"So what? Would people behave any differently if they knew a term paper on drug legalization would surface when they're 45 years old?
Yeah, lots of people probably would. It causes people to start acting the way politicians act, trying to hide their tracks...We've seen what's happened to presidential candidates in the past 40 years: They've gotten vanilla. You don't see the extreme people anymore because they're afraid.
I was a child of the late '60s and '70s. I could live lifestyles that I couldn't live now because the consequences weren't very bad. There weren't any records or diseases you could get. But if I were growing up today, and everything I did left a record...well, I probably wouldn't live differently, but I'm on the fringe. Most people probably would do things differently. "

Tech News - CNET.com

The 2001 PeeeYeeeew awards for shitty journalism. Regardless of your political bent you will probably find something in here you agree with.

Media Beat: Announcing the P.U.-Litzer Prizes for 2001

More Lessig. Dumb copyright laws preventing broadband deployment, which is keeping the US economy in a slump.

Who's Holding Back Broadband? (washingtonpost.com)

Lessig (Stanford Law) is interviewed on NPR, Hillary Rosen (RIAA) calls in and is shortly refuted. I'd like to see a more complete debate between the two.

The most striking part of the discussion is something else:
Lessig says computer people are "apathetic, a-political types." He doesn't think that there is anything that can be done to prevent a copyright distopia. He doesn't think the EFF has any real political support.

An hour long.

Lessig vs. Rosen

Apparently it may be illegal for record companies to employ CD copyright protection schemes because they are already getting paid for "piracy" when blank media is sold. Tangent: What if the government proposed an internet piracy tax in exchange for the end of all anti-piracy systems.... Much of "free software" is currently federally subsidised. One can imagine a future in which something like the NEA becomes the way that media is paid for...

Lawmaker: Is CD copy-protection illegal? - Tech News - CNET.com

This is a OLD paper, from back in 1995. I often cited it in arguements over the CDA at the time because most people don't understand the influence of case precident on the interpretation of the "plain language" of laws, nor do they understand the definition of the word "indecent" in a legal context. This provides an interesting legislative history of the word "indecent" that is still useful today if one wishes to understand FCC speech regulations.

New Age Comstockery: Exon vs the Internet

Stewart Baker backs off from statements Fox news claimed he made about the FBI looking to centralize the Internet for surveillance; a story I posted on my weblog.

IP: Fox News goes overboard

What does intellectual property mean in your life???

WIPOUT - The Intellectual Property Counter-Essay Contest

"Stewart Baker, an attorney at the Washington D.C.-based Steptoe & Johnson and a former general consul to National Security Agency, said the FBI has plans to change the architecture of the Internet and route traffic through central servers that it would be able to monitor e-mail more easily."

CALEA is back with bite

People who crash computers are now officially treated exactly the same way as people who are trying to blow up buildings. Stupid.

Terror Act Has Lasting Effects