Today’s Links: March 30, 2012

OPINION

ERIC CRAMPTON: “Copyright Stagnation
Paul Heald demonstrated the effect of the stagnant US copyright wall in seminar at Canterbury last week. Recall that books published through 1922 are in the public domain in the US; those published since then are covered by copyright. Heald dug through some Amazon stats to see what happens to books as they come out of copyright. Here’s the rather stunning graph.”

MICHAEL JOSEPH GROSS: “World War 3.0
“When the Internet was created, decades ago, one thing was inevitable: the war today over how (or whether) to control it, and who should have that power. Battle lines have been drawn between repressive regimes and Western democracies, corporations and customers, hackers and law enforcement. ”

JOHN STOSSEL: “Job Killers
“Politicians say they ‘create jobs.’ In fact, only the private sector generates the information needed to create real, productive jobs. Since this current post-recession job recovery is the slowest in 80 years, you’d think that even know-it-all politicians would want to sweep away the labyrinth of government regulations that hinders job creation. Successful job creators like Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Staples founder Tom Stemberg tell me there are so many new rules and taxes today that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for them to create the thousands of jobs they once made.”

NEWS

EDUCATION – FCC Pushes For Tablet Computers in Schools
“Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and Education Secretary Arne Duncan led a discussion on Thursday with technology executives and education groups about how to replace textbooks with tablet computers in schools.”

CURRENCY – Canadian Gov’t Scraps Penny, a ‘Currency Without Currency’
“It’s the end of the line for Canada’s humble penny. The government has decided our lowest denomination coin is more trouble than it’s worth, so the Royal Canadian Mint will stop distributing the penny this fall.”

PRIVACY – Conflict Over How Open “Do Not Track” Talks Will Be
“Representatives of advertising companies, Internet sites and technology companies told a House subcommittee on Thursday that they thought Internet privacy policies, including Do Not Track options, should be created through an “open and transparent” process, as two government agencies have recommended. “