OpenP2P.com: The End of Innovation? DMCA 'So it's this kind of panic, that once there's any breach in the dam, then that's the end of all creative activity, which just seems to me to be completely unconsidered. You know, it's a messy world in all contexts and what we typically do is accept that freedom entails a certain amount of law breaking, and that doesn't mean you embrace law breakers or say that they should go free.

Judge: FBI must show high-tech spy trick Surveillance and Privacy from Government 'A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the government to reveal the high-tech computer snooping technique used by the FBI to gather evidence against an alleged mobster.' 'In a case privacy advocates say smacks of Big Brother, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Politan ruled that the government must reveal the details of the computer monitoring system it used to gather evidence against Nicodemo Scarfo Jr.

The Sklyrov Complaint DMCA I haven't seen this yet, so maybe you haven't either. It's a PDF of the actual compliant filed against Dmitry Sklyrov. To my admittedly unlawyer eyes, I don't see any actions actually actively committed in the US in this complaint. Seeing this complaint only furthers my outrage; I really expected that the complaint had some sort of merit, if you were generous; I no longer believe that.

More Commentary Personal Commentary Over time, iRights has become more and more news, and I've been increasingly self-censoring my personal opinions since I felt I had some sort of "obligation" to suppress that. I finally realized consciously that I'm doing that (it's been running around in my subconscious for a while), so I think I'm going to stop self-censoring. Looking around, even the focused successful weblogs don't limit themselves exclusively to news.

Slashdot | Sklyarov Released On $50,000 Bail DMCA From Slashdot: 'According to this live report from the courtroom, Dmitri will probably be out of jail real soon now.' On $50,000 bail.  

News: Governors plea for Net sales tax Misc. 'Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer is urging Congress to allow states to tax e-commerce to replenish state coffers. Geringer, speaking on the opening day of the National Governors Association summer meeting Saturday, warned that without such a tax, states stand to lose annual revenues topping $30 billion by 2003.' A fair sales tax scheme on the Internet doesn't bother, just makes me generally nervous as any power grab does.

The Man Who Debunks Virus Myths Misc. 'Rob Rosenberger is determined to shine the bright light of sarcasm into every dark corner of the computer security industry. His website, Vmyths, focuses on presenting the facts -- as Rosenberger sees them -- about computer viruses, dispelling any media-fueled hysteria about computer security and disputing the smallest shred of misinformation from the security industry itself.' 'Rosenberger carefully reviews the press coverage of every virus alert and rips into reporters who mindlessly repeat whatever "

Custom Weblog Post Personal Notes The Custom Weblog Post tool allows the user to create (sub-)templates that have more structure then RU's default flat text box. It ships with a template that matches the behavior of Manila's News Items, using the RU 'blogs categories as the choosable categories. Thus, for people who are used to posting with Manila's News Items, this provides a nice migration path to the RU 'blog.

Ars Technica: Intellectual Property and the Good Society General IP Issues [Some people have a hard time committing to an opinion on current IP law.] 'There's a reason why so many of us are caught in the middle. It's because the morally absolute language of rights leaves us too little wiggle room for holding a useful dialogue about the ways a fair intellectual property system should look and function. What I intend to do in the following editorial is argue for a new type of discussion, one focused more on larger systems and structures than on the rights of the individual actors governed by those structures.

Lawmakers prepare digital music bill Music & MP3 'Long live Napster. Or its idea, anyway. Two Capitol Hill lawmakers are getting ready to introduce legislation that would loosen copyright laws to help legitimate, Internet-based music services get up and running without the threat of being shut down by the courts for infringement.' I could have sworn that somebody had already introduced this bill (or a similar bill). In fact I wrote about it, but now I can't find it.