peaceoption.org

I’ve never studied law, but it looks like the bill allows the government to seize any computer used in the process of making unauthorized copies of audio recordings. In other words, if you’re convicted in a civil or criminal case of posting songs to file-sharing networks, or making unauthorized live recordings and posting them to the Web, or using DeCSS to make unauthorized copies of a movie from a DVD…then say goodbye to the PC used in the process. (You can read the entire bill by submitting a search for “HR 4279″ here.)

Obviously, this is intended to stop large-scale pirates–the folks burning millions of CDs for resale–but looking at some of the individuals sued by the RIAA, I wouldn’t be surprised if some average folks are caught in the net. Of course, if you’re on the hook for $220,000, like Jammie Thomas is, losing your PC is a small part of the overall penalty, but expanding goverment forfeiture rights to crack down on digital audio and video piracy seems a bit extreme to me.

Incidentally, the bill uses the term “phonorecord” to describe an audio recording. I just heard a presentation on IP law from one of my colleagues who’s studying the topic right now, and he noted that “phonorecord” is standard language in the U.S. Code, and doesn’t necessarily mean LP records. It’s just one of those odd legal terms leftover from a bygone era.

Some new intellectual property (IP) enforcement legislation passed the U.S. House yesterday by a wide margin. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has been against the proposal since its inception, put out a release highlighting the silliness of creating a new presidential appointee (complete with official seal) specifically to oversee IP policy. But reading through the coverage of the bill, and wading through most of the bill itself, there’s another part that seemed more alarming to me.

It’s just a bill, it hasn’t been brought up in the Senate, so if you think this is a step too far, you have time to express your opinion to your senator.

(Credit:
Amazon)

Find more deals, coupon codes, and bargains on CNET’s Shopper.com.

Why aren’t best sellers priced at, say, $2.99? That’s an impulse-buy price, one that would encourage readers to pony up instead of waiting weeks or months to check out the one print copy the library bought.

Look, I’m your biggest fan. I’ve been reading digitally distributed fiction and non-fiction since the early days of the PalmPilot.

Now, I understand books cost money. There’s editing, publishing, and distribution. Paper, ink, trucks, gasoline. Storage, shipping, shelf space, sales staff. And the countless people involved in all those transactions.

Let’s get some perspective. Publishers have vast libraries of old, forgotten books that are generating zero income, or close to it. Why can’t I buy e-book editions for 99 cents? Last I checked, some revenue was better than no revenue.

Apple figured out that 99 cents was the magic price point for songs and managed to strong-arm record labels into letting it sell at that point. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony–it’s time for you step up and convince book publishers to do likewise.

Explain to me, then, why the e-book edition of “This is Where I Leave You” sells for $14.01. The $.01 suggests there must be some calculation at work, some formula you use to determine that Kindle and iPhone owners get to save all of a buck-fifty-six when they read green.

Dear e-book publishers: stop gouging us.

I also understand the concept of perceived value. If you make e-books cheap, that cheapens the value of books in general, right? No. Wrong. Hogwash. That’s 20th century thinking.

One final thought: at the same time you’re raking in newfound profits, publishers, you’ll be creating a more literate, well-read society. Not a bad perk, eh?

This isn’t a new phenomenon. For as long as I’ve been reading them, e-books have cost nearly as much as their print siblings.

E-books, on the other hand, consume zero trees. They weigh nothing, occupy no physical space, and don’t get shipped in the traditional sense. Middlemen are few and far between. So you’re left with, what, editing costs and the pittance you pay the authors?

It’s time for that to change.

Amazon inexplicably charges nearly as much for the e-book edition as for the hardcover.

(By the way, bargain hunters, eReader.com sells “This is Where I Leave You” for $9.95–still disproportionately high, but more reasonable at least.)

Case in point: I just read a glowing review of Jonathan Tropper’s “This is Where I Leave You.” I’m sold; I want it. But something’s amiss here: Amazon’s hardcover price is $15.57, while the Kindle edition sells for $14.01.

