This week’s High Five is about protecting and promoting content.
#5: DMCA Muscle Kills DVD Copying, for Real
I’ve been covering several different lawsuits in which the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is prosecuting a scorched earth assault against its own customers guilty of piracy. While those arguments are about the punishment fitting the crime, this story is much more disturbing because it deals a serious body blow to the “fair use” aspect of copyright protection. This is the principal that makes it legal to make a copy of a CD (music, program, or otherwise) for your own personal backup purposes. However, in this case a judge has ruled that the crime exists in the breaking or bypassing of any encryption.
Link: Wired
#4: Bogus Copyright Claim Silences Yet Another Larry Lessig YouTube Presentation
This story is a preview of things to come. In previous “High Five” posts, I’ve linked to articles about legislation that could threaten net neutrality by compelling Internet Service Providers to police their user base for copyright violations. If forced to do so, it will lead to several undesirable side effects. First, and most obvious, it will increase prices as these service providers will have to invest in additional resources to police their own customers (not to mention insurance policies for increased risk). Second, it will lead to far more restrictive policies as their terms of use will no doubt give them final say in what is or is not acceptable – legal standards will not be applicable because they will be more concerned with avoiding litigation than their own users’ rights. Finally, this story is obviously an example of an automated software application that is simply looking for digital footprints and stomping them out with extreme prejudice and no room for fair use.
Link: TechDirt
#3: Apple Stacks The Deck Against Amazon’s Kindle App
It’s no great secret that the true source of success for many devices is the “killer app.” The most famous example is VisiCalc for the Apple II. The real secret to Apple’s domination of the personal MP3 player market was the iTunes store. This article discusses the potential impact of the iPad’s e-reader application being directly linked to the iStore, and how a couple of mouse clips could be a serious impediment to Amazon’s Kindle Reader application.
Link: Business Insider
#2: How The Newspaper Business Killed Itself
John Dvorak is no shrinking violet, and has been making bold assertions and predictions for many years. In this article, he makes the case that the New York Times’ decision to begin charging for online access is another example of the industry shooting itself in the foot. Like most brash pundits’ predictions, the vast majority of his predictions prove not to be true and I actually disagree with his opinion on this latest move by the times. So why am I including it? Because in describing the newspaper business’ past sins, he uses the simplest and single best metaphor I’ve read on the subject. After describing how publishers reacted to declining revenues as a result of underestimating the effects of online classifieds by laying off beat writers, he concludes that “It was like attempting to fix a flat by letting the air out of the rest of the tires.” Perfect.
Link: PC Magazine
#1: What The Heck Is Inbound Marketing (and how you can maximize it) With Brian Halligan
“Inbound Marketing” is the single most important concept that will determine the degree to which businesses, associations and individuals will be able to spread their ideas and gain visibility. In this interview, David Garland speaks with Hubspot CEO Brian Halligan, who literally wrote the book on Inbound Marketing. If you take the time to watch this video (and I hope you do), I encourage you to think about the concept of inbound marketing for your own personal online identity as well as that of your organization’s.
Link: The Rise to the Top
Feel free to provide your thoughts and/or contributions…