-
The Canonization of St.Bill
by
Andrew Orlowski
–
If William Henry Gates the Third’s philanthropic work leads to him being canonized one day as the first secular saint of our times, I won’t stand in the way of the celebrations. Geeks get things very out of proportion, and the value of saving even one life should be more apparent to everyone than the…
-
“The EFF has handed the RIAA an arsenal of legal arguments for opposing blanket licenses”
by
Andrew Orlowski
–
Should a miracle occur, and the opposing parties in the P2P war sit down and adopt the EFF’s “Voluntary Collective Licensing” proposal, then the enabling legislation would look a lot like HR.5553. Which suggests this isn’t just a tactical goof, but a strategic error – the consequence of not thinking really hard about the future.…
-
RIAA, EFF unite to sabotage digital reform
by
Andrew Orlowski
–
Sometimes, you just can’t win. A proposal to speed up the clearance of mechanical copyright for broadcasters and digital media services has been met with hysteria from lobby groups who complain that copyright clearance today is too cumbersome and slow. It’s an issue that’s been intensely discussed since it was first proposed two years ago…
-
Neurosis as a lifestyle: remixing revisited
by
Andrew Orlowski
–
“We stand on the last promontory of the centuries! Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the impossible ? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed” – Fillippo Marinetti, 1909 When a year ago…
-
Junk science – the oil of the new web
by
Andrew Orlowski
–
There’s a case to made that James Surowecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds is the most influential book of the decade – The Selfish Gene for the noughties. Both have something else in common: the title of each book is profoundly misleading. Crowds aren’t wise, nor can genes be selfish – as one critic famously wrote,…