Internet Freedom Day

Internet Freedom Day

One year ago we defeated SOPA.
Today, celebrate your freedom of expression.
January 18th is #InternetFreedomDay
What’s something you love on the net that you’d never want to see censored?

There are lots of great things we can do to celebrate this very important anniversary of
beating SOPA one year ago today! Check out a few of them at:

www.InternetFreedomDay.net

and do what you can to
celebrate the one year anniversary of beating SOPA today!

And don’t forget: Aaron Swartz was instrumental in helping to beat SOPA!

____

Not sure what it’s all about? Check out the following article:

The Day Wikipedia Went Dark - Boston Review

Many sites, including all of my websites went dark that day!

As was noted in the article:

The free Internet will rise or fall on the involvement and ingenuity of the people, not on courts or lawmakers.

Internet Freedom Day: Coming together a year after SOPA/PIPA – EFF.org

Internet Freedom Day: Celebrate SOPA/PIPA Victory One Year Later!

This is why I hate DRM

Yes, this is why I hate DRM…

I purchased a game, Miriel the Magical Merchant via PayPal.

I got an email from Reflexive Entertainment, Inc. on May 8, 2010 that they got my money. Fulfillment was handled through Game Center Solution. They provided me a download link, an Activation Code, instructions:

In order to activate the full version of Miriel the Magical Merchant, please do the following:

1) Copy (Ctrl+C), print, or manually write down the Activation code below.
To copy, highlight the Activation Code with your mouse pointer and
then hold the ”Ctrl” key and press the ”C” key at the same time (“Ctrl+C”).
2) Launch Miriel the Magical Merchant.
3) Locate and click any “Already Paid” or “Buy Now” button in the game.
4) Locate and click the “Already Paid” tab in the game.
5) Put your cursor in the “Enter Activation Code Here” box and then enter
the Activation code. If you previously copied the code, you can hold
the ”Ctrl” key and press ”V” key (Ctrl+V).

We sincerely hope that you enjoy Miriel the Magical Merchant. Please tell everyone you know about it!

Thank you for your purchase.

Well, I still have my Activation Code, I have all emails, I even have the zip I downloaded from the link back in May 2010 when I purchased with the app inside.

I enjoyed playing the game on my PPC Mac running OS X Tiger.

Well, fast forward to less than a year since I purchased the game. Christmas time, I move from PPC Mac OS X Tiger to Intel Mac OS X Snow Leopard and successfully used the Migration Assistant to bring over all my stuff from the old Mac to the new one. I reinstalled or reactivated my purchased apps with almost no issues …

But this game went back to trial mode. I tried to reactivate the game with my Activation Code and there’s no activation server to confirm the Activation Code, because apparently Game Center Solution went out of business.

So, what am I supposed to do now with no way to reactivate this DRM crap they put on this game?

What good is there to buy a game with DRM in it?

Oh, and you still see Miriel the Magic Merchant (and it’s successor) game being sold through Game House, etc.

Think I am going to buy another Miriel game? Or re-purchase this one? Not on your life.

So who is this developer, whom you can’t even discover once the game doesn’t work anymore, or even on Wikipedia on the list of Mac games (the game is there, but no listing for any developer), and the DRM they put on their games is worthless.

When Copyright Goes Bad

When Copyright Goes Bad

Info from the YouTube video page:

A film by Ben Cato Clough and Luke Upchurch.

Suddenly, copyright rules no longer do what they are supposed to do. They have gone bad.

This is a film about how copyright has become one of the most important consumer issues of the digital age; why corporate lobbying risks criminalising the actions of hundreds of thousands of people; and what the future holds for the fight for fairer copyright laws.

When Copyright Goes Bad is an introduction to the renegotiation of copyright and is for anyone interested in how copyright is affecting consumers. It features some of the key players in the copyright debate, including:

Fred Von Lohmann – Electronic Frontier Foundation; Michael Geist – University of Ottawa Law School; Jim Killock – Open Rights Group; and Hank Shocklee – Co-founder of Public Enemy.

For more, visit http://www.A2Knetwork.org/film

Amazon Kindle App and PPC Mac OS X Leopard

I finally have upgraded to Leopard on my PPC Mac and guess what … I still can’t read my Amazon Kindle books on my Mac!

To get to the site more quickly to download the app, I did a search on Google for “Mac OS X Amazon Kindle App” and the first link was this where I read the requirements before downloading it:

System Requirements

* A Mac with a 500MHz Intel processor or faster
* At least 512MB of RAM
* Screen resolution of 800×600 or greater
* Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
* 100MB of available disk space

So I thought, great! Looks like it must be a Universal app now! So I downloaded it and ran the dmg file and it has the Amazon Kindle App icon but it has a white circle with a line through it. This doesn’t look good… And sure enough, when I click on it, it says it’s not for this architecture.

