I have always enjoyed Gibson’s work, so I was delighted to find this article. I have not seen a finer description of how copyright has the power to stifle art and innovation.

Wired 13.07: God’s Little Toys

Loyal readers of my blog (Hi JohnK) know that I love Larry Lessig, so I was very interested to read his take on the Grokster decision. Linked below is an interesting interview, but the best part was this comment by Ryujin:

Of course, this is all very important to the US, Europe and the handful of other countries that take little matters like intellectual property seriously. The statement by Lessig that we are in for “10 years of chilled innovation” only really applies to these countries. In global terms, the result could be that countries with less rigorous IP regulation will become the innovation powerhouses of the next decade. Where that will leave the “developed Western economies” is open to question. We may end the decade considerably less “developed” than we started it. So, in 2015, when I’m streaming music via encrypted/anonymous connection from offshore servers in Tuvalu to my Chinese-made media player implant, I’ll try to remember to be sad that America and Europe fell so far behind in innovation.

“Ten Years of Chilled Innovation”

I love the Economist. This article is wonderfully balanced:

The Supreme Court tried to steer a middle path between these claims, and did a reasonable job. But the outcome of the case is nevertheless unsatisfactory. That’s not the court’s fault. It was struggling to apply a copyright law which has grown worse than anachronistic in the digital age. That’s something Congress needs to remedy.

and it finishes with a great idea:

A first, useful step would be a drastic reduction of copyright back to its original terms—14 years, renewable once. This should provide media firms plenty of chance to earn profits, and consumers plenty of opportunity to rip, mix, burn their back catalogues without breaking the law. The Supreme Court has somewhat reluctantly clipped the wings of copyright pirates; it is time for Congress to do the same to the copyright incumbents.

Copyright and the law | Rip. Mix. Burn. | Economist.com

This is truly unbelieveable. The Supreme Court just voted 5-4 to allow taking residences by eminent domain to build offices. In opening the dissent, Sandra Day O’Connor wrote:

Over two centuries ago, just after the Bill of Rights was ratified, Justice Chase wrote:

“An ACT of the Legislature (for I cannot call it a law) contrary to the great first principles of the social compact, cannot be considered a rightful exercise of legislative authority . . . . A few instances will suffice to explain what I mean. . . . [A] law that takes property from A. and gives it to B: It is against all reason and justice, for a people to entrust a Legislature with SUCH powers; and, therefore, it cannot be presumed that they have done it.” Calder v. Bull, 3 Dall. 386, 388 (1798) (emphasis deleted).

Today the Court abandons this long-held, basic limitation on government power. Under the banner of economic development, all private property is now vulnerable to being taken and transferred to another private owner, so long as it might be upgraded – i.e., given to an owner who will use it in a way that the legislature deems more beneficial to the public – in the process…

From the New York Times:

In a bitter dissent, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said the majority had created an ominous precedent. “The specter of condemnation hangs over all property,” she wrote. “Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory.”

“Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private property, but the fallout from this decision will not be random,” she wrote. “The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms.

“As for the victims,” Justice O’Connor went on, “the government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result.”

There is also surprisingly good discussion on Slashdot

CNN.com – High court OKs personal property seizures – Jun 23, 2005

I find this stuff more than a little scary, it’s downright insidious. This kind of thinking contributes to the lack of competitiveness here in the USA, and really worries me. I’m pretty concerned that the USA is in significant decline, and wtihin our kids lifetimes will be about as relevant as Great Britain.

In Kansas, Darwinism Goes on Trial Once More – New York Times

There’s also an interesting Slashdot discussion and an excellent essay by Isaac Asimov written 20 years ago but still surprisingly relevant.

James Boyle writes a great column on the policy-making process and how it ignores the evidence of reality. Why does this happen?

To some the answer is obvious: corporate capture of the decision making process. This is a nicely cynical conclusion. But wait. There are economic interests on both sides. The film and music industries are tiny compared the consumer electronics industry. Yet copyright law dances to the tune played by the former, not the latter.

