Now here’s the AP’s story.

A federal appeals court judge under scrutiny for sexually explicit videos and photos posted on a personal Web site is the victim of distortions and “outright lies” published by the Los Angeles Times, his wife charged Monday.

Marcy Jane Tiffany, wife of 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, described some of the material stored on the home computer as raunchy and juvenile. Only a handful of files among hundreds had a “sexual aspect,” but they were not pornography, she said.

“Alex is not into porn he is into funny and sometimes funny has a sexual character,” Tiffany wrote in a nearly 2,000-word defense of her husband, posted on a Web site called patterico.com.

Of the several hundred files in the computer folder at issue, “the vast majority was cute, amusing and not in the least bit sexual in nature,” Tiffany, a Torrance, Calif., lawyer, wrote. “The tiny percentage of the material that was sexual in nature was all of a humorous character.”

The Times account is “riddled with half-truths, gross mischaracterizations and outright lies,” she said. She also faulted the media for repeating and embellishing what she described as misleading statements in the Times about the material.

Now let’s see. I note at least 61 words taken from “Patterico(’s)” site, which should bring the AP’s grand total for the reprint to approximately $152. If the AP didn’t pay the blogger for the content printed exclusively at his site, what right did they feel they had to use it without compensation? Or do they feel that they have the right under, uh, fair use?

As we wait with bated breath for the Associated Press to come down from the mountain with its own rules for “fair use for bloggers,” Patrick Nielsen Hayden gives us a sense of what the AP considers fair use (found via Boing Boing). Apparently, for quite some time, the AP has had up a page that lists out prices for quoting AP text. I will quote the list prices, and hope I don’t get a DMCA takedown:

* 5-25 words: $ 12.50
* 26-50 words: $ 17.50
* 51-100 words: $ 25.00
* 101-250 words: $ 50.00
* 251 words and up: $ 100.00

Oh, and it gets better. The AP claims that it can revoke the license at any time if it feels you’re saying something negative about the Associated Press: “Publisher reserves the right to terminate this Agreement at any time if Publisher or its agents finds Your use of the licensed Content to be offensive and/or damaging to Publisher’s reputation.”

Pardon me as I laugh my ass off here…

Update: OK, I’m back now. They feel they can revoke your right to quote their work if they feel it presents them in a negative light? Have they read U.S. law?

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

So while the Associated Press continues in its attempts to redefine fair use and rewrite federal law, I’ll continue my boycott on linking stories from the sadly-oblivious news agency.

Meet the Bulbcap by MollaSpace. Unlike your typical lampshade, the Bulbcap is directly applied to the lightbulb, leaving some *cough* Gizmodo *cough* to place their minds firmly in the gutter.

Simply pull the “shade” over any typical lightbulb under 40 watts:

and you’ve got a….an….er…..let’s face it, you’ve got a conversation piece.

As a bonus, the Bulbcap is apparently charged with some sort of pigment, allowing it to glow with the color for a while after you’ve turned the light off.

The trial centers around the October 2006 suicide death of St. Louis area resident Megan Meier, 13-years-old at the time. Meier was reportedly lured into believing a boy on MySpace, who actually didn’t exist, was her boyfriend. After talking to “him” for a while, “he” suddenly dumped Meier. “Josh Evans”, the fictional name Drew allegedly created, became increasingly nasty. Eventually “he” stated that the world would be better off without Meier.

The 13-year-old was found hung in her closet hours after “Josh’s” final message. She was never aware that the whole thing was fake.

Drew was indicted for her alleged role in the horrible hoax, after having been outed by understandably angry bloggers. She faces 20 years in prison if convicted.

The stories over the weekend were bad enough - the Associated Press, with a long history of suing over quotations from their articles, went after Drudge Retort for having the audacity to link to their stories along with short quotations via reader submissions. Drudge Retort is doing nothing different than what Digg, TechMeme, Mixx and dozens of other sites do, and frankly the fact that they are being linked to should be considered a favor.

There’s only one thing, trivial really, standing between the AP and their wishes: American federal law. See, as Arrington noted, the partial quoting of their material clearly falls within the guidelines of Fair Use. Section 107 of Title 17 of the United States Code, as ammended, states:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

There is a limit to how much of the material one can use, but a few sentences undoubtedly falls under said Fair Use laws.

Now the Associated Press says it’s willing to sit down with bloggers and negotiate an acceptable amount of material for use:

NEW YORK - The Associated Press, following criticism from bloggers over an AP assertion of copyright, plans to meet this week with a bloggers’ group to help form guidelines under which AP news stories could be quoted online.

Jim Kennedy, the AP’s director of strategic planning, said Monday that he planned to meet Thursday with Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, as part of an effort to create standards for online use of AP stories by bloggers that would protect AP content without discouraging bloggers from legitimately quoting from it.

