The winners of Willow Garage's 3D Kinect contest that we reported on a while back have been announced! The first prize was taken by a program that allows you to create your own touch-sensitive controls by simply drawing some buttons on a piece of paper seen by your Microsoft Kinect and then use those buttons for ... anything really. The video above shows how the buttons can be configured as a sound board. Other prizes were awarded for using the Kinect on quadrotors and for teleoperation. A real-time color 3D mapping tool and an automatic calibration tool were awarded prizes as the most useful programs. For more details, have a look at the 3D Kinect contest's results on the ROS blog.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Mediacom Puts Its Own Ads On Other Websites, Including Google & Apple
A few years ago, there were stories of ISPs who wanted to use deep packet inspection technology to inject their own content, especially advertising, onto websistes. AT&T even insisted that customers would like it if AT&T did this. Public outcry and Congressional scrutiny seemed to lead many ISPs to shelve such plans... but you knew it was only a matter of time.
Broadband Reports is noting that Mediacom, who recently started using DNS redirection to feed ads (rather than 404 pages) to people who ended up on non-existent web pages (and who made its "opt-out" option not really work), has jumped into the fray and is injecting its own ads for its own services on all sorts of websites including those of Google and Apple -- two companies known for caring an awful lot about what their website looks like in each and every pixel:
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Broadband Reports is noting that Mediacom, who recently started using DNS redirection to feed ads (rather than 404 pages) to people who ended up on non-existent web pages (and who made its "opt-out" option not really work), has jumped into the fray and is injecting its own ads for its own services on all sorts of websites including those of Google and Apple -- two companies known for caring an awful lot about what their website looks like in each and every pixel:
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ICE Boss: It's Okay To Ignore The Constitution If It's To Protect Companies
While the folks at Homeland Security keep telling me that they simply cannot speak publicly about the seizure of various domain names -- and specifically the numerous mistakes they've made that appear to clearly violate both the First Amendment and Due Process rules -- it seems they have no problem talking about the domain seizures to folks in the press who don't bother to ask tough questions.
ICE boss John Morton did an interview with Politico, where he trots out a bunch of highly questionable statements about the domain seizures, including claiming that it's all okay for them to do this because they're trying to "protect U.S. industry" rather than "regulate the internet." But that's not the role of Homeland Security or ICE. And there are limits on what ICE is actually allowed to do, and Morton's technically clueless agents seem to have ignored many of those rules.
Finally, for Morton to claim "it's that simple," when the law is anything but simple should get the man fired. Seriously. No one who knows anything about the law thinks it's that simple. He shouldn't be in charge of ICE if he thinks that the laws are as simple as he makes out. It's not, and either he knows it and he's lying or he doesn't know it and he's unqualified for the job. Which is it? I figure I'll send these questions to my friendly press contact at Homeland Security, and I imagine the answer will be the same: "I'll have to direct you to the Justice Department on those questions." Because actually responding to American citizens whose rights he seems to have no problem trampling is not in his job description. Helping Hollywood by violating multiple parts of the Constitution is much more fun.
Morton also seems to think there's simply no legal questions in seizing domain names:
John Morton seems to think it's fine to be censor-in-chief and to violate multiple parts of the US Constitution, because it protects a few businesses who have failed to adapt their business models. This is a sickening display of the takeover of the American government by corporations.
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ICE boss John Morton did an interview with Politico, where he trots out a bunch of highly questionable statements about the domain seizures, including claiming that it's all okay for them to do this because they're trying to "protect U.S. industry" rather than "regulate the internet." But that's not the role of Homeland Security or ICE. And there are limits on what ICE is actually allowed to do, and Morton's technically clueless agents seem to have ignored many of those rules.
"We don't have any interest in going after bloggers or discussion boards," he said. "We're not about what is being said by anybody. We're about making sure that the intellectual property laws of the United States, which are clear, are enforced. When somebody spends hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the next movie or a billion dollars to develop the next heart medicine, the innovation and the enterprise that went into that effort is protected as the law provides. It's that simple."There's so much wrong in that statement that it should be grounds for dismissal. Morton is not representing what has happened, the law or the facts accurately here. He's lying to the American public (and to Politico, who appears to have failed to call him on any of it). First of all, if they don't have any interest in going after bloggers or discussion boards, why did they? Second, if the intellectual property laws of the US are "clear" -- why did ICE not use them and actually get anyone charged with infringement? Third, the laws aren't that clear -- which is why we (normally) have trials to make sure there was actual infringement. If ICE had been willing to let due process play out, it would have avoided embarrassing mistakes, like taking down 84,000 websites because a few may have had illegal content. Or seizing a blog (yes, a blog, despite what he says) that posted links to music elsewhere that was sent by the labels and artists. And, when someone spends all that money to develop something, there are plenty of business models for them to use, and they have every right to use civil laws to go after those who violate their rights. What they shouldn't have is some government agents taking down websites with no due process, seizing plenty of protected speech in the process.
