Slashdot Mirror

"Acts of God" are probably defined with regard to who is in office at the time.

I know this was in New Zealand, but if it'd happened in the US, a plague would be defined as an act of terror, while stray a titanium rod fired from orbit would be indemnified by the government.

Cold Turkey by none other than great hero to the geek race Kurt Vonnegut. It compares America to a junkie who's having trouble finding that last fix.

A highly recommended read on what appears to be a similar topic. My favorite line:
There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.

Hey, dumbass, get a clue and actually research what this guy's telling you. Is it so hard to listen to someone and check Google to see if they're full of it or not, instead of assuming they are?

Oh, but wait, you know everything and liberals are stupid. As if privacy knows party lines and liberal/conservative is relevant in this discussion.

1) Routine torture of prisoners.
2) No chance of a fair trial - ever.
3) Government imposed murder of the unborn children.
4) Crackdown on Christians.

Sounds like you are describing that freedom loving Guantanamo bay not China

torture of prisoners ? check
no chance of a fair trial ever ? check
Crackdown on Christians ? s/Christian/Islam/ check
Government imposed murder of the unborn children ? check

yeah sounds like you are living in a great free country, maybe a mirror is whats needed before condemming other countries political systems

But it's much more useful than that - if they're able to collect all that information, they can correlate it with people who give money to the Green Party or peace groups or environmental groups (some of whom are already on the TSA's not-allowed-to-fly lists because of their political incorrectness.) Also, the increased "information sharing" between the US civilian police agencies, spook agencies, and military, plus the redefinitions of lots of forms of vice as "national security" issues means that they can use those hotel bills from Humboldt County, California to decide to give your luggage a lot of extra attention when you're flying back from Amsterdam, or ask the Internal Revenue Service to check out your tax returns after that trip to Las Vegas just in case you might have been "money laundering" or passing some cash to that suspicious Penn fellow.

hi, we've put together a package of articles to coincide with the show. here's some links:

AN UPHILL BATTLE: INTERVIEW WITH LAWRENCE LESSIG
Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig is the nation's leading advocate for intellectual property law reform; we interview him about the state of the movement.

THE PIRATES OF HOLLYWOOD
The language of film may be universal, but don't tell that to the Motion Picture Association of America--you might end up in court.

MUSIC FOR THE MASSES
When Lester Chambers stepped onto the stage to galvanize the audience with "People Get Ready," his band included one guy who looked like he might be from the IRS. But he wasn't. He was there from the Federal Communications Commission.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
The power of corporations to censor was greatly expanded by the passage in 1998 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was written by and for the lobbies that paid to push it through Congress--the software, entertainment, pharmaceutical and other intellectual property industries.

hi, we've put together a package of articles to coincide with the show. here's some links:

AN UPHILL BATTLE: INTERVIEW WITH LAWRENCE LESSIG
Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig is the nation's leading advocate for intellectual property law reform; we interview him about the state of the movement.

THE PIRATES OF HOLLYWOOD
The language of film may be universal, but don't tell that to the Motion Picture Association of America--you might end up in court.

MUSIC FOR THE MASSES
When Lester Chambers stepped onto the stage to galvanize the audience with "People Get Ready," his band included one guy who looked like he might be from the IRS. But he wasn't. He was there from the Federal Communications Commission.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
The power of corporations to censor was greatly expanded by the passage in 1998 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was written by and for the lobbies that paid to push it through Congress--the software, entertainment, pharmaceutical and other intellectual property industries.

hi, we've put together a package of articles to coincide with the show. here's some links:

AN UPHILL BATTLE: INTERVIEW WITH LAWRENCE LESSIG
Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig is the nation's leading advocate for intellectual property law reform; we interview him about the state of the movement.

THE PIRATES OF HOLLYWOOD
The language of film may be universal, but don't tell that to the Motion Picture Association of America--you might end up in court.

MUSIC FOR THE MASSES
When Lester Chambers stepped onto the stage to galvanize the audience with "People Get Ready," his band included one guy who looked like he might be from the IRS. But he wasn't. He was there from the Federal Communications Commission.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
The power of corporations to censor was greatly expanded by the passage in 1998 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was written by and for the lobbies that paid to push it through Congress--the software, entertainment, pharmaceutical and other intellectual property industries.

hi, we've put together a package of articles to coincide with the show. here's some links:

AN UPHILL BATTLE: INTERVIEW WITH LAWRENCE LESSIG
Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig is the nation's leading advocate for intellectual property law reform; we interview him about the state of the movement.

THE PIRATES OF HOLLYWOOD
The language of film may be universal, but don't tell that to the Motion Picture Association of America--you might end up in court.

MUSIC FOR THE MASSES
When Lester Chambers stepped onto the stage to galvanize the audience with "People Get Ready," his band included one guy who looked like he might be from the IRS. But he wasn't. He was there from the Federal Communications Commission.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
The power of corporations to censor was greatly expanded by the passage in 1998 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was written by and for the lobbies that paid to push it through Congress--the software, entertainment, pharmaceutical and other intellectual property industries.

