• Jesus walk with me from The boy who couldn't stop dreaming
• Whatever you want from The boy who couldn't stop dreaming
• Heaven from The boy who couldn't stop dreaming
• Spring came, rain fell from Spring came, rain fell
• Love in December from Club 8
• Missing you from The friend I once had

As general counsel of the Wikimedia Foundation, I was one of the handful of people mobilized in our rapid response to Wikipedia's being censored in the United Kingdom as a result of Internet Watch Foundation's blacklist.

Although the Foundation (and Wikipedia users) are grateful that the Internet Watch Foundation changed its mind (after concerted protest from us and from our community), there is still plenty to be troubled by in the operations of the Internet Watch Foundation and its blacklist.

First of all, the IWF's blacklist is not at all transparent to users -- try to view a web page blocked as a result of the IWF's blacklist, and you get an error message that doesn't indicate that censorship is happening.

Second, the IWF's appeals process is also less than transparent. When we first challenged the IWF's blocking of Wikipedia content (the full text of the article, not just blocking of the offending but lawful image), we were soon told that there had been an appeal of the block but that Wikipedia had lost. Who represented Wikipedia in that appeals process? I asked that question immediately, and discovered that, of course, no one had represented our side.

Third, it's clear that IWF relies for its expertise on the question of whether content might be "potentially illegal" by talking to pro-censorship law-enforcement entities. This is not the way to operate if you want to understand freedom of expression as an expansive rather than a cramped and restricted freedom. Policemen and prosecutors tend to think of all the ways they can view an act as criminal -- you need civil libertarians (ideally lawyers trained in the theory of freedom of speech) to balance the perspective of law-enforcement personnel, if freedom is to mean anything in your society.

Finally, it is worth noting that the particular means by which censorship is implemented via the IWF blacklist is one that doesn't scale well. It may be all too easy for IWF to blacklist a marginal porn site and have almost all UK ISPs route communications with that site through a proxy server that blocks particular content. But that sort of blunt-instrument approach hardly scales when you're dealing with a top-ten website like Wikipedia, which relies on contributions from many hundreds of thousands of uses all around the world. Wikipedia's own need to prevent vandalism means that we have to be able to identify and block particular IP addresses where vandalism may originate -- the implementations of the blacklist by UK ISPs ensured that, to Wikipedia's servers, most contributions were coming from a small number of IP addresses. This meant that any attempt to block a vandal meant disempowering a huge collateral number of constructive contributors in the United Kingdom.

Even though we won this particular censorship skirmish, it bears repeating that the IWF signifies a very problematic approach to content control by governments, including, sadly, the United Kingdom. Not only is the process obscure, transparent, arbitrary, and capricious, but also, because the IWF is not itself a governmental entity, it is essentially unaccountable to the public it is supposed to be serving. That is something that citizens in the UK and elsewhere may feel requires some reform.


--Mike Godwin
General Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation

Some of the data are especially worrying: out of the approximately 6,000 existing languages in the world, more than 200 have become extinct during the last three generations, 538 are critically endangered, 502 severely endangered, 632 definitely endangered and 607 unsafe.

It was discovered that the man every member of the Irish police's rank and file had been looking for - a Mr Prawo Jazdy - wasn't exactly the sort of prized villain whose apprehension leads to an officer winning an award ... "Prawo Jazdy is actually the Polish for driving licence and not the first and surname on the licence," read a letter from June 2007 from an officer working within the Garda's traffic division.

• I clicked the wrong link in TripIt and my main account got wiped out as a consequence
• I discovered that BusinessWeek had got it into their heads I am on Sun's Board

> One of these companies has a great future.

That supposes that their audience cares that they are accurate, that
there is a channel that will make them aware of inaccuracies
effectively, and that the audience will hold them accountable for the
inaccuracies they become aware of.  As sound bites are King these days
(pity!), I don't know that any of these conditions are fulfilled.

FWIW, I already don't read BusinessWeek.

glen

Looks like the Blogging plug-in on OpenOffice.org doesn't respect the "save as
draft" checkbox - this is only half finished thoughts right now. I'd be
interested to hear opinions though, looks to me like CNN is in mid-hatchet-job
here.

The band was forced to check in their guitars as luggage, and used strong hard-sided cases for the purpose. While in transit at Chicago flying on United Airlines, passengers saw United baggage handlers tossing the guitars across the tarmac with abandon. The United crew on the plane did nothing to help him and it was in Nebraska that he was finally able to check his $3,500 guitar, only to find the neck broken. Dave tried for over a year to get some explanation and compensation from United, but got a final "no" at the start of 2009. His parting message to the United representative was that he intended to write three folk songs about the experience.

