Tag: Law

Thankfully, An End Of Something

A bit quietly, something ended the other day when Lessig packed it in, leaving the unproblem of intellectual property and digital media behind. Having beaten the drum and been a leader of the idea that copyright should not apply to expressions, much to the disgust of the creators of ideas who own and make money off of those expressions, we now find ourselves in a world where the proprietary interest has won out. The “mash-up” world of 2004 that Boingsters would have had us believe in never was just as the world of groceries bought via the internet promised in 1998 disappeared.

This is a wise decision as, in one way, nothing much as really changed from the effort while in another the world has largely moved on. Simon of Living in Dryden illustrates it all very neatly in this passage from a recent post:

About ten years ago, I went to a conference on web development. Everyone was talking about ‘disintermediation’ and how “brick and mortar stores” would get crushed. Consumers would be able to go straight to the manufacturer’s web site, or to a shopping web site of some kind, and order their products directly. All of the supply chains and middlemen (intermediaries) were going to vanish, leaving only producers of goods and their warehousing and delivery. Or something like that. That hasn’t really happened, except in a few categories of items where the Web turned out to be especially effective. Computer geeks, maybe because they heard this story enough times, often buy computer products online. It’s easy for an online bookstore to maintain the tremendous inventory some book buyers dream of, and for some reason a lot of people seem to like making travel reservations online. Even when it sort of works, though, this “disintermediation” is kind of perverse, sending goods all over the place from all over the place. Large online sellers, like Amazon, end up with hugely complicated supply chain management systems and warehouses all over to manage this process. Importers, wholesalers, and web site managers still act as ‘intermediaries’. Is it really that much less mediated than going to a store?

In January 2005 when Lessig was a bit more of a popular ideas man, I listened to him interviewed on NPR’s The Connection and took down some notes on the vision. He believed that under copyright the rules for content in text differed from that in film and music and image. The “next generation of blogs,” he said, will mix to create more powerful social commentary. Never.

That’s because plenty hasn’t really happened. News media have taken on a form of inter-connection with consumers but the balance has not really altered. Blogs have not advanced beyond scrapbooks and on-line journals but also things like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook have made it easy to participate in on-line experience without adding much substantive content and certainly without any real collaboration. And no one is surprised now when deals are made to ensure rights holders interests are respects and thereby, rather than being an obstacle, used as a platform for further development. These things are good. There has been no disruptive revolution, no need to fire millions of grocery store clerks, truckers and shippers or artists. Subscriptions to local newspapers are up. There has been change and the good from digital media have enhanced what was. But no revolution.

Like most with strong firmly-held beliefs, Lessig worked hard, thought a lot of good thoughts but missed the point…as, to be fair, a lot of people did. Alarmingly, however, he now wants to rid us all of “corruption” which he seems to define this way:

In one of the handful of opportunities I had to watch Gore deliver his global warming Keynote, I recognized a link in the problem that he was describing and the work that I have been doing during this past decade. After talking about the basic inability of our political system to reckon the truth about global warming, Gore observed that this was really just part of a much bigger problem. That the real problem here was (what I will call a “corruption” of) the political process. That our government can’t understand basic facts when strong interests have an interest in its misunderstanding.

That form of corruption appears to be an effort to stomp out disagreeing with Lessig. Here we go again. Good luck on that one.

No Break On Canadian Passports

Why can’t we make a cheaper simpler and secure tool like the US is planning:

Ms. Harty said a planned introduction of a passport card – “that card will be wallet-sized and about half the price” – should ease the problem for Americans who cross into Canada for work or on day visits. The passport card will be available only to U.S. citizens. In Canada, the Harper government has no plans to offer an equivalent card.

No, we have a less-secure, as-expensive, bulky plan. Excellent.

What The Heck Have I Done?

