zotz

On The Need For A Stronger Copyleft For BY-SA 4.x

2012-01-28T17:12:00.001-05:00

On The Need For A Stronger Copyleft For BY-SA 4.x

For those of you have not run into copyleft and its relationship to Freedom before here are a few links:

What is Copyleft?

What is free software?

Definition Of Free Cultural Works

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

OK, so let's consider the the following situation and see if this is really an acceptable situation.

Billy Bloke spends some time searching around on Kompoz and Jamendo and finds a bunch of BY-SA songs.

Billy listens to a bunch and then chooses a bunch on the theme Night. He listens a bunch more and picks some that go together and will fit on a CD.

He puts together this CD.

Let's assume that this CD fits the bill of the BY-SA definition of a "Collection" as per 1.b. of the license.

Therefore Billy Bloke gets a copyright on this collection. Nothing in the license for the songs says that he has to put any particular type of license on this collection. Billy chooses to go with no license at all and keeps his copyright ARR (All Rights Reserved).

Billy starts selling copies of his CD which he has titled Night Dreams. It turns out he has decent taste and the CD starts selling well.

The songwriters and musicians who wrote and recorded the songs notice these sales and decide to try their hand at selling copies of the CD to their fans at gigs.

Billy sues them for copyright infringement and wins. The musicians face huge statutory damages and are told they cannot sell copies of the CDs without Billy's permission. Billy refuses.

The chat about this online for a good while and one gets the bright idea to use most of the songs but replace a few. They start selling that Collection of songs.

Billy sues again on the grounds that their CD is a derivative of his. He wins again and they pay again.

Is this really the situation we want to exist with regards to Free Copyleft works and copyrighted collections?

all the best,

drew

What If Copyleft Was Written Into Law?

2012-01-27T17:48:00.003-05:00

What If Copyleft Was Written Into Law?

Consider what would happen if lawmakers around the world decided to add the
copyleft concept to copyright law.

1. Automatic copyleft, not copyright.
2. To get copyright, works would have to be marked copyright and registered.
3. Copyleft works could draw freely from works in the "public domain" (works
never in copyright and works no longer in copyright.
4. Copyright works that draw from the copyright domain would be assessed a
percentage fee to fund the arts.
5. All copyright works would be assessed a fee to pay for the functioning of
the copyright apparatus.
6. All copyright works currently under a bona fide Free copyleft license would
automatically become legal copyleft works.
7. All copyright works currently under a bona fide Free permissive license
could elect to become legal copyleft works.
More?
)

A Question For Clay Shirky

2012-01-21T09:51:00.001-05:00

A Question For Clay Shirky

So with all the #SOPA and #PIPA news going around lately I came upon this post from Clay while browsing identi.ca.

Pick up the pitchforks:
David Pogue underestimates Hollywood

I would probably just replied in a comment but comments were closed.

Down at the bottom he says:

We should delight in the stand we’ve taken in favor of things like, say, notifications, and trials, and proof before censoring someone, but we should get ready to do it again next year, and the year after that. The risk now is not that SOPA will pass. The risk is that we’ll think we’ve won. We haven’t; they’ll be back. Get ready to have this fight again.

My question is this, if you really believe that we will have to do this again and again, isn't it time to call for the end of all copyright law instead? Would that not be a safer approach?

Something to think about.

Gas Tax Lottery

2012-01-06T18:35:00.003-05:00

Gas Tax Lottery

Here is another off the wall idea brought to you by yours truly.

So I dropped by slashdot tonight and saw an article about Fuel Efficiency and Gas Mileage and saw this thought in the summary:

"Among environmental policy analysts, the notion of a surcharge on fuel is widely supported. 'I think 98 percent of economists would say that we need higher gas taxes,' Knittel says."

So I asked myself, what if those who think such measures are necessary to achieve some social goal would suggest that all monies collected by such measures go not to fund government spending but instead to a fund a "lottery" where everyone who paid any such tax got a chance at winning?

Those who dislike big government would at least know that the monies collected would not go to growing government. Those who like big government would at least have to push the idea on its merits alone and not any any extra benefits that the additional revenue could bring by spending on government programs.

Just to be clear, this idea is meant for any tax whose stated aim is to guide or control behaviour rather than to raise revenue.

Hit me with your thoughts.

all the best,

drew

The Four Freedoms

2012-01-03T15:43:00.028-05:00

The Four Freedoms

I have been taking part in a long discussion on identi.ca lately on whether the Four Freedoms that are thought to be essential Freedom are needed for Culture as well.

There has been a lot of back and forth and a lot of thoughts put forward on both sides but I just want to document this in more detail here. Sometimes 140 characters just makes things too difficult.

A lot of the following is likely still rough and could use more refining and still in the beginning stages and could use further development.

The Four Freedoms (0-3) of Free Software.

The Four Freedoms of Free Culture.

One line of thinking is that there has been a logical argument put forward on the necessity of the four freedoms for software and that there has been no logical argument put forward on the necessity of these freedoms when it comes to culture and that therefore denying one, some, or all of these freedoms with respect to culture is "OK". (Or at least not proved wrong/unethical/unwarranted.)

I am putting forward that this is approaching the issue from the wrong end. Consider this:

Freedom is the Proper Default.

Freedom does not need to be justified. Freedom does not need to be proved to be necessary. Freedom should be assumed. Freedom is the proper default.

Those who would seek to limit freedom are the ones who should have to prove that those limits that they want to place on another person's freedom are essential. That those limits are unavoidable.

Furthermore if we are trying to solve a problem we should solve it in a way that least impacts another person's freedom.

Let's say you live in a supposedly free society and one day the government sends someone over to your house and tells you that you have to be inside your house by 10 pm every night. Should the onus be on you to prove that you need to be out after 10 pm? Or should the government bear the burden of proving a valid reason that you need to be in by 10 pm?

Now let's say that rather than you in particular having to be in by ten, they say all people over 6 feet tall have to be in by 10. Do people six foot plus now have some moral or ethical obligation to prove that they need to be out after ten?

I put it to you that it is those who would restrict another person's freedom that has the obligation to offer proof. Freedom is the proper default and should be assumed.

So, let's take the example of someone publishing an opinion piece and having the worry (or even the knowledge based on past experience) that they will be misconstrued to their detriment. Let's say they take the position that they will use the power that copyright law gives them to allow only verbatim distribution of their piece. (If you are familiar with the Creative Commons suite of licenses, think a BY-ND license.)

Let's for the moment assume that this approach will be perfectly effective.

Is this restriction on another person warranted? Is there another way to get the same effective result? Is it really necessary to prevent another person who agrees mostly with your piece from starting with your piece, making the changes necessary to reflect where the two of you see things differently and releasing the derivative piece as their opinion on the matter. (referencing your opinion accurately in the process)

Now let's consider a translation. Do we need an ND on that to prevent a translation that accurately represents your thoughts? Would not an officially approved translation serve the purpose in contrast to unapproved translations? Are we not sophisticated enough to know that mistakes can be made in translation? even if we are unsophisticated in this area, the ethical imposition on the restriction needs to be proved. There is a workable alternative and if everyone took that alternative, its effectiveness would grow soon enough.

Let me try and put it another way.

Those that think that the ethical case has been satisfactorily make in the realm of software already believe that copyright law results in the allowance and widespread practice of unethical behavior and that proper licensing is needed to combat this unethical situation so long as copyright law remains in its present form.

Given that, if someone wants to place restrictions on another person's freedom an an area other than software, the burden of proof is on them to show that the desired restrictions are in fact ethical ones. It is not enough that it is legal for them to place those restrictions on another. The law will allow them to place those restrictions on another in the software realm as well.

Freedom and Freedoms

Although I titled this post The Four Freedoms, it goes deeper than that and perhaps I made a mistake in giving this post that title.

Basically, we do not need to think of "the freedom to do this" and "the freedom to do that" as that will lead to us not being Free. No, we should think that we should be free to do whatever it is that we may want to do. After that, we nee to think about what necessary and ethical restrictions should be placed on our freedom to do whatever it is we want to do.

Freedom is the Proper Default.

So, here we are with copyright law and how it applies to software and culture and the restrictions is puts on people who would otherwise be free to do as they chose.

