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All Your Book Are Belong to Amazon

By on July 18, 2009 11

If you’ve bought an e-book from Amazon, you probably thought it was now yours.

Well, okay – not quite. You knew you couldn’t distribute it to other people, thanks to IP laws. But you probably thought you could at least keep it for your own use.

Kindle, redactedGuess again. If – irony alert – you’re a fan of George Orwell’s 1984 or Animal Farm and bought an electronic version for Kindle, Amazon’s handheld reader, the book you bought has been retroactively “disappeared” by Amazon at the request of the publisher. (CHT Sheldon.)

Oh sure, the money you paid has been refunded. But if you thought the book was yours and you were free to turn down any offers from Amazon to buy it back – welcome to 1984. (Assuming I’m still allowed to use that sequence of numbers.)

There’s been some outcry, and Amazon says they won’t do it again; but by their own terms of service, they already promised they wouldn’t do it the first time, so their credibility is not high at this point.

The real problem here is IP laws, of course. But in the shorter term, I’d really like to see Amazon get burned over this. They should be sued, their Kindle-swindle should be boycotted, and, oh yeah, someone should hack that thing.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know

By on July 15, 2009 13

I just heard Douglas Rushkoff on Colbert talking about his new book. I don’t know anything about Rushkoff, but what he said sounded LL-compatible, and a websearch revealed this quote:

Most people seem to think having written a book as stridently anti-corporate as mine qualifies me as a lefty. While I might be left-leaning, I find myself disagreeing with pro-market publications only about as often as I disagree with pro-labor or progressive ones.

Pro-market advocates often forget that the corporations whose interests they’re championing are actually the beneficiaries of government policies and rule sets developed to favor the activities of giant, centralized, conglomerates; they argue against regulation, when it’s regulation that have built the monopolies preventing truly free commerce from taking place. Anti-market arguments, on the other hand, too often rely on the false promise of central planning or equally large institutional forces to address societal ills. They may hate corporations, but they see them as necessary employers of the masses.

So, can anyone tell me more about him? Is he a homeless or potential left-libertarian, or is there a bunch of disappointing statist stuff lurking in the background somewhere?

The Man of System; or, See the Pyramids Along the Niagara

By on July 15, 2009 14

I’ve never read The Human Drift, an 1894 utopian novel by King Gillette, inventor of the safety razor – and not to be confused with Jack London’s book of the same name – but judging from the book’s write-up on Wikipedia, I don’t think it’s going to be getting a Prometheus Hall of Fame Award any time soon. In particular it sounds like a cross between F. A. Hayek’s and Kevin Carson’s worst nightmares:

The book details Gillette’s plans for social and technological advancements that would replace the chaos of contemporary existence, which he termed the “human drift,” with steady and predictable progress.

Gillette's rational cityGillette starts his book with a discussion of the role of the business tycoon in social reform. Gillette propounded the somewhat paradoxical view that the business magnate is the natural leader of reform, because of his rationality and his understanding of the power of capital. …

The main substance of the book, however, is Gillette’s plan for an immense three-level metropolis (called “Metropolis”) on the site of Niagara Falls. Designed to accommodate a population of tens of millions of inhabitants, the mega-city would draw its electric power from the Falls. … Gillette’s city was to possess “a perfect economical system of production and distribution,” run by a World Corporation; it would in fact be the only city on the North American continent. Economies of scale would mean that a single one of every necessary facility – one steel mill, one shoe factory, etc. – would exist. Advances in mechanization would generate ever-greater efficiencies, and ever-greater wealth for the whole society. …

Gillette gives a highly specific picture of his metropolis: it is shaped in a perfect rectangle, 135 miles on the long side and 45 on the short. … Gillette favored circular buildings, even for residences (25-floor apartment complexes), and a hexagonal street plan. … The text of The Human Drift was accompanied with abundant illustrations and plans, a graph of the “Educational and Industrial Pyramid,” and other features of Gillette’s scheme.

A quick websearch unearthed an image of the aforementioned Educational and Industrial Pyramid, which looks pretty much as one would expect:

Gillette's pyramid

Accompanying text explains that “the divisions of the pyramid from base to apex represent the Grand Divisions of Industry – all of which finally merge into the ‘WORLD CORPORATE CONGRESS.’ Under this system the individual is free to choose his path of inclination, and his progress cannot be barred.” (But what if the individual’s path of inclination is to build a non-circular house or to make shoes in competition with the One Shoe Factory? That would be anarchy!)

Bash Back

By on July 13, 2009 7

A letter I just sent:

Dear members of the LP National and/or Platform Committees:

Liberty betrayedI’m writing to express my concern over reported comments by LP Platform Committee member Rick Randall to the effect that free-market anarchists are not genuine Libertarians and should be ousted from the Party: “Every time they surface, the mainstream (true) Libertarians quickly recognize them for what they are (people more interested in promoting in-fighting and, well … anarchy, than liberty) and oust them.”

I’m frankly worried about the ability of Mr. Randall to carry out his duties fairly and objectively, given how poorly informed, and evidently prejudiced, he appears to be relative to the Party’s longtime anarchist contingent.

I urge the Committees to demand an apology from Mr. Randall; and I urge Mr. Randall himself to acquaint himself more thoroughly both with the basics of anarchist theory and with the history of the party he claims to represent.

Flourish in liberty,

Roderick T. Long
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Auburn University
President, Molinari Institute
Region 3 Representative, Libertarian Party of Alabama

Irish Bull

By on July 13, 2009 0

Dermot Ahern, Ireland’s Minister for Justice (sic), is calling for a law whereby anyone who intentionally utters or publishes material “grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion,” would be penalised by a “fine not exceeding €100,000.”

In the event that the law passes, I look forward to seeing Ahern prosecuted under his own law, which is clearly insulting to the libertarian beliefs of the Universal Life Church.

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