Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Stand-up Librarian!

This is true to the librarians I know - and I know a good many. Not so the IT people I know:

An e-mail threat that prompted the evacuation of more than a dozen Brandeis University buildings on January 18 led to an unusual standoff in a public library in Newton, Mass., a few miles from the Brandeis campus.

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents tried to seize 30 of the library’s computers without a warrant, saying someone had used the library’s Internet connection to send the threat to Brandeis. But the library director, Kathy Glick-Weil, told the agents they could not take the machines unless they got a warrant first. Newton’s mayor, David Cohen, backed Ms. Glick-Weil up.

After a brief standoff, FBI officials relented and sought a warrant from a judge. Meanwhile, Ms. Glick-Weil allowed an FBI computer-forensics examiner to work with information-technology specialists at the library to narrow down which computers might have been used to send the threatening message. They determined that three computers were implicated in the alleged crime.

Late that evening, the FBI received a warrant to cart away the three computers. According to Mayor Cohen, the warrant allows the FBI to view only the threatening e-mail message and the messages sent immediately before and after that message.

Two other points: the US Attorney said the FBI acted within its authority, and “talk-show hosts and newspaper columnists in Boston” called the warrant demand irresponsible.

Darned liberal media! I bet a Philly columnist would see it differently. But then evidently so did the public. The mayor said he “received many positive comments from people all over the country supporting his actions.”

Sellout.com

From Andy Kessler’s sellout.com post on Google:

Look, there’s a wrong way to sell out-rappers pitching for Chrysler, anything Vegas-and a right way. Puff Daddy’s soundtrack for “Godzilla” could have been a disaster to his fans, but he chose to do a hip-hop remix of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir,” providing someone else to blame for the sellout. Or the Jimi Hendrix strategy. Story has it that, despite using Gibson guitars on his albums, he signed a deal with Fender Guitars for cash and as many Stratocasters as he needed, as long as he appeared exclusively in concert and photos with Fenders. He took the deal, and with his unlimited supply of Fenders, began smashing them at the end of every concert, for fans who never knew he sold out.

Google could have kept their cool and trusted image if they’d just worked with someone else in China, someone they could smash. Perhaps Eggroll.com - powered by Google. Someone else to blame for those unsearchable keywords. Users in the West may not desert them, but a billion soon-to-be-online Chinese will forever associate Google with lame and censored search results - tools of the state. That just dumb. And totally uncool.

Great point. I accepted Google’s turn to the dark side but I sure wouldn’t call it “cool.”

Via Om Malik.

Cory & StarForce

I’m on Cory’s side. And I agree with Siva, StarForce is a foolish company.

And the nominees are…

Oscar nominees are in. You know I’m happy Brokeback leads:

In a year when size counted for less than serious intent among voters, Oscar nominations were divvied up among small films with deep political and social themes, from gay romance to the abuse of government power to racial relations to the cycle of vengeance in the Middle East.

“Brokeback Mountain,” a love story of two cowboys set over three decades, received eight nominations, including best picture, continuing a run that has put it in lead position as the awards season unfolds.

And that Felicity Huffman is nominated for Transamerica (my guess is this category is a shoe-in for Reese Witherspoon for her portrayal of June Carter Cash, the fact that “Walk the Line” didn’t get a Best Picture nod doesn’t hurt her chances). I’m also happy about Capote and Good Night and Good Luck.

SEE ALSO: My reaction to Brokeback, being gay is a choice and Transamerica.

Property rights protect future profits?

Susan Crawford:

In the 1890 article that launched privacy law in the U.S., Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis said:

The possibility of future profits is not a right of property which the law ordinarily recognizes. (in The Right To Privacy, 4 Harv. L. Rev. 193 (1890)).

These authors were trying to persuade their readers of the existence of a general right in individuals to be let alone.  They didn’t think this right to be let alone was a property right, because (in part) they didn’t believe that the concept of property was broad enough to cover privacy.  For example, if true but private facts were published about a man, and that publication made his life difficult (or ruined him), Warren and Brandeis felt that property law wouldn’t necessarily protect him—because “the possibility of future profits is not a right of property which the law ordinarily recognizes.”

We now live in an era in which possessors of things they believe to be their “property” fervently believe that law protects their possibility of future profits.

Read on for her examples, Google Book Search and tiered Internet access. Yes, why is it our sympathies are with publishers and network builders and we fail to see a concomitant public right to reasonable and fair access to the fruits of our culture?

TiVo and Cisco

In my department at work there can be a question as to where I fit. I consider myself a media guy but my training and a big chunk of my experience was in television production; the place I think I belong and where I want to be is on the computer side.

I’m not plugged in to it now, but back in the day I noticed that the video people considered themselves video people but the computer people were much more fluid. My take was that the video people should get with the program because the computer people are taking over the world.

All of which is context for my take on the rumor that Cisco might by TiVo:

According to a source familiar with Cisco and TiVo, there’s a “potential for an interesting partnership” to emerge between the two companies. TiVo, the source said, has held discussions with many potential partners.

There’s no indication that Cisco is looking to buy TiVo, and details regarding a potential partnership are scant. But Cisco’s recent acquisitions do suggest how serious the company is about becoming a major presence in the living room, and TiVo carries weight as a well-known consumer DVR brand. At the same time, Cisco could help TiVo regain the distribution clout it lost when satellite TV provider DirecTV said it was walking away from a longtime partnership with TiVo.

Representatives from both Cisco and TiVo said they would not comment on rumors.

If I’m not a computer guy you’ve got to know I’m definitely not a networking guy, but I am crazy about this idea. The association of TiVo with networking rather than content is great. It’s the consumerization of networking!

Yes, they should buy Sling Media too and next up, how about an IP enabled stereo system? I don’t want to put holes in my wall for speaker wires…

RELATED: The official TiVo Blog is a blog done wrong.