I'm still experimenting with the technology I'll ultimately be using: I want to make this a full-fledged example of my Lightweight Content Management System theory and will be chronicling my experience here, for CMS fans. Idea is for this to be easy and cheap to use, update and change. I've always wanted to see if a mix of Web server, file system and search engine could rival database software for performance for lots of large files. Sort of a cheap mini-Google.

Collections currently available include The News, Portraits, Mean Streets, Photographers, Lisa Lyon and Early Work there's a main menu, too.

While these photos are copyrighted, I am going to try and permit non-commercial repro on personal Web sites (as we speak, anyway). So, Webloggers, if you are looking for atmospheric black-and-white photos and will agree to link back to the archive and give photo credit, you may be able to use the photos. Details are here, and email if you have questions.

All other Web, print and broadcast rights are available, just ask. Contemporary prints are available, too. So please enjoy the other Gulker view of the world... the pixel version. The image above is a portrait of musician Scott Finnell, taken in Pasadena in the 80s sometime, btw. There have been a couple requests for photos recently... and between 50 and 100 Google image searches a day... so, let's see if we can make this easy...
Comments 3:25:53 PM    

- his firm does not currently work for RIAA

- the 'bot is not meant to harass sites that publish opinions that its clients may not favor. They are looking at ways to ameliorate the 'bot's 'DoS mode'

- their 'bots crawl either randomly or in an A to Z fashion, not in response to postings

- Cyveillance does not store or distribute materials downloaded from Web sites, except for materials that belong to their clients

I expressed my concerns that the behavior of the technology and their public messages are out of sync. It seems to me that a firm that wanted to be a good net citizen would fix the 'bot, observe robots.txt and otherwise be straightforward and forthcoming, insofar as that is consistent with their mission. Brian made reasonable responses, but said he would leave it to others to decide whether circumventing robots.txt amounts to 'circumventing a protection mechanism' per the DMCA.

Lastly, I asked what would happen if their detection mechanism misfired, and included my content along with some of the creepy stuff they sift through. I was concerned that a bug in their software would land my essays and articles in some sort of 'bad content line-up' that had the potential to sully my good name (such as it is). His response was that, while no one can guarantee that software won't misfire, everything that Cyveillance software flags is checked by humans (unlike RIAA's last batch of Cease-and-Desist orders). Brian was concerned that I had published his email. BTW my email to him was a public response to his public note on the spamcop-help lis. We are now in sync about expectations. I may go drop in on these guys in D.C. later on this year...
Comments 10:19:27 AM    

Chris Gulker's view from Silicon Valley - in words and pictures