Following up on yesterday’s brief reference to Jaron Lanier’s editorial in the New York Times, we find the same theme echoed in this coverage by Emma Green at The Atlantic. Green writes about an event at which authors E.L. Doctorow and David Simon also raised concerns regarding the disconnect between overreacting to stories about government surveillance while remaining unconcerned with ...
Once again, computer scientist, author, and musician Jaron Lanier passionately addresses ways in which digital age toys and apps offer illusions of empowerment and greater freedom while in fact limiting both. This article was shared by reader Mike Katell, who also offered a thoughtful comment in response to my post as to why I’m not losing sleep over the revelations ...
As the one-year anniversary of this blog approaches, I’m launching a Facebook page and proposing the following: Why my 457 Facebook Friends should pay attention to copyright review. I counted, and it turns out that at least 53% of you are direct or indirect beneficiaries of the copyright system in the United States. Among you are several copyright holders; several ...
Here’s one way the Web is being used by a group of young artists in collaboration with one of the “evil” big media companies: MTVu created a challenge campaign called “Against Our Will,” asking students to submit creative concepts to highlight the problems of modern-day slavery. The winning entry came from students at James Madison university and grew into an ...
In response to the tragedy in Newtown, CT the idea was raised by news commentators and in the blogosphere that the names of people who commit heinous crimes should be de-publicized in order to deny them even a posthumous fame we believe to be a constituent of their twisted motives. It is hard to imagine, though, that even if we ...