FT.com / Columnists – James Boyle: Deconstructing stupidity

Yet another study that finds that file sharing doesn’t kill CD sales, and in fact may boost them. This one by HBS, which either makes it respectable or despicable, depending on your point of view.

Harvard Gazette: File sharing may boost CD sales

Did you know that the US Tax Code is 54,846 pages long? How can any human be expected to comprehend this, much less comply? This is probably why there are 32 million penalties assessed every year. Reminds me of Heinlein’s proposed constitutional amendment, something along the lines of “any law too complex for the average American to understand in a half hour or so should be unconstitutional.”

Cato News Release – April 14, 2003

This looks like an option. I’m headed to Toronto on business next week, maybe I’ll look at real estate…

ongoing · On Canada

Not as much informative as humorous, but at least it’s a first start.

Electing to Leave (Harpers.org)

Well, I’m frankly worried about what’s going to happen in this country over the next 4 years. I so fundamentally disagree with President Bush’s agenda, and I’m so concerned about the destruction of our national credibility with the rest of the world, that I’m seriously considering moving with my family to another country. I think the first step is to do some research on other likely countries and their politics, which I am woefully ignorant of, and figure out if there is a real alternative.

Of course, California could always secede from the union, that might work too…

I got this in a newsletter email from Silicon Valley Bank, and found it both hilarious and scary.

Win, Lose, or Draw?

No matter who your favorite is in tomorrow’s contest, the one outcome that people seem most worried about is the third option listed above — a draw. It’s remarkable how universal human worries are. Don’t forget: the markets hate uncertainty as well. Months ago, we bemoaned the probability that a few million voters in “battleground states” would elect the next president, and that the rest of us could stay home. We think this early assessment may turn out to be badly off the mark. Soon, we may face the prospect that this election will be decided by a few thousand attorneys and a couple dozen judges. This is the simple result of the fateful decision to litigate the 2000 election. The integrity of the system was attacked, and it buckled enough to set political operatives everywhere calculating. The other obvious lesson from ‘00 was that the voting laws in this country have questionable integrity. They are enforced with less rigor than the laws against underage smoking, purchasing beer, or jumping a turnstile in the New York City subway. With the outcome so close — and enforcement so lax — the incentive to cheat has grown geometrically.

Naturally, the strategies now deployed by the main parties are skewed according to the expected leanings of the targeted pool of voters. Republicans are trying to ensure that the absentee ballots of all overseas voters get counted, and Democrats are rounding up new voters in low-turnout neighborhoods at a rapid pace. It was, perhaps, the result of one of these registration drives that caused three additional ballots to turn up at my home: one for Marie Jean Morio, one for Christian Andre Morio, and one for Bernadette Marie Morio. Unfortunately, the Morios don’t live with me. In fact, from what we understand, they moved away about two years ago to their home of permanent residence and citizenship — France. (Believe me, I wish I were making this up.) In San Francisco, where boxes of ballots are commonly discovered a few weeks after the polls close floating forlornly in the bay, election fraud is a time-honored tradition on par with a ride on a cable car or a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. Although this is probably true of most big U.S. cities, here we like to do things a little differently. For example, tomorrow we have a measure on the ballot to permit noncitizens to vote in school board elections. (No, we are not making this up either). The law, if it passes, may be unconstitutional. It certainly would be superfluous, as it appears that noncitizens are already voting in our elections.

The bigger problem of these successful legal attacks on the system is that national elections will devolve into banana-republic-style disputes — where the loser never concedes, self-righteously claiming fraud. So far, neither party has advanced any proposals to fix the system on a national basis. And as long as the “system” works for them in one key precinct or another, they will have no incentive to change anything. The situation is similar to the partisan views of gerrymandering congressional districts. If you control the governor’s mansion and the state legislature, then gerrymandering is a normal outcome of the political process. If you don’t have that power, then gerrymandering entrenches the party in power and completely disenfranchises voters. All this occurs at a time when the math and technology exist to create and adjust districts so that the geometrical integrity remains intact. So once the system has been sufficiently savaged — and its credibility destroyed — what will we have left? How will new citizens feel about voting in an environment where some people are trying to prevent you from voting and others are recruiting illegal voters to cancel you out? For the good of the country, and the markets, we hope that the vote tomorrow is decisive enough to send lawyers home with their briefs unread. Still, I can’t help but wonder if the Morios will come back from France to vote. Maybe I should go down to my polling place and check.

