commandN: commandN #79 (February 12th, 2007)

There was some really cool stuff in this episode! Good selection of news items - the Linux vandalism was cool, the '23 signs...' list was hilarious (my faves being #4, #12, #18, & #20 - though Ctrl+Z for me, not apple+Z).

Jeff - your segment was undoubtedly useful for a lot of people (and something that, in hindsight, I'm surprised you haven't done sooner ;)

And that video about Web 2.0 was awesome. After watching the whole thing I feel all warm and fuzzy inside :). The whole "rethinking" bit at the end is absolutely true, and something that I think will inevitably happen to society as a whole.

Posted by: Liam | February 12, 2007 at 06:25 AM

Thank you so much for offering the XBOX 360 WMV!

Posted by: lipak | February 12, 2007 at 09:50 AM

Great show, always look forward to. Better get Brian in next week cause I also enjoy hearing from him
L8r

Kurt in OHIO

Posted by: kurt | February 12, 2007 at 10:04 AM

Glad you liked the Creative Commons info - it's a fantastic service. We'll try to get Brian out from behind the camera soon, too :-) .

Thanks,

Jeff

Posted by: Jeff MacArthur | February 12, 2007 at 11:08 AM

great show, seems like this guest host thing is really working out quite well, i actually like it cause you get to meet more people. great work amber and thx for adding me in your twitter :D

Posted by: BPhelmet | February 13, 2007 at 12:12 AM

Heey guys,

fantastic episode .... i really needed some explanation on the creative content ratings, so i thank you Jeff for that. Its actually FREEZING in Toronto right now, so i wouldnt blame you guys for going in next to shoot commandN. Have a great week guys :)

Posted by: Emmanuel | February 13, 2007 at 12:49 AM

Glad y'all are enjoying the show!!! :)
-A

Posted by: Amber Mac | February 13, 2007 at 05:38 AM

GREAT SHOW! As always keep up the good work and yeah. It was funny to see that linux thing on here because I passed by and cheered. People were looking at me. Vista is horrible I hate it.

Anyway Happy Valentine's Day

Posted by: Andrew | February 13, 2007 at 10:59 AM

Jeff quick question. YOur segement (which was really helpful) reminded me of this. So say I own a store. Its private right? Does that mean im free to play what movies and music i like in there? I mean its a privately owned place.

Also what are the laws for playing music on a web video before you get sued? Kevin Rose said something like 10 seconds.

Also Amber. Great little remark about shooting Brian ;)

Posted by: Andrew | February 13, 2007 at 11:04 AM

Creative commons is the bomb diggity! Once again, great show!

Posted by: Glen Matthews | February 13, 2007 at 06:59 PM

Hi Andrew,

I don't profess to know a whole lot about this, but what I do know is that what a lot of people think is true is not the case :-) .

Unless something is explicitly licensed for public use (e.g. through a Creative Commons license or being legally in the public domain like very old works (but likely not the recorded PERFORMANCES of those works!)) then using that material without compensating someone or having a specific arrangement with the rights holder is illegal.

So, again stressing that this is only what I've been told, I think your store is still a public place b/c generally anyone can expect to walk in off the street. And I don't think that there's any amount/time threshold of music you can distribute legally in a podcast or other form.

The problem is that people talk about "fair use" but it's not something (at least in Canada) that is legally enshrined at all. It's a nice idea, and I'd love for things to be that way, but they're not like that in the letter of the law (at least not here).

As to what it'd take to get sued, I think that depends on whose music/etc. you're using, and that may actually be the more relevant question in a lot of situations. For example, playing something live in a store (for which there exists, again in Canada, a regulatory framework whereby you compensate the artist at a fairly low predetermined rate through an established national organization) is probably a LOT less risky than embedding it in something that's going to be distributed around the net.

A lot of people use as a rule of thumb whether the content you're using is portrayed in a positive light (if you're slagging someone/thing then you're probably more at risk) and whether you're making money off it (in which case people typically want a cut).

That said, there's so much freely available Creative Commons content, it's not a risk I would take. But let's face it, it's not legal to download movies off the internet either, is it? You just make the decision based on how likely you think it is that you'll be caught.

That's my 2 cents (with no legal foundation whatsoever - advice-taker beware!),

Jeff

Posted by: Jeff MacArthur | February 13, 2007 at 07:37 PM

haha thanks alot. I thought so. I don't own a store but I work in one where they do that all the time without license and my boss says its a private store so they can get around it. I didn't think they could but we'll see what happens when the time comes. (Its staples at laird and eglington)

Posted by: Andrew | February 14, 2007 at 05:16 AM

:-) Yeah, most people do this kind of stuff to some degree. It'd be a pretty uptight world if everyone spent all their time making sure to follow the letter of the law in every aspect, wouldn't it (no jaywalking!).

Do no harm to others and let common sense prevail, I say! :-)

Jeff

Posted by: Jeff MacArthur | February 14, 2007 at 06:28 AM

i like the more recent tech-tips; nice work!

the move to YouTube (from HipCast) - is this permanent?

Posted by: Jess.RR | February 14, 2007 at 09:20 AM

lol yeah I know what you mean Jeff, and yeah th emove to youtube, great for the streaming speed and you now have a much bigger audience but you do not have as much control.

Posted by: Andrew | February 14, 2007 at 11:04 AM

The one thing that really sucks about YouTube is the 10 minute limit. We simply can't use it if we're over that (even with a Director account), which kind of sucks.

QUESTION: Anyone know how to access a MySpace account for which the email has been deactivated? I have a muzikDEN account there that I can't get into b/c I used an old email address and I can't get the name again without it. Help!

Thanks,

Jeff

Posted by: Jeff MacArthur | February 14, 2007 at 12:56 PM

wow, jeff asking for help.

i have no idea, i don't use myspace. tried it once, too complicated and switched to blogger.

sry i can't be any help

Posted by: BPhelmet | February 14, 2007 at 01:51 PM

Jeff,

Have you tried asking Tom? (I would but he is not my friend.)

Posted by: Moonman | February 14, 2007 at 02:18 PM

Jeff:

Try this help page. Specifically the last sentence.