" A few months ago, on Nov. 5, 2001, to be exact, The Wall Street Journal ran an odd report from Tehran. Thousands of young Iranians had taken to the streets to wave American flags and chant pro-American slogans. They had responded to the appeal of Reza Pahlavi, son of the former shah, who lives in Maryland and addressed the Iranian people via a call-in television talk show broadcast from North Hollywood, Calif. In Iran there were enough satellite television dishes and enough people watching what came through them that a man on a telephone call to Los Angeles could hijack a demonstration on the streets of Tehran. "

The Satellite Subversives

Cnet interview with John Perry Barlow

"(The .com crash has) been good for the Internet, and in the long term it's going to be very good for the dot-communists. Never has there been a time when there are so many young people who have been poor and then rich and then poor again. I think it's an educational experience that teaches you what's valuable in life. To have a whole bunch of money at a really young age and see how completely useless it is--it trains a lot of folks in the real value of things. "

Tech News - CNET.com

"We are blinded by an American character trait, which is to feel contempt. College sophomores are regularly asked every year, "To what do you attribute your beliefs? Almost universally, they say, "I believe what I believe because I've evaluated the evidence. My idiot opponent got their evidence because of flaws in their character. "

Privacy Foundation: Privacy Watch

"This kind of thing is happening every day around the country, where people with integrity are not being backed by their organization," said Michael Josephson, founder and president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Marina del Rey, Calif. "

CNN.com - Teacher resigns over plagiarism fight - February 7, 2002

This is a book about "Bohemian society" as it was in 1889. The entire book is available in both inline web page images and as PDF page images. It begins:

"In a country house near the city of B---- lived a lady of cultivated mind and manners, "a noble woman nobly planned." Well read and familiar with such writers as Tyndall, Huxley, Spencer and other scientists, and being rather cosmopolitan in tastes, liked to gather about her, people who had -- as she termed it -- ideas. At times there was a strange medley of artists, authors, religious enthusiasts, spiritualists, philanthropists and even philosophers. On the evening of which I write there was the usual peculiar gathering, and each one is expressing his or her views freely and unrestrainedly.

The visionary and dreamer said: 'Let me describe a modern Utopia of which I have often dreamed and thought.'" ...

(Bohemian society; Leavitt) : Early Canadiana Online

On November 29, USC hosted a lively debate between author/professor Larry Lessig and MPAA president Jack Valenti. The debate begins approximately 55 minutes into the video.

In the new digital environment, what impact do intellectual property rights have on innovation and creativity? Do copyrights and patents hamper or enhance artistic life? How is our creative culture being shaped by changes in law and technology? A spirited exchange between Jack Valenti, President of the Motion Picture Association of America, and Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law Professor and author of The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World. The event is co-sponsored by the USC Annenberg School's Norman Lear Center and by the Center for the Public Domain, a Durham, North Carolina-based philanthropic foundation."

Lessig versus Valenti on Creativity, Commerce, & Culture [RealMedia]

"To The Point", a Public Radio International (PRI) news program, discusses emerging intellectual property issues in the music industry. Guests include Peter Trimarco, President of Farenheit Entertainment, who released the first copy-protected CD in the US; Robin Gross, attorney for the EFF; Carey Ramos, legal counsel for the National Music Publishers Association, the Harry Fox Agency, and the DVD Forum; Paul Boutin, writer/editor for Salon and Wired; and Todd Boyd, author and USC professor of critical studies.

This discussion starts at about 7 minutes, 42 seconds into the 50 minute audio program.

Summary: Digital technology allows computer users to make and distribute exact copies of the music they get on CDs. While music producers have attacked the practice as "piracy," consumers insist it's "fair use." In an attempt to stop it, the industry has developed a hidden electronic lock that prevents CD owners from producing an exact digital copy and burning it onto another CD or uploading it onto the Internet. Has a new generation of listeners been spoiled by technology? Should the industry establish subscription services and other new models for compensating artists? We talk with industry insiders, civil libertarians and cultural critics about the recording industry's assault on the digital reproduction of music.

The Future of Copy-Protect Music | KCRW's 'To The Point' [RealAudio]

This site is very slow, but the content is interesting. Chineese propaganda posters organized by topic.

Stefan Landsberger's Chinese Propaganda Poster Pages

Women and minority automobile buyers generally pay more than white men for the same cars, but they can erase that difference by buying over the Internet rather than through car dealerships, according to a study released Tuesday.

Study: Minorities get better auto deals online - Tech News - CNET.com

The new economy may or may not materialise, but there is no doubt that the next society will be with us shortly. In the developed world, and probably in the emerging countries as well, this new society will be a good deal more important than the new economy (if any). It will be quite different from the society of the late 20th century, and also different from what most people expect. Much of it will be unprecedented. And most of it is already here, or is rapidly emerging."

Economist.com