So, in this area, when we speak of essential freedoms, I put forward that what is essential is to list the freedoms what will negate the restrictions that copyright law puts on people. And in the case of copleft licenses, to do it in such a way that the works we so license cannot then be used in ways to deny those same freedoms to others, now or in the future.

(This is why I consider it a bug still in need of a solution that works under various copyleft licenses cannot be intermixed.)

However, these freedoms put forward do not need to be justified. It is the restrictions that copyright law places on free people living in a free society that nee to be justified. The proper critique for any such list of freedoms is whether it fully reverses the restrictions copyright law places on people. *Then and only then* if any restrictions placed on a free people by copyright are proven to be justified, such restrictions can be factored into the given list of freedoms.

Can my freedom to do X be ethically restricted?

A simple/childish test.

Should I be allowed to do X to someone?

Simple test:

Should someone be allowed to do X to me?

So...

Should I be allowed to kill Jim?

Simple test:

Should Jim be allow to kill me?

My answer:

No, Jim should not be allowed to kill me. Therefore, I should not be allowed to kill Jim.

Should I be allowed to make a derivative of Jim's song?

Simple test:

Should Jim be allowed to make a derivative of my song?

My answer:

Yes, Jim should be allowed to make a derivative of my song. Therefore, I should be allowed to make a derivative of Jim's song.

Let's do it again from the other direction.

Should Jim be allowed to restrict my freedom to kill him? (Should Jim be allowed to stop me from killing him?)

Simple test:

Should I be allowed to restrict Jim's freedom to kill me? (Should I be allowed to stop Jim from killing me?)

You can state the second example from the reverse perspective.

Jokel

2011-12-27T18:07:00.002-05:00

Jokel

Noun: A curious mixture of a joker and a yokel.

Will It Come To This

2011-12-15T18:27:00.004-05:00

Will It Come To This?

Is it going to come down to something like this?

"I hereby grant a license to all of my copyrighted works to everyone who does the same. The license allows them to do anything with my copyrighted works that copyright law would prevent them from doing without a license from me to do so."

I figure there will need to be some caveats to deal with DRM and such things but perhaps this is where we will have to go to try and defeat things like #SOPA and the like.

NOTE: I am not doing the above now, I am asking the question. Right now I am still using BY-SA for works that I indicate as such.

A Clue For Cable Bahamas

2011-10-24T18:52:00.004-04:00

A Clue For Cable Bahamas

OK, so I went to lunch with a friend today and he mentions that cable cut off his internet over the weekend for a $17 unpaid balance. Seems his bill is around a hundred a month and he overpays by a small amount online and never really looks at the bill itself.

Actually, a couple of clues.

1. Disconnect accounts on Monday morning, not on the weekend.

2. Be smart. Why disconnect a regularly paying customer over such a small amount. How about an email to let them know of the problem? Perhaps to an email account other than the Cable Bahamas / Coralwave one which I am sure many never use.

3. Here is the main clue... Set up a captive portal instead of disconnecting an account. When the person tries to go on the web, take them to a page explaining the issue and giving them a chance to review their bill and pay online. Problem solved. Everyone is happy.

Other internet companies should feel free to use this clue to your benefit as well.

Attribution But Not Attribution-ShareAlike?

2011-10-22T12:53:00.004-04:00

Attribution But Not Attribution-ShareAlike?

Decide to write this up after reading this news:

Blackboard Launches New Open Education Initiatives

My simple thought is that if you find a company or person willing to let you share your work under a BY license but not under a BY-SA license you might want to pause and think twice. Their unstated message to you may just be that they are willing to let you work for them for free but are not willing to let you protect that work for your community.

There is too much fear of copyleft going around these days.

#FearCopyLeft #FearBYSA

drew

Company Lottery Idea

2011-09-28T19:24:00.002-04:00

Company Lottery Idea

I will explain this idea with an example based on BEC. (The Bahamas Electricity Corporation for our non-Bahamas based readers.)

OK, so BEC could fund this by adding a dollar to every customer's/meter's bill each month but that might cause trouble so instead they might fund it by allocating a dollar for every customer/meter each month.

Let's say the have 50,000 meters/customers. That's $50,000.00 dollars per month as a "lottery" prize.

Each month they would draw numbers one digit at a time until they reacher their account number length. If the numbers drawn match a customer number, that customer gets the prize so long as their account is in good standing. (Paid up to date as of the last billing period?) If there is no match or the account is not up to date, a percentage of the prize rolls over to the next month.

This should prove a powerful incentive to get customers to stay current. (With their current bill... rimshot.)

Say every quarter or two quarters, numbers would keep being drawn until the prize is won.

If this would be considered gambling, a simple "skill" question could be added to the mix after the numerical choosing. (If that would be enough.)

I should have some refinements and additions soon. If you implement this idea in your company, I would appreciate hearing from you.

I am available for consulting for tweaking this idea to better fit your situation.

What You Eat Affects Your Jeans

2011-09-22T10:07:00.002-04:00

What You Eat Affects Your Jeans

Saw this on Slashdot:

What You Eat Affects Your Genes

But really we all know that:

What You Eat Affects Your Jeans

Dial Your Smart Phone

2011-09-21T17:45:00.004-04:00

Dial Your Smart Phone

graphic from: http://www.openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/phone.png
http://www.openclipart.org/detail/74113/red-phone-by-pipeep
Drawn by: Benjamin Woodruff / pipeep

So here is a little idea, put an old style dial on a smart phone's touch enabled lcd. Allow the phone to be dialed complete with sound effects.

Hmm. Seems like someone already has one for the iPhone.

Begin And Persist

2011-09-17T14:35:00.003-04:00

Begin And Persist

I get tired of hearing about people sending out Cease And Desist notices to others. Especially as it relates to music, the arts, culture, and software.

So I had this wacky idea. It might be fun to send out Begin And Persist notices. If you are doing the Free (Free Culture - Free Software) thing in some area why not send out a Begin And Persist notice to friends asking them to begin sharing your work with others and to persist in doing so.

Let me know if you like the idea and if you decide to send out some notices of your own?

Let me know if you have any ideas for making this even better.

all the best,

drew

ISP Suggestion

2011-09-09T07:56:00.002-04:00

ISP Suggestion

OK, so I was just on hold for forever as a business cable modem was down this morning.

I was informed that it was a general problem with cable modem service for all areas and they did not have any idea yet as to when it might be fixed.

Fair enough.

The problem is that I might wait forever and not call back because I still have a problem when they think all is cured. Or, I may waste more hours calling back to check the situation when they are still working on it.

I suggested that they might want to give me a web page to check for status information. This seemed too much. I don't think it should be too much. Alternately, I could give an email address and they could email status updates.

They did let me leave a phone number and promised to call back when the fix was done but this seems to be sub-optimal for my case.

Perhaps they should consider offering all options to customers.

How does your ISP handle such issues? Telco? Other utility?

all the best,

drew

Online National Insurance Payments

2011-08-17T16:47:00.002-04:00

Online National Insurance Payments

So here is the deal Bahamas Government. Allow people to make their National Insurance payments online.

Let them fill out the forms online. Remember what they last filled in an pre-fill the form for them. Let them pay directly from their bank account to you.

I have a feeling that if you do this, you will have a lot of the small guys at least being more up to date with their payments.

Here is another little thought. Let people pay up to a year in advance and fill in the forms for up to a year in advance. Then make change forms available to them if needed.

all the best,

drew

AudioTrackComments

2011-07-15T09:48:00.000-04:00

AudioTrackComments

So I was reading this forum thread on Kompoz this morning and I had an idea.

I think there may be a non-SoundCloud way to get this done. On top of that, I think that besides being different, it may be better for what we would want it for on Kompoz.

So let's say we are listening to a particular track of Turn Off This Light and we can see that at the bottom we have a Add a Comment section with a Submit Comment button. All we would need is to add a radio button choice section:

[X] Entire Track [ ] Current location in track

We could default to Entire Track.

If we post a comment with the default, everything works as it currently does for Kompoz track comments. If we choose [X] Current location in track then a play button link gets added to the post which when clicked will begin playing at the spot where the posted had paused the track when making the post.

