] Luxtera, a small start-up based on technology pioneered
] at the California Institute of Technology, plans to
] announce today a new class of silicon chips that blur the
] line between electronic computing and optical
] communications.

Newest Chip Is Combination of Fiber Optics and Electronics

] The parents of Terri Schiavo have authorized a
] conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of their
] financial supporters, making it likely that thousands of
] strangers moved by her plight will receive a steady
] stream of solicitations from anti-abortion and
] conservative groups.

Disgusting.

List of Schiavo Donors Will Be Sold by Direct-Marketing Firm

] The Supreme Court expressed concerns Tuesday over
] allowing entertainment companies to sue makers of
] software that allows Internet users to illegally download
] music and movies, questioning whether the threat of such
] legal action might stifle Web innovation.

It seems like the justices definitely see tech's side of this so
it definitely isn't a slam dunk for the IP industry.

High Court Hear Arguments on File-Sharing Technology

] "Orphan Works" probably comprise the majority of the
] record of 20th century culture. These works are still
] presumably under copyright (only works published before
] 1923 are conclusively in the public domain), but the
] copyright owner cannot be found. The default response of
] archivists, libraries, film restorers, artists, scholars,
] educators, publishers, and others is to drop copyrighted
] work unless it is clearly in the public domain. As a
] result, orphan works are not used in new creative efforts
] or made available to the public due to uncertainty over
] their copyright status, even when there is no longer
] anyone claiming copyright ownership, or the owner no
] longer has any objection to such use.
]
] The Center has submitted the following two proposals to
] the Copyright Office on Access to Orphan Works and Orphan
] Films.

Linked from Groklaw. It sounds like the copyright office for
once gets it and actually wants to *do* something about it.

Orphan Works

] You have been informed. Just Tivo it.

Bringing back the lost art of stop-motion ...

Robot Chicken

] End System Multicast (ESM) is a peer to peer video
] streaming system that:
]
] * runs on your desktop computer
] * can stream high quality video (300kbps-1mbit) to
] hundreds or thousands of simultaneous users
] * doesn't cost a dime!

End System Multicast (ESM)

] Last week the Environmental Protection Agency issued a
] rule to limit mercury emissions from power plants. But
] rather than requiring across-the-board cuts in emissions
] it gave companies the ability to buy and sell pollution
] allowances. In the short run, some plants could buy
] allowances from cleaner companies and delay making large
] expenditures to cut emissions.

I guess a downside of pollution credit trading schemes is that you can end up with hotspots instead of a uniform reduction.

New Hampshire Senate to Vote on Approach to Mercury Rule

Here's Lessig's column on price discrimination for drugs from Wired a few months ago.

Stop Making Pills Political Prisoners

] In this, my final, post, I%u2019d like to take up the
] troublesome topic of price discrimination %u2013 both
] with respect to the distribution of audio and video
] recordings and with respect to sales of pharmaceutical
] products.

William Fisher blogging on lessig.org.

William Fisher on Price Discrimination

] India, a major source of inexpensive AIDS drugs, passed a
] new patent law yesterday that groups providing drugs to
] the world's poorest patients fear will choke off their
] supply of new treatments.

Lessig has alleged before that the problem here isn't the drug companies but rather the US Congress: the drug companies are happy to charge Indians $20/year for drugs that cost $20k/year in the US -- but congress won't stand for such price discrimination.

India Alters Law on Drug Patents