Freyburg

A packed proceeding at Platformer, with news from CES, Barnes and Noble possibly selling off the Nook, Cable cutters uniting, and an offensive PSA from ICE.

We also go off on a rant about Thunderbolt, wax poetic about iMessage, and hail the return…of Clowntown.

Yahoo gets a new CEO
Why Google should buy Nook
LG Super OLED is super sexy
Cord cutters on the rise
iMessage decimates text messaging
Asinine PSA from ICE about piracy
Belkin’s Thunderbolt dock won’t be out until September 2012

The Associated Press created quite a stir recently by declaring that people who link to their stories are violating copyright. In effect, the organization declared war on the internet, and is taking what I think is a colossally wrong headed turn towards walling off their content from the very people it should be showing it to, ie) the world. Notable new media thinkers like Jeff Jarvis have railed against AP’s move, but now he’s been joined by an unlikely ally. Chris Aheam, the President of Reuters Thompson, has written a column called “Why I believe in the Link Economy,” where he explains how Reuters will embrace opportunities created by the internet, rather than fighting the future and losing.

Welll..no. But this guy seems to understand that changes are afoot, ones that could be potentially fantastic for Canada.

So the biggest newspapers in the US got together recently to figure out how to charge for their content. It boils down to “our business model is broken, so let’s go with that and hope for the best.” Seriously, I know newspapers are losing money hand over fist, but has the recording industry taught them nothing? About the only glimmer of hope in the whole report is that papers will become more consumer-centric online….but even then specialized blogs will likely end up eating their lunch.

In what is surely one of the greatest mash-ups ever to grace the Internet, brace yourself for the saga of Robocop, told in rhyme.

The NFB is branching out from Hinterland Who’s Who (actually, I have no idea if they have anything to do with HWW, I just love the music at the beginning of the mini-films) and other cold Canadian fare to present RIP: A Remix Manifesto. It looks like an interesting take on the copyright battle, though unfortunately there’s no way (as of yet) to view the whole film online. Here’s the trailer…

Rather than give you a ham-handed attempt at an explanation, I’ll let these notable personages take a crack at it..

and you can get much more information at the Creative Commons website.

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.