Jack Valenti says he and his movie-industry employers are all for compromise in the copyright wars. But the solutions they advocate for an admittedly tough dilemma, copyright infringement, are grossly one-sided.

A week ago in this column, after visiting Valenti in his Washington office, I did my best to faithfully reflect the position of the lobbying organization he heads, the Motion Picture Association of America. Now it's my turn.

Saying you believe in compromise is one thing. Acting like it is another.

[ ... ]

The major media/entertainment companies believe that control of information -- absolute control over how it can be used -- belongs to the owner of the copyright. They insist, moreover, that copyrights should be able to last indefinitely.

[ ... ]

11:13:44 PM    

Pax Americana. American capitalist colonialism. American imperialism. American empire. At a time when the better part of intellectual thinking has analyzed and picked apart in great detail the exploitation and cultural violence inflicted by colonial empires, our bone-headed government, in its infinite wisdom and president with a single brain cell operating have decided global empire is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

God save us all from absolute power, corrupting absolutely. God save us from the gulag-totalitarian states of amerika.

Don't listen to my dumb ass. The editorial below should be required reading.

Miasma

ajc.com | Opinion | Bush's real goal in Iraq [Daypop Top 40]

The official story on Iraq has never made sense. The connection that the Bush administration has tried to draw between Iraq and al-Qaida has always seemed contrived and artificial. In fact, it was hard to believe that smart people in the Bush administration would start a major war based on such flimsy evidence.

[...]

In essence, it lays out a plan for permanent U.S. military and economic domination of every region on the globe, unfettered by international treaty or concern. And to make that plan a reality, it envisions a stark expansion of our global military presence.

"The United States will require bases and stations within and beyond Western Europe and Northeast Asia," the document warns, "as well as temporary access arrangements for the long-distance deployment of U.S. troops."

The report's repeated references to terrorism are misleading, however, because the approach of the new National Security Strategy was clearly not inspired by the events of Sept. 11. They can be found in much the same language in a report issued in September 2000 by the Project for the New American Century, a group of conservative interventionists outraged by the thought that the United States might be forfeiting its chance at a global empire.

"At no time in history has the international security order been as conducive to American interests and ideals," the report said. stated two years ago. "The challenge of this coming century is to preserve and enhance this 'American peace.' "

10:44:48 PM    

[...]

There is the very deep notion of private property in our culture, that if you own it, you can do what you want with it," said William G. Staples, a University of Kansas sociology professor who has written two books about surveillance. "That has contributed to the proliferation of surveillance cameras on the private side. It is only since Sept. 11 that the public side has been catching up with what the private sector has been doing for a long time."

There has been much discussion since Sept. 11 of the growing role of government as Big Brother, with law enforcement agencies turning to tools like face-recognition technology at airports and closed-circuit television systems in public buildings. But Professor Staples and other surveillance experts suggest the general debate should include "Tiny Brothers," a term he and others use to describe the many private security cameras that most people quietly tolerate or do not think about.

Tiny Brothers might be less known, but they disturb people who worry about civil liberties.

"I don't know if we want to uncover everything that goes on," Professor Staples said. "The cameras function as a net-widening effect, catching all kinds of activities they may not have been intended to catch. Those cameras in the parking lot could zoom over someone in a romantic tryst in a car. Do we really want to know all of this?"

The Security Industry Association estimates that at least two million closed-circuit television systems are in the United States. A survey of Manhattan in 1998 by the American Civil Liberties Union found 2,397 cameras fixed on places where people pass or gather, like stores and sidewalks. All but 270 were operated by private entities, the organization reported. CCS International, a company that provides security and monitoring services, calculated last year that the average person was recorded 73 to 75 times a day in New York City.

"We went out and counted every camera we could find," said Arielle Jamil, a company spokeswoman. "Some have dummy cameras, but the real one is looking at you from a different direction."

Here in Porterville, four cameras are mounted above the entrance to Wal-Mart. Mervyn's has one outside and one inside its front door. Some dangle above the tellers in banks on Olive Avenue, and others capture images of visitors and patients strolling the halls at Sierra View District Hospital. The town's biggest employer, the Wal-Mart Distribution Center, has cameras perched like pigeons on its warehouses.

The list goes on, and it is growing. For about a year, Tom Barcellos, a dairy farmer, has had them watching his employees in a milking parlor on the outskirts of town. A few months ago he turned to the videotapes to resolve a dispute that had ended in a shoving match between two employees. Pleased with the result, Mr. Barcellos is adding cameras to monitor what goes on outdoors on his farm, which has about 800 cows.

[...]

The Sept. 11 attacks might also have created a sense that it is unpatriotic to oppose surveillance. In Quincy, Calif., a tiny mountain town in rural Plumas County, a three-term county supervisor is facing a recall by his constituents because of his stance on surveillance cameras. The supervisor, Robert A. Meacher, unplugged some surveillance equipment set up by the sheriff's department at a music festival last July. It was apparently intended to monitor drug sales.

[...]

"The very fact that you raise a question makes you suspect, makes you anti-American," Mr. Meacher said. "It's, `Whose side are you on?' It shouldn't be like that. I can't help but think of the Buffalo Springfield song: `Step out of line, and the man comes and takes you away.'
10:15:38 PM    

New York Times - free registration required Justice Dept. Denounces Secret Court on Wiretaps. The Justice Department has accused the nation's super-secret wiretap court of improperly trying to "micromanage" the workings of the executive branch, possibly in violation of the Constitution.

In new court papers, the department also said it was entitled to expanded powers to conduct wiretaps and other surveillance of people suspected of terrorism or espionage.

Attorney General John Ashcroft made the arguments earlier this week in seeking to overturn a ruling last May by the secret tribunal, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which is responsible for reviewing wiretap requests in terrorism and espionage cases.

In that ruling, the court unanimously rejected a request from the Bush administration to break down many of the procedural barriers between criminal prosecutors at the Justice Department and counterintelligence agents at the F.B.I. The department argued that it was entitled to the new authority under the sweeping antiterrorism bill passed by Congress as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The department has appealed the court's ruling to an equally secret appeals panel, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. The case is now before the appeals court and is being described by legal scholars and civil liberties groups as a potentially historic clash over the government's police powers in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

10:01:14 PM    

Association of Research Libraries, Washington, DC - Safeguarding Our Patron's Privacy Teleconference. What Every Librarian Needs to Know about the USA PATRIOT Act & Related Anti-Terrorism Measures It costs money but sites can allow guests(they are not required) if they desire

LLRX.com - Library Records Post-Patriot Act (Federal Law).

9:30:42 PM