More From the Department of Irony

Can I point out that the webcast of this Friday's Copyright in the Digital Age: An Update is being shown to the public only through compliance with a Byzantine set of rules and regulations?

Great, I thought. It's a webcast. So I can be at UCLA for that day, as I had planned, and still see a panel discussion being shown sixty miles away at the UC Irvine Science Library. After all, it's how I'm often able to "attend" events on multiple UC campuses on the same day.

But no. I called the library to get the URL, so I'd be ready at my desktop to catch all the exciting library and information science action. Apparently they are only licensed to show the webcast on only one computer at only one designated time. Otherwise I have to shell out $395 to have my own licensed copy! Why has the sponsor of the event, the American Library Association, agreed to this preposterous policing of ostensibly public content?