Monthly Archives: June 2009

Google Summer of Code: Moving Toward Version 1.0

My Google Summer of Code project is divided into two phases: updating and then upgrading the Creative Commons Drupal module. The module was largely abandoned as it was being developed Drupal 4.7.x, and now Drupal 6.x is the current series (with 7.x under development). The first phase is to update for Drupal 6.x and …

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    UofT Graduation Photos

    Yesterday, I graduated from the University of Toronto, officially completing my Bachelors in Science. I took a computer science major, and English and philosophy minors. My family was on hand and they took a lot of great photos, so I thought I’d share them here.

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      Less Well Known Artists Make Use Of Mobile Platforms To Interact With Fans

      This post originally appeared on Techdirt.

      When talking about the success of musicians adopting business models around the economics we discuss here, people often complain that it “only works for big artists” or “only works for the little guys,” so much so that someone dubbed the exceptionalism as “Masnick’s Law.” I admit that it was …

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        Yusuf Islam Forgives Coldplay For Copying His Song, Even Though They Probably Didn’t

        This post originally appeared on Techdirt

        When Joe Satriani sued Coldplay for copyright infringment last December, lots of people were quick to notice that a bunch of other songs shared the same melody, including some predating Satriani’s tune. Last month, Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) made headlines claiming that Coldplay had “stolen” the …

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          Electronic Arts Stages Protest of Dante’s Inferno at E3

          This post originally appeared on Techdirt.

          At the E3 Expo a few weeks ago, Electronic Arts showcased an upcoming game, Dante’s Inferno, to awkward protests from a group of concerned Christians going under the name, “Salvationists Against Virtual and Eternal Damnation.” They had signs like “Trade in your PlayStation for a PrayStation,” “Cheat codes won’t …

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            SOLUTION: Extract .exe archive with 7z in Ubunu 9.04, fix “Unsupported Method” error

            Just posting a quick fix to a problem I had with using 7z to extract an archive. I could list the contents of the archive, but any attempts to extract gave an “Unsupported Method” error. Dan Jacobson posted a solution to the debian bug tracking system, which is to install the package p7zip-rar.

            In Ubuntu …

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              Google Summer of Code: Creative Commons Drupal Module

              A few weeks ago, I started my Google Summer of Code project with the Creative Commons. My proposal to update the CC Drupal module was accepted back in April, and over the last six weeks I’ve been getting my bearings. Kevin Reynen from Denver Open Media, the project’s maintainer, has given me CVS access …

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                ASCAP Thinks That Video Game Providers Should Pay Music Performance Royalties

                This post originally appeared on Techdirt.

                Despite claiming to represent the interests of songwriters and composers, ASCAP has consistently provided bad advice on how they should respond to digital technology and the internet. For ASCAP and many other collection societies, anything that doesn’t involve royalties seems automatically bad (despite all the success from artists who’ve …

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                  Canadian Copyright Expert On Levy Proposals: Today’s Quickie Legislative Solutions Are Tomorrow’s Absurdities

                  This post originally appeared on Techdirt.

                  Howard Knopf, a well known Canadian copyright expert, recently took a look at some of the failed copyright levy proposals in Canada. The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) administers the tax levy on blank CDs, which now accounts for almost 90% of the price. In 2002, similar proposals to …

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                    Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada
                    This work by Blaise Alleyne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada.