C4SS Feed 44 presents James C. Wilson‘s “Thank You Pirate Bay” read by Joey Clark and edited by Nick Ford. While lawyers and courts argue whether a web address should be seen as an accessory to a crime, the rest of us should be asking what crime? All that The Pirate Bay has done is…

Over at WIRED, a website I once held more respect for, an article by Jordan Crucchiola called, “Dear Idiots, Stop Leaking Comic-Con Trailers” has drawn some recent attention. For those who (somehow) don’t know, Comic Con is an international event for all things geeky, but especially (or at least, supposedly) related to comic books. The…

L’argomento forte di Carly Fiorina, come candidato repubblicano alla presidenza per il 2016, è che lei è esterna alla politica. Atteggiandosi a vero sfidante di Hillary Clinton, la Fiorina non perde occasione per accusarla di essere un politico di carriera. E ha ragione. Durante una recente apparizione su Fox News, ha citato un sondaggio secondo…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Nick Ford‘s “GM Deeres to be Stupid” read by Mike Godzina and edited by Nick Ford. GM, Deere and other similar companies who rely on IP for their profits continue to be some of the best examples of how capitalism goes against the forces of freed markets. It creates artificial enclosure…

Every time I write a commentary on one of John Stossel’s godawful columns, I tell myself I’ll lay off him for a while. But good lord, this latest wretched little piece of pro-corporate apologetics (“Corporations Have Become Hollywood’s Go-To Villains,” Reason, July 1) is about the worst thing he’s ever done. The biggest challenge any…

Carly Fiorina’s main talking point throughout her time as 2016 Republican presidential candidate has been that she is an outsider.  Posturing herself as Hilary Clinton’s real challenger, Fiorina takes every opportunity to accuse Clinton of being a career politician.  On this, Fiorina is right.  During a recent Fox News appearance, Fiorina cited a poll that…

I. The Nonexistent Ethical Dilemma The showdown between Greece and the EU is one of those events that brings out in stark contrast the dividing line between libertarians whose main concern is genuine economic freedom, and the sort of libertarian whose priority is the interests of big business and the propertied classes. In an exchange…

C4SS Feed 44 presents James C. Wilson‘s “Taylor Swift vs. Apple: Post-Scarcity Growing Pains ” read by Mike Godzina and edited by Nick Ford. Competitive markets drive prices downward, while an ability to duplicate indefinitely drives prices to zero. Such is the state of creative content. The consumers have spoken and the going price of digital…

Reason‘s science editor Ron Bailey (“Pope Francis and Naomi Klein Both Hate Free Markets, Technological Progress, and Economic Growth,” Reason, June 29) refers to Naomi Klein as a “prominent hater of free markets,” adding that she also hates “technological progress and economic growth.” But based on my readings of both Klein and Bailey, I think…

On June 22nd pop mega-star Taylor Swift, released an open letter to Apple Music, refusing to grant the company’s new music streaming service access to her newest album. Her letter was a response to Apple’s policy of not paying musicians whose work is listened to, by customers during their three month, free trial of Apple’s…

On May 25th a lawyer of Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij told a Swedish newspaper his client seeks to appeal the recent Stockholm District Court ruling which granted the Swedish government control over the company’s domain names “piratebay.se” and “thepiratebay.se”. For those who do not know, The Pirate Bay facilitates the online sharing of data…

Following in the footsteps of my recent article “Come Take it, I Deere You” I’ve found through Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow that General Motors (GM) has also declared that you don’t really own what you buy. To be more specific, the software that makes up that vehicle is merely “licensed” to the owner of the…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Erick Vasconcelos‘ “It’s Time to Destroy DRM” read by Tony Dreher and edited by Nick Ford. “From Apple’s cat-and-mouse race with jailbreaking phone buyers, to Amazon’s move into “exclusive” programming for its streaming service, to Netflix’s region-blocking (enthusiastically supported by the Motion Picture Association of America, a powerful US IP lobby), to rampant…

If you’ve been paying attention to the trends of copyright law in the last ten years or so you may have noticed something: Corporations are gaining more and more power over what they claim is rightfully “theirs”. One of the largest company in making agricultural machinery, John Deere, is the latest in this destructive trend…

Binoy Kampmark discusses the atrocities of the Shia militias. Anand Gopal discusses the creation of an Afghan Blackwater. Laurence M. Vance discusses limiting the government’s carbon footprint. David S. D’Amato discusses decentralism and libertarianism. Kevin Schwartz discusses hyping a proxy war in Yemen. Laurence M. Vance discusses the drug war litmus test. Glenn Greenwald discusses…

Il dieci marzo, i giurati di un tribunale di Los Angeles hanno imposto agli autori Pharrell Williams e Robin Thicke il pagamento di 7,3 milioni di dollari alla famiglia di Marvin Gaye. Secondo i giurati, una canzone di successo di Thicke e Williams, “Blurred Lines”, ha violato il copyright di una canzone di Gaye del…

On March 10th a jury in Los Angeles ordered songwriters Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke to pay $7.3 million to the family of Marvin Gaye. The jury found that Williams and Thicke’s hit song, “Blurred Lines”, infringed on the copyright of Gaye’s 1977 song “Got to Give It Up.” While Thicke and Williams have previously…

In una intervista a microfoni spenti rilasciata al conduttore di Real time Bill Maher, il divulgatore scientifico e conduttore televisivo Bill Nye ha spiegato come ha cambiato idea sui cibi geneticamente modificati. Nye, che in passato si è occupato dell’impatto ambientale di specie transgeniche, ora dice: “Ho visitato la Monsanto, dove ho trascorso molto tempo…

In a backstage interview at Real Time with Bill Maher, science educator and entertainer Bill Nye expressed a change of mind on genetically engineered food. Formerly concerned about the environmental impacts of transgenic species Nye now says: “I went to Monsanto and I spent a lot of time with the scientists there, and I have…

Il venti gennaio, la Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) ha annunciato il progetto Apollo 1201, un tentativo di sradicare le barriere digitali (DRM) dal mondo del commercio in rete. Guidato dal ben noto Cory Doctorow, il progetto punta ad “accelerare il cammino verso l’abrogazione delle leggi che proteggono il DRM” e “dare subito inizio ad un…