Search Results: "mako"

4 September 2006

Benjamin Mako Hill: New Creative Commons Licenses

In the last couple years, I've earned something of a reputation for giving Creative Commons a hard time. This fact hit home a few weeks ago when a reporter for the San Antonio Current called me up to get "the other side" on a story he was doing on CC. Apparently, the journalist had found my name in the criticism section of Wikipedia's Creative Commons article. Now, while I'm not happy with CC's reticence to take a normative stance of any kind and I'm not thrilled with many CC licenses that don't respect what I believe are essential freedoms, I should give credit to CC where credit is due. Over the past half year or so, I've had the pleasure of helping represent Debian in conversations between a Debian team and folks at CC to help iron out a number of nits with the CC licenses that seemed to be (unnecessarily) creating barriers to Debian blessing some more permissive licenses as DFSG free. Throughout this process, folks at CC have been helpful, responsive, flexible, and seriously willing to make changes based on our suggestions. The first and hardest stage of this work culminated with CC's release of the discussion draft of their 3.0 licenses. Evan Prodromou published a great in-depth report on the talks between Debian and CC that helped shape these drafts. While we didn't get 100% of what we were asking, I'm personally quite confident that we have or will get all of what is necessary to ensure that the licenses are DFSG free both in letter and spirit. Not only does CC build several great licenses, they are willing to work with the community in difficult meaningful ways. When we build a real social movement around calls for essential freedom of culture and content, we'll be lucky to have CC writing some of the licenses that help make it happen.

Benjamin Mako Hill: TV-B-Gone

I bought a TV-B-Gone a few years back. It's been fun. I make a point of never turning off a TV that anyone is obviously watching and have only once had anyone turn a television back on. Most people find it easier to just talk to the person sitting across the table than to turn the TV back on. The only problem is that I can never really tell in advance when I'll need my TV-B-Gone and so frequently end somewhere wishing I had one when I've left it at home. What I really need is a TV-B-Gone-B-Here.

Benjamin Mako Hill: Defining Free Content and Expression

(This is mostly reposted from an Advogato article I just submitted).

About a year ago, I posted an article on Advogato entitled, Towards a Standard of Freedom: Creative Commons and the Free Software Movement. In it, I argued that Creative Commons and the free culture movement were struggling to build a cohesive freedom movement in the way that free and open source software had succeeded in doing by never stopping to define the ground rules of the commons movement. I argued that Free Software built a movement around calls for essential freedoms and against the actions of software producers who failed to live up to this standard. On the other hand, Creative Commons has argued for "some rights reserved" but never explained which rights were unreservable. In the process, they've done the invaluable service of creating a stable of powerful, internationalized licenses. But they failed to build the type social movement that some of us wanted. While this was never their goal, it left some people unsatisfied. In a later version of the essay published in Mute Magazine, I concluded by stating:

Whether in unison or cooperating in separate groups, it is time for those those of us that feel strongly about freedom to discuss, decide, and move forward with our own free information movement built upon a standard of freedom. When we have defined free information in terms of essential freedoms, a subset of Creative Commons works and a subset of Creative Commons licenses will provide tools and texts through which a social movement can be built.

I'm thrilled to say that that day is now within sight. A few weeks ago, Larry Lessig introduced me to Erik M ller, a Wikipedian who had read my article and was planning on launching the same project that I had been planning. It only seemed sensible to collaborate. Today, we have launched a draft of a Free Content and Expression Definition online at freedomdefined.org. The website is a wiki and we welcome feedback, suggestions, and alternative versions of the document. So far, we've have decided to stick closely to the freedoms of free software but are actively interested in updating these to be more relevant for other types of creative works. Of course, anything, even the name, can be changed at this point. To guide us through the project of debating and further refining a definition are four moderators who will ultimately be called upon to resolve disputes and disagreements about what the definition should and will say. These moderators are myself, Erik M ller, Creative Commons General Counsel Mia Garlick, and Wikimedia Foundation Trustee Angela Beesley. You can view the announcement of the definition, please take a look at:

http://freedomdefined.org/Announcement

To view the definition itself, please visit:

http://freedomdefined.org

Benjamin Mako Hill: Taking the "Open" out of "Open Media Commons"

There's a disturbing little press release floating around where the Sun-backed Open Media Commons announces it's release of a new DRM specification to be implemented using free software. That people are creating DRM systems under open source and free software licenses is not surprising; much of the encryption technology on which DRM is based has been free and open for a long time. What is disturbing is that it contains what appears to be an endorsement by Lawrence Lessig:

Lawrence Lessig, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Creative Commons and Professor of Law at Stanford Law School: "In a world where DRM has become ubiquitous, we need to ensure that the ecology for creativity is bolstered, not stifled, by technology. We applaud Sun's efforts to rally the community around the development of open-source, royalty-free DRM standards that support "fair use" and that don't block the development of Creative Commons ideals."