Louisa and I went to hear Mikhail Gorbachev speak down at the Flint Center. Unlike most politicians I am aware of, he does not attempt to speak English himself, but had an excellent translator with him. However, simultaneous translation makes the interview style very difficult, as interruptions don’t usually happen in the right place. He was interviewed by Michael Reagan, adopted son of Ronald Reagan and his first wife. Michael apparently runs a conservative talk show, and was not very impressive, but it didn’t matter – Gorbachev ran his own agenda.

Gorbachev was also unusual among politicians in that he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind – maybe he has nothing to lose. The topic was supposed to be a simple reminiscing about how great it was to work with Ronald Reagan to stop nuclear proliferation, and tear down the Berlin Wall. However, Gorby made a few veiled references to current events, and the result was that the entire question and answer period was about what’s going on in the world today.

Gorbachev pulled no punches. He said that “Americans are simple,” and then qualified it to mean that he meant more “equal”, i.e. that he admires that an American citizen can ask the President a question as an equal. He related a joke – Ronald Reagan asked him about human rights, and gave the example that anyone could go to the White House and yell “Ronald Reagan is a jerk.” Gorbachev responed that it was the same – anyone could go to the Kremlin and yell “Ronald Reagan is a jerk!”

In response to current event questions, he made some telling comments. He said the world has new problems, and we must face them together. America cannot be an empire, and particularly cannot be judge, prosecutor, and policeman for the world. Last time he checked, the rest of the world did not ask America to lead it.

When asked about Iraq, he said Iraq was a mistake, that he said that on first day, and he continues to believe it. Now it is a lesson, and we must recover frm it.

One more telling comment was that today more Russians view America as a threat than before we invaded Iraq. We are now considered a hostile country, instead of a land of opportuntity. Russia shares a border with Iraq, and they are starting to feel surrounded. America must work to unite not divide.

He was very clear that America has squandered a great deal of good will, and made no bones about his opinion that this election was an opportunity to try to find the road to regain it.

I’m glad there are rich guys like this who are willing to fight for principles. Start with the FAQ. Then poke around – there are some pretty interesting stories on this site, including Gilmore getting thrown off a plane and Terry Bressi arrested for failing to show ID.

FreeToTravel.org

We went to a John Kerry house party last weekend, and made the requisite donation. The most frightening thing about it: nobody knew anything about Kerry. All we knew was we had to get rid of Bush. That’s an incredibly sad commentary on the state of the Union.

This article is a good exploration of the root cause of the abuse scandal that is embarassing all Americans right now. A quote:

“At the end of the day, it is the Bush administration’s fundamental strategy in the war on terrorism — denying basic human rights to foreigners in the name of furthering our security — that is to blame.”

Mercury News | 05/23/2004 | The road to abuse

I took a taxi in Toronto, and the driver was Palestinian, from Jerusalem, and his brothers and parents are still there. I took the opportunity to ask him what he thought of the situation there.

Of course, he had very strong feelings. He blamed the Jews for not wanting peace, especially Sharon. The wall they are building, he felt, would destroy any hope for ending the war. He said that any time Israel wanted, they could have peace, just by pulling their soldiers out. He portrayed the Palestinians as a poor, powerless people, who have no nuclear bombs and cannot be a threat, being pushed around by Israel.

He agreed that the Clinton proposal was the closest thing to peace they would see, and he blamed the Jews for not wanting it. He also railed that they are not honoring commitments made by Begin 15 years ago, that they don’t even respect their own signatures.

