Against All Enemies: The Movie
I’ve been reading Clarke’s new book, Against All Enemies, and I have to say, for the first chapter at least,…
Shorter Richard Clarke
Executive summary: There’s a serious chance 9/11 could have been stopped. Bush wanted to invade Iraq instead. White House Terrorism…
President Bush: Why Can’t He Stop Lying?
President Bush, apparently unable to run on his nonexistant record, has resorted to running misleading attack ads against his opponent,…
Shorter Tom DeLay
Tom DeLay raised $12M from outside companies who had business before the House. He passed the money on to selected…
Sue for Freedom: Saving Steamboat Roy
Are you an enterprising lawyer who wants to join the fight for freedom? Here are some lawsuits you might consider…
San Francisco Protects the Freedom to Marry
Most news reports tell the San Francisco freedom-to-marry story this way: City officials in San Francisco have begun marrying same-sex…
Up With Facts: Finding the Truth in WikiCourt
I’m an optimist. I believe that statements like “Bush went AWOL” or “Gore claims to have invented the Internet” can…
Down is Up: What This Stuff Is
I got a lot of responses to my previous post, Up is Down, along the lines of “oh, the Democrats…
Up is Down: How Stating the False Hides the True
One of the more interesting Republican strategies is saying things whose opposite is true. They say that the Democratic nominee…
Gerrymandering: How Politicians Steal Votes and You Can Return Them
Gerrymandering, the practice of remapping political districts for partisan political gain, is becoming a serious problem. As described in Jeffrey…
Third Parties: Why They Spoil and How to Stop It
In America (and many other countries) elections work in a simplistic manner: Each person picks one candidate. The candidate picked…
Campaign Finance Reform: The Problem and Solution
Our political system is corrupt. The people it elects routinely do things for the corpartions that paid for their campaign…
Nader’s Negligence
Lessig says Nader should be held accountable for causing Bush’s presidency. But what about the First Amendment?
The Furious Rise of the Anonymous Writer
Christopher Farah, Salon: I know you are but who am I? The furious rise of the anonyblogger. Parody: You don’t…
The Trippi Story
GQ: Joe Trippi’s Wild Ride An amazing story. Everything you saw on The West Wing was true — and more….
Trippi Dumps Dean
Joe Trippi, the man who brought Howard Dean from a relatively-unknown Governor to the frontrunner in the Democratic Presidential primary,…
The Media vs. The Facts
The media has continued to insist on things that are absolutely not true. The Internet has uncovered the truth with documented evidence every time.
Freedom of Speech, or The DeCSS Haiku
Seth Schoen: The History of the DeCSS Haiku I wrote the DeCSS Haiku because I was angry at the attempts…
Why Raise Children?
Raising children is a painful, messy, and unrewarding activity. Libertopians aren’t going to raise children unless they get paid.
Visiting Libertopia: The Magical Power of Property
This is part of my series on the problems with libertarianism. This piece only applies to those libertarians who believe…
Liberate Libertarianism
Seth Finkelstein, in his essay Libertarianism Makes You Stupid, proposed a series of “Dispatches from Libertopia” as a way of…
Shorter State of the Union
America is good. Families are good. Gay people are bad. Goodness is good. Tax cuts are good. Renew the PATRIOT Act.
Unintelligent Design
Eveolution doesn’t explain everything, but intelligent design doesn’t explain why things keep dying off. Let’s compromise: maybe our creator just wasn’t too bright.
Suspected Terrorist
The Clinton-Gore Plan to Stop Al-Qaeda: Would 9-11 have happened?