Is this explanation clear? Would this work for us?

all the best,

drew

Stronger Attribution-Share Alike For Photos & Illustrations

2011-04-19T08:47:00.001-04:00

Stronger Attribution-Share Alike For Photos & Illustrations

I have tried having this discussion on the Creative Commons mailing lists before but feel I have never even gotten to the point of being properly understood.

At the urging of Mike Linksvayer in a discussion on Identica, I am trying again.

@zotz … http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CC_Attribution-ShareAlike_Intent (3) says scope of copyleft will only increase…

@zotz … so make sure you campaign incessantly for increase in copyleft scope in 4.0 discussion. :-)

The Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license works well to preserve the Freedoms of people with respect to many types of copyrighted works.

It does not work nearly as well for photos and illustrations however. To show the problem we will take two similar situations and see how they differ.

1. A BY-SA licensed recorded song that someone wants to use in a film or video.

2. A BY-SA licensed photo that someone wants to use as an illustration in a book or article.

There seems to be wide agreement that in order to use the song in a video, the video will have to be put under the BY-SA license as well. There is even special language in the license to make this clear.

There also seems to be wide agreement that the same would not hold in the case of the photo in the book.

I would like it to hold in the second case as well as the first.

Up until now, every time I bring up this desire, people indicate that it is impossible as the licenses reciprocal provision kick in on the making of a derivative and in the first case, the law stipulates that a derivative is made while in the second case, no derivative is make according to the law.

That reasoning is fine and makes sense if one thinks that the making of a derivative is the only tools we can use to activate the reciprocal provisions of the license. I think there may be another possibility.

I propose an additional trigger in the license. It would work like this.

You have a right to copy and / or distribute the work alone. If you want to copy and distribute the work along with other copyrighted works, we contemplate two possibilities.

1. The group of works will be distributed together in such a way that no extra copyright comes into existence. In this case you have permission to copy and / or distribute the work.

2. The group of works will be distributed together in such a way that the group or collection or "container" gets a copyright of its own. In this case you do not have permission to copy and / or distribute the work unless the "container" is also put under a BY-SA license and all of the other works in the "container" are also under "Free" licenses.

So, we are not constrained to requiring a BY-SA license in the case of a derivative. By using the restrictions in copyright law on copying and distribution, we can require it in non-derivative situations.

That is the bones of the thoughts at least. I am looking for input along several lines.

1. Is this possible from a legal point of view?

2. Is there a better way to do this?

3. Should this be done?

4. Benefits of doing this?

5. Problems with / dangers of doing this?

6. Am I missing anything?

One Reason To Choose A Strong Copyleft License Over A Public Domain Dedication / Release

2011-04-16T10:30:00.001-04:00

StrongCopyleftVsPD

One Reason To Choose A Strong Copyleft License Over A Public Domain Dedication / Release

*Note: in my view, a license is not copyleft if it is not Free.

In today's copyright environment, a strong Copyright license is a beautiful thing. (I encourage you to consider putting one on your works.)

It is not a perfect thing however and there are some problems and issues that go along with it.

Doing your best to put your work in the "Public Domain" (See: The Corruption of Our 'Public Domain' · Thursday August 05, 2010 by Crosbie Fitch http://www.digitalproductions.co.uk/index.php?id=252 for thoughts on this) will overcome some of these problems but I think choosing a strong copyleft license instead is a better option. Why?

If a work is in the "Public Domain" (Not copyrighted, copyright has expired, or copyrights purposely given up / donated to 'the public' in some way) anyone can use if for any purpose. This includes making a derivative of it and obtaining a copyright on the derivative and making money on that derivative while declaring "All Rights Reserved". This includes those whom some refer to as "copyright maximalists" just to be clear.

If everyone who was opposed to copyright maximalism were to release their works under a strong copyleft license, we would build up a pool of works that would advantage those willing to play a #Free game over those who refused to do so.

Now, nothing would prevent a copyright maximalist from enjoying the benefits of a work under a strong copyleft or even profiting from it. However, if they choose to do so it might make it harder for them to claim that it is impossible to make a profit from a work with a Free license. It might make it harder for them to claim that we need even stronger protections and harsher punishments for people to be willing to create and to profit from their creations.

My gut tells me that we are unlikely to see copyright maximalists making derivatives of works with strong copyleft licenses in the near term. This is why I think such a pool would give advantages to those willing to play a #Free game in a way that a similar pool of public domain works will not give.

Such a pool could be a game changer. If you would like the game changed, consider adding your works to such a pool.

"Free Cultural Works" defined: http://freedomdefined.org/Definition

"Free Software" defined: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

AntiSpamIdea

2011-03-18T12:37:00.000-04:00

AntiSpamIdea

Anti Spam(er) Idea for Kompoz and other similar sites.

Give posts weights, somewhat like slashdot does but not with voting on posts like they do.

Known good users post at level 2.

New users and suspect users post at level 1.

Non-logged in users only see level 2 posts. Level 1 posts are invisible to the world.

Level 1 users see level 1 and level 2 posts.

Level 2 users default to seeing level 2 posts only but can change this behavior via a profile toggle.

Perhaps even have level 1 accounts invisible to the world?

all the best,

drew

Copyright Questions

2010-12-02T07:27:00.000-05:00

Copyright Questions

Well, I was searching some of my old domains on the internet archive this morning looking for something for my wife and I came across this old article from 2000 I think. Here is the link:

http://web.archive.org/web/20001213071000/www.cayspot.net/ii/zbro/copyrightq.php3

And here is the article:

Copyright Questions

Copyright Questions - and a few ramblings.

I was just reading an article posting over at Technocrat.Net and decided to finally get around to starting in on writing this. I have been meaning to start for ages now.

The article that prompted it was an editorial by Bruce on Music Bootlegging with Napster hurting Free Software.

This is not relevant to the rest of this piece, but why is there so little notice or discussion of the fact that there is almost no Free Music but there is a lot of Free Software. Where is the GPLed music distributed in source form? Is it that we don't have the tools to support a Free Music movement?

OK, here are the questions. If it would be better to think patent or some other mechanism (other than trade secret) in place of copyright, so be it. For each question, if you choose to send in the answers for inclusion, state whether you think it is moral/ethical, and whether you think it is legal or illegal in your country and whether it is legal or illegal in any other country. I am hoping to get a script online that can take responses. If you feel like knocking one up before I get to it, great. (I would prefer php, but any standard free solution will do.)

* Can I take a picture of a tree in a forest and sell or give away copies of the picture?
* Can I take a picture of a tree in someone's front lawn and sell or give away copies of the picture?
* Can I take a picture of a 'lion tree sculpture' in someone's front lawn adn sell or give away copies of the picture?
* Can I take a picture of an artist's oil painting and sell or give away copies of the picture?
* Can I take a picture of a sculptor's work and sell or give away copies of the picture?
* Can I take a picture of a model in a designer dress and sell or give away copies of the picture?
* Can I take a picture of a model in a designer dress and sell or give away copies of the picture with only the models permission?
* Can I take a picture of a building designed by an architect and sell or give away copies of the picture?
* Can I take a picture of a float in a parade and sell or give away copies of the picture?
* Can I take a picture of a room papered with designer wallpaper and sell or give away copies of the picture?
* Can I hear a joke and tell it to someone else?
* Can I hear a joke and tell it in a comedy club where I get paid for my act?
* Can I read a recipe in as copyrighted cookbook and make the dish for sale in my restaurant?
* Can I make a comedy version of a hot song and sell my version without paying anyone royalties?
* When a song is played on the radio, which of the following gets paid? The person who wrote the words, the person who wrote the music, the person who performed the song? The individuals who own the rights to the words, the music, the recording?
* If you commission a sculpture of your dog and the sculptor gives you the finished piece in raw marble, can you paint it to be lifelike and display it on your front lawn?
* Can I sing the latest hit song in my shower?
* Can I get together with my friends and sing the latest hit song in my living room?
* Can I get together with my friends and sing the latest hit song on the street corner for free?
* Can I get together with my friends and sing the latest hit song on the street corner and accept donations in a hat?
* Can I get together with my friends and sing the latest hit song in a club for free?
* Can I get together with my friends and sing the latest hit song in a club and get paid?
* Can I recite the words to a current hit song in a poetry reading contest?
* Can I recite the words to a poem my friend wrote (without their permission) in a poetry reading contest?
*
*
*
*

I hope this helps to get someone thinking. Please feel free to help me make this clearer or suggest new questions if you can. Also, feel free to treat this as if it had been GPLed for now. Still looking for the best GPL like license for non-programs.

