iTunes 7.2 is out. iTunes Plus (DRM free downloads) is available. So I’ve made a purchase: Placebo: Covers.

Wow, it’s easy isn’t it? So nice to be able to enjoy the integrated iTunes experience without worrying about infesting my computer with DRM crippled media.

As Kirk McElhearn points out the files do contain identifying information that can be traced (trivially) back to you. That’s fine by me.

I’d like to make it possible for local people to set up blog space on the Nenthead community site. They’d post local news stories and interesting ones would be promoted to a unified news front page. Kind of like Advogato but for non-geeks.

Is anyone doing this kind of community focused citizen journalism? I see Wikinews but that’s more top down than what I have in mind.

And then this:

“The point of the study was actually to eliminate the FUD about Linux’s alleged legal problems by attaching a quantifiable measure versus the speculation,” he said. “And the number we found, to anyone familiar with this issue, is so average as to be boring; almost any piece of software potentially infringes at least that many patents.”

Who said that? Dan Ravicher of OSRM - also known as the guy who wrote the report Balmer is quoting.

Via The Inquirer

Update: This dates from November 2004 (eWeek). As far as I know Ballmer’s still quoting the same report.

James Turner is pissed off about Microsoft’s patent sabre rattling - as we all should be.

At the end, there’s only one thing left to say. For shame Microsoft, for shame. You’ve twisted competition into a thuggish debacle that ranks right up there with the worst of the great robber barons. How ironic that Bill Gates is trying to reinvent himself as the great philanthropist. Andrew Carnegie took much the same route late in his life, as if it could wash away his sins. We can only hope that in a few years, Steve Ballmer will look as much a fool as Daryl McBride does today.

More here.

Just received a spam with this in the body:

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

That’s the so-called “Processing Key” that unlocks the heart of the Bride, enabling her to see herself through the eyes of the King. During this season, the industry would have seen a growth of about 10 per cent slide in net profit for 2008, underscoring why its board has recommended issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1 equity share for every 2 equity shares held. Further, the company plans to add local channels in an unspecified number of metro DMAs throughout 2007 and 2008, but would not say where.

No comment :)

If this turns out to be true:

But word ’round the campfire is that EMI, along with his Steveness, is going to announce at 8 AM EST that most of their catalog is going to be offered DRM-free on iTunes. There may be no Beatles, but who needs them when you have DRM-free music? On iTunes.

I’ll go and buy at least $50 worth of EMI DRM free music on iTunes as soon as it’s available.

Tony Blair has posted his response to the Let’s Ban DRM petition that’s been running on the Number 10 site. Here’s what he has to say (my italics):

Digital rights issues have been gaining increasing prominence as innovation accelerates, more and more digital media products and services come onto the market and the consumer wants to get access to digital content over different platforms. Many content providers have been embedding access and management tools to protect their rights and, for example, prevent illegal copying. We believe that they should be able to continue to protect their content in this way. However, DRM does not only act as a policeman through technical protection measures, it also enables content companies to offer the consumer unprecedented choice in terms of how they consume content, and the corresponding price they wish to pay.

Bullshit. I wonder, can the PM name even one instance when the use of DRM has benefited consumers? We’ve come to expect this doublespeak nonsense from the entertainment industry but it’s disappointing that the government swallows the industry’s line on DRM so uncritically.

Nick says:

I was wondering when you’re going to comment on Steve Jobs latest outporings on DRM.

Surely the only interoperable DRM is no DRM.

He’s an opportunistic hypocrite. DRM allowed Apple to create the iPod monopoly. Just a few months ago he was vocally pro-DRM. So what? The fact that he’s one of the most prominent rats leaving the sinking DRM ship doesn’t disguise the fact that it’s sinking.

You have to feel sorry for Microsoft. Vista is lumbered with an onerous cargo of DRM badness (See Vista’s suicide note). If, as seems likely, DRM falls out of favour during its lifetime that’s a hell of a lot of useless baggage to be carrying.

More on Jobs’ flip-flopping here:

techdirt: Steve Jobs Says Record Labels Should Ditch Their DRM
BoingBoing: Will Steve Jobs drop iTunes DRM in a heartbeat?
Scobleizer: Why not turn off DRM on Disney movies?
the INQUIRER: Jobs’ cry against DRM is a sham

This scary looking story has just popped up on the BBC News RSS feed:

By the time I checked the BBC News site the story had turned into this:

Where did it go? Here’s the link I followed to the story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6223077.stm

Note that’s not the same result that you get if you follow a link to a non-existent story - in that case you get a normal 404.

So what happened to that scary sounding story and why?

Update: Link now returns a regular 404 Not Found.

Update: It seems the Telegraph are running the same story:

By using a credit card to book a flight, passengers face having other transactions on the card inspected by the American authorities. Providing an email address to an airline could also lead to scrutiny of other messages sent or received on that account.

In the words of ArsTechnica it’s “bollocks”. Obviously it’s bollocks that somebody at the BBC briefly made the mistake of believing.

From Lessig’s blog:

As reported yesterday, there was an ad in the FT listing 4,000 musicians who supported retrospective term extension. If you read the list, you’ll see that at least some of these artists are apparently dead (e.g. Lonnie Donegan, died 4th November 2002; Freddie Garrity, died 20th May 2006). I take it the ability of these dead authors to sign a petition asking for their copyright terms to be extended can only mean that even after death, term extension continues to inspire.

Does anyone have the names of these artists so I can boycott them? I might make an exception for the dead ones - they probably didn’t have too much say in the matter.

Update: We have a few names:

Lonnie Donegan
Freddie Garrity

From here:

The Beatles (Paul McCartney)
Eric Clapton
Cliff Richard
U2 (Bono)
Robbie Williams

From here:

Mick Hucknall
Kiri Te Kanawa

From here via here:

The Clash (Paul Simonon)
PJ Harvey
Kaiser Chiefs
Maximo Park
The Who (Pete Townshend)

Update: Via ORG there’s a complete scan of the ads in four parts here.