If one believes that Google's book-scanning project constitutes copyright infringement, then this guy was making a valid point. Boing Boing, of course, makes a whole host of assumptions, such as that the guy "misunderstands copyright," which is in the title but never supported in the story, and that Google's project is necessarily "laudable."

I hardly think it's a foregone conclusion that scanning books and placing their contents online is not copyright infringement. Personally, I wonder. And, such a project would require extreme methods of digital rights management (DRM) to avoid infringing, even if it's possible, while Boing Boing has historically been anti-DRM of any kind.

Digg Report: Today's #1 Digg, at 5418 Diggs, is about Paris Hilton's return to jail. The comments in this one are pretty harsh. I don't like her either, but then again, I don't really care.

I have some experience with this sort of thing at my son's after school program. The problem with the issue of porn and school computers is terribly exacerbated by misspelled Web sites, where a kid accidentally connects to a site that downloads all sorts of nasty stuff. I'm really not sure how any teacher could be prosecuted for this stuff.

All that this points out is that removing state sponsors of groups like al Qaida is the only way to make a meaningful impact on their activities.

A more rational treatment of intellectual property issues, which does tend to point out their complexity. This is from Edward Cline posting at the Rule of Reason blog.

Space-based energy? I like it. It does, though, walk that fine line as to what's legitimate for government. The Pentagon has to do things to maintain our military advantages, and so this might just be a necessary evil.

As much as I dislike Apple politically (or, maybe just Apple devotees), they do make some interesting stuff.

More from Boing Boing on stealing intellectual propert.

What exactly does it mean that Putin has agreed to put missile defense technology in Azerbaijan? Or, I should say, to suggest doing so, since I believe Azerbaijan is a sovereign nation. I haven't kept up on the whole former Soviet bloc nation thing, to know what the actual political relationship might be.

Some information on the Creation Museum, linked without comment.

Celebrity Report: I'm not surprised that Will Smith and Bruce Willis are friends, nor that Smith has doled out some good advice.

Here's Kasparov on Putin and Russia. As Ayn Rand said, evil requires the sanction of the good to prosper, and nowhere is that more clear than with Russia and the West.

A one-minute case against environmentalism.