I recently sought out and accepted an invitation to use Gmail. Gmail is Google's free advertising-supported email service, still in beta testing.
Based on a few experiments, it looks like a good service. But I have some questions about where Gmail is heading that I'd like to think about some more.
Perhaps the controversy that is raised by this Google project will be addressed by the development of an appropriate payment scheme agreeable to all whereby copyright owners are explicitly compensated for the value contributed to Google services, as measured by their sharing in the ad revenues generated by use of the search system. One can envision, too, a pool of money generated by advertising related to hits on works whose owners cannot be found, a pool which could be distributed through an industry or nonprofit group specializing in such issues.
I’ve used Salesmetric (www.salesmetric.com), a hosted, web based sales lead tracking system, for a couple of years. (The provider calls it a “sales force automation” tool.) In this report I describe my experiences using it and some of the things that I have learned.
Overall I’m very pleased with the system. I have learned a lot about this type of tool and what that might say about using other hosted, web based tools with groups of users spread around the country.
The European Commission is sponsoring development of a comprehensive DRM solution to support authoring, licensing, and use of digitized content. The project is called TIRAMISU, which stands for "The Innovative Rights and Access Management Inter-platform Solution."
Remember the scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey where NASA official Heywood Floyd, on his way to the Moon, stops to read the lengthy zero-gravity toilet instructions? It’s one of the few humorous moments in this film and usually gets a laugh.
There's an interesting article by David Shamah in the September 6 Jerusalem Post titled “DRM Dummies?” In it Shamah describes how the Macrovision protection in his video camera prevented him from using the camera as part of a chain of devices to copy old family videotapes to DVD. (The camera incorrectly decided the signal coming in from his VHS tapes were “copyrighted” and automatically shut down.)
Elsewhere I've written about how online sellers of music CD's have a mixed record on telling customers in advance whether what they've bought really can be used due to built in copy protection. Now the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published a report on what Apple and others are doing with their DRM schemes applied to the online sale of digital music files.
There's an interesting article in the August 22 online Computerworld magazine called Intellectual Property is Focus at New Job. In it, a newly hired security professional at a computer product manufacturing company, writing anonymously, describe an assignment to figure out how to keep the company's intellectual property, such as engineering drawings and servive manuals, from "walking out the door."
I'm reading through the OECD’s “Digital Broadband Content: Music” Report. There's a huge amount of information that's directly relevant to the future of how technology is used for music distribution. I'll be posting some comments and observations over the next few days.
Amazon DOES publish "copy protection" information, after all
The information I received from Amazon.com was faulty. Amazon DOES publish details about the "copy protection" status of individual music CD's after all. Plus, I've iedntified with which CD's Suncomm copy protection technology is used.
I’m not ant-copyright. Copyright owners have a right to do whatever they want with the properties they own and control. But to make a free market operate, there has to be information available about product features that will make products potentially unusable. Sadly, what I see happening is market confusion and a crumbling of the standards that once made it so easy to buy and use recorded music.
Wow, Overstock.com responded in less than a day to my latest question about their selling copy-protected CD's.
For an online retailer to refuse to tell me in advance of a purchase if I can use the product is like a clothes store saying I can buy any pair of pants I want -- but they will not tell me in advance what the size is.
I’m also aware that there seems to be a growing number of software tools designed to support improved project management, to help with everything from developing an initial project justification to creating a software “dashboard” for reporting “key performance indicators” for measuring progress against business goals.
I’ve also come across a couple of instances recently where companies seem to have purchased such management tools BEFORE they have thought through all the business process changes that implementation of such tools can create.
The UK-based IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) has published a new report estimating losses worldwide from illegal CD duplication and sale.
I am surveying online CD vendors to determine their policies about selling CD's with "copy protection" features that prevent certain types of copying.
I received yesterday in the mail a one-page form document from a Life Insurance Company titled OUR PRIVACY POLICY. The subheading of the document is "Required by the Federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and state privacy law." I decided to use this letter as the basis for some research into personal privacy protection.
Who Controls Personal Data?
Back in the Day, my favorite Latin quote was an example of the Ablative Absolute: “Eo Imperium Tenente, Eventum Timeo.” Loosely translated, this means, “Because he holds the power, I fear the outcome.” In some ways, fear and uncertainty exist today since, in many cases, people don’t understand, or even know, who has the “power” over how their personal data are used.
What is "Personal Data?"
When you start reading up on personal data and the definition of ownership, you quickly get caught up in questions about "what is property?" and "what data about me do I really own?"
These are tricky questions.
Proposed: A Choice-Based Approach to Controlling the Commercial Exploitation of Personal Data
Today significant commercial trafficking occurs in personal information. Credit bureaus, research companies, insurance firms, and corporations regularly buy and sell personal information. While much of this trafficking may be benign, most is either unknown to, or beyond the control of, the individuals this personal information describes.