Penn State has a section on their portal site telling content providers .how to provide content via RSS generation

So far, RSS and other tools have been used more by individuals, it seems, than organizations. It's interesting to see them begin to be integrated into projects.

As someone on Blogdex said, "holy crap, that's cool!"!

A judge has ordered Network Associates to Judge orders Network Associates to revamp license agreement

A New York judge has ordered Network Associates to stop placing restrictions on what its customers can say about its products, in a case involving a Network World review of one of its products.

Do you have an idea that you think others might be able to solve?

You can make a LazyWeb request by posting the idea in your own blog, and then sending a Trackback ping to:

http://blog.mediacooperative.com/mt-pi.cgi or by using this form.

BBC News reports on a project to bring internet connectivity to rural areas of Bangladesh using wireless technology:

Until now the students and staff of the Bangladesh Agricultural University have used a modem and unreliable phone lines to connect to the net, making it difficult for them to keep abreast of developments in their specialist fields.

Using the net involved a long-distance phone call to the capital Dhaka.

But, from today, they will enjoy fast internet access via a wireless link to Dhaka, thanks to a project funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Lufthansa is pilot testing onboard wireless LAN service for travellers:

Users will be able to download from the Internet at speeds up to 3M bps (bits per second) and upload, initially, at speeds up to 128K bps, according to Lufthansa. The upload speeds will later increase to 750K bps, it said.

The Supreme Court decided 7-2 to uphold the Copyright Extension Act passed in 1998. This act extended copyright 20 additional years and was applied retroactively, removing some works from the public domain on which copyright had already expired.

Dan Gillmor has an excellent journal article on the decision:

Like public lands and the oceans, the public domain is controlled by no one -- a situation that infuriates people who believe that nothing can have value unless some person or corporation owns it. The public domain is the pool of knowledge from which new art and scholarship have arisen over the centuries.

The Constitution talks about granting rights to creators of ''science and useful arts'' but only for limited periods. After that, the works can be used freely by anyone.

At the end of the article he also has links to Lawrence Lessig's blog (the lawyer who argued the case before the Supreme court) and the court documents, including dissenting opinions from Justices Stevens and Breyer.

Web Portals and Higher Education: Technologies to Make IT Personal -- Richard N. Katz and Associates is now available in PDF format.

What's it been like since the Digital Millenium Copyright Act was enacted in 1998?

EFF lists some of the EFF Unintended Consequences

Section 1201 Chills Free Expression and Scientific Research. Experience with section 1201 demonstrates that it is being used to stifle free speech and scientific research. The lawsuit against 2600 magazine, threats against Princeton Professor Edward Felten%u2019s team of researchers, and prosecution of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov have chilled the legitimate activities of journalists, publishers, scientists, students, programmers, and members of the public.

Section 1201 Jeopardizes Fair Use.
By banning all acts of circumvention, and all technologies and tools that can be used for circumvention, section 1201 grants to copyright owners the power to unilaterally eliminate the public%u2019s fair use rights. Already, the music industry has begun deploying %u201Ccopy-protected CDs%u201D that promise to curtail consumers%u2019 ability to make legitimate, personal copies of music they have purchased.

Section 1201 Impedes Competition and Innovation.
Rather than focusing on pirates, many copyright owners have chosen to use the DMCA to hinder their legitimate competitors. For example, Sony has invoked section 1201 to protect their monopoly on Playstation video game consoles, as well as their %u201Cregionalization%u201D system limiting users in one country from playing games legitimately purchased in another.

According to the EFF, the statute has had a chilling effect, preventing legitimate uses in ways that were not intended when the legislation was passed.

Cory Doctorow, one of the people responsible for BoingBoing has published a science fiction novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, out today from Tor Books.

This is noteworthy because Cory is releasing an electronic version under a Creative Commons license simultaneously with the hardcover version.

The Wireless Commons is a new group formed to help organize and interconnect community wireless projects.

The Wireless Commons Manifesto says in part:

We have formed the Wireless Commons because a global wireless network is within our grasp. We will work to define and achieve a wireless commons built using shared spectrum, and able to connect people everywhere. We believe there is value to an independent and global network which is open to the public. We will break down commercial, technical, social and political barriers to the commons. The wireless commons bridges one of the few remaining gaps in universal communication without interference from middlemen and meddlers.