Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Will Apple’s stance on DRM affect Canadian law?

by alec on January 7, 2009

The world is abuzz this morning that the minor demons of the recording industry have kissed Steve Job’s ring, agreeing to scrap DRM on iTunes downloads. As Michael Geist said: “this decision continues to shift away from the failed strategy of locks and levies, though the industry is still vigorously promoting anti-circumvention laws to protect the very locks that are becoming less and less relevant”.

So when will our own government admit that the copyright “reforms” they are proposing are outmoded, and no longer required?

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Confession time

by alec on January 7, 2009

Okay. It’s confession time.

When I wrote 2008: The Year that VoIP died I had an ulterior motive. Although I hadn’t done Jeff Pulver’s analysis and learned that VoIP Buzz is down 46.5% during 2008, like many people I felt in my bones. I don’t think VoIP is dead. I do think the excitement has gone out of it. Perhaps that’s because of the economic climate, or perhaps that’s because it’s not as newsworthy as it once was. In any case, it was time to ignite a conversation about the future of communications again. Being an argumentative SOB, I did it by taking an extreme – some would say indefensible – position. It’s a time honoured tactic practiced by Silicon Valley’s best, Scoble and Arrington.

Personally, I was pleased to see the huge number of people participate. Most of all, I was excited to see Jeff Pulver engaged in a conversation about the voice industry again. He’s a smart guy, and his presence has been missed.

So what shall we talk about next?

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A closer look at VoicePHP

January 7, 2009

I confess that I gave TringMe’s new offering, VoicePHP, a quick once over last week, and didn’t spend nearly enough time with it. Perhaps it was the pitch that included the line “Everything else remains the same in PHP except that echo, print now speaks!”. Nevertheless, I had a closer look at it this morning. [...]

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