Today, the MPAA announced it has filed a lawsuit against the new movie rental and streaming service, Zediva. Zediva’s business model is to buy physical DVD copies of new release DVDs and rent the physical disc, along with a DVD player in their data centers, to the customer. The idea being to cleverly skirt around needing to license performance rights for digital streaming, as the end user is participating in a private, not public performance of the film. Because of this, they are able to get new releases into the hands of consumers as soon as the DVD is released, often many weeks sooner than the big boys like Netflix can get them out under their restrictive license agreements.

You can read the MPAA’s PR here, and the actual lawsuit filed here.

The MPAA is arguing that Zediva is being disingenuous in calling itself a brick and mortar DVD store, and that Zediva is in fact publicly performing the movies, violating the Copyright holders’ exclusive right to do so: “[the d]efendants’ transmissions of the performances of Plaintiffs’ works are to the public.”

A few weeks ago, James Grimmelmann predicted the lawsuit, citing several existing cases, including one about a movie rental store renting movies to customers to view in private rental booths: http://laboratorium.net/archive/2011/03/16/that_zediva_thing_its_so_not_going_to_work

That Redd Horne case is certainly an interesting one, and the court found Redd Horne in violation of copyright law, arguing that the service they provided was no different in spirit to one that a movie theater provides, and therefore constitutes a public performance: “Simply because the cassettes can be viewed in private does not mitigate the essential fact that Maxwell’s is unquestionably open to the public.”

And then there’s this particular gem of a quote, from that same case: “Professor Nimmer’s examination of this definition is particularly pertinent: ‘if the same copy . . . of a given work is repeatedly played (i.e., ‘performed’) by different members of the public, albeit at different times, this constitutes a ‘public’ performance.’”

Here’s my problem with that ruling, and with any negative judgment that goes against Zediva: It is established that both the sale and resale, as well as rentals to consumers are in fact legal under current copyright law. And each of these (resale, rental) represents the exact case where a single copy of a movie is repeatedly played by different members of the public, “albeit at different times”. And unlike Professor Nimmer, I don’t think you’ll find a single person to agree that renting and reselling DVDs constitutes a public performance, especially when those DVDs are played in a customer’s private residence.

And this is where the precedence differs. Unlike the Redd Horne case, Zediva is not “performing” the works in a public place like a movie theater or a video rental store. Movies streamed via Zediva are in fact being performed in the privacy of one’s own home. I would even go one step further, however, and argue that Zediva isn’t performing the works at all, given the fact that it is renting both the player and the disc to the consumer. The consumer is the one pressing play. Therefore, the one “performing” the work is the end user, and not Zediva (in the Redd Horne  case, the store clerks were pushing play). In Zediva’s case, the consumer is the one playing a movie that they have rented, on a player that they have rented, to a display in their own homes. It’s no different then renting a movie at a rental store indeed, except the video cable going from the back of your DVD player to your TV is now hundreds of miles of internet data cable, instead of a few feet of composite, component, or HDMI cable. And last I checked, there were no legal restrictions on the length or type of video cables!

This is all rather silly of course, and highlights perfectly how broken the copyright system in the United States really is, and how it does indeed stifle progress and innovation. Kudos to Zediva for their innovation; I do hope the MPAA wisens up, drops the lawsuit, and opens the floodgates for future innovation and profit utilizing new and exciting technology and delivering content *when and how* the consumer’s want. This is going to be a great case to follow, and I’ll be keeping a close eye on it indeed.

April Fools!

Sorry for the late post, but hopefully this helps some of you prank your friends on this the most glorious of holidays.

This prank is most useful on the iPhone, as I chose the SMS app as the target. It can easily be modified for other apps though, let me know in the comments if you’d like a version with a different icon!

1) Get ahold of the iPhone of an unsuspecting victim

2) Navigate to http://appleguru.org/af in Safari on the iPhone.

3) Tap the “Share” button to add a bookmark to the homescreen (There will be nice onscreen instructions showing you how).

4) Tap “Add to Home Screen” and click Add to confirm.

5) Drag the new fake “Messages” app to the current location of the victim’s real Messages app and, hide the real one my moving it elsewhere (the Utilities folder works well for this).

6) Make sure the volume is all the way up

7) Laugh as they get RickRolled when they go to check their text messages!

This was a fun one to figure out, since in most cases Apple does not allow a video to Autoplay. However, linking to the actual video source causes this to happen. Some modification to Google’s mobile bookmark bubble to add a javascript redirect worked wonders.

Another prank that worked well today, much to the displeasure of my girlfriend, was filling an M&Ms bag up partially with red and blue Skittles. Enjoy!