--------

Thoughts? (Fixed a few spelling mistakes.)

Offline Scrobbling Idea

2010-10-12T17:00:00.008-04:00

Offline Scrobbling Idea for libre.fm from portable music devices.

Offline Scrobbling Idea by drew Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

OK, so I was playing music on my son's Zen today for him while he was doing some of his homework. This idea came to me.

Why not have device makers accumulate scrobbling data while not connected to the net and then allow the resulting file to be processed by the device or the user's PC at a later time?

Thoughts on this idea appreciated.

all the best,

drew

Care about FreeArt?

2010-10-03T19:12:00.004-04:00

Care about FreeArt?

Care about FreeArt? by drew Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

If you care about Free Art it might make sense to give as much of your attention budget as possible to those making it. Make it a non-zero amount.

Your attention includes promoting it to others.

Some of your monetary budget might be a good idea too but I figure your attention budget might be more important.

If you prefer to think of Free Culture or a subset such as Free Music, cool.

If You Have Something Important To Say, Set It Free!

2010-07-07T18:28:00.002-04:00

If You Have Something *Important* To Say, Set It Free!

If You Have Something *Important* To Say, Set It Free! by drew Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

If you have something important to say, set it Free using something like the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License or their Attribution License.

If you are unwilling to set it Free, don't expect me to think you think it is important. To me, you are saying that money is more important to you than your message. Forgive me if I don't spend my time, which I value, on your message.

all the best,

drew

License for this post: Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

EDL (edit decision list) Audio player functionality

2010-05-22T15:30:00.007-04:00

EDL (edit decision list) Audio player functionality

EDL (edit decision list) Audio player functionality by drew Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

What I started looking for is an audio player that can do for audio when mplayer can do for video as described here:

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/edl.html

It would be so simple if mplayer would do this for audio as well as video but it does not seem to want to.

Cannot use EDL without video, disabling.

So. I have been on a twisty journey for a few days but it looks like I have found a workable if sub-optimal solution.

I can do the thing with ecasound and ewf files and ecaplay to play multiple ewf files one after the other.

Now, can I hack up a quick utility to take the edl file that I can create in mplayer even though I can't use it there and write multiple ewf files for ecaplay to play for me.

I really want something simpler and cross platform.

Why can't mplayer do this for audio only? Does anyone know of another Free Software player that can do this?

I will update this post as I get new info and include any script I come up with as well. (Or a link to the script)

all the best,

drew

Edit: here is a pastebin link to the code in case there are problems with cop and paste below.

Edit: (this is my first working demo, hopefully the formatting will not bork things)

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

# ecaedl.pl
# script to take an mplayer created edl file
# and the corresponding audio file and write
# a series of ecasound ewf files to match
# mplayer's edl file and then play them in
# sequence with ecaplayer

use strict;

use Getopt::Long;
use File::Basename;

my ($help, $edl, $audfile, $result, $line, @lines, @parts, $numfiles, $oom, $efw, $efwo, $outfile, $name, $dir, $ext, @args);

sub usage
{
print "Unknown option: @_\n" if ( @_ );
print "usage: program [--edl edlfilename ] [--audfile audfilename] [--help|-h|-?]\n";
exit;
}

usage() if ( ! GetOptions('help|h|?' => \$help, 'edl=s' => \$edl, 'audfile=s' => \$audfile) or defined $help or ! defined $edl or ! defined $audfile);

print "$edl\n";
print "$audfile\n";
($name,$dir,$ext) = fileparse($edl,'\..*');
print "dir is $dir, name is $name, extension is $ext\n";

open(EDLF, $edl);
@lines = <EDLF>;
close(EDLF);
$numfiles = scalar @lines;
$oom = length($numfiles);
print "The number of files is $numfiles, order of magnitude $oom\n";

$efw = 1;
$efwo = substr("00000000$efw",-$oom);
print "$efwo\n";

for $line (@lines) {
@parts = split(/ /, $line);
$outfile = $name.$efwo."."."ewf";
print "Outfile = $outfile\n";
open(EDWF, ">$outfile");
print EDWF "source = $audfile\n";
print EDWF "start-position = $parts[0]\n";
print EDWF "length = $parts[1]\n";
close(EDWF);
$efw = $efw + 1;
print "efw is now $efw\n";
$efwo = substr("00000000$efw",-$oom);
print "$efwo\n";
system("ecaplay $outfile");
}

Gated Punch In / Punch Out idea for ardour / traverso / qtractor / etc

2010-05-21T20:05:00.001-04:00

Gated Punch In / Punch Out idea for ardour / traverso / qtractor / etc

Gated Punch In / Punch Out idea for ardour / traverso / qtractor / etc by drew Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

So, am I ignorant and does this idea already exist?

Or, is this a foolish idea and not worth considering?

Or... (hopefully this one if not the first) would this be a cool addition to the feature set of a Digital Audio Workstation?

What I have in mind is an auto punch in and punch out but rather being keyed off of predefined ranges, it will be controlled by a noise gate. When a threshold is exceeded we punch in and when we drop below the threshold, we punch out.

Thoughts?

all the best,

drew

Advertising Flyer Idea

2010-01-20T15:44:00.001-05:00

Advertising Flyer Idea

Advertising Flyer Idea by drew Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

OK, so the other day (you got me, the other week, I have been putting this write up off for too long now) I came down from work to find a flyer in my windshield. Now I really don't like getting these things but I have handed out a good amount in my younger days so, whatever...

This one was printed on both sides and so became instant garbage... What a waste. So I got to thinking and figured that printing it on both sides increased the chances of it being waste. Now, I can see the appeal of printing it on both sides as when placed under a wiper on a windshield (this is where I met the one in question) as the offer can be seen by those passing as well as the poor driver from the inside who got in before thinking to remove it.

The thing is, is this worth it if the things gets trashed right away. What a waste indeed.

So here is the idea:

Print only one side with you intended ad or offer. Print the other side with lines (think note paper) and your logo and phone number. Now instead of trashing your flyer, there is a decent chance I will take it home to use as note paper. Now your logo and contact info will be before me. Possible for a good while to come.

Just a thought for you Flyer Distributors. No Charge...

all the best,

drew

Dirty Words

2010-01-02T14:57:00.001-05:00

Dirty Words

Dirty Words by drew Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Hey advertisers. You want to sell me something? Well, I know you think when you use words like "proprietary" and "patented" or "patent pending" that it will enhance the image of what you are selling and make it seem more desirable to me. That such words will make me want your goods more and make me want to buy them but I have a little secret for you.

Those are "dirty words" to me. They are "turn off" words. They make me want to avoid your stuff. I do appreciate you telling me the facts though so that I can more easily avoid your stuff. I would hate for your stuff to be polluted with such stuff but you not tell me about it. That would make it harder to avoid your stuff.

So, do your best to leave such out of your products and tell me about *that* and I will be more likely to buy from you.

Just some food for thought.

all the best,

drew

The GPL And Copyright Assignment

2009-12-23T14:09:00.002-05:00

The GPL And Copyright Assignment

The GPL And Copyright Assignment by drew Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

So I was reading this post over at identica and decided to do this quick write up as I did not feel like fighting with the 140 character limit.

I have been pondering this issue for a long time now but somehow perhaps never got around to writing about it or if I did, I forget where.

My thought is that coders should require a binding covenant from the party being assigned the copyrights such that the rights will return to them should there be a breach of the covenant.

The covenant should stipulate that the part and anyone related can never maintain two code bases, one under the GPL and an "enhanced" one available under non-GPL terms only.

I have a feeling that there may be some dirty tricks that can be played to get around the intent of this so it bears some thinking through and discussion.

Now, one possibility to not making such an assignment is to put up patches hosted elsewhere by all coders who want this equality and see if a critical mass of patches is created as a result.

all the best,

drew

Idea for free.domain.abc

2009-12-16T16:59:00.001-05:00

Idea for free.domain.abc

Idea for free.domain.abc by drew Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

This is an idea for sites hosting music, arr, software or whatever under a combination of Free and non-Free licenses.