Would things be any different had Gore been President? Wouldn’t 9-11 have still happened? Perhaps not, according to mainstream media…
Bush Fear
Conservatives use fear to keep the populace complacent and submissive so they can stay in power. “You might want some…
Shorter George Lakoff: The Framing of Politics
George Lakoff, in his book Moral Politics, explains how the way we frame the debate seals the outcome. Conservatives appeal…
C-SPAN Crossfire
Surprisingly, my favorite news network has turned out to be C-SPAN. It has a relaxed, subdued tone that underlies the…
Jefferson: Nature Wants Information to Be Free
Since many have said that my view of copyright and patent law is childish and held merely because I grew…
Shorter Paul O’Neill
Fmr. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill was on 60 Minutes tonight, along with the author of a new book which pieces…
Cat in the Hat: Harmful to Minors?
Louis Menand on the Dr. Suess’s Cat in the Hat: [T]his is a story about a woman who leaves two…
Counterpoint: Downloading Isn’t Stealing
The New York Times Upfront asked me to contribute a short piece to a point/counterpoint they were having on downloading….
Unspeakable Things
Paul Graham has written a fascinating article on What You Can’t Say — those ideas which are so heretical that…
Is it moral to plead the Fifth?
Hypothetical: Let’s say you’ve committed a crime and, for whatever reason, don’t want to be convicted for it. (Maybe you…
Contest: What has Bush done for you?
So the other day I was thinking about who would win the US 2004 presidential election. Previously, when it seemed…
I’m Not President But I Play One On TV
Every night when I turn on the TV, I see a presidential candidate. He’s the former governor of a small…
Eldred Argument: You. Are. There.
The great folks over at Oyez have put together some great goodies including MPEGs of a talk by Lessig and…
This American Life on Voting and Politics
This American Life had an excellent episode recently: The Annoying Gap Between Theory … and Practice. Act One: Computerized Voting:…
Nader for Activists
A few days ago I knew hardly anything about Ralph Nader. He ran for president once and did something for…
Nader for Geeks
Dave Winer is asking the candidates who’ve adopted blogs for fundraising to promise to keep the Internet free. No one’s…
Nader for America
In previous editions of this series, I explained how to win the election and noted that none of the current…
Evaluating the Democrats
Last week I outlined a strategy to win the next election: have a bold progressive platform and sell it with…
The Immorality of Copyright Law or GET YOUR DIEBOLD MEMOS HERE
Why is it legal and easy to publish this and this but not this? To recap: OK: Publishing a government…
How to Win Elections
I’ve been reading Michael Moore’s new book, Dude, Where’s My Country?, and I’ve become convinced that you could win elections…
Question for Free-Market Libertarians
This is part of my series on the problems with libertarianism. I’m on the lower-left of the political spectrum, but…
The Left Sucks
My editor tells me I’m not offending enough of my audience, so today I’m going to attack the left. While…
Followup to “Shades of Gray”
What I Was Saying I wasn’t saying I wanted absolutes. I wasn’t saying I wanted to believe in lies that…
Shades of Gray
What do you do when someone says something obviously false? Do you correct them? Do you ignore them? On three…
Poison Dart Guns or Solving Politics with Technology
Background: Some people like guns. They argue that guns can be used to deter or prevent crime. Some people don’t…
Comprehensive Reponse to All Arguments Against Gay Marriage
Gay marriage seems to be a popular political issue, but I have not heard one legitimate reason why it shouldn’t…
Privacy, Accuracy, Security: Pick Two
The Problems with Compulsory Licensing Millions of people want to download music for, essentially, free. The record companies don’t want…
Cards
I just got back from Boston. I didn’t have to show ID either way. Being underage does have some benefits,…
ILAW 5
Live notes from the Internet Law conference at Stanford….
Dave Winer said…
Yesterday: “I will recommend to UserLand that they support [the roadmap]” (cite) Today: [Tim Bray] is “wantonly destructive” and probably…
The Voice of America
[Bob Harris, PollingReport.com] Of Americans over 18: 40% believe the media was biased in favor of Bill Clinton 34% think…
Ask Dr. Law: Piercings and the First Amendment
From my email: Does the school have the right to make you take out or cover up piercing? If it’s…
Recording Industry v. Deep, John (The Aimster Case)
I went to the Aimster Case today. This case is important because it will set an important precedent about what…
Eldred Petition
Everything is under copyright. But most of those things aren’t making money, so no one cares about their copyright anymore….
