At 02:37 AM 10/25/02 +0100, Adam Back wrote: >Seems to me this would pass current IP laws because it is like a radio >station which broadcast the name of a song and the user is expected to >insert the CD in his player and play along to keep up with the >commentary, only automated and with open APIs for the "load and play >this CD track" instructions so people can hook it up to whatever is >convenient to them.
Such a station resembles an editor who suggests articles by giving a pointer, e.g., ISBN, Journal cite, or URL. Some editors (like talk-free radio stations) may not even provide commentary, but their subscribers value the information implicit in their choices. [One listens to radio, follows editors' pointers, etc. because one desires fresh bits... and a "good" Editor increases the probability that you will encounter fresh bits you like. Even unintentional Editors are valuable: Using KaZaa, one can scan all of other nodes' shared files; finding a user with content you like (tastes like yours) via a regular search often yields a cache of good content.] Version 2 of the BackBox should handle video, with DVD/TiVo++ URIs, too.