But I’m getting increasingly frustrated with e-book prices, which rarely represent a savings over their print (aka dead-tree) counterparts.

I’m no businessman (English major, natch), but even I understand the economics of volume. Want to sell more e-books? Lower the prices. Forget how things work in the physical world, where selling more books means more production, more shipping, more consumables. E-books require none of that. The only real “consumable” is bandwidth, and there’s no shortage of that.

That’s the end of my diatribe. Over to you, readers. Would you buy more e-books if they cost just a buck or two? Would you be more likely to buy, say, a Kindle if cheap books were part of the deal? I eagerly await your thoughts on the subject.

The most frequently used apps on my
iPhone, bar none, are Kindle, eReader, and Stanza.

Readers, it’s time for you to step up and letter-bomb both booksellers and publishers, to let them know you’ve got money to spend on books, but want fair prices.

I will not buy “This is Where I Leave You” for $14.01. At $9.95, I have to think about it. For $2.99, publisher Dutton Adult, by way of Amazon or eReader or whoever, would already have my money. And probably a lot more, as I’d be snapping up books left and right.

Of course, it’s unclear how much of Yahoo’s statement is reality and how much is bravado. The Wall Street Journal noted that while Yahoo may seek other bidders, none immediately emerged. Some say Microsoft’s big wallet and determination may deter others from pursuing Yahoo.

Meanwhile, Silicon Alley Insider blogger Henry Blodget on Friday wrote that at least one New York-based private equity firm was said to have been preparing an offer for Yahoo when Microsoft announced its bid. And on Saturday TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrignton cited rumors that News Corp., which had considered merging its MySpace social-networking site with Yahoo, was trying to assemble a group of investors to challenge Microsoft’s offer.

The FAQ marks the company’s most substantive comment thus far on the bid. The company issued a brief statement on Friday morning, but said only that it was reviewing Microsoft’s offer and the company declined all further comment.

For those wondering how long Yahoo may take to respond to Microsoft’s unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid, Yahoo says don’t hold your breath.

Yahoo said its process “will include evaluating all of the Company’s strategic alternatives–including maintaining Yahoo as an independent company.”

In a brief FAQ posted to its Web site, Yahoo says it is “undertaking a deliberate review process” and warns it could “take quite a bit of time.”

That could include pursuing bids from other companies, Yahoo said. “That process will take some time, but the Board will ultimately pursue the option that it believes can best maximize value for our shareholders,” Yahoo said.

The sandbox, available at Google’s iGoogle developer page, lets developers get started with a number of new features that eventually will make their way to the regular iGoogle home page, said lead product manager Jessica Ewing.

Google on Monday invited programmers into a new sandbox that will let them test out significantly expanded possibilities for Web gadgets, small applications that can be hosted on the company’s iGoogle personalized home page.

Google’s news arrived the day before the Web 2.0 Expo begins. The timing was coincidental, but no doubt Web 2.0 programmers will be interested.

More details are available on the Google Code Blog and an explanatory YouTube video.

Among those new features are a left-hand region of the Web browser that lets users navigate quickly through a list of gadgets, a “canvas view” that can give gadgets more screen real estate, and the ability to take advantage of some social features for gadgets that employ OpenSocial standards. OpenSocial is an API, or application programming interface, that lets a gadget run on Web sites, such as MySpace.com, Ning, Salesforce.com, and Friendster, that support OpenSocial.

“It makes the home page environment a lot more interesting and engaging,” Ewing said.

For example, with the features, somebody using a Pac Man game gadget could both expand the game to full-screen size and, when not playing, use OpenSocial’s notification abilities to hear when a friend beat the high score, Ewing said.

Ewing wouldn’t say when the new abilities would be available to regular iGoogle users. “There are no firm dates yet. We’re hoping soon,” she said.

Google has Yahoo on the defensive, but Yahoo has a bigger lead with its My Yahoo portal site than Google does with iGoogle. Other home page sites include NetVibes and PageFlakes, which was just acquired by LiveUniverse.

