At a party for the Washington elite, a Middle Eastern diplomat’s wife gave out free iPods. Who knows what will be played on them? Maybe even something in violation of the DMCA? It’s the fruit of other gifts, Hollywood campaign donations.
Meanwhile for your holiday viewing pleasure I’m linking to a DMCA-related FoxTrot cartoon by Bill Amend. For copyright reasons—even though many might make a fair use argument—I won’t repro more than a small view.
What do you think? Time to lobby Garry Trudeau to take on the DMCA, the scourge of e-book-lovers in the States (and, though equivalent laws, people in some other countries)? Here’s to balanced copyright law rather than the lobbyist-written variety! For the enlightenment of e-book novices, the DMCA is why it’s illegal to, say, crack a Microsoft Reader file to convert it for the Kindle—even if you don’t share it with others. The good news is that ’08 is an election year.
Housekeeping: I’ll be away much of the day but hope to post in the afternoon.
