In the correct context, a relevant connection can be as powerful as unique new information. Be prepared to fight for your ability to make and share both. Don't lose heart if your speech is someone else's.

DoJ Blacks out Supreme Courts Quotes

That is what happened at the CIA: A culture of process destroyed a culture of excellence. There are many outstanding people at the agency, in both the Directorate of Intelligence and in Operations. The agency's obsession with the intelligence process crushes these people daily. Those who flourish in this environment are those who can sit through long meetings without falling asleep. The people who can peer through the darkness and see the truth are either sucked into the surreal world of modern management or shunted aside.

Gold Star.

The Problem With the CIA

] Now we're faced with a "Godzilla vs. Mothra" battle,
] where the Internet -- and its users -- will likely take
] the brunt of the collateral damage.

Best Quote on Verisign v. ICANN

] Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Thursday
] that people concerned about losing freedom to government
] anti-terrorism efforts should speak out.

The court system is influenced by public outcry.

The Patriot Act provisions everyone is unhappy with are just as much an attack on the court system as they are civil liberties.

[Politech] Justice Ginsburg warns against apathy

Alleged enemy combatants, after all, don't tend to be an organized constituency of campaign donors who can garner congressional attention.

This is quite an essay. The Washington Post is saying that we have a Congress that is completely ignoring it's responsibilities to the most critical Consititutional matters of our time, both because they are afraid of the Administration, and because they don't care: Constitutional issues are not important to the various special interests and lobby groups that make up their electoral support structure.

Congress doesn't care...

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

] The second way the FCC's claims are deceptive is the more
] troubling of the two, and that is the compatibility
] problem I spoke of above. Arguably right now a TiVO or a
] DVD recorder with no tuner might not be covered, but
] after 2005, that same TiVO or DVD probably won't be
] compatible with the new FCC-governed DTV television set.
] ***THIS is the REAL problem. Whiles the FCC says the
] device is not covered, after 2005, in many cases it just
] won't work. ***

[Politech] Analysis of FCC's broadcast flag rules, from Ethan Ackerman

] An even greater risk is putting this subpoena power in
] the hands of anyone willing to pretend to have a copyright
] claim. These fraudulent requests will be impossible to
] distinguish from legitimate ones.

(Comments from Decius)

The EFF spoke of this at Defcon... That as these subpoenas become an established proceedure, which is almost the case now, they will be a powerfull tool for stalkers, batterers, and other kinds of predators. You don't really care about being in contempt of court if you are planning to assault someone. Predators will use these subpoenas to track down their victims. The internet will really become a very unsafe place unless you use an anonymizing proxy network.

Whether its the elminiation of judicial oversite for subpoenas or the approval of vigilanti computer hacking, Congress seems to be absolutely committed to the erosion of critical, fundamental pillars that underlie the very rule of law in the United States in an attempt to give their friends in the media industries what they want. Enabling predators is obviously far far worse then any amount of copyright infringement that might be going on, but thats just the beginning. If they continue down this road, Congress must eventually must conceed that by picking away at the rule of law they are in fact picking away at their own authority and their own reasons for existance. Do it here, and establish that its legal here, and it will pop up somewhere else, and then again, and again, until there are very serious threats to the stability of this system of goverment.

Of all possible ways to address this problem, these people have chosen a path that is dumber then any I had imagined... Between these actions, and the pressures they exert which will naturally lead to the development of extremely strong anonymizing proxy technology, Congress is breaking ground, at this moment, on a very, very ugly future for all of this. And they have absolutely, positively, no fucking clue about the implications of their actions. Tim May might just turn out to have been right all along.

The implications of DMCA subpoenas on privacy/stalking

] No. Placing your number on the National Do Not Call
] Registry will stop most, but not all, telemarketing
] calls. Some businesses are exempt from the national
] registry and still can call you even if you place your
] number on it. Exempt businesses include:
]
] * long-distance phone companies
] * airlines
] * banks and credit unions; and
] * the business of insurance, to the extent that it is
] regulated by state law.
]
] However, many telemarketing calls are placed by
] professional telemarketing companies, and even if the
] company whose goods or services are being sold is exempt,
] the telemarketing company may be covered.
]
] You may still receive calls from political organizations,
] charities, telephone surveyors or companies with which
] you have an existing business relationship.

Hrm. See, I got fairly excited about this thing... Then, after being woken up at 9 AM on Saturday Morning by the F.O.P., I decided to really look at it. Turns out, its basically useless. MOST of the telemarketing calls I receive are:

1. Surveys.
2. Charities.
3. Long Distance Services.
4. Credit Services.

All of these things are exempt. Thank you government, for yet again appearing to do something without doing anything at all.

- Decius

National Do Not Call Registry: Not all its cracked up to be

] Ensure that the Internet continues to provide an open
] platform for innovation: The Internet is different from
] the phone network and radio and broadcast television in
] important ways. It is easier for individuals and small
] organizations to be producers as well as consumers of
] information. The Internet allows for “many to many”
] communication as opposed to the “one to many”
] communication of broadcast television. Innovation can
] occur at the edge of the network. A student, an
] independent software developer, or a small high-tech
] company can come up with an idea for a new application,
] protocol, or kind of content. If enough people find it
] useful or worthwhile, this idea can spread like wildfire.
] Even as the Internet evolves, it important to ensure that
] it continues to provide an open platform for rapid and
] decentralized innovation, and for the exchange of ideas.

Will IP issues get some focus in the political retoric of the somewhat near future? We could use some IP clue in The Senate.. If issues of technology and innovation find they way into poltical retoric, I could picture serious discussion about IP issues following.

I still have a lot of lingering anger over Eldred. And then there are things like the recent SCO fiasco.. And the lumbering media giants who want to own all the infrastructure and content sources.. In general, I fear for the public domain. We have hit this point with our computer technology where we are building technology off other technology, off other technology, etc.. In order to work together, its necessary to place what I call "infrastructure level" technology (OSs, librarys, critical apps, etc) into the public domain. OSS. Its not a hippy-happy-love thing, its pratical. It create an environment ripe for innovation with a very low barrier of entry. It create opportunities for innovation to happen in everywhere from academia, to the corporate world, to the hacker in the garage. Its what we need if we are to live up to the promise of the information age.. I do, honestly, and seriously, fear that the powers that gain their wealth through control, and not innovation, are going to get the upper hand.. And this truly wonderful thing we have happening could be stopped dead in its tracks.. Keep in mind, this is still the beginning.. The Internet "happened" in 1995. It can't be allowed to be killed in its youth. Same think with OSS. That "happned" about the same time. This is all young stuff.

I eagerly hope for more focus on these issues. I guess, this is a good start. "Many to many".. Time to start connecting the dots.

Leiberman's technology plan