AP Accelerating It’s Own Demise with Misguided Plans

Today’s blogs are all afire writing about the latest twist in the AP’s comical and borderline pathetic attempts to shore up its broken and obsolete business model: charging outrageous fees to anyone looking to quote FIVE WORDS OR MORE from an AP article.

Should you read an AP article and want to quote it in a blog post you are asked to click on a “copyright use” link that leads you to this:

Now, I don’t want to guess what the AP thinks it can charge me for using this image.  The fact is, just because they charge doesn’t change the principle of “fair use” and this image is being used so that I can critique it’s absurdity.

The bigger problem, if you are the AP, is that everything about this policy is counter to the way information is consumed and shared in the modern, digital age.  The AP can bitch and moan all they want to about the “good old days” but that doesn’t make time move backwards.

As the ability for people to  both gather and distribute news around the globe grows, the question is not what will the AP do in some misguided attempt to protect its work from being shared but why do we really need the AP at all.  If the AP disappeared tomorrow news would continue to be reported and most people wouldn’t notice anything had happened.

That’s not a good sign for the AP.

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Digital Tattoo Implants – The Future is Now

The rate at which science fiction is becoming science reality is breathtaking.  The latest example is an invention by Jim Mielke:

The basis of the 2×4-inch “Digital Tattoo Interface” is a Bluetooth device made of thin, flexible silicon and silicone. It´s inserted through a small incision as a tightly rolled tube, and then it unfurls beneath the skin to align between skin and muscle. Through the same incision, two small tubes on the device are attached to an artery and a vein to allow the blood to flow to a coin-sized blood fuel cell that converts glucose and oxygen to electricity. After blood flows in from the artery to the fuel cell, it flows out again through the vein.        LINK

This is not some pie-in-the-sky concept.  This is a real, working device.  The inventor believes it will be capable of making and displaying video calls on the screen just below the skin.  Sure, there is a distinct creepy factor here, but I think it is nothing compared with the amazing factor.

I literally can’t wait, or imagine, what I will see tomorrow.  Pretty damn cool.

Better Options, Not Legal Threats, Curb Music Piracy

A recent report is showing that the prevalence of P2P music file-sharing is on the decline but it turns out to have little to do with groups like the RIAA suing music fans:

The plethora of legal music options online has prompted Internet users in the UK to cut down on their P2P ways. According to an annual report from media and technology research firm The Leading Question, monthly file sharing has dropped among all users since the last national survey in 2007. The drop is particularly significant among teens, where file-sharing has declined by a third.     LINK

So where are teens going for their music?  To legal streaming sites like Last.FM, Pandora and Slacker.  See, as soon as there is a useful, accessible and easy option to P2P services, users are more than happy to make the switch.

Instead of spending all their time and energy suing music fans, the music industry needs to focus their resources on creating true competition to piracy. That is the only road to sustainability for the industry.  While this shift will mean a huge shake up in the current power-structure it beats losing everything to those dastardly pirates.

The Myth of Cable’s “TV Everywhere” Plan

A bunch of news about Time Warner and Comcast beginning to roll out a service being called “TV Everywhere.”

TV Everywhere aims to put full-length cable programming online, but require viewers to prove that they have a cable subscription before they’re able to watch. Currently most full-length episodes from cable networks aren’t available on the web.    LINK

Of course, by everywhere, they mean on this one firewalled site.  Forget about downloading an episode and watching in your iPhone or saving it for offline viewing.

While it’s nice to see the cable companies trying to get more programming online, I’m not sure this is the solution that will save them from obsolesence in the coming years.

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Best Rebuttal Ever to the Three-Strike Internet Laws

Just a short post to point out the brilliance of Ed Felten’s satiric proposal that France should extend its online three-strike law to the world of print:

My proposed system is simplicity itself. The government sets up a registry of accused infringers. Anybody can send a complaint to the registry, asserting that someone is infringing their copyright in the print medium. If the government registry receives three complaints about a person, that person is banned for a year from using print.

As in the Internet case, the ban applies to both reading and writing, and to all uses of print, including informal ones. In short, a banned person may not write or read anything for a year.

If you haven’t been following this issue, France is on its way to signing a bill into law that would require ISP’s to ban people from the internet for one year if they are accused of downloading copyrighted content more than three times.  Yes, accused of downloading, not convicted of it.

Read the whole post here.

Free Advice for Hulu: Play On

I just finished watching The Daily Show from last night on Hulu and happened to be in the middle of folding some clothes when the show ended.  After a brief ad, the screen went dead and offered up some static thumbnails of suggested viewing.

It dawned on me that Hulu was missing a great opportunity to either introduce me to new content or keep me viewing related content while increasing my potential time on the site – a big benefit when trying to sell advertisers.

So, Hulu, here is my free advice:

Once a program ends, if the viewer doesn’t intervene, just start streaming something else, just like you would do on TV.  Sure, I might not end up watching whatever it is…but I might.  Plus, you’ve lost nothing for trying.

Oh yeah, also, get your deal worked out with Boxee.  Installing these hacks is a pain in the butt and you’e not going to come out ahead by resisting.

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My 15 Seconds – Quoted Front Page NYT Business Section!

Well, it isn’t everyday I get quoted in the New York Times so that makes today pretty cool.  In an article exploring the rise of the netbook and the “trend” of cutting expensive cable for free/cheap online alternatives I am the lead voice!

SAN FRANCISCO — The global credit crisis may have caused the decline in consumer and business spending that is assaulting the giants of high tech. But as the dominant technology companies try to emerge from this slump, they may find themselves blaming people like David Title just as much as they blame Wall Street.

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Mr. Title, a 35-year-old new-media manager at a film production company in New York, has dropped his cable subscription and moved to watching most of his television online — free. While shopping for a new laptop for his girlfriend recently, he sidestepped more expensive full-featured computers and picked a bare-bones, $200 Asus EeePC laptop, also known as a netbook.

“We’ve reached one of those moments in tech history when there are low-priced and free alternatives that are both user-friendly and reliable enough to make the switch,” Mr. Title said. “Then there’s the extra bonus of saving some cash.”

You can read the whole thing here.

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Kids Make History – Smarter Than Their Parents

Image via Wikipedia

There is a once-in-a-millenium kind of thing going on.  Due to the rapid pace of technological advancements we are at a moment in time when many kids are simply more adept at using the key technological system of our age – the internet (and the computer itself).

“An overwhelming majority (89%) of all kids age 6-11 in the US spend at least some time doing online activities and – though many of their basic social activities haven’t changed much over the years – they have vastly different communication styles and preferences than older age groups, according to a study from Experian Consumer Research.” (via)

When else in human history have parents had to consistently turn to their own children for help with what is now a basic household device?

This won’t last long.  As these kids grow up tech-saavy they will have a leg up on their own kids but for the generation in the middle, born too late for native understanding but too soon to ignore it altogether, it’s going to mean trusting that 10-year-old can reset your mail server.  Don’t worry.  She can.