Bryan Strawser

Taxes, no matter the reason, are evil.  I don’t want a tax on this or anything else.

Aren’t we taxed enough already?

Lessig proposes a small tax on fifty-year-old copyrights. [Scripting News]

The First Amendment still has some wind in its sails – Freedom To Tinker reports that a Court Throws Out No-Reviews Clause in EULA. A court has thrown out a software contract clause prohibiting customers from publishing reviews of a product… [Ernie the Attorney]

I went and redid the website using Bryan Bell’s new Candid Blue theme – I really like it.

I also took some time to read the Radio Userland docs and add in some macros such as Google-It!, and the recent posts macros in order to add in some functionality into the site.  We’ll see how this shakes out and what the feedback appears to be 😉

Derek had a few problems this week with AOL 😉

Sweet Jesus, AOL Guy! I want to cancel my goddamn service!. So I’ve had an AOL account forever. When my mother-in-law was alive, we paid for her account, and then when… [Derek’s Rantings and Musings]

I never really thought of it this way until now.  I was a huge fan of PointCast!

A little over seven years ago I wrote a glowing review of the then-new Pointcast system. The review ran in Wired, and in huge type at Pointcast’s tradeshow booth. And for the next seven years, after Pointcast’s quick demise, we’ve been rebuilding the system, with open formats, choice, two-way-ness, and with a better scaling proposition. People who love the network that RSS forms will recognize the story. [Scripting News]

His debt has been paid – take a look at who the victim is now…

Megan’s Law Nonsense. So I read this on CNN.com today. Basically, this sex offender was convicted, did his time, and is now released… [Derek’s Rantings and Musings]

losing. So I’ve got to go get onto a plane to go to my least favorite city (DC). My inbox is filling with kind emails from friends. Also with a few of a different flavor. It’s my nature to identify most closely with those of the different flavor. David Gossett at the law firm of Mayer Brown wrote Declan, “Larry lost Eldred, 7-2.” Yes, no matter what is said, that is how I will always view this case. The constitutional question is not even close. To have failed to get the Court to see it is my failing. It has often been said that movements gain by losing in the Supreme Court. Some feminists say it would have been better to lose Roe, because that would have built a movement in response. 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. When the Free Software Foundation, Intel, Phillis Schlafly, Milton Friedman, Ronald Coase, Kenneth Arrow, Brewster Kahle, and hundreds of creators and innovators all stand on one side saying, “this makes no sense,” then it makes no sense. Let that be enough to move people to do something about it. Our courts will not. I will always be grateful to Eric Eldred, and our other plaintiffs, for putting his faith in this case. I will always regret not being able to meet that faith with the success it deserves. What the Framers of our constitution did is not enough. We must do more. [Lessig Blog]