Aram Sinnreich

INET NY Copyright Panel (video)

Two weeks ago, I sat on a panel at INET New York about the "six strikes" Copyright Alert System, the bargain struck between Hollywood and America's major broadband ISPs to identify people suspected of illegally infringing copyrighted content and slowly cut off their bandwidth.

The event was very informative. For the first hour, corporate stakeholders (e.g. RIAA, MPAA, Verizon, Comcast) discussed the specifics of their plan. For the second hour, a bunch of us critics and consumer advocates (e.g. Gigi Sohn, Jeff Jarvis) responded to the plan, raising several questions and concerns.

Then there was a final mega-panel in which both groups got to address each other directly. I don't think any of us had our minds changed 180 degrees, but I'm pretty sure we all gained some deeper insight into what's at stake here. The full video of the event is below. Surprisingly riveting for a wonkfest.

 

p.s. As of today, the CAS launch has been postponed till next year (ostensibly due to Hurricane Sandy)

Moscow Panel: "Culture: Create or Copy" [video]

Last month, I returned to Moscow to speak at Google's Big Tent Event. My panel, which was entitled "Culture: Create or Copy," was focused on the question of whether configurable cultural practices like memes, mashups and remixes are legitimate and socially valuable, and therefore whether communications and cultural policy should provide a degree of support for them. Obviously, I was there to bang the "yes" drum. This was not an idle "academic" topic; the panel's moderator was Ekatrina Chukovskaya, Deputy Minister of Culture for the Russian Federation.

Here's the video of the panel:

Happy American Censorship Day

Today, in honor of American Censorship Day, I've replaced my standard banner with a cheerful black bar.

I do this as a form of protest against the spirit of censorship pervading the regulation of the Internet and other communications platforms -- specifically, the pending legislation known as ProtectIP and SOPA being discussed in a Congressional hearing today. This legislation would criminalize huge swaths of the Internet as we know it today, and put a politically unacceptable degree of censorship power in the hands of government and large corporations. I stand with organizations like Public Knowledge and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as well as publishers like TechDirt and BoingBoing, in opposition to these measures, and I hope you will as well.

To find out more, and to take action, please visit AmericanCensorship.org.

 

Peter Maass lecture at Rutgers SC&I on Oct 3rd

I've somehow bamboozled my friend Peter Maass, the deservedly award-winning war correspondent and nonfiction author, to come give a talk at Rutgers in two weeks. I can't wait. Peter embodies that rare combination of intelligence, experience and humillity that makes for a great journalist, and a riveting lecturer.

The lecture is free! Hope you can make it. (You can download the flier here)

Social media and the news: Aram interviewed on MPR Midmorning [Audio]

This morning, I was interviewed on MPR Midmorning (along with Andy Carvin from NPR) about the increasingly complex role of social media in the gathering, analysis and dissemination of news. It was a lively and interesting conversation, although as usual, I didn't get a chance to make half of the pithy observations I'd prepared.

You can listen here: 

[Lecture] Today is Opposite Day: Music in the Network Age (NYU Video)

Recently, I gave my "Music in the Network Age" talk for Evan Korth's "Computers and Society" class at NYU's Comp Sci department. I was honored to be one of Evan's speakers -- his list is deep and impressive.

Below is the video, courtesy of Joly MacFie:

Previously: [Lecture] Today is Opposite Day: Music in the Network Age (audio + slides)

World's fair use day: 1/12/10

Public Knowledge just announced the first annual World's Fair Use Day (WFUD):

A day-long celebration of creativity, innovation and remix culture to be held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on January 12th, 2010. Fair use is the legal right that allows creators to make limited uses of copyrighted materials for purposes like comment, criticism and education. At World's Fair Use Day, we'll demonstrate how fair uses of existing works, ranging from recontextualized audio mashups to documentary films, enrich our culture and contribute to the ongoing dialog on copyright. Speakers at the event will include Ben Huh (CEO of the Cheezburger Network, the publishing company behind ICanHasCheezburger and FailBlog), Dan Walsh (creator of the web comic "Garfield Minus Garfield"), Pennsylvania Congressman and mashup fan Mike Doyle, TechDirt founder Mike Masnick, mashup artist DJ Earworm and many more. The night before the main event, we'll kick things off with a "Movie Night," hosted by Mark Hosler of the pioneering audio collage band Negativland and featuring Brett Gaylor, director of RIP: A Remix Manifesto and Kembrew McLeod, director of Copyright Criminals. To view the full list of speakers and schedule and to RSVP, visit wfud.info.

I'll try my best to be there!

Tiger Woods voicemail slowjam remix

I'm not normally a fan of Schadenfreude humor, but this slowjam remix of the now infamous Tiger Woods mistress voicemail is too good not to share.

My horrible secret

Lou Dobbs is about to air this, so I figured I'd beat him to the punch. All this time, I've been telling people I was born in the Swiss Alps, and am therefore a legitimate cheese inspector. Actually, I was born in Kenya, where they don't have cheese. I hereby resign my commission.

Glenn Beck freakout remix

Glenn Beck's Wednesday on-air freakout about vampires has already been remixed into an awesome rockabilly song/video. It's a must-watch.

Previously:
Bill O'Reilly f-bomb remix
Christian Bale flameout remix