Podcasters rights in danger - please read this

I got this from a friend of my wife:

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September 11th - 13th in Geneva, Switzerland: WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organisation - see below) attempts to finalise the new Broadcast Treaty, a project which has been going on for nine years. The Broadcast Treaty is intended to do things such as prevent signal theft., i.e. someone illegally taking your TV program and retransmitting it. Some WIPO members have been trying to 'add in' the Internet to the new Treaty, and at this late stage they have introduced podcasting to their legislation.

This is where the UK Podcasters Association comes in. UKPA has been campaigning for three months with the Irish and German podcast groups, the Open Rights group in the UK, and EFF in the United States, and representing thousands of concerned Internet users, EFF attorney Gwen Hinze presented a joint statement to WIPO on why podcasting should not be included in the Broadcast Treaty.

http://www.eff.org/IP/WIPO/broadcasting_treaty/podcasting.php

UKPA is part of an extraordinarily broad coalition against this version of the Treaty, alongside technology companies, NGOs, and member states such as India, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Iran, Nigeria and South Africa. Even the corporation-dominated United States eventually stated its opposition to calling for a diplomatic conference based on the existing draft - although for entirely different reasons than developing countries.

The main arguments against this extension of the Treaty into the Internet are that it gives new, wide-ranging and long-lasting rights to broadcasters over Internet content; it does not respect the Creative Commons system of content licencing which has been adapted by 49 countries and used for millions of works worldwide, including podcasts and blogs; and it threatens to impose severe restrictions on the development of technology and the personal use of media.

It also creates a whole set of problems for new technologies. Intel's Global Policy Director Jeffrey Lawrence explained how the treaty will prevent the roll out of home networking technologies because permission will be required from broadcasting companies for consumers to access and use the cable and television programs that they have already paid for in their own homes. Verizon Vice-President Sarah Deutsch said that Internet service providers and other intermediaries also face significant legal liability under the treaty for transmitting programming. "A broadcaster's right of control should stop at the front door of the home," she said.

IP Justice Executive Director Robin Gross:

It is already illegal to steal cable television under existing law in all countries. This proposal, however, will give broadcasting companies the power to control what consumers can do with those programs.

This creates a problem for a growing number of consumers who use technology to copy, edit, comment on, and re-use media in otherwise lawful ways. Internet bloggers and websites such as YouTube where people post snippets of media programming based on copyright law's fair use privilege are also at risk. Since this is not copyright, but rather a brand new type of IP right, traditional fair use privileges would not apply to protect consumers. Television programs like Jon Stewart's "Daily Show," which uses short video clips of politician's speeches and other news to provide political commentary on them, can also be prevented from re-using the footage if this treaty is passed.

One of the most dangerous provisions in the treaty is the proposal to grant broadcasters the right to lock up public domain programming using technological restrictions that it will then be illegal to bypass in order to access the public domain information.

Despite lengthy objections, at the end of this three-day session, Chairman Liedes dismissed all arguments against the Treaty, and

...dropped the gavel to conclude the meeting after announcing there would be no time for further discussion on the controversial treaty.

Rather than address legitimate concerns about theft of broadcast signals, the treaty would create 8 new intellectual property rights over broadcasts that are so broad they will stifle technological innovation, freedom of expression and access to knowledge. (RG)

Despite this, we at UKPA and the other EU podcast groups take heart from the fact that we have brought together so many different and disparate bodies, groups and corporations agreeing to a cohesive position - this is a real achievement. The Broadcast Treaty is a direct threat to much of the culture we all share, and this has created exceptional unity.

UKPA is going to continue to lobby the UK Government and bring pressure on WIPO via our elected representatives at national level to challenge what we conside to be an autocratic and dangerous decision.

The Broadcast Treaty is on course to drastically affect the way the Internet works. If you enjoy this vibrant new culture of podcasts, blogs and shared media, I really suggest you take the time to follow some of the links, understand the issues, and most importantly, tell your friends.

Best,

Dean Whitbread,
Chairman, UKPA

About WIPO

World Intellectual Property Organisation is one of the most powerful international bodies in the world. It controls the regulation of Intellectual Property - ideas - and it occupies a uniquely powerful position in important development areas such as patents and copyrights, and this impacts upon new technologies, media content, and transmission rights.

WIPO is composed of many parts: broadcasters, technology and internet companies, NGOs, public interest groups, and member nations. WIPO is a United Nations mandated organisation - its decisions pass into international law at the diplomatic level and are internationally binding. The organisation has been run by on man for over 10 years - Chairman Liedes of Finland, sometimes referred to as "chairman for life".

