Author Archives: Karl

Blowing Copyright

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I lost an argument about copyright protection on the Internet the other night. I lost the same argument a couple of weeks ago. In fact, I lose this argument every time I have it. Most recently, to a Washington lawyer at a semi-friendly business dinner. I said that we’ve always been allowed to make copies of music and books: Yes, but, the lawyer said, the Internet lets one copy serve thousands of people. I said, the record companies rip off the artists who only get a buck or two out of the 15 to 20 we pay. Yesbut, says the lawyer, that’s the contract they signed and you don’t have the right to deprive them of those few dollars. I said, photocopiers are used to violate copyright all the time, and we’re not talking about disabling them. Yesbut digital technology gives us a way of protecting intellectual property and we have no excuse not to use it.

…The very thing the most conservative among us have dreamt of, have died for since the founding of this country, is now within our grasp: free markets, free speech, worldwide. And we’re blowing it because some dinosaur companies insist on maintaining their grip on every last dollar before their industry dies.

Read the rest in in this great David Weinberger piece. It’s maybe a draft, but it rocks.

One in 32 under supervision by the criminal justice system

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How many people have to be under direct supervision of law enforcement before you have a police state?

…it’s a bigger, though far less remarked-upon, injustice than any that are involved in the War on Terrorism.

And that’s a snippet of Glenn Reynolds’ take. Read the rest.

Go get the breakdown at TalkLeft: 1 of Every 32 Adults Now in Prison.

This quote stands out:

“The overall figures suggest that we’ve come to rely on the criminal justice system as a way of responding to social problems in a way that’s unprecedented”

But of course. The sad thing is… do you realize that the average guy on the street believes that’s the way it should be? A huge majority of people I know simply believe that if people break laws – they should go to jail. Little attention is spent on the reasons why people break laws in the first place anymore. Or if the laws broken are even valid… like how many drug users instead of drug dealers get jailed?

Last chance for planet Earth?

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It is the Olympics of world politics.

For nearly two weeks, starting tomorrow, more than 100 nations and 65,000 delegates will convene in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The mission of the World Summit for Sustainable Development has been stated many ways, but those involved say it boils down to this: to save the planet from ecological devastation and rescue billions of people from wretched poverty.

Read the rest in this Philadelphia Inquirer article.

What happens when the rest of the world get’s together to make the world a better place? We don’t participate. Kinda like the popular kid that wants to be the center of attention and is pissed off that everyone else is putting something together – it’s up to the popular kid to swallow his ego and get involved.

Here goes a great weblog covering the summit. Thanks Shelley.

Moving, smoking, programming, stuff

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Today we’re gonna finish up at the old apartment. Cleaning. After today, we will never be going back. Out with the old, in with the new.

The DNS refreshed and now I’m finished migrating between my old host and my new one – Kattare. The JSP/Servlet community is hot on this host and in particular it is the home of Blogging Roller. My old ISP, while feature rich, had performance problems. So far I’m blown away by how fast MovableType seems here.

Now, after all this moving, I can get back to, in my private time, working on Cofax. Lots of documentation to write, including thank yous. A new release should be out shortly. I can also get back to my experimenting. That means I’ll hopefully get a chance to try out Roller real soon now.

Not only that – but I can get back to working with my recorder 🙂 I have tons of songs I can finally share.

That fire did a real number on my schedule.

Thanks for the support on the smokes. Still going strong. It will be one week at midnight tonight. The worst part of it now are the waves of… saddness… that I am experiencing. Real heavy weights on my chest. I know they are smoking related and should disappear soon. But they really suck.

Banned Books Week – Celebrate Freedom

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The message of Banned Books Week is more than the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular. The essential message of Banned Books Week is the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.

Read the rest at ALA.org.

A great idea for the week of September 21?28, 2002. Hey, would someone like to rig up a page pointing to booksellers based upon the lists provided?