• The IP-Industrial Complex (and how to fight it) David Koepsell, Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom (2010-10-27). When I began law school, the term for copyright protection was a mere life-of-author plus 50 years.  The term for patents was 17 years.  By the time I graduated, copyright terms were extended an additional 20 years, and patents an additional 3.  The ongoing efforts by industry to extend their… (Linked Thursday 2010-10-28.)

• The President With Two Faces. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-10-28). The Advocate reports: When it comes to same-sex marriage, President Barack Obama acknowledged Wednesday that "attitudes evolve, including mine" during an interview with five progressive bloggers…. On the question of marriage, President Obama began by clarifying that he wasn't going to "make big news" at that particular moment. But his… (Linked Thursday 2010-10-28.)

• Obamacare Fosters Oligopoly. Sheldon Richman, The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty (2010-10-27). Well, now. It seems Obamacare is increasing concentration in the medical industry. From yesterday's Wall Street Journal: The turn toward consolidation among insurance companies is not new, and neither is it among doctors, hospitals and other providers. Yet the health bill has accelerated these trends, as all sides race to… (Linked Thursday 2010-10-28.)

• Screw Tolerance. Marja Erwin (2010-10-28). Tolerance is when the straight man *chooses* not to hurt the lesbian womon.Liberation is when the straight man *can’t* hurt the lesbian womon.Or the same on myriad other axes of oppression: class, race, religion, sexual congruence, disability status, and so on. (Linked Friday 2010-10-29.)

• "That Show By Those Hipster Know-It-Alls Who Talk About How Fascinating Ordinary People Are" Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-10-25). “Most of those broadcasters enjoy support from the government in one form or another (though not all of them do: WFMU is subsidy-free as well as commercial-free). But they’re not a top-down project. They’re a decentralized set of shows that seek funds where they can find them, and they could survive if the CPB were fully privatized. They might even do better, if the new CPB decided to spend less of its money on actual stations (which haven’t always benefited when the corporation funds them) and more on independent producers.” (Linked Monday 2010-10-25.)

• WikiLeaks Removes the Cloak. David D’Amato, Center for a Stateless Society (2010-10-25). Late last week, major media outlets announced, to the bated breath of the world, the latest disclosures of classified materials on the war in Iraq from Wikileaks. The documents — almost 400,000 files comprised mostly of the U.S. military's daily field reports — detail a staggering civilian death toll and… (Linked Monday 2010-10-25.)

• Mantid of the week. Jill, I Blame The Patriarchy (2010-10-26). Greetings from Spinster HQ, O ye commenters and readers of comments! The "Latest Blamer Invective" sidebar function upon which you have come to dote so warmly has experienced a warp core breach. Two female characters with names are discussing it, and should have it back online before the third act…. (Linked Tuesday 2010-10-26.)

• At the bottom of the 178 countries Somalia scored 1.1, just. Captain Capitulation, eye of the storm (2010-10-26). At the bottom of the 178 countries Somalia scored 1.1, just below Afghanistan and Myanmar (1.4) and Iraq (1.5). surely someone somewhere is actually worried about the fact that the countries we invaded and 'liberated' are two of the four most corrupt in the world. we said we brought you this… (Linked Tuesday 2010-10-26.)

What's Going On in New Haven? Radley Balko: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-10-26):

New Haven has been having some problems with its nightlife. So they’re sending out the SWAT team. For a moment, employees at a St. John Street cabaret said, they thought they were being robbed when masked gunmen with assault rifles stormed in Monday night. It quickly became clear, however —…

The workers thought they were being robbed when a bunch of masked, heavily armed strangers stormed the club and held them all at gunpoint.

It turns out that they were being robbed. It’s just that they were being robbed by the Gangsters in Blue.

Bounty Markets for Open-Access eBooks. Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom (2010-10-25):

From "go to hellman" Bounty Markets for Open-Access eBooks In January 1773, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart placed advertisements asking patrons to "subscribe" to the three piano concertos he was writing. If he received enough support, the concertos would be finished by April, and subscribers would receive beautifully copied manuscripts. More importantly,…

Q: Without intellectual protectionism to sustain a massive system of corporate marketing, record companies, and advances for artists, how will creators ever be able to support their work? In a freed market with freed copying and freed exchange, how would we ever marshal the resources we need to sustain a flourishing musical culture?

A: Let’s ask a minor musician of the past few centuries — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — how he did it.

A broken, top-heavy, capital-intensive business model in music has nothing to do with the needs of a flourishing free culture. It has everything to do with grants of monopoly privilege, by the state, to entrenched incumbent firms, and the systematic distortion and deformation of the whole network of musical commerce around the gravity-well of those coerced monopoly profits. The monopolists’ broken business model is not our problem, and should not be forced on the rest of us. Music will do fine without it — just ask Mozart.