You can read the original story and see the original image here.

People around the globe have been adding cigar guy into all sorts of ridiculous videos and photographs, and I figured I would do my part to contribute:

Setting up for Deadmau5 at the Roxy Last Year

The show was a visual masterpiece; the staggered PIXLED LED sticks, large PIXLED video wall in front, and host of MAC 700 profile moving lights along with xenon and incandescent strobes created a show that was somewhat awe inspiring; certainly leaps and bounds above the typical electronic music performance. An Australian-based PRG crew was in charge of video and lighting for the show, and the result was nothing short of dazzling. While the use of low pitch LED displays and cool lighting was certainly not unique (if anything PRG helped pioneer the technology for big acts like U2′s Vertigo tour back in 2005 and earlier), the integration into Deadmau5′s music along with the customized content and impeccable choreography gave Joel’s show a whole life of its own that I haven’t experienced before that, and have yet to experience since, despite many artists trying to utilize similar techniques and technology.

Since then, Joel has been hard at work making his shows even more impressive and engaging, and employing an even tighter integration between his sound and the video (rumor is that he utilizes some MIDI cues to help time certain video events; regardless of how its done its impressive!). Coachella, 2010 introduced me to his video cube and LED Mau5 head, the current generation of technology in his show. Any of you that aren’t as big Deadmau5 fans may have been introduced to thease toys and Deadmau5 a few nights ago during the MTV VMAs, at which Deadmau5 was the “house” DJ (pun intended?).

Deadmau5 at the VMAs (Photo Credit: Drew Ressler/rukes.com)

It was a bit of an uncharacteristic role for Joel, someone who doesn’t identify much with the traditional DJ scene. At the VMAs, he had to largely play DJ, and instead of being a headliner he was the guy that played during commercial breaks. Still, he took it in stride and did a fantastic job, and even got to add some of his personal style to live performances of popular numbers by Travie McCoy, Jason Derulo and Robyn. It’s great to see Joel getting himself out there, and the VMAs served as a wonderful opportunity to get both his name and his music out to the world. Plus, compared to most of his shows it seemed like pretty easy work. Not taking himself too seriously, he filled the time between sets with a classic game of.. solitaire!

Mau5 Solitaire at the VMAs (Photo Credit: Drew Ressler/rukes.com)

Deadmau5 is one of my favorite artists not just because I love his music, but because he is constantly pushing the boundaries of technology to bring his music to the world. And it’s not just in making his music or in the special effects at his concerts. Just last night, he played an epic live set on UStream for the world to see. You can watch the recordings of it here on his UStream page, or download it to listen to on your iPod/play at your next party here. (Note! It’s 75MB and is almost 3 hours long!)  Enjoy!

It was a fun surprise to come across Google’s logo today. The multitude of balls that are seemingly afraid of your mouse and keystrokes. It’s an awesome HTML demo for sure. Many news sources and blogs have been claiming its an HTML 5 demo, but it’s not really using much of the HTML 5 spec. It’s more a clever use of CSS and JavaScript that dynamically modifies page attributes in response to user input (To be fair it’s CSS 3, which isn’t a finalized spec yet either, but it does have wider support than a lot of the HTML5 features, like SVG animation and video). If you turn JavaScript off or use an old browser you get their old logo. Because the spec still isn’t finalized different browsers use differnt CSS tags. For example, in Safari and Chrome they’re “-webkit-border-radius” elements; in firefox they’re “-moz-border-radius” elements. Because the balls are just CSS and not images, you can modify them to get quite interesting interesting results, like squares instead of balls!

Interestingly, the div class of the logo element on the page is titled “hplogo”. I don’t think it has anything to do with HP the company, but you never know. (Edit: Apparently hp=homepage… I guess that makes sense!) Anyways, it’s cool to see google having a bit of fun; I almost secretly hope they don’t actually ever explain it. What do you guys think it is for? Maybe it’s actually just a tribute to Randall Munroe?

PS: Part 3 of Luke and my road trip is coming soon… I still have a bit of text to finish up and some video and images to edit and then I’ll get it up ASAP!

If you have some time, watch this entire video. It was a presentation given to the Library of Congress back in 2008 and is essentially a social commentary on YouTube and its significance. Nothing I write will do it justice, so if you can find 55 minutes to spare, watch it:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU

Barring that, watch the short excerpt (after the break) from from 45:16 in the original video. From here on in the video I had tears in my eyes, primarily because it hits so close to home, but also because it provides a really good viewpoint on what’s wrong with the copyright and patent system in place in the United States at the moment, from a perspective that relates to just about everyone.

