Another DMCA Crime

Posted on 2014-04-06 by arjaybe

dmca-sintel

Sintel is an animated short film produced by the Blender Foundation and released under a Creative Commons license. Blender is Free Software created specifically for artists so they can make videos unencumbered by fees and restrictions.

Sony is a corporation that used to be relevant.

Youtube is a place on the Internet where creators can make their videos available for viewing.

The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) is an American law meant to protect creators’ copyright.

On April 5, 2014, Sony used the DMCA to get Youtube to take down a video of Sintel. (Links to Torrent Freak, Reddit and Cartoon Brew) Sony had no right to do it. Youtube was wrong to comply. But they won’t pay for their hubris. Sintel, the Blender Foundation, the artists and the audience will be expected to accept the injury and insult, while the scoundrels slip away.

The DMCA mechanism is automated. It has to be, they say, because there are so many videos and so many requests. So, because they are too cheap and too lazy to be careful, there are countless cases of false takedown notices. And while the takedowns are quick and easy, correcting a false takedown it difficult and time-consuming.

This continues to happen because people are never made to pay for abusing the system. So this won’t be the last DMCA crime.

rjb

Edit: Due to a large outcry, Sintel is once again viewable on Youtube. A good outcome.

rjb

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Altocumulus Lenticularis

Posted on 2014-04-01 by arjaybe
Photo credit - Ross Cooper

Photo credit – Ross Cooper

Cloud of the Day – Altocumulus Lenticularis

Photo credit - Francois Lepot

Photo credit – Francois Lepot

Photo credit - Brian Middleton

Photo credit – Brian Middleton

Photo credit - Ryan Verwest

Photo credit – Ryan Verwest

Photo credit - Patsy Somerville

Photo credit – Patsy Somerville

Photo credit Glyn Hubbard

Photo credit Glyn Hubbard

Altocumulus Lenticularis is one of my favorite clouds. They have such interesting shapes, and they look so dynamic, that I find them fascinating. Altocumulus Lenticularis clouds form by the combination of rising air, which causes a cloud to develop, and strong winds, which sculpt it into those dramatic shapes. These are the clouds that are most often mistaken for UFOs.

Altocumulus Lenticularis clouds form where there are waves in strong winds aloft. The waves are most often the result of the wind interacting with the topography. Just as you will see a standing wave form in a moving stream of water, so standing waves form in the air near mountains. The lenticular – lens shaped – clouds form at the top of the wave, providing that the air holds sufficient moisture, and the air is cool enough at that height to reach the dew point. Because the wave is associated with a fixed topographical feature, such as a mountain, the cloud remains fixed in the sky. This accounts for the counter-intuitive existence of a stationary cloud that is obviously being blown by strong winds.

Precipitation is possible, but rare from Altocumulus Lenticularis.

rjb

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Thanks for Ungluing

Posted on 2014-03-17 by arjaybe
Unglue.it Logo

Unglue.it Logo

Green Comet in Groundbreaking Campaign

In an earlier post I talked about Unglue.it, the website dedicated to freeing books. Their objective is to reward authors for releasing their books from copyright, thus making them available to readers. The freed books are available in digital form, for easy and convenient use in most ereaders. They are not encumbered by DRM (digital rights management,) making them easy to transfer between all kinds of devices without restriction.

The Unglue.it campaign works by a simple pledge system. The author specifies how much money they want to free their book, and if there are enough pledges during the campaign, the book is set free. This is known as a Buy-to-Unglue campaign.

There is a second type of campaign known as Thanks-for-Ungluing. This type of campaign is for authors who have already released their book under a Creative Commons license, as I have with Green Comet. The objective of Thanks-for-Ungluing is to retroactively reward authors like us for setting our books free in the first place. Unlike Buy-to-Unglue, where readers pay to receive a copy of the book they’re setting free, Thanks-for-Ungluing allows readers to download the book for free. They are also free to choose whether to reward the author, and if so, how much.

23rd Century Romance cover

23rd Century Romance cover

Unglue.it wants to set books free, and to reward authors for doing so. Green Comet is the second book to be entered in a Thanks-for-Ungluing campaign, following 23rd Century Romance, by Jake Hartnell. 23rd Century Romance is a story about a young man looking for real love in a virtual world. Go on over and have a look. Just for fun, download the books. It won’t cost you anything, and you’ll make an author smile.-)

rjb

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