Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity by Lawrence Lessig. ©2004
Host: Dave
Date: May 1, 2007
Judges Score: TBD
Food & Drink: Italian meatballs in a secret sauce, veggies/dip, authentic Mexican family recipe for Black Bean and Corn salsa with Scoops, Paulaner Hefe-Weisen and an assortment of Schell, and homemade ice cream (Lindt Mint Chocolate Chunk and Espresso Toffee Dark Chocolate Chunk).
Other sources:
Who Owns Culture?
Broken Spines 
Even the head of the Consumer Electronics Association (which includes hardware manufacturers, retailers, and content companies believes that we should be able to watch our movies in any room of our house “fair use is not piracy”
http://www.twice.com/article/CA6428047.html?q=digital+freedom
Twice Magazine – 03/26/2007
In another brilliant move by the MPAA-
Smoking to affect movie ratings system
”
Filmmakers now might get an R rating as a thank you for smoking.
The Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA) said Thursday that its rating board will consider film depictions of smoking among the criteria for assigning movie ratings.
Anti-tobacco activists have been pressing for an automatic R rating for films with smoking scenes, but MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman rejected the proposal for a more nuanced approach.
“The MPAA film rating system has existed for nearly 40 years as an educational tool for parents to assist them in making decisions about what movies are appropriate for their children,” Glickman said. “It is a system that is designed to evolve alongside modern parental concerns.”
In line with that evolution, the MPAA ratings board “will now consider smoking as a factor among many other factors, including violence, sexual situations and language, in the rating of films,” he said.
“
So does this mean that a movie with overweight people in it will get an R rating too? Obesity causes heart disease, which kills more people than lung cancer…
Maybe we should get NPR to overthrow the MPAA. At least they’re honest in their ratings system!
It was only a matter of time (from the LA Times)…
Artists and labels seek royalties from radio
WASHINGTON — With CD sales tumbling, record companies and musicians are looking at a new potential pot of money: royalties from broadcast radio stations.
For years, stations have paid royalties to composers and publishers when they played their songs. But they enjoy a federal exemption when paying the performers and record labels because, they argue, the airplay sells music.
Now, the Recording Industry Assn. of America and several artists’ groups are getting ready to push Congress to repeal the exemption, a move that could generate hundreds of millions of dollars annually in new royalties.
Read more here!
Another article on Engadget today about the studios now embracing aacs “managed copy” because the HD encryption has already been broken and better to “control” the copies than to have them floating around. Read on… Engadget Article
The RIAA is back at it again!!! A court in Duluth, MN fined a woman $220,000 for sharing music illegally on Kazaa – $9250.00 for each of 24 songs! Ok, so she isn’t the most tech savvy pirate out there… but is she really a “criminal” and does $9250.00 per song make sense. What if I went “sneaker net” and just gave you my USB hard drive? At 24 songs, it seems like this woman is small potatoes in the land of illegal downloads.
CNET’s Buzz Out Loud podcast recently re-aired an interview with Lawrence Lessig in Episode 602.
Professor Lessig does a wonderful job explaining the goals and structure of the Creative Commons he helped create, as well as pointing out the pitfalls of resting on Fair Use, and the analog nature of the established copyright laws. He is an eloquent speaker, IMHO, and does a superb job of setting up his points with clear and concise examples.
If you haven’t heard him speak, don’t want to devote your time to the hour+ of videos above, or just want a short, clear explanation from the author’s mouth, take 20 minutes and listen to this…
Is the RIAA afraid of Harvard?
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/25/1543247
I just caught this Lessig presentation the other day and thought I would share…
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/187
Lessig for Congress?
Maybe.
I wish I lived there, I’d vote for him! Actually, I just wish I lived there anyway, I friggin’ LOVE that town!
Catch Lawrence Lessig on the Colbert Report?
Dave, you should make a beat for it…
Yeah – I just watched it – hilarious as usual, but Lessig seemed a little flustered. Perhaps Colbert’s sharp wit cut too deep?
And, I agree, Dave should “remix” the interview with a thumping beat and send it back to the show.