Consider Jamendo as an example.

currently at http://www.jamendo.com/

my suggestion is to have the current URL but as well:

http://free.jamendo.com/
http://nonfree.jamendo.com/

so that if you go to free.jamendo.com the site will look and act the same except that all non-free content will be filtered out and if you go to nonfree.jamendo.com then all the free content will be filtered out.

Personally I only care for free.jamendo.com and can't see why anyone would want to visit nonfree.jamendo.com instead of www.jamendo.com but I include it here for completeness.

I would like to see kompoz, ccmixter, flickr, youtube and wherever function in this way as well. Kompoz possibly with some slight tweaks as it is a place for collaboratively making music together and may need a refined approach to this.

all the best,

drew

BIFF Idea

2009-12-14T14:33:00.001-05:00

BIFF Idea

BIFF Idea by drew Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

My wife won a Directors Pass to the Bahamas International Film Festival earlier in the year and I have been going to some of the events.

I attended all of the Discussion Panels at the National Art Gallery Of The Bahamas on saturday and Sunday and enjoyed them all.

Saturday's lineup was:

Art Of Collaboration
Film Financing
Filmmaking In The Caribbean

Sunday's lineup was:

Screenwriting
Music And Film

I would say that Sunday's panels were of more value to me personally but Saturdays were perhaps a bit more entertaining.

I had an idea for next year which I shared at the discussion on Music and Film which I want to put down here for further exploration and development. (Future years too if it works out.)

The basic idea is this:

Local Music Showcase for BIFF writers, producers, and directors.

Arrange for one session where local bands can perform their own music for BIFF attendees and a DJ can also play some music for bands who cannot attend but who want their music considered for use in future films by BIFF attendees. This music could be used in films to be shot here in the islands but need not be limited to such use.

all the best,

drew

Open Core Model and Software Quality - the Open Software Take

2009-12-07T18:52:00.003-05:00

Open Core Model and Software Quality - the Open Software Take

Open Core Model and Software Quality - the Open Software Take by drew Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Off the top let me say that I am more of a Free Software guy than an Open Source Software guy. (I get that the licenses basically make them one and the same code wise, I am talking about outlook wise.)

Given that, I am going to try and argue this from the Open Source Software viewpoint. Given that I don't generally spend a lot of time thinking of things from this point of view, I welcome corrections / refinements from those who do.

Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.

from Open Source Initiative

Reason No. 5 to Move to Open Source, Better Quality

Now, I may not be paying enough attention when I come across software using the Open Core Model, but from what I see it is often offered in a community version and an enterprise version.

I take it that the community version is under an approved Open Source license which is generally (always?) also an approved Free Software license. I further take it that the enterprise edition is not under such a license.

So, thinking on this a bit, if the Open Source guys are correct, then the business following the open core model is offering to the community higher quality software (often for no cost) and to the enterprise lower quality software for a price. Will they admit that, or will they deny the better quality argument and say that the enterprise version is of equal or better quality?

If you can think of any improvements to this line of thinking, please let me know.

all the best,

drew

Distripedia

2009-11-28T08:32:00.002-05:00

Announcing Distripedia!

Announcing Distripedia! by drew Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

A first crack at a distributed, crowd sourced and perhaps crowd funded encyclopedia. (I had to get in a buzz word or two but they are not offtopic.)

So, let's say you want to write a distripedia article on a subject. Cool. Write the thing.

Then tag it and put it one the web somewhere that the search engines can index it.

First thought is to tag it something like this:

[distripedia:science:physics:gravity:(authors:author1:author2)]

You can decide if you will be the sole author of the article or if you will write it with the help of a team.

Thoughts?

[edit: I set up a blog for discussing and refining the idea - Distripedia]

all the best,

drew

Is Copyright Dangerous To Democracy?

2009-11-24T06:04:00.004-05:00

Is Copyright Dangerous To Democracy?

Is Copyright Dangerous To Democracy? by drew Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

In light of recently reported things like the play in the "Digital Economy Bill" in the UK or the secret ACTA negotiations, I wonder if copyright is a danger to democracy.

Britain's new Internet law

Radioactive assumptions in the Digital Economy Bill

Mandy and Me: some thoughts on the Digital Economy Bill

Mandelson's 'three strikes' rule in jeopardy

Digital economy bill: A punishing future

Mandleson, ethics, culture, commerce and copyright law

No, ACTA Secrecy Is Not 'Normal' -- Nor Is It A 'Distraction'

Hollywood: Never Mind the Transparency, Here's the ACTA

Stopping the ACTA Juggernaut

Brazil, Pakistan Criticize “One Size Fits All” Piracy Solution

Copyright overreach goes on world tour

What are they telling us? That the only way to protect their copyrights is to gut democracy? To gut freedom? To gut privacy? To gut free speech?

(Hopefully more to come...)

Sourceforge Survey Request

2009-11-05T16:50:00.001-05:00

So I got an email from sourceforge today about participating in a survey.

"I would like to request your participation in a survey that SourceForge is doing in cooperation with Professor Charles Schweik and his team at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

We are asking you to answer some questions about zbcw, a SourceForge project you are, or were, associated with.

...

The survey will take approximately 25 minutes to complete. As a thank-you for your participation, you will receive a small token of our appreciation upon completing the survey.

..."

OK, so I appreciate the hosting I get at sourceforge and so I clicked the link to take the survey. On the second page in before I hit the first question, I ran into this:

"3. Benefits: We do not anticipate a direct benefit to you for completing the survey, however, you will be providing valuable information that will be published in a forthcoming book (hopefully published in an open access e-book format) on open source collaboration. In addition, we will make our results and reports available as soon as possible at www.umass.edu/digitalcenter/ossuccess."

Fail.

If they will commit to publishing under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license or a reasonable equivalent, I would love to take the survey.

Also, I went to reply to the sourceforge email to tell them this but it was from a noreply address... So I am posting to my little blog instead. Perhaps someone concerned will come upon it.

And sourceforge, the offer of an unnamed small token of your appreciation is more of an insult than an inducement to someone like me. Just a data point that you might want to take into consideration for future mailings.

Just in case it is unclear to anyone, all of this is posted with well wishes and good intentions in the hopes that it can help improve things for the future.

all the best,

drew

ps. zbcw is zotzBrothers Chess War

New 3 Strikes Law Proposals

2009-10-26T08:08:00.000-04:00

Ok, so here is my first 3 Strikes Law proposal.

Any corporation accused three times of incorrectly issuing DMCA take down notices loses the right to issue such notices in the future. To make this easy to check on, the copyright office will keep a list of corporations that are ineligible to issue such notices.

Can you think of any good 3 strikes proposals? ~;-)

drew

Idea for Libre.fm

2009-10-24T14:51:00.000-04:00

Idea for Libre.fm

"Who listens to" feature for libre.fm

Add this thought to the libre.fm wiki.

Have each page for a song show a tag cloud depicting who listens to the song. Larger tags means more listens. (Or a larger percentage of personal listens.) Click on the user/name tag and go to a page showing what all that person listens to. (Make this filterable wrt Free.)

I have been thinking about this since I first emailed it to myself this morning. I think if there is to be only one of the two possibilities above, it should be the percentage one, but perhaps this could be a toggle instead.

all the best,

drew

Kompoz @ School

2009-10-03T17:06:00.001-04:00

Kompoz @ School

Copyright 2009, drew Roberts
Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

On making use of Kompoz for music classes in school and for classes in music school.

I think kompoz and music classes or kompoz and music school is a great fit. I will likely ramble a bit in the first draft of this document as I try to get ideas down and brainstorm in public. If there is any interest, I will then try and do a better draft in a more ordered fashion.

* copyright permission paper for underage students?

* teacher can download seps and make mixes missing the part that their student plays and let them play with the band so to speak.

* students can be given the assignment to make tabs for their part of any project track.

* students can be given the assignment to make sheet music for their part of any project track.

(more to come)

Citizen Exchange Program

2009-09-27T10:36:00.001-04:00

Citizen Exchange Program

I have long floated the idea of a "Citizen Exchange Program" for the Bahamas.

In this, we would agree with various countries that on passing tourist visit requirements, citizens from differing, participating countries can trade places.

