Hey, kids! What time is it?

It’s time for the August ‘03 installment of href="http://tv.seattlewireless.net/">SeattleWireless TV!

(Disclaimer: I’m biased this month, since it features an interview with
yours truly, as well as an insane remote controlled helicopter with wireless
video feed by Risto Kõiva , some stuff from href="http://personaltelco.net">PersonalTelco, and a review of some new
wireless gear.)

If you haven’t seen it yet, go check it out right now. It’s an entertaining half hour of wacky wireless escapades.

Produced by Peter Yorke and Michael Pierce, SeattleWireless TV is a perfect example of the kind of locally produced and
distributed content I want to see flourish on href="http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/WirelessCommunities">Wireless
Community Networks. Imagine a network where free public domain archival
content (like Project Gutenberg, the href="http://archive.org/movies/prelinger.php">great stuff at href="http://archive.org/">archive.org, and various href="http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/30/78rpm.html">music href="http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/10/mike_rocklin.html"> archive href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/project-gramophone/">projects) is
combined with work that people are currently producing and releasing under
CreativeCommons or other
public-friendly licenses (like Monotonik,
href="http://archive.org/audio/collection.php?collection=opensource_audio">Open
Source Audio, and href="http://archive.org/movies/siggraph.php">others). These can be
served from local caches, at very high speed, for practically no cost. In a
FreeNetwork, this content can be sent clear
across town at many times the speed of the average Internet connection.

This is the antithesis of a global multinational media conglomorate, and
will be much more accessible (not to mention interactive) than Cable Access
channels. As a “consumer”, I want on-demand, high quality, and wherever
possible, locally produced content that doesn’t introduce Yet Another
Monthly Bill, and preferably doesn’t even require an Internet connection.
As an artist, I want a venue for the stuff I produce that doesn’t require
me to relenquish my rights as an artist to enjoy a wide distribution. This
idea is perfectly illustrated by municipal free network projects like href="http://seattlewireless.net/">SeattleWireless (which builds the
pipes), and SeattleWireless TV
(which helps to fill them).

You’ve got the phonecams, digital cameras, and DV cams. You’ve got
cheap hard drives and file servers. You’ve got fast wireless pipes, open
standards, and open protocols. Let’s build the network that will make the
consume-only, advertising ridden, intellectual property hogging television
and radio networks obsolete! Forget “Rip, Mix, Burn.” Invent! Build!
Produce!

And for inspiration, go see what href="http://tv.seattlewireless.net/">SeattleWireless TV is up to.

*** Update 8/22/03***
Due to the inevitable Slashdot, the main server is a bit bogged. I’ve set up a Bit torrent for the MPG, if you’re having trouble getting through.

Do you produce and distribute your own content? Where can it be found?

I happened upon this nifty little article about the ins and outs of copyright law in Canada. According to the article, as well as the website of the Copyright Board of Canada, music file sharing is completely legal for our good friends to the North. About five years ago, they deemed the situation of rampant illegal file sharing unenforceable, and decided to do two things: legalize file sharing for personal use, and attach a levy to recordable media (along the order of $0.60 per CD, in 1998 prices.)

I’m certianly no Copyright lawyer, but as has come up on one mailing list I’m on, the total term of copyright for sound recording in Canada is 50 years from the date of first manufacture of the master. Period. I found this on the Canadian Department of Justice website:

23. (1) Subject to this Act, the rights conferred by sections 15, 18 and 21 terminate fifty years after the end of the calendar year in which
(a) in the case of a performer’s performance,
 (i) its first fixation in a sound recording, or
 (ii) its performance, if it is not fixed in a sound recording, occurred;
(b) in the case of a sound recording, the first fixation occurred; or
(c) in the case of a communication signal, it was broadcast.

But that’s not all. Check out section 18, Rights of Sound Recording Makers:

18. (1) Subject to subsection (2), the maker of a sound recording has a copyright in the sound recording, consisting of the sole right to do the following in relation to the sound recording or any substantial part thereof:
(a) to publish it for the first time,
(b) to reproduce it in any material form, and
(c) to rent it out,
and to authorize any such acts.

Conditions for copyright

(2) Subsection (1) applies only if
(a) the maker of the sound recording was a Canadian citizen or permanent resident within the meaning of subsection 2(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, or a citizen or permanent resident of a Berne Convention country, a Rome Convention country or a country that is a WTO Member, or, if a corporation, had its headquarters in one of the foregoing countries,
  (i) at the date of the first fixation, or
  (ii) if that first fixation was extended over a considerable period, during any substantial part of that period; or
(b) the first publication of the sound recording in such a quantity as to satisfy the reasonable demands of the public occurred in any country referred to in paragraph (a).

I am, of course, taking this out of context, so please read the entire document for the whole picture. If all of the legalese is getting to you (as it does to me), there’s a human readable interpretation available from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.

