Because some things never go out of style... and some things should.
Saw that the Feral Cities article from the Naval War College is making the rounds again. Can't say I'm surprised, watching and reading the news. We're seeing more and more places around the globe descending into warlord-run city-states. Coups, juntas, insurgents, lawlessness, might making right... so much of it was laid out in black and white years ago (the article is from 2003, and I've been reading other stuff from the mid-90s and earlier), how could we not have seen it coming? How could we possibly be surprised that things have gotten this bad and are only getting worse?
Oh, wait, not everyone is surprised.
That information has been around for a while. Coupled with the original warnings from people in the know, it should be pretty clear that going into Iraq--or at least going into Iraq the way we did--was your prototypical bad idea.
Speaking of bad ideas, Cory Doctorow has a bit about Disney and copyright over at Boing Boing. It's short and sweet, as much of his stuff is, but it hits the nail right on the head.
Almost all the movies made when the first Mickey cartoon was made are rotting and running to slime. No one can bring them back to life because they can't even figure out who they belong to, 78 years after the fact. Why should all of those movies vanish so that you, Disney, can go on making money off of less than one percent of the creative works from the 1920s?
Therein lies the problem with the ever-extending copyright laws. They favor those things that will be perpetuated by their corporate interests regardless of anything else and leave the little things--the independent creation that never had the big resources behind it--languishing in the dark. That, in turn can prevent many small-time creators from ever finding an audience, even long after their deaths, because no one can legally get their creations out into the light of day.
Yes, copyright is a complex issue. Just like international politics. But both have their visionaries--those who can see clearly and far into the future. What we have to wonder, though, is which side are the loudest visionaries on?
Do we choose to listen to the ones warning us of the problems ahead, or the ones that only tell of the wonderful, fuzzy goodness that lies at the end of their rose-colored path?
Oh, wait, not everyone is surprised.
That information has been around for a while. Coupled with the original warnings from people in the know, it should be pretty clear that going into Iraq--or at least going into Iraq the way we did--was your prototypical bad idea.
Speaking of bad ideas, Cory Doctorow has a bit about Disney and copyright over at Boing Boing. It's short and sweet, as much of his stuff is, but it hits the nail right on the head.
Almost all the movies made when the first Mickey cartoon was made are rotting and running to slime. No one can bring them back to life because they can't even figure out who they belong to, 78 years after the fact. Why should all of those movies vanish so that you, Disney, can go on making money off of less than one percent of the creative works from the 1920s?
Therein lies the problem with the ever-extending copyright laws. They favor those things that will be perpetuated by their corporate interests regardless of anything else and leave the little things--the independent creation that never had the big resources behind it--languishing in the dark. That, in turn can prevent many small-time creators from ever finding an audience, even long after their deaths, because no one can legally get their creations out into the light of day.
Yes, copyright is a complex issue. Just like international politics. But both have their visionaries--those who can see clearly and far into the future. What we have to wonder, though, is which side are the loudest visionaries on?
Do we choose to listen to the ones warning us of the problems ahead, or the ones that only tell of the wonderful, fuzzy goodness that lies at the end of their rose-colored path?