Something’s Coming
Lessig reports that for the first time in recorded history, something is happening in Chicago — the Aimster case is…
Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It
Lessig reports that Starbucks is asking people not to take pictures of its environment. Your mission? Take a photo, then…
1201 Hearings
Victor Calaba: Report on the Copyright Office?s Section 1201 Rulemaking Hearings of May 14, 2003. Yesterday’s proceedings did not present…
MediaCon: Lobbying
Under heavy security, the agency’s normally docile monthly open meeting was disrupted twice by a dozen or so protesters who…
Media Concentration
Lessig notes that the FCC’s rulemaking on media concentration is quickly approaching. Educate yourself: Lessig’s blog (free culture, bad law…
Illinois’s state “super-DMCA”
Ed Felten recently discovered a series of state laws the MPAA is trying to pass across the country, which he’s…
where are the warmongers?
I was expecting my last post to be so sensationalistic that I’d receive all sorts of emails patiently explaining why…
letters from a rogue state
I just saw the President on TV. He announced that the US was ignoring the will of much of the…
Spectrum Reflections
The question before us is what we should do with the magic communications technology of radio. From a First Amendment…
Protect Fair Use
When I was in California, I went to Fry’s and was amazed to see that they were selling DVD Copy…
House of Reprehensitives?
CNN: The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings changed the name of “french fries” to “freedom fries” What…
Larry’s Keynote
<add> sanity Announcer: This might be one of the last times we ever get to see Larry; he’s flying to…
New Valenti Remix
Canis Lupus put together a different remix (1MB MP3). Here’s a transcript: Announcer: Let us welcome Jack Valenti. [applause] Let’s…
Valenti Remix
I don’t really have time right now to remix this Valenti speech (7.6M MP3), but if I did, here’s what…
Notes from the DRM Conference: Impacts of DRMs on flows of information
John Erickson Policy enforcements create a private law, no people in the loop. Ed Felten DRM turns things into black…
Why “Intellectual Property” is not Property
A property right is a positive right: it gives you the freedom to use, sell, etc. something you own. These…
Attention State Employees
Are you a state employee (e.g. a professor at a state university)? Do you think copyright laws that regulate non-commercial…
Between Iraq and a Hard Place
Britain’s Channel 4: Between Iraq and a Hard Place (RealPlayer). A great (and funny) 50-minute show from on the history…
Tolkien’s Lawyers Harass Small Publisher
Mike Perry emailed me this fascinating story (350K PDF) of Tolkien’s lawyers harassing him for publishing a reference book on…
calling all First Amendment lawyers!
SBC is shaking down websites which have navigation in a separate frame. This is an open-and-shut case! Web sites are…
inside the secret government
This American Life: Secret Government (RealAudio stream). Wow. Wow. Wow. It’s a spine-tingling episode of This American Life, a wonderfully-engaging…
new thinking, new laws
Congress gets a teaste of its own medicine, Lessig settles for less, and I buy books I can get for free.
I WANT TO BELIEVE
Larry Lessig: the silent 5. ‘Is there a principle here? Is there a way to read these opinions as consistent…
Day of Mourning
Supreme Court fails Eldred, the Web turns black for “limited Times”. Seth always knows just what to quote:Rabbi Joshua: oi…
Tips for Book Authors
I’ve written some tips for book authors I have. I hope you’ll find them useful, and I hope I’ll remember…
Declaration of ICANN Independence
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed. It presented a theory of fair government: that all…
“I helped hijack an airplane”
Arianna Huffington: The Detroit Project. “The idea for this project came to me while watching — for the umpteenth time…
Get your $20 from the music companies!
Did you buy a CD, casette, or vinly album from a retailer between 1995 and 2000? If you did, then…
How Misleading Can You Get?
