Copyleft: the magazine

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the first Star Wars film, Lucasfilm has launched a mash-up service allowing fans to take images and clips from all six Star Wars movies and combine them with their own content. Hosted by StarWars.com, the service also lets you post your mash-ups to the site YouTube-style and comment on other people’s mash-ups. All very Web 2.0, George Lucas, and we are almost impressed with your willingness to allow the masses to express their creativity through parody.
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The rumors are flying that much, if not all, of EMI’s DRM-free catalog is going to hit iTunes tomorrow. The logic goes something like this: rumors were already out there that EMI’s catalog would be on the music site this week, and iTunes usually launches new stuff on Tuesdays. This move, which likely has more to do with the time it takes to make higher resolution copies of the songs than recent announcements by Amazon.com, would, however be a strong bit of competition for Amazon and should help iTunes keep any customers it might have lost to the giant of e-commerce.

(from MacNN)

In a move sure to shift the dynamics of the music download market, Amazon.com officially announced this week that its upcoming music download service “will be available exclusively in the MP3 format without digital rights management (DRM) software.” While no pricing information or launch date has been officially announced, Amazon is looking to start selling fair use-friendly music “later this year”. The feasibility of this plan for one of the Web’s top resellers is obviously EMI’s decision to offer its catalog DRM free on Apple’s iTunes. Amazon has already signed EMI up to sell its songs, along with 12,000 “unnamed labels,” according to the Associated Press.

As a major retailer for books, DVDs, and CDs, Amazon.com has been curiously absent from the music download business for some time. However, it seems that it is finally going where even the illustrious Steve Jobs has been unwilling to go before: launching a non-subscription, retail download service big enough that it could force the major labels to drop their DRM requirements. We’ll be watching this one closely as it develops, so stay tuned.

(from Amazon.com and the AP)

While this news is sure to anger the AACS governing body to no end, SlySoft has launched a new version of AnyDVD, its optical disk copying tool designed to get around those pesky DRM features on HD DVDs and Blu-Ray disks. According to the change notes on SlySoft’s forums, version 6.1.5.1 supports ripping of “new titles”, ostensibly those that will be hitting retailers near you in the coming weeks with a new security keys. So, yeah, that whole emergency security update worked really well, AACS Licensing Authority. Looks like the general public will continue to disagree with your interpretation of its rights to copy and back up the media it has purchased.

(from Engadget and SlySoft Forums)

OK, so we’re a little behind covering this one, but CNN announced last week that it will offer its coverage of the presidential debates freely and without restriction. Starting with the Democratic debate on June 3, 2007 and a Republican debate two days later, they have committed to allowing free use of their coverage for all of their presidential debates, an unprecedented move. The reasoning behind this? Quote:

Due to the historical nature of presidential debates and the significance of these forums to the American public, CNN believes strongly that the debates should be accessible to the public. The candidates need to be held accountable for what they say throughout the election process.

The presidential debates are an integral part of our system of government, in which the American people have the opportunity to make informed choices about who will serve them. Therefore, CNN debate coverage will be made available without restrictions at the conclusion of each live debate.

We believe this is good for the country and good for the electoral process. This decision will apply to all of CNN’s presidential debates, beginning with the upcoming New Hampshire debates in June.

Legally speaking, this means that CNN is maintaining its copyright on the coverage, but allowing anyone to do anything they want with it, making it the first network to do so.
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Digg, well known for its highly opinionated, community-based social booking marking services, took a major hit to its credibility this week after the company began systematically deleting articles with a certain code used for cracking AACS encryption on HD DVD and Blu-ray disks. Within hours of making its fateful decision (after receiving a cease and desist letter from the AACS licensing group), diggers began revolting against their favorite site by digging EVERY PAGE with the offending code they could find. After 24 hours, founder and cheif Digg architect Kevin Ross called off the censorship campaign and vowed to stand by his community come hell or major corporate lawsuit.

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