DRM vs. Music Tax

Posted on December 4, 2006 by Michael Koby

The big talk these days when it comes to internet downloading is music. In fact, it is what started this whole controversy on what exactly is right and wrong in all things “fair use” but little has been said about how other countries are dealing with this, at least when it comes to the normal media outlets. Other countries are coming up with interesting ways to handle this problem that have the probability of making it to our shores (United States for those that do not know where I’m from). In this week’s commentary article we are going to look at one of the alternative methods being applied to handle the piracy and “fair use” concepts and the pros and cons. Continue reading →

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Power of Information for 2006-12-03

Posted on December 2, 2006 by Michael Koby

This week on , Derek and I discuss the Sony Playstation 3’s and Nintento’s Wii’s sales, the Playstation Portable, and social bookmarking sites like Digg and Del.icio.us. We also talk about CAD plotting software with our guest Robert and screenshot software. Derek also concludes his discussion on digital photography.

For more information on some of these topics you can look at the Power of Information links to the right or you can visit the Power of Information website at http://www.powerofinformation.net.

You can hear The Power of Information on Sundays at 9am on KCAA Radio 1050AM in Loma Linda, California. The station that leaves no listener behind.

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5 Websites for Bloggers

Posted on December 1, 2006 by Michael Koby

Today everyone has a blog of some kind. It can be a place on LiveJournal, your MySpace blog, or even your own website that you post your thoughts on. This week’s list is for those bloggers out there that are somewhat new to the game and need resources to help them figure stuff out. These websites range from how to write better all the way to how to make money with your blog. So without too much more waiting…

  • 5) Performancing Metrics – One of the things that I find most important about writing, is it helps to write about stuff that people are interested in. While there are a some good tools out there that will help you see where people are surfing on your website, Metrics from Performancing is the easiest to understand. While some might argue that Google Analytics is better, I find that it is much more complicated than Metrics. For someone new who does not need the extras of Google’s Analytics, Metrics from Performancing is the way to go.
  • 4) – One of the most important things about the content on your website is that, it is very much in the public domain. It is very easy for people to copy it on to their own site without having to ask your permission. The Creative Commons, have come up with some licenses that you can use for free to license the content on your website. This makes it easy for people to understand exactly what rights they have for your content. And while the Creative Commons license is not a replacement for copyright, it is a great extension of the copyright laws and regulations.
  • 3) – When dealing with blogs, it is especially important to focus some of your attention on your RSS feed. RSS is how people keep track of what you are posting without having to come back to the site. By utilizing RSS feeds on your website people can easily see what you are writing about and make a clear decision to come to your site to read a complete article. FeedBurner helps you keep track of how many people are subscribed to your RSS feed as well as what items they are clicking on to come to your site to read. When you know what people are reading, you know what you should write about more, and eventually pull more people to your page. FeedBurner offers two levels of service, a free version that allows you to see the number of subscribers as well a few features to a paid version that costs $4.99 a month that allows you to see what people are clicking, offer email subscriptions to your feed, and other features to help you promote and get the most out of your RSS feed.
  • 2) – One of the main reasons that people have begun blogging is because they see it as a nice way to make some potential extra cash. While, I subscribe to the theory that you need content before you can think about making money, the potential to make money through blogging definitely exists. When I added Adsense to my pages here, I wanted to make sure I got the optimal effect from them so I went scouring the internet for tips and tricks on this exact topic. I found ProBlogger’s Adsense Tips For Bloggers article series and was hooked. ProBlogger covers a variety of ways to make money with your blog and are definitely worth your time to read over.
  • 1) – Blogging is all about content. The more content you have, the more chance of people coming to your page to read it. The more content also means a higher chance of repeat visitors. Copyblogger is a great help in getting you going with a focus on content. With tips on everything from titles to marketing posts you can not go wrong with having this website in your RSS reader. The tips given on this site are golden as well as proven to work. Since I have found this site, I have read every new article posted. I do not implement everything I read on Copyblogger, but I do implement several things and take everything discussed to heart. This is a top grade website.

Do you have a website that your read that is blogging related? Please let us know about it by leaving a comment.

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Preacher Coming to HBO

Posted on November 29, 2006 by Michael Koby

The Hollywood Reporter is runnig a story that HBO bringing the Preacher comics to the small screen.

From the article:

The pay cable network is developing a one-hour series based on the popular 1990s Vertigo comics series. Mark Steven Johnson, the writer-director behind comic adaptations “Daredevil” and the upcoming “Ghost Rider,” is writing the pilot, while Howard Deutch is attached to direct. Johnson and Deutch will executive produce along with Michael De Luca, George Agusto, Chris Bender and JC Spink.

If you do not know anything about Preacher, it is an excellent read about a down-and-out Texas preacher possessed by Genesis, a supernatural entity conceived by the unnatural coupling of an angel and a demon. Given immense powers, the preacher teamed with an old girlfriend and a hard-drinking Irish vampire and set out on a journey across America to find God — who apparently had abandoned his duties in heaven — and hold him accountable for his negligence. But it is definitly not kid friendly and the fact that HBO has picked it up means some justice might be done to it.

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Movies Studios Want More Restrictions From Apple

Posted on November 29, 2006 by Michael Koby

It seems that one of the major reasons that the other movie studios have not lined up to get their content in the iTunes store is because they want more restrictions placed on the purchased content. Specifically they want the number of devices a movie can be downloaded to to be smaller.

An article at FT.Com states:

The studios – Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros – are in talks with Apple about making their films available for digital download on iTunes. After months of discussion, a sticking point has emerged over the studios’ demand that Apple limit the number of devices that can use a film downloaded from iTunes.

To be completely honest, I hope that Apple does not give into this kind of demand. And if they do, I hope the movie companies will allow us more tech-oriented people to rip our DVDs to our iPods legally.

The way it currently stands is that ripping a DVD you have legally purchased to your iPod is illegal because under the DMCA (Digital Millineum Copyright Act) you can not break the copy protection encryption on a DVD. What this means is that in order to have a movie on your iPod, you have to download a “made for iPod” version of the movie. In other words, you have to buy the movie twice. In my opinion, since I am ripping the movie to go on my iPod for personal viewing, this is not a violation of fair use under the current United States copyright laws and therefore completely legal. So the current copyright laws and the DMCA are in direct contridiction of each other making almost impossible to determine what is actually okay to do and what is not.

As for Apple’s already imposed restrcitions, I think they are some of the most transparent in this DRM world. Apple’s restrictions are more than resonable and to restrict further is only going to encourage people to go elsewhere for their content.

What do you think of this request from the movie studios?

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Encryption Using GnuPG

Posted on November 29, 2006 by Michael Koby

Encryption, it is probably something you have heard about. Something you might have wondered about. You may have even considered using it at some point but did not know where to start. Chances are, you have heard of a little program called Pretty Good Privacy (Wikipedia). Pretty Good Privacy has been around for a good while and is, for the most part, the standard when it comes to personal encryption. Pretty Good Privacy’s website at PGP.com offers several tools for both individual and corporate customers to encrypt everything from email to laptops and even portable USB devices. However, while PGP was once free to download it now costs you money. Great encryption comes at a cost, and if you have the money to spend it does not get any better than PGP. So where does that leave us normal users? Well, the fine people of the open source community have gifted us with Gnu Privacy Guard (GnuPG), a free open source alternative that is compatible with PGP versions 5-7 and is designed as a complete replacement for PGP. Today we are going to learn a few things about GnuPG and learn how to do encryted email messages.
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