I REALLY hate DRM!!! Again I can’t make use of what I buy on my Mac!

RIAA Determined to destroy tributes to artists and more!

RIAA NAZIS DETERMINED TO DESTROY NEW AND FRINGE MUSIC:

I just got this new directive from the CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) in the USA that applies to all public radio stations. Here’s an excerpt:

“In any three (3) hour period you can transmit up to three (3) different selections of sound recordings from any one CD, but you can transmit no more than two (2) consecutively. Additionally, in any three (3) hour period you can transmit up to four (4) different selections by the same featured artist, or up to four (4) different selections of sound recordings from any set or compilation of CD’s, but you can transmit no more than three (3) consecutively.”

As the Just As We Thought Blog noted — so much for dedicating programs to artists when they die or to honor birthdays.

Sad. They have to feel in total control! That is such an alien concept … controlling music. Music is all about freedom and speaking out, revolution, love, deep thoughts. That is so contrary to control!

I will be so happy when artists finally say, “That’s it! I have had enough of this!”

That will be a truly great day for all music lovers the world over.

Windows 7 Seemingly Blocks Audio Capture

Windows 7 Seemingly Blocks Audio Capture (LIfeHacker):

One rather feisty (and—surprise!—Linux-savvy) Slashdot reader writes about his DRM discoveries in Windows 7. Along with complaints about seemingly big-software-friendly firewall access and registration DLLs, the author’s chief discovery is that Windows 7 doesn’t allow for any kind of software audio capture. In other words, if you’ve got one application playing sound, Windows 7 doesn’t seem to allow you to use your same sound card to also grab the audio from that app.

Like one of the commenters said, I hope this is just a Beta issue and one that will be fixed by the time it is released. This is totally ludicrous. There are LOTS of valid, legal captures that can be done.

If this is some draconian DRM crap, Microsoft just did themselves out of a sale from me, and I will strongly recommend my clients move to the Mac.

This would be very disappointing if they didn’t fix this.

iTunes news and other Apple Macworld 2009 announcements

I watched the video of the Macworld 2009 Keynote last night by Philip Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing.

Several things stood out for me. First once I got past Philip Schiller’s initial nervousness, he really did a great job. I am sure it weighted heavily on him when he first got up on stage.

Oh, yes, I did miss Steve Jobs being there but Philip did bring you in after the first few minutes with a similar type of excitement as Steve Jobs.

I am sure many will say he was no Steve Jobs, but Steve couldn’t be there – so that’s irrelevant. Philip did a great job and kept my interest and excitement on the products he was talking about. Which would have been hard ordinarily since hardware wise, there was only one new – upgraded thing.

I have to say I really did like the awesome features of the new iLife and iWork a lot, and the pricing was where it should be and I was very happy to see it! Thanks Apple! Oh, and the iPhone Remote app for Keynote presentations is really kewl too.

And who could be unhappy with iTunes Music Store going totally DRM-free by March and some songs going to 69 cents a song! That part was really good news.

However, in this economy, it’s sad that people will have to pay 30 cents PER SONG to remove the DRM (which sounds like extortion to me) … as TechCrunch pointed out here, that is quite a ‘music tax’ – $1.8 BILLION DOLLARS if everyone (over 6 BILLION songs) who has DRM’d music from the iTunes Store were to use the 1-click to remove the DRM from their entire library of songs. I hope the process is not too difficult to do on a onsey-twosey basis for folks. Cuz I have a feeling many will be having to do it by album or tracks over time, rather than the entire library like they were saying. Unless you had a small library.

Me? I never bought any DRM’d music so no sweat for me.

But will others who might have a BIG library be able to afford it in one fell swoop? Hard to say.

Also, I doubt if, for that money, the file will move from being a lower bit rate 128kbps DRM’s file to a 256kbps DRM-Free file like the iTunes Plus store has been selling.

The 17″ MacBook Pro sounds great as well with many new features. The 7-8 Hour/5 year Battery life sounds great, but I worry about the “being able to charge it 1,000 times.” The Anti-Glare Screen was greatly needed and I am sure will go over very big.

Philip did get me to want all of that … but then … I remembered I needed food on the table, fuel in the heater, and normal utilities to be paid, as well as gas in the car to get to appointments — maybe someday I might be able to consider buying something like that. It’s not your fault Philip, you did great! It’s the economy that sucks.

But then this from someone who hasn’t gotten the iPod Touch she wants yet either! LOL!

