Unreason's seductive charms

Unreason's seductive charms. "... our rationality is bounded by what our brains were constructed -- that is, evolved -- to do." [dangerousmeta!] The article really deals with two types of unreason, "strong emotions" and "not applying logic where it should be applied". Actually, the article itself covers how to explain the latter in a reasonable framework. In reference to a pure-logic formulation of a probem vs. a socially-based formulation of an equivalent problem: whereas the first is a matter of pure reason, disconnected from reality, the second plays into issues of truth telling and the detection of social cheaters.

FCC Adopts Hollywood "Broadcast Flag" Mandate

EFF: FCC Adopts Hollywood "Broadcast Flag" Mandate. [Hack the Planet] This just boggles the mind. "We all know" the government agencies are in the hip pockets of "the industry", but even by those standards this is a lopsided ruling, 110% in favor of "the content industry" with all the costs completely shifted onto the manufacturing side of the industry, and by extension everybody who needs to buy that equipment. Canonical asymmetry; we are all actively paying for the protection of the content industry while they pay nothing.

Remainder of The Ethics of Modern Communication posted

I have finally posted the remainder of my essay, The Ethics of Modern Communication. With this I lift my previous request not to link to the work-in-progress. This is the end of over three years of work for me, so I hope you enjoy it. Additions may be posted and I someday hope to clean up the Misc. chapter, but I believe it is ready to go. Mental note, since this is the summation of this weblog up to this point I really need to add it to the sidebar.

Arcane Copyright

NY Times: Music-Sharing Service at M.I.T. Is Shut Down. To Jonathan Zittrain, who teaches Internet law at Harvard and is a director of the university's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, that incident shows that the world of copyright has grown so arcane that even the major players do not even understand it. [Tomalak's Realm] I disagree. It's not the "arcane world of copyright" here, it's the "arcane world of music licensing"