The Chronicle of Higher Education: ‘Politics of Control’ Leads a Law Student to Challenge Digital-Copyright Act. Q&A with Benjamin G. Edelman. There are a few specific examples that make it all fit together. Certainly, this filtering is an example of control, someone getting between you and where you want to go. You want to read about breast cancer, N2H2 says that that’s pornography, and so they won’t let you. [Tomalak’s Realm]

Campaign for Cambridge Science

Campaign for Cambridge Science

Cambridge University, which along with MIT and Stanford, has a liberal policy on academics’ IP rights, is proposing to change it to a much more repressive regime. As usual, the people behind this have no idea of what they are effectively doing — killing the geese that lay the golden eggs — and indeed seem contemptuous of the notion that there is any connection between liberal attitudes towards IP and industrial creativity. Here’s a splendid polemic by Ross Anderson against this idiocy. For a comparison between Silicon Valley and Route 128 (the Massachussetts equivalent) see here. And here’s how MIT handles Faculty IP.

A new challenge to the DMCA

A new challenge to the DMCA

According to this this NEWS.COM report, the ACLU have challenged the DMCA using an ingenious angle. A Harvard researcher investigating the encrypted block-lists used by filtering software companies wants to crack the encryption so that he can assess how effective the programs are. But that would constitute creating an anti-circumvention device, wouldn’t it? See you in court.

Ah, the poor, coy New York Times — cannot bring itself to say ‘fuckedcompany.com’

Ah, the poor, coy New York Times — cannot bring itself to say ‘fuckedcompany.com’

“The publisher of the Web site whose name is a vulgarism for “failed company” plans to spin off part of that site into a new unit. Drawing from a deep well of material sent by fans of corporate comeuppance, Philip J. Kaplan said he would roll out a new site, InternalMemos.com, this morning.

On it, readers can sample some of the more than 800 examples of internal business correspondence sent to Mr. Kaplan over the last three years by aggrieved employees of various companies. …”. [More.]