Thursday, July 08, 2004

Fiery and Spectacular!

I know it's a little on the late side for the 2004 celebration of July 4th, but I came across this site called Kaboom! that I couldn't resist. Actually fireworks displays take place more often than just the 4th of July (I've seen them at a Mariners game and, heck, even at Seattle Opera [indoors no less]), so this fascinating information is relevant many times of the year.

If you've ever wondered what makes fireworks tick (and then explode!), you'll love this site sponsored by NOVA and PBS.

More About Copying and Copyright -- This Time With DVDs

As a sort of follow-up to yesterday's post about copyright and fair use, here's an article reviewing some of the issues involved in the debate about the legality -- again an aspect of the fair use doctrine in copyright law -- in people being able to copy DVDs they own.

DVDs come with anti-copying protections built into the disks but programs have been written and distributed that over-ride those protections and allow the DVDs to be copied.

Lawsuits have been filed and decisions rendered. Programs making the copying possible have been outlawed; new programs (many free and available for download via the 'net) have been produced to continue to make copying DVDs possible.

Difficult to know how this will utlimately play out. It's clear that the major movie studios are pressuring hard to keep the anti-copying protections in place. It's also clear that a number of people are feeling that, if they own the DVD (just like with their audio CDs), they should be able to make a back-up copy in case the kids mess up the original or if they want to view a movie they bought on their laptop without schlepping around the disks.

I suspect we'll hear more about this as the battlelines get drawn.....