Tag Archives: books

Please recall the DMCA exemption request process in which many of you helped participate – it was essentially all for naught: The U.S. Copyright Office has opted to leave a controversial software-protection law largely in place, despite protests that it interferes with consumers’ rights to watch movies and listen to …

Napster is back, but in name only. Back in April I linked to an excerpt from Joseph Menn’s All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster, which includes a not terribly flattering portrait of Shawn Fanning’s uncle John Fanning. John Chamberlain objects to the characterization in an …

The two ickiest teams made it to the World Series (not that I like the Braves, however) – I guess I am for the Marlins because they aren’t the Yankees, and sometimes the enemy of my enemy somewhat resembles a friend. In a way I hate the Yankees less after …

Marvel Comics' "Master of the Mystic Arts" gets an archival reprint.

Great, prolific New Yorker cartoonist and author of Shrek dies at 95: Steig combined a child’s innocent eye with idiosyncratic line to create a wonderful world of animal characters for his books and Edwardian-era dandies in his drawings. His 1990 book about a green monster, “Shrek!,” was made into the …

What the hell has got into the librarians lately? They raised such a stink about the library records portion of the Patriot Act that Ashcroft had to break down and agree to make the records public. And they still told him to screw himself with an extended Dewey decimal. Now, …

Edward Said died yesterday after a long battle with leukemia. From the Columbia University site: Edward W. Said, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, a member of the Columbia faculty since 1963 and University Professor since 1992, died on Thursday, September 25, at 6:45 a.m. One of the most influential …

Interesting examination of the resurgence of Sartre in France by Jim Holt (I much prefer Camus), looking at the liberationist philosopher and the communist/totalitarian – are they reconcilable? Maybe if you squint real hard. Here is my favorite part: By dint of sheer intellectual authority, Sartre could engage his bitter …

Okay, I made up the last part, but the librarians aren’t responding terribly well to Ashcroft’s peace offering from last week. PW NewsLine writes: “The FBI has a history, which Attorney General Ashcroft is ignoring, of violating civil liberties,” says Chris Finan, president of American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. …

On his fence-mending tour of the nation last week Attorney General John Ashcroft said librarians were “hysterical” about the U.S.A. Patriot Act. PW Daily reports: During one speech, he said, “Do we at the Justice Department really care what you are reading? No. The law enforcement community has no interest …