Sander van Zoest: Behind the Scenes

The adventure that was Joost and living abroad is just about complete. As you might have noticed by the lack of posts, I have been busy. What else is new right? Well, this time I was busy because of the birth of our daughter in November, followed by the realization that we really are very used to living in California and could use the space our house in San Diego provides. Although, I loved running Operations at Joost and working with such a talented group of individuals, our personal lives have a calling for San Diego.

As I originally left DivX, I quit to spend some time with the girls and look into starting up something new, however, I ended up talking to Janus and Dirk-Willem about their new european based online television project that seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity to move to Europe and experience the talent across the pond. An experience it certainly was. I have high hopes for how the project will progress. Having experience working with a 9 hour time difference when I started. It is clear that this is something I am unable to take on again. Regardless, the relocation would take a good 3 months to do properly and therefore it made a lot of sense to just move on. We have had discussions on doing some consulting from San Diego, but it is clear now that does not make sense either. Both Leiden and New York are simply too many timezones removed from California.

So, in December I gave notice to the company and have been moving ever since. Our container with household goods has made it to California, so once it clears U.S. Customs and we have unpacked it will be life like normal again. If you are a Southern California local, I am open to meeting up, however, I do not expect everything to be in full swing again until May. Meanwhile, I am happy to say that having all this time with the family has been a great experience that I would not have wanted to miss for the world.

Joost, I would like to thank you for a ride I will never forget, but now it is time to look towards a new adventure.

Trent decided to launch the site anyways. See remix.nin.com. As described in the FAQon the site, every upload will be scanned for infringing material, as we originally did at MP3.com.

• Q: Why doesn't my uploaded remix show up on the site immediately?
• A: Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of frustrating record company legal politics, and must ensure that your mix does not include any unauthorized material - as defined in the next answer on this page - before it is approved for the site. Approving every mix is a tedious process, and we rely on the greatly-appreciated help of the site moderators to review submitted mixes. Because of this, it may take some time before your mix shows up on the site. You will receive an email when it becomes available - in the meantime, please be patient, and understand this isn't the way we'd run the site if we had a choice.
• Q: What kind of materials are not okay to include in my remix?
• A: Thanks to the record company copyright politics mentioned in the answer above, we must require that your mix does not contain ANY elements of copyrighted material, unless you yourself own the copyright (i.e. it's your own music). Your mix can include any element of any NIN song, or of other songs offered in multitrack format on this site. You can manipulate or destroy those pieces as much as you'd like, and you can combine them with your own original sounds and music. You CANNOT include samples of songs by other artists, or samples from movies, TV shows, or video games. Any remixes containing these elements will be rejected during the approval process. Please understand that it is not our wish to impose these restrictions on your creativity or the functionality of this site, but we have no choice in the matter.

It is unfortunate that you have to do this, especially since it is hard for individuals to know what is copyrighted material and what is in the public domain. It certainly seems to highlight that the DMCA is not the right answer here.

Trent Reznor explained earlier this week on the Nine Inch Nails blog how "safe harbor" under the DMCA is restricting them from launching a site where fans can upload their own mixes of Nine Inch Nails songs as Universal, owner of their master recordings, is afraid they may sponsor the same technical violation of copyright that they are suing Youtube and Myspace for. This is because the remixes may contain uncleared material, that Universal does not own, such as a mashup, sample or whatever.

This is a very interesting double-edged sword in regards to the DMCA. As during the early MP3.com days we had people sitting in a room listening to every track that was uploaded for copyright material, cover songs, etc. These days most companies rely on DMCA safe harbor to be re-active rather then pro-active at taking down content. It is really a shame that mashups and sampling are seen as such a liability. Rather than seeing it as a sign of appreciation and respect, we turn around and would sue the creator for a small piece of the action. I can see it to a certain degree, but clearing rights needs to be much much easier then it is now if we truly expect people to clear rights for things like a sample or mashup.

One of the interesting things about volunteer organizations during times of need such as the recent fires, is that they tend to go the extra mile. One such organization is SoCal FreeNet who was providing internet access via laptops and wireless APs at a different shelters such as the Del Mar Fairgrounds and Qualcomm stadium.

It even was supporting aid workers prior to FEMA arrived with bandwidth and even did so when all the other groups providing connectivity had shut down by 7 or 8PM. They have had just about anyone you could imagine use it from Evacuees, FEMA officials, red cross workers and the National Guard. People used the connectivity for just about everything from checking fire maps, evacuations, looking up phone numbers, checking e-mail and kids playing games.

It takes a lot of effort from volunteers to provide services like these to the public, especially with so many road closures and following the needs across the county. It is amazing to me what some good will can provide to people in need.

If you are interested in helping to provide connectivity where it is needed most, please visit SoCal FreeNet's volunteer section and see how you can help.

Although, we are not in California at the moment, the current San Diego fires hit close to home. I still distinctly remember the 2003 Cedar fire. This time around it is significantly bigger and by the looks of it already has destroyed the Rancho Bernardo home I lived in while attending SDSU. Miraculously my parents moved out of San Diego last year. Updates are still coming in, but according to this detailed Rancho Bernardo Fire map the house is still standing. Currently, no family members reside in San Diego, but certainly many many friends do. I have been on a few internet chat rooms keeping up to date with friends and old co-workers. It sure is amazingly scary and hope that everyone is doing well.

Here are some of the links I have found to be useful to keep track of the fire, in case you are looking for more details.

• Official San Diego County Emergency site
• James Welch - San Diego Fire Resources
• Twitter: Nate Ritter Fire Updates
• San Diego Fires Wiki
• SDSU Department of Geography's map.sdsu.edu
• KPBS: San Diego Wildfires
• Flickr: San Diego Fire
• SignOn San Diego: Firemap
• SignOn San Diego Fire Blog
• Live Video: KGTV 10 News: San Diego Brush Fire Coverage
• Live Video: NBC San Diego

We still have our house in Mira Mesa, but it looks like that is safe for now. Naturally, I am much more concerned about others and friends in the area. I can only imagine that the air quality must be terrible right now. Be safe everyone and please ping me to let me know that you are doing okay.