scobot.com

Great day for VJs! Congress OKs DVD “sampling”.

scobot — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:54:00 +0000

VJs have long been covered under “FAIR USE” for their appropriation and reinventing of content, but HOW this content was acquired was still a bit of a grey area. It was ok to use the content (as long as you “recontextualized” it), but not ok to, in the case of DVDs, bypass the CSS encryption. Now it is!

Here’s an excerpt from an excellent article by Nate Anderson for ars technica :

First up: DVDs! Previous exemptions have been carved out for college professors who might use film clips in class. But note the broad nature of the new rule—it applies to everyone. As long as you are making a documentary or noncommercial video, you’re in.

The exemption only covers "short portions of motion pictures," since the Register was not convinced that longer portions would necessarily be fair use. And if there’s some other way of getting the clips short of bypassing DRM, you should take it.

According to the official explanatory text (PDF), "Where alternatives to circumvention can be used to achieve the noninfringing purpose, such noncircumventing alternatives should be used." Thus, if you have screen capture software and need only a low-quality copy for some purpose, you should use that.

But the exemption is a key one, despite its limiting language. As the Librarian of Congress finally admitted, "I agree with the Register that the record demonstrates that it is sometimes necessary to circumvent access controls on DVDs in order to make these kinds of fair uses of short portions of motion pictures."

You can read the full article here on ars technica:

Apple loses big in DRM ruling: jailbreaks are "fair use"

Here is the “Official” Library of Congress release:

Rulemaking on Exemptions from Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works

SAMPLE ON TRUE BELIEVERS!

“Lifelike VJ”

scobot — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:37:00 +0000

I was so inspired by “Promoter VS. VJ” (see below) that I just had to create my own! I decided to continue using the robot model from that clip as it works so perfectly for this point of view. Hopefully other VJs will create their own stories using this character too! the software used is from xtraNormal . Here is my “I’m not the DJ” clip from my series “Lifelike VJ”.

I’M NOT THE DJ (by scobot)

I thought this was brilliant:

PROMOTER VS. VJ (posted by radley)

#500

scobot — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:34:00 +0000

Friday, December 18th, marked my 500th career professional VJ performance. A lot of people say “Wow, you actually counted?” – well, yeah. When I first started out VJ-ing, I had no idea how long it would last, so at first, just doing one or two shows a month was a big deal and something to marvel at. It wasn’t too hard to keep track of. Back then I thought reaching 20 was pretty amazing. Before I knew it, 100! Now, some 1500+ performance hours later, I can look back and be humbled by the milestone. I am VERY lucky, and VERY grateful to everyone who has asked me to perform at their show/event. It has been an honor.

THANK YOU!

In the studio @ ITVNW “The DJ Sessions”

scobot — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:19:00 +0000

On Thursday, December 10th, I had the pleasure of performing with THE HUMAN ELEMENT for two sets at ITVNW’s studios for their live streaming show “The DJ Sessions”. This time I was actually in the studio – LIVE (not re-streaming) – it was a blast. Each one of these sets is about an hour. Enjoy!

1st Set with The Human Element 12-10-09

2nd Set with The Human Element 12-10-09 (I really like it towards the end where we finally grabbed one of the web cams and started to move it around! Much more fun!!)

Adventures in “re-streaming”

scobot — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:22:00 +0000

I’m thinking I should create a Wikipedia/Wiktionary entry describing “re-streaming”. It’s possible they would just delete it, but it might be fun to give it a shot! lol

Re-streaming: The process of adding new content (audio/video) to to a LIVE internet web stream and repurposing it back out LIVE, to the internet. The re-stream can be mixed back into the original web stream or as a separate "simulcast" providing an alternate viewing experience.

FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES:

Corporate sponsored "re-streams" of live events/concerts where viewers have the choice to watch either the original feed or the enhanced "remix" version. For example, a live remix of Super Bowl 44 could be called “Super Bowl remiXLIVe” (*note: I LOVE how that Super Bowl number works for this! How cool is that?! Should do something with that I think
Internet web radio could add video streams by inviting VJs to remix live to their audio broadcasts. Sponsors could have their content "remixed" into the performance, thus providing a business opportunity for VJs and stations to generate revenue.

Here’s a recent example from an ITVNW collaboration from 11/17/09 with Alex E providing the music. I took the live feed from their USTREAM broadcast, added my visuals and sent it back out to my scobot TV page, where they grabbed it and mixed it back into their stream! This is what you would have seen on my site.

It’s pretty exciting to be able to collaborate with other artists/events/broadcasters via the web! Looking forward to expanding this in 2010. Can’t wait to start remixing live WEBCAMS from viewers into a performance.