Because many of us think in the back of our head that nobody can exert that much control, we are not preparing ourselves for the day when people can. Consumer's rights are being stripped right and left, and hardly anybody even notices. It's a pity.

People like Katz contribute to this misconception: Witness his proud story today. "This week, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) joined China and the music industry, all simultaneously making doomed efforts to stick their fingers in the digital dike. The Net has destroyed the very idea of censorship, but it looks like there are going to be some casualties before that reality sets in." Somebody hasn't been reading his news.

Common misconception: The Internet is such a large place that no copyright laws can ever be enforced. This company demonstrates why that is wrong in a Wired News article. If pirates can find you, so can an intelligent company.

I'd like to open a topic for Discussion: What is a web page? Is it what the user sees? Is it what's on the server? Is it what is sent over the network? All three of these are quite different, if you think about it, esp. in the case of dynamic content. What's protected under the law, and what isn't, if either? I'm planning on posting my call on the issue soon, but I'd like to collect comments.

Money is property, not speech, says Supreme Court: This matters to us, as one of the things the Internet does is create questions about what speech is. I think we need to take a somewhat narrow view, otherwise things like will be accepted as 'free speech'. More on that sometime this week.

A fun comic about CBS's recent of Times Square, replacing NBC's logo with their own.

WASHINGTON 451: Senate bill 486 contains broad and vague language that could affect the Internet. You may not like the pro-drug movement, but this could be too much. Can I get in trouble for supporting an article supporting an article criticizing an anti-drug law? Who knows?

MP3.com Fights Fire with Fire: MP3.com is providing a new service where you "beam" them the contents of your personal CD collection, and you are then allowed to listen to the content of that collection from anywhere on the Internet. The record companies are not amused. Says MP3.com, With each music fan that adds their CDs to My.MP3.com, our position against the record companies grows stronger. "If each of you 'Tell 10' friends about My.MP3.com, we'll have an army of music fans to fight the good fight." Of course, it also massively increases percieved damages... :-)

MP3.com Fights Fire with Fire: MP3.com is providing a new service where you "beam" them the contents of your personal CD collection, and you are then allowed to listen to the content of that collection from anywhere on the Internet. The record companies are not amused. Says MP3.com, With each music fan that adds their CDs to My.MP3.com, our position against the record companies grows stronger. "If each of you 'Tell 10' friends about My.MP3.com, we'll have an army of music fans to fight the good fight." Of course, it also massively increases percieved damages... :-)