Archive for November, 2011
Nigele Farage Speech
Friday, November 18th, 2011
Stop SOPA
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
..it makes no difference that no judge has found you guilty of anything or that the DMCA safe harbors would shelter your conduct if the matter ever went to court. Indeed, services that have been specifically found legal, like Rapidshare, could be economically strangled via SOPA. You can file a counter-notice, but you’ve only got 5 days to do it (good luck getting solid legal advice in time) and the payment processors and ad networks have no obligation to respect it in any event. That’s because there are vigilante provisions that grant them immunity for choking off a site if they have a “reasonable belief” that some portion of the site enables infringement.
At a minimum, this means that any service that hosts user generated content is going to be under enormous pressure to actively monitor and filter that content. That’s a huge burden, and worse for services that are just getting started – the YouTubes of tomorrow that are generating jobs today. And no matter what they do, we’re going to see a flurry of notices anyway – as we’ve learned from the DMCA takedown process, content owners are more than happy to send bogus complaints. What happened to Wikileaks via voluntary censorship will now be systematized and streamlined – as long as someone, somewhere, thinks they’ve got an IP right that’s being harmed.
In essence, Hollywood is tired of those pesky laws that help protect innovation, economic growth, and creativity rather than outmoded business models. So they are trying to rewrite the rules, regulate the Internet, and damn the consequences for the rest of us.
Sideline Seats
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
Historic events playing out right in front of us – most generations only have the chance to read about this stuff. Pretty incredible.
Underwater Housing
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
Ludwig von Mises explained that one government intervention leads to an endless succession of interventions to deal with the effects of the first and subsequent interventions. Ultimately, it comes down to two choices. “Either capitalism or socialism: there exists no middle way,” Mises wrote.
Likewise, there is no middle way to solve the housing crisis. For capitalism to work its magic and set underwater homeowners free, mortgage holders must be allowed to fail.
Best blog post I’ve read in a while summing up why we have an underwater homeowner problem, how we shouln’t fix the problem, and how we could.
Hunkering Down
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
“If you haven’t already started hunkering down and preparing for another round of economic angst, you might want to do so now.”
Greece again
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
Greece’s prime minister abandoned his explosive plan to put a European rescue deal to popular vote Thursday, keeping his government alive — but passionate squabbling in Athens left the country’s solvency in doubt and the eurozone in turmoil.
Papandreou sparked a global crisis Monday when he announced he would put the latest European deal to cut Greece’s massive debts — a hard-fought accord that took months of negotiations — to a referendum. The idea horrified other EU nations, Greece’s creditors and financial markets as investors fretted over the prospect of Greece being forced into a disorderly default.
Reminds me of our twice over TARP vote. So much for democracy, the moneyed interests win again, maybe..
The weight of a Kindle book
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
Greece
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
The political troubles of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou mounted on Thursday after his finance minister publicly opposed a plan to tie a referendum to the nation’s membership in the euro zone.
“Greece’s position within the euro area is a historic conquest of the country that cannot be put in doubt … [and this] cannot depend on a referendum,“ said Evangelos Venizelos, Greek finance minister and deputy prime minister, in an early-morning statement issued following his return to Athens from Cannes, France.
Analysts at Danske Bank noted that Papandreou is rapidly losing support, which may open the door for a unity government.
“A unity government passing the austerity package as well as general elections seem plausible outcomes,” they said. ”Both scenarios imply that no referendum will take place.”
Shouldn’t the people of Greece have a say in this? Apparently not, according to some.