I’m no lawyer, but since when can corporate guidelines trump American law? To quote Arrington again:

The A.P. doesn’t get to make it’s own rules around how its content is used, if those rules are stricter than the law allows. So even thought they say they are making these new guidelines in the spirit of cooperation, it’s clear that, like the RIAA and MPAA, they are trying to claw their way to a set of property rights that don’t exist today and that they are not legally entitled to.

So maybe I’m missing something here, but the AP still doesn’t seem to get it.

Beginning later this month, developers will begin to upload apps to the store accessible by iPhone users or to a new section of the iTunes Store, sharing revenue from app sales with Apple in a 70/30 split. These apps will be in addition to the 1,700-odd apps already developed for the iPhone’s Safari web browser.

One of the games people are looking forward to playing is Super Monkey Ball. Sega’s Ethan Einhorn showed off Super Monkey Ball on stage at the WWDC. According to Einhorn, after 8 weeks of development, the developers have created 110 stages.

The new 3G, GPS-enabled iPhone should open up a world of possibilities for clever developers in the realms of gaming, entertainment and enterprise applications.

In related news, the AOL Radio app for the iPhone won for Best Entertainment Application at the 2008 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), providing users free access to over 350 online radio stations (including 150 local CBS radio stations) and more than 200 AOL Radio channels.

Other WWDC iPhone App winners:

Best iPhone Game:
Enigmo by Pangea Software

Best iPhone Social Networking App:
Twitterrific by the Icon Factory

Best iPhone Productivity App:
OmniFocus by the Omni Group

Best iPhone Healthcare & Fitness App:
MIM from MIMVista

methodshop

In regards to the iPhone, here’s what we know today:

• Apple.com lists the iPhone as “Currently Unavailable???????? ????? ????????.” Stock is so low that you can’t buy it. Usually a good sign that a new model is coming out soon.

• Apple continues to make iPhone sales deals across the globe. Netherlands, Hong Kong, Singapore, India and Australia were all announced with the last few months.
• A 3G settings screen was found by hackers in the latest firmware update for the iPhone.
• The new iPhone will most likely be unveiled during Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at Apple’s WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) on June 9th.
• AT&T is prohibiting retail-store employees from taking vacations between June 15 and July 12, claiming that they’re expecting a “heavy selling period”. They implemented a similar policy last year for the iPhone launch.
• AT&T executives have said numerous times that all of their smartphones (the iPhone is one of the) will support 3G networking soon.
• The Apple Stores have been out of stock of the iPhone for weeks. And people are forming daily lines outside Apple stores that still have a few iPhones in stock.

And according to MethodShop.com, here are some rumors about what Steve Jobs might announce at the WWDC on June 9th

Continue Reading >>>

Here’s an excerpt from the Gizmodo post:

“We all suspected it, but now it is confirmed: someone very, very close to the 3G iPhone launch has told me [Gizmodo’s Jesus Diaz] that Apple will announce their new model at the WWDC Keynote on June 9th. The second-generation iPhone will be available worldwide right after the launch, and not at year’s end, as previously thought. The new model will also herald new sales policies in some countries.

In Spain, for example, the 3G iPhone will be available for sale at the June 18th grand opening of Telefonica’s megastore—an Apple Store-like shop located in the company’s historical building in Madrid’s Gran Vía— with nationwide availability the next day or after a few hours. The other European countries with iPhone availability will have similar launch schedules.”

The 3G iPhone will also supposedly do away with fixed-price iPhones. Apple will be adopting a more traditional subsidized pricing model. This means that certain carriers can offer discounts and subsidies on the Apple handset. This also means that large companies will probably be able to purchase iPhones in bulk and offer them as part of their companies internal wireless plans.

What will this new 3G iPhone look like? Rumors say it might come in multiple colors including black (see a mockup above). There’s no doubt that a black 3G iPhone would be extremely popular.

Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, first promised a 3G iPhone at a London press conference in September 2007. Sine then, it’s been a guessing game trying to figure out when the 3G iPhone would be released. In April, hackers found a 3G toggle switch in the iPhone’s 2.0 beta firmware hinting that a 3G iPhone release was imminent.

methodshop

This settings screen with a 3G toggle switch (see image) was found in the latest beta release of the iPhone’s 2.0 firmware.

Why would you want to turn off 3G? Because 3G drains cell phone batteries very quickly. In this screenshot, Apple has included a toggle setting to turn 3G off, and use AT&T’s slower but more battery friendly EDGE network instead. Probably a very useful feature if you are almost out of juice.

When can we expect to see a 3G iPhone and how much will it cost?

Continue Reading>>>

Hestla helped the young Nashville based quintet record a 2 song demo in his Florida studio which captured the attention of Jeff Hanson (Creed, Sevendust, Paramore) and his record label Silent Majority Group. Framing Hanley’s debut LP The Moment was released August 2007.

We had the good fortune to get some time with Framing Hanley’s frontman Nixon. This young star has a very intense voice reminiscent of Chester from Linkin Park. Listen to the breakdown in “Hear Me Now” to get an idea of what I’m referring to.

Interview: Framing Hanley vocalist Kenneth Nixon

methodshop