] Whether we protect intellectual property as an
] inalienable right or as a privilege vouchsafed by the
] sovereign, such protection inevitably entails making some
] choices that have crucial implications for the balance we
] strike between the interests of those who innovate and
] those who would benefit from innovation.

This is a worrysome and cryptic comment.

1. He raises the specter of Intellectual Property as an inalienable right. With respect to the Constitution that is an extremely radical position. It has gained ground in recent years because of careful marketing efforts by the media industries. His comment is too vauge to know what he really wants, only that he thinks IP should be strengthened.

2. The separation of "those who innovate" and "those who would benefit from innovation" into two separate and exclusive groups is crusty industrial age thinking.

3. Finance people often do not understand the economic importance of activity which occurs outside of the market. I didn't figure Greenspan to be one of those people. Your strong protections for innovators aren't going to do you much good if you can't innovate because all of your citizens are stupid. If you create a world where culture only exists for entertainment purposes and comment, criticisms, and derivative works are all impossible to produce your culture will stagnate and your people will become dull.

4. If you have to rebuild the entire operating system from scratch in order to make a small improvement to a particular feature, you aren't going to do it. IP maximalism hurts innovation.

Greenspan: Secure intellectual property

] Employees at Al Jazeera headquarters in Doha, Qatar, said
] they were frustrated by the decision, though not entirely
] surprised. "It has nothing to do with technical issues,"
] said Joanne Tucker, the managing editor of the
] English-language site. "It's nonstop political pressure
] on these companies not to deal with us."

Its not clear to me how much actions like this are driven by irrational thinking. Both the NYSE and Akamai took personal losses in 911. If for any reason they preceive Al'J as an enemy they are going to cut them out.

If its really external political pressure then thats something else, and in that case I oppose it. They are an ARAB news network. Their perspective is going to be different then yours (duh). If all you can do in response to that is to try to prevent people from having access to their content then this is almost PROOF that you are in the WRONG. The righeous don't NEED censorship.

Akamai Cancels a Contract for Al Jazeera's Site

] Sturgis police arrested seven Sturgis men for placing
] more than 20 threatening letters on various businesses,
] schools, banks and at the post office. At least 12 signs
] were posted Monday morning. Another 20 were put up
] Tuesday evening, according to Sturgis police.
]
] The letters all read "All your base are belong to us and
] you have no chance to survive, make your time."

The bar for committing a "terrorist act" is pretty damn low these days.

Ahh.. This will remind the world of the whole "all your base" thing, and within a week we will have an "all your base" take on the Iraq war.. I know it..

'All Your Base' Signs Land Seven in Court

] An Oregon anti-terrorism bill would jail street-blocking
] protesters for at least 25 years in a thinly veiled
] effort to discourage anti-war demonstrations, critics
] say.

Yahoo! News - Oregon Law Would Jail War Protesters as Terrorists

] "There is a feeling in our newsroom that you need to be
] as realistic as possible and carry the images of war and
] the effect that war has on people," he says. "If you are
] in a war, your population shouldn't just eat their dinner
] and watch sanitized images on TV and video games produced
] by the technological whizzes in the Pentagon and say,
] 'This is war.' No. You really need to show every family
] what your men and women are going through. That's
] important because the families [of dead soldiers] are
] going to be the only ones who see those gruesome images
] when they get the bodies. How about the rest of the
] American population? How are they going to appreciate
] their sacrifices? . . . If you leave it to politicians,
] you won't see anything."

I like Al-Jazeera.. They piss off _everyone_..

In the Line of Fire (washingtonpost.com)

] The report said the U.S. rights record had deteriorated
] in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on
] Washington and New York.
]
] "Racial discrimination has been on the rise in the United
] States since the Sept 11 terrorist attacks.
] Discrimination against Muslims and Arabs is the most
] serious," it said.
]
] It also said the Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law, had
] led to torture and forced confessions.
]
] The United States had "frequently committed blunt
] violations of human rights" of the people of other
] countries, it said, and pointed to human suffering in the
] U.S.-led war in Iraq and military action in Afghanistan
] as examples.
]
] It accused the United States of having a "democracy of
] the rich" that was not representative of the majority and
] of excessive violence that "has resulted in ineffective
] protection of life and security of the person."

China hits back on human rights - Apr. 3, 2003

] Chinese hacker groups are planning attacks on U.S.- and
] U.K.-based Web sites to protest the war in Iraq, the
] Department of Homeland Security warned in an alert that
] it unintentionally posted on a government Web site
] yesterday.

"Load up your scripts boys, we got an excuse!"

Chinese Hackers plan attacks to protest war

] In fact, history will look back and see gain and gain.
] That's because profits are not the same thing as social
] value. Just because a group of firms, an industry
] segment, flopped as a profitmaker does not mean it failed
] as a producer. Profit is primarily a signal about the
] size of a set of enterprises: If too small, then
] customers are desperate for your products, prices are
] high, and profits abundant; if too large, then customers
] are satiated, you can barely give the stuff away, and
] profits are absent. If profits are high, the industry
] segment should grow; if absent, it should shrink.

I agree with the article.. I just dispute the title.. The "rest of us" assumes you didn't work in technology. Its not just the VC that got screwed out of their money, many of us non-ruling class folks have been screwed out of our careers and lives. Its alot like starting over, only the exuberance of youth is just as dead as the irrational kind. So all-in-all, this may be grade-a peaches for America, but it still sucks for me. We are most likely still a good decade away from the point where "gain" and "bust" can be said in the same sentence without a very uncomfortable laugh from most of us who had a part in it all..

Why the bust was good for America

] An Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim leader has urged Iraqis not to
] hinder U.S. invading forces after previously asking them
] to resist efforts to topple President Saddam Hussein, a
] Shi'ite group in the UK said on Thursday.
]
] In a religious ruling, or fatwa, Shi'ite cleric Grand
] Ayatollah Ali Sistani urged Iraqis to stop fighting in
] and around the Shi'ite holy shrine of Najaf, the Al Khoei
] foundation in London told Reuters.
]
] Grand ayatollahs are the highest authorities in Shi'ite
] Islam and Sistani is the only one in Iraq. The fatwa
] applies nationwide.
]
] "Until now the Shias of Iraq and the followers of Sistani
] were confused on whether to take up arms against the
] Americans, whether to fight," said a spokesman for the
] foundation, which represents followers of Sistani.

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

We then describe and justify some simplifying assumptions to make the model manageable, and compare optimal strategies for participants based on a variety of scenarios.

This paper was presented at Financial Cryptography 2003. Authors are from UCB, MIT, and NRL.

On the Economics of Anonymity [PDF]