... In a nation that flaunts its capacities to produce and consume, much of the culture's heat now lies with the ability to cut, paste, clip, sample, quote, recycle, customize and recirculate.

[Sad...whatever happened to coming up with original ideas? - Nano]

Beyond File-Sharing, a Nation of Copiers

Sort of general look at the state of nanotech from a politicosocial standpoint.

Salon.com Technology | Nano Inc. vs. Nano Think

] Little by little, we're turning into a planet of techies.
]
] Which should come as no surprise. It has happened before.
] Time and again, attractive new technologies have trickled
] out of the labs and into homes and offices, forcing
] ordinary users to develop skills that once would have
] seemed far too advanced for them. Early automobiles were
] so unreliable that drivers carried tool kits and learned
]
]
]
] to fix the balky machines. Early radio sets were
] handbuilt by avid hobbyists. "This is all part of a
] fairly predictable pattern," said Harvard Business School
] professor Debora Spar, author of "Ruling the Waves,"

We're all geeks now

] A new show in town should appeal to art lovers,
] pranksters and culture jammers alike.
]
] Illegal Art, which opened last week at the San Francisco
] Museum of Modern Art's Artists Gallery, showcases a
] variety of works that push the restrictions of current
] trademark and copyright laws.

Wired News: Artists Just Wanna Be Free

Decius wrote:
] ] In the age of the leak and the blog, of evidence
] ] extraction and link discovery, truths will either out or
] ] be outed, later if not sooner. This is something I would
] ] bring to the attention of every diplomat, politician and
] ] corporate leader: the future, eventually, will find you
] ] out. The future, wielding unimaginable tools of
] ] transparency, will have its way with you. In the end, you
] ] will be seen to have done that which you did.
]
] A matter of fact observation about the future of privacy and
] the public mind made in the context of Orwell's birthday.
]
] I used to beleive that by being able to communicate better we
] would understand more, and by understanding more, we would
] find peace with eachother.
]
] But I increasingly find myself confronted with the fact that
] no matter how much cold, hard data you exchange people still
] see exactly what they want to see and people almost never
] change their minds about things that they care about. People
] have to learn to separate their sense of self worth from the
] accuracy of their beleifs, their cultural mythologies, etc...
] Technology is not going to solve that problem.

Nicely put, Tom - Nano

RE: NY Times | The Road to Oceania

] In the wake of a firestorm of outrage from Tennessee
] techies, the controversial telecommunications theft
] legislation has been heavily amended, and its backers
] finally agreed late last week to postpone action to give
] interested parties time for further debate. But
] meanwhile, members of the local technological community
] are predicting all kinds of digital doomsdays if the bill
] becomes law. They regard it as a stealth attack on their
] technological freedom by big entertainment and big cable,
] the industries that wrote and heavily lobbied the
] Tennessee bill and have pushed for similar laws across
] the nation.

] "As originally worded, the bill was so broad and vague
] that every citizen who legally used a communications
] service would've been in violation of the law," says
] Scott Kozicki, chairman of the Tennessee Digital Freedom
] Network (www.tndf.net), an ad hoc group formed to fight
] the legislation.

Scott is a MemeStreams user:

http://www.memestreams.net/users/flynn23/

Nashville Scene | Surfers vs. Big Entertainment

The DMCA impedes the progress of science, is economically unjustifiable, and lacks the balance the Constitution requires of intellectual property legislation.

Pamela Samuelson of UC Berkeley writes about DRM in the April 2003 issue of Communications of the ACM. She has made the article freely available from her web site; no subscription is required. Note: the linked document has no DRM :)

DRM {and, or, vs.} the Law

] "All I wanted to do is tell everyone, 'Hey, this
] is a problem, and it needs to be protected,'"
] Hoffman said. "Everyone was blissfully unaware of
] how it works. I looked at it and found the emperor
] has no clothes, and now everyone's mad at me."

Billy quotes well..

] "We took the legal course because what he's
] presenting and promoting was encouraging illegal
] behavior," said Blackboard spokesman Michael Stanton.
] "He was able to tap into the wires, like anyone could
] do if they took a sledgehammer to an ATM machine."

No, and is that all you got? Stop using ATM line for every article. Its pratically a troll..

] Charles Lester, an attorney for Blackboard, said he
] is concerned Hoffman's hacking could damage the
] company's business that has taken years to build.

You know, if you suck, it is your fault. Sucking costs you market share. It reflects on your reputation.. Imagine that! Now, if you don't want researchers to find critical flaws in your technology, don't make lame technology. Or at the very least, make your technology better, don't sue the messenger..

Hell.. Just show you are doing something about it.. There are companies out there that just do a decent job of showing they are doing something, while not actually doing anything at all! You don't even have that much creativity. Went to court on the first researcher who revealed your stuff crap.. Low threshold for criticism. You want people to trust your products with money?

You don't sue, you fix! Got it! Sue no, fix yes. Make new product that dosen't suck, sell it, encourage customers to secure wires better,, buy newer units to replace older ones in risky situations, etc.. Like, actually do good for your customers.

Jacksonville.com: Ga. Tech student barred from discussing flaws in debit card technology 4/17/03

Rattle wrote:

] Who? What is the string you are holding on to in order to
] keep calling this commercial speech..

Apparently there was something in their timeline about a consulting position at a competitor. However, it was dated in 2004, so its not clear what the nature of the relationship is and when it began, or even if it exists or if its a joke.

] ] It is this harm, coupled with the safety of these
] ] academic institutions and their constituents (primarily,
] ] students and faculty) that mandated Blackboard take a
] ] very careful and measured stance. Recognizing that
] ] this is a crime with potentially very harmful results,
] ] we took a position to protect our clients.
]
] Careful and measured, eh?

So, was the section of your complaint that intentionally confused computer source code with long distance access codes the careful part, or the measured part?

] ] Blackboard recognizes that the Hacker Community plays
] ] an integral role in assisting technology companies in
] ] improving their offerings, most notably around security.
] ] I thought the user community might find this
] ] clarification of value.

Backpedal, Backpedal, Backpedal, as fast as we can. Gosh we didn't think anyone cared about that silly little amendment.

RE: politechbot.com: Blackboard responds to criticism of Interz0ne lawsuit

] The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) strongly opposes
] these state "super-DMCA" bills as unnecessary and
] overbroad. The proposed bills represent the worst kind of
] special interest legislation, sacrificing the public
] interest in favor of the self-serving interests of one
] industry.

EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney, Fred von Lohmann, on the "Super-DMCA" bills.

Sections:

* Resources
* Background
* These Bills are Unnecessary
* All Things Not Expressly Permitted are Forbidden
* Bolting on the "Intent to Defraud"
* Attacking Anonymity
* A Chill on Computer Security Research
* A Threat to Innovation and Competition
* Transferring law enforcement from public to private hands
* Dangerous Remedies
* * Remote Downgrades
* * One-Sided Attorneys' Fees
* * Automatic Injunctions
* * Abusive damages
* What You Can Do

EFF: State 'Super-DMCA' Legislation: MPAA's Stealth Attack on Your Living Room