EFF, Jailbreak, Copyrights And What It Means For Privacy

The press has been all over the story about the ruling that allows jailbreaking an iPhone, however another ruling occurred that I think has MUCH bigger consequences.

What do copyrighted material and your privacy have in common?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) won a new legal protection for video artists and cellphone jailbreakers with this release.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) won three critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) anticircumvention provisions today, carving out new legal protections for consumers who modify their cell phones and artists who remix videos — people who, until now, could have been sued for their non-infringing or fair use activities.

This is the statement that I think has huge implications.

EFF also won a groundbreaking new protection for video remix artists currently thriving on Internet sites like YouTube.

The new rule holds that amateur creators do not violate the DMCA when they use short excerpts from DVDs in order to create new, noncommercial works for purposes of criticism or comment if they believe that circumvention is necessary to fulfill that purpose.

Hollywood has historically taken the view that "ripping" DVDs is always a violation of the DMCA, no matter the purpose.

In other words, this allows original "artwork" to be edited without the owner's permission.

Now they say it can be done for "noncommercial works" but when ads are placed next to the YouTube video, doesn't this violate that?

The big picture:

I see your privacy, and your private information as your own "artwork" and with these new rulings, the floodgates are open. Privacy is like insurance, you only need it (and appreciate it) after the fact.

Does anyone else see this slippery slope?

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Microsoft, NBC And AT&T Talk Of Filtering Internet...Do You Know How They Could?

The talk of internet providers filtering or restricting copyrighted material over the Net has me pondering.

Who offers an application that acts like a "content cookie"?

Internet Providers Getting Ready To Filter Internet

For the past fifteen years, Internet service providers have acted - to use an old cliche - as wide-open information super-highways, letting data flow uninterrupted and unimpeded between users and the Internet.

But ISPs may be about to embrace a new metaphor: traffic cop.

Representatives from NBC, Microsoft, several digital filtering companies and telecom giant AT&T said the time was right to start filtering for copyrighted content at the network level. Your Internet service provider could soon start sniffing your digital packets, looking for material that infringes on someone’s copyright. But how?

Here's how media companies to track their content through the Internet.

Digimarc offers revolutionary technology will allow publishing companies, peer-to-peer services, social networks and other content generated sites to manage and report the online media streams. The service will also be able to track how the content is viewed and shared.

How valuable is this technology for content owners, and distributors?
What company(s) would want to own this recurring revenue stream?

Do you know any other players that offer this?