TechnoLlama reports (well, actually reported over a week ago…) some very interesting news from the Perfect 10 v Google case. I’m too tired to write anything else so go read his post or just the following exerpt:

“Instead of communicating a copy of the image, Google provides HTML instructions that direct a user’s browser to a website publisher’s computer that stores the full-size photographic image. Providing these HTML instructions is not equivalent to showing a copy. First, the HTML instructions are lines of text, not a photographic image. Second, HTML instructions do not themselves cause infringing images to appear on the user’s computer screen. The HTML merely gives the address of the image to the user’s browser. The browser then interacts with the computer that stores the infringing image. It is this interaction that causes an infringing image to appear on the user’s computer screen. Google may facilitate the user’s access to infringing images. However, such assistance raises only contributory liability issues, see Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U.S. 913, 929-30 (2005), Napster, 239 F.3d at 1019, and does not constitute direct infringement of the copyright owner’s display rights.”

We’ve all seen them. The “please remove me from this list” messages from people who cannot be bothered to RTFM. Maybe it’s just because I’m so tired after a long week but I think this one is really funny. With a subject of “opt-out”, the message reads simply:

I don’t want to be on your mailing list I was looking for free porn when I found your site.

Nu ska jag gnälla lite. Jag behövde åka mellan Göteborg och Malmö i dag. I vanliga fall åker jag tåg men i dag skulle jag inte åka i vanlig tid och det fanns inget tåg som både gick i lämplig tid och hade platser kvar. Så jag köpte en bussbiljett på swebusexpress.se. Där står det bland annat följande:

På Swebus Express behöver inte passageraren boka biljetten i förväg, Swebus Express garanterar ändå plats på vald avgång. Samtliga passagerare förväntas vara ute i tillräckligt god tid för att hinna köpa biljett samt packa in bagage innan bussens utsatta avgångstid. Blir bussen fullsatt kör Swebus Express fram extra bussar. (min kursivering)

Men gäller naturligtvis inte i verklighet utan bara i marknadsföringen. Enligt biljetten skulle min buss gå 16.00 och jag var där i god tid, 15.50. Där fanns mycket riktigt två bussar som skulle gå till Malmö. De var dock redan fulla och det stod nästan en busslast människor utanför (i regnet) som inte fått plats. En stackars funktionär med gul väst sprang omkring och försökte pussla in folk på diverse andra bussar men till slut var vi fyra personer kvar som helt enkelt inte fick plats. Men tror ni de ordnade någon mer buss? Naturligtvis inte… Vi hänvisades i stället till nästa buss, en timme och tio minuter senare.

Vi blev lovade värdecheckar som kompensation men vad ska jag med dem till när jag inte kan lita på att jag kommer med bussen trots att jag förbokat min biljett?

I’m trying to do some studying and for some reason it feels very strange to read Augustinus to the sound of Master of Puppets… I guess I’m just tired but the combination really makes my head spin.

Ha ha, it might be because I’m so tired but I find this absolutely hilarious! The Pirate Bay wants to buy Sealand. The micronation is apparently up for sale and TPB is promising citizenship for donors.

Waiting for Maiden

Originally uploaded by jonsson.

Scandinavium, Göteborg, right now.

GPL Violations wins case against D-Link. D-Link had argued that the GPL was not leagally binding.

On September 6, 2006 the district court issued its judgement, confirming the claims by gpl-violations.org, specifically its rights on the subject-matter source code, the violation of the GNU GPL by D-Link, the validity of the GPL under German law, and D-Links obligation to reimburse gpl-violations.org for legal expenses, test purchase and cost of re-engineering. Only the amount of the legal expenses was considered too high by some insignificant amount of 300 EUR. Therefore, this decision marks a clear-cut victory for gpl-violations.org. D-Link may file an appeal against the judgement.

Thru Slashdot

NewsForge reports that GPU (some kind of Gnutella related super computing project) have created their own modified version of the GNU GPL. They have added a “patch for no military use”:

This patch restricts the field of endeavour of the Program in such a way that this license collides with paragraph 6 of the Open Source Definition. Therefore, this modified version of the GPL is no more OSI compliant.

The Program and its derivative work will neither be modified or executed to harm any human being nor through inaction permit any human being to be harmed. This is Asimov’s first law of Robotics.

This is interesting and not very surprising. However, it obviously makes the program non-free as it restricts freedom 0, the freedom to run the program, for any purpose.

Another important effect, that the Newsforge article does not mention, is the fact that it makes the license incompatible with the GNU GPL. A work that is derived from a GPL work must be licensed under the GPL. This is the basic principle of copyleft. So by writing their own license the GPU team have lost access to the “commons” of GPL code. They have build a fence around their own litte garden. They cannot use existing GPL code and their code cannot be reused in GPL projects, ever.

Although I can sympathise with their goal, I do not think that this is a good idea.

Piratbyrån goes international. The Nordic organizations launch the international project The Pro Piracy Lobby.

- We hope to soon present a world wide pirate network, says Tobias Andersson.

Via FFF.

Substream has released Totem Remixed. The five best remixes from the competition have been gathered and mastered and are now released as Totem Remixed, which is released for free download, under a Creative Commons license.

The Portugese alternative music and art webzine Connexion Bizarre have also released a remix compilation called Connected Totem from the recently ended Auto-Auto/Substream remix contest for free download.