Finally, for Morton to claim "it's that simple," when the law is anything but simple should get the man fired. Seriously. No one who knows anything about the law thinks it's that simple. He shouldn't be in charge of ICE if he thinks that the laws are as simple as he makes out. It's not, and either he knows it and he's lying or he doesn't know it and he's unqualified for the job. Which is it? I figure I'll send these questions to my friendly press contact at Homeland Security, and I imagine the answer will be the same: "I'll have to direct you to the Justice Department on those questions." Because actually responding to American citizens whose rights he seems to have no problem trampling is not in his job description. Helping Hollywood by violating multiple parts of the Constitution is much more fun.
Morton also seems to think there's simply no legal questions in seizing domain names:
"We can seize and forfeit them just like we seize and forfeit bank accounts, houses and vehicles that are used in other crimes," he said. "Any instrument of a crime is subject to our jurisdiction in terms of seizure and forfeit."Again this is incorrect on a number of levels, and again raises questions about Morton's competence to hold the job he holds. You can seize property, but the case law is pretty clear on the different rules when it comes to seizing speech. And he's never responded to that at all. Because, of course, he cannot.
John Morton seems to think it's fine to be censor-in-chief and to violate multiple parts of the US Constitution, because it protects a few businesses who have failed to adapt their business models. This is a sickening display of the takeover of the American government by corporations.
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Feds Got Reporter's Phone, Credit Card & Bank Records In Trying To Track Leaker
Back in January, when I saw Daniel Ellsberg speak, one of the things he noted was how much more aggressive the Obama administration appeared to be in going after leakers than any previous administration. Ellsberg's theory -- which he admitted was based on just his intuition -- was that President Obama is actually quite embarrassed by some of the things he's doing and is, thus, more aggressive in trying to stop leaks, knowing that his actions are damaging his reputation. I don't know if that's true, but there is growing evidence of the level of questionable activities from the Obama administration even in going after leakers. Ellsberg noted at the time that the Obama administration has brought more indictments for leaking than all other presidents combined before him.
The latest is the report that came out late last week that the government, in going after leakers, got access to reporter James Risen's phone records, bank details and credit card statements. As the report notes, this is pretty extreme:
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The latest is the report that came out late last week that the government, in going after leakers, got access to reporter James Risen's phone records, bank details and credit card statements. As the report notes, this is pretty extreme:
Although there have been other public controversies over subpoenas -- real and threatened -- to reporters in recent years, there have been few, if any, cases in which it has been documented that federal prosecutors obtained the bank records and credit reports of journalists.It's not entirely clear if all of these activities took place under the Obama administration or previous administrations, but multiple people quoted in the article say this kind of activity has been much more common in the Obama Justice Department. For a President who has positioned himself as being a big supporter of press freedoms, this looks really hypocritical. Spying on reporters is bad. As the report notes, Risen was subpoenaed directly twice, but both times a judge reasonably quashed the subpoenas. So, for the administration to basically go around all that and get records from others is pretty bad.
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Swedish Government Helps Fund Documentary On The Pirate Bay
Even as some in the Swedish government -- at the urging of US diplomats and the US entertainment industry -- continue to look for ways to shut down The Pirate Bay, it appears that the Swedish government is funding part of the documentary on The Pirate Bay. This is from the same movie that was able to raise some money last year via Kickstarter. To be honest, getting some government funds isn't that strange. The various Scandanavian countries tend to have pretty strong government support for the arts. When I was there about a year ago, many of the discussions I had with artists was how the situation there is quite different than in the US in that almost every filmmaker or musician expects to get some kind of government funding at some point or another. Still, given the controversial nature of The Pirate Bay within Sweden, it's still worth noting that the government was still willing to support the documentary.
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Saturday, February 26, 2011
Modplan's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
This week's "favorites of the week" post comes from Modplan. He's not the most prolific commenter, but I always enjoy his thoughtful responses.
First, a thanks to Mike for asking me to write this week's post. When approached to do the favorite posts of the week, I was initially worried I wouldn't be able to find much of interest in a week I thought it wasn't as eventful of a week as it turned out to be when looking back for the selections, so I took a few swigs of my kool-aid and prepared for the inevitable drop in value that follows from doing anything for free and got writing. I only hope the following selections and my musings are at least of mild interest to even just a few of you.
