COPYRIGHT
Jury Deliberating Software Copyright Case
JOURNALISM
Weblogs: The New News?
INTERNET
The Aging Net (commentary)
TELEVISION
Next-Gen TV Needs Network Bucks
COPYRIGHT
JURY DELIBERATING SOFTWARE COPYRIGHT CASE
A federal jury has begun deliberating the fate of Elcomsoft Co. Ltd, a
Russian software company accused of violating the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA). Elcomsoft is being prosecuting for developing software
that allows users to crack the security of Adobe System's e-book publishing
software. Users of the software could then edit, copy or re-distribute the
e-book's materials. The software, legal in Russia, was also made available
in the United States, which prohibits the distribution of software that
allows users to circumvent digital content security measures. The case
gained attention last year when Elcomsoft employee Dmitry Sklyarov was
arrested at a Las Vegas conference and spent several weeks in jail. US
authorities eventually released Sklyarov in exchange for testimony against
the company. If convicted, Elcomsoft could face fines of more than $2
million.
[SOURCE: Yahoo! News, AUTHOR: Bob Porterfield, Associated Press]
(http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=528&ncid=528&e=1&u=/ap/20021213/
ap_on_hi_te/russian_programmer)
JOURNALISM
WEBLOGS: THE NEW NEWS?
Law professor Glenn Reynolds is part of a new breed of media pundit.
Independent of corporate media and answering to no one, publishers of Web
logs, or blogs, have spread faster than wildfire over the last year or so.
These independent commentators, or bloggers, publish online diaries on
whatever subject interests them; in the case of Reynolds, he's written on
subjects ranging from terror attacks in Indonesia to popular music. Bloggers
don't receive an online audience as large as commercial media outlets --
Reynolds' audience of 35,000 readers a day is considered very successful in
the blogger community -- but they've gained a loyal following that continues
to grow. Mainstream media outlets such as MSNBC are jumping aboard the
blogwagon, creating blogs of their own in the hope of keeping
independent-minded readers from bolting to more maverick reading sources.
San Francisco blog expert Rebecca Blood calls the phenomenon a "vox populi,"
but warns that the partisan nature of many blogs may lead to a class of
readers who shelter themselves from serious political debate. "People no
longer want to hear -- they want to talk to people who agree with them," she
said.
[SOURCE: NZoom.com, AUTHOR: Agence France-Presse]
(http://technology.nzoom.com/technology_detail/0,1608,151445-113-117,00.html
)
INTERNET
THE AGING NET
(Commentary) "Designing digital content for America's youth seems hot and
sexy; getting predominantly young designers to develop content for seniors
is like pulling teeth," says Henry Jenkins, director of the Comparative
Media Studies Program at MIT. Jenkins and his colleagues at MIT designed a
program in which students developed content with senior citizens at a local
SeniorNet technology center. Many students who initially signed up
eventually dropped it, "undoubtedly spooked by the idea of spending time
reflecting on what life was like after 65." As the Baby Boom generation
ages, there will be a dramatic increase in the number of senior citizens in
the US, from 35 million today to 54 million by the year 2020. Jenkins
argues that developers must take the growing senior population more
seriously when it comes to creating relevant content on the Internet.
Seniors face many challenges online, he writes; in the case of his father,
because he resides in an older neighborhood, the phone and cable companies
have yet to deploy broadband locally. And despite the development of Web
accessibility guidelines, too many sites employ miniscule fonts and require
detailed manipulation of a mouse, making them a challenge for seniors with
visual and motor skill impairments.
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: Henry Jenkins]
(http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_jenkins121102.asp)
TELEVISION
NEXT-GEN TV NEEDS NETWORK BUCKS
Now in its fifth year, the American Film Institute's Enhanced TV Workshop
has partnered TV producers, network programmers and "technology mentors" to
develop enhanced, interactive TV programming. Coming up with creative ideas,
however, has been less of a challenge than convincing media execs that these
interactive applications make a worthwhile investment. "Things are happening
right now [in interactive television], but the deployment isn't there," said
Timothy Shey of Proteus, Inc., who serves as one of the workshop's tech
mentors. TV programs have employed limited interactivity by synchronizing
broadcasts with Internet-based content, but more robust enhanced TV
applications would generally require the deployment of set-top boxes or
other middleware. The workshop has come up with a set of proposals,
including an "Interactive Thursday" concept for the network TV Land, but
participants acknowledge they face an uphill battle, since network execs
won't consider their ideas without knowing how the concepts will make money
or enhance their programmatic brands. "The people at high-enough levels to
give the green light or invest something [in interactive projects] are not
buying in enough yet," said AFI's Anna Marie Piersimoni.
[SOURCE: Wired News, AUTHOR: Dustin Goot]
(http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,56716,00.html)
----------------------------------------------------------------------