Good to his word, Dave and the band created a folk masterpiece - a wryly humourous song with a catchy, pacy guitar tune and a great hook - and recorded it to their usual production quality. They also engaged a video producer and produced a funny and watchable music video. The whole package appeared on YouTube last week and is reaching record viewing figures already. It's so good I went looking for a way to buy and download it - but so far Dave isn't selling.

Before long, this phenomenal take-up caught news attention and the video appeared on the US news channels, including CNN and Fox. In each case the reporters sided with the underdog and applauded the song. The manufacturer of Dave's guitar also jumped in, posting a nice video discussing how to get your guitar mended and suggesting United didn't know the rules when they forced the guitars in the hold.

After all this attention, United finally decided they might have a problem. They called Dave and offered him compensation. He responded by saying he wasn't interested in that any more - United had the chance to say that all last year and didn't. He told them that if they wanted to pay money, to give it to charity. United picked a music charity and optimistically posted on Twitter that the matter was now sorted - nothing to see folks, move along.

If only. Dave has posted a short video on YouTube where he says that song two is even better than song one and should be ready in August. I've not seen anywhere that United has responded on YouTube yet, and I suspect their unhappiness will only get deeper until they embrace the situation rather than trying to "solve" it. This one could run and run, and when it's done I think every corporate marketing team wll use it as a case study.

Here are the (legal) free downloads I've recommended this month:

For Americans

1. Celtic Summer Sampler
2. Jeff Beck - Blanket with Imogen Heap on vocals
3. Brazilian Music Sample
4. Eternal Baroque Sampler
5. Ziggy Marley - Walk Tall (featuring Paul Simon)
6. Luaka Bop Orinoco Sampler

For Everyone

• Radiohead - These Are My Twisted Words (single)

Just in time for Labor Day weekend for some of you (and a patch of light at the end of the first week back after the holiday for the rest of us), here's this week's pick of the freebies and goodies. Get them while they are hot, they are sure to go away after a while.

For UK Readers

• Kate Walsh Acoustic EP - three lovely acoustic versions of tracks from her new album. The charming-n�if-style gets wearing after a while so I'll take some convincing I want the album, but this EP is definitely recommended. This just showed up on Amazon US as well.
  


• Thomas Dybdahl I Need Love Baby, Love, Not Trouble is a good track but isn't grabbing me like his earlier stuff.
  


• The Sargent House Sampler is a real mix, with some decent tracks between - uh - less good ones. My highlights were tracks 1, 5, 7 and 12, especially that last Red Sparowes one which brings to mind The Engineers. This selection is also available from Amazon US.

For US Readers

• Four Quarters 20/20 World Vision world music sampler. Every track has something good to offer, well worth the download.


• Constance Amiot Clash Dans Le Tempo and Ceumar Feliz e Triste from the Putumayo Digital Sampler (which is not bad but is unlikely to get on my playlist).


• Banda da Boca Samba de Bahia (from a sampler that I listened to so you didn't have to) is delightful, made from group vocalisations.
  


• Dolores O'Riorden The Journey (Cranberries lead singer) off her new solo album. I like it, but then I like The Cranberries.


• Kate Walsh Acoustic EP - see above. Very cute.


• Sargent House Sampler - see above. I can see me buying more Red Sparowes...

This week's selection of music fetishes as posted to Twitter, aggregated here for your delectation, delight and convenience. Americans should get the Neko Case track, Brits the David Grey track.

For UK Readers

• Chill Pill Speakers - I borrowed a pair of these from Norm Walsh at XML Summer School so people could hear the audio. They are tiny, yet manage to create a huge and complete sound. They have retractable cables and rechargeable batteries. So desirable I instantly ordered a pair.
  

• David Grey: First Chance - sounds just like David Grey, so if you like that you'll probably enjoy this track. I do.


• Animal Kingdom: Silence Summons You- perfectly pleasant band, I'll be watching for other stuff by them.

For US Readers

• Chill Pill Speakers - see above, the reviews give more detail on the US Amazon site and the speakers are substantially cheaper.
  
  
• Rufus Wainright: I Don't Know What It Is - Live performance of a likeable if rather plodding ballad. Rather over-orchestrated so that he gets a bit lost in all the instrumentation, but he has a great voice and this is a worthwhile download. I gather this is a bonus track not on his new CD.
  
