"Featuring Rep. Howard Berman, D-California; Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge; Phil Corwin, Butera Andrews; Troy Dow, Motion Picture Association of America; Ed Black, Computer & Communications Industry Association; and James Miller, Smith College."

This debate is being webcast on Thursday the 19th. I don't like the way they've framed the debate, but anyway it ought to be interesting.

Copy Fights: Can Politicians or Entrepreneurs Best Protect Intellectual Property?

Thus, in order to recover damages for harmed files, an affected "file trader" must show that (1) he has suffered "economic damages" in excess of $250, and (2) that the copyright owner did NOT have a "reasonable basis" to believe that his copyright was infringed. While the safe harbor, at least technically, is not "expanded" by this language, the remedy is limited, which amounts to the same thing."

Responses to the Berman post on Politech. Some are better then others. Some are highly flawed. But, together they convey the technical community's perspective.

The quote above cleanly disects one of the central lies in the Berman post. I'm not satisfied with the answers offered for the question I raised.

politechbot.com: Politech members reply to Rep. Berman on anti-P2P piracy bill

The project is a solar-generated wind farm on a massive scale. It works on the principle of convection -- hot air rises -- and the tower functions like a chimney. "

This is a crazy engineering effort. Follow the link for the project on this page for an artist's conceptualization. Only in Austrailia (or possibly Canada) could you find seven kilometers that no one is using upon which to build the worlds largest structure.

A Tower in Oz to Touch the Sun

"A key Republican senator on Thursday withdrew his support for an anti-piracy bill that would make it a crime to distribute counterfeit authentication features including digital watermarks. "

Anti-piracy bills washes out after it is modified to discuss DRM.

Senator pulls support for copyright bill - Tech News - CNET.com

There have been more than 30 allied attacks against Iraqi installations this year.

Sorry to burst the bubble, but war this is not. Iraq is probably not even unusually upset or concerned about it. After the 35th such event in the last 8 months (and, no doubt, after hundreds of such engagements over the last decade), this stuff has become routine.

I find it interesting that this story is, at present, nowhere to be found on the New York Times and LA Times web sites.

Iraqi air defence site attacked | BBC News

The raid appeared to be a prelude to the type of special forces operations that would have to begin weeks before a possible American-led war. It was launched two days before a war summit between President George W Bush and Tony Blair in America."

hrm... I don't know if I like my intelligence analysis coming from a Telegraph reporter, but, we might be at war...

100 jets join attack on Iraq

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Berman's office replies to Politech!

So, its nice to see this guy actually open a dialog up with the people who are most concerned about his proposal. I agree that the press has exagerated the rights that the law offers copyright holders. However, my fundamental concern with this law is that I feel its an invitation to anarchy. Hackers will be far better at building systems that can survive attack then systems that make law suits a pain. The result is going to be further escallation of capability on both sides, until there really is no law online nor can there be.

I think what follows is the least reasonable peice of Berman's statement. It seems a straw man arguement, but I'm having trouble drawing the line. What is the difference between repoing a car and running your own law enforcement. IS it the fact that you own the car, where as in the latter instance you are defending other people's property, or is there some other distinction on another level that is more important then this difference? I feel that there is, but I can't put my finger on it.

I wish I had the discussion boards working. Anyway, what do you think?

"Does the P2P Piracy Prevention Act authorize copyright owners to do illegal things that no one else can do?

No. H.R. 5211 just ensures that copyright owners are treated like other property owners. Current law allows property owners in many contexts to use "self-help" to protect their property. Satellite companies face no liability when they use electronic countermeasures to stop the pirating of their signals and programming. Banks face no liability when they repossess automobiles for delinquent loan payments. A bicycle owner faces no liability for grabbing his bike from a thief's yard. A victim of a pickpocket faces no liability for tackling and taking back his wallet from the pickpocket. However, due to the overbreadth of many anti-hacking laws, copyright owners do not have a corresponding ability to prevent the theft of their property through P2P systems. H.R. 5211 would correct this unintentional inequity."

politechbot.com: Rep. Berman replies to Politech, defends his anti-P2P piracy bill

"Under the Justice Department's new definition of "enemy combatant" which won the enthusiastic approval of the president and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld anyone defined as an "enemy combatant," very much including American citizens, can be held indefinitely by the government, without charges, a hearing, or a lawyer. In short, incommunicado. "

Hentoff is explaining what might happen, not what has occured, or what must occur. However, I don't think his worst nightmare is out of the question given the law. We really are at the mercy of executive's reservation with respect to this, and I think its a bad situation. Even if Bush uses such authority responsibly, it is inevitable that future administrations will slaken into a broader application of this new ability.

Public outcry put the brakes on TIPs. I'd like to see it put the brakes on this too. I don't see any reason why the government would have trouble getting a court to approve the detention of individuals involved in terrorist conspiracies. We need court oversight to make sure that they ARE in fact involved in terrorist conspiracies, and not just someone the administration doesn't like or wants to quiet.

The Village Voice: General Ashcroft's Detention Camps by Nat Hentoff

"Ottawa - A Senate committee recommends legalizing marijuana and putting its distribution in the hands of the state, a controversial position that has touched off a national debate on the drug's use and sparked criticism from the United States."

Apparently some of you didn't notice this, so I'm posting it. The Senate in Canada is not like the Senate in the US. Senators are appointed for life by the Governor General (ie, the Crown). While they have the ability to "veto" legislative decisions made by the democratic government, they almost never do. They mostly spend their time doing long term studies on issues they feel are important to the country's governance. This report is an example of one of those studies.

Canadian Senate says 'legalize pot.'