By Gene Weingarten (Washington Post) It is said that everyone has a price, a sum of money large enough to corrupt his moral integrity. I always suspected that I might have a price, too, but was a little alarmed recently to discover it is $125.
That was the price of the speed-camera ticket that arrived in the mail, together with a photo of a car in flagrante, doing 40 mph in a zone designated for 25. The car was the make, model and color of my car, and the infraction occurred at a place and time consistent with my routine. So, let’s face it, it was my car. However — here is where complex moral mathematics begin to intrude — the close-up photo of the license tag was a little blurry. With a little creative squinting, those two zeroes on the tag might be seen to resemble 6s or 8s. Which would mean this law-breaking vehicle belonged to someone else entirely.
My family looked and squinted, informed me those were clearly zeros, and advised me to just pay the ticket. “Not so fast,” I said. (Ha-ha.) There were complicating moral factors here, I explained, such as the inherent unfairness of a system that places the word of a soulless machine over that of a human.
via Gene Weingarten: Trial by perjury – The Washington Post.
By Declan McCullagh (CNET) Paul Brigner, until last month a senior vice president at the Motion Picture Association of America, now opposes SOPA and Protect IP.
A senior executive that Hollywood hired last year to be its chief technology policy officer has undergone a remarkable about-face: he now opposes the Stop Online Piracy Act.
Paul Brigner, who was until last month a senior vice president at the Motion Picture Association of America, has emerged as SOPA’s latest critic. “I firmly believe that we should not be legislating technological mandates to protect copyright — including SOPA and Protect IP,” he says.
via MPAA’s former tech policy chief turns SOPA foe | Privacy Inc. – CNET News.
By David Hill (Singularity Hub) Academic research is behind bars and an online boycott by 8,209 researchers and counting is seeking to set it free…well, more free than it has been. The boycott targets Elsevier, the publisher of popular journals like Cell and The Lancet, for its aggressive business practices, but opposition was electrified by Elsevier’s backing of a Congressional bill titled the Research Works Act RWA. Though lesser known than the other high-profile, privacy-related bills SOPA and PIPA, the act was slated to reverse the Open Access Policy enacted by the National Institutes of Health NIH in 2008 that granted the public free access to any article derived from NIH-funded research.
Now, only a month after SOPA and PIPA were defeated thanks to the wave of online protests, the boycotting researchers can chalk up their first win: Elsevier has withdrawn its support of the RWA, although the company downplayed the role of the boycott in its decision, and the oversight committee killed it right away.But the fight for open access is just getting started.Seem dramatic? Well, here’s a little test. Go to any of the top academic journals in the world and try to read an article. The full article, mind you…not just the abstract or the first few paragraphs. Hit a paywall? Try an article written 20 or 30 years ago in an obscure journal. Just look up something on PubMed then head to JSTOR where a vast archive of journals have been digitized for reference. Denied?
Not interested in paying $40 to the publisher to rent the article for a few days or purchase it for hundreds of dollars either? You’ve just logged one of the over 150 million failed attempts per year to access an article on JSTOR. Now consider the fact that the majority of scientific articles in the U.S., for example, has been funded by government-funded agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, NIH, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, NASA, and so on. So while taxpayer money has fueled this research, publishers charge anyone who wants to actually see the results for themselves, including the authors of the articles.
via 8,200+ Strong, Researchers Band Together To Force Science Journals To Open Access | Singularity Hub.
By Robin Wauters (TheNextWeb) This morning, word got out in Belgian media that SABAM (the Belgian collecting society for music royalties) is spending time and resources to contact local libraries across the nation, warning them that they will start charging fees because the libraries engage volunteers to read books to kids.
The De Morgen reporter then contacted SABAM (probably to check if this wasn’t an elaborate hoax or some grave error in judgment) and received a formal statement from the organization asserting that, indeed, public libraries need to pay up for the right to – once again – READ BOOKS TO KIDS.
via Rightsholders Group to Charge Libraries for Reading Books to Kids.
By Ross McGuinness (Metro UK) Instead of just worrying about what might happen to their material possessions after they die, more and more people are taking steps to protect the belongings they store online.
The emergence of cloud computing — storing your information on a network of remote servers on the internet as opposed to a local server — means images, songs, movies, email logins, social networking details and online bank accounts are part of a new digital property.
And, like any property, people are starting to include them in their wills. Eleven per cent of Britons say they have included, or plan to include, their internet passwords in their wills.
‘Control what is publicly available online during your lifetime – don’t wait for your executors or anyone else to sort your public profile out after death,’ said Sarah Needham, media and data protection lawyer at law firm Taylor Wessing.
She warned digital assets could be used ‘in an inappropriate and unexpected way’ if they were not looked after.
via What happens to your online life after you die? | Metro.co.uk.
By John Avlon (The Daily Beast) Ninety-eight major advertisers—including Ford and Geico—will no longer air spots on Premiere Networks’ ‘offensive’ programs. Insiders say the loss will rock right-wing talk radio.
Premiere Networks, which distributes Limbaugh as well as a host of other right-wing talkers, sent an email out to its affiliates early Friday listing 98 large corporations that have requested their ads appear only on “programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity).”
This is big. According to the radio-industry website Radio-Info.com, which first posted excerpts of the Premiere memo, among the 98 companies that have decided to no longer sponsor these programs are “carmakers (Ford, GM, Toyota), insurance companies (Allstate, Geico, Prudential, State Farm), and restaurants (McDonald’s, Subway).” Together, these talk-radio advertising staples represent millions of dollars in revenue.
via Rush Limbaugh Scandal Proves Contagious for Talk-Radio Advertisers – The Daily Beast.
(Travel Channel) Ever wonder what happens to your lost luggage? Travel Channel provides a glimpse into the very profitable business of bidding, buying and reselling unclaimed property in the new original series “Baggage Battles,” premiering with a special one-hour season opener featuring back-to-back episodes on Wednesday, April 11,10|9c. The half-hour series follows 3 teams of savvy “auction specialists” who travel to some of the most important and unknown auctions where their bids are based on sight unseen instincts. The season premiere will kick off at Miami International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world, and then the auction pros will jump across “The Pond” to London.
“Baggage Battles” features 3 teams of savvy “auction specialists”: Laurence and Sally Martin, a married couple, have been in the antique business for over 20 years co-owning Studio Antiques in El Segundo, CA. Mark Meyer is a young entrepreneur and owner of Long Island, New York’s The Nifty Thrifty store. And, Billy Leroy is the owner of the iconic Billy’s Antiques and Props, one of the last eclectic props and antique stores in NYC. With dozens of auctions to visit, thousands of bags to explore, and millions of dollars at stake, these auction specialists need both skill and luck to hit the jackpot. They don’t know if it’s junk or a jackpot until they win the bid and open the suitcase.
via Baggage Battles.
