Clicktraps, Boyle on new book and Masnick on why a music "tax" won't work

Clicktraps, Boyle on new book and Masnick on why a music "tax" won't work

One of my all-time favorite podcasts is WNYC's On The Media, and this week the show had three interviews in a row that I recommend. Also, worth noticing, is their website which offers embeddable players, downloads, free transcripts, comments and debate - interesting how the concept of public service is being renewed by american (-foundation and grants based NPR broadcasters) and not by our state-secured monoliths.

The New Hacker

Last week, a jury in the MySpace suicide case
found Lori Drew guilty of violating the site's "terms of service agreement" and that, they said, made her a hacker. The Berkman Center's Christopher Soghoian says according to the agreements on many popular sites (you're supposed to be 18 to use Google!) many of us are hackers.

Click to Agree

So one of the jurors in the MySpace trial reads every terms of service agreement she encounters, but does anyone else? And if not, why not? New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann explains why companies have them and why we think we can ignore them.

Patently Wrong

In James Boyle's new book, The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of Mind, the "sealed crustless sandwich" is just one example of patent law gone awry. Boyle argues that current law is making it harder and harder to share information and ideas to the detriment of the culture at large. His book is available for free online here.

Also worth mentioning is this article by Mike Masnick - again, another very precise analysis, this time why a "music tax" is not such a good idea after all.