The RIAA has a website, musicunited.org, which among other obviously misleading statements has a page on the law that strongly…
movie maker mentality
Every so often the people fighting sharing slip up and tell us what they really think. Ed Felten points to…
piracy, bits, and meatspace
Tim O’Reilly has a wonderful article on why piracy isn’t so serious — and it’s got a big advertisement for…
How Total Information Awareness Works: A Simple Guide
from Total Information Awareness (TIA) System [darpa.mil]. Everything make sense now?…
Copyright is Unconstitutional!
I just read a wonderful article by Jed Rubenfeld: The Freedom of Imagination: Copyright’s Constitutionality [via Felten]. Imagine a country…
the next eldred
Article 1, section 8 also says that Congress has the power to “punish piracies and felonies committed on the high…
Total Information Awareness Demo
Spurred by an article in the SF Weekly, John Gilmore calls for us to demonstrate how the government’s proposed “Total…
cupcake controls a prior restraint?
Anonymous (djb?): Export Controls, Cupcake Recipes, and Speech: I am concerned about the long-term implications of attempting to treat recipes…
Trusted Clothing / Trusted Computing: A Parable
Microsoft introduces Trusted Computing; Megasoft introduces Trusted Clothing. What is it, what does it, and should you buy it?
The Case for Source Code Escrow
Lessig’s latest post, please, no philosophy, explains why he thinks source code escrow is important. Here’s a reformulation of the…
Official Argument Transcripts
Only a month after the Eldred argument, the Supreme Court has posted transcripts. Google also has a list of copies…
Announcing Decisions
Unless you’ve been living in Redmond for the past day, you know that the District Court of D.C. has let…
won’t anyone think of the starving?
The Onion: Kid Rock Starves to Death: MP3 Piracy Blamed. Right on target. Hillary Rosen: “Why would anyone in their…
new arguments
Daryl Hanson has an argument against the CTEA I hadn’t heard before [Lessig]: Many authors created works with the implicit…
patently “fair use”
Article I, Section 8: “The Congress shall have power to […] promote the progress of science and useful arts, by…
books for reading at the Eldred victory party (or if you move to australia)
onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu has a list of books that you cannot read in the US, at least not until the Supreme Court…
Gelernter on TechTV
On the off chance that someone taped it, I’d like to see David Gelernter on TechTV’s Big Thinkers. Maybe it’ll…
Bernstein Reports
In a press release, Bernstein reports that the government’s attorney told the court they would not enforce the law against…
The Other Oral Argument
Tomorrow is D. J. Bernstein’s oral argument in his crypto case. I wish him the best of luck. It’s funny…
Eldred Transcript
Thanks to some friends, I’ve been able to get a copy of the Eldred case transcript. I’ve cleaned it up,…
Seth, Lisa on Larry
Seth Schoen’s account of his trip is very interesting and fills in spots I missed. Lisa Rein has put up…
Larry on Larry
Larry Lessig: from the front line. ‘So please, no more of the bullshit about “rockstars” or “visionary.” I’ve lived this…
A Sad Day for America
CNN: Senate approves Iraq war resolution. ‘The president praised the congressional action, declaring “America speaks with one voice.”’ I’m not…
Elsewhere, Elsewhen
DO THIS NOW: Call your representative, ask them not to go to war Lisa Rein: Camping Out at Eldred Illegal…
Apple: Heinous DVD Pirates
DeCSS detractors have repeatedly claimed that DeCSS needs to be stopped because it makes perfect digital copies of DVDs possible….
