Lots of postings recently over at Politech about DARPA’s Total Information Awareness program. Check it out, if you’re interested.
Archives for December 2002
AP: Parents Complain Too Much to Professors
December 11, 2002 by
AP reports on a supposed trend of parents complaining to professors about their kids’ education, grades, course scheduling, and so on.
In eight years of teaching at Princeton, I have never been contacted by a complaining parent. Come to think of it, I have never been contacted at all by a parent during the academic year. So my experience tends to contradict the AP story.
"Fair Use" in the Media
December 11, 2002 by
Siva Vaidhyanathan offers data on the prevalence of the term “fair use” in the media. He counted the number of times that “copyright” and “fair use” were used in the same article in any newspaper (worldwide) listed in Lexis/Nexis. Here’s the data, labeled with some possibly relevant events:
118 in 2001
113 in 2000
20 in 1999
77 in 1998 (DMCA)
40 in 1997 (WIPO)
51 in 1996
26 in 1995
40 in 1994 (2 Live Crew)
35 in 1993
24 in 1992
27 in 1991 (Biz Markie)
26 in 1990
7 in 1989
11 in 1988 (Salinger)
17 in 1987 (Salinger)
13 in 1986
13 in 1985 (Nation-Ford)
13 in 1984 (Betamax case)
Publish in New Jersey, Get Sued in Australia
December 11, 2002 by
The highest court in Australia has ruled that Dow Jones can be sued in Australia for libel, even though the article in question was published on a web site in the U.S. The Economist has a good article on the decision and its implications.
Business Week: Hollywood's Love/Hate Relationship with Technology
December 11, 2002 by
Jane Black at Business Week describes how digital technology is changing the movie business. She reports that while one part of the movie industry is fighting tooth and nail against new technology, other parts are eagerly adopting it.
