-Chief of the blog Cities on a Hill. Cities on a Hill is a project of the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Civic Innovation. The blog discusses urban issues in cities across America, or as I like to put it, “free-market theory meets socialist practice.” Fred has graciously invited me to be an occasional left-coast correspondent--pushing me, for the first time, to keep an eye out for local issues.
My first piece--an impressionistic celebration of my first year as a San Franciscan--appeared today.
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Monday, February 19, 2007
Every Now and Then. . .
I just discovered that the editors of the Claremont Review of Books decided to publish my letter to Larry Arnn. (Maybe I should go ahead and renew my subscription after all).
That defies not only my original prediction, but also years of experience.
Added to my 2005 success at getting into the IHT, that makes two.
Those MSM walls are just a-tumblin’ down. . .
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Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Radio Play in Boston
I’ve been delinquent in commenting on the ripple that Steve Jobs threw into the DRM debate last week. Nevertheless, some folks in Boston found me--with the diligent help of Kimberly Hataway (of Hathaway PR).
I’ll be talking about DRM with Craig Peterson. The show will play in the Boston Area, on WGIR, WGIN, and WGIP, on Saturday February 19, and on WLMW during the week of February 19.
Here’s a blurb:
What is Digital Rights Management? Why is Steve Jobs calling for its elimination? Why has the RIAA been unsuccessful in stopping the “sharing” of music? What is the future of the music and movie industries’ distribution and sales? Selected guests will appear on pre-recorded telephone interview segments on “Tech Talk With Craig Peterson.”
I’m one of the “selected guests.” Stay tuned. . . I’ll post a podcast link when I get one.
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