Jinn of Quality and Risk

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — Lazarus Long (Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love, 1973) 

Matthew Thomas: Tonight I've been taking the new Opera 7 beta for a spin, and I'm impressed to see its design is still worse than Mozilla. I don't normally waste time offering detailed criticisms of non-Free software, but in this particular case it's therapeutic for me. So, here is a rather incomplete list of the design flaws I can see, solely in Opera's main browser window. 

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Johansen's prosecution marks the first time the Norwegian government has attempted to punish individuals for accessing their own property (i.e. watching DVDs under Linux). [via Cory Doctorow via Tesugen.com] 

Lessig: ...about 37,000 movies were released in the period 1927-46. (IMDb reports 36,386). Of those, only 2,480 are currently available in any format, or 6.8%. The rest are caught in copyright hell. How many of these may be great art which we are not allowed to appreciate? My favourite movies are definitely not Hollywood blockbusters. Art is the fuel of our consciousness. It is too important an area of human life and culture to allow it to rot in vaults locked by the greedy hands of a few unproductive businessmen and corrupt politicians.