Want to move to Canada to live and work? Simple, just find a Canadian who wants to live and work here. Go down and make your exchange intentions known and away you go. The only time this could be blocked is if one of the people could not visit the other country as a tourist for criminal or similar reasons.

This should eliminate the "letting people in to take our jobs" objection to a large extent. This should also make it easier for people to try living in various countries without the current levels of red tape.

Thoughts?

Edit: I have always before thought of this in light of people wanting to exchange on a long term or permanent basis. Just after initially posting this here this morning though, I wondered if it might also work on a much shorter term basis. Say you were a US band and wanted to play a gig in the Bahamas. Just hook up with a Bahamian band wanting to play a gig in the US and away you go with nothing more than tourist visiting ability and notification of intent needed because of the reciprocal nature of the situation.

drew

Money and Demotivation

2009-09-21T07:41:00.000-04:00

Money and Demotivation

Money is often seen as a motivator, but how often do you consider its ability to demotivate.

Kompoz has just made some changes (Kompoz 2.0) that will allow for possibly making it easier to make some money with the music we make there.

I think some of us who love what we have found at kompoz instinctively know that this can be a dangerous time. Brannon started this discussion in the recording and engineering group: Can you mix and master? and in a blog post: Money is here.

I have started thinking of money as a motivator and as a demotivator and as a uniter and as a divider or sower of discord.

Some links found while searching the web:

Q: What sort of bonuses should we pay?

Motivation Myths

Motivators & Demotivators of Life

An old post of mine elsewhere with some more links

Don't Let These 3 Deadly Demotivators Defeat You

I hope to write more on this soon. Time is passing way too fast this morning.

drew

Publicly Funded Copyleft

2009-09-15T08:27:00.000-04:00

Publicly Funded Copyleft

OK, I posted this initially in response to this at BoingBoing:

All publicly funded content should be in the public domain.

Not sure if they will accept my anonymous post so I am posting here and hopefully expanding this soon.

"Given it receives public funding, I say it should rather be Free and Copyleft. Keep it away from monopoly plays in the future until the copyright runs out.

Also: More Bang For Your Donation Buck!
http://zotzbro.blogspot.com/2009/09/more-bang.html

For a real contrarian possibility, how about we start treating the public domain as a copyleft commons owned jointly(?) by the public where anyone can build on what is in it for further copyleft works but if you want a traditional copyright on a work you have to start from scratch or from other copyright works that start from scratch.

drew"

Fixed a few typos too.

drew

More Bang For Your Donation Buck!

2009-09-08T21:55:00.001-04:00

More Bang For Your Donation Buck!

Do you support the arts? Here is an idea that you may want to consider. You can perhaps make your support go further and do more good this way.

Make it a condition of your support for artists (I am really thinking here of struggling, up and coming artists looking to catch their first break and make a name for themselves, but perhaps it makes sense for all of them) that they license the copyrights to their *supported* works to the world under a Free and Copyleft license such as the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.

This way, your donation will not only go to support the artist in question right now, it will also provide something to the people of the world until...

If you wonder if you should jump into this at the deep end with all of your donations to the arts and wonder if it makes sense, perhaps start by allocating a certain percentage of your arts funding, say 10% or more for such a project until you get a feel for how it works and if it makes sense for your support goals.

all the best,

drew

Watch and Learn

2009-08-24T11:48:00.000-04:00

OK, this is a bit of an odd idea perhaps.

Develop "modules" to allow an internet broadcast of a developer at work. Say they program in vi or emacs (no wars please) then the module / feature would allow for them to stream their work to a server that people could log in to and watch them at work.

I will flesh this out some more later I hope. I just wanted to jot it down before I forgot it.

drew

Ideas for libre.fm

2009-08-24T07:36:00.000-04:00

OK, so just one idea for now but I hope to add more as time goes by.

1. Have the song page where you can stream the jamendo (or other) tunes from pull in and show the lyrics (if any) from the corresponding jamendo page. See:

Lorenzo's Music - it could be you - libre.fm page

and

Lorenzo's Music - it could be you - jamendo lyrics page

It would be nice to be able to see the lyrics while the song is playing.

drew

Standard Terms Of Service Documents?

2009-07-07T06:40:00.000-04:00

in the long run, it might make sense for the community to develop standard TOS documents for sites to adopt unchanged and in a certifiable manner.

If you think about it a bit, the current situation is absurd on the face of it.

All your life you are told that you should get a lawyer's advice before signing contracts and the like.

So now we have the internet. And we agree to TOS documents and the like online like it is going out of style. Many are long and complex and include other long and complex agreements by reference.

OK, so who calls their lawyer in or sends the TOS along to their lawyer for an opinion before clicking "I agree" on every site they want to join? Who even reads and makes a concerted effort to study and understand the things themselves before they click on agree? Who even reads all of the documents themselves in their entirety before clicking I agree. Many claim to be modifiable by the other party whenever they wish and that we are responsible for keeping up to date on the changes in various ways. And really, who monitors the things for changes and goes through the whole process again on any change?

We need a few, clearly written TOS documents designed to protect the users but also allow the businesses / web sites to profitably function. Then business that want to can adopt these TOS unchanged and display a logo to that effect.

Then the users can get their legal advice if they wish on the few largely unchanging TOS they use and use sites accordingly.

This may be too much to hope for, but the current situation is likely going to end in much heartache on the part of many in the long run.

all the best,

drew

Idea for a Feature for Ardour and Traverso

2009-05-16T13:10:00.000-04:00

Idea for a feature for Ardour and Traverso.

Short link to image

Full link to image

Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

OK, so I use ardour and traverso depending on who knows what.

I record a band at gigs.

When I get back with the recording, I often have multiple CDs worth of material recorded. What I do for them is go through and mark up the recording to just get the songs and leave out all the between song chatter, noise during breaks etc.

I like ardour's way of doing this way more than traverso's.

So I would like to see traverso changed to do this more like ardour.

However, if you look at the quick and dirty little gimp work I did for the image here in this post you will get an idea of what I think would be an improvement to even the way ardour does this.

Ardour runs into a problem for me when I get more than one CD's worth of songs. I suggest adding a field at the start of each range line (Title is Disc and I have 1 and 2 in the graphic) by which we can indicate which CD the song belongs to.

The if we have more than one CD indicated, when we export the TOC, multipls TOC files will be exported from which we can burn multiple CDs.

If this is not clear, let me know and I will try and improve the explanation.

(May 17 edit)

Just having a chat with remon in IRC this morning about this and came up with the idea to have traverso let you mark "sheet ranges" and then auto create sheets and populate them with the marked ranges as a part of this workflow and especially one where further recording worm might be done to the songs.

Then remon had the idea to remerge the sheets back to a new master sheet for the mastering stage.

all the best,

drew

Open Core Model Is Bogus

2009-05-11T19:18:00.000-04:00

To my way of thinking, the "Open Core Model" Is Bogus.

To me, on of the key benefits of Free Software is the lack of vendor lock in.

The "Open Core Model" wants me to forgo that benefit if I need the advanced features. Well, if I am going to give up that benefit, then what benefit is the open core to me anyway? I might as well look at the fully proprietary software in that space. (I don't think so, not if there is a Free alternative.) So, in asking me to give up one of my key benefits, they lose one of their key selling points.

Plus, The mixing of Free and non-Free this way leads me not to trust them or the software they are peddling.

drew

Midnight Freedom Show 1

2009-05-11T18:14:00.000-04:00

Midnight Freedom Show 1

OK, so since the beginning of the year, I have had a small radio show that airs at around midnight every night on Y98.7 in Nassau Bahamas.

Now, I am no big time DJ by any means but I may have learned a thing or two in the time I have been doing the show and I would like to pass on some ideas for people doing the Free Music thing and who would like to get their song played on the radio at least once.

The way the show works so far is that I play a different song that has been released under a Free License every night at around midnight. Hence the Midnight Freedom Show. Because of this I find myself spending a large proportion of the time I devote to the show looking for and listening to Free Music to see if it fits the format of the station and is OK for the radio.

Some days I have less time than other days and this brings me to a small bit of advice.

