Project Gutenberg is one of the Internet's great resources--the first "digital library," with thousands of public domain ebooks, and created entirely by volunteers. Its founder, Michael Hart, passed away this week, after founding the project--by typing in a copy of the Declaration of Independence--in 1971. In doing this, Hart invented the ebook, and what became Project Gutenberg release #1 is still available online. Hart's passing is a sad occasion but a good time to reflect on the importance of his life's work.

Tomorrow, Scott Turow, a novelist and the president of the Authors Guild, will testify before a Senate hearing on the specific topic of online infringement. This hearing will almost certainly center around proposals similar to last year's S. 3804, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act—a detailed piece of legislation that delves into law enforcement practices and the technological underpinnings of the Internet.

A new and wildly popular independent video game called “Minecraft” lets players build their own worlds, one block at a time. Want to run from zombies through the halls of Hogwarts? You can build staircase after secret passage to your heart’s content. Experience life as a reclusive, lonely billionaire by reconstructing Xanadu from Citizen Kane. Just want to watch the world burn? Here's your chance to make it happen without going to jail!

Your imagination should be the only thing that limits what you can build in your digital world.  Sadly, under current copyright law, you could go broke for crafting a tribute to your favorite book or movie.

If you read the tech press closely, it looks like we are on the verge of an Internet video golden age.  HD Roku boxes now cost just $60!  The Boxee Box is available for pre-order!  Apple TV is finally more than a hobby!  Google TV announced features!  The fall Xbox360 update will bring ESPN3!

Each of these developments is fantastic.  They bring Netflix and YouTube and Amazon Unbox and Revision3 and Pandora and all sorts of Internet goodies to a big TV.  They offer attractive, easy to use interfaces.  Some even let you move content between various devices.

However, news about these awesome toys may raise a few questions in your mind.

Today's news that Google shut down music blogs that were accused of copyright infringement is rightfully getting plenty of coverage. Mostly, it is being held up as another in a long line of examples of problems with the DMCA notice-and-takedown system. This is a great example of a problem with the DMCA because, at least according to The Guardian, the notices that Google relied on to delete the blogs were woefully incomplete. Google should not have acted until it had proper notices from rights holders, including the name of the actual work allegedly infringed. Since many of the notices did not even include this information, there was no way for the bloggers to file a DMCA counternotice. For an update on the DMCA part of this story, check out Wired and Google's own post. Of course, the DMCA confusion does a great job of illustrating the points about filtering below.

It is important that this story is being used to point out problems with the DMCA, and with Google's policies for dealing with DMCA complaints. how complicated DMCA implementation can be. What it equally important, if less commented on, is what it can tell us about copyright filtering.