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Alex Jones

I lead teams at the intersection of strategy and design. Autodidact. Polymath. Barbecue acolyte. I start fires (the good kind).

Technology

Sharing a Printer Between OS X and XP

After a few days of tinkering, I finally found a solid set of instructions as to how to network a laser printer, so it is accessible to both the PC and the Mac (probably the Linux box too, but I’m not worried about it). Mac OS X Hints has come through yet again. If you have an OS X box, I highly recommend you check the site out as it is an amazing resource.

Litigation to Stop Innovation

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has created a Fake Complaint against Apple, Toshiba, and C-Net for Inducing Infringement of Copyrights to demonstrate the potential damage of the INDUCE Act should it pass. Scroll down to page three of the PDF version to read the actual complaint.

I think the complaint provides the best perspective of any coverage of the issue for those of us who aren’t directly involved in copyright law as it breaks it down into specific, real world acts that could set off litigation and crush our rights and future innovations.

The EFF also provides an easy to use method to write your senator about the issue. All you have to do is fill in your name and address. You aren’t locked into the letter that they provide you either, if you want to modify the letter to suit your needs, you can.

Introduction to the INDUCE Act

Trying to figure out what I have been compulsively posting about these last few days? Check out The Obsessively Annotated Introduction to the INDUCE Act. It does a much better job explaining the issue than I can. As always, thanks to Mr. Lessig for posting a link to the piece.

Another wonderful resource posted on Lessig’s blog is the press release Public Knowledge Says “Inducing Infringement” Act is “Overbroad” (PDF) from the technology and copyright policy group Public Knowledge.

INDUCE ACT Part 3

Senator Hatch’s INDUCE Act is gaining more coverage as each day passes, though I have yet to spot anything from the major media outlets. Are you surprised? No, I didn’t think so. I’m not. Wired has posted a story this morning covering the backlash titled File-Trading Bill Stokes Fury and other sites have started to report the Senator’s plans to fundamentally change copyright law in favor of the media conglomerates. Ars Technica has also published a piece: Induce Act seeks to eliminate innovation.

INDUCE Act – Part 2

Just a quick follow-up to my previous post about the INDUCE Act. The esteemed Lawrence Lessig has provided some commentary on the situation and added a little more information in the form of Senator Hatch’s floor remarks regarding the bill. His statements are worth a read, assuming you are up for translating politician-speak.

Mr. Lessig, also notes that “there is talk that this massive new layer of federal regulation of technology will happen without hearings — indeed, that it will be passed in the next weeks.” So, not only are we at risk of losing our rights to use media that we own in a manner we so choose, we may lose it by the whims of a small group instead of Congress as a whole. But hey, the bill is bi-partisan! We can blame these members of both parties for bowing to the will of the media industry instead of the people the are supposed to represent:

Isn’t it good to see our tax dollars at work…?