Friday, April 12, 2002
Electronic Frontier Foundation Honors Pioneer Award Winners
The online civil liberties group chose to honor Dan Gillmor for his commitment to accurate and cutting edge reporting on cybertech issues.
Dave Winer
Congrats to Dan Gillmor on winning the EFF Pioneer award.
Google's API: Where the Web is Heading
Dan Gillmor
The Google API is a simple, and obvious, Web service. Obvious, that is, now that they've done it.
- Google Web APIs
- Rael Dornfest - Google Web API.
- Slashdot - Google Releases Web APIs.
- Dave Winer - What does the Google API mean for regular folks?
- Metafilter
- Using the Google API with Radio and Frontier
Google Begins Making DMCA Takedowns Public
Attention DMCA lawyers: Try to remove a web site from Google's index and you'll probably just make it more popular.
Discussion at Slashdot.
- Google Asked to Delist Scientology Critics
- Scientology Complaint to Google #2
- Scientology Complaint to Google #3
The Bush Administration's "Drugs = Terrorism" Fraud
James Bovard
Drug laws are far more effective at putting profit into narcotics than law enforcement is at taking the profit out. [ ... ] While drugs can leave a person in the gutter, they do not destroy 110-story buildings.
The Road to Serfdom in Cartoons
Reproduced from a booklet published by General Motors, Detroit in the "Thought Starter" series (no. 118).
General Motors? Huh?
Sharon Orders Bush to Withdraw from Afghanistan
Concluding his remarks at a Palestinian Chamber of Commerce dinner, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon surprised the three-member audience when he announced that Operation Enduring Freedom had run its course, and therefore the United States, in the name of peace, must withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
"Israel recognizes the rights of sovereign states to defend themselves from terror," Sharon said, "but the World Trade Center atrocity occurred nearly seven months ago, there have been no further such incidents in the U.S., and the American incursion into Afghanistan is no longer helpful. Meanwhile, as a result of America's aggression, Afghani families have had their homes destroyed and innocent Afghani civilians have lost their lives."
BTW, the above linked article is satire...
Blue Screen of Death
The infamous Blue Screen of Death, documented for your viewing pleasure.
Law says he will stay on as archbishop of Boston
Res isting calls for his resignation from lay leaders and rank-and-file Catholics, Cardinal Bernard Law announced today that he will stay as archbishop of Boston despite the widening clergy sexual abuse scandal, the Globe has learned.
IBM and Microsoft have been quietly busy behind the scenes for the last two years building a toll booth that could position the two companies to collect royalties on most if not all Internet traffic.
Develop Your Own Applications Using Google
With the Google Web APIs service, software developers can query more than 2 billion web documents directly from their own computer programs. Google uses the SOAP and WSDL standards so a developer can program in his or her favorite environment — such as Java, Perl, or Visual Studio .NET.
Discussion at Slashdot.
Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
Anecdotal evidence suggests that some individuals and corporations are using intellectual property and other laws to silence other online users. Chilling Effects encourages respect for intellectual property law, while frowning on its misuse to "chill" legitimate activity.
RIAA Comment On Gateway Ad Endorsing Music Downloading
Hilary Rosen
The Gateway commercial is fun, but their website is nothing but a gateway to misinformation. No one has proposed anything that would "prevent all digital copying." If Gateway truly believed that illegal copying hurts all artists and labels who make the music we enjoy, they wouldn't be relying on these misleading scare tactics — they'd be working with us to find a solution to the piracy problem. If only they would devote a little bit of the millions of dollars they're spending on this ad campaign to help stop illegal downloading ...but that wouldn't help them sell more CD burners, would it?
Jenny Levine
The RIAA's proposed solution is fun, but their website is nothing but a gateway to misinformation. No one has proposed anything that would "prevent a digital music industry." If the RIAA truly believed that illegal copying hurts all artists and labels who make the music we enjoy, they wouldn't be relying on these misleading scare tactics — they'd be working with us to find a solution to the problem of how to pay artists fair compensation. If only they would devote a little bit of the millions of dollars they're spending on lawyers and elected officials to start providing actual digital content ...but that wouldn't help them sell more CDs, would it?