What indeed? I am chaperoning a trip fo grade three kids to the zoo. I thought my life would be chaperoning exempt. The zoo is 200 km or more to the east which means there is five hours in a bus involved. Not a yellow bus, God be praised, but I am told a comfy one. I am still bringing ear plugs. But I am not bringing mace or anything like that so I am being a proper parent.

For your reading and commenting pleasure today, while I endure the screams of eight year olds as I am encased with them in a small steel cage on wheels hurtling down the highway, please visit the Flea where you can see Ms. Hilton defended and accused, ignored for what she is and praised for what she is not – sometimes all by the same person. A sense of fashion collides with a grasp of the law – but no one has lost an eye yet.

Speaking Of Constitutional Law…

It is a very instructive day in the news if you are interested in constitutional law. Yesterday, the US courts confirmed the primacy of the person and the bar on making things up:

The appeals court yesterday ordered the trial judge in the case to issue a writ of habeas corpus directing the secretary of defense to release Mr. Marri from military custody “within a reasonable period of time to be set by the district court.” The government can, Judge Motz wrote, transfer Mr. Marri to civilian authorities to face criminal charges, initiate deportation proceedings against him, hold him as a material witness in connection with a grand jury proceeding or detain him for a limited time under a provision of the U.S.A. Patriot Act. But the military cannot hold him, Judge Motz wrote. “The president cannot eliminate,” she wrote, “constitutional protections with the stroke of a pen by proclaiming a civilian, even a criminal civilian, an enemy combatant subject to indefinite military detention.”

These sorts of things are difficult cases and we have a natural gut reaction that bad people ought to be treated badly, differently. The trouble is the job of determining who and how has to be done on a principles and public basis or there is a veering towards a genial sort of authoritarianism where others take care of things you do not know about in ways that you do not understand. They become your betters, too, as a result.

A Moment’s Thought For The Grown-ups Who Govern

Jay and I have been discussing the Atlantic Accord and likely both been making errors all over the place but none as silly as the ones likely being made in the political forum these days:

“I am concerned about this allegation we’ve broken the [Atlantic] accords…We have done no such thing. It’s a contract. We don’t break contracts. We respect contracts. Normally, I expect, if someone says you’ve broken a contract, they are going to follow that up by going to court to make you abide by the contract. But I don’t see that happening…We can’t let that allegation stay out there forever. At some point we will consult tribunals ourselves, if that’s necessary, to get a ruling on our respect for the contracts.” The political dare was met with scorn by Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams and Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald, who said they will not be drawn into legal battles that would only deflect their criticisms of the recent federal budget…

Stephen Scott, a professor of constitutional law at McGill University in Montreal, said the Atlantic Accord is a political arrangement, not a contract, so a lawsuit could not be used to force the federal government to uphold its provisions. But, he said, the premiers could go to their own provincial appeals courts to get orders declaring how the agreement should be interpreted.

So you have the leader of the country daring other leaders into a court case over a legal principle that probably does not exist. Classy or troubling?

But to what political end? Where is a seat one with this approach? Maybe rural Alberta, itself the beneficiaries of the greatest non-reimbursable Federal windfall in Canadian history, will now vote 75% Conservative instead of 70%. But what is a Conservative government without seats in Atlantic Canada? Unless, it takes Ontario – nothing. Is there now a practical resignation to the reality of minority government?

Guess Where This Was Said

Quoted:

Flag waving “causes the fans, at times, to become aggressive toward each other. … It’s a zero tolerance policy…”

A hint can be found below.

La-la land.

Was this all because of soccer? And what would patriotism-whipped Canucks look like anyway? Would they break out a second Crispy Crunch like mad men? Maybe demand maple syrup for their hot dogs?

Group Project: The Problem With Making Up Stuff

By focusing so completely on avoiding international law, by presuming what has gone before is inapplicable or wrong, it’s tough not to mess things up:

…the chief military defense lawyer here, Col. Dwight Sullivan of the Marines, said he viewed the decision as having broad impact because it underscored what he and other critics have described as a commission process that lacks international legitimacy and legal authority. “How much more evidence do we need that the military commission process doesn’t work?” asked Colonel Sullivan.

