Course materials online
02/02/2012 18:54
More on PIPA/SOPA
01/31/2012 11:56
Dear Senator Ayotte,
Thank you for your response to my letter, and for your change of policy toward the two "anti-piracy" bills in question. As you say, it is not "breaking capitalism" to shut down a car dealer that sells stolen vehicles. However, I think it would be very bad policy to allow car dealers to be shut down merely on the accusation by a car manufacturer or a competing dealer that they had done wrong. This lack of due process and the power it places in the hands of media giants is one of the major differences between what you describe and the bills in question. Another difference is the fact that anyone who inadvertently links to content (even completely legal content) from an IP address accused of wrongdoing can be tarred with the same brush. This is an issue that doesn't have an immediate analog in the bricks and mortar world, but you might describe it as prosecuting anyone who ever bought a car from the hypothetical dealer in your example.
Clearly there's a limit to how far bricks and mortar analogies can take us when we legislate internet commerce and free speech. I hope our other elected officials can follow your example and raise this dialog to a level that will avoid the oversimplification that sometimes attends political debate in an election year.
Thank you,
Dan Allosso
dan@allosso.net
www.danallosso.com
On Jan 31, 2012, at 11:06 AM, U.S. Senator Ayotte wrote:
January 31, 2012
Dear Dr. Allosso:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT IP; S. 968) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA; H.R. 3261). I appreciate hearing from you.
As you know, PROTECT IP and SOPA provoked a groundswell of grassroots activism across the Internet. This demonstrates how important the Internet is in our time, its growing prominence in influencing the political dialogue, and how citizens can make their voices heard. The input that I received from thousands of New Hampshire citizens highlighted the need to address concerns regarding Congress' legislative efforts to combat online piracy and copyright infringement.
PROTECT IP was originally scheduled to be considered in the Senate on January 24, 2012. Because of the outpouring of concern about the legislation as it continued to be developed, I could no longer support the legislation in its current form and withdrew my cosponsorship.
As many New Hampshire citizens have made clear, we cannot allow America's brightest ideas, products, art, and media to be stolen and sold by foreign criminal enterprises. PROTECT IP was supposed to be about stopping this foreign piracy. However, the legitimate concerns about government overreach warrant further consideration and careful deliberation, and I was pleased to see the bill pulled from the floor.
We must find a lawful and reasonable way to protect intellectual property rights. For example, shutting down a dealer selling stolen cars is not censorship or "breaking capitalism," it is protecting private property and preserving societal values and standards. We should seek to afford American copyright holders adequate protections against foreign thieves. Foreign rogue websites, online piracy, and counterfeiting threaten U.S. businesses, consumers, and many thousands of American jobs. We must be able to safeguard intellectual property without undermining Internet freedom.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. As your Senator, it is important that I hear from the people I represent regarding the issues facing our country. Please do not hesitate to be in touch again if I may be of further assistance.
Sincerely, Kelly A. Ayotte U. S. Senator
KAA/mm
Thank you for your response to my letter, and for your change of policy toward the two "anti-piracy" bills in question. As you say, it is not "breaking capitalism" to shut down a car dealer that sells stolen vehicles. However, I think it would be very bad policy to allow car dealers to be shut down merely on the accusation by a car manufacturer or a competing dealer that they had done wrong. This lack of due process and the power it places in the hands of media giants is one of the major differences between what you describe and the bills in question. Another difference is the fact that anyone who inadvertently links to content (even completely legal content) from an IP address accused of wrongdoing can be tarred with the same brush. This is an issue that doesn't have an immediate analog in the bricks and mortar world, but you might describe it as prosecuting anyone who ever bought a car from the hypothetical dealer in your example.
Clearly there's a limit to how far bricks and mortar analogies can take us when we legislate internet commerce and free speech. I hope our other elected officials can follow your example and raise this dialog to a level that will avoid the oversimplification that sometimes attends political debate in an election year.
Thank you,
Dan Allosso
dan@allosso.net
www.danallosso.com
On Jan 31, 2012, at 11:06 AM, U.S. Senator Ayotte wrote:
January 31, 2012
Dear Dr. Allosso:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT IP; S. 968) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA; H.R. 3261). I appreciate hearing from you.
As you know, PROTECT IP and SOPA provoked a groundswell of grassroots activism across the Internet. This demonstrates how important the Internet is in our time, its growing prominence in influencing the political dialogue, and how citizens can make their voices heard. The input that I received from thousands of New Hampshire citizens highlighted the need to address concerns regarding Congress' legislative efforts to combat online piracy and copyright infringement.
PROTECT IP was originally scheduled to be considered in the Senate on January 24, 2012. Because of the outpouring of concern about the legislation as it continued to be developed, I could no longer support the legislation in its current form and withdrew my cosponsorship.
As many New Hampshire citizens have made clear, we cannot allow America's brightest ideas, products, art, and media to be stolen and sold by foreign criminal enterprises. PROTECT IP was supposed to be about stopping this foreign piracy. However, the legitimate concerns about government overreach warrant further consideration and careful deliberation, and I was pleased to see the bill pulled from the floor.
We must find a lawful and reasonable way to protect intellectual property rights. For example, shutting down a dealer selling stolen cars is not censorship or "breaking capitalism," it is protecting private property and preserving societal values and standards. We should seek to afford American copyright holders adequate protections against foreign thieves. Foreign rogue websites, online piracy, and counterfeiting threaten U.S. businesses, consumers, and many thousands of American jobs. We must be able to safeguard intellectual property without undermining Internet freedom.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. As your Senator, it is important that I hear from the people I represent regarding the issues facing our country. Please do not hesitate to be in touch again if I may be of further assistance.
Sincerely, Kelly A. Ayotte U. S. Senator
KAA/mm
Back to work
01/27/2012 20:06
I’ll probably post a lot of the material for this class on my own site. I’m trying to write it up into a course-pack/anti-textbook of sorts as I go through the semester. Much of that will probably find its way online too. And my proposal for the Historical Society’s conference in late May was accepted, so I’ll need to finish my biography of Knowlton in the next couple of months, too. The writing schedule I’ll be keeping may cut down a bit on my blogging, but by the end of this semester I should have some projects completed!
My letter to my Rep & Senators
01/18/2012 08:29
Dear Representative Bass,
The internet has evolved rapidly and in unexpected ways over the years, precisely because it has been relatively unhindered by top-down control. PIPA and SOPA are ill-conceived bills that will not only FAIL to stop the types of offshore abuses they are ostensibly designed to address, but they will stifle the free exchange of ideas and rapid evolution that the web has been all about.
Imagine if Soviet central planners of the 1970s had gained control of the internet. The people running big media and the telecoms are no smarter.
Freedom of speech is more important than an occasional copyright dispute in which a billionaire somewhere feels he's been robbed by some penniless high-school blogger. The internet is the modern-day equivalent of the presses that people like Thomas Paine published their pamphlets on in the 1770s. Don't go down in history as being against "Common Sense."
Sincerely,
Dan Allosso, PhD
author, history teacher
The internet has evolved rapidly and in unexpected ways over the years, precisely because it has been relatively unhindered by top-down control. PIPA and SOPA are ill-conceived bills that will not only FAIL to stop the types of offshore abuses they are ostensibly designed to address, but they will stifle the free exchange of ideas and rapid evolution that the web has been all about.
Imagine if Soviet central planners of the 1970s had gained control of the internet. The people running big media and the telecoms are no smarter.
Freedom of speech is more important than an occasional copyright dispute in which a billionaire somewhere feels he's been robbed by some penniless high-school blogger. The internet is the modern-day equivalent of the presses that people like Thomas Paine published their pamphlets on in the 1770s. Don't go down in history as being against "Common Sense."
Sincerely,
Dan Allosso, PhD
author, history teacher
Stop the idiots
01/17/2012 20:02
I suppose if they break the internet we’ll find another way. But why let them?
Food for thought
01/04/2012 18:08
“I suspect I have spent just about exactly as much time actually writing as the average person my age has spent watching television, and that, as much as anything, may be the real secret here.”
Gibson, William (2012-01-03). Distrust That Particular Flavor (Kindle Locations 302-303). Penguin Group.
Gibson, William (2012-01-03). Distrust That Particular Flavor (Kindle Locations 302-303). Penguin Group.
I've seen his act, now I've read his book!
01/02/2012 18:16
“If every trace of any single religion were wiped out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again.
“You don’t have to force schools to say there’s no god, but you have to say it yourself.
“If you pick your side carefully, you don’t have to fight as hard.”
Jillette, Penn (2011-08-16). God, No! (129, 130). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
The Doctor's advice to writers
12/28/2011 18:13
The longer version, which they used in the commercial for the sixth season of Doctor Who, went like this:
“All of time and space, everything that ever happened, or ever will…where do you want to start? Anywhere you want. Anytime you want. One condition— it has to be amazing.”
That’s what it’s all about, it finally occurred to me, when I’m writing. This is the question the reader has every time she opens a book: where are you taking me? It can be anything that ever happened (history), or ever will (fiction). It just has to be amazing.
end of another semester
12/19/2011 17:06
The semester is nearly over — just final exam essays to read and grade, and grades to turn in. Then a few weeks “off,” during which I hope to get a lot of writing done. Then Spring semester and my first experience teaching my very own college class.
I’ll be teaching the first half of the US History survey, which traditionally covers the period from the beginning of the British colonies to the end of the Civil War (or sometimes the end of Reconstruction, depending on when you think Reconstruction ended). The course fills a general education requirement, and the specific class I’ll be teaching will be an Honors section for UMass’s Commonwealth Honors College. There will be two other people teaching the regular version of the same course. One is a retired professor, the other is a one-year hire who just received a PhD last Spring. I’m lucky to be getting this opportunity, and since it may be my only chance to ever teach a class at a place like UMass, I plan to make the most of it.
More on this class when I start posting syllabus, readings, lectures, etc.
I’ve also been reading a lot, and finding lots of interesting synchronicities. Like the way Plato ranted about the growth of literacy, and how it was going to make people stupid because they’d no longer have to remember stuff. This was recounted in James Gleick’s The Information, and just goes to show that the archetype of the tools I mentioned down below is very old. and also that it can easily be take to ridiculous extremes.
I’ll be teaching the first half of the US History survey, which traditionally covers the period from the beginning of the British colonies to the end of the Civil War (or sometimes the end of Reconstruction, depending on when you think Reconstruction ended). The course fills a general education requirement, and the specific class I’ll be teaching will be an Honors section for UMass’s Commonwealth Honors College. There will be two other people teaching the regular version of the same course. One is a retired professor, the other is a one-year hire who just received a PhD last Spring. I’m lucky to be getting this opportunity, and since it may be my only chance to ever teach a class at a place like UMass, I plan to make the most of it.
More on this class when I start posting syllabus, readings, lectures, etc.
I’ve also been reading a lot, and finding lots of interesting synchronicities. Like the way Plato ranted about the growth of literacy, and how it was going to make people stupid because they’d no longer have to remember stuff. This was recounted in James Gleick’s The Information, and just goes to show that the archetype of the tools I mentioned down below is very old. and also that it can easily be take to ridiculous extremes.
