Porn publisher Perfect 10 has been something of a copyright gadfly. It sued Google, arguing that the thumbnail images showed in its Image Search -- of images posted online by other people -- of Perfect 10's copyrighted materials constituted copyright infringement. Despite earlier rulings that linking to images in such a way wasn't infringement, Perfect 10 won an injuction over Google, although another court later overturned it, emphasizing again that thumbnails fall under fair use. But Perfect 10 filed an even sillier suit, targeting companies that processed payments for porn sites it alleged were stealing its images. Again, like in the Google case, the payment companies had nothing to do with the act of copyright infringement, and now an appeals court has upheld a lower court's ruling that bounced the case out of court, nothing that the payment companies, indeed, had not contributed to any copyright infringement. Perfect 10's strategy of suing everybody but the actual copyright infringers looks like it's been resoundly defeated, but somehow it's hard to imagine we've heard the last of the company.

A Groklaw Reader writes "After all the questions about how the GPLv3 will or won't apply to Microsoft following Microsoft's declaration that they weren't bound by it, PJ of Groklaw wrote this story about how and why the GPLv3 will apply to Microsoft. Specifically, it covers in what ways Microsoft would convey GPLv3 software under the Novell agreement, and how Microsoft's refusal to allow previously sold vouchers to be redeemed for GPLv3 software would impact that agreement. Given that Novell has said that they will distribute GPLv3 software, Microsoft may have had the tables turned on them already."

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Scoble has TwitterGram, as an art, down to a science.

Rubel gets the big vision. If Apple had created an open platform, I'd be hard at work on it now. If anyone would port Frontier (it's GPL) to their mobile device, the whole thing would run right now. I'd help of course. (Important: I could also grant a non-GPL license to any platform vendor, to the original code release only.)

Nokia? Microsoft? Sony? Apple?

StonyandCher write(s) with news that one of the largest Net measurement companies, Nielsen/NetRatings, is about to abandon page views as its primary metric for comparing sites. Instead the company will use total time spent on a site. The article notes, "This is likely to affect Google's ranking because while users visit the site often, they don't usually spend much time there. 'It is not that page views are irrelevant now, but they are a less accurate gauge of total site traffic and engagement,' said Scott Ross, director of product marketing at Nielsen/NetRatings. 'Total minutes is the most accurate gauge to compare between two sites. If [Web] 1.0 is full page refreshes for content, Web 2.0 is, "How do I minimize page views and deliver content more seamlessly?"'"

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cannen writes "This is a yahoo! news story about a trailer to a new movie called "Cloverfield". This is one of those secretive movies. The interesting part isn't so much about the movie, as the fact that they put the trailer before Transformers to generate "buzz". Shortly after, the trailers from the movie were put on YouTube. The last paragraph in the article says: "Several copies of the trailer, seemingly shot in theaters with a camcorder, were posted on YouTube by Thursday morning. But by Thursday afternoon, some of those links had been taken down, replaced by an advisory saying, 'This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Paramount Pictures Corp.' Why is it that the studios wanna ruin their buzz?

Come on, cannen, it makes perfect sense -- when you let lawyers run your entertainment company. Perhaps we should just be thankful that Paramount hasn't tried to have the people who filmed the trailer arrested.

Mike writes to let us know that a poster on the AVS forum says that the latest issue of HMM magazine (no link given) contains a quote from Richard Doherty, a media analyst with Envisioneering Group, extolling the strength of the DRM in Blu-ray discs, called BD+. Doherty reportedly said, "BD+, unlike AACS, which suffered a partial hack last year, won't likely be breached for 10 years." He added that if it were broken, "the damage would affect one film and one player." As one comment on AVS noted, I'll wait for the Doom9 guys to weigh in.