  
• Anti- Fall Sampler - pretty variable sampler. There's a splendid Neko Case track, Magpie to the Morning, and The Swell Season are good with In These Arms. The venerable Brazilian band Os Mutantes with Teclar aren't bad and I quite liked Jason Lytle with Rollin' Home Alone. The rest - well, I listened so you didn't have to!
  
  
• The Apples In Stereo: The Bird That You Can't See - bouncy buzzy pop with a retro tinge, as you'd expect from them.
  
  
• Kate Walsh's Acoustic EP is still available free for US download (although curiously the individual tracks aren't). Get it now if you haven't already.
  

Here's my Free MP3 summary for the week.

For UK Readers

I wish there was something to report, but in the UK the Lily Allen mindset (that's the modern, airheaded version of the Metallica mindset for those of you with any history) is so strong among music promoters that the very idea of letting you listen to anything without paying for it first is anathema. This is the real reason they are in trouble. The only people who get to listen to new music are people who are willing to take the risk to download it in the face of the witch-hunt, or pay speculatively based on breathless fanboyism. The rest of us just keep listening to our back catalogue...

For US Readers

Amazon US downloads are restricted to verified US account-holders

• Black Whales: Books On Tape - Pretty routine if gritty-ish soft rock, with enough energy to make it worth a try. ★★★☆☆


• Mike Keneally: Inhale - Despite the heavy opening this is actually another ballad. Pace is rather slow and style treacly, lyric delivery a bit strained, not really to my taste but not bad. ★★★☆☆


• The Maldives: Tequila Sunday - The nasal intonation, fiddle riffs and the pedal steel confirm that this scratch-band rock number is from a "country" group, but it's actually quite rocky otherwise. I went to give it 3 stars and surprised myself by wanting to give it a 4th. ★★★★☆


• The Ryko - Flash of Light Sampler is excellent and worth downloading in its entirety. ★★★★★


• So is the Verve Vault Rhythm, Strings and Cool Breezy Jazz Sample, which has some of my all-time favourite jazz classics on it and is would have been worth paying for (well, apart from the fact I have all of them already!) ★★★★★


• As a footnote, the Celtic Sampler I recommended a few weeks ago obviously is worth paying for as Amazon is now charging $8.99 for it!

Here is my free and recommended music roundup for the week ending Friday October 9th.

For Everyone

• Absolutely wonderful music video of Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie, with charming stop-frame and a great, gentle ballad. Free stuff worked for Oren; I bought the album.

For UK Readers

Amazon UK downloads are restricted to UK IP addresses regardless of account status

• The Raveonettes: Suicide - Rocky little number as a sampler of their new album, pretty good, and it breaks the drought for UK free tracks.

For US Readers

• Paper Bag Records 2009 Sampler is a good download.


• Erin McCarley: Pitter-Pat - Likeable acoustic ballad.


• The Raveonettes: Last Dance - A different track to the one the UK can listen to, but actually better - soothing rock.

Here's my round-up of music recommendations for the week.

For Everyone

• Tom Waits will send you the first 8 tracks of his new album in exchange for any working e-mail address (I love Spam Gourmet!) Not my taste at all, but some readers may be fans.


• They aren't free, but you may like to explore the "album" I have put together of Imogen Heap's Rarities and B-Sides. I realised I had accumulated a wide selection of very good collaborations by her and decided to put a page together collecting them.

For UK Readers

Amazon UK downloads are restricted to UK IP addresses regardless of account status

• Seasick Steve: That's All - Live sampler track of the grungy blues rocker. ***


• Way Out West: Ultra Violet - Good, throbbing drum & bass dance track

For US Readers

Amazon US downloads are restricted to verified US account-holders

• The Swell Season: In These Arms haunting folk duet. ****


• Lights: Saviour - Yes, that's the correct spelling despite being a US track. Ambiguous love-song in child-like vocoded voice with pulsing, running electronica backing. Curiously compelling. ****

[Note that these links and offers are highly likely to corrode over time]

It was a surprise to see Richard Stallman's signature on a letter to the European Commission calling on them to block the acquisition of MySQL by Oracle with its proposed acquisition of Sun. The surprise wasn't primarily because of that position. Clearly we are all concerned, and clearly there is scope for free software advocates to differ in their conclusions, as the intervention by leading European free software lawyer Carlo Piana shows. I have my own views on the acquisition as well, which I hope one day to be at liberty to share openly¹. But the direct subject of the letter was not the surprise.

