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Yesterday I spoke at the VON Policy Summit, a conference traditionally focused on VoIP-related issues that now is looking at online media as well. My reaction to the panel, and to the show, can be found on the PFF blog. In short, is Internet video the next VoIP? Yes and no.
This music festival, SXSW, is everything I expected and more. Read about the bands here, an attempt to turn artists against their own self-interests here, and the panel on which I spoke here. So far, the most entertaining show has been Dash Rip Rock, a "rockabilly cowpunk" band that, among other songs, has a tune based on "Let's go to the Hop" that goes "Let's go Smoke some Pot." They performed selections from a cowpunk opera they did based on Dante's Inferno with Hell as the South, called "Hillbilly Hell."
Any digital content can be infringed, and any site can set up a YouTube-style format to facilitate that theft. A site called eSnips.com is doing that for a lot of media, particularly novels. I exposed their operation last week on PFF's IPCentral blog, and dozens of published authors leaped to action against the site. Maybe this one can be nipped in the bud before it grows and sells itself to a search engine for $1.6 billion.
The RIAA is stepping up enforcement efforts on college campuses regarding infringement of copyright, namely students downloading (and more importantly uploading) music they didn't pay for. This is being done on the universities' high-speed networks and is illegal. You would think the universities wouldn't tolerate such behavior, but all too often they look away. I'm glad the RIAA is investing the time and effort to find these violators and is trying to work with universities to stop this behavior. It is also bending over backwards to avoid having to sue these students. I defended the crackdown on unauthorized file-sharing on college campuses on the G4TV network's "Attack of the Show." The clip can be seen here.