I've been following the "Freedom Box" project for quite a while after first seeing some of Eben Moglen's speeches regarding freedom, the web and free software, which had also inspired other projects like Diaspora, so it's no surprise that the article "Sometimes 'Piracy' & Freedom Look Remarkably Similar" was something of particular interest. I think the article leads into a point I'd personally been thinking about for while, in that much of what makes the web so great at freedom of speech is also fundamentally the same as what makes it great for widespread piracy. To attack piracy is to often end up -- inadvertently or not -- attacking the same things that give us a greater freedom of speech and efficiency. With modern attempts at attacking the former in some ways inhibiting the latter, they result in rather ham-fisted ways of working around that technologically, legally and PR wise. I'd be interested to see, if these kinds of devices take off, what precisely will be demanded to be done to combat the higher chances of piracy that seem will inevitably come with the greater protection of privacy and free speech.
Next up is the story of how the Tolkien estate is trying to put a stop to a historical fiction book involving the deceased author. I think we can all understand at some point the feeling of needing to fight back against something said that's untrue about us or the need to not be associated with something we don't support or like, but it seems like publicity laws, as they are, will just continue to be abused. I'm not sure what merit cases involving deceased authors and Hulk Hogan impersonations have outside of getting in the way of what seems like perfectly valid forms of criticism and bad comedy, regardless of any fears of association.
Speaking of overly broad rights and protections, I'm reminded of the story on the EU and Korea trade agreement, which to me didn't appear to get a lot of attention the first time round. Though I think I only need to point out this particular part to show just how bad this agreement is:
Moving swiftly on, here's a case we can all learn from with Sweden fining a file sharer €200 ($311, working out at $7 a song). I'm sure this is something the USTR will balk at, but sometimes the US (and us at Techdirt) can get so involved in debating, arguing and extending its own laws, they forget there's a whole world out there we can communicate with and learn from, not merely try to coerce into our ways, with more reasonable file sharing damages certainly being one of those areas.
I'd also like to briefly highlight the stories of the US paying for software that didn't work, the revolving door between Government and industry , and where would we be without ICE admitting to taking down 84,000 domains for the sake of 10 -- not only did the Government give plenty more ammo this week to show themselves to be incompetent and untrustworthy, but they also gave us yet more reasons to dislike the patent system. They really worked had this week didn't they? Just think that if they hadn't done all this work, our national security would be in danger.
To put this post to bed, I'd like to end with more positive stories -- TED's success in opening up its content to the world, a porn company deciding to work with rather than against pirates and its customers, and that cheap video games are not necessarily bad for the industry. I think the story of TED in particular helps show that not only is cheap and free not necessarily as devaluing or industry-destroying as is regularly claimed, but can, in fact, lead to more success and a better situation for all. It's been a regular point at Techdirt that it's not always a zero-sum game when it comes to freeing content and making money, it's just a matter of thinking beyond being simply a gatekeeper.
That's it from me, back to lurking in the comments section from now on.
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First, a thanks to Mike for asking me to write this week's post. When approached to do the favorite posts of the week, I was initially worried I wouldn't be able to find much of interest in a week I thought it wasn't as eventful of a week as it turned out to be when looking back for the selections, so I took a few swigs of my kool-aid and prepared for the inevitable drop in value that follows from doing anything for free and got writing. I only hope the following selections and my musings are at least of mild interest to even just a few of you.
I've been following the "Freedom Box" project for quite a while after first seeing some of Eben Moglen's speeches regarding freedom, the web and free software, which had also inspired other projects like Diaspora, so it's no surprise that the article "Sometimes 'Piracy' & Freedom Look Remarkably Similar" was something of particular interest. I think the article leads into a point I'd personally been thinking about for while, in that much of what makes the web so great at freedom of speech is also fundamentally the same as what makes it great for widespread piracy. To attack piracy is to often end up -- inadvertently or not -- attacking the same things that give us a greater freedom of speech and efficiency. With modern attempts at attacking the former in some ways inhibiting the latter, they result in rather ham-fisted ways of working around that technologically, legally and PR wise. I'd be interested to see, if these kinds of devices take off, what precisely will be demanded to be done to combat the higher chances of piracy that seem will inevitably come with the greater protection of privacy and free speech.
