I'd think that this might be a surprisingly pro-American post by Boing Boing, except I remember that Boing Boing doesn't really think making money is a good thing.

And how exactly does Boing Boing propose that government keep us secure, since they're basically against government doing anything?

The government's evil and bad and has the Patriot Act and Bushitler and Cheney and Halliburton and all sorts of eavesdropping equipment that can track our every move and we Leftist bloggers are the only safeguards against attempts to take away our freedoms and freely traded MP3's that some of us paid for and everything!

But boy, those government agencies sure have ineffective computer systems, and should fix them pronto! Incompetent dolts, using contractors, even!

Something about this is just simply unappealing. Maybe it's European hygiene.*

*That was a lame attempt at humor. I actually don't know that European hygiene is any worse than American hygiene, except anecdotally. Well, there is that thing about European women and shaving, but I'm not sure if that's the same.

Digg Report: Today's #1 Digg, at 4366 Diggs, is another story about some poor fool roughed up "unnecessarily" by the police. It's one side of the story, of course, which is bound to make the police officers look bad. Who knows, maybe it's a legitimate complaint.

But this is Digg, y'know?

And I suppose all this Internet traffic is the trading and/or viewing of perfectly legal, non-infringing personal content.

And here's an area where I agree completely with Techdirt: government has no legitimate authority to censor (except perhaps--perhaps--in times of national emergency and war, and then only to protect direct threats to national security). Indeed, censorship is one of the keystones of oppression. From what I can tell, though, Brits are used to this sort of thing.

I maintain my position: mixes and mashups are not original, "innovative" works. They're entirely derivative. They might be "creative," but that's not the same thing. I also don't believe that they constitute any sort of "fair use," and so they're common theft and should be treated accordingly.

It's interesting how the "artist" in this Techdirt story talks about how much his albums would cost if he were required to pay royalties to all the copyright holders he steals from. Interesting concept.

And here, Techdirt misses the point: Madison was talking about government-granted monopolies in the general sense, that is, one company being granted the legal right to control all production and sale of a given product, service, or raw material (e.g., a government-granted cable monopoly), as being evil things. And indeed, such monopolies, when granted by government, are evil things, because they infringe on the rights of any individual who may desire to do business in such property.

Protecting the right to control one's own intellectual property, which does not infringe on anyone's right to sell theirs or any other property, is not the same sort of monopoly. After all, we all have "monopolies" on the uses of our time and energy, for example Michael Jordon could always have withheld his preeminent basketball skills--to the detriment of us all--and been entirely within his rights. The same can be said of an author, artist, musician, etc.

Indeed, I'd guess that upon reflection, Madison would rather not have used the term "monopoly" at all with regard to intellectual property. He might rather have used the term "priviledge," which at the time meant the same as "right" today, as something that government should protect. As usual when considering what the Founders said about some issue, one must be careful to consider their use of the language and how it differs from ours.

Read the story to which Techdirt links. It's a bit different than Techdirt's version. I also concede that my reading might not be precisely the Volokh Conspiracy's, but then I'm not making entirely the same point.

This is ominous. But, no profiling!

I suppose that spending five years in a warzone would have an affect on a person. Doing so with no discernible, rational philosophy would probably be a sort of personal, self-inflicted hell. I read as much of this account as I could, but the nihilism and naturalism was too much to bear.

It sort of felt like looking at birdshit on the crumbling facade of a post-modern office building made to look like it had been through an earthquake. If you know what I mean.

Wow, another free Wi-Fi scheme. I'm sure it'll be secure and reliable.

Why is it that IT folks will go to such ridiculous lengths to get something for free? It's not like they're historically underpaid, or anything.

Digg Report: Today's #1 Digg, at a high (for the topic) 6489 Diggs, is a list of countries that haven't yet converted to the metric system. Yes, the US is one of them. And yes, the rest of the world can kiss our American asses. The cost of conversion here would be far more than elsewhere, and, well, we just don't want to. And the rest of the world will continue to work with our quaint, antiquated English system because they must.

So all you Diggsters can just sit and spin.

As I've hinted before, the lack of intellectual property protections will drive things underground.* Companies will stop patenting things, and start treating them as trade secrets. The result will be essentially the same as if there were adequate IP protections--companies and invidividuals would be required to come up with truly innovate works, not just derivatives--but the timeframe would be extended beyond the patent's inherently limited scope.

Note that this applies to patents. Copyrights, on the other hand, remain a mess. Perhaps someone will come up with unbreakable encryption that can be applied to copyrighted material, including software, that will render digital copyright infringement almost impossible. That'll do away with physical distribution in a heartbeat, of course, leaving only the computer-equipped able to enjoy music, video and other, non-physical art.

And those who oppose intellectual property rights will only have themselves to blame.

*Note: I'm not sure if this is exactly what the linked story is saying. It's my take on the issue, however.

"Arabs Unwilling to Accept Responsibility." Today's obvious recurring theme. I believe thas has been the case for, oh, about a century or so?

Boing Boing calls this purchase agreement from the early 1900's "abusive." How can one be "abused" when one freely agrees with the terms of a license? When one gives up one's right to make agreements, no matter how onerous they may appear, one gives up the right to control one's existence.

Of course. Boing Boing wants the opposite: to be able to do whatever one damn well pleases if one is a "consumer." If one's a producer, on the other hand, all bets are off. I imagine Boing Boing consumers like Steven King's Lanoliers, all gaping maws eating up whatever's left at the end of time. You'll have to watch the B-movie to get the full effect.

In general, this just shows the long history of recorded intellectual property being licensed, not purchased, giving the lie to those who say that they've "purchased" their music and video and should be able to do whatever they want with it. Again, all I can say is: read the label, and if you don't like the terms, don't buy it. Engaging in theft is not a legitimate alternative.

Go here for a short history of the Middle East as it pertains to Israel and the Palestinians. I'm sure some will call this Zionist propaganda, and so be it. From everything I've read, it's entirely accurate.

It's important for all Americans to watch, to understand the stakes and how such otherwise unfathomable actions in place like Iraq can make some strategic (albeit utterly evil) sense.

Digg Report: Today's #1 Digg, at a healthy 6084 Diggs, is a good public service announcement. One shouldn't publish other people's private information, including that of suspected criminals. Suspected criminals. Or, maybe even convicted criminals.

We sort of have laws against vigilante justice in this country, and for good reason. Many Diggsters, judging from the comments, don't seem to recognize this. On the other hand, there are a fair number of reasonable comments, and so that's something of a positive.

Overall, a rather lame #1, and not a good return for the Digg Report after a few days' absence.

And does Boing Boing and the rest of the looney Left realize what this means about American justice? The very fact that a court can require the release of such information (rightly or wrongly), in the face of Bushitler and the Neocons, demonstrates that plenty of checks remain against legislation like the Patriot Act.

Looks like the conspiracy buffs will need to return to the days of tin hats and lizardroids.

More on Chavez's efforts to buy goodwill in Latin America through cheap PCs. This would bother me, if I weren't so sure it's bound to be a miserable failure.

Update: They're not even that cheap. This guy's a real wacko. That, or crazy like a fox: maybe he'll make PCs just good enough to drive out other private Latin American competition (to the extent that it exists), and then just nationalize the government-supported Chinese "partner."