Gates plans to step away from full-time work at the software giant in July to focus on his charitable foundation.

(Credit:
Dan Farber)

Buffett, who runs a holding company whose stock price closed up Wednesday at $139,000 per share, announced in 2006 that he would give away the lion’s share of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. At that time his personal fortune was valued at $44 billion. In the past year, Microsoft’s stock price has seen fluctuations but is pretty much in the same place it was 12 months ago, while Berkshire Hathaway’s stock price has increased more than 25 percent.

Well, maybe not the poor house, but he has lost his position as the world’s richest man, a title he’d held since 1995. The new world’s richest man is Gates’ friend and investment mogul Warren Buffett, according to Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of the world’s wealthiest people, which was released Wednesday. The magazine estimated Buffett’s worth at $62 billion, and Gates’ fortune not too far behind at $58 billion. But that doesn’t mean he only slipped one notch: Carlos Slim, a Mexican telecoms tycoon, came in second with an estimated worth of $60 billion.

Google this!

You knew this was going to happen eventually–Bill Gates prepares to step away from full-time work at Microsoft and suddenly he is on the slippery slope to the poor house.

There were rumblings last year that Gates’ hold on the top spot might be slipping when various media reports estimated Slim’s net worth at $67 billion.

A prototype was successfully tested last year (witnessed by the deputy mayor of Xian) and will enter mass production and active service in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force by 2010.

China’s H-8 stealth bomber may be more advanced than the American B-2A and capable of delivering a 350-kiloton nuclear warhead to the continental United States, or it could be a mock-up of the A-12 “Flying Dorito.”

Although it’s “top secret,” Chinese quasi-official Web sites brag that the Xian H-8 is a stealth carbon fiber, “special nanotechnology”-coated strategic heavy bomber.

Those are just two of the rumors accompanying a video trumpeting some recent triumphs of Chinese aviation.

Then again, it’s an enlarged version of the H-6 with the underwing engines, a project that was canceled in the 1970s. It has four Ws-10A engines based on Russian or U.S. technology–or both–and was designed by the 603 Institute.

And the “Flying Dorito”? The stealth McDonnell Douglas A-12 carrier-borne attack aircraft was canceled in the 1990s by then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. Or was it?

(Credit:
PLAAF)

What we know for sure is that it has a range of 11,000 kilometers, without refueling, but it could refuel if it wanted to–possibly. In any case, it has extralarge fuel tanks. It has a crew of two and travels at Mach 1.2, or maybe 1.4. It carries an 18-ton bomb payload and/or 12 new stealth cruise missiles with a range of 3,000 kilometers. And three nuclear missiles, at least.

Oh, and it was made possible by stolen American technology. Even with pilfered stealth technology, though, China will probably not have had “enough time to (successfully) fabricate and assemble a working aircraft,” Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense hopes.

I expected to see some lower Vista prices in this weekend’s ads, but was surprised to see just how low the prices had fallen.

The question now is just how low will Vista go.

But the ad at OfficeMax took things a step further. In this week’s circular, the office products chain is selling
Windows Vista Home Premium for $99. That’s $30 less than Microsoft’s just-lowered price and the same as the suggested price for Windows Vista Home Basic–though perhaps just a hair more than the clearance prices a couple weeks back at closing CompUSA stores.

Officially the price cuts announced by Microsoft on Thursday don’t take effect until later this year when Service Pack 1 hits retail shelves. However, the company had said that many retailers were offering promotions that bring the software to its lower price.

As it turns out, Anthony Lappe didn’t select McCain as president when he set out to write Shooting War in the spring of 2006 because he thought he was the most likely to win. I picked McCain, not because I thought he had the best shot, but because of the literary possibilities inherent in having a Vietnam vet trapped in a war he can’t figure out how to end. He, like Dan Rather, who made a cameo in the web comic and then becomes a major character in the book, fascinates me as a character. He’s got this famously short temper, which scares many members of his own party, and seems to actually hate politics, yet he has been in Washington for decades. When his son is kidnapped, and presumably suffers the same fate, or worse, than he did in ‘Nam, it creates a sort of perfect emotional storm that sends the already volatile old soldier off the deep end.

