Thursday, August 22, 2002
I didn't link to Declan McCullough's "Debunking the DMCA Myths" article because I thought it was too dismissive. He's got an apt reply up from Peter Harsha on the list site here.

Second, the chilling effect of the DMCA cannot be described by the probability of conviction alone. One must also consider the magnitude of the exposure if convicted. Because the "acts of circumvention" provisions of the DMCA were not in effect at the time of the Felten research, the probability of an adverse judgment was indeed small. However, a group of highly respected legal consultants told Felten's employer that the cost of an adverse judgment could be truly enormous. The combination of these two factors had a very substantial chilling effect. (It is also the case that two individuals were likely to lose their jobs if the paper was published. This illustrates the human dimension of the chilling effect.)

Thursday, August 22, 2002
Uwe Siemon-Netto's column, syndicted on the Nando Times, has the pious artifice of The Church Lady. The examples he uses, rather than his actual commentary, bring up a good point. He begins by chastising the middle age couple who dry-humped in a New York cathedral in an "Opie and Andy" prank. Siemon-Netto compares them to other secular activists, including a group on homosexuals that bumrushed a communion ceremony in 1989. He may not have a point, but I do. If you're disrespectful, you are positively enforcing the stereotype they've created. Wouldn't the homosexuals made a greater statement, and maybe changed some minds, if they had seated peacefully, holding hands?

Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Go read Wag the Gassed Dog on WhatReallyHappened.com

Wednesday, August 21, 2002
One of the guys on Kuro5hin, has a very good op-ed on the fraud that is Microsoft.

[M]any Libertarians have come out in defense of Microsoft, and Bill Gates, who was until recently its CEO (The Center For The Advancement Of Capitalism). These supporters are quite correct in their defense of Microsoft with respect to anti-trust litigation. However, both Microsoft's supporters, and many of their detractors, are ignoring the relevant ethical problem: Microsoft has based its success in no small part on theft, fraud, and abuse of the legal system. In addition, Microsoft's general business practices may violate Libertarian principles. Any proponent of a political system that claims to support ideals of property ownership and denounce fraud or force should hold Microsoft in very low esteem.

Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Obey Giant has bootleg posters up on their site. Some are pretty clever

Tuesday, August 20, 2002
Good things are happening in Santa Fe

A Santa Fe-based group might get permission to drink a hallucinogenic tea called hoasca.

U.S. District Judge James Parker says he is leaning toward granting the group's right to use the tea, based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Monday, August 19, 2002
Index on Censorship is one of my favorite publications. They've added a several new articles to the site this month including this piece on Kenya:

The draconian new measures introduced by the existing Kanu government under the leadership of President Arap Moi will effectively result in the closure of the smaller private press in Kenya.

The new law in Kenya which is an amendment of the existing regulations on the media will require publishers to submit two copies of each of its publication to the government's attorney-general's office before publications are sold.

Friday, August 16, 2002
Declan McCullogh's C-Net article on comparative advantage has recieved quite a bit of attention from "geektivists." Check out his response here along with links to the naysayers

Friday, August 16, 2002
From Business 2.0, The Cyborg that is You

Recently, a Florida family agreed to have tiny, scannable ID chips implanted under their skin. Containing a radio frequency identification tag, each implant stores a number that can be cross-referenced with a database containing a person's name and medical history. The unveiling of the "first cyborg family" was staged as a publicity stunt by a struggling tech startup called Applied Digital Solutions (ADSXE), which touted the chips' ability to make monitoring patients as easy as tracking cans of soup.
The uproar that followed was predictable. Privacy advocates warned of invasive monitoring. Religious alarmists sermonized about the mark of the beast. The Food and Drug Administration launched an investigation. But even if Applied Digital's implanted chips never catch on, the "chipping" of the population is simply inevitable.

My thoughts on the matter will be in the forthcoming Protocol essay, 'How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Biometrics.' In the meantime, check out Sonia Arrison's op-ed at TCS

Government agencies like the FBI will argue that their activities need to be secret and most Americans will agree with them - at least for now. If it's politically impossible to monitor agencies like the FBI with technology, then another way must be found to enforce accountability.

Friday, August 16, 2002
Today on TCS, pundit Ramesh Ponnuru says 'Reason, Not Faith' is behind his argument against theraputic cloning.

The case against destroying embryonic human life does not depend on theological premises, and is therefore a case that can in principle be embraced by people with widely varying theological commitments or indeed by people who do not understand themselves to have any theological commitments at all. It is not necessary to believe that blastocysts have souls, or will go to Heaven when they die, in order to oppose their deliberate killing.

To oppose research cloning, it is necessary to believe 1) that the early embryo is a living member of the human species and 2) that all entities that meet this description have intrinsic worth such that it is wrong intentionally to destroy them. To support research cloning, it is necessary to deny one or both of these premises.

Unsurprisingly, the writer follows up with this:

Which is not to say that God doesn't enter the picture. Many of us who believe that research cloning involves the unjust destruction of human life believe that it is, precisely for that reason, a sin against God. To the extent that we have reasoned correctly, our reasons are (among) God's reasons as well.

It's not bad rhetoric and easy segue into my argument why one cannot be both anti-abortion and libertarian. The anti-abortion case entirely denies individual rights, i.e. the foundation of a free-market. Unregulated, people have the choice not to reap the benefits of this technology if it morally offends them. Like it or not, a solid half of us will always believe embryos are bunk, and the pro-life argument is insane. Would that Roe vs. Wade were based upon the takings clause...

And as much as I hate to reference Saint Ayn, here's what she had to say about the matter

A right is a moral sanction to freedom of action in a social context. Rights only apply to human beings, because only human beings survive by the use of reason (unlike cows, trees, bacteria—and fetuses). Rights only apply to human beings, because only human beings—and not parts of beings—survive by reason. A fetus has no rights, as it does not need freedom to take any actions, but survives on the sustenance of its host. The only rational action it must take is nothing, i.e. wait for itself to develop using the sustenance provided by its host.

Friday, August 16, 2002
H4k3rs diss weblogs over at Slashdot. One aptly sums up the trend as a creative outlet exclusively for the low-tech working in a high-tech environment.

The bane of blogs are administrative assistants and teengers posting about their cats and their results on Which Sex and the City Character are You? quizes. But content-based blogs with a little personality are a great resource. Post Politics or Just One Thing often bring to my attention interesting articles I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. Think of them as listservs that don't crowd your mailbox. And if others want to post about their cats, I'll just click the "minus"