Rip, Mix, Burn, Sue: Technology, Politics, and the Fight to Control Digital Media

Copyright issues confusing you? Yeah, me too. Sometimes it helps to learn about the history of a matter in order to put it into perspective. And if it just so happens to be a podcast from a noted lecturer - all the better.

The University Channel presents Ed Felten, Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University and an expert in computer security. His lecture "Rip >Mix >Burn >Sue: Technology, Politics, and the Fight to Control Digital Media " is about how personal computers and the Internet have affected the use of media such as music and movies, and about the legal, political and policy struggles that have resulted.

It is available here in just about any format you desire - visually in both Windows and RealPlayer, MP3 [audio only], plus the transcript. It is covered under Creative Commons license and thus open to all. (if you are scratching your head over Creative Commons - I intend to post something on this soon - in fact we probably need to add a CC license to this blog). Dr. Felton has a relaxed, comfortable style that makes what could be a very dry talk quite interesting. The visual version is nice but it is just as interesting as a listen. I downloaded the audio and listened to it at the gym and then took the time to watch it on my laptop.

I am really becoming a fan of podcasting. Over on my personal blog are links to economic globalization lectures by Robert Reich and Thomas Friedman - of whom I have been a fan for some time.