Freyburg

The Canadian DMCA has just been tabled by the House of Commons, and from what I can tell (gleaned from Michael Geist’s excellent blog post) it’s a complete and total ruinous mess for the future of electronic media in Canada. Let’s, just for a second, get past the spectre of evil pirates stealing content from hard-working, impoverished studios and record companies. This bill makes it illegal for anyone to transfer music they bought off a CD and onto their own iPod. It also makes it illegal to unlock an iPhone or other locked digital devices, to the tune of a $20,000 fine. So the fact that I’ve been carting around said iPhone for the last six months is apparently more important than the fact that our representatives in Parliament consort with gangster molls or that the Alberta tar sands are an ecological disaster area. No, people downloading the latest Coldplay album is what our law enforcement services should concern themselves with.

The real irony here is that the studios are the authors of their own destruction. If these laws are actually enforceable, all that will happen is that people won’t bother to watch copyrighted material anymore. The means of production are cheaper than ever, and more and more people are watching amateur video, citizen journalism and other user generated content. The drive for self-preservation will actually accelerate the decline and fall of big media, by its own hand.

And the potential damage from this bill doesn’t just affect individuals. Companies in the business of moving and storing content, like Domain7, have already expressed concerns (check their news section for their take on the bill).

What can you do to voice your concerns about this bill? Email your member of Parliament (I just did, for the very first time), join online groups like the Fair Copyright for Canada group on Facebook, and join the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Canadian Music Creators Coalition, and other groups advocating for digital rights.

I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a daily video post/podcast with a short, opinionated blurb from me about some matter of import. Here’s the first test run of said idea, where I yander on about the iPhone. Constructive criticism welcomed.

Part of my day job at Greedy Productions was working on this top secret documentary about the making of the Metal Gear saga, including Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which comes out this week. Everybody at Greedy knocked their asses off to make this, so if you have any desire at all to own MGS4, spring for the collector’s edition and make me happy.

…this one about “revirginizing” your iPhone. Which many people, including myself, may be doing soon in order to run the saucy goodness that is the iPhone 2.0 firmware, rolled out today at the World Wide Developers COnference as part of the hoopla surrounding the 3G iPhone.

I have another article up on Mac|Life, this time about the rebate all Canadians who purchased iPods before June 24, 2004 can claim for a $45 credit from Apple. Do you qualify? More importantly, what will you do with your Apple rebate?

Ah, the Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer. Back in 1982, this was my first taste of computational wizardry, expressed through the glories of 32k Extended memory, 8 colors on screen (at once!), tape drives and poring over BASIC manuals. And amazingly, there’s still a user community out there using these beasts. I still have my CoCo tucked away in a closet, along with my Powerbook 100. What was your first computer?

….and not a moment too soon. Heather Mallick points out that the ultimate “girlie” movie is less about female liberation than about rampant consumerism and empty, shallow competition to secure a rich husband. I can’t possibly match Mallick’s lovely bile, so check out her article yourself. She also name-checks and quotes professional misanthrope Toby Young’s post about the SATC movie, which is OK by me. Time Out New York also points to the movie as unleashing a new wave of douchification on unsuspecting NY neighbourhoods, and how the show created the creature known as Julia Allison.

I for one will probably never see the SATC movie, but my sympathies go out to all those dragged to the film by a significant other. That just ain’t fair, and I recommend dragging that significant other to as crappy a revenge flick as possible. One of the Saw movies should do the trick.

I’ve been checking out Seesmic and (to a lesser extent) Disqus, and I have to say I’m not quite getting the appeal of “video conversations.” Partly that’s my own fault, since I’ve worked in broadcasting and print in one form or another for the last decade, and while I’m comfortable with feedback….I don’t really understand what the advantage is to video over regular old text comments, other than avoiding spam and actually getting to put a face to the person who you virulently disagree with. Maybe that’s the advantage…if you can see someone’s reaction, you’ll be less apt to descend into trolldom and fire off angry jeremiads to hapless commenters.

At the same time, the Internet seems to be driving people to a new level of comfort with being “on air.” I’ve never really been in that headspace, though again that could have something to do with my background in broadcasting. I’ve traditionally been a behind-the-scenes guy, whether it’s in TV or from behind a byline in a newspaper, so to put myself forward on camera has always been a difficult proposition (even though I did briefly do so on “The Lab with Leo“). Still, maybe video comments are a way to get more comfortable with the camera in a low-risk environment. It’s also early days…Twitter didn’t really prove its usefulness until a lot of people, and more to the point, a lot of people who have interesting opinions decided to jump on board. Or it could prove to be a fad and wander over into the Web 2.0 deadpile along with a bunch of other half-baked ideas. Here’s some other opinions on video commenting.

The Vancouver Sun is running a story about how local videobloggers are using the medium to drive up sales and otherwise reap profit. While I have no doubt that some new voices are being heard and in fact reaping the rewards of putting themselves out there. All very well, and Reachd is providing a valuable service by teaching people how to use video on the web, no matter how they end up using it. But the Sun seems to think that videoblogging consists of real estate agents putting their videos onto sites designed to sell house. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that as a form of expression or commerce, but blogging it ‘aint. At the very least, they could have gone to Miss 604, who has a couple of popular audio podcasts and covers Vancouver obsessively. So do Uncle Weed, Megan Cole, and myself, to name but a few. But once again the mainstream media has gleaned what it can from the surface without really delving into the excellent work being done by Vancouver bloggers and podcasters, which is a real shame.

(Full disclosure: Reachd is running a contest in conjunction with Techvibes for their next seminar, and I occasionally blog for Techvibes.)

I’ve been working as an editor on a video podcast featuring Vancouver Adobe evangalist Duane Nickull called Duane’s World. The show is all about coding, tech, music and Duane’s unique take on the world, and is hosted on Adobe TV, a central hub for shows about all things Adobe. Check it out!