If you have your music someplace like Jamendo, Kompoz, ccMixter, MacJams, or the like, you will have a greater chance of getting played by people doing what I do if you have accurate lyrics posted for your songs.

If I am rushed for time and I am considering two songs, one with lyrics and one without, I may end up picking the one with lyrics even if I don't like it quite as much musically. I will not put on something that is "bad" musically or doesn't fit, even if it has lyrics, but for two comparable songs and in a rush, the one with accurate lyrics wins.

I will try to update the show tips as I can.

drew

Music Player Idea

2009-04-25T08:40:00.000-04:00

Not sure how to best title this.

The basic idea is this:

On the "song" side - supply "DJ" metadata in the audio file, either audio metadata with a human DJ or text metadata for the DJ purpose.

One the "player" side - have a "DJ button that can be toggled.

If the button is engaged before a song starts playing, the DJ will announce the song before playing the song.

If the button is engaged while a song is playing, the DJ will announce the song that just played after it ends and then switch to the previous mode of announcing before the songs.

If the button is engaged and released while a song is playing, the DJ will announce the song that just played after it ends but will not announce further songs as the button is not engaged.

If the button is not engaged, only the songs will play.

The "DJ" metadata could not only give song title, artist, album but give artist influences and the other info a good radio DJ gives.

If the DJ metadata is audio, the player can play it like it plays the song itself. If it is text, the player will need to be able to do text to speech.

Actually, it might make sense to have text metadata along with any audio metadata and have the player scroll that during song playback no matter the state of the DJ button.

Thoughts and improvement ideas please.

drew

Commitment To Freedom

2009-03-21T14:13:00.000-04:00

Commitment To Freedom

I think these ideas may have broader application but that remains to be seen.

I think too often we are faced with "one way" contracts and ones that we have no hope in understanding in aggregate in our day to day lives. I have been pondering this problem and approaches to solutions for some time now. My thinking is still fuzzy and unfinished but I want to put some ideas down to see if I can get more help from others.

What I am thinking of involves Individual Commitments To Freedom that people and companies can make (and we need to figure a way to make these binding) so that people dealing with them can have a level of comfort in their dealings with those who have made such commitments.

I am also thinking of having contracts and terms of service etc developed by citizens and then adopted by companies willing to Commit to Freedom.

More later.

drew

Thoughts on FreeCC

2009-03-21T13:45:00.000-04:00

Creative Commons develops and maintains a range of "licenses" some that people consider Free and some that they consider non-Free.

I am interested in the Free ones and in promoting the same. Especially their Attribution-Share Alike license(s).

I think that they could do more to promote Freedom or to let those of us that want to have an "official spot" in the cc space to do so. I intend to put down some ideas here on how I think things can be improved.

1. establish a FreeCC logo and branding for a start.

2. Within the FreeCC area, #cc could try some things like this: http://ur1.ca/2eti to help guide people to Free where appropriate.

3. Run a ccFreeMixter site separate from the ccMixter site. The ccFreeMixter site would offer BY and BY-SA licenses only.

4. Work with content hosting and similar entities such that a person using BY or BY-SA on their works need give no other rights to the companies to participate. Help these entities to figure out how to go about their business and earn their revenue streams without needing more rights to the works than BY or BY-SA provide.

5. Work diligently to develop and promote the use of various "best practice". For instance, official Creative Commons "communications" should stop the practice of saying "xyz had been released under a Creative Commons License" and should instead say "xyz has been released under a Free (or non-Free) Creative Commons License" or just spell out the license. Then, after setting a good example, push for this to be adopted as standard operating procedure by all cc license using entities.

... more to come.

drew

Crazy Idea for Musicians, Artists, Etc.

2009-03-17T18:00:00.000-04:00

OK, so I know it is a bit off the wall but hey, I figure at least it is firmly outside of the box.

I will use a singer/songwriter by way of example.

The next time you record and release a song, buy a lottery ticket for the song. Frame the lyric and put the ticket inside. Give yourself two chances to make it big with the song. Actually, there may be some synergy in this that might multiply your chances. (I will leave that up comments to begin to flesh out.)

drew
http://zotz.kompoz.com

Project Forking Idea for Kompoz

2009-02-18T22:26:00.000-05:00

posted in thread here

I would like to see kompoz also develop the ability to fork projects, both into new projects and into sub projects.

I would also like to see the ability to import tracks with "compatible" licenses into any project or sub project, keeping the original license for the track but using the new license (if different) for the new project and any new submission.

This would add some sweet new abilities here at kompoz.

drew

Laconica - ideas

2009-02-14T09:30:00.000-05:00

I had an idea for improving Laconica.

Have a button for copy with attribution and license.

Clicking this would pop up a window to copy and paste from with info in the window on license and all data necessary for license compliance.

This would make it easy to re-use the content while complying with the license.

drew

Linux Music / Audio Program Idea

2009-02-06T11:57:00.000-05:00

OK,

I have had this idea kicking around in my head for a good number of years now and have spoken about it with various people from time to time.

I decided to document it here to see if it might help get things moving.

I am speaking from ignorance so let me know if I cam out in left field with this.

The idea is to play a note on the PC or on an external source. If from the external source, determine the frequency of the note.

Display the note as a coloured line in the centre of the display window. (Time on the horizontal axis, Frequency on the vertical axis.

Let a person try to sing the note.

If the note is played above then feed the played version in on the left channel and the sung version in on the right if needed.

determine the frequency of the note sung and display the note as a different coloured line in the display window. Above the centre line if the sung note is higher in frequency, below if lower.

I think the thing to do would be to have the colour change to a lighter version of the centre colour the higher the sung note gets and to a darker version of the centre colour the lower the sung note gets. when the notes match, the lines and colours will meet and match.

Is that clear?

Does something exist in the Free Software world that can do this now?

Do the parts already exist from which such an app can be cobbled together easily and quickly?

Thoughts?

Edit: I think it might be a worthwhile idea to have each target note be represented by a different base colour.

all the best,

drew

Remix me on ccmixter.org

2009-01-02T17:54:00.000-05:00

Have a go. Or try one of my kompoz projects. www.kompoz.com

drew

Thoughts on Corporate Reform

2008-11-24T20:10:00.000-05:00

Well, here is a quick beginning brain dump with one new idea from today.

1. Only single purpose corporations allowed. (to be traded publicly???) (And the purpose must be narrowly defined.)

2. Only real live humans can own common or voting stock in corporations. Other non-huma legal entities can only own stock that cannot vote.

3. No corporation will be allowed to grow to be big enough that the country cannot afford to let it fail. (This is the new idea from today.)

drew

Ideas for getting free software written for your market or industry

2008-10-17T21:58:00.000-04:00

Ideas for getting free software written for your market or industry

Well, I intended to write this up today but it looks like it will have to wait for an edit tomorrow.

But one quick idea is for those in industries with industry associations to fund and co-ordinate the software through the association.

Free the Elevator Music!

2008-09-23T07:16:00.000-04:00

~;-)

OK, so this is half in jest.

I was reading slashdot this morning and came on this article:

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/22/2254228

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/mendelson_div_conq.html

and I thought, hold on... Hey! You other businessmen need to pay attention! This is how the businessmen taking the course are going to try and take your money from your businesses for the benefit of theirs. To reduce your bottom line in order to pad theirs.

And so I thought, what if we started a movement to provide businesses of the world with Free (and free, or Libre (and gratis) ) elevator music.

Would this make things clearer for the average businessman? Would they see how foolish it was to be worrying about Free music having a negative effect on their business? Would it be easier to see a course showing the elevator music making companies how to fight the Free Music for elevator folks for what it is?

I wonder...

all the best,

drew

Inter Discipline Synergy?

2008-09-15T15:43:00.000-04:00

Specifically Novels and Music in respect to NaNoWriMo and Kompoz.

The idea in a nutshell.

NaNo novelists may write song lyrics as a part of their novel. They will license these (the lyrics, not necessarily their whole novel) as cc BY or cc BY-SA. There will be a place in the forums on kompoz or nano or better yet some shared forum where lyrics written each day may be posted.

Kompozers, for their part who wish to take part, will choose from the lyrics each day and try to have a song done around those lyrics by the next day. This song(s) will featured each day on the nano site.

