Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Pandora Wish List (Updated)

I want two things relating to Pandora.

1) I want Congress or the courts (or the agency itself on rehearing) to overturn the appalling decision of the Copyright Royalty Board (the CRB) setting an unreasonably high fee for the webcasting statutory license in the United States — that will charge Pandora and other internet radio stations so much for the right to broadcast that it would put them out of business.

[Update: Whoops. Seems the CRB appeal board has already rejected the appeal of its earlier ruling. It's on to the DC Circuit now. And that's sure to be uphill. Join The campaign to save net radio. (Or, maybe, some organization that looks more able to achieve the goal?) Congress, are you listening? ]

2) There ought to be an easy way to create a station based on everyone who's covered a given song using those covers as song seeds. I want a one-click way to use every version of “Louie, Louie” or “Major Tom” as joint song seeds.

Posted in Kultcha, Law: Copyright and DMCA | Comments Off on Pandora Wish List (Updated)

Slashdot on What’s Killing the Bees

Slashdot | Are Mobile Phones Wiping Out Bees?

As is often the case, the comments are priceless.

Posted in Science/Medicine | Comments Off on Slashdot on What’s Killing the Bees

Something Cheerful

After that last post, we need something life-affirming. Meet The Zimmersband.

It might cheer you up.

If you can't be bothered to follow the link above (which has information about the band that made me smile), here's their first video:

Posted in Kultcha | 1 Comment

Tragedy at Va. Tech.

Virginia Tech today: A maniac with a gun, and lots of ammo.

Two sets of shootings. At least 22 dead, including students and the gunman. Washington Post says 32 dead and dozens injured.

Hug your kids tonight.

Posted in Law: Criminal Law | Comments Off on Tragedy at Va. Tech.

I Think This is VERY Cool

Sounds like it wants to be an open-source public-spirited distributed YouTube on steroids.

Joho the Blog: Podcorps Nation The Conversations Network (a non-profit from the same folks who bring you IT Conversations) has just launched Podcorps, an all-volunteer team of “stringers” who will record the audio and sometimes the video of public events that matter to people.

Once you register, you can search for events near you that you can sign up to record. Or, if you know of an event you'd like covered, go stick it into the calendar. (The FAQ says that some stringers may want some help covering expenses, but this is intended to be an entirely non-profit enterprise.) The stringers can then publish the media where they want, although Podcorps expects most will post them at OurMedia.org and the Internet Archive where they are freely available to anyone.

Posted in Internet | Comments Off on I Think This is VERY Cool

Rots From the Head?

Talking Points Memo has an important point about the US Attorney firing scandal (“the Gonzales 8”): the White House has never denied that G.W. Bush participated in the decision.

And there's mounting evidence that he did.

Isn't it amazing that the press took a non-denial denial about Bush's direct involvement in the firing decision (“Anything’s possible … but I don’t think so.” — Tony Snow) and just let the matter drop? Shouldn't they be asking about this at every gaggle and press conference until they get a straight answer?

Lapdogs.

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | 1 Comment