Lessig's position seems to be that DRM is bad and should not exist. But in a world where it does exist, he thinks that not-quite-so-bad DRM is better than the alternatives. Is that the sort of message we want to be sending? The fact that the software is "open source" is hardly good enough if the purpose of the software is to take away users freedom -- in precisely the way that DRM does. It doesn't help that EFF has already spoken out against this project. Lessig is on the board of directors of both EFF and FSF. I think it is smart for members of either organization who are opposed to DRM, even when it's sweetened up, to contact those organizations and let them know how you feel. On the OMC website, there is a photo of two young attractive people listening to a single pair of headphones. Apparently, the people in the picture need to share a single pair of headphones because the Open Media Commons rights management system won't allow them to share the digital media itself.

Benjamin Mako Hill: Controversy

Several days ago, I got a message from David G. Reichert, my representative in the U.S. House of Representatives (and the incumbent candidate in one of the New York Time's "Races to Watch"). His letter started out:

As your Representative in Congress, I want to share with you some of the work I have been doing to assist orphans in underdeveloped countries.

I grew up in a family that adopted several orphans from underdeveloped countries so I'm glad to see this happening -- I really am. But what really makes me happy is that I get to hear from my elected representative unsolicited -- for the first time, no less -- advertising his work on such a controversial subject. He seems perfectly willing to stand up for what he believes in, even if it means that he loses the crucial anti-developing-nation-orphan vote.

Benjamin Mako Hill: Rhyme Time

Who would design consumer electronic products around technological necessity when they could design them around clever bits of word play? I came up with the idea for an "iPod Tripod" -- if you will, a "TriPod" -- and was thrilled to see that someone else had already (a) stumbled upon the same little rhyme and (b) followed through on the idea and was already selling a product! The review I read seemed to indicate that the execution was not quite as good as the name. But then again, how could it be?

Benjamin Mako Hill: Acronym Expansion

XM Radio claims that it's "Beyond AM. Beyond FM." I'm sure that's the case. I'm a little less clear on what it is, outside of the first letter in the acronym, they are modulating.

Benjamin Mako Hill: System.hack()

My friends Marcell and Tomislav organized a show called System.hack() that aimed to highlight many of the last half-centuries greatest "hacks" as a means of celebrating the hacks themselves while exposing them, and the idea of hacking and hackers, to a larger audience. As part of their show, I procured an original circa-1960's Cap'n Crunch whistle (the one that emits 2600 Hz when one hole is covered) and wrote a short essay for a book published along with the show. You'll have to track down Tomi and Marcell in Zagreb if you want to find my whistle but you can read about the hack in either English or Croatian on the exhibit's wiki. You should also check out the whole System.hack() wiki because there's some other good stuff up there from other contributors.

Benjamin Mako Hill: Calling All Seattlites

If you're in the Seattle area and are concerned about DRM, you should be at a "flash" protest against DRM tomorrow (Tuesday May, 23) before work (8-9AM) to kick off a major anti-DRM campaign. There will be costumes and fun to be had by all. These sorts of things are great if a bunch of people participate and just seem impotent if not enough do. This is important enough that I would consider flying back to Seattle for it if I had a little more time and money to do so. It's worth it to make sure this campaign starts off on the right foot. We have a lot to lose if it doesn't. If you are in the area and can possible spare an hour or two and be in downtown Seattle tomorrow morning, I think it is really important that you do so. You can get more information from someone at the FSF by emailing action@defectivebydesign.org and announcing that you want to participate.

Benjamin Mako Hill: Evil in Our World

Here's an addition to my personal list of villains. Imagine someone who intentionally leaves their mobile phone on -- perhaps even on an extra loud "outdoor mode" and with an particularly obnoxious ringtone -- during movies, symphonies, plays, or lectures. While this person isn't so nasty that they would plan or prompt a call, they enjoy the thrill of knowing, at any moment (but especially during the quiet or emotionally charged parts of the performance), that it could all be ruined. And that it would be their fault. Of course, they would act embarrassed and brush it off as an honest mistake.

Benjamin Mako Hill: Hitler Mustache Video

In my infinite spare time, I think it would be fun to make a parody of an MTV style "documentary" about one day in the life a person with a Hitler mustache to show ridiculous that genre has become. The video will be done with 15 second cuts and and with a bumping soundtrack by an eclectic selection of artists from the full spectrum of popular music. It will follow around a person for one day as they have a barber chisel out a Hitler mustache and then spend one day in that form. These scenes will, of course, be interspersed up with snippets from interviews with vapid onlookers, fashion gurus, and celebrities weighing in on all sides of the many "issues" that wearing a Hitler mustache raises. These issues might include:

Is it now or will it ever been long enough to make the Hitler mustache OK again? Did Hitler really ruin that mustache for ever and for everybody? Do fashionistas believe that this is that a good or a bad thing?
What about Charlie Chaplin and others who wore similar mustaches before or concurrent with Hitler?
In what sense does living with a Hitler mustache teach either the wearer or the public that "it's what inside that really counts."