There's a great art show in chicago right now that displaying a large quantity of audio, visual and standard art mediums that challenge copywrite as we know it. Many of the peices have been sued into submission until now. More info here and here

I went to the show's opening last night and I would highly recommend it, some of the bands will be playing live on feb 7th and 8th with an intense panel debate about copywrite with speakers like Lawrence Lessig and dj spooky on the 15th. The show will then be moving onto San Francisco.

The text you point out was published in March 1999. Unfortunatlely, the court case it refers to was reversed on appeal in November 1999 (Full text of appeal decision here.) I can't find any records of CBS taking this to the Supreme Court. I would assume CBS just shelled out some blood money after losing.

But that's not even the point. Copyright law is so incredibly confusing there is simply no way of knowing what is or isn't in the public domain. As this case shows, something that was public domain in March 1999 becomes private property again in November 1999. What happens when CBS or ABC realizes they lost something juicy that was released prior to 1923 and decides to get it back by changing the laws retroactively again?

I find it very troubling that MLK's speech would be licensed for use in commercials by his heirs. But, of course, they've systematically pimped MLK's legacy for profit.

From the review of the book: In Plant's view, drugs provided these writers with new insights into the working of the mind, newly discovered fragments of the self, and a new awareness of the limits of conventional ideas. Drugs granted them access to the twilight zones between dreamworld and reality, between the conscious and subconscious minds.

So maybe it WAS evolution, except that it was in ... The Twilight Zone

Yeah, right, because Israel's been doing such a bang-up job of preventing terrorism through their methods. Israel taught those terrorists a lesson back in 1967 and they've had no significant terrorist incidents since then.

It amazes me that the people who warn us not to cave in to terrorists are the same ones urging massive retaliation to teach them a lesson or to make sure they fear us enough to stop committing terrorist acts. Get this through your heads, folks. Massive retaliation is caving in to terrorists. It is exactly what they want us to do; read this article, or this one, or this one, or this one, or this one for five very different pieces of the same puzzle. The bottom line is that massive retaliation is exactly what bin Laden wants and what terrorists want in general, since it makes them stronger. The empirical evidence is clear: Israeli policy has demonstrably led to increased terrorism. The theoretical evidence is clear: terrorists and their teachers, like the Brazilian writer cited in the first of the links above, themselves have stated quite clearly that they want massive retaliation because it will expose their enemies and unite their friends. The growing anti-American sentiment in the Islamic world, even amongst communities not directly targeted in the attacks on Afghanistan is evidence that the terrorists' plan is working. We are handing them what they want on a silver platter. And for those who are calling for a policy that will make the US "hugely feared" in the middle east, peep this: Islamic terrorists will never fear the US more than they fear Allah. Their leaders might, for a time, and most of the people in the region might, for a time, but if even .01% of the Muslim world still believes that Allah will reward them for killing Americans, that's 150,000 terrorists on the loose.

Finding and destroying the people responsible for the attacks on 9/11 is common sense, and that goal has my full support as an American and as a human being. But surely the greatest and most powerful nation in human history can find a way to crush a relatively tiny cult of ignorant thugs without driving half the world into their arms and to their defense.

Situationist
Adbusters
CorpWatch
AllYourBrand

etc.:
Independent Media Center
Metropolitic.net
You May Be An Anarchist And Not Even Know It (I too thought the "anarchy movement" was a load of crap from bored aggressive adolescents (they really spoil it for everybody don't they?) until reading this and realizing there really is a legitimate coherent philosophy behind it)
Mother Jones
In These Times
Poliglut
Protest.net (yes, sometimes there are actually legitimate reasons to protest)
PigDog journal
Unabomer Manifesto (he may have been labeled a wacko, but read it - he's not stupid and he does sorta have a point.)

The public does get involved. Who do the pollsters call? The public. All 1139 of them. The Nielsen Families of this 24/7 TV show called American Politics and Policy.

Actually, people spend good money to filter damn near everything for public consumption, so we (the public) are left with the wide center-right "spectrum" of opinions when we turn on the TV or read the Op-Ed pages.

A couple of recent magazine articles: "$1 Billion for Conservatives" and "Anti-Feminists Money Can Buy". Marketing has triumphed over ideas, independent thought, and enlightening discourse; everything has been reduced to a media war, even when there's no war at all.

Has CNN and its peers even mentioned how this bombing campaign (which I support, BTW) pretty much trashes international law? If we're not bringing that into public (or talking-head) debate, something is seriously wrong. If the rule of law can be ignored, what prevents some country (or alliance) from launching missiles and smart bombs on the US the next time there's trouble in Los Angeles? I would probably have to support that too. I think I would, in fact.

--