Monday, June 27, 2005

Mark Cuban: "The MGM Grokster decision won't help the content business make more money. It wont help artists make more money. This deal gave something to both sides, but it gave the most to lawyers and lobbyists." 

9:23PM Eastern: Arrived safely in Orlando. Free Internet access. Nice. 

BBC: File sharing suffers major defeat. 

Checking in from Gate 84 at SFO at 11:30AM Pacific, where there's an excellent Tmobile wireless signal. Luckily I have an unlimited Tmobile account so effectively this connection costs me nothing. I almost signed up for Cingular wireless in Seattle, that and Wayport were all that was available.  

Apparently podcasting was part of the Supreme Court decision, as a non-infringing use of file sharing. We're doing our part to defend free speech on the Internet, and this is a clear example of that. The non-infringing-ness of podcasts also came up in the Gillmor Gang we did on Friday, hopefully you'll be able to hear it soon. 

Scotusblog: "The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that developers of software violate federal copyright law when they provide computer users with the means to share music and movie files downloaded from the internet." 

The Wall Street Journal is hosting a Grokster roundtable.  

Heard on the Bay Area grapevine, Tuesday is a big day for iTunes and podcasting. The client ships with RSS 2.0-with-enclosures support, and Apple will announce a big corporate content partnership. Still waiting to confirm who the partner is. I'm returning to Florida today, leaving at noon. I was in SF for an early look at a new version of one of the standbys of the Web, an app with a long past and a bright future, with one of my favorite product designers at the helm. Not much RSS in version 1, but yesterday I saw a a brilliant light at the end of the tunnel, a wet one. At Gnomedex, Dylan Greene said he hated Scripting News because sometimes I show just a hint of leg. And that of course is how you're supposed to feel. Sometimes anticipation is better than knowing -- who was it who said -- It hurts so good?  

There are so many pictures of me at Gnomedex, this is what y'all are accustomed to seeing, but not me. My mirror lies, it says I'm still 22, young and virile, a gorgeous hunk. So who's this old guy in the pictures? My father predicted this would happen. As he was turning 70, I showed him a picture I took. He winced. I said, But Dad, that's what you look like! He said: In my mind I'm still 19. When I go through this loop here's what I do. 1. Sigh. 2. Go on.  

Michael Gartenberg explains RSS to IT people. 

An upgrade for the web, thanks to Don Park. Dell's Order Cancellation page. It should be illegal to take orders on the web, but not cancellations.  

Rick Segal explains the Microsoft playbook of the past. "In the past, you wouldn't have seen support for "pure" RSS. Not on my watch, boyz. Nope, what you would have seen is yours truly hawking something along the lines of SIR (Surround Isolate and Replace) Technology or RSS+." A couple of comments. 1. John Markoff, in a 2000 NY Times profile, predicted that they would do this, but in the end , they went the other way, as I told him they would. In an email to me. He said he'd be glad to eat his words, seems now's the time to do that John (not much chance of that actually happening of course). 2. Second, this strikes me as exactly what Technorati was trying to do with OPML, and if it's ridiculous for a gorilla like Microsoft, it's pathetic for a gnat like Technorati.  

Tim Bray is in SF too, and writes about the Gay Pride Day Parade, which I got caught up in too, driving from SFO to my Union Square hotel. It was quite a scene. In all my years of living in the Bay Area (a bit to the south in Silicon Valley) I had never seen a Gay Pride Day.  

Brent Simmons: "Will Microsoft’s support of RSS help make syndication more and more popular? Yes indeed, and that’s a good thing."