Drupal as a wiki

I felt like doing some web work this weekend and thought I would try my own take on how to make Drupal work as a wiki. My work colleagues are aware that I’ve been steeped in a fun Drupal project — taking the suggestions of the UW-Madison Teaching Academy and the Vice Provost for Teaching & Learning and designing their new website: Teaching & Learning Excellence at UW-Madison. It’s been a fun project and has whet my appetite to try a few more interactive websites.

Druwiki is nothing fancy. The main challenge is trying to keep some of what Drupal does so well, namely organizing content in taxonomies, while downplaying it’s more blog-like functions. I trust anyone who reads this blog to try it out, so I’ll leave registrations open for a bit if anybody would like to kick the tires. I’d love feedback, ideas, or to hear about strategies you’ve considered.

Public or Private Enforcement of Copyright

Tthe Senate Judiciary committee voted on new bill with provisions to increase punishments for copyright. Part of the bill would shift some of the enforcement burden to the public (but not criminal?) prosecution, away from the private enforcement like the RIAA’s civil lawsuits. CNet reports:

A group of librarians and nonprofit groups, including the American Library Association, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, sent a letter to senators on Wednesday that says copyright holders–and not government lawyers funded by tax dollars–should be the ones filing the lawsuits.

This highlights an interesting conundrum–would copyright be better enforced privately or publicly? Enforcement by the RIAA and related groups seems in some ways like the efforts of the Stationer’s Company, which were an engine of censorship for almost 300 years of England’s history. Private enforcement has brought lawsuits that are arguably more of a PR campaign than a punishment. Yet, this seems like a step towards criminal prosecutions would cost more public funds and possibly give a lot of “normal” people a mark on their record. It’s almost a double edged sword.

One of the more controversial sections of the latest version would permit the Justice Department to file a civil lawsuit against “any person” committing a copyright violation…

Considering the lack of clarity in copyright law and the fact that fair use is understood as a defense and not a right, it’s not always clear when there is a copyright violation. We should be more careful making laws that could be difficult to apply and have a large impact on the middle class.

iTunes 8 Review: Smarter, but still old school

I’m a musician and a music lover, and thanks to buying Fair Play music over the last few years, I’m locked into iPods and iTunes. Being the kind of person that likes to have all their metadata in order -clear genres, ratings, and playlists -there were a number of features I was looking forward to that I thought would make it easier to manage my growing music library. Things like tagging of music, sub-genres, and truly boolean playlists were at the top of my list. The thing is, I know I’m in the minority–most people’s music libraries are a mess.

I think that’s why Apple spent their time on the “Genius” instead of the features I was looking for. Rather than create lists by tagging artists by country or by a Janice Joplin and Shiina Ringo with a rating greater than 3 stars, Apple is looking into our libraries and making connections based on (I assume) qualities of the song like tempo and similar artists. I’ll bet the majority will be happy, even if freaks like me aren’t.

Why am I talking about iTunes on a blog about law and technology? For one thing, this feature doesn’t work with artists that aren’t on iTunes like your friends’ old high school band or your favorite Sony Jpop artists. More importantly, this move shows Apple’s real vision of iTunes–an online portal to sell, sell, sell. Who cares if the application feels outdated if it’s still bringing in revenue.

A count of Journalist arrests

The Minnesota Independent went to the trouble of tabulating the journalist arrests at the RNC Convention in St. Paul.  What’s interesting is the range of media organizations–from the grassrootsy-independent types, to student newspapers, to established media organizations like the AP, Fox, and local stations KARE and WCCO.

Of the 800-plus people who were arrested or detained in conjunction with RNC protests, a good chunk of them — 42, by our count — were members of the news media. Media representatives in town to cover the events, from both big and small presses, were slapped with citations and pending charges ranging in severity, including unlawful assembly, obstructing the legal process, misdemeanor interference with a peace officer and felony to riot plus other riot pretenses.

The mass of protesters has been accused of being violent, anarchist, and part of a liberal media conspiracy. Yet, how can we know this if journalists are prevented from doing their job–reporting what’s happening on the ground.