President John McCain

Shooting War examines the changing face of the media

According to Anthony, the impetus for including Jimmy McCain in the story came from a friend of his who served in Iraq. He’s pretty pissed off that more politicians’ kids aren’t over there. When I wrote it, Jimmy McCain hadn’t enlisted yet. So it was a pretty eerie feeling to read he had joined the marines one month after I had . I’m not sure I would have included the plot point in there if he was actually in the military at the time of writing.

(Credit: Shooting War) The book is not only a critical look at the war itself, but also the media who cover it. Global News Network is a fictional network that hires a videoblogger to supplement their coverage; the idea is still a stretch, but television stations such as Al Gore’s Current have made a considerable effort to recruit journalists from outside the professional sphere.

As it happens, when Gore first set out to build his new network, he spoke to Anthony Lappe and his partners at the Guerrilla News Network
, or GNN, about what a new cable television news network might look like. While I don’t think Current was quite what Lappe envisioned, I asked Anthony what inspired him to create the fictional Global News Network after I noticed that Global News and Anthony’s own project share the same initials, GNN.

Like any good graphic novel, Shooting War left me turning page after page in one long marathon session before I finally devoured its satisfying ending. It’s an entertaining book, but it’s also informative and filled with interesting predictions for where things may be headed. Goldman’s graphic approach to the story is simultaneously classic and hyper-modern; the art was composed digitally, and like V for Vendetta, it is arguably an artistic evolution in comic art.

Perhaps the most interesting element of Shooting War is its depiction of US foreign relations in 2011, and the predictions that Anthony makes about what the future may hold. Some of these predictions have been covered in other publications in the past; Lappe told Gothamist in January that the ground-based offensive robots in the book are called TALONs and really do exist. “Actually, what we use in the book are souped-up versions of actual models. I’m not sure if they’ve actually been deployed but they’ve been testing them and I’m sure there’ll be out there soon.”

(Credit: Shooting War) But what I find most compelling now that John McCain has a very real chance of becoming our next president, is how Lappe envisions the future of Iraq under a McCain presidency. It hasn’t received much attention lately, but Senator McCain is one of the few congresspeople who have a son or daughter serving in the armed forces. Jimmy McCain, the Senator’s youngest son, enlisted in the US Marines Corps in the summer of 2006. Coincidentally, although TIME broke the story on July 30th, 2006, it was Shooting War that first suggested Jimmy McCain would become a Marine in a pane first published a full month earlier on June 28th.

Jimmy Burns arrives in Baghdad

Shooting War began as a web comic at SMITH magazine in May of 2006, and was completed as a hardbound graphic novel that was published in November of last year. The book tells the story of video blogger extraordinaire Jimmy Burns. In the story, Burns is thrown into the spotlight after he happens to capture a New York City terrorist attack with his live-streaming video camera. He soon finds himself reporting from Iraq as the newest addition to the fictional cable news outlet, Global News Network.

(Credit: Shooting War) Back in 2006 it seemed unlikely that John McCain would earn the Republican nomination for President of the United States, but when journalist Anthony Lappeand artist Dan Goldman set out to create a near-future world for their graphic novel Shooting War they decided to imagine just what a McCain Presidency might look like in 2011 and their forecast is dark with more than a few scattered showers.