Alternately, for the NaNo novelists who do not wish to write lyrics themselves, there can be daily suggestions on the kompoz site for BY and BY-SA songs whose lyrics may be included in their novels. (Special permission must be granted by the lyricists putting forward BY-SA licensed suggestions to include the lyrics in an all rights reserved (or other licensed) novel.)

Thoughts?

Kompoz post: http://www.kompoz.com/compose-collaborate/topicId-2041/messages.forum

NaNo post: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/2015598">

drew

Lyrical Doings

2008-09-12T17:44:00.000-04:00

Well, I keep on writing. Some are slowly turning into musical works.

Hopefully, more to come,

drew

Online Collaboration Meets Online Business

2008-03-04T12:06:00.000-05:00

So here is something I want. We shall see if I will find it when I go looking or if I have to push for it to come into being.

What I have in mind is for online businesses to deal with online collaborators who deal in informal collaborations.

For example, I just made an albun in February 2008 with The Linux Audio Users Chillout Band:

Album Page

What might be nice is if we could put adsense elements on the pages we wish and tell adsense what profit sharing breakdown we want. Then they would pay us as individuals.

I would like something similar for CDBaby, iTunes, etc.

That way, on our side, we would not need some legal entity set up to get paid and then distribute the proceeds, or one of us would not have to deal with the tax implications of getting paid for all of us and then sending on the cuts.

It would make life much simpler for informal collaborations of collaborations with a high flux rate.

drew

Wild Idea - Opt In Income Tax For The Bahamas

2008-02-20T20:10:00.000-05:00

OK, I had this wild idea the other day. I meant to write it up before now, but I am working on the RPM08 challenge with an online band.

http://www.rpmchallenge.com/component/option,com_comprofiler/task,userProfile/user,2958/Itemid,1/

So. What if we were to offer Opt In, flat rate income tax to those who would choose to pay it for their own reasons.

We could let them opt in.

We could let them choose from among a series of rates:

1%, 2%, 3%, 5%, 7%, 10%, 15%, 20%.

No deductions. No audits.

You tell us your income. You tell us the rate you want to pay. You pay the amount that comes to.

We give you a certificate indicating your claimed income, your tax rate, the amount you paid in taxes.

If we want, we could go further...

We could allow people who pay this optional income tax to determine where / how, their tax dollars get spent in a very direct manner. Either all of it or part of it. I need to think some more about that.

Say the government could set up categories:

Education, Police, Environment, Roads, Infrastructure. Whatever.

Then the tax payer could indicate what they want the tax to go to.

Or perhaps half can be sent to local government in the location of their choice directly and the other half to those categories.

Thoughts???

Now, before you call me crazy and ask me why in the world anyone would possibly choose to pay an optional income tax, think about how the world works and see if you can come up with any setups where a person/corporation might be able to benefit themselves by choosing to pay an income tax here...

all the best,

drew

eReaders and eBooks

2007-11-18T08:30:00.000-05:00

Here is an idea for all of the companies trying to get this right.

You need a great reader at a great price. This $400 reader I just heard about from Amazon is not the great price by a long shot. $50 sounds ball park off the top of my head. $100 might be pushing it at today's dollar value for my part of the world.

eBooks should be way less than regular books people.

Have every regular book come with an eBook in a sleeve in the back or have a code printed in it that allows for a free download of the book.

Why this last bit? Best of both worlds for people who like physical books. You get the physical book with all of its advantages, plus you get the eBook with all of the searching, bookmarking, cross referencing possibilities.

Stop thinking about how to milk the people. We are not your cows and goats. Give the people a product that will make things better for them and settle for an honest, decent profit while doing so.

drew

Check my NaNoWriMo Novel in progress:
http://dangernovel.blogspot.com/
Danger - A Safe Bahamian Novel

NaNoWriMo around the corner...

2007-09-05T19:26:00.000-04:00

Well,

I just got my ML email for this year's NaNoWriMo this morning. If I am going to make a good run at things this year, I feel like I will need to go into November with more of a plot and character plans than I have done so far.

Hey people from the Bahamas... why not take a shot at writing a novel of your won this November? Join the fun... join the pain...

all the best,

drew

Simple Idea For Patent Reform

2007-06-08T07:37:00.000-04:00

Simple Idea For Patent Reform... Would it help?

So am am reading an article on slashdot this morning:

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/08/0012231

about amazon's 1-click patent getting a continuation.

Change the law such that from now on, all patent applications must specify whether they are for defensive purposes only or not.

Patents for defensive purposes only:

Cannot be used to bring an action against anyone, they can only be used against someone who has brought an action against you. (Still wondering if this should be limited to a patent action against you.)

Last twice as long as regular patents.

Regular patents not for defensive purposes only:

Are examined much more carefully.

Have a fast track defense option on the part of the party sued.

Must be much more careful to get everything right, especially covering prior art as any defects when first filing will result in a denial of a regular patent and leave a defensive purposes only patent as the only option.

I welcome discussion on details from anyone who thinks this might be a decent idea to help (not fix) the current messy situation.

all the best,

drew

Script Frenzy musings.

2007-05-10T07:58:00.000-04:00

Well, Script Frenzy is getting underway soon.

http://www.scriptfrenzy.org

I have been trying to get friends to sign up and seeing some small success.

I have been mulling over a project to get some copyleft scripts written and one produced by a name producer with funding to go along with it.

More later. Brainstorms welcome.

all the best,

drew

Some thoughts on a "Copyright Offensive"

2007-04-27T18:04:00.001-04:00

I had originally posted this in my /. journal. Didn't realise they would disable comments after a while. Let's hope that doesn't happen here.

The idea for a Copyright Offensive is this:

We need a set of proposals that we can push. They need to be such that they can make the situation better. They need to be such that we can reach a compromise on them that will still make things better.

Here are some thoughts for your consideration:

1. All 'non marked' works get an automatic copyleft, not an automatic copyright.

2. Copyleft works can be registered for free, copyright works incur a registration fee.

3. There is a yearly copyright tax imposed on copyright works, copyleft works are exempt.

4. The copyright tax is based on a percentage of the copyright holder declared value of the work.

5. The copyright holder will be encouraged to declare an honest value by having to sell the copyright to to work at the declared value or 5 percent above that value to any and all comers. At the value if the purchaser will put the work under a copyleft, 5 percent above if the purchaser will keep the work copyright.

6. Copyright status lasts for 10 years, then the works convert to copyleft for another ten then they go into the public domain.

7. Originally copyleft works remain copyleft for the life of the author (and perhaps plus whatever.)

8. Works building on public domain works are not eligible for copyright status, only copyleft. (Does this make any practical sense??)

Fall back position for public domain going copyleft. Any work drawing from the public domain for copyright MUST clearly indicate what is public domain and what is *new* and point to the public domain work on a gratis web site or make it available on one if at all possible and to the extent possible. (as in you obviously can't do this completely in the case of a sculpture.)

all the best,

drew

Copyleft? Not!

2007-02-27T14:25:00.000-05:00

Well, I keep running into things claiming to be copyleft which on closer inspection don't seem to be copyleft at all.

Here is one from today:

http://www.schnews.org.uk/schmovies/index-formats.html

It says it is copyleft but then says that you can't use or screen for profit. Copyleft licenses do not prevent for profit uses.

I would appreciate info on your similar findings.

I wonder why copyleft gets misunderstood so...

all the best,

drew

Oops, I missed NaNoBlogMo.

2006-12-25T08:03:00.000-05:00

Well, I didn't have an account here back in November.

I did blog my NaNoWriMo novel over at ourmedia.org though.

Sayings - Deterred Bahamian Novel

The actual novel is up at that link, day by day. Last yesrs is at one of the following teo links:

Tings - Anuddah Bahamian Novel
Tings - Anuddah Bahamian Novel (raw and unedited)

I tried a little twist this year, I wrote the novel live in an irc channel on freenode. ##zotz on irc.freenode.net - a few people even stopped in to watch the "fun!"

These first drafts are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. ( BY-SA ) Feel free to use them in keeping with the terms of the license.

Trying to integrate this with YouTube now.

2006-12-23T13:38:00.000-05:00

Seems to be having some issues, we shall see.

drew

Who knew

2006-12-22T11:36:00.000-05:00

No me.