2010-02-23

Does the Internet now belong to China?

I hadn't realized that there are now more people in China on the Internet then there are people (on or off-line) in the US.

China toughens Internet rules - Yahoo! News

It makes you wonder about where the bulk of the Internet will be in a few years with most of the Internet users and some of the best hackers being in China.

Google attack puts spotlight on China's "red" hackers - Reuters

2010-01-04

Nothing to celebrate on Public Domain Day 2010 in the US

It's sad but true that there was "Nothing to celebrate on Public Domain Day 2010 in the US".

While most music use for vaulting probably comes under Fair Use because we are fundamentally educating kids, the licensing issues are probably one of our sport's biggest obstacles to long term growth.

Think about all the wonderful computer software and video games from the 80s that would start passing into the public domain this decade it it were not for relatively copyright extensions. As the laws stand now much of that software will likely be lost forever because the copyright holders have gone out of business and the cost of "clearing" the works economically impossible to republish. The only solution is for groups of enthusiasts to quietly pirate copies and hope that no one complains.