In response to the RIAA's suits, users who want to share music files are adopting tools like WINW and BadBlue, that allow them to create encrypted spaces where they can share files and converse with one another. As a result, all their communications in these spaces, even messages with no more commercial content than "BRITN3Y SUX!!!1!" are hidden from prying eyes. This is not because such messages are sensitive, but rather because once a user starts encrypting messages and files, it's often easier to encrypt everything than to pick and choose. Note that the broadening adoption of encryption is not because users have become libertarians, but because they have become criminals; to a first approximation, every PC owner under the age of 35 is now a felon.

Another great essay by Clay Shirky, linked via vigilant.tv.

The RIAA makes everyone a cypherpunk

] If King remains a one-dimensional grainy black-and-white
] figure who utters the same sunny sound bite year after
] year until it's a cliche, it's because news networks
] won't pay for more, and researchers have been kept from
] delving deep into his papers to tell us something new
] about the Martin Luther King the man, not the statuette.
]
] And his family wants it that way.

And once again we are promoting science and the useful arts by creating economic incentives for people to engage in historical events by preventing people from talking about them.

You need a license to quote Martin Luther King Jr. (phillyBurbs.com)

] Reuven Cohen of Bar-Ilan University in Israel and his
] colleagues propose a simple modification of random
] vaccination that is more effective, according to their
] computer simulations. The idea is to randomly choose,
] say, 20% of the individuals and ask them to name one
] acquaintance; then vaccinate those acquaintances.
] Potential super-spreaders have such a large number of
] acquaintances that they are very likely to be named at
] least once, the researchers found. On the other hand, the
] super-spreaders are so few in number that the random 20%
] of individuals is unlikely to include many of them.

Vaccinate Thy Neighbor

I'm still quite frustrated that this did not get more attention when it happened. It was a clear case of a company using the law to suppress speech, and it went off without a hitch..

] In the end, Blackboard was able to use the law to ban two
] students from speaking at a conference, conducting
] security research and publicly criticizing its product.
] As long as such efforts prove effective, other
] individuals and corporations will continue to misuse the
] law in order to censor speech and other legitimate
] activities. Those concerned with chilling effects should
] take note.

Chilling Effects Analysis of the Blackboard Case

] "Piracy is like terrorism today and it exists everywhere
] and it is a very dangerous phenomenon."

Coming soon: "Trademark dilution is the greatest threat that faces mankind today."

Intellectual property piracy is form of terrorism: WIPO chief

This is an advent calendar with a perl technique tip for each day of the Christmas season. Get into the holiday spirit (because you know you spend your vacation time working on projects)... Now, anybody got one of these for C?

The 2003 Perl Advent Calendar

] In recent years, there have been quite a few
] entrepreneurs wandering around with good ideas (at least
] in their heads), but unable to raise capital. There are
] no more angels willing to invest hundreds of thousands of
] dollars. The number of venture capital funds making seed
] investments has sharply contracted, and those still
] willing to invest do so only after long and painstaking
] study, especially in cases of entrepreneurs without prior
] experience.

Interesting interview with the founders of Huminity...

] In retrospect, do you regret not raising money from
] venture capital funds?
]
] "Truthfully, not at all. I think that had they invested
] in us, there's a good chance that TeraSync wouldn't
] exist now. They'd have killed us, like they killed a lot
] of other companies. If they don't see a quick exit,
] they have no reason to waste their management fees on a
] company. Had they invested in the company, they'd have
] forced us to appoint all kinds of American marketing
] people; their kind of people. They'd have diluted us
] altogether at the second financing round, and if they
] didn't see an IPO on the horizon, they'd have simply
] closed us down."

Globes [online] - No favors

] It's called the Segway Human Transporter, but
] the Pentagon is drafting the two-wheeled scooter
] as part of a plan to develop battlefield robots
] that think on their own and communicate with troops.

Just in case you were wondering; Yes, Virginia, they are making Terminators in a lab somewhere...

The Pentagon starts building Terminators

Finally, I have to ask what these tools do to the old, low-tech concept of friendship. In some way, with their numbers and lists and classifications, these services can subtly make a social network into a trophy collection. Technology has made it easier than ever to count your friends -- but that doesn't mean you should.

Esther Dyson weighs in on the trends in social networking software.

Buying and Selling the Little Black Book

The requirement, announced Friday by California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, applies to all electronic voting systems already in use as well as those currently being purchased. The machines must be retrofitted with printers to produce a receipt by 2006.

E-Votes Must Leave a Paper Trail