Dan Rather

Though Anthony points out that GNN is just a play on words and that Guerrilla News has no plans to move into the television network business, he does say that “I think an American version of al Jazeera, which combines the rabid nationalism of Lou Dobbs and the “extreme video” of shows like Spike’s Most Amazing Videos,” … could make it on TV, imho. I just don’t have $100 million to launch it.” The idea behind Global News is that when the Bush wing of the GOP goes into decline (or hibernation) Fox News’ ratings go with them. Already you’re seeing Fox being outflanked by CNN and Fox’s personalities taking hits in popularity and influence. Same goes with Rush Limbaugh and the other radio hosts who appeared to have hitched themselves to the wrong horse and will pay the price. But of all of the “predictions,” Global News was more of joke than something I think could actually happen. It’s just too expensive… For many, the issues conveyed in Shooting War: Iraq, corporate media, and citizen journalism, seem boring or inaccessible. And while comic books are not a panacea to American ignorance, Shooting War does provide an entertaining avenue to explore critical issues facing our world today. Though film will always be the most compelling medium, Anthony Lappe’s writing and Dan Goldman’s art should remind all of us that graphic novels have the potential to captivate an audience’s attention when nothing else seems to do the trick.

Jimmy Burns vlogs a US Terrorist Attack

Lt. Jimmy McCain Kidnapping

(Credit: Shooting War) While the literary qualities of a President McCain overseeing operations in Iraq and the irony of him having to essentially take the same path his father did when the Senator was a POW in Vietnam, are both executed well in Shooting War, I was curious how Anthony Lappe felt Iraq might play out following the big showdown in November. In the short-term there may not be big difference between a McCain presidency and an Obama or Clinton one when it comes to Iraq. While Obama and Clinton have pledged immediate withdrawals, the overall U.S. military presence will remain and the war will grind on unless there is a dramatically different course taken that involves challenging the entire notion of our military industrial complex as a force for change in the world. And I don’t see either doing that. In fact, a gradual withdrawal, over the course of a presidential term, might in fact be more perilous than one that takes incremental steps and doesn’t radically revaluate how we deal with the world in the post-Cold War, and post 9/11 era. Each candidates’ foreign policy advisors (Holbroke, Brzezinski, for instance), are made up of what you could call liberal hawks - old hands who fundamentally believe in America’s ‘right and duty’ to be the world’s lone superpower. (For more see: http://www.gnn.tv/articles/3514/Behind_Obama_and_Clinton) In Shooting War some things have changed, but some remain very much the same. The United States is still stuck in a quagmire in Iraq and it seems quite accurate that no matter who wins the presidential race that may, in fact, be the case come 2011, when Shooting War takes place.

To preview Shooting War, visit the original web comic as presented by SMITH magazine. For those in the New York area, Anthony Lappe and Dan Goldman will be presenting at the New York Public Library Midtown branch on Tuesday, February 12 at 6:30PM on the 6th floor.

(Credit: Shooting War) When I asked him about his various predictions in the book, he was quick to point out that, “while [he] took into account where [he] thought things were headed, many, if not most, of the book’s plot points were written for dramatic or comedic effect and not meant to reflect [his] “predictions” of the future in any meaningful way.” He continued, “In other words, I’m more idiot than savant here. Which is why it’s so eerie that so many of the plot elements (big and small) have come to pass.”

(Credit: Shooting War) After arriving in Baghdad, Burns quickly finds himself enmeshed with the terrorist cell, Sword of Mohammed, as both Burns and Lappe explore the possible root causes behind the War on Terror. Along the way, he encounters not only lust, but love as well. He discovers first hand what propels the mainstream media’s thirst for coverage in a war-torn Iraq, and legendary journalist Dan Rather makes a special cameo as a sort of mentor for the fresh-faced Burns.

Mehta wrote in his blog post that Microsoft is considering adding other charities to the list.

“Because of your enthusiasm, we’re also excited to announce that we will be continuing this program,” Windows Live Messenger product manager Dharmesh Mehta wrote in a blog post. “And with no set limit on the amount donated to each organization, the more ‘I’m’ conversations people have, the more money that goes toward addressing some of the world’s most urgent social issues.”

Bill Gates would be proud.

Last year, Microsoft launched the “I’m Initiative,” which donated nibbles of advertising revenue to 10 selected charities each time a Windows Live Messenger user started an instant message with the word “I’m.” On Tuesday, after a year of the gimmick, Microsoft representatives announced that $1.3 million had been netted so far.