The letter's arguments imply that the dual-license model used by MySQL is the origin of the potential loss of freedom its authors fear. This model involves a vendor having aggregated copyright ownership of the free software commons at the heart of a particular open source community. While every other member of the community is bound by the terms of the open source license governing the commons, the copyright-owning company is free to do pretty much as they please with the copyright, making it available under whatever commercial terms it wants, in sub- and super-sets of function and packaging.

Those terms can even include clauses that restrict the freedom of community members who choose to buy from the company - I have for example seen commercial terms that include "no fork" clauses preventing customers working on or with any version of the code apart from the one the company supplies. While commonly used in combination with the GPLv2 as the community license, dual licenses with GPLv3, LGPLv3, the Affero GPL and even with weak-copyleft licenses such as CDDL are all easy to find. The license makes no difference to the actions open to the copyright holder, who is not bound by it.

Dual licensing is everywhere in commercial open source. So the letter from Stallman is a surprise because it's the first time I have really seen him acknowledge that the license alone can be no guarantee of software freedom. It takes more - including community governance, trademark and copyright ownership and administration, the percentage of core function in the commons - as partial indicators of software freedom. They need to be taken together to get the full view.

In my previous postings, I've compared "open source" with "organic", called for an expansion of the definition of open source to embrace more "inputs" and proposed drafting a "Software Freedom Definition" and creating an "Open Source Audit" scorecard to help people identify the key software freedom characteristics of vendor product offerings. My goal is not to have some nannying organisation passing judgement on open source communities, or the companies that work in them. Rather, it is to expand the number of indicators available to us all of basic open source hygiene, so that when we choose to work in any imperfect community - and they are all imperfect in some way - we are aware of the issues and have handholds when we decide to address them. Transparency and truthful labelling is the key to intelligent choice and advancing freedom through informed compromise. The alternative - the One Approved Distribution - works for almost no-one.

It seems that this is an initiative whose time has come. I'd love to see Stallman and the FSF join in taking action to broaden the definitions, now that it's been admitted that the license alone is no guarantee of software freedom and that we must consider more factors in reaching a conclusion on its promotion.

1: As a current employee of Sun Microsystems and a Sun shareholder I'll not comment for or against the transaction with Oracle. Please also note that nothing said here is necessarily the position of Sun Microsystems.

Here's a round-up of the music I've been recommending this week on Twitter. Best of the week are the two jazz tracks.

For UK Readers

Amazon UK downloads are restricted to UK IP addresses regardless of account status

• Hawke: Everything Is Happening At The Same Time - Inoffensive dance/electronica. ***

For US Readers

Amazon US downloads are restricted to verified US account-holders

• The New 5: New York Hotel - Good jazz track, with enough melody to be pleasing and enough syncopated modernity to be interesting. 8 enjoyable minutes of music. ****


• Ben Allison: Fred - More pleasing jazz. Creative brass-led and lyrical instrumental ballad. ****


• Rusty Anderson: Where Would We Go? - Buskerish singer-songwriter ballad. ***


• The Duchess & the Duke: Hands - Strummy/twangy semi-acoustic ballad with added cheesy organ and mournful lyric. ***


• A Bad Think: Long WayTo Go - Simon & Garfunkle-ish guitar-led ballad but with reflective female vocals. I quite like it. ****

[Note that these links and offers are highly likely to corrode over time]

Several years ago, we had the chance to visit a crocodile farm in Queensland, Australia. There were several highlights, not least the chance for the children to hold a crocodile - a very small one, of course, with its jaws taped shut. Even with one that small, the frisson of terror remained and the children all laughed nervously for the camera.

Chickens and Evil

Reptiles and Instinct

After the demonstration, the keeper took questions from the audience, standing on the bank near the crocodile and giving the impression of a lazy familiarity with it. One question asked how long he'd been doing the job and how well he knew the crocodiles. He replied he'd been giving this demonstration four times a day for over a decade. He said he had a good understanding of how the crocodile thought; mechanically. He was under no illusion that he had a relationship with it.

Just Reptiles

And that's what I mean when I say a corporation is just a reptile.

Here's a round-up of the music I've been recommending this week on Twitter.