If you would like to donate resources or time to this project, please let me know.

Benjamin Mako Hill: Recent (And Not So Recent) Talks

I gave a talk last week at a gathering at MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS). The gathering was called Come Together and the theme was technology, social movements, and social change. The line-up included 8 people in addition to myself and ended with a talk by Noam Chomsky. The talk focused on introducing folks to the idea of social movements around information freedom by introducing a big picture view of problems introduced by contemporary IP and a quick breakdown of some of the types of ways that people are attempting to resist, provide alternatives to, or change the system for the better. I did not use slides but I have (very rough) notes available for those that are interested. Information Freedom talk notes:

While adding the notes to my website, I noticed that I never uploaded the slides or notes from the longer (better) version of a talk on a similar topic that I gave at the Darklight Film Festival's annual symposium last year. The talk was titled, Software, Freedom, and the World Beyond Computer Programs. Aimed a non-technical audience, the talk began by introducing intellectual property and tries to describe the history of the current problems created by modern IP policy. Like the Come Together talk, it continued by offering the same rough classification of the types of "solutions" being offered. Unlike the Come Together talk, I then went into much more depth on the reasons Free Software has succeeded in the information technology realm and tried to describe some of the benefits and limitations of applying the "open source" model to the production of other types of creative works. I gave the talk on October 28, 2005 in Dublin, Ireland. Slides and talk notes are available. Software, Freedom, and the World Beyond Computer Programs slides:

PDF
Open Document Presentation (i.e., OpenOffice.org 2.0)

Software, Freedom, and the World Beyond Computer Programs talk notes:

Benjamin Mako Hill: Overheard

Today I heard someone say, "apparently, it's not visible. Clearly, a confused statement.

3 September 2006

Marc 'Zugschlus' Haber: Flooding Planet Debian?

The host hosting blog.zugschlus.de, ivanova.notwork.de, was down due to a network failure in the hoster’s network for a few minutes today around 2 pm CEST. After returning, I found a lot of my syndicated articles anew on Planet Debian, known as the “flood” phenomenon. Is it possible that the Planet software does react in a non-graceful way when an RSS feed cannot be pulled? Mako, can you investigate this?

Enrico Zini: article-on-linux-com

DCG mentioned on Linux.com A friend of mine pointed me to the Debian Community Guidelines being mentioned in a linux.com article. "[Mako] hopes that Garrett's resignation will give the Debian community an added impetus to adapt its own code of conduct, like the one proposed by Enrico Zini." I'm very happy to see the DCG geting mentioned, although I don't think that it makes sense to 'adopt' such a document. what I'd like for it is to be mentioned as a suggested read, and linked from here and there. So today it happened, and I'm happy :)

2 September 2006

David Nusinow: Hibernation

So, thanks to Ari I'm all moved in to my new place with Nicole. It's a complete mess and but it's going to be fun being there. I don't have internet at home right now (posting this from work) so I'll be going in to Debian hibernation mode for the most part during this time. Speakeasy is scheduled to come and hook things up on the 13th, which would be a nice post-birthday event. I'll be working on some Debian stuff in the meantime which doesn't require internet access though.

On other matters, reading Scott's post made me sad, though not surprised, much like it felt reading Matthew's post. It's sad to see people go, although they're still in the Debian family more or less. I can only wish them the best and hope that I get to meet them sooner than later.

Scott's post, as well as discussions with Mako, have got me thinking about setting up a committee in parallel to the technical committee: a distribution steering committee. The tech committee would be around to perform the same function it already does, but the steering committee would be the ones to make decisions that don't involve so much in the way of conflict. Questions like default MTA and desktop environment (which are more matters of preference than clear superiority) could be handled by the steering committee. The rationale for separating it from the tech committee would be to have the tech committee act as a check to balance the power of the steering committee. There could be a limited amount of overlap between the two, but not enough to allow a majority in either committee to serve in both. In order for this to work, the steering committee would have to have the ability to override maintainer decisions on matters that affect the entire distribution. If a maintainer had a serious issue with this, they could take it to the tech committee, who would have the final say. Any developer could do work on things mandated by the steering committee, including 0 day NMU's with such features, thereby allowing people to work across packages they don't own easily.

The key to the steering committee would be that it would set active goals for the release. The release team is able to currently set release goals, but they don't do so with any strong authority right now. People who wanted to do something like make upstart the default in Debian, would bring the case before the committee (who would also potentially set their own goals rather than wait around for people), get it approved, and then start working. They wouldn't own the packages they alter, but this would give them the ability to get the necessary work done. It would require a culture and a group of people who were actively interested in making things happen across the entire distro, much like Ubuntu has. I'd love to get some feedback on this to see if people think it's a good idea to pursue creating it. It would require changes to the constitution, but it might give us a mechanism to drive the project forward without resorting to a benevolent dictatorship of the DPL.