This week there have been two huge news stories related to the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act). This copyright revision adopted in 1998 famously outlawed some very controversial things including ANY cracking of DRM (the stuff that stops you from copying DVDs, old iTunes songs, eBooks, etc.). This week, it seems that the DMCA may not be all that bad, but interpretations of the law have been.

First, the Library of Congress allowed iPhone jail-breaking, DVD ripping for short clips, and eBook cracking for text to speech. All three of these were previously considered DMCA violations, now overridden by the LoC.

Second, and maybe even overshadowing to the last story, fair use finally got some legal precedent in a big way. The Fifth Circuit court gave a very fresh interpretation,

“Merely bypassing a technological protection that restricts a user from viewing or using a work is insufficient to trigger the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision. The DMCA prohibits only forms of access that would violate or impinge on the protections that the Copyright Act otherwise affords copyright owners.”

So, does this make DVD ripping and such legal? Well, no, and I’m not a lawyer so don’t plan on using this post when the cyber police come knocking on your door. What is does make clear is that fair use, which is generally agreed to meaning copying for personal, non-commercial use, supersedes the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision (§ 1201(a)).

No telling whether this will be overturned in an appeal, but it could change a lot about copyright…

So part of my absence was due to the annual as ever Impact Summer Camp. Also becoming an annual event is my drive up to Michigan for it (a 15 hour affair) which is way to much time to sit and think…and listen to an audio book or two. My listening was The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs, an agnostic, secular raised Jew. Reading this lead to two realizations:

1. The Bible is not user friendly. I’ve always understood how daunting and overwhelming the Bible can seem to a first time reader, but the author of this book found over 700 rules that he attempted to follow. This was my frustration with the book (and the reason I do not recommend it). He never took the time to get the heart of the Bible and only once or twice made mention of the God’s love for us part. He got caught up in the religion and never caught the purpose of any of it.

2. But that led to my second realization that I am incredibly sympathetic to skepticism of Christianity. My favorite parts of the Bible have always been the ones that display the struggle of faith in God. For me, Jonah, the author of Ecclesiastes, and Job are some of my favorites. As Jacobs asks in the book, ”Is half of the world suffering from a massive delusion, or is my blindness to spirituality a huge defect in my personality?” It’s not that I too struggle with my faith, it’s just that I really understand how it can be hard to believe in something so illogical. Hopefully  I will return to these topics soon.

1. Running a half marathon. Amazing, intense, painful.
2. Completing five weeks of P90X (missing very few workouts).
3. Carrying 1000lbs of camera equipment (including a Cam-Mate) through the woods for two gorgeous shoots.
4. Helping make some amazing videos for NLC.
5. Learning new software, camera equipment, and a lot about video production in general.
6. My first MW2 prestige.

All of these (minus #6) are things I am incredibly proud of. The only problem is none of these were really my goals. They were driven or sparked by people around me. Of course I love where I am and everything I get to do. This is probably the best job in the world for me where I am right now.

Setting personal goals is just another thing I’ve let slide, not that I’ve ever really been good at it. So here we go. Along with starting to think again, I’m going to start setting some goals for myself for the rest of the year:

1. Learn Javascript. I’ve gone back and forth on a language to get into and I’ve just decided.
2. Get on a good Bible devotional scedule. Never been good at this either, but I really really need it!
3. Build some more relationships. I love my co-workers and my roomates but I really want to start branching out.
4. Start a serious dating relationship. Don’t laugh, it’s one of my goals!
5. Set some long term goals. I have some but too few and all too general.

Alright, so that is the end of my two part getting my life together series. Next post will be cool and technical in some way…and concise. Way more concise.

So you’re probably wondering right now why I have randomly posted on my all but abandoned blog this fine evening. First, I’m on vacation and that has traditionaly been a time that I’ve shared a lot (^{1 2 3}). Second, something needs to get my brain going again!

So why must this brain jogging be in such a public fashion? Well, whether you like it or not, I’ve just signed you all up as accountabilibuddies. If I write here…and I mean really write here, hopefully there will be a desire to think of something interesting to say on a regular basis. What exactly it will be I have not yet decided, but I would like it to be fairly topical rather than randomness.

So thank you loyal RSS subscribers who I will pretend still exist. Thank you for my make believe obligation to you (both?). Together, I cannot fail.

What do you think I should write about?

Live services will be Sunday morning at 10:00am and 11:30am every week so join us at internet.newlifechurch.tv!

So let’s watch a video of Rick talking about it!

As any researcher (person who types into Wikipedia) would know, the most plausible type of teleportation is “recording” the object on the sending end and reconstructing it on the receiving end. This way, no actual matter needs to be transmitted, just the information describing it’s atomic blueprints.

Scientifically, this makes sense. Practically, however, requires destruction of the object (or person!) on the sending end. Who wants to be the politician to try legalizing space murder?

Secondly, if you have a device that can reconstruct anything, piracy of anything would be technically possible. Anyone could just “teleport” Lucy Lui right into your own home. You would no longer need to pirate 3D holograph movies (this is the future after all), just download your favorite actors and sets and have them make it in front of you!

And finally, this method of teleportation requires a device at each end. Getting a device into every home would take too long, so maybe it would be possible to create a simple home appliance upgrade to make it teleportation compatible. Say, a firmware upgrade to your microwave or a particle assembler extention for that old dishwasher. Both of these devices could provide enough radiation insulation to protect consumers enough as long as they don’t get too many x-rays or travel to the moon.

So come on Hive Mind, how do we solve these glaring issues? People need to get places! We don’t have time for walking up stairs and/or riding the train these days.

And if you liked that this is actually mostly just a compilation of the three separate videos which you can see all of here.

CREDITS:
Camera – Neil Greathouse and myself
Editing – Neil Greathouse
Audio Mixing – Matty Huber
Voice Talent – Katy Barber
Special Effects – Myself
And of course the actors and other help from all of the Woman planning crew.

Hopefully you saw the recently released Dirt Mashup Video I posted last week. If not then now is your time not only to see it but to get in on some of that sweet raw footage to make your own.

Dino Rizzo, Randy Bezet, Joe Champion, Greg Surratt, Kellen Coldiron, Kristin Becnel, Daniel Gonzales, John Siebeling, Stovall Weems, Rob Ketterling and Tarik Stewart are among those whose words you can now mangle all in the name of winning a pair of tickets to Dirt!

We are giving you the opportunity to make your own Remix of our Mashup in whatever way your wildest dreams see fit. Because if your wildest dreams contain these esteemed individuals then you are probably in our target market.

There is no format requirement, no rules to follow. Just take this footage, make and upload your remix to somewhere, email a link to info@dirtconference.com, and make our brains explode. (there are some excellent idea suggestions to get you started here)

DirtRemixKit.zip (140.9 MB – all footage)

And feel free to pass this contest along!
Small GIF | Medium GIF | Large GIF | Static PNG

Dirt is a creative approach to showing churches that big ideas and big change don’t always mean big budget. As much as that’s the script we’re supposed to tell people, that’s really what we want to see happen. Everyone on staff here and everyone teaching labs will be there to help you understand what you can do better with what you already have. Nobody is going to tell you that you need a font budget, or you must replace all your Macs with PCs (although it wouldn’t hurt). We just want to inspire the creative MacGyverness to get you where you want to be.

So here’s the latest Dirt Promo featuring a few people you may have heard of…

If you are in creative arts at a church or not, you will want to be here. The talent we have coming is so very top-of-the-line I guarantee whether you’re in video, graphics, live production, music, you will absolutely learn something.

The award was given to me this month mostly because I was an idiot and climbed in a tree covered in poison something during a video shoot to get a shot. It was bad…like wrist to elbow completely covered bad…so I guess they felt the need to make it up to me. That shoot was for a women’s event promo which Neil and I are working on now which I will show you all when we release them.

We have been incredibly busy this month so there are a lot of videos I could show you which is why I have created an awesome Videos page which I will keep updated with our latest endeavors. Of particular note are:

Etheopia Missions Video
Life Group Launch
Website Launch Teaser

And speaking of new website…we have also been building a new website with the help of the amazing Joe Hohman (and by that I mean he’s been building and we’re just sitting back and watching in amazement). So here’s to a full month of videos and another crazy month ahead.