Rough Drafts

Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Assn., writes on c|net about the new “copyspeak”. Why copyrights aren’t “property” — “Real property is subject to ownership taxes. Real property lasts forever and can be owned forever. A copyright can be owned only for a limited period of time. Indeed, t

As much as Google rocks,there is one area where it really sucks: Searching weblogs. That’s because it’s not particularly intelligent about separating or summarizing weblog entries, making it a pretty blunt tool for finding specific information on a blog.

David Weinberger has a very eloquent, pointed comment on the most recent academic plagiarism scandal. I love the disclaimer at the end. One comment, however: When you use the term “intellectual property,” you’ve already lost the argument. That term, by likening copyrights and patents to real propert

New workplace terminology, from “outplacement firm” Challenger, Gray, and Christmas: Righteous CEO (Chief Ethics Officer): Executive selected to review corporate operations and practices to ensure that ethical standards are being met. Sitting Bull: Retirement-age worker who, due to stock market and

Online media watcher Steve Outing says that Google News is “the best implementation of the global newsstand to date.” And he goes on to say: “I would argue that the service does use human news-editing intelligence. It collects and analyzes the news publishing decisions of the human editors at 4,000

INFORMATION SCIENCE: THE INVISIBLE SUBSTRATE, by Marcia J. Bates, UCLA From the abstract: “The mental activities of the professional practice of the field are seen to center around representation and organization of information rather than knowing information. It is argued that such representation e

The Digital Library: A Biography, by Daniel Greenstein, California Digital Library, and Suzanne E. Thorin, Indiana Univ. With 6 case studies of digital library evolution, including CDL, Indiana, Harvard, and others.

Like many LA Times features, this one is nearly epic in length. But it’s an outstanding profile of Lawrence Lessig, his work on the upcoming Eldred case, and on copyright history. The Cultural Anarchist vs. the Hollywood Police State (registration required — free, but annoying)

Gary Shapiro on Intellectual property: “This term is so well established and that there is virtually no chance of rolling it back. But its usage serves to strengthen the position of the content business vis-a-vis information consumers (i.e. society as a whole). It amplifies the similarities and obsc

Nick Denton has a smart critique of Google News: “It discriminates against an exclusive, which is perverse. A story exclusive to one source — the New York Times scoop on US war plans, for instance — will rank low. While a standard calendar-driven wire service story — reported everywhere, without any

Don’t miss my latest Business 2.0 column, Are You Overpaying for Content Management?

A big heartfelt welcome to Scot and Amy’s beautiful baby boy!