If I’m interpreting this properly, then all recordings of music, whether made in Canada or in any country that is a WTO member, become public domain (in Canada) fifty years after they are created. Does that mean that any music produced prior to 1953 is freely redistributable in Canada? And in any case, the copying of music (whether pre-Elvis or not) for “personal use” appears to be considered fair use by the Canadian Copyright Board.

How does the Internet fit into this? Is it legal for me (a citizen and resident of the United States) to download public domain music from Canada? And if so, where can I get a good deal on cheap Canadian co/lo space to start hosting the premier source for Canadian (and other WTO participant) public domain music?

This issue is vitally important to projects like Project Gramophone, who endeavour to preserve old 78RPM and wax drum recordings that are threatened by the never ceasing march of time, entropy, and imperialistic copyright law. I believe it to be the case right now that recordings published prior to 1926 are considered to be public domain in the U.S., but there is still an uncomfortable aura of grey area about it. I think it would be a shame to see these historically important recordings lost to the ages for a cause as ridiculous as corporate “intellectual property”.

Would a legal (by Canadian standards) music file server, hosted in Canada, “break the seal” of overzealous United States copyright law?

As I posted to the SeattleWireless dev list, there are still some deep, dark questions about Linksys’ compliance with the GPL. As many thoughful readers pointed out, my earlier comments about Linksys’ GPL compliance with their other packages were misdirected. (How could I overlook autoconf? Duh.)

But the issue I’m still concerned about is the Linux kernel itself. Read my full post for more details, but essentially, here’s the deal: you can’t build a kernel using their source tree. If you run a ‘make menuconfig’, you can see critical, non-modular code for Broadcom motherboard support. This code is missing from their source tree. If you enable support for any of the Broadcom boards, this is what you see when you run ‘make zImage’:

root@qube:~/src/linux# make zImage
if [ ! -f /home/rob/src/linux/include/asm-mips/offset.h ]; then 
 touch /home/rob/src/linux/include/asm-mips/offset.h; 
fi;
make: *** arch/mips/brcm-boards/bcm947xx/compressed: No such file or directory.  Stop.
make: *** [archdep] Error 2

Also, I can build kernel modules using their tree if I fiddle with their configuration so it ignores the missing code. These modules build cleanly and insmod on a running WRT54G without warning. But strangely, they don’t actually function as they should.

I am not a kernel hacker, but I believe it is likely that Linksys (or possibly Broadcom) modified the kernel module code so that the binary device drivers for their wireless card included in the Linksys firmware won’t load on standard kernels. As a side effect, they broke standard Linux kernel module support, which is critical if we’re going to get NoCatSplash, tunnels, IPv6, etc. running on this box.

I believe that releasing critical (i.e. non-modular) kernel code without source code is a violation of the GPL. So, I wrote Linksys the following (submitted as a “complaint or concern” from their web interface).

Hello--

This is the third time I've written to you regarding GPL issues with the
WRT54G.  To date, I have received no reply.  I would appreciate your
prompt attention on this matter.

As I [1] and others [2] have documented, there seems to be non-
modular code missing from your Linux 2.4.5 kernel source tree at http:/
/www.linksys.com/support/gpl.asp.

Specifically, I am unable to build a working linux kernel based on your
tree due to source code missing from arch/mips/brcm-boards/ and
other directories.  You also seem to have modified the kernel module
loading process, as standard kernel modules built from your tree load
without warnings on a running WRT54G, but apparently do not function
properly.

I believe I am entitled to the source code to these changes, as the Linux
kernel is released under the GNU Public License [3].  My intent is to
extend the functionality of your WRT54G by building on the same open
source software platform that allowed you to build the WRT54G in the
first place.

I understand that you may be unable to distribute the source code
modular device drivers supplied by Broadcom, but I believe it is a
violation of the GPL to distribute versions of the Linux kernel that are
missing critical, non-modular kernel code.

Thank you,

--Rob Flickenger

[1] http://seattlewireless.net/archive/ezmlm.cgi?mss:12244:mnedlcagmemldcohaaho

[2] http://lkml.org/lkml/2003/7/18/364

[3] http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

When I hit submit on their comments page, this is what I saw:

“Thank you for helping Linksys to serve you better.
If you’ve requested a reply to this comment, you can expect it in 24 hours.”

I look forward to a prompt reply. But I’m not holding my breath.

Is Linksys in compliance with the GPL?

When you connect to a network for the first time, you will be prompted for your user credentials. XP will save the credentials you supply and use them for all future connections to the network. You can clear out the credential cache by editing the registry. Fire up the registry editor, and delete the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\EAPOL\UserEAPinfo tree.

You can also get tracing on the supplicant by setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\EAPOL to 1. There’s a key that will specify the location and size of the resulting trace file. I have generally found tracing on the authentication server to be more useful, though.