Copyright Law and Music

Professor Lawrence Lessig, copyright activist and one of the founders of Creative Commons, was interviewed a few weeks back on the excellent radio public radio program Sound Opinions. You can listen to him discuss copyright law and its effects when applies to the music industry in episode #134 HERE or download an MP3 podcast HERE. Show notes are HERE.

Amy Goodman pits Alan Greenspan against Naomi Klein

Alternet has posted the transcription of an excellent debate between writer Naomi Klein and former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenpan on Amy Goodman's program Democracy Now. An excerpt:

NAOMI KLEIN: Well, I'm just wondering if it troubles Mr. Greenspan at all that wars over resources in other countries are actually illegal. Mr. Greenspan has praised the rule of law, the importance of the rule of law, in his book. But in his statements about the reasons why this has not been publicly discussed, he has said that it's not politically expedient at this moment. But it's not just that it's not politically expedient, Mr. Greenspan. Are you aware that, according to the Hague Regulations and the Geneva Conventions, it is illegal for one country to invade another over its natural resources?

ALAN GREENSPAN: No. What I was saying is that the issue which, as you know, most people who were pressing for the war were concerned with were weapons of mass destruction. I personally believed that Saddam was behaving in a way that he probably very well had, almost certainly had, weapons of mass destruction. I was surprised, as most, that he didn't. But what I was saying is that my reason for being pleased to see Saddam out of office had nothing to do with the weapons of mass destruction. It had to do with the potential threat that he could create to the rest of the world.

Read the entire debate here.

Thanks Vineet!

This American Life: Tweezerman in Iraq

The always entertaining, frequently moving, radio show This American Life's recent episode "#337: Man vs. History", contains a fascinating story about the socially conscious entrepreneur Dal LaMagna A.K.A. Tweezerman and his attempt to curb the violence in Iraq:

He thought he could get the Sunni resistance to sit down with Coalition forces to negotiate a cease-fire. So he hooked up with a member of the Iraqi parliament named Mohammed Al-Dynee and headed to Baghdad and Amman, where, remarkably, doors opened to him.

You can listen to the show online (and even find out how download it as a podcast) here.

Day of Silence

I tried tuning into one of my favorite internet radio stations this morning only to be reminded that it is one of thousands that are protesting an upcoming drastic royalty rate change with a Day of Silence. The change, which will go into effect July 15 (and be retroactive to January 1, 2006), could cause many small, independent broadcasters to shut down. A list of participating internet stations (including some of the largest like Yahoo! Launch, Rhapsody, and Pandora.com) can be found along with more details in RAIN (Radio And Internet Newsletter). To let your elected officials know your feelings about the rate change go here.

Story Corps Follow-Up

As mentioned previously I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in StoryCorps with my mother at the mobile booth in Richmond, VA. This morning an excerpt was broadcast on our local Public Radio station. They did a marvelous job of synthesizing our conversation about my grandfather down to a few poignant minutes. You can listen to it (and others) here.