ok, one other thing

Posted on December 6, 2004 by Lessig

bobs.jpg
The Lessig Blog got a Bobs.

Posted in good code | 6 Comments

Is there another Nobel Prize blogger?

Posted on December 6, 2004 by Lessig

An amazing first exchange at the Becker-Posner-Blog. Two questions: Is there another Federal Judge who blogs? And is there another Nobel Prize winner who blogs?

Posted in free culture | 52 Comments

blogger pride

Posted on December 5, 2004 by Lessig

So there are very few things in my life that I am really proud of. Here’s one. As some of you know, I’ve launched a campaign to recruit people to the blogging world. My nephew was a big victory. A talented writer-in-the-making I knew in high school was a second. And now, I am extremely pleased to report that Judge Richard Posner and Professor Gary Becker have decided to take a spin. Tomorrow is the launch of the Becker-Posner-Blog. Judge Posner was a guest blogger on my blog. (You can see the collection of his posts here.) In this way we, if not Congress, help promote the progress of science.

Posted in good code | 5 Comments

The slashing of Kahle v. Ashcroft

Posted on December 1, 2004 by Lessig

As /. reported, the District Court has ruled against us in Kahle v. Ashcroft. The Judge decided the case without argument. We will be appealing.

Posted in free culture | 14 Comments

academic puzzles

Posted on November 25, 2004 by Lessig

shift.jpeg

So this is the beginning of some fascinating data. The graph represents the “shift” from 4pm exit poll data to final results. The puzzle is why the shift is so biased. It is an “academic” puzzle because it won’t matter to this election. But it should be explained.

Posted in presidential politics | 36 Comments

Killing Philadelphia freedom

Posted on November 24, 2004 by Lessig

In September, I reported that Philadelphia was considering funding a WiFi service for the city. Sixty percent of the citizens have no access to broadband. The city elders believe that’s no way to enter the 21st century.

But as Public Knowledge now reports, a bill on the Governor’s desk would now make it impossible for Philadelphia to offer such a service, because it “competes” with private businesses offering the same service.

So, let’s see: If I open a private street light company, selling the photons my lights give off, can Philadelphia offer “free” street lights? Or does the fact that Guards To Go offers services in Philadelphia mean we need to disband the Philly police department?

I am from Pennsylvania. I spent 4 wonderful years in Philadelphia. (Indeed, I was elected Youth Governor in 1979!) If you’re connected to that freedom-loving state, please say something to the Governor.

Posted in bad law | 15 Comments

more wisdom from the man in the white hat

Posted on November 24, 2004 by Lessig

jamie.jpg Jamie’s got a great new piece at the FT.

Posted in good code | 1 Comment

bytes and bullets

Posted on November 24, 2004 by Lessig

So months ago, I posted this odd post, titled “INDUCING gun control legislation”. I had to pull the blog post because the Washington Post had accepted something close to this op-ed. At the time, of course, INDUCE was looming. Activists, including Public Knowledge, EFF, and industry has now of course succeeded in stalling the legislation for now.

The basic point of the op-ed is obvious: There’s no difference in principle between regulating p2p manufacturers, and regulating gun manufacturers. Both make products that do harm; if you believe PK/EFF w/r/t p2p, and the NRA w/r/t guns, then both make products that do good too. If you want to be principled and distinguish the two, you’d have to say either that the harm caused by one is much greater than the harm caused the other, or that the good produced by the one is much less than the good produced by the other. By my reckoning, such an effort to distinguish would doom gun manufacturers, not p2p manufacturers.

Anyway, there’s a bit more to the argument in the piece itself. But one point I want to make clear: My argument is about what a principled Congress would do. It is not a prediction. It is of course “naive” to believe Congress believes itself constrained by “principle.” But if principle is absent, then please, let these Congressmen drop the self-righteousness as well.

Posted in free culture | 14 Comments

More good McCain work

Posted on November 18, 2004 by Lessig

Senator McCain has become an important force for good in the land of IP extremism. I reported a hold he had placed on H.R. 4077 because of valid concerns about whether the freedoms it granted (to enable parents to filter “smut” from films) would be read to deny fair use in other cases.

The same careful eye has now caught a very elegant trap buried within the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2004.

That bill adds some “Anti-Counterfeiting Provisions” to regulate counterfeit or illicit “labels.” Most thought its target was physical labels. But a careful reading revealed a real ambiguity in the statute, suggesting (as the MPAA believed) it regulated both tangible and intangible labels.

Why is that a problem? Well if the act makes it an offence to distribute unauthorized copies of labels, then there’s a very simple way for content owners to hack around fair use: embed a watermark into the content, and then any clip, even if fair use, would also constitute an unauthorized copy of a label. Thus, DMCA-like, what copyright law gives, this labeling law would take away.

Senator McCain is thus floating an amendment, to limit the regulation of “illicit labels” to physical labels only. And he has proposed a savings clause, which states:

Savings Clause.–Nothing in Section 2318 of title 18, United States Code, as amended by this title, shall be construed to restrict defenses or limitations on rights under title 17, United States Code, for a phonorecord, a copy of a computer program, a copy of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, a copy of a literary work, a copy of a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, or a work of visual art, that a genuine certificate, licensing document, registration card, or similar labeling component is (1) affixed to, enclosing, or accompanying, or (2) designed to be affixed to, enclose, or accompany.

Very nice work by a very careful Senator. The Justice Department had expressed similar concerns about an earlier version in March. But the Senator has now given those concerns real life.

Posted in heroes | 15 Comments

from insight to action

Posted on November 15, 2004 by Lessig

In 1991, according to The Patent Wars by Fred Warshofsky, Bill Gates said this about software patents:

If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today�s ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today. The solution . . . is patent exchanges . . . and patenting as much as we can. . . . A future start-up with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be high: Established companies have an interest in excluding future competitors.

Thirteen years later, according to Brad Stone of Newsweek, Microsoft alum Nathan Myhrvold is putting this insight into action.

Posted in bad code | 33 Comments