For UK Readers

Amazon UK downloads are restricted to UK IP addresses regardless of account status

• Jack Johnson: If I Had Eyes - Typically syncopated, guitar-led ballad from a live performance. Easy on the ears. ***
  
  
• Once again not Music, but you may be interested if you liked the look of the Chill Pill travel speakers I mentioned a while back. Amazon Vine sent me a LINX B-Tube to try. It's a USB-charged bluetooth stereo speaker system in a 6" steel tube, which also has line-in. Sounds quality is tremendous, and when used with a cellphone it doubles as a great speaker-phone with echo cancellation. Battery life is surprisingly long (on the scale of a couple of days from one charge) and it comes with USB cables (as well as charging from a normal Nokia charger too). I've been travelling with it the last two weeks and I love it. Mine was free but at �15 I don't think you can go wrong.

For US Readers

Amazon US downloads are restricted to verified US account-holders

• Great Lake Swimmers: Pulling On A Line - Still producing reliably comfortable folk/pop, this track follows in earlier footsteps and signals another workmanlike album. ***


• Boozoo Bajou: Same Sun - Deliciously laid-back female lounge vocals, love it ****


• Rodrigo Y Gabriela: Hanuman - Energetic flamencoesque instrumental track will have you dancing around the room stomping your feet ****

[Note that these links and offers are highly likely to corrode over time]

Here's a round-up of the music I've been recommending this week on Twitter.

For Everyone

• UltraChorus: 3Hive has links to two rather good free tracks of throbby "bubblegum pop", worth looking. ****

For US Readers

Amazon US downloads are restricted to verified US account-holders

• Excellent sampler from Brushfire Records starts with a deliciously slouchy Jack Johnson track and goes on with a relaxed Saturday vibe. *****


• Kings of Convenience: Boat Behind - Great Kings track, charmingly retro with the rhythm of the oars on the guitars. ****


• Audra May: The River - minor-key ballad with a travelling rhythm, guitar & snare. Good track. ****


• Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble: Semi-Detached - Deliciously spacey, Philip Glass-inspired new music fusion track. The bass heartbeat and twiddly (technical term) instrumetals complete it and make it one of favourite tracks of late. *****


• Barlow Girl: Hello Sunshine - Pop music wannabes from the "Contemporary Christian" twilight zone. Sorry, this track lacks the energy and conviction to succeed with people lacking other motives to listen. ***


• Clare & The Reasons: Oooh You Hurt Me So - Twee girlpop with retro feel, may be worth a try if you need more twee in your life. ***

[Note that these links and offers are highly likely to corrode over time]

Here's a round-up of the music I've been recommending this week on Twitter.

For Everyone

• The long-running compilation by Mercedes-Benz has reached edition 29 - Mixed tape.

For US Readers

Amazon US downloads are restricted to verified US account-holders

• Amazon is giving a credit for one free song by any CMA Award nominated artist. Take a look at the details.


• Visqueen: Hand Me Down - Sounds like it ought to be a track from a Suzie Quattro tribute musical, but still pretty good. ****


• Flyleaf: Again - Sounding like Evanescence with Avril Lavigne on vocals, this is actually a pretty good girl-leads-heavy track. ****


• Alberta Cross: Leave Us And Forgive Us - Somewhere between Coldplay and Snow Patrol but without the vocal strength. ***

[Note that these links and offers are highly likely to corrode over time]

Here's a round-up of the music I've been recommending this week on Twitter.

For UK Readers

Amazon UK downloads are restricted to UK IP addresses regardless of account status

• Phantom Limb: Last Chance Saloon - Pretty good line-dance-country with a supple, dusky female lead. ****

For US Readers

Amazon US downloads are restricted to verified US account-holders

• Jonas Sees In Color: Loose Threads - Gentle yet rocky ballad reminds me of Vertical Horizon. ****


• Annie Little: Fly Me Away - Twee meets oompahpah with a little coconut percussion thrown in for fun. Maybe seeing the Kindle ad would help? ***


• Lissie: Little Lovin' - Angsty female singer-songwriter starts as a ballad and ends as a stomp. Not bad. ***


• Kirsten DeHaan: 1984 - Breathy stylised female vocals over pulsing guitar track. Can't decide if it's pretentious or interesting. ***.


• Na'Shay: My Mama Ain't Home - Shiny female R&B swing love song like a million others. Sweet, charming, harmless, instantly forgettable. ***


• Dragonette: Pick Up The Phone - Tame, derivative & seemingly manufactured rebel-woman rock. ***

[Note that these links and offers are highly likely to corrode over time]