I am not going to defend Khadr – not so much as the fact that I have no interest in doing so but really because Darcey will call me funny names and then tell all his pals – but what is the value of Canadian citizenship if we don’t lift a finger (even when the UK has tried and Australia has succeeded for its similarly situated citizens), what is the point of speaking out against child soldiers elsewhere when one carrying our passport doesn’t raise the slightest concern? Now as a man and no longer a child – and a man who has likely been indoctrinated in the Cuban jail more than his terrorist father could have ever wished – he is could well be more intent on murder than he was when fighting in Afghanistan. I don’t doubt it myself.

But maybe now it is time to just try them on good old international law or hold them as run of the mill combatant detainees, you know – POWs, seeing as the war in Afghanistan still continues, and move on from trying to prove the situation is unprecedented. Group Project rules apply. Now at five and a half years of the war in Afghanistan, have things gotten to a point where in perspective we see acts on the battlefield were the acts of war rather than the acts of terrorists?

Internet Law We Can All Agree With

There are few things people agree upon as much as the benefits of jailing spammers and it looks like the law caught a biggie:

A man nicknamed the “spam king” for allegedly sending out millions of junk e-mails has been arrested in the US. Robert Soloway, 27, was arrested in Seattle, Washington, after being indicted on charges of mail fraud, identity theft and money laundering. Mr Soloway has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Prosecutors say Mr Soloway became one of the world’s biggest spammers, using computers secretly infected with orders to send out millions of his e-mails.

Fortunately, g-mail has effectively blocked most of the spam he sent me. Yup, it has been quite quiet for a year or two now. But, it is something of a testament to the staff at the Internet that email has not collapsed due to the load of 95% or more of their coal-stoking capacity has gone to sending junk. So here’s to the copytypists and telegraph operators who actually keep the whole thing going despite the acts of the wicked like Mr. Soloway.

Is China Monitoring Dullards?

Maybe it is just a state plan to keep an eye on the yakky dullards amongst the citizenry:

New rules by a Chinese government-backed Internet group maintain strict controls over the country’s bloggers, requiring them to register with their real names and identification cards. The guidelines from the Internet Society of China (http://www.isc.org.cn), a group made up of China’s major Internet companies, contradict state media reports this week claiming that China was considering loosening registration requirements for bloggers to allow anonymous online journaling.

Well, fat chance of that. Given what might be called “unhealthy content” by a blutocrat working in a dictatorship one can only presume that the search to squash it is really just a great make work project. Which may make it more honest: in dictatorships, people are paid to idly read the web while in the free world people are paid while they idly read the web.

What Is Going On This Morning?

That is sort of what this is all about. Wake up. Read the news. Figure out what is whacky and see if I can write something. It’s not so dumb.

It’s a bit interesting that the Prime Minister has used Parliamentary privilege to suspend a court case. I would presume, as an election is not strictly speaking a Parliamentary matter, that the matter is only on hold. Embarrassing if it picks up come the next election. But that is not that interesting unless you have a good set of books on Parliamentary privilege or have access to the factum with the written legal case to nose around in. The Sox and the Mets lost – not interesting even if the Tiger’s pitcher was throwing over 100 miles an hour late in the game. It’s been raining the perfect rain which is interesting now that the basil and tomatoes are up, too. Show soaking rain followed hours later by a nigh of pouring. Everything’ll pop once the sun comes out. Falwell dead. Not interesting though the gayness of Tinky Winky was interesting – best line from a comedian: “show me the gentials!” Canoes are cheaper in the States than in Canada – that is wrong yet interesting and I have to obey the mighty dollar. Please all pray for a high Canadian dollar in the next two weeks. Darwin’s letters now online. What took them so long? Not interesting. Exercise desk? Not. Dark matter found. Feh.

Better go to work.