Caught outside the middle

Here's Declan on Verizon's Sarah Deutsch, Verizon's answer to Hillary Rosen: Why telecoms back the pirate cause.

Of course, they don't. And if some legislative middle ground is found between the cable (pro-Hollywood) and DSL (trying to be both pro-Hollywood and pro-"consumer") Content Carriers, the Net we know today won't be on it.

Up until now, the only party at the table with Congress has been Hollywood: the entertianment industry. Now the telcos are moving up to that table as well. They have the money, so they'll get the seat.

Now it's time for technology to move up to the same table.

And of course, that's what AOTC is here for.

People Who Stream Each Week Buy Significantly More CDs Than Most Americans

People Who Stream Each Week Buy Significantly More CDs Than Most Americans According To Latest Arbitron/Edison Media Research Study

Residential Broadband Adoption Doubles in 18 Months. 08.19.02

NEW YORK, August 19, 2002 - Weekly "Streamies" - people who have watched or
listened to streaming media online in the past week - bought more than one
and a half times the number of compact discs (CDs) in the past year than the
average American, according to a new study by Arbitron Inc. (NYSE:ARB) and
Edison Media Research.

The study, "Internet 9: The Media and Entertainment World of Online
Consumers," found that weekly Streamies bought 21 CDs in the past year,
compared to the average American, who bought 13 CDs.

"While some in the record industry have viewed streaming as a threat, this
research indicates that Streamies are a very lucrative group of record
buyers," said Bill Rose, vice president and general manager, Arbitron
Webcast Services, Arbitron Inc.

The study also found that residential broadband adoption has doubled in just
under 18 months. Those with a cable modem or DSL Internet connection at home
jumped from 12 percent in January 2001 to 28 percent in July 2002.

These and other new findings from the study will be presented during a live
webcast on Thursday, September 5 at 12:00 Noon EDT. Those interested in
viewing the free webcast can register at www.arbitron.com or
www.edisonresearch.com.

Other issues addressed in the study are:

Consumer perceptions of radio, TV, newspapers and the Internet;
Internet access and online buying trends;
Streaming (audio and video) usage trends;
Streaming subscription and advertising;
Usage and perceptions of local media Web sites;
Awareness and interest in satellite radio.
The findings reported here are based on a July 2002 survey consisting of
2,511 telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of
Arbitron's Spring 2002 radio diary keepers. Since 1998, Arbitron and Edison
Media Research have conducted nine groundbreaking studies of the Internet
and streaming media, one every six months.

Librarian of Congress: Webcasters shouldn't be allowed to object to CARP As reported in RAIN (Radio and Internet Newsletter) today, the Librarian of Congress filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals yesterday, arguing that webcasters who did not participate in the CARP are not an aggrieved party who would be bound by the determination and thus should not be allowed to file an appeal in court against the decision.

Read the entire article.

Quickies Some AOTC-relevant links I saw today:

Slashdot: Copyright Infringement In the News
News.com: WiFi and Free Lunches
Kevin Werbach: The Language Barrier

Traction

A few days ago on my blog I pointed to Larry Lessig's powerful speech at OSCon. (If you can handle Flash, Leonrd Lin's hack of the combined audio and video captures the full multimedia experience.) Dave Winer pushed back on some of Larry's assumptions, and I started pushing both guys towards each other.

Because we're all technologists here (even Larry, who disclaims as much, even though he's the guy on the horse at the front of the parade). We're all working toward the same fundamental goals. If we make enemies of each other (which is what happens when we don't talk), our common enemies win.

Many posts later, Larry and Dave started talking. The first results are here and here. I blogged it here, where I also mentioned this very AOTC blog for the first time. And now the links are coming in. That first one is from here.

Very encouraging stuff.

Smart mob rule

Just got this from a reader:

In the next 3 months, all the representatives of the people will be in their home districts, campaigning, holding public meetings, trekking from one place to another to meet their constituents.

What if there was a 'smart mob' waiting for them at each one?
Local constituents concerned and informed about the CBDTPA, Coble/Berman, the DMCA and the rest.

Why not set up a tree of weblogs — a top-level campaign one, giving the overview and highlights, then state and regional ones for each election? Brainstorm and hone a set of questions to ask each representative, and publish their responses, and an endorsement/rejection. Get the meeting attendees to bring video cameras and tape recorders and post the Q&A; sessions in video too. Sign up flyposters and canvassers too.

If there isn't an endorsable candidate, come up with a write-in candidate instead.

Are you likely to win any seats? Probably not. But at the end of it, every representative will be aware of a big constituency who don't want the entertainment industry to have veto rights over the constitution. The DMCA was passed unanimously. Coble-Berman mustn't be.

Good idea.

Tagline

The tagline used to say "AOTC Mission Statement." Now it says "Educating politics about technology."

It's a placeholder until one or more of us have come up with something better.

Role playing

I just posted this on my blog in response to something Dave Winer wrote in response to something in Larry Lessig's OSCon speech.

At issue is who does what.

In Geeks in government: A good idea? Declan McCullagh says Here's the bitter truth about efforts by geeks to directly influence Congressfolk: These efforts are mostly a waste of time. Sure, they may make you feel better, but they're not the way to win.

