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Wednesday, August 21, 2002
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Larry responds to Dave
Lessig's response to Winer and McCullough: Geeks *do* need to get active. Dave Winer's been running an editorial on his blog, damning Lawrence Lessig for claiming that geeks have yet to accomplish anything politically. Larry's taken time off from working on one of the most important Supreme Court copyright challenges in the history of America to write this very cogent response:
When I said at OSCON that "We've done nothing yet," what I meant (and I thought this was obvious) is that we've done nothing politically yet. We have yet to build a political movement to resist those who would use law to kill what you, and others, built when you, and others, built the net. That claim I still stand behind. There is no political movement that has punished, the way democracies punish, the likes of Berman, et al. And there's no political movement yet that adequately rewards the likes of Boucher, Cannon, and Hank Perritt.
You say there "will" be. Great. Here's hoping. But I was talking about what there is -- now, when the worst legislation we've seen so far is being bounced around DC like it's apple pie. Right now we have a culture where the most creative and important builders of freedom in the 21st century have zero political savvy and (so far) zero political effect. Part of the reason for this is good sense: obviously, your talents are for building the technical infrastructure for freedom that we call the Net. But part of the reason is the continuing reign of Declan-like banalities--about how you don't need to waste time getting democracies to protect freedom, that politics can be left to people in dc, that geeks should worry about west coast code not east coast code, etc. (My favorite line from the Declan missive was: "Would you rather see Ian Clarke start a certain-to-be-ignored postcard campaign instead of inventing such a beautifully disruptive technology as Freenet?" Gee, I guess not. And I guess on that reasoning, Ian should also stop going to movies, because if we've got to choose between the next great "beautifully disruptive technology" and movies, well...)
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(via Vertical Hold) [Boing Boing Blog]
9:58:03 AM 
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Wrapped around my finger?
Turning corpses into diamonds. A new process can turn your loved ones' remains into diamonds.
A company based in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village has accepted its first deposit for manufactured diamonds made from carbon captured during the cremation process so that loved ones -- family members or even pets -- could be mounted into a ring, pendant or other jewelry.
A small number of U.S. funeral homes, including four in the Chicago area, have signed up to offer memorial diamonds produced by Life Gem. The cost will depend on the size of the gem, starting at $4,000 for a quarter-carat.
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(Thanks, Bradley!) [Boing Boing Blog]
9:54:43 AM
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© Copyright 2002 deeje.
Last update: 2002-09-04; 13:30:46.
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