I asked what he thought of the Palestinian leadership, and he said they have no leadership. Arafat is prisoner of the Israelis, and how can he govern if he can’t leave his compound. The new prime minister is a puppet – they have to do whatever the Israelis say. All the European governments do whatever the US says on Israel, so Palestine has no friends.

I asked if the Palestinians had made any mistakes, mentioning that the Israelis had made some awful ones. He felt that they were so powerless they couldn’t make mistakes, so they are blameless.

There you have it. I have only heard mostly pro-Israeli points of view, so it was interesting to try to listen with an open mind. I still pretty strongly disagree with his point of view, but it sure made me think.

President Bill Clinton was greeted with a standing ovation when he came in. He really is a remarkable speaker. He talked for 15-20 mins, then took questions from a couple of moderators and the audience. My notes (the good stuff is toward the end):

He was the first president elected after the Berlin wall fell, after the cold war
He oversaw increased globalization
We were re-evaluating relationships in the world, betw people and govt.
The new world is still emerging.
Compare to early days of founding the republic, or civil war – times of great change

Words to describe today:
Globalization
Information age
Interdependence – his favorite, not inherently good or bad

Govt shd provide security to beat back destructive forces of interdependence.

He got closer to a Middle East peace than anyone. You know the only year in Israel’s history no Israelis were murdered by terrorists:? 1998.

We must move towards a global integrated community based on shared benefits, shared responsibility, and shared values. He views everything through this lens: does it move us closer to a globally integrated community?

The way we have to relate to the rest of the world is radically diff from 15 yrs ago.

We should cooperate when we can, act alone only when we must. Some believe the opposite. But there are more enemies we can handle alone, so we need friends.

We have an incredible military might and security. Need to use some to make good things happen – half the world lives on less than $2 a day. AIDS, clean water, education, etc.

Founders believed we could always do better. They were worried about abuse of power. We need to keep inventing a “more perfect union”.

Whole history of this country has been a constant struggle of union vs division. Folks willing to let live vs those trying to impose views. We still see that now.

No matter what happens, our common humanity matters more.

Questions:

How does the world see us now?

The world supported us after 9-11. UN unanimously voted to go into Afghanistan. Bush did a great thing meeting w Muslim leaders, giving speech that Islam is not our enemy.

Bush did some other things right. Pledged $ for AIDS, helping kids education.

But, there is a strong group of people in the administration who wanted to get Saddam Hussein, no matter what. Half of Americans still believe Saddam had something to do w 9-11. There is not a shred of evidence, and to Bush’s credit, he’s stopped saying it.

Then he cut $ for AIDS, and said they can not spend it on generics, so they can only treat 10% the people they thought.

Now the administration is doing whatever they want. Walking away from agreements, not cooperating. They must be prepared to live with the consequences of people not liking us very much – don’t complain.

The Chinese govt is buying our deficit debt, created by the tax cut. This is the picture: Bush is knocking on China’s door to borrow money for a tax cut for rich folks like Bill Clinton, to be paid back by our kids. I think this is nuts.

We have never in the history of the country cut taxes while at war – but we did last year.

America has more capacity to get people moving in the right direction than anybody, towards global integration. But it depends what Bush does.

If they did what Secretary Powell wanted to do, I think they’d be net way ahead. I probably just shortened his tenure.

He supports NAFTA for all Latin America, goal was 2005 – still hoping someday. Can also expand it with Mexico/Canada.

Someone asks him to put aside partisan comments and asks if it wouldn’t be better not to change administrations right now. He answers: depends if you think you can do better. (Chuckle.) Then he gets mad: I have said more good things about the Republicans and Pres Bush today than that whole Washington crowd said about me while I was President. Look at my track record – I have a much better record dealing with Republicans than they have with me.

Cutting taxes for the rich right now, for the folks in this room, while robbing the social security of the folks who clean this hall, is crazy. Somebody asked me what insight I and Rubin had to reduce the deficit, and I said arithmetic. I learned that in public school in Arkansas, so when Washington folks tried to tell me 2+2 wasn’t 4 I didn’t believe them.

