Two good BoingBoing posts

I love Boing Boing. It's a great aggregator, which is a important function on the Web, but I also have a great deal of affinity for many of the topics they favor. Civil and cyber liberties, for example...

US customs bar fashionista druggie writer for moral turpitude -- Sweet Mercy...can we please find some better things to do? It's one thing to turn someone away for convictions, illegalities, etc. (albeit still something worth arguing about; I disagree with many of the drug-based [victimless crime] indictments). But it's entirely another to toss out phrases like moral turpitude on an entry denial. As our friend John Rogers at Kung Fu Monkey says: Everybody who wants to live in the 21st Century over here. Everybody who wants to live in the 1800's over there. Good. Thanks. Good luck with that. (By the way, pause and read the Kung Fu Monkey post. The man's a genius. I'll wait.)
WWII Bomber: Trademark Infringement -- *growl* I hate these bastards. Abusing legislature like the DMCA that's already crazily overbroad is simply inexcusable. Read Cory's comments here...he knows his stuff (used to work for the EFF, on exactly this sort of thing). These people are happily taking advantage of the common conflation of 3 different sets of law...trademark, copyright, and patent. They're different, folks, and different rules apply. Each of them was developed with specific balances in mind, and to take the parts of each that are most advantageous to you is wrong, unethical, and deceptive. Makes me crazy, and it's the reason I dislike the term intellectual property, which promotes the confusion.

posted by Ken Kennedy at Mar 22nd 2008 11:36 p.m.