Last year Universal sent a “takedown notice” to YouTube claiming that this video infringed on its copyright.

(The video is back on YouTube because it was reposted, YouTube did take down the original.)

Why the takedown notice? Universal identified the music in the background as Prince. To Universal this indicated an infringing use. DMCA allows them to send takedown notices for any infringing use.

What about “fair use” you might ask? It does seem that the use of Prince in this video is about as fair as it gets. Let’s step through my own rough fair use analysis (facilitated by the University of Minnesota Libraries). It turns up a surprisingly weak, though still favorable, case for fair use. But more important, remember that fair use is a defense, not a right. In other words, the only analysis that matters is that of a judge and fair use does not really exist until a judge says so.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing Universal for abusing the DMCA takedown process in this case. This kind of takedown has the effect of chilling the use of copyrighted material even when such use is “fair” enough. Universal’s point? Fair use cannot exist unless infringement exists: after all, fair use is a defense in an infringement case. Thus by claiming the use was fair, the EFF actually affirms that there was infringement. If there was infringement, then the takedown notice was, by DMCA rules, legitimate. As Wired reported an exchange with the judge in the EFF case:

“Are you saying there cannot be a misuse of a takedown notice if the material is copyrighted?” [Judge] Fogel asked [Universal lawyer] Klaus.

“I don’t think ‘fair use’ qualifies,” Klaus answered.

Quite a comfy argument, no? By this logic any use of any copyrighted material anywhere on the net is fair game for a takedown notice. You can argue fair use all you like, but you will have to argue it after your creative work has been removed from the network.

What a world, eh? Beware the backgrounds of your videos. Watch out when you put that song on the soundtrack. The studios don’t want their customers to use anything that comes out the pipe. Just open wide, let it in, don’t say a word.

I say: support the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This organization is at the heart of defending the net as it should be. It is the ACLU of our day. Become a member today.

[Update: the EFF won this case.]

James Evans reports in Science magazine that electronic access to the science literature may be speeding consensus yet narrowing the range of ideas. As summarized at ArsTechnica:

The conclusion of all this statistical work was that, as more and more articles are readily available online, researchers, on average, cite fewer articles. The articles that are cited are newer, and fewer distinct articles receive attention. The results of the explosion of easily available articles, according to Evans, is that “researchers can more easily find prevailing opinion, they are more likely to follow it, leading to more citations referencing fewer articles.” As a side effect of this, a scientific consensus will typically form more rapidly. The other side of this is that papers containing ideas that don’t catch quickly will be forgotten by the scientific world much faster.

That does not seem like a wholly desirable effect. Unfortunately, being outside the bounds of a subscribing institution, the full text of the article is hidden from me for now.

OK, this looks like fun!

Earth and moon, dancing as we swing around the sun.

This video, brought to my attention by Discover magazine, shows the moon orbiting the earth. It was caught by the “Deep Impact” spacecraft last May.

Worthy of a pause. We all live on that blue sphere. We all gaze at that moon.

Brilliant Sesame Street, with Feist…

…and the original, in case you missed it. Or actually, this is how I was introduced to Feist!

TechPresident points to a nice blog post by Nancy Scola about Obama’s use of video. Nancy liveblogs an event with Obama’s director of video field production, Arun Chaudhary. It is a fascinating romp through some classic Obama video.

Arun says the new media team spends a fair amount of money, but they’re buying fishing poles rather than fish; the broadcast quality footage they capture, for example, can be used for advertising in addition to online video. Asked about past campaigns he tried working with, Arun says they saw media as “too precious” to take creative risks with.

I am especially impressed with a note at the end of the event. Here Arun speculates on the role of video in an Obama administration.

Asked by Emily about what an Obama administration might bring, Arun says that the role of video in an administration would be even more powerful than in a campaign. He mentions the broadcasting of health care meetings — creating a broader base of people who are able to keep an eye on the proceedings. The idea, Arun says, is not ‘telling people who tell people to tell people,’ but to use video to tell people directly. The role of video in governing, he says, is to achieve the goal of “cutting out the middleman.”

I am a strong Obama supporter not because I have confidence in his positions and policies, in fact, I see those as shifting and a bit immature. No, I support Obama because of the change he will bring to the makeup and face of government. This is a potentially deep and transformative approach to opening government to new voices. That excites me!

I’ve been looking for this for a long time. I hope I remember to use it when the need arises. Have you ever been stumped by a drive you just cannot eject because it is “in use?” You’d be happy to stop the “use” buy you have no idea where it is coming from? Then “What’s Keeping Me?” may be what you need.

Some creative stop-motion for lunchtime.

Beware, some of the other films made by PES are not quite so tame.

I was creating a simple mosaic at my mother’s house on Kelley’s Island this past week. I have not worked with tile in over a year. I miss it and was really happy to be getting my hands dirty again.

Tile is fairly unforgiving. Hard to shape. Easy to break. While learning to make curves with the wet saw I got to thinking:

The perfect is not the enemy of the good,
it is the enemy of the beautiful!
Embrace the happy accident.

We spend a lot of time trying to perfect things, especially in libraries. We are fond of order and authority. We insist that systems perform flawlessly. We are perfectionists. Technology for libraries is hard, at least as hard as cutting tile. Developing services for faculty and students is an ever-evolving challenge. We don’t have time to perfect, in fact, when we try we miss the boat.

But we all want to be proud of our work, to feel we have done our best. Beauty is often born of the “happy accidents” of brush stroke, blade, or muse. If we are awake to those accidents, open to them, ready to flow with them rather than against them, to find out where they lead. Accidents often lead to interesting resolutions we might not have thought of. They can point the way to simpler solutions, exciting opportunities. They can provide a natural spontaneity that elicits wonder from the viewer or users. They can be delightful.

Insisting on perfection makes little room for this sort of beauty. I think we should work on being open to the happy accident, embracing its beauty in our work, bringing some wonder to the eyes of our community.

Noelle told me about this, but I just found it today. It looks like a few people have found out where (the hell) Matt is, and they are dancing along with him.

I’ve enjoyed Matt’s earlier videos, if you have not seen them, they are worth a look. I defy to to hold back the smile!