Monthly Archives: February 2004

Cory Doctorow Enriches the Commons

Posted on February 4, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Cory Doctorow has just made his new book, Eastern Standard Tribe available for download in a variety of formats.

This is the second novel I've made available as a free download (the first, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times and sold like hell). I'm delighted to do it a second time.

Here's the deal: I don't believe that there's any market-demand for teasers or for “Digital Rights Management” technology: none of you woke up this morning and said, “Damn, I wish there was a way I could get less of the books I enjoy and a way I could do less with them once I have them.” My goal here is to figure out what people actually want out of electronically delivered text, and so I'm giving this novel to you …

A note for downloaders: download this book. Enjoy it. If you feel so motivated, drop me a note and tell me how you used it and what you thought (and forgive me if I don't get back to you!). If you want to, go ahead and buy a copy and I'll get my royalty. But there's no obligation on you to buy it if you've read — you're not ripping me off — and forgive me, but I'm not interested in “tipjar” payments — I'm not in competition with my publisher here. Thanks for understanding, and I hope you enjoy the book.

Posted in Internet | 1 Comment

Something New to Worry About: Loss-of-Identity Theft

Posted on February 4, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

The ever-wonderful RISKS Digest brings warnings of Loss of Identity Theft

I was recently the executor of a relative's estate and was shocked to discover that I was able to cancel his private health insurance, his veteran's health benefits, one dozen credit cards, and all of his retirement direct deposit payments with simple phone calls. At no time did anyone ask me to prove that I was who I said I was or whether I had executor power over his estate. I simply presented a plausible sounding story, knew his social security number and his account numbers and was able to close his accounts over the phone. To make it even more interesting our last names are not even the same!

Posted in Law: Privacy | Comments Off on Something New to Worry About: Loss-of-Identity Theft

New Blog on Catholic Legal Theory

Posted on February 3, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Say hello to the Mirror of Justice, a new blog “dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.”

The impressive (but maybe slightly right-leaning?) list of founder members say they don't always agree on matters of politics and even Church, but are united in that,

We all believe that faith-based discourse is entirely legitimate in the academy and in the public square, and that religious values need not be bracketed in academic or public conversation.

…

This blog will not focus primarily on the classic constitutional questions of Church and State, although some of our members are interested in those questions and may post on them from time to time. We are more interested in tackiling the larger jurisprudential questions and in discussing how Catholic thought and belief should influence the way we think about corporate law, products liability or capital punishment or any other problem in or area of the law.

Sounds like a conversation I'll enjoy eavesdropping on.

Just one request, though: please could you add an RSS feed?

Posted in Blogs, Legal Philosophy | Comments Off on New Blog on Catholic Legal Theory

The AWOL Issue Is On the Agenda

Posted on February 3, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

My brother's White House Briefing column today reports that Questions About Bush's Guard Service have “become a mainstream issue.” If it wasn't before, it is after this column, and the Post's fairly tame article by Lois Romano (assisted by the notorious Ceci Connolly, traveling with Kerry—expect him to be Gore'd any day now!—and researchers Don Puhlman and Lucy Shackelford in Washington).

I think these five, count them five, Post staffers all left out one fairly central point: GW Bush could presumably clear up this entire controversy in one minute, simply by authorizing the full release of his military records—something every major party candidate who was a verteran has done for the last few decades. Every single one, except GW Bush.

Who of course has nothing to hide.

Incidentally, I'd also like to know who had access to the records over the years, in case any documents are, say, missing, or contain serial numbers suggesting they were inserted out of sequence, both of which are allegations that are floating around. I'm sure the Pentagon keeps that sort of access record.

Posted in Dan Froomkin, Politics: US | Comments Off on The AWOL Issue Is On the Agenda

New Flash: A Congressional Democrat Finds His Spine!

Posted on February 3, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

In Congressman Urges Vote-Buying Inquiry the Washington Post reports that,

Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), the House majority whip, said the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct should open a probe into statements by Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.) that GOP colleagues offered to funnel donations to his son's congressional campaign if Smith voted for the Medicare bill — and threatened to work against the son's bid if Smith voted against it

This is fairly nuclear, since,

His comments appear to undo an informal truce between Republicans and Democrats on ethics matters. Under a 1997 rule change, only members of Congress are allowed to make formal ethics complaints. On some occasions in recent years, the House ethics panel has acted only after criminal courts rendered judgments against members.

Of course, the Post really buried the leed, since the article contains the bombshell disclosure that the same government which can open a Breast Investigation in minutes, and promise to prosecute it quickly, can't find a Congressman to interview him even after six weeks have passed:

The Justice Department said in December that it was reviewing complaints filed by the Democratic National Committee and two independent groups about Smith's assertions. But Smith's chief of staff, Kurt Schmautz, said the congressman — who has promised to cooperate with any official inquiry — has not been interviewed by the Justice Department.

Posted in Politics: US | Comments Off on New Flash: A Congressional Democrat Finds His Spine!

Promotion to Marsupial

Posted on February 3, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

It seems that Discourse.net is no longer a mere “Adorable Little Rodent” in the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem but (temporarily at least) a (lesser) Maurauding Marsupial. I think that sounds a lot nicer.

TLB's amusing ranking system is based on the number of inbound links from participants. The lowest category are mere Insignificant Microbes, then Multicellular Microorganisms, Wiggly Worms, Crunchy Crustaceans, Lowly Insects, Slimy Molluscs, Flippery Fish, Crawly Amphibians, Slithering Reptiles. I think that by the time I found the site, discourse.net qualified to be one of the Flappy Birds.

It took four mounths for inbound links from TLB members to double from 33 to 66. Does that mean if all goes well it will only be another four months to break 100 and join the “Large Mammals”? (Note that this works, more or less, if one assumes linear growth or sees this as time-to-double, not that there's the least reason to believe either is in the cards; one must plateau at some point.) I certainly would be radically shocked if I ever got beyond the TLB “large mammal” stage, categories that include the highly linked “Playful Primates,” the very highly linked “Mortal Humans” and the mega-linked “Higher Beings,” although it's nice to see Brad DeLong is an actual “human”.

Now if I could just figure out how to get the TLB system to include me in its traffic rankings, discourse.net might just scrape into the top 250 or so….

Posted in Discourse.net | 2 Comments