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David Pescovitz: A four-story, 30,000-foot public bathroom recently opened in Chonggqing, China. The outside has a bizarre cartoony Egyptian facade while the inside holds more than 1,000 toilets of various designs. Apparently the city officials hope the giant bathroom is worthy of a Guinness World Record. From the Associated Press:

"We are spreading toilet culture. People can listen to gentle music and watch TV," said Lu Xiaoqing, an official with the Yangrenjie, or "Foreigners Street," tourist area where the bathroom is. "After they use the bathroom they will be very, very happy."

Link to AP article, Link to China Central TV video

Reasonable people could disagree about when it's best to disallow a given merger on antitrust grounds, but our current system seems both arbitrary and open to manipulation by interested parties. Standing athwart XM and Sirius' attempt to merge is the National Association of Broadcasters, which has tried to make the claim that the merger would eliminate any competition for the companies, a point which is undermined by the NAB's own interest in the outcome. It's obvious why the NAB is interested: It's not that it has some lofty ideals about competition, but rather it fears for the future of its own members, should the companies be allowed to merge. In addition to making its arguments directly, the NAB has also turned to the practice of astoturfing, the establishment of phony grassroots organizations that are in fact nothing more than shill groups. Blatantly self-interested lobbying isn't just limited to the NAB, however. Lobbyists representing the satellite radio firms have cobbled together an odd coalition of supporters, including Southern Baptists, businesswomen, rural voters and Hispanic chambers of commerce. A representative of one group, Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE), tells The Wall Street Journal that her group supports the merger because it could allow for expanded radio coverage in rural areas. She also makes the good point that the government seems to have multiple standards depending on the industry, noting that little has been done to prevent consolidation in the meatpacking market (which directly affects WIFE's constituents). Her points are valid, but it's still disturbing that these issues are decided, in large part, by which side can marshal the necessary lobbying firepower, rather than some standard for what's a legitimate level of consolidation within an industry.

David Pescovitz: Up until the 1960s or so, it was common for telephone numbers to start with two letters instead of numbers. Those letters were abbreviations for words, called telephone exchange names, and they enabled operators to distinguish between customers that had the same telephone number. Remember Glenn Miller's tune "PEnnsylvania 6-5000" (and Bugs Bunny's "TRansylvania 6-5000")? If you'd like to look up your old timey telephone exchange name, check out the Telephone EXchange Name Project where they're keeping this curious bit of telecom history alive.
Link (via Michael Leddy's Orange Crate Art)

Mark Frauenfelder: Ellen says: Yesterday at an art show in Saratoga Springs, NY, my husband and I met Peter Luber. He does these amazing and funny sculptures inside old vacuum tubes. They're incredible to see in person. Link 1 | Link 2

Jeremy Allison - Sam writes with news that the Samba Team has decided to adopt the GPLv3 and LGPLv3 licenses for all future releases of Samba. Follow the link for a FAQ addressed to Samba developers and contributors. "To allow people to distinguish which Samba version is released with the new GPLv3 license, we are updating our next version release number. The next planned version release was to be 3.0.26, this will now be renumbered so the GPLv3 version release will be 3.2.0. To be clear, all versions of Samba numbered 3.2 and later will be under the GPLv3, all versions of Samba numbered 3.0.x and before remain under the GPLv2."

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The NY Times is such a hit on iPhones.

Naturally, the BBC, with an incredible array of news feeds, is next up for revival.

http://bbcriver.com/

Enjoy!

Nathan Wilhoft was the first of several people to submit the story about Sprint "sponsoring" the P2P download of 16 million copies of a song by the artist Plies. Sprint is paying a "substantial six-figure" sum to embed its logo in the song (apparently as the cover art), so that when users play the downloaded track on their computer or MP3 player, it will be displayed. It's an interesting tactic, both in terms of an advertising strategy, but also on the part of the artist and record label. While the label is still focused on selling the music, this is another small step in investigating some alternative business models. What's slightly odd, though, is that MediaDefender is in on the deal. It sounds like it's the middleman here, hooking up the record label with advertisers, then also uploading the tracks onto the P2P networks. MediaDefender is best known for uploading spoof tracks to P2P networks on behalf of labels to thwart file-sharers -- so perhaps they do know a thing or two about uploading. But that company's involvement could also be taken as another sign that things are starting to change, and that the music industry realizes it needs to evolve to survive. But before getting too carried away, plenty of questions remain. Perhaps the biggest has to do with that 16 million downloads figure -- after all, once a track's onto P2P networks, how will the label control how many times its downloaded? Will users be allowed to actually upload and share the track on their own, with no fear of retribution from the label?

