] The Chasing Bush campaign is asking people to "disrupt the
] PR" of the visit by spoiling stage-managed photos.
]
] They are being encouraged to send location reports and
] images by mobile to be posted on the Chasing Bush site.

Flash mobs use internet to track Bush's location. The angry mob threat model ain't just for cryptanalysis anymore.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Mobile users told to 'chase Bush'

] "Cricket Media recently released 'Netflix Fanatic', an
] OSX based shareware app that lets you manage your rental
] queue without logging on to Netflix. An article on Think
] Secret reveals the reason behind it's mysterious
] disappearance. Apparently the developer's employer,
] Apple, has claimed ownership over the application's name
] and source code.

Apple really shows their true colors here. On my own time with my own resources is not your fucking property. Employers have gotten away with contracts like this because they have the resources to afford the attorneys, many employees don't understand the contracts, and those that come under fire usually don't have the resources to defend themselves. People that DO understand these contracts often find it impossible to negotiate with employers. I've turned down jobs over this in the past.

Contracts of this sort are specifically designed to remove incentives to innovate. They allow employers to prevent employees from developing anything that might threaten established businesses, while also removing the financial rewards from innovations that employers do approve of. There is absolutely no aspect of these contracts which meet the Constituional goals of Intellectual Property (promoting science and the useful arts); These contracts are typically far far too overbroad to be seen as protecting employers from unfair competition. They are specifically designed to eliminate distruptive innovation and uphold the status quo.

Can the government really use powers granted by the Consititution to craft laws that are specifically designed to be used by citizens in a manner that is destructive to goals of the Constitution?

Legal, or illegal, its obviously wrong.

Slashdot | Apple Claims Ownership of Shareware -- DON'T WORK FOR APPLE

] The President's determination that an individual is an unlawful
] combatant receives deference and need only be supported by
] 'some evidence.'

The DOJ is apparently passing around a word document where they gloat about their court victories. Each includes a quotation from the judge in question. The formatting here is terrible, but its still worth a read. That above quote is a judge deciding that your constitutional right to do process can be eliminated by the executive as long as it has 'some evidence' that you are associated with an enemy force.

[Politech] Justice Department's list of terrorism-related court cases

Get a quick idea of what is going on in the world by simply looking at pictures pulled from top stories...

News-Images.com

flynn23 wrote:
] 1) Do you feel as though your rights and freedoms are being
] infringed in the digital realm?

Rights are constantly threatened. People are trying to use anti-porn laws to wipe any controversial speech out of the net, or at least out of the school and library (surf control's usenet news category). Discussion about security systems is frequently threatened with prosecution. Some discussion of e-voting has been sued away... Deep linking... personal websites with humor or artistic purpose that make use of trademarked or copyrighted material... fan fiction... small/personal internet radio is almost impossible; people don't see it as a viable alternative to running micro-power or college/community stations because the royalties have priced it out of the market... Copyright is now eternal, and the public domain almost not existent. Innovative approaches to art/media, and the consumption of art/media are frequently illegal, and usually the policy is sue first and ask question later.

Basically, the situation is far too litigious. Individuals don't have the resources to defend themselves from suits, even ones that are unreasonable. The result is that speech by individuals has been chilled on a wide scale. The people who can speak are the ones who are big enough to take a lawsuit. This has made the network undemocratic. Only the rich have a voice. Everyone has a printing press, but the rich are the only ones who can face the consequences of using one.

The recent spat of DRM laws makes the situation even worse. Not only are we stopping you from speaking with laws, we're forcing you to buy technology that stops you from speaking. Not directly mind you, but indirectly. By eliminating the public domain. By preventing you from remixing and recontextualizing content. By preventing innovation.

] 2) Do you feel as though you have adequate power to protect
] these rights and freedoms?

No. I cannot defend myself against a frivolous suit by a large company. I cannot stop Congress from passing laws that are dramatically not in my interests. Congress follows the interests of the people with the power, and right now the public interest has no power in this arena.

] 3) Do you feel as though the EFF is an adequate tool to
] protect these rights and freedoms for you (or en masse)?

They have succeeded in many many respects. Right now they are our best hope. However, they have also failed in several respects. This is because they can only advise before passage, and sue after passage. If the laws we oppose are held constitutional (like the copyright extension), then there is nothing the EFF can do.

] 4) Do you feel that another group (or groups) might be
] necessary to ensure that these rights and freedoms are
] protected?

We need to throw people out of office. Congress only responds to those with power. The only way that Congress will respond to the public interest... [ Read More (0.1k in body) ]

RE: a decent proposal?

Jeremy wrote:
] I think there is a message in here about the evolution of our
] interaction with media... we are collectively suffering from a serious
] case of attention deficit disorder...
]
] Music used to be an event, not a product. For the iPod
] generation, music as Art is being increasingly devalued, even
] as it becomes pervasive to the point of ubiquity.

I no longer read books really. I read the internet. I read MemeStreams. And I hate long winded articles like Al Gore's recent speech. I want everything to be fast. I don't have time for details because there is so much else to look at. I like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, cause its 15 minutes, as opposed to West Wing, which I have to devote an hour to. And my TV is cut up by my Myth TV. I watch it when I want to and not when shows are programmed. And even so, when shows pile up on my mythTV and articles pile up in my memebox I feel like I just have a lot of work to do. There is no way in hell I'm going to read quicksilver. It seems unfit for the times. It seems like my life is just more hurried then it was even a year ago.

Where is this heading? Is this progress or regress? I have so many shiny things competing for my attention that I can't really delve into any of them... Are we loosing out ability to think deeply, or are we simply trying to break things up into smaller time slices so we can task switch more effectively?

RE: Social discrimination by iTunes playlist | Wired News

"The Constitution may not be perfect, but it's a helluva lot better that
what the government's using these days."
- anonymous, quoted in _GovAccess_ #119, May 18, 1995

] To make a duplicate of a lifted fingerprint took me several
] days in 1992 and I had to do a lot of experiments to find the
] right process/technique. Now it takes me half an hour and the
] material costs are $20 (also sufficient for about 20 duplicates),
] the only equipment you need is a digital camera and an UV lamp.

A biometric is a password that is easy to steal and that you cannot
change.

[IP] From CryptoGram: faking fingerprints trivial

] Playlistism, Aubrey explained, is discrimination based
] not on race, sex or religion, but on someone's terrible
] taste in music, as revealed by their iTunes music
] library.
]
] Aubrey said an iTunes music library tells a lot more
] about people than the clothes they wear or the books they
] carry.
]
] Aubrey said Wesleyan students are enjoying a new parlor
] game -- going through music libraries trying to guess
] what their owners are like. At any one time, 30 or 40
] iTunes libraries are available on the campus network,
] which is shared by about 2,000 students.
]
] Students are starting to realize they must manage their music
] collections, or at least prune them, to maintain their image, Aubrey
] said. He confessed to deleting a lot of stuff himself.

Wired News: Social discrimination by iTunes playlist

Some drawings are as much as 10 feet wide, rather lightly marked in pencil with arrows and names: delicate spider webs of scandal.

Lombardi's work has been called "conspiracy art". It's a kind of global MemeStreams, elegantly visualized with a purpose, as Art.

(Unfortunately, it appears impossible to obtain large prints of these drawings (some of which are absolutely fascinating). There is a book available, but the only poster/print I've found was in "Cabinet Magazine" in 2001. They've sold out of back issues and want $250 for a copy. I can buy the originals at pierogi2000.com, but I'm not Bill Gates.)

'Global Networks': Webs Connecting the Power Brokers, the Money and the World