(entry last updated: 2003-07-24 14:07:43)

• Digitized Gutenberg Bible Available: A Slashdot discussion of this University of Texas site: The Gutenberg Bible at the Ransom Center

  The British Library has two copies that are on the web

• A Slashdot interview: Questions for DoJ IP Attorneys Asked and Answered

• David Weinberger on Dan Gilmore’s writeup on copyright and DRM - another discussion of why copyright is not real property: Dan on Copyright - Trespassing on the public domain

• A good writeup on the Australian challenge to SCO over at GrokLaw: Australian Linux Group Fights Back — So Does the World

• Something to look forward to when the term starts: In the Lecture Hall, a Geek Chorus [pdf]. How instant messaging and, to a lesser extent, blogging are changing the lecture hall. Slashdot: Lecture Hall Back-Channeling

• From Yahoo! News: Disney Inks Deal on Downloading Movies - strictly speaking, movie scores - oops, a misread (thanks, Matt)

  The deal gives Movielink access to film titles from all the major studios except one - Twentieth Century Fox Studios - and boosts its library of digitized films to around 400 from the 175 the company had when it launched eight months ago.

  Movies from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone, Miramax and Dimension New Releases will be available through the service. Among the first releases will be “Gangs of New York,” “The Recruit” and “The Jungle Book 2.”

  Also see: Disney Titles Hit MovieLink

(entry last updated: 2003-07-24 13:39:13)

• Derek’s got another Stan Leibowitz pointer: Will MP3 downloads Annihilate the Record Industry? The Evidence so Far

• The story of my life <G>: Techies by Necessity, Not by Choice [pdf]

  As consumer electronics proliferate and consumers grow increasingly disenchanted with technical support operations (which routinely charge for calls), many people are discovering that whether they want to or not, they are developing more than a little technical proficiency. Some, like Mr. Marcuse, become virtual experts. But many of these accidental techies learn only as much as they absolutely must.

  “People are getting more proficient because they have to, not because they want to,” said Steve Cousins, manager of the Advanced Systems Development Laboratory at the Palo Alto Research Center, known as PARC, a subsidiary of Xerox.

  [...]

  For Ms. Kilhoffer-Reichert and others, such expertise derives from economic necessity, as their livelihoods depend on the technical tools they use. “If my computer isn’t working, I equate it directly to lost income,” she said.

  Yet Mr. Marcuse says he has learned just the amount he must, perhaps slightly less. “I can get my computer to operate most of the time, and frequently there are things wrong with it that I just tolerate,” he said. “I don’t want to deal with some company’s tech support bureaucracy. I’d rather just suffer with the imperfection.”

• The NYTimes on the House vote: F.C.C. Media Rule Blocked in House in a 400-to-21 Vote [pdf]; the accompanying news analysis: F.C.C. Chairman Endures Rebuke, Despite Putting Law Above Politics [pdf]

• Slashdot on yesterday’s House vote: House Overturns FCC Media Consolidation Plan

  Doc Searl’s take: The Fifth Horse, including a pointer to W. Safire’s Op-Ed today: Bush’s Four Horsemen [pdf]

• TechTV’s RIAA hitlist gets the Slashdot treatment.