The 10 nonprofits receiving donations from the I’m Initiative are the American Red Cross, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the Humane Society of the United States, the National AIDS Fund, the National MS Society, NineMillion.org, the Sierra Club, StopGlobalWarming.org, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and UNICEF. Windows Live Messenger users who want to participate are asked to choose which organization they want to receive their click funds; the precise amounts netted by each one were not disclosed, but Microsoft has said that each one has received a minimum of $100,000. The I’m Initiative has also sponsored Cause Effect, a program about social action on the MTV Networks channel MTVU, which is syndicated on college campus broadcast networks.

Copyright owners are upset nonetheless. “It’s astonishing that someone who claims to be a serious communication operator wants to assist in crime, which is implied by what (ISPs) are doing” when they erase data, lawyer Peter Danowsky told the Swedish daily newspaper SvD.

(Credit:
Netnod)

Three Swedish Internet service providers, among them Tele2, one of the country’s three major broadband operators, have stated that they will erase traffic data to protect their customers’ privacy.

Danowsky represented the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in the high-profile Pirate Bay case. Four men were sentenced to prison for assisting in making 33 copyright-protected files available over the Internet. (The IFPI represented a number of record labels in the litigation.)

The new so-called IPRED law in Sweden, based on an EU directive, gives copyright owners the right to ask for customers’ identity from ISPs, if a court agrees.

Meanwhile, the first case under the new IPRED law drags on. Five audio book publishers have turned to the law to get at the identity behind an IP number allegedly used for illegal file sharing, but the ISP Ephone refuses to hand over the information, declaring that the evidence is too weak.

Overall Swedish Internet traffic apparently dropped drastically on April 1 when a new antipiracy law went into effect. The graph represents traffic in gigabits per second through Netnod, the major Swedish node for exchange of traffic between operators.

The court now says the material from the parties is extensive and that it largely will be up to the parties to decide how long the court’s decision will take, according to the daily SvD.

Strong indications showed that total Internet traffic in Sweden decreased by 30 percent to 50 percent the day the law took effect, and traffic still remains low, as indicated by traffic exchanged between ISPs in major Swedish network exchange Netnod.

“It’s a strong wish from our customers, so we decided not to store information on customers’ IP numbers anymore,” Niclas Palmstierna, CEO of Tele2, told Swedish national news agency TT Tuesday morning.

Tele2’s decision to erase traffic data follows a similar decision by ISPs All Tele and Bahnhof.

The information is crucial in investigating piracy. When surveying the Internet to spot computers involved in uploading or downloading copyright-protected material, it’s easy to capture these computers’ IP data. But to identify the person using the computer, it’s necessary to ask for the ISP, as IP numbers normally are assigned dynamically by the provider.

Having apparently been scared off illegal file sharing in large numbers by a new Swedish law that went into effect April 1, pirates in that country now have a new safe harbor to escape law enforcement.

“Major portions of the Internet traffic derive from illegal file sharing, which makes it an important revenue source for the ISPs,” Danowsky added.

The downturn in Swedish Internet traffic results in lowered costs for ISPs, while revenues remain the same as prescription fees are flat rate. But long-term revenues are at stake, as demand for high bandwidth could decrease.

Telia Sonera, the country’s largest ISP, tells SvD that it stores data for “a short period,” whereas another major ISP, Norwegian Telenor, says it stores data for a maximum of three weeks. So copyright owners that want traffic data must turn to a court very quickly after securing evidence on illegal file sharing if they want a chance to get at the identity behind an IP number.

The move in itself is not against the law. On the contrary, European law on electronic communication (PDF) demands that ISPs only store traffic data for a limited time period to handle billing, inter-operator traffic, and security issues. The law then requires them to erase that data as soon as possible.

Other major ISPs in Sweden declare they will not follow Tele2’s decision. They say they need traffic data to handle security issues. But data will be stored only for a few weeks.

According to Swedish police, the operators’ move to erase traffic data will also make other cybercrime investigations more difficult, Swedish national news agency TT reports.