“Radical” changes in Washington always have this Charlie Brown/Lucy-like character (remember Lucy holding the football?): it doesn’t take long before you realize how little really ever changes in DC. The latest example is the Dems and IP issues as they affect the Net. Message to the Net from the newly Democratic House? Go to hell.

This is a followon to Lessig's talk at 23C3 which I haven't found time to watch yet. His apparent anger suggests surprise. I'm not surprised. In this country there is no such thing as the individual as a political force. Political force only happens in numbers. Those numbers can be grass roots "special interest/single issue" voters who are organized and have communicated to representatives that they will vote on their specific issue, or they can be dollars and cents that said representatives can use to market themselves to everyone who isn't an organized special interest voter. The future, with regards to the intellectual renaissance we have the potential to create with our recent advances in communications technology, has neither money nor organized voters, and so it is politically non-existant, regardless of what really smart people might have to say about it. The establishment media industry, on the other hand, has a lot of money. Glenn Reynolds wrote a sharp analysis of their interests here.

On the whole the Republicans aren't better than the Democrats on these issues, but they have a different set of interests they serve, and so they tend to do different kinds of damage. The march toward tyranny has both left and right steps. The shoe is now on the other foot. Don't expect that foot to hurt any less when it is stepping on you.

Dems to the Net: Go to hell

It has taken almost three years—by some counts, more than 6 years—but ICANN’s domain name policy making organization has finally taken a stand on Whois and privacy. And the results were a decisive defeat for the copyright and trademark interests and the US government, and a stunning victory for advocates of the rights of individual domain name registrants.

In Historic Vote on WHOIS Purpose, Reformers Win by 2/3 Majority

A tentative deal to extend the government's antiterrorism powers under the law known as the USA Patriot Act appeared in some jeopardy Thursday, as Senate Democrats threatened to mount a filibuster in an effort to block the legislation.

I'm glad they narrowed the National Security Letters but I'm not sure this bill really meets muster. This is one environment where the filibuster may be an honorable thing to do. On the other hand, it may just be a way of extending the existing law without the changes while creating the appearance of discourse.

Extension of Patriot Act Faces Threat of Filibuster

President Bush nominated Ben S. Bernanke, his top economic adviser, to replace Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

Everyone seems to be quietly pleased with this nomination. This is a relief.

Bush Nominates Bernanke to Succeed Greenspan as Fed Chief

The United States and Europe clashed here Thursday in one of their sharpest public disagreements in months, after European Union negotiators proposed stripping the Americans of their effective control of the Internet.

These people are silly. Threatening to leave the DNS system just because you don't think you have enough influence? What do you want them to do differently? Have you made reasonable proposals that have been ignored? Don't you realize that if you can leave the DNS system so can I, and so your influence cannot be coercive?

It is inevitable that the DNS system is going to fragment... I'm all for it. We ought to start talking about what kinds of tools we need to support multiple roots on one computer, and put an end to this government puffery as well as vile sitefinder once and for all.

EU Tries to Unblock Internet Impasse

]
] ICANN confirmed today that Judge A. Howard Matz of the
] U.S. District Court, Central District of California has
] issued an order dismissing VeriSign, Inc.'s anti-trust
] claims against ICANN, with prejudice. In dismissing
] VeriSign's anti-trust claims, Judge Matz noted that
] VeriSign had failed in its first amended complaint to
] sufficiently allege an anti-trust claim.

Today is a good day!!

VeriSign's Anti-Trust Claim Against ICANN Dismissed

] Justice Scalia wrote, in the biting tone that has become
] his trademark, "The Framers would not have thought it too
] much to demand that, before depriving a man of three more
] years of his liberty, the state should suffer the modest
] inconvenience" of submitting its accusation to a jury.

Justice Stevens rox...

Justices Tighten Limits on Judges in Sentencing

] A New York man convicted of using the network of Internet
] service provider EarthLink to send out hundreds of
] millions of unsolicited commercial (spam) e-mail was
] sentenced to between three-and-a -half and seven years in
] prison Thursday, according to Brad Maione, a spokesman
] for New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Buffalo spammer gets 3.5 to 7 years

] A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday filed by
] VeriSign (Quote, Chart) against the government's ruling
] body, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
] Numbers - or ICANN.

Sounds like a bigger deal then it is. This lawsuit is just getting started. But its interesting to see one of their claims already on the mat.

Judge Dismisses V$'s Antitrust Claim against ICANN

] Mr. Schwarzenegger, who immigrated to the United States
] from Austria 35 years ago, on Sunday endorsed an
] amendment to the Constitution to allow immigrants who
] have been citizens for at least 20 years to run for
] president. Mr. Schwarzenegger became a citizen in 1983.

I fully endorse this amendment. :)

Schwarzenegger Backs Amendment to Allow Immigrant Presidents