] [T]he entertainment industry's pursuit of tough new laws to
] protect copyrighted materials from online piracy is bad
] for business and for the economy, according to a report
] being released today by the Committee for Economic
] Development, a Washington policy group that has its roots
] in the business world.

[ Following on the heels of Greenspan's speech regarding the need to re-assess IP law in the context of an increasing ratio of the GDP being based upon non-physical product -- here's one such re-assessment. Or a little piece of an overall reassessment anyhow. It's nice to see some of the more venerable mainstream organizations picking up this argument... -k]

Report Raises Questions About Fighting Online Piracy

] Management as the word is presently used is an American
] invention. In other parts of the world not only the
] practices but the entire concept of management may
] differ, and the theories needed to understand it, may
] deviate considerably from what is considered normal and
] desirable in the USA. The reader is invited on a trip
] around the world, and both local management practices and
] theories are explained from the different contexts and
] histories of the places visited: Germany. Japan, France,
] Holland, the countries of the overseas Chinese, SouthEast
] Asia. Africa, Russia, and finally mainland China.

Management as the word is presently used is an American invention

A very interesting collection of resources on intercultural business affairs.

Madhukar Shukla, XLRI, Cross Cultural Management, Online Resources

] Finding the rightful recipient of the ticket could be as
] simple as sliding in a mobile phone-style SIM-card
] instead of a key. The card would contain
] details of the driver's licence and address.
]
] Wireless technology would allow the car to communicate
] with the speed camera, and the fine could be deducted from
] the driver's credit card before he or she even made it home.

Coming to a Singapore near you...

[Politech] Toyota's concept car rats out speeders to the police [priv]

] More generally, in the realm of physical production,
] where scarce resources are critical inputs, each
] additional unit of output is usually more costly to
] produce than the previous one; that is, production, at
] least eventually, is characterized by increasing marginal
] cost. By contrast, in the realm of conceptual output,
] much of production is characterized by constant, and
] perhaps even zero, marginal cost.

Greenspan raises the idea that intellectual property laws may not be properly fitted. This is awesome. I've been writing about this for years. Most people just don't get it. Now I have a reference that will make people shut up and think.

FRB: Speech, Greenspan--Intellectual property rights--February 27, 2004

The authors analyze trends in and the implications of shifting demographic patterns, the pace of technological change, and the path of economic globalization.

If you are presently underemployed or deeply interested, it is worth spending the time to read the full 304 page report. You can also check out the research brief on the same topic; here's the abstract for the brief:

Trends in workforce size and composition and in the pace of technological change and economic globalization will have implications for the future of work. Employees will work in more decentralized, specialized firms; slower labor growth will encourage employers to recruit groups with relatively low labor force participation; greater emphasis will be placed on retraining and lifelong learning; and future productivity growth will support higher wages and may affect the wage distribution. Given this, some policies may need to be reexamined.

I recommend reading the summary, which consists of approximately 30 pages at the beginning of the full report.

The 21st Century at Work

Dean: "The economy will become increasingly hollow. ... There will be people who are working on the very top end of innovation, and there will be people servicing them, with very little in between."

Decius: I have this ingrained distrust for unions. I used to be in one, until I found out that the money I was paying into it was being used to fuck me in Congress on Social Security. The majority of the people in said union were under the age of 30, but the union was primarily responsive to the interests of people over 50. What this amounted to was that I was "collectively bargaining" with a bunch of people who had no idea what the hell to bargain for, and let others worry about figuring that out. Apathy is its own reward.

However, I strongly agree that our society needs to seriously revamp the social structures around the 40 hour work week. Our health insurance, our taxes, our pensions, our labor laws... basically everything typically handled by an HR department is structured around the idea that you work for one company and you do it for 40 hours a week. There is no room for flexibility, for employee or employer.

I spent some time working for RHIC. I really like them. They are very professional. They do offer pensions and insurance for their consultants. They are a stab at the problem. But the legislation doesn't support their model. Insurance is only available if you are doing so much work with them that you pretty much look like a full timer on paper. Furthermore, they have a model which is so decentralized that it actually has a negative impact on geographic flexibility. They had no ability to transfer me to another office in an area where my skills were more in demand. Different RHIC city offices are totally autonomous. They are like different companies.

I want more flexibility. My employer wants more flexibility. So whose holding up the show here?

What's labor going to do about offshoring?

As big pharmaceutical companies have become even larger, they have concentrated on drugs with blockbuster potential rather than devote time to drugs with smaller markets.

[Hmmm ... Where have I heard that story before?]

I bet Norah Jones is popular at biotech firms, both as inspiration and as consolation.

Is Biotechnology Losing Its Nerve?

] The Iranian correspondent responsible for the report told
] Reuters the radio had also reported bin Laden's capture
] a year ago. But said a new source had told him on Friday
] the al Qaeda leader had been seized "a long time ago."
]
] "It could be one month ago, it could be one year, but he
] has been arrested," he said.

When they arrest BL, they won't tell everyone that they've arrested BL, because BL knows things that they want to know, and they don't want BL's associates to react to the idea that they have the information that BL has. They could delay making an announcement for quite some time if they feel like they can collect useful intelligence. So rest assured, when you hear that BL has been captured, it happened a long time ago. It might have happened already. There is really no way to know unless the guy puts out a recent video...

US denies Iranian report of Bin Lauden capture

] Now we're faced with a "Godzilla vs. Mothra" battle,
] where the Internet -- and its users -- will likely take
] the brunt of the collateral damage.

Best Quote on Verisign v. ICANN