Iran Pushes UN Intervention Against US
Yahoo: The Case for Regime Change.Khatami asked the U.N. to set a deadline for Bush to step down in favor…
Eldred Press Watch
Eric Eldred himself was just on Marketplace. NYTimes: Debate to Intensify on Copyright Extension Law (front page of the business…
Our Dumb Pipeline
Ted Rall: My Government Went to Afghanistan and All I Got Was This Stupid Pipeline Summary: The US begun planning…
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Lessig is fond of saying copyright has been extended “eleven times in the past forty years”. This is true, but…
never a cent
MusicDish: First Blood is Spilled. “Back Street Boy Kevin Richardson [] testified that they have NEVER received a royalty check”…
Fuzzy Math
One of the weirdest things I heard when listening to the Cato Institute debate was an economist claim “a tenet…
Rights Fight
I need a lawyer willing to argue that not-for-profit file sharing is fair use. I’ve got a plan. Napster: Work…
Gary Shapiro: Sharing is Legal and Moral!
Gary Shapiro: The Campaign to Have Copyright Interests Trump Technology and Consumer Rights [Seth]. Yes! Yes! Yes! This is the…
Counter-terrorizing Osama
Larry Lessig: Anti-trusting Microsoft. “Microsoft has a John Cleese problem. Again and again, it has been accused of anticompetitive behavior….
The Making of a Police State
Mark Bernstein complained an airport screener was damaging his TiBook’s delicate screen and got searched by the police for his…
Santa Cruz Hands out Marijuana at City Hall
BayArea.com: Santa Cruz council invites marijuana users to distribute pot at City Hall. Summary: In response to high-profile raids by…
The First Ammendment Microwave
In djb’s latest brief in his export-crypto case, he has an interesting first ammendment argument:Consider, as a hypothetical example, a…
Don’t Napsterize the Discussion, Guys!
Seth Schoen notes:Napster sent their VP for policy, Manus Cooney, to a CPTWG meeting once, around six months ago. The…
IMS/ISC Takes their Case to the BOGSAAT
IMS/ISC: Comments on .org Preliminary Evaluation Report.The analysis was an impressive display of committee logistics and resulted in three different…
what the chinese government doesn’t want you to know
Odd, according to the Real-Time Chinese Filtering Testing System by Zittrain and Edelman, this website is blocked in China. I…
Patenting Piracy
Lucky Green: Utilizing Palladium against software piracy [wmf]. Lucky is one of the most outspoken detractors of Palladium. This is…
Shrub Wants to Stop Wildfires by Stopping Forests
Sorry for all the political announcements, but this one was too crazy to pass up. Heritage Forests Campaign has a…
Copyright law exists to enlarge the public domain.
Over on Doc Searls’ DG, Timothy Philips makes a really profound statement: “Copyright law exists to enlarge the public domain….
Wil Wheaton vs. Barney Videos
Seth points to some great video clips of the Wil Wheaton vs. Barney fight. He also points out that the…
“Vote for my Mom”
I love this funny animation from blackholebrain. (Thanks, Alwin!)…
The Third Qatsi
KOYAANISQATSI life out of balance POWAQQATSI life in transformation NAQOYQATSI life as war THERE IS NO MORE NATURE. THERE IS…
David P. Reed on Piracy
David P. Reed: More on vengeance rights and piracy. “Congress and the other two branches are on a tear, on…
Scientology threatened by “unadulterated cyber-terrorism”
Politechbot: Scientology says it’s threatened by “unadulterated cyber-terrorism”. “Unless certain rules are applied on the Internet, our desired global freedom…
Vote Hank Perritt
Hank Perritt is the democratic candidate in my district, running against incumbent Mark Kirk, a strong advocate of missile defense….
FREE THE MOUSE
Bumperactive is giving away FREE THE MOUSE bumper stickers in honor of the Eldred v. Ashcroft case which is currently…
Dr. Suess is Fifth Highest Grossing Dead Celebrity
In response to my Dr. Seuss post, Matt Haughey sends a pointer to Forbes.com - Top-Earning Dead Celebrities which points…
US Locks Up US Citizens With No Process!
