(entry last updated: 2002-09-03 18:50:33)

Ah, the power of hay fever. It leads me to an early start on today’s links

Julie Hilden at Findlaw’s Writ discusses the Clean Flicks lawsuit. Copy protection is not as popular with the labels as it used to be, at least in the US. And Microsoft and HP introduce the next product bomb - Windows XP Media Edition. A Slashdot discussion of file spoofing on P2P networks makes it to Business 2.0.

And a depressing story at the LA Times - will this one be enough to get people active?!

(7 items listed below)

• Julie Hilden examines both sides of the Clean Flicks case and points out that, because the movies are so thoroughly changed, the “transformative” effects of their efforts may put their activities squarely in the “fair use” category - should be an interesting case.
• The Register reports on an article in LinuxToday claiming that Venezuela has adopted a policy that all software developed for the government be open source whenever possible.
• Just in time for Venezuela - InfoWorld has a commentary on the Microsoft EULA shenanigans
• Interestingly enough, the interest of US-based music distribution companies in CD copy-protection is reportedly cooling - consumer backlash and all that. The TalkBacks for the ZDNet version of this article may be interesting - if any are posted.
• I cannot believe they are serious, but MS and HP are reportedly preparing to sell a version of Windows tied to hardware that guarantees to limit copying of media files. Microsoft Bob redux, or a new hack in the making?
• Based on a term paper for Stanford (ref this Slashdot discussion), an article in Business 2.0 gets further discussion on Slashdot, with a few thoughts by the author on weakensses of potential workarounds.
• An extensive article in the Los Angeles Times should be a call to arms for the user community! between this and the article above on Windows XP Media Edition, it’s all as plain as it can get now.