Mark Frauenfelder: David Moldawer found the complete "Fish Heads" music video by Barnes and Barnes from 1980. I didn't know Bill Paxton and Billy "You be dead now!" Mumy were involved it making it. What a wonderful little movie! Link

Xeni Jardin:

Here's a snip from John Markoff's NYT profile of David Ulevitch, the 25-year-old founder of OpenDNS.com. The service launched last year with a $2 million from ex-CNET-CEO Halsey Minor:

Mr. Ulevitch’s offer is quite simple. People who sign up for his service at OpenDNS.com are promised an easier way to locate Web pages and more protection from people who try to steal personal information from Web users. It can also block Web sites that offer pornography or other undesired material.

He does this by using the Domain Name System, or DNS, which is the phonebook for the Internet. Every Web site is assigned unique machine-readable numbers which are used to direct Internet traffic. Mr. Ulevitch inserts his service between a user’s computer and the broader Internet. When an Internet-connected computer or router is configured by adding OpenDNS.com’s two numbers — 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 — OpenDNS makes it possible to access Web sites faster.

His service will also correct standard spelling mistakes. For example, if a user types google.cm instead of google.com, OpenDNS will redirect the query to the correct Web page. OpenDNS also makes it possible for users to use the Web address query box of a Web browser in the same way users now use the search engine query box found in all modern Web browsers. Typing a search request into the regular Web address box on a computer that uses the OpenDNS service will return search results and related advertisements from Yahoo.

Link. David's also the guy behind the free DNS management system everydns.net, which I've used a number of times.

Image: Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Xeni Jardin: Snip:

The City of Keizer is taking heat for installing a group of cement posts designed to protect pedestrians from cars, but which some say is a phallic symbol.

A total of 52 of the posts were installed at a busy intersection in Keizer and they are getting a lot of second glances. A number of residents have complained to the city that the posts resemble male genitalia.

"I can't disagree with that," said City Manager Chris Eppley. "They certainly did not turn out the way we anticipated."

Link to local TV news coverage with video.

BB reader Organ Leroy, who pointed us to this earthshattering news, adds:

BUT WAIT, here's the best part. Hoping to avoid the expense of tearing out and replacing the offending knobs, city officials are now considering adding a metal collar just below each head and joining the shafts together with chains. Because that de-sexualizes them completely.

How come everybody wanna keep it like the [city of] Keizer? We do not know.

Xeni Jardin: Noah Shachtman at Wired's "Danger Room" blog writes,

The Army is working on a $200 billion modernization program called Future Combat Systems, or FCS. The plan is to remake the entire force, pretty much from top to bottom -- how units are organized, how they communicate, how they attack enemies, and how they defend themselves.

FCS is modeled, in part, on the invasion and occupation of one particular country. Which one is it? I'll give you eleven choices -- and until Wednesday afternoon to vote. Then we'll reveal the right answer.

Link

athloi writes to tell us usability expert Jakob Nielsen is stressing the importance of well-thought-out articles as opposed to off-the-cuff blog postings. "Blog postings will always be commodity content: there's a limit to the value you can provide with a short comment on somebody else's comments. Such postings are good for generating controversy and short-term traffic, and they're definitely easy to write. But they don't build sustainable value. Think of how disappointing it feels when you're searching for something and get directed to short postings in the middle of a debate that occurred years before, and is thus irrelevant."

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