I have no idea why people trust Republicans more for national security. Maybe because Republicans keep saying it, but I don’t get it. John Kerry’s record in Viet Nam, and more importantly his work in the Senate, make him eminently qualified to protect our national security.

We are harder to screw up than you think. Ten years from now, whether I like the outcome of this election or not, I think we’ll still be stumbling in the right direction.

I’m in NYC at the World Business Forum in Radio City Music Hall. The place is packed. Rudy was the first speaker, and my notes from his talk are below. They are choppy, but it is hard to take notes on a Blackberry in a cramped seat in the dark!

Nyc is the capital of the world! Some other mayor asked if the UN made a resolution, but we know now the UN doesn’t pass resolutions . Then the Pope came to NY and called it the cap of world – no higher authority.

Leadership same for mayor, and getting prostate cancer
Wrote book before 9 11
Rewrote some of it
6 principles for mgt and crisis

Most important is have a set of beliefs, know what they are
Study, meditation, figure out who you are
Reagan was his mentor: beliefs – communism was evil (not popular), and govt had become too large, was crushing economy
Public opinion poll politics is the opposite of leadership
Mlk developed idea of nonviolent response to shame america into seeing hypocrisy
Developed from study, prayer
Visionary, leader, not following polls
For rudy: people who live in freedom are stronger than people in oppression, will find a way to prevail because they have something to fight for
On 9 11 kept to that, will get thru this

Leaders shd be optimists
Everyone shd be optimists, pessimists are no fun to go to dinner with
Sports is a great way to study leadership in confines
Even when losing, coach gives hope
Vince lombardi: never lost a game, just ran out of time
Stay calm when everyone is losing their heads
Be a problem solver – part of optimism

Courage
You probably have it, but don’t know it
Not absence of fear
Overcoming fear
Manage fear to do what is important to you
Story of injured firefighter going to wtc
Part of courage is analyzing risks correctly and not letting them stop you
Overcoming fear gives you a great feeling, too

Relentless preparation
Prep for the worst that can happen, then you can handle anything
Law clerk: for every hour in court, 4 hrs prep. Everything is rehearsed, nothing unexpected.
Then when unexpected happens, can handle it, have so much prep, it is just a variation on something prepped for
City of ny spent 350m on y2k – rudy complained bitterly about that, but it was well spent, bc all systems had been backed up and duplicated

Teamwork
Have to have strong team
Don’t forget who put you there, it wasn’t god
Ask yourself this q: what are my weaknesses, how can my team compensate for them
When he came to office, had crime problem and economy problem
Knew everything about crime, but needed great people to handle economy
Find the gaps, and fill them
Also emotionally what strs and weaknesses do you need to balance

Communication
Having ideas isn’t enough, must convince others
The way to be a great communicator is to be honest – prev 5 things
Prep esp to feel comfortable
Comm becomes easy if you just talk to people
Most important thing about a leader is to love people
Have to be around people all the time, must love it, must be there, always talking with them
Funerals more important to weddings

Bush wanted to come to ground zero on 9 14
Tried to solve security probs, but still had fires
Him spending time there was inspiring, even though secret service wasn’t happy
People he spent most time w was construction workers, big men
Big opinions, and love to share them
Telling him what to do w terrorists
Then crushes him w a bear hug

Before 9 11 he might have chged order of leadership characteristics, now he believes more in power of beliefs
Pres bush measures up on these qualities, effective leader
There is only one pres bush, has strong beliefs, builds good team, not like some other folks

On Iraq pows, can’t blame entire us military for actions of a few
Also these kinds of things happen in war
Don rumsfeld took responsibility and apologized, bush shd not take direct responsibility
Comes at a terrible time
Take oppty to build govts in the world that are accountable to people
Japan took 7 years to transition to civilian govt, and had better start – iraq will take time

He ducks the president question, supports bush and cheney
9 11 commission, easy in hindsight, bush did right
We are better prepared today, but not as well prepped as we shd be

I love this. An MIT student interviews Jack Valenti of MPAA fame, and teaches him a few things.

Real Dialogue: The Tech interviews Jack Valenti