What's wrong with access-control technology?

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I liked this essay by John Gilmore. When asked what's wrong with access control technology (aka copy protection) if consumers don't seem to mind, John's answers included:

What is wrong is when people who would like products that simply record bits, or audio, or video, without any copy protection, can't find any, because they have been driven off the market.

What is wrong is when companies who make copy-protecting products don't disclose the restrictions to the consumers.

What is wrong is when scientific researchers are unable to study the field or to publish their findings.

What is wrong is when competitors are unable to build competing devices or software, vying for the favor of the consumers in the free market. [Because of the threat of harassing lawsuits from corporate content owners]

What is wrong is when the controls that are enacted to protect the rights reserved under copyright are used for other purposes.

What is wrong is when social policy is created in back rooms, between movie/record company executives and computer company executives, not by open public discussion, by legislatures, and by courts.

What is wrong is when the balance between the rights of creators and the rights of freedom of speech and the press is lost.

What is wrong is that a tiny tail of "copyright protection" is wagging the dog of all communications among humans.

What is wrong is that we have invented the technology to eliminate scarcity [digital encoding on computers], but we are deliberately throwing it away to benefit those who profit from scarcity.

A full copy appears below:
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The glue that holds the world together

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This is a slightly disturbing article from the July 2000 issue of discover magazine.

The Glue That Holds the World Together

The most we learn about subatomic particles called gluons, the more the universe seems to be made of nothing at all

By Robert Kunzig

You do not know what stuff is, you who hold it in your hands. Atoms? Yes, stuff is made of atoms. And every atom is a nucleus orbited by electrons. Every nucleus is built of protons. Every proton is – but there you reach the end of the line. Inside the proton lies the deep, unsettling truth: Stuff is made of nothing, or almost nothing, held together by glue, lots of glue. Physicists first began to suspect this in 1973. Lately it has been proved by experiment.

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Lost in translation

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Start with any English phrase or sentence. For example:

"Making Wireless Work"

(which happens to be a slogan of the company I work for). Then translate it to French. Then translate it back to English. Then translate that to German then back to English. Repeat for Italian, Portuguese, and finally Spanish for good measure. Here's what you get at the end:

"In order to finish the works without the chain"

Courtesy of Lost in Translation, where you can enter any phrase you want.

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State security vs. technology

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The more things change, the more they stay the same. From the July 1901 issue of Scientific American:

The inexplicable conservatism and arrogance of the Turkish customs authorities was recently shown by the prohibition of the importation of typewriters into the country. The reason advanced by the authorities was that in the event of seditious writings executed by the typewriter being circulated, it would be impossible to obtain any clew by which the operator of the machine could be traced. A large consignment of 200 typewriters was lying in the custom house at the time the above law was passed, and will have to be returned.

Hmm, so the Turkish gov't bans typewriters because they might be used to do something illegal. Sound like anything the current US gov't is doing? (think DeCSS…)