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Gizmodo posted some wonderful notes taken from Kevin Martin at CES.  Martin got some baleful glares for his pushing for his views on media cross-ownership.  If half the stuff he mentions here is true I’ll be very happy.  He’s profoundly outspoken on a la carte channel offerings for cable which would allow subscribers to buy channels rather than packages.  Cable has naturally tried to drag its feet and while I don’t quite get as angry about this as DRMed music it’s up there.

I take his statements about improved fiber and broadband backbone with a grain of salt as well as his opinions about the 700MHz spectrum auction.  I believe telecoms are inclined to restrict usage and charge more for access rather than build infrastructure and content providers have already encountered problems.  A good bit of fiber was laid down with dot.com bubble VC money, a trick that’s unlikly to happen again.  While I appreciate the open access provisions beaten into the spectrum auction there are no guarantees that this amazing frequency band will go towards rural broadband.

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The Economist, has done a wonderful article on Lawrence Lessig, (his personal website) someone I see as being on the Supreme Court should a Democrat president experience an opening between 2020 and 2036.  In doing some follow-up about licensing options I discovered what may be the best licensing scheme evar, beerware.  Should I start drinking or should my brother ever create something, I think that license may be used.  I also believe some freeware distributors would be much better compensated by releasing their goods under this scheme

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Chuck Norris: ‘Truth’ book is a lie from PensacolaNewsJournal.com

Chuck Norris is suing Penguin Group Inc. for producing a book containing Chuck Norris facts.  I’m angry at Chuck Norris for being a humorless dick that thinks that Chuck Norris jokes some how slander his name.  He’s already done himself enough harm by supporting the science-ostrich Mike Huckabee and saying evolution isn’t real.  I’m angry at Penguin for taking jokes in the public domain and placing it under copyright giving them legal recourse against anyone making new Chuck Norris jokes for stealing their IP.  Protest by consuming as many Chuck Norris jokes as you can before the case is settled.