Next up is the story of how the Tolkien estate is trying to put a stop to a historical fiction book involving the deceased author. I think we can all understand at some point the feeling of needing to fight back against something said that's untrue about us or the need to not be associated with something we don't support or like, but it seems like publicity laws, as they are, will just continue to be abused. I'm not sure what merit cases involving deceased authors and Hulk Hogan impersonations have outside of getting in the way of what seems like perfectly valid forms of criticism and bad comedy, regardless of any fears of association.
Speaking of overly broad rights and protections, I'm reminded of the story on the EU and Korea trade agreement, which to me didn't appear to get a lot of attention the first time round. Though I think I only need to point out this particular part to show just how bad this agreement is:
The data exclusivity provision prevents generic drug manufacturers from relying on data used by the patentee for market authorisation. Clinical test data generated by the patent holder, for example, therefore cannot be used for market authorisation of a generic drug using the same substance, obliging the generic drug users to reiterate the tests.If only every society were required to reinvent the wheel, we'd all have teleporters by now.
Moving swiftly on, here's a case we can all learn from with Sweden fining a file sharer €200 ($311, working out at $7 a song). I'm sure this is something the USTR will balk at, but sometimes the US (and us at Techdirt) can get so involved in debating, arguing and extending its own laws, they forget there's a whole world out there we can communicate with and learn from, not merely try to coerce into our ways, with more reasonable file sharing damages certainly being one of those areas.
I'd also like to briefly highlight the stories of the US paying for software that didn't work, the revolving door between Government and industry , and where would we be without ICE admitting to taking down 84,000 domains for the sake of 10 -- not only did the Government give plenty more ammo this week to show themselves to be incompetent and untrustworthy, but they also gave us yet more reasons to dislike the patent system. They really worked had this week didn't they? Just think that if they hadn't done all this work, our national security would be in danger.
To put this post to bed, I'd like to end with more positive stories -- TED's success in opening up its content to the world, a porn company deciding to work with rather than against pirates and its customers, and that cheap video games are not necessarily bad for the industry. I think the story of TED in particular helps show that not only is cheap and free not necessarily as devaluing or industry-destroying as is regularly claimed, but can, in fact, lead to more success and a better situation for all. It's been a regular point at Techdirt that it's not always a zero-sum game when it comes to freeing content and making money, it's just a matter of thinking beyond being simply a gatekeeper.
That's it from me, back to lurking in the comments section from now on.
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Friday, February 25, 2011
UK Court Dismisses Yet Another Bogus Criminal Lawsuit Against Torrent Tracker Admins
Just about a year ago, a court in the UK found OiNK's operator, Alan Ellis, not guilty of criminal charges for running the community. Even though plenty of people had pointed out from the very beginning that it was crazy to charge Ellis with criminal charges for actions by people in the community, prosecutors still went through with it. What was even more amazing is that they continued to try to do the same thing to others as well. In the summer of 2009, we wrote about how UK police arrested the operator of the FileSoup community based entirely on claims by the entertainment industry, which showed a near total lack of understanding of the basic technology at play. It turns out that law enforcement pushed forward with the case, despite the fact that they did no investigating on their own and simply accepted the industry's claims as fact, despite numerous errors. Thankfully, the courts recognized all of this and noted that these criminal charges probably never should have been brought and dropped the case against two of the admins of the site. At what point do law enforcement folks realize that the entertainment industry is a biased party and that you can't just accept everything they say as fact?
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Copyright Is An Incentive... To Create Lawsuits
I can't really add to this.
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Zimbabwe Professor Arrested, Tortured For 'Treason' For Watching News Videos About Egypt & Tunisia
Disturbing reports out of Zimbabwe about how a professor who regularly held gatherings to discuss different news topics and social issues, was arrested, charged with treason and tortured for having the audacity to gather the regular group of about 45 people who discuss these things, and showing them some BBC and Al Jazeera news clips about the uprising in Egypt and Tunisia.
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Last Saturday, Munyaradzi Gwisai, a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe’s law school, was showing a group of students and activists internet videos about the tumult sweeping across North Africa when state security agents burst into his office.I understand that Zimbabwe is not exactly a bastion of freedom these days, but arrested, tortured and charged with treason for gathering people to watch the news? Wow.
The agents seized laptop computers, DVD discs, and a video projector before arresting 45 people, including Gwisai, who runs the Labor Law Center at the University of Zimbabwe. All 45 have been charged with treason -- which can carry a sentence of life imprisonment or death -- for, in essence, watching viral videos.
Over the next 72 hours, Gwisai and five others were brutally tortured, he testified on Thursday at an initial hearing.
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