Monday, March 21, 2005

A Terri Schiavo Aggregator. It's an echo chamber, to be sure, but ProLifeBlogs.com's Terri Schiavo aggregator demonstrates what committed people can do in a hurry, with low-cost tools. Jan Frel explains more here. UPDATE: By the way, I agree almost entirely with what Scott Rosenberg writes here, notably, "(E)veryone who doesn't want George Bush and Congress to overrule relatives, doctors and courts to make those bedside end-of-life decisions for them needs to draw up that living will, pronto." [Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc.] 11:09:58 PM    comment []

Black Coaches in N.B.A. Have Shorter Tenures. In a pattern that has gone largely unnoticed, white N.B.A. coaches have been holding on to their jobs for significantly longer than black coaches. By DAVID LEONHARDT and FORD FESSENDEN. [NYT > Sports] 11:09:43 PM    comment []

Five from BNA News: EU MAY FINE MICROSOFT $5 MILLION PER DAY IN ANTITRUST CASE European regulators plan to decide within two weeks whether to start fining Microsoft as much as about $5 million a day for failing to comply with antitrust orders. That informal deadline was set after the European Commission last week said Microsoft was in defiance of a March 2004 order to license certain software codes to competitors under "reasonable and nondiscriminatory" terms. NEW ACCOUNTABILITY NEEDED FOR INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS My weekly Law Bytes column argues that it is time to re-examine the self-regulatory, hands-off approach to ISPs. While I acknowledge that content regulation is unworkable and dangerous, increased accountability for the carrier function may be needed. In support, I note the lack of broadband competition, the potential ISP hostility toward network neutrality, the free rider problem in the inconsistent ISP fight against spam, and the critical ISP role as guardians of personal information. Toronto Star version (reg required) Non-registration, hyperlinked version FCC TO SUSPEND STATE RULES ON TYING NET ACCESS WITH PHONE The FCC is expected to suspend state public utility rules that force BellSouth to let customers buy its high-speed Internet service without having to also sign up for its local phone offering. The Commission will reportedly suspend public utility commission regulations in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, California and Louisiana that forced Bellsouth to sell DSL, or digital subscriber line, service separate from its local phone service. MAINE CT. ISSUES DECISION ON IDENTIFYING ANONYMOUS POSTERS The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has released its decision in Fitch v. Doe, ruling that a plaintiff who claimed that he had been injured by an anonymous Internet user could enforce a subpoena to identify the person who sent the email. The defendant had sent the email in the plaintiff's own name, and the plaintiff claimed that this constituted both identity theft and other torts under state law. Decision TRIO BUILDS BACK DOOR INTO ITUNES A trio of independent programmers has released new software that allows people to tap into Apple Computer's iTunes music store and purchase songs free of any anticopying protections. Joined by Jon Johansen, the Norwegian programmer responsible for distributing DVD-cracking code in late 1999, the programmers say their "PyMusique" software is a "fair" interface for iTunes, primarily aimed at allowing people who use the Linux operating system to purchase music from Apple's store. On that last story, see also these items from earlier coverage at A blog doesn't need a clever name: on Jon Johansen and QTFairUse from 2003, on the PlayFair (Hymn) FairPlay crack last year, and about the PyMusique interface last week. 10:45:39 AM    comment []

Possible to Be Too Connected?. Wade Roush's weblog has James Surowiecki's talk,"Independent Individuals and Wise Crowds,or Is It Possible to Be Too Connected?",that he gave at O'Reilly Emerging Technologies conference in San Diego."The wisdom of crowds works well when there is a true answer, and as long as some choices are better than others.The key is that people are mostly working on their private information,which may not be good, may be fragmented,but it is diverse. Collective wisdom does not emerge out of consensus.The goal is not to get everyone to agree "it's to tap into people who disagree,into the diverse information everybody has". James Surowiecki on the Unwisdom of Crowds [Smart Mobs] 6:10:20 AM    comment []