People and ideas
Gary Shapiro is still coming on strong in support of the public's rights.
With this pronouncement, along with similar euphemisms by the media, it is clear that the copyright community has reshaped the debate. [...] They've changed the simple language that describes the acts at issue. [...] They call it stealing and always use analogies to shoplifting products out of a store. The Justice Department has adopted this approach. Stealing is stealing is stealing, said Malcolm in Aspen. [...] Chernin echoed these themes and used the words piracy, shoplifting and stealing repeatedly to describe downloading. He even declared that those who disagree with his views on copyright are either amoral or self-interested. [...] [S]ome legislators have become confused and convinced by Hollywood that there is a connection between broadband and copyright.
(I disagree with Shapiro about some of the contents of his speech, but the overall tone is impressive.)
Don Marti is interviewed on GrepLaw.
Free software won't so much change society as it will bring the computer business more in line with the rest of the economy. If you went shopping for any non-computer product, and got offered an End User License Agreement like those offered in the computer business, you'd laugh and walk out. Free software gives the customer the same rights of inspection and control that he or she has when buying non-computer products such as furniture (you can cut a hole for your cables in your desk) or cars (you can change your own oil.)
Lessig is in Wired, in a profile prepared in anticipation of the Eldred case.
"I am a great admirer of Larry Lessig," says Jack Valenti, Hollywood's master lobbyist.
I seem to have landed in Wired News myself, in Spanish, even:
Según Seth Schoen, un experto en tecnología de la Electronic Frontier Foundation (Fundación Fronteras Electrónicas), si los dispositivos analógicos dejaran de existir como resultado de la sanción del proyecto, la misma ley permitiría al gobierno controlar la próxima generación de artículos electrónicos."Este proyecto de ley es un poco menos amplio que el de Hollings, pero sigue los mismos lineamientos", señaló Schoen. [...] El proyecto de ley de Tauzin "dice no sólo que hay que seguir las reglas que establecieron otros cuando se utiliza una tecnología impuesta por el gobierno, sino que además no se puede utilizar un estándar abierto porque si uno lo utiliza, los propietarios de contenidos se ponen nerviosos", dijo Schoen.
The bit about "una tecnología impuesta por el gobierno" is a bit confused (as it was in the original English). I was trying to explain no mandate. It's not actually that a technology is impuesta por el gobierno which leads to the legal obligation to seguir las reglas, but rather the fact that it's proprietary. The new element in the Hollings and Tauzin bills is that you will also be subject to such rules when you use open standards, which for the most part is not currently the case. Today, by using open standards, you can avoid the need to follow other people's compliance rules. But unfortunately los propietarios de contenidos se ponen nerviosos.
You can also read the article in English.
Another Eldred-related profile of Lessig turns up in the L.A. Times.
Patricia Lessig was pregnant with her third child in late 1960 when she went to see "Village of the Damned," a horror flick about a rural town whose womenfolk are mysteriously impregnated by aliens. The women give birth to a race of superhumans capable of reading minds and imposing their will on others. Four decades later, when Patricia contemplates her super-achieving son, the movie offers the only reasonable explanation. "I think he came from outer space."[...]
"He was rather like Ralph Nader, but brighter," says [Richard] Posner.
