Day: July 16, 2001

JD Lasica wrote an article about AlterNet which is kind of interesting until AlterNet’s Don Hazen gets going about Tim Wise’s ridiculous article claiming that whites ignore violence in their own community.

Haze says that “Wise’s article would never have appeared in the mainstream media because it was so in-your-face. We try to let writers use language that’s as strong as they need.” Actually it never would have appeared in mainstream media because no editor would have been stupid enough to run such an inane article.

And, isn’t it weird that a nominally Left media outlet is running around saying we need to stop worrying about violence in the black community and spend more of our time obsessing about the relatively small risk faced by white youths? This, of course, already happens in the real world. It is almost pointless to call the police in my neighborhood. Call them from a house a few blocks away, however, and they’ll be there very quickly (I once waited several hours for a cop to show up after reporting a death threat made by my neighbor).

Matt Drudge “reports” that Rush Limbaugh’s agents have negotiated a staggering $250 million deal for his radio show through 2009 which will not only make Limbaugh the highest paid personality in radio history but, as Drudge points out, would put Limbaugh “ahead of the annual salaries for Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Barbara Walters — combined!”

Personally, I don’t care for Limbaugh’s politics, but I think there is more truth to Drudge’s explanation of Limbaugh’s success than most of his opponents would care to admit: “The deal represents a stunning triumph over the establishment by an outsider who connected with and captured the spirit of the nation’s heartland.”

Of course a lot of Limbaugh’s “outsider” status has really evaporated as he’s become more of a Republican insider over the years. I’ve also never understood the criticism from groups and invidiuals who complain about Limbaugh’s iconiclaism or his occasional lapses in accuracy, both of which are true but are Standard Operating Procedure in broadcasting.

CNET has a very scary preview of the upcoming fight between publishers and libraries. Scientific journals such as Nature are already angering librarians with the way they want to handle electronic versions of journals and other publishers are certain to want even more control (and money) than Nature

I have to confess I’m probably the publisher’s worst nightmare when it comes to libraries and copyrights. The university library here subscribes to thousands of publications, and ever month or so I spend an afternoon in there photocopying articles for research I’m doing. I also have a habit of simply photocopying entire books that are out-of-print (but whose copyright has not expired) rather than trying to locate them through used bookstores. I also tend to be a heavy user of the electronic resources provided by the library system. The university provides employees and staff members with free Lexis-Nexis access which to me is a lot like being handed the keys to the candy store.

Even though almost everything I do is covered by fair use provisions, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act empowers publishers to circumvent most fair uses of copyrighted material through copy protection schemes combined with licensing provisions. Today if I want to copy a 10 page article from a journal it costs me a minute or two of time and about 50 cents off my copy card. With the DMCA publishers are clearly moving to a future where I will have to pay not only the 50 cent fee for the physical copying but a $1-2 (or more) per article licensing fee in order to be able to print off the article in the first place.

Not that I have any grand solution in mind as to how you balance protecting the rights of content creators in a world where an electronic book can be zapped instantaneously around the world, but as more and more books and other content become available electronically (and especially available only in electronic form), the DMCA is going to result in a disaster and fundamentally transform for the worse the way people conduct research.

The DMCA needs to be scrapped and replaced with a system that more equitably balances the interests of copyright holders with those of consumers.

In an example of just how separated from reality many African nations’ AIDS policies are, Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi recently urged all Kenyans to completely refrain from sex “even for only two years” to help slow down the pace of the epidemic.

About 11 percent of all adult Kenyans are infected with AIDS and about 700 die from the disease every day. Pressure from religious groups, however, has restricted the options available to fight the disease.

For example, Moi also recently announced that Kenya would import 300 million condoms which immediately brought denunciation from religious and government leaders. Kenyan Catholic Archbishop John Njenga told the East African Standard that, “Committing adultery is against the laws of God and importing condoms will mean that more people will be actively engaged in sex.” Meanwhile a representative of Kenya’s Islamic community, Sheikh Mohamed Dor, said that importing so many condoms was akin to “committing suicide.”

Source:

No sex for two years, Moi urges Kenyan people. Reuters, July 12, 2001.