More Information on WIPO Broadcasting Treaty:
Electronic Frontier Foundation
http://www.eff.org/IP/WIPO/broadcasting_treaty/

Open Rights Group
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/orgwiki/index.php/WIPO_Broadcast_Treaty

IP Justice
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/broadcasters.shtml

Chairman's current draft proposal [SCCR/15/2]
http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=64712

Cory Doctorow on TWiT
http://www.twit.tv/68

Creative Commons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_commons

UK Podcasters Association
http://ukpodcasters.org.uk

Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/ukpod001/petition.html

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UK Podcasters Association

http://ukpodcasters.org.uk

Turning up the heat

According to this CNN news article, astronaut Joe Tanner dropped a bolt and spring in space during a space walk. These things happen, I guess. But further down the article I came across this statement:

However, spacewalkers have a long history of losing material in space. In July, Discovery spacewalkers lost a 14-inch-long spatula that floated away.

I was a couple of sentences on from that before I suddenly realized what I'd just read. They lost a spatula in space.

What, exactly, was someone doing with a spatula on a space-walk? The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that the astronauts were doing what comes naturally to Guys wherever they are: Barbecue. What more reason would they need?

Really Obvious Science and Really Useful Science; Pluto Redux

Really Useful Science: The microwave engine

Now this really is cool: Roger Shawyer, an engineer in south-east England has designed a new kind of engine for spacecraft that has no moving parts and doesn't require fuel. It's called the Emdrive and it uses microwaves inside a resonant cavity, so it only needs a source of electricity to power it.

Better still, Shawyer has built a working prototype and measurements indicate that it produces about the same amount of thrust as the ion engines that powered SMART-1.

There are apparently still some questions about the Emdrive but if everything pans out the first real applications are likely to be space probes - all that would be needed is solar panels to provide power.

It's also been suggested that if an Emdrive could be built using superconductor technology, a 1000-watt drive - about the power of a microwave oven - could lift a 3-tonne mass off the ground.

Really obvious I: The MacBeth Effect

Psychologists have proved that when we think we've done something wrong, we really do feel better after washing. The phenomenon has been called "The MacBeth Effect" in honour of Lady MacBeth's "out, damned spot" performance.

It strikes me that these guys have got too much time on their hands - after all, I think we all knew this to be true; hell, even Shakespeare knew it was true. As for practical applications, I can't think of a single one...

Really Obvious II: Snails' need for speed

Scientists at MIT have created a mathematical model of how snails move and proved that (wait for it) snails move faster on thin slime. I think Shakespeare could have told them that, too.

Pluto reclassification redux

The new planet definition that came from the IAU last month is under fire. It seems that by the strict interpretation of the definition, Jupiter isn't a planet (it hasn't cleared its orbit of smaller bodies such as the Trojan asteroids) and Earth may not be either (Earth is surrounded by small bodies such as Horseshoe asteroids). Also, the new definition excludes all the extra-solar planets that have been discovered over the last few years - the fact of which was one of the reasons a proper definition was needed in the first place.

The whole mess will probably have to wait until the next general meeting of the IAU in 2009 before it's all sorted out.

For my own part, I think the definition should basically be something like, if it's big enough to pull itself into a roughly spherical shape and it formed from the parent star's accretion disk, it's a planet.

Real Augmented Reality; Whack-a-Moon; Can Science and Religion talk?; Happy Labor Day

Augmented Reality Reality

A very interesting article in New Scientist describes how Eli Peli, an ophthalmologist and bioengineer at Harvard Medical School, has developed a pair of Augmented Reality specs to help people suffering from tunnel vision. The way I understand it, a tiny camera attached to the specs takes a wide-angle picture which is then processed to create something like a line drawing of the scene. This is then scaled down and superimposed over the wearer's field of vision, so that the tunnel-vision sufferer gets an overview of the wider scene. This allows the sufferer to locate objects outside their degraded field of view up to 75% faster.

Let's play Whack-a-Moon

Europe's SMART-1 probe is in orbit around the Moon, losing about a kilometre in altitude with each go-around and taking more and more detailed pictures as it gets closer to the surface. At the moment it's estimated that it'll hit sometime around 2:41am Central time Sunday but because its orbit is going to be a bit of a surface-grazer that could be off by up to five hours.

At the speed it hits there'll be enough energy released to create quite a flash, and because the craft has some unspent fuel aboard, there could also be a fireball at impact. If you have a good telescope or binoculars you may be able to see the result - the project scientists have estimated a flash of between 9th and 13th magnitude (so it won't be visible to the naked eye).

A bonus for Bill & Ted fans is that the impact point is estimated to be in the region of the Moon known as The Lake of Excellence, dude.

Can Science and Religion work together to save Humanity?

E. O. Wilson, the famous scientist and author, has put out a new book, "The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth". In it he argues that science and religion can and should work together to help avert our own extinction.

I hope he's right but I have to say that my experience of religious extremists leads me to believe that it really won't be that easy - there are too many fundamentalists who can't wait for the end of the world so that the worthy can be saved, and ready to help things along.

Labor Day misnomer

Why is it called Labor Day when most people won't be working? Anyway, this writer wishes all his readers a safe a happy holiday.