He goes on:

Instead, technologists should be doing what comes naturally: inventing technology that outpaces the law and could even make new laws irrelevant.

"They're much better off doing what they do best, writing code," says Sonia Arrison of the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank in San Francisco. "That's where their competitive advantage lies."

But our efforts here at AOTC are still below Declan's radar. We should raise it up. He needs to know some of us are doing something other than just making noise and writng code.

AOTC is an educational organization. That's its charter. Perhaps it really is impossible to educate Congress, and Larry is right to share J.C. Watt's opinion that "If you're explaining, you're losing." But I don't think so.

Congress is misguided. And so is much of the public. Just last night I had a conversation with a friend who wondered if "all this downloading" wasn't a Bad Thing. Like many of the folks in Congress, she is not a heavy Internet user. But after a little explaining, she understood that the real Bad Thing was how effectively Hollywood had been hacking Congress.

So explain we must.

Poaching Pols redux

I agree wit the suggestion that we should be using NRA-like tactics. In fact, the next thing I blog is going to be an essay on how the situation of hackers and techies vis-a-vis Big Media has come to resemble the situation gun owners have been in for decades -- demonized by a hostile media culture that is both able and willing to tell big lies to stamp out the enabling technologies of freedom

Still holding out for `hacker!'

I'm not with Doc on voting for `geek'.

Four years ago, I helped coin the term `open source' and promoted its
acceptance both among hackers and in the mainstream. I've demonstrated
that I'm not shy about abandoning terminology that has proven more harmful
than helpful.

This case isn't parallel. `Open source' achieved the success it did because
most of the hacker community never bought the ideology that went along with
the term `free software' in the first place. We called what we did `free
software', but the core of our cultural identity was elsewhere -- in the history
of Unix, in the traditions that came out of university computer labs in the
1960s and 1970s, in artifacts like the Jargon File, in the burgeoning Linux community.

If we were to abandon `hacker' to the script kiddies and yellow journalists, I
believe we genuinely would be giving up too much. That's *our* title in a
far deeper sense that `free software' ever was. Doc likes to talk about
how corporations and cultures can never escape where they come from;
well, `hacker' is where *we* come from.

We owe it to those who came before us and those who will come after to
defend the term -- after all, what happens if the next term we settle on gets abused too? Are we going to be a bunch of obliging ninnies and re-label ourselves every decade, or are we going to use the clout we have
righteously earned to say "Oh, no you don't. We know who we are, and
we're not going to fold."

Say it with me: "Hacker and proud!"

Poaching pols

Here's a Slashdot post that expresses support for one of the strategies we've been talking about:

Just a couple days ago someone posted a comment [slashdot.org] that suggested we use NRA-like tactics. Instead of trying to change all the politicians, we pick out the worst politician, and put all our efforts into getting that one person defeated.

Gettin' in an Andy Groove Kem has a great synopsis of an Andy Grove speech to lawmakers:

He asked them to develop a comprehensive policy on China--which he said was eclipsing Japan as Intel's second-largest market behind the United States. Grove also asked lawmakers to hold off on legislation that would require digital rights management technology in new products and to think hard before passing legislation that would regulate 802.11 wireless technology. He called the Telecommunications Act of 1996 a "big failure" and described a new Hollywood-backed anti-piracy bill as a "horrendous" piece of legislation.

Songs

We need some songs.

Or new lyrics for familiar songs.

Like,

We built this commons
with rock and code

... to the tune of "We built this city," by Starship

Just a thought. Or a tune.

Vote Geek

I've been thinking lately about how geek values are fundamentally American, and line up very well with those of the Founding Fathers. In fact, Geeks may be closer to living expressions of founding fatherly values than any other group.

Because they stand for freedom. For helping neighbors. For working hard and doing good work. For supporting business, along with the rest of civilization.

As a noun Geek can succeed where Hacker failed.

Dan Gillmor nails it regarding Copyright In April 11th's column, Dan Gillmor nails it right on the head - we're engaged in a fight whose terms have, until now, been defined by an entertainment and publishing complex that portrays average people as bootleggers and pirates, and the only solution to the increasing digitalization of our media is ever stricter totalitarian controls over their content.

I think we need to radically rethink our attitudes about the concept of "intellectual property" - As Lessig points out, it is a recent concept with little to no basis outside of the protection of physical inventions and the publishing of works, but we have allowed incumbent controlling interests (read the entertainment companies) to slowly erode away our own creative legacy through our inaction.

We're geeks - we built this infrastructure. We built it because we believe in the free sharing of information and the creative frontier that the technology opens to us all - opportunity. Let's not let that be taken from us.

Bumpersticker ideas Here's a few for AOTC and GeekPAC:

* I'm a geek, and I vote.
* Geek Voter

Up and testing

Hey, my first Movable Type blog. I like the UI. Very straightforward and easy. I also like declaring a category — at least in the case of AOTC. Would be more difficult for a personal blog like mine, which would have more categories than I could name.

[Be curious to see if the em dash tag (not an orthodox one, but one parsed by all browsers, so why not?) comes across. Later... Cool! It does! Italic tags work too. Nice.]

Not sure what "Additional Entry Text" is. I guess we'l see.