In the Constitution of the United States of America, we find the following statement that calls upon the Congress of the United States to be granted the power: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to …

When I was at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign", I took a large number of economics courses, spanning everything from macro and micro to 300-level ag. ec. courses. Perhaps our current President needs to pay some attention to my professors' claims that "free trade benefits everyone." Unfortunately, he …

In this morning's L.A. Times there is an editorial by Janis Ian about the RIAA and their counter-productive attempts to "help" musicians by thwarting MP3 downloads. The 40-year veteran of the recording industry indicates that merchandise sales rose over 300% after recordings were made available in MP3 format online …

Quoting from the action alert at the EFF, "Representatives Rick Boucher and John Doolittle recently re-introduced the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA, H.R. 107), which would enact labeling requirements for usage-impaired "copy- protected" compact discs, as well as several amendments to 1998's infamous Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA …

I'd encourage everyone to read this article on Salon.com. The piece is from a long-time record executive (John Snyder is president of Artist House Records), who has done a superb job of putting together a coherent piece on copyright, file sharing, and the music industry's fight to keep themselves …

According to a new report from the California Highway Patrol, reported on by the San Jose Mercury- News in this article, cellular phone use is the leading cause of car accidents that are due to driver distraction. Further, in the past week, researchers in Utah have determined that speaking on …

According to a story in the Boston Globe, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has finally started to come to its senses over some of the meaningless patents that are being filed. So far, the area is the Human Genome and they have decided to actually require people filing …

A good article from the PBS web site goes through some ideas for fighting SBC's newly found patent on linking that the PTO so graciously issued to them in 1996... yeah, no prior art there...

As was written in the first week of January, I've been looking for a high- quality photo printer. At MacWorld, I was repeatedly told that the right printer to get was the Epson Stylus Photo 2200, with its 80-year archival inks and beautiful black and white reproduction, it seemed like …

Illegal Art is a museum exhibit showing in Chicago for the next month or so that is designed to exhibit items that have generated controversy due to intellectual property concerns. Subtitled Freedom of Expression in the Corporate Age, the exhibit contains a wide variety of material in video, print, and …

Once again, a great article in The Economist covers the copyright issue with a sane, but radical proposal in Copyrights: A radical rethink. In short, their suggestion is to return the copyright system to its origins and get it back to helping the little guy, not the behemoth.

The Washington Post has an article that appropriately eulogizes the animal that fathered many of the surviving Whooping Cranes and was the center of the movement to provide support for the endangered birds in the U.S. and Canada. More information on the work to recuperate the population of Whooping …

The Washington Post has an article today detailing the follow-up to a cell-phone powered cheating scheme at the University of Maryland that has landed 12 students in trouble with the school's Honor policy. It appears that the students are using friends, cell phones and SMS to communicate answers from outside …

The band Phish, already known as being the most wired band in the world (courtesy of Rolling Stone Magazine), has initiated a new service that allows phans to download soundboard-quality music just days after a concert. The service, known as LivePhish charges between 10 and 13 dollars, dependent upon the …

In a stunning departure from the kinds of lawsuits that make you unable to eat, a judge has dismissed the case against McDonald's that claimed the food giant was responsible for obese patrons' obesity. The suit, brought in New York, claimed that McDonald's had done too much to make its …

According to an article on CNN's Money section, Democratic Congressman Joe Baca is preparing to introduce a modified version of the bill proposed last year as the "The Protect Children from Video Game Sex and Violence Act".

I'm not here to tell anyone how to think about this, or even ask anyone's opinion. However, the Economist has an excellent article about the mechanics of the debate and attempts to explain why this divisive issue still looms large over American politics. I think that whatever "side" you are …

Leave it to the UK's Daily Mail to fire the latest salvo in a war of words with the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. At issue is the paper's right to publish a story about Mr. Schroeder's possible romantic connection with a "TV Presenter" in Germany. According to this story on …

Scientists believe they have figured out the relationship of certain proteins to the implantation of embryos, according to a story on Health Central. The parent article (paid access only) appears in the January 17 issue of Science magazine. As the scientists explain the process, attractive forces between proteins that cover …

In this interesting story in the Washington Post, the congress is appealing to a private holding company in Arlington (NTP) to let the Blackberry stay alive. Apparently, the Blackberry is in violation of patents owned by the company and now the company wants to shut the service down and license …