Not in My Name…

NOT IN MY NAME… Artists Against Guilt Upon Accusation:

As the natural world meets the digital … opportunities are opening up for artists to connect with new audiences across the world. However, with the digitisation of media the lines between use and copy have become blurred. Laws regulating the act of copying have failed to keep pace with technology and soon ISPs will be forced to take down internet connections and websites of anyone accused (not convicted) of copyright infringement. Copyright law is now having the effect of limiting artists, restricting businesses, and harming public rights. The Creative Freedom Foundation speaks for artists concerned at this trend and through Our Goals we seek to bring Copyright Law into the 21st Century.

This is in response to Section 92 and happening February 2009 in New Zealand if their Citizens don’t speak up!

“Not In My Name, the CFF campaign for Fair Copyright”

*CFF (Creative Freedom Foundation)

Campaign to Stop File-Sharers Being “Guilty Upon Accusation”

I thought most civilized countries had an ‘innocent until proven guilty’ stance? Maybe not.

Think this can’t happen in the USA or other Western Countries? Think again. Freedom is only as good as the vigilance of it’s Citizens. Laws that are this far reaching can never be good and most certainly can be seriously abused.

Copyright holders can just as easily be on the receiving end of such a law. So artists need to also be very careful what laws you allow to be passed in New Zealand!! It may come back to bite you on the a**.

What do Microsoft and Apple have in common?

They apparently both have sold out to the entertainment cartels (movies, games, music, etc.) to prevent you from even making legitimate use of what you buy….meaning on the very computers and display hardware that you pay your hard earned money for!

The funny thing is, MacWorld is playing this up like it’s a good thing:

Apple didn’t just introduce new laptops Tuesday; it also introduced a new term to the vocabulary of Mac users—DisplayPort. The Mini DisplayPort found on new MacBooks, the refreshed Macbook Air and 15-inch MacBook Pros replaces the DVI and mini-DVI interfaces found on older models. But is this another proprietary debacle like Apple’s failed Apple Display Connector (ADC) interface? No.

DisplayPort is, in fact, an open industry standard promoted by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), the same group that determines standard sizes for flat panel display mounts, for example. And Apple isn’t the only company supporting DisplayPort. HP, Philips, Samsung, Lenovo, AMD, Nvidia, Intel and many other companies have thrown their weight behind the standard, so we’ll be seeing a lot more DisplayPort-compatible devices in the coming years.

But at least MacWorld does at least try to list some of the downsides:

Unless you’re content with the infinitesimal selection of displays that work with DisplayPort right now, you’ll have to buy more gadgets to get your new Mac to work with a DVI or VGA display. You’re going to pay $29 for the privilege of getting such an adapter through the Apple Store. Unless you need a Dual-Link DVI adapter to hook up a Cinema HD Display or another 30-inch LCD panel, that is—that’ll set you back a full c-note, and you’ll be waiting four to five weeks for it, according to the online Apple Store.

What’s more, regardless of whether you buy Apple’s DisplayPort adapter or a third party’s (if you’re lucky enough to find one, that is), you’re going to mess up your desk with more boxes and wires getting that DVI or VGA display to work.

First Microsoft caved under the entertainment cartel’s unreasonable demands and turned Vista OS/hardware into Vista The Enabler. Now Apple’s newest hardware and OS on the new Aluminum laptop computers has turned into Leopard the Enabler … NOT enabling you as the owner of the harware, but enabling the entertainment cartels to say what you can and can’t do on your hardware with movies, music that you buy. And so many hardware companies have also caved!

All so Apple can make a few bucks in the iTunes Store??

Read it and weep:

Apple brings HDCP to a new aluminum MacBook near you

High Definition Content Protection (HDCP)—you can’t live with it, but you practically can’t buy an HD-capable device anymore without it. While HDCP is typically used in devices like Blu-ray players, HDTVs, HDMI-enabled notebooks, and even the Apple TV in order to keep DRMed content encrypted between points A and B, it appears that Apple’s new aluminum MacBook (and presumably the MacBook Pro) are using it to protect iTunes Store media as well.

So what you say? AppleTV already had this, did you know that? Maybe you want to educate yourself a bit, eh? HDCP, DPCP, DisplayPort Content Protection.

Arstechnica continues a little later in the article AFTER explaining one way in which a teacher has already been frustrated by unreasonable unintended consequences of not being able to play a movie on a Mini DisplayPort-to-VGA adapter, plugged into a Sanyo projector that is part of his room’s Promethean system:

The technology in Apple’s MacBooks that prevents a seemingly arbitrary collection of iTunes Store files from being played on HDCP non-compliant devices is perhaps more accurately called DPCP, or DisplayPort Content Protection. As we’ve covered in the past, DisplayPort was designed as an open, extensible standard for computers that offers lower power consumption over DVI (especially in the Mini DisplayPort format that Apple uses on the new MacBooks). But more importantly, DisplayPort also beats DVI in the studios’ books by offering the option of 128-bit AES encrypted copy protection.

