Technology News
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Rumors of a new Google social publishing product called Propeller have been swirling form months, and now all is revealed. Propeller is officially known as Currents, and it’s available today for Android and iOS devices. Currents creates beautiful magazine-style pages for users to read, and publishers to show off.
Not all content is available off the bat. Publishers have to package their content for Currents using a web-based back end that utilizes HTML5 to make the process easier. Doing this offers a number of benefits. Publishers can create rich content, monitor reading stats, include AdSense ads, and get analytics through Currents. Users will get a well-formatted gesture-based reader not unlike Flipboard.
Google will be providing publishers with tools to get content into Currents, but the selection isn’t bad right now. Users will see All Things D, Mashable, Popular Science, and of course Maximum PC. Have you tried the app? Let us know how you like it. Read more at.... |
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Today marks the launch of an exciting new effort among the startup ecosystem: Engine Advocacy. If you're an entrepreneur, investor, innovator, creator or involved in the overall startup ecosystem, please check out the website and consider joining.
As you may recall, a few months ago a few of us involved in the startup world started talking about how ridiculous it was that folks in Washington DC keep pushing ridiculously bad legislation that impacts innovation and competition in a really negative way -- without recognizing the damage this causes. The end result was that, in almost every instance, legislation that was going to impact the true engine of innovation and economic growth in this country was being crafted and implemented without hearing from those actually doing the innovation and creating the economic growth. This was most immediately seen in the mess created by PROTECT IP and SOPA, but involves a variety of other topics as well: immigration, broadband, privacy, patents and many other issues all impact how the startup ecosystem (including not just entrepreneurs, but inventors, innovators, investors, technologists, advisors and additional supporting players and infrastructure as well) can and does grow and contribute to the economy.
Traditionally, this crew has mostly ignored what's happening in Washington DC -- and for a good reason: they're busy innovating. Too often, it's the businesses that are trying to hold back competition and change that spend time in DC, while those who are actually changing things are much more focused on executing on their vision. That leads to bad legislation.
With the PIPA and SOPA fight blowing up so quickly, some of us worked together to put together an initial entrepreneur's letter signed by 135 entrepreneurs asking Congress not to approve PROTECT IP. Today, we're sending an updated version, which also covers SOPA, and is now signed by over 200 entrepreneurs, all concerned about the impact these bills would have on their ability to innovate. A similar effort was put together by some of the top venture capitalists around. Soon after that, some of the signers of both letters teamed up to go to Washington, DC and speak to Congress about the bill. Since then, we've helped others in the startup world go to DC as well.
Out of all of this came the idea to build this loose coalition of those involved in the startup world, which became Engine Advocacy. It's an exciting group of entrepreneurs, investors, advisors and others who are very involved in driving new innovation via startups. We want to make sure that the voice of the entrepreneur is being heard in Washington DC -- and that those in the startup ecosystem are aware of what's going on in DC. We have big things planned over the next few months, and if you're interested in being a part of this, we urge you to sign up on the website. Let's make sure that the engine of innovation, jobs and the economy is not stifled by politicians who simply aren't aware of what the consequences of their actions will be.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
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Following our story this morning about the government censoring a popular blog for over a year and denying them basic due process, before finally failing to find probable cause and returning the domain, it appears that the RIAA is trying to quickly absolve itself of responsibility for the whole thing. As we noted in our post, the government relied on an executive at the RIAA to claim that the works it used as evidence to seize the domain were infringing -- despite the fact that the RIAA was in no position to know if the rightsholders had authorized the music sent to the site (and, in one case, despite the fact that the musician was not affiliated with the RIAA).
News.com now has a story about the whole mess as well, with a quote from the RIAA that ignores the lack of due process, the lack of probable cause, and just sorta shrugs its shoulders with a "well, we thought it was infringing."
For a year and a half, we monitored the site, identifying instances where its operators had uploaded music to unauthorized file-sharing services where the recordings could be freely downloaded -- music that artists had created with the expectation that they would have a chance to sell before it was leaked. Dajaz1 profited from its reputation for providing links to pre-release copies, and during that time nearly 2300 recordings linked to the site were removed from various file-sharing services. We are unaware of a single instance where the site operator objected by saying that the distribution was somehow authorized.
I'm not even entirely sure what that means. Considering that the music was sent by representatives of the label itself for the express purpose of having it promoted, it's unclear how or why the RIAA believes Dajaz1 was infringing. And whether or not Dajaz1 objected to the RIAA throwing around DMCA notices really has nothing to do with what happened to the site. If there really was such evidence, wouldn't the government have actually used it in court, rather than stalling for a year and finally admitting that there was no probable cause?
Either way, this response from the RIAA appears to ignore the horror that they helped allow the US government to flat out censor a web site that was used to promote their works. You'd think they'd be a little more careful and at least apologize. Either way, the RIAA might want to reconsider claiming that freedom of speech is a core RIAA value. Its "statement" here certainly suggests otherwise.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
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