Jacob Christensen

The motion to compel production of all data from the Logging database concerning each time a YouTube video has been viewed on the YouTube website or through embedding on a third-party website is granted;

Source.

Also: Electronic Frontier Foundation.

From a theoretical perspective, the entire copyright and financing of artistic work problem is interesting: What are the consequences of the diffusion of digital technology. And: Does technology or regulation drive the development?

Technology is ambivalent here – on the one hand, digital media and different types of distributing techniques reduce the marginal cost of, say, a piece of music to almost nothing. On the other hand, technology also give copyright holders (not necessarily identical with the artists, mind you) almost unlimited access to survey and control users.

Established media companies have concentrated interests as well as the access and means to pay lawyers and lobbyists, which gives rise to some very interesting results.

On the other hand, it is a characteristic of media companies that they use indiscriminate and – to put it mildly – heavy-handed tools which doesn’t exactly endear them to the public. It’s a little like the Swedish FRA story, but the twist that market arguments are used undermine privacy gratuitously is ironic. It is also interesting to note that regulation is often seen as the little guy’s defence against the destructive or upsetting effects of technological innovation but when it comes to digital media the cards seem to have been switched. Regulations are a way for corporations to control users.

Oh, and let me just note that US broadcasters and Microsoft have managed to produce the DVR which cannot record TV programmes.

Well, because you asked for it:

It’s a crazy world. First I had a job. Then I didn’t have a job. Then I had a job. And now, I have two jobs. Or three, depending on how you count.

Okay, there is some sense in all of the craziness, because the first new job wasn’t a full-time job but an 80% position – partly to stretch the period of the research scholarship, partly to allow me to do other interesting things, but it took a bit of calculating the Danish tax rates to figure out if I would do irreparable harm to my personal economy or not.

Anyway, I was asked if I could fill in for a colleague in Copenhagen in a seminar on modern political parties and after thinking hard about it for something like a week decided to take the challenge.

As it is, I actually said no to doing some courses on the social work programme in Ume� during September and October with the argument that I had done my share of teaching, so why the turn-around you may ask.

Answer #1: The argument still stands. I have done my share of teaching and in a formal sense have nothing to gain in terms of qualifications by doing more teaching.

But…

Answer #2: During my time in Sweden I have done loads of courses which have been a) on an introductory level and b) not really linked with my academic interests.¹ But the way the Swedish system in general and PolSci in Ume� in particular has been organised, there has been very little room for more advanced courses where you have to link teaching and contemporary research in an explicit way and I’ve missed that.²

So now we have a few practical problems to sort out: I thought that the autumn semester in Copenhagen began on 1 September but it does in fact begin on 25 August and I’ll be moving during that week. I also have to figure out if the seminar should run as 14 x 2 hours or some other format. In may be away for one week in late September so some kind of re-arragement has to take place.

Oh, and there is also the question of a reading list. But if I need help, I know where to find a living library

1. Courses in policy analysis, social policy and to some degree Scandinavian politics fall under “linked with my academic interests” in case anybody wonder. [↩]
2. In case you wonder about the yammering about Ume�: This has to do with the size of the place. The department simply cannot afford to offer an endless selection of courses according to the whims of teachers. [↩]

• Henry Farrell: Kicking the Irish Out
  That [M�nchau's] purported solutions are so adrift from reality suggests that a lot of people in Germany and Brussels (as well as Paris) are still in complete denial about what happened in Ireland, and about what options they now have.
  (tags: ireland lisbontreaty europe)