And folks at the Apple Support Forums are also complaining about this iTunes movie purchases will not play on external display – HDCP auth error:

Well, I’m surprised there hasn’t been more of a storm over this one already but I expect there will be.

Just got a new MacBook last week and finally found a mini Display Port -> VGA adapter so i could use my 19″ external display. I rented a movie from the iTunes store yesterday and when I tried to play it on my external display, it gave me a warning/error that the display was ‘not an authorized HDCP display’ and it would not play. Plays fine on the small MacBook screen, just nothing external. To make it even worse, i tried all the movies that I have purchased from the iTunes store with the same result… NONE of them will play on anything but the MacBook’s small 13″ screen. This is crazy unacceptable.

Has anyone else run into this yet or have any ideas of something I may be overlooking in order to get purchased movies to play on an external display?

Yep…and I am sure there are many more that will find things they can’t do with what they bought.

Gawd, I hate it when I am right. I knew Apple would sell out to the entertainment cartels like Microsoft did.

Companies that are adopting or plan to adopt DisplayPort Content Protection in their hardware.

And as Wikipedia notes DisplayPort is basically just another standard — more of the same but different — like HDMI, it’s direct competitor:

DisplayPort is a competitor to the HDMI connector (with HDCP copy-protection), the de facto digital connection for high-definition consumer electronics devices. Another competitor is Unified Display Interface,[2] a low cost compatible alternative to HDMI and DVI. However, the main supporter of UDI, Intel Corporation, has stopped the development of the technology and now supports DisplayPort.

Yeah, that should help the new TVs, electronics devices and computers work together, eh?

Well, it looks like we add another set hardware that are never gonna be part of this ladies’ electronics gizmos … unfortunately.

Thanks for nothing Apple.

Sad.

Next Mac OS X — 10.6 — at WWDC 2008? another big cat? end of PPC?

Well, it makes sense that 10.6 will be announced soon especially with Steve Jobs’ comments to the New York Times regarding major Mac OS X, but at WWDC 2008? Hard to say.

There is also the naming question brought up at Mac360 as well …some say the only big cat left is Lion. But even a cursory look at wikipedia’s big cat page would indicate that Lion isn’t the only one unless you go with strict ‘big cat’ names. A more expansive list also includes things like Cougar, Snow Leopard, Clouded Leopard and Cheetah (or Puma) (which Apple has been used already and broke the ice for the more expansive Big Cat naming for Mac OS X).

My guess would be Cougar. I would think that would be the most logical choice. Wait to use Lion till they move to an all Intel based Macs and maybe proved their dominance might be a better choice of timing to use “The King” Lion.

And if the RoughlyDrafted magazine/blog article was correct in 2007 about their thoughts on Unraveling the PPC Myth (linked in their Leopard and the History and Future of Mac OS X on PPC article noted above), then it’s not likely going to be with 10.6.

I tend to be leaning toward RoughlyDrafted being right on that score, at least after reading over the history of Apple again in those two articles.

Also, Ars Technica last year also didn’t give any real hope that ZFS would be in 10.5 — maybe have to wait for 10.6, but I don’t think so. Too soon. I think they will wait for the next one, 10.7? or whatever that will be called. Might as well wait to do ZFS when it goes to all Intel Macs makes more sense. Make the major change then.

So, I would say Cougar makes more sense at this time. No Lion King here yet…no MAJOR change to the underpinning….yet.

And really, if the truth be known about Cougars — the Cougars are nothing to sneeze at! And with this description: “This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere,[3] extending from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes of South America.”?? Doesn’t that sound like the desire of Apple with their next version of Mac OS X? To be the most broadly used Mac OS/computers?

Which also would indicate (to me) that they would not want to ditch PPC just yet either … like the RoughlyDrafted articles indicated.

I really think that Microsoft made that Mistake with Vista. And I really hope Apple will not make that same mistake. But who knows with the Entertainment Cartels whispering in their ears just like they did with Microsoft…

When the dust settles and if the Entertainment Cartels get their big Win (controlling when and where you can view content on every front from TV (HDTV, computers, etc.), and the Major OS makers have totally pissed off their real paying customers, we shall see what happens then. But I think we’ve already had about enough of that as evidenced by this ExtremeTech article entitled, “How the Hollywood Morons Can Beat the Pirates! (Thanks Adam for the link!!)

EDIT: Well, I guess I had a better opinion of Apple than I should have. Apparently, according to MacRumers, who was reporting on an article from Ars Technica, Apple has decided to turn PPC users away now after all. Oh, and it’s Snow Leopard, not Cougar. More like Nuclear Winter. Very unhappy Mac user here. What a crock!