I just saw a Nightline episode on enemy combatants. The US is claiming that US citizens on US soil like…
Other Amici Claims
Reading some more opposing Eldred v. Ashcroft briefs…The MPAA claims that they wouldn’t be able to make new movies without…
Dr. Suess Enterprises In Favor of Perpetual Copyright
Is it just me or do you too find the opposing brief by Seuss cuckoo? This company inheretied from Suess…
Free Culture, Free Slides
Leonard Lin’s put together an awesome flash version of Larry Lessig’s talk. It’s got the slides with the audio of…
New “Rogue State” Must Be Stopped
Adrian Hamilton: Yes, we need a ‘regime change’ in this rogue state….The government which is spending by far the most…
Insane Copyright Terrorism Hits Internet Radio
Thousands of Internet radio stations are dead, due to a deal not only designed to specifically crush smaller webcasters but…
MP3 Political Party
The MP3 Party is trying to become a registered UK political party. [declan] Their manifesto sounds pretty crazy (in a…
Government Responds in Eldred v. Ashcroft
The government has filed their response brief (PDF) in the Eldred v. Ashcroft case. What they’re responding to is Lessig…
Standards and the Law
Is the W3C illegal? While reading some relatively unrelated things I found a message where djb discussed US requirements for…
MonkeyFist Week in Review
Kendall Clark, Monkeyfist.com: WEEKLY REVIEW: Military police, Afghan civillian casualties, Milosevic denials, UN torture treaty, Cheney corporate scandal, deporting relatives…
Janis Ian on Free Downloads
Janis Ian’s article on the “Internet Debacle” is great. Here’s some straight hard facts to counter the nonsense coming from…
today’s featured superhero: Seth Schoen
I could tell you all about Seth Schoen but you could probably get everything you need to know just from…
Sloganeering
Don Marti: “Keep your management off of my digital rights.” [via Seth] Aaron Swartz: “It’s not intellectual property, it’s intellectual…
today’s featured superhero: Brad Templeton
It seems fitting that for the day we celebrate our freedom, the superhero is Brad Templeton, Chairman of the EFF…
Freedom, Independence
Must read: Declaration of Independence. “He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository…
Reevaluating Copyright
Stallman provides a clear and intelligent summary of why copyright should be scaled back on the Internet. ‘By contrast, copying…
Debunking the Debunkers
Salon: Debunking Deep Throat’s debunkers A hilarious account of attempting to renact the actions of deep throat. “Author’s note: Havill…
Microsoft Attempts to Cement Monopoly Under Guise of Continuing Copyright Terrorism
Infowarrior: Preparing for the Digital Dark Age. “In short, under the feel-good guise of ‘enhanced security’ and ‘new features for…
EFF Rudeness
Aahz: Rudeness for rudeness, an open letter to the EFF. “Had Brad behaved this way with almost anyone else, I…
License Haiku
Update: More licenses at QuickTopic, raph’s weblog. I think that people really use software licenses to express intentions, and don’t…
AudioGalaxy R.I.P.
The RIAA reaches a sad settlement with AudioGalaxy, marking the end of the best way to get music, ever.
Librarians Join Fight Against Copyright Terrorism
An NYTimes article on the battle over online books.
today’s featured superhero: Carl Malamud
Carl Malamud is an unstoppable technical and social hacker.
Valenti: “I know damn well I am infringing.”
House Hearing on Home Recording of Copyrighted Works. On his practice of recording TV shows: “I am taking somebody else’s…
Copyright Lawsuit Not Included
EFF: Sing Out Against the CBDTPA, a hilarious flash animated sing-along parodying the Mickey Mouse Club song. Who believes the…
Copyright Terrorism Continues
RIAA Press Release: Recording Industry Takes Audiogalaxy.com to Court For Wholesale Copyright Infringement. I wonder if the EFF will defend…
Copyright Terrorism
As Lane Becker wrote on Meg’s weblog, Valenti and his cronies are fighting “a terrorist war on the most important…
The Lawyers Strike Back
From Larry Lessig and Matt Haughey: Eldred v. Ashcroft (eldred.cc), a website for the noble case before the Supreme Court…