Davos Newbies Home

Eldred 

Larry Lessig has a heartfelt response to losing the Eldred copyright case in the US Supreme Court 7-2. “I have often wondered whether it would ever be possible to lose a case and yet smell victory in the defeat. I’m not yet convinced it’s possible. But if there is any good that might come from my loss, let it be the anger and passion that now gets to swell against the unchecked power that the Supreme Court has said Congress has.”

End of the two-state solution 

Tom Friedman provides a grim analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: “The conflict is entering a terrible new phase: the beginning of the end of the two-state solution.”

Technology and magic 

Jim McGee has some fascinating thoughts on the distinctions between technology and magic. “There is a two-cultures divide between those who accept magical explanations and those who want to take the black box apart.”

Another slap at weblogs 

I don’t really understand the point of Brendan O’Neill‘s essay arguing against the significance of weblogs.

It’s easy to argue, as he does, that weblogs are not the most significant innovation in publishing since the printing press. What he doesn’t deal with, however, are the many areas in which weblogs are changing the nature of journalism. He seems ignorant of the well-developed view of Dan Gillmor on We Media, he seems to have missed the significance of weblogs in the Trent Lott affair, he seems to have missed how Dave Winer and other technology webloggers have created a powerful route around conventional media for news.

No, weblogs are not an innovation on the scale of Gutenberg. What is? But they have a power and significance that is steadily being uncovered.

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