Today's links
- The Mafia hires good accountants: Honest cheaters enable the mob.
- This day in history: 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Pluralistic: 31 Jan 2022
Today's links
- Grappling with Big Wrestling: Vince McMahon has a monopoly on violence.
- Podcasting about the copyleft trolls who tried to shake me down: Pixsy and the depravity of speculative invoicing.
- This day in history: 2002, 2012, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
The Inevitability of Trusted Third Parties
The search for a crypto use-case continues
“Did you know that 87% of all conversations about blockchain technology are nonconsensual?”
It’s already an old joke, but it’s sure aged well.
Hardly a day goes by without someone demanding that I listen to their explanation of their blockchain idea. A lot of times, I listen. Look, a lot of people I consider to be smart and thoughtful are really excited by this stuff, and I know them well enough to believe them when they say they’re not excited about the possibility that they can get in on the ground floor of a Ponzi scheme and exit with a bunch of suckers’ money.
Continue reading "The Inevitability of Trusted Third Parties"
Pluralistic: 30 Jan 2022
Today's links
- The battle for Ring Zero: The esoteric argument I have been having with myself since 2002.
- This day in history: 2002, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Pluralistic: 29 Jan 2022
Today's links
- No, payday lenders aren't nice guys: Won't someone think of the poor usurers?
- The Right to Repair: A stupendous new book on a very urgent subject.
- This day in history: 2002, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Pluralistic: 28 Jan 2022
Today's links
- California's chance for universal health care: It would save taxpayers trillions.
- This day in history: 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Pluralistic: 27 Jan 2022
Today's links
- As stocks tumble, wealthy speculators bid up house prices: The long-run effect of Obama's choice to bail out lenders, not borrowers.
- Cops' imaginary fears send addicts to real jail: The deadly myth of the fentanyl contact high.
- This day in history: 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
A Bug in Early Creative Commons Licenses Has Enabled a New Breed of Superpredator
Copyleft trolls, robosigning, and Pixsy.
Here’s a supreme irony: the Creative Commons licenses were invented to enable a culture of legally safe sharing, spurred by the legal terror campaign waged by the entertainment industry, led by a literal criminal predator who is now in prison for sex crimes.
But because of a small oversight in old versions of the licenses created 12 years ago, a new generation of legal predator has emerged to wage a new campaign of legal terror.
To make matters worse, this new kind of predator specifically targets people who operate in good faith, only using materials that they explicitly have been given permission to use.
What a mess.
Continue reading "A Bug in Early Creative Commons Licenses Has Enabled a New Breed of Superpredator"
The Internet Heist (Part III)
We are family
Note: This is Part III in a series; Part I is here, Part II is here.
Even today, I can’t tell if the entertainment execs and their tech collaborators that I sparred with in the DRM wars were brilliant schemers or overconfident fools.
When these men — almost all men — set out to create laws that would give their corporations a collective veto over which programs all computers could run, and which real-world data could be captured by computers, were they really doing it all for the sake of controlling how we watch TV? Or did they grasp just how this power over our digital tools would translate into control over our lives in an increasingly digital era?
I still don’t know. It’s easy to believe in unlimited corporate hubris, but it’s just as easy to believe in unlimited corporate foolishness. What’s more, it’s possible that some of the players were along for the ride, while others had a very precise understanding of the stakes.
What were those stakes?
Well, for starters, how about the definition of “the family.”
Pluralistic: 10 Jan 2022
Today's links
- Personnel are policy: The Dems may do something to materially improve voters' lives. Maybe.
- Podcasting "Science fiction is a Luddite Literature": My last pre-op podcast.
- This day in history: 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading