Sunday, January 19, 2003
Spectrum vs. Sphincter
Our views on radio spectrum are antique. We still see spectrum as something requiring a dial of fixed frequencies: Every "station" has a "channel" with "range" and "coverage." Very limited, very antique. Also very unnecessary.
This is the wireless digital age. Cyberspace is wide open, literally. We have smart people wandering around the Commons, thinking of ways to make it exactly huge for everybody. Wirelessly.
Right now these folks are collected around an issue they call Open Spectrum. And they have prepared an FAQ about it. One sample:
An Open Spectrum policy would permit anyone to send signals across any range of spectrum without permission, with the minimum set of rules required to enable the success of a "wireless commons."
Bonus link: Why Open Spectrum Matters, by David Weinberger.
Same Lemur, new blog
The Head Lemur's new Radio blog is up, and he's shaking it down. Cool.
L.A. Story
The Reverse Cowgirl will be reading her fiction in Santa Monica tonight. Wish I could make it.
Hope some local L.A. Bloggers make it.
Proposed: The Bixby Snyder Law
Larry Lessig has a clever workaround for the Sonny Bono all-copyrights-default-to-perpetuity law, recently upheld in the Eldred decision: Charge a "tiny tax," as low as $1.00, on all copyrights upwards of 50 years old, which their owners wish to keep out of the public domain. It's a great idea. In fact, I think it would be a politically smart move for Hollywood and the publishing industry to get behind it, so they're less than 100% hostile to the very idea of the public domain.
Larry calls it The Eric Eldred Act. That's fine, but it's a bit too... memorial, perhaps. I think it needs a better hook. I propose calling it The Bixby Snyder Law.
Bixby was the host of It's Not My Problem, the only show running on TV in the movie Robocop. Every time a TV appeared in the movie, there was Bixby, blurting his laugh line: I'll buy that for a dollar!
Whatever we call the law, we should get behind it. Write your local congresscritter, and watch Larry's blog (Eldred too) for further developments.
Meanwhile, Steve Waldman wants us to think about civil disobedience.
Wi-Fli
Alright, I'll have to start flying Lufthansa.
Earth to United: Want to come back from the brink? Put wi-fi in your planes and Red Carpet Clubs It'll be a major attraction for frequent business flyers.
It frosts me that I've got a lifetime membership in the Red Carpet Club (got it a long time ago when it was still gettable), and when I'm at the airports in Denver or Los Angeles, I have to go outside the club to find a wi-fi signal.
[Later...] Alan Reiter brings good news about wi-fi in Red Carpet Clubs that he first posted here.