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Copyfighting

More goodness today via BoingBoing:

A diary entry on DailyKos by RadicalRuss nails the hypocrisy of the Grokster case in comparing it to the gun industry.

This is a must read.

From the story:

Got that? If a company makes a product that is inappropriately used to illegally copy a movie, that company is liable. If a company makes a product that is inappropriately used to illegally kill a human, that company is not liable. What’s the common logic holding these disparate concepts together? Massive corporate special interest money. Welcome to your government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations, where a pirated copy of “Hollywood Homicide”* is bigger threat than an actual Hollywood homicide.

Life of the Closed Mind

I saved my copy of Newsweek this week. Not for their apology for screwing up, but for Anna Quindlen’s last page article ‘Life of the Closed Mind’.

Under the cover of watching the class of 2001 graduate this year, Ms. Quindlen asks the question when did everything become black and white? Right vs. wrong? Red vs. blue? When did having a public dialogue about the issues die off?

And as Ms. Quindlen begins her closing paragraph, she sums it up well:

So the young men and women who began their college years in the shadow of September 11 graduate in its shadow as well. The intolerant, the monomaniacal, the zealots driven by religious certainty engineered the worst attack on American soil, and the result has been intolerance, monomania and zealotry driven by religious certainty.

Broadcast Flag Struck Down

On Fri., May 6th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled the FCC overstepped it’s bounds when it created the Broadcast Flag.

The EFF has the story, as well as CNet’s News.com.

This is big, very big. It was unexpected, especially a unanimous decision by the Court. Congress needs to legislate, not the FCC.

My favorite quote from the judges:

“You’re out there in the whole world, regulating. Are washing machines next?” asked Judge Harry Edwards. Quipped Judge David Sentelle: “You can’t regulate washing machines. You can’t rule the world.”

Here’s to all the groups that opposed the travesty that was the Broadcast Flag, from the EFF article:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) joined Washington DC-based advocacy group Public Knowledge in fighting the rule in the courts, together with Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America, the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries, the Medical Library Association, and the Special Libraries Association. The coalition argued that the rule would interfere with the legitimate activities of technology innovators, librarians, archivists, and academics, and that the FCC exceeded its regulatory authority by imposing technological restrictions on what consumers can do with television shows after they receive them.

iPod One

What’s on President Bush’s iPod, you might be wondering?

CNN is here to let you know.

The playlist does reveal a rather narrow range of babyboomer tunes. Writing in the London Times, Caitlin Moran noted: “No black artists, no gay artists, no world music, only one woman, no genre less than 25 years old, and no Beatles.”

Why am I not surprised?

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And, it's over

I made it to about 12:30 last night, and then started to nod off. Was awake on and off until 2 am when I finally crawled into bed.

Turned on CNN this morning. Was happy to see Wisconsin went for Kerry and Feingold, but to say I’m disappointed in the end result nationally, is an understatement.

I’m shocked at the margin of winning, and how many Senate races went Republican. Shocked.

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Minnesota becoming Ohio

And I’m not talking about conservatism.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s lead story at this hour is about election concerns in Minnesota.

Higher than expected turnout, and that’s saying something as Minnesota led the nation 4 years ago at 69%, reports of voter intimidation, Moveon.org staffing their tables, and running out of new voter registration cards are just some of the things covered in the article.

And the mouthpiece of the Republican party, Norm Coleman, mouthing off about concerns of fraud.

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Here we go!

As expected, way too close to call. Indiana, Kentucky and Georgia to Bush, NH to Kerry.

Ohio just closed – too close to call.

Winning Senate races all over the place – Colorado & Kentucky are pickups, lose Georgia. Way too early to really tell on all of those already.

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And so it begins!

Go vote! Take a friend out and have them vote! Ask your friends if they’ve voted!

One report here locally from a friend is he arrived at the polls at 7:05. And there was already a huge line of 100-150 people waiting to vote.

Go vote!