Lawrence Lessig talked about this very eloquently at TED in 2007, as highlighted in the video. Criminalizing and pushing underground innovation and creativity; making the instinct that technology inspires illegal. Forcing “Ordinary people [to] live life against the law”. “That realization is extraordinarily corrosive, extraordinarily corrupting. And in a Democracy we ought to be able to do better”. No doubt it’s a bit of a politically charged subtext calling for the repeal of the DMCA and similar laws so that more traditional fair use laws can prevail, and to overhaul copyright to bring about system that once again promotes open collaboration, creation and innovation (Especially given the original audience), but that doesn’t change its accuracy.

The whole idea of “Intellectual Property” is ridiculous. Patents, while they once served a valid role to encourage innovation by rewarding the innovator, only serve to stifle innovation and keep our legal system busy dealing with meaningless (in the sense of social detriment or contribution) cases.

The instinct to re-mix, enhance, and improve upon that technology inspires needs to be allowed to flourish. I have no idea what a fair and reasonable system might be, but I do know that the one we have now simply cannot work. Patents, NDAs, exclusivity agreements.. these are all essentially contracts to ensure profitability without continual innovation. A system that truly promotes innovation (and is thus in the best interest of the general populous) would reward true continual innovation, not courtroom victories. It is practically impossible to create a modern technology product without infringing on a dozen companies’ patents, and big companies like Apple and Google know this. So to compete they go ahead and infringe knowing if anyone sues them they’ll likely be violating some of their patents and be able to sue back or come to a cross licensing agreement.

The entire industry is built around litigation, and it truly is stifling innovation. If you haven’t realized it yet, the situation is actually pretty dire. If we don’t fix the system we have now, our country, once a hotbed of innovation, will become a relic of the past. Countries like China, which in practice, embrace a much more open and collaborative system where the “stealing” of ideas is considered the norm, are well positioned (Especially given their current manufacturing capabilities) to become the next dominant world leaders in terms of innovation at least. I’m not saying China is perfect; their behavior in the areas of censorship and human rights leave a lot to be desired, but they’ve certainly got the right idea when it comes to innovation.

In the interest of perhaps starting an interesting and engaging discussion, I’ll close this post with a question: What system do you think the United States should adopt to re-invigorate creativity and innovation amongst its populous? Post your answers (and obviously any comments) in comments and I’ll do my best to reply to everyone!

Ryan showed me this today, and I have a new favorite techno video. The song is called “Wave” (волна/Volna), and its by a Russian DJ named “DJ Smash”, featuring Fast Food (Presumably another Russian DJ?). This particular version was remixed by DJ Antoine & Yoko. I apologize in advance to any family members that stumble upon this post, but this video is just too… fantastic… to pass up. While there is no nudity, it is definitely not safe for work. You’ve been warned. Watch it after the break, and be prepared for a visual treat!

I’m currently sitting in Boston’s Logan Airport about to board for my flight back to Colorado, and I’m not a happy camper. See, I was all excited to be flying JetBlue, because they offer free inflight DirectTV. Here I was thinking I’d be able to catch game 6 of the NBA finals (Celtics/Lakers).

Except they don’t carry ABC! They have NBC, CBS, Fox, and even ESPN and ESPN2 (Which are owned by ABC!) but no ABC! Anyone have any idea why? I’m sad …Hopefully I’ll be able to find it on XM and listen at least.. and I imagine they’ll have scores on ESPN.

Anyways, see you all soon in Colorado!

All the way back in November of 2009 I saw a fantastic HP Tilt-Shift Ad, which if you have’t seen you definitely should watch. (It is embedded after the break).

Every time I watch it I get little tingles. I love when creative works do that. Anyways, the song they used for the ad (“Rescue” by Mr. Little Jeans) was a large part of the tingly feeling I got. I searched high and low for her music, but couldn’t really find it anywhere. Not on iTunes, not on Amazon, not in any record stores around here, likely due to her being unsigned. Not sure if she ‘signed’ with them or not, but boutique label Neon Gold has a few tracks from her upcoming 7″ Angel EP ($5, limited run if anyone has a record player…) on their website for download.

Mr. Little Jeans also has a MySpace page where you can listen to some of her tracks. In any case, I wanted these songs on my iPod, so I scoured the internet in an attempt to do just that. You can listen to and grab the tracks I’ve managed to find after the break. Feel free to share any more you find! Here’s to hoping she makes it big; I absolutely love her sound!

Angel:

Angel (RAC Mix):

Faking Gold:

Single Ladies:

Stones in the Attic: