Today’s Links: September 14, 2011

OPINION

Shane Richmond: “Will Copyright Extensions Ever End?”
“It’s now more than a decade since the internet began killing the music industry. The situation is so much worse than the last thing to kill music – home taping – that the industry is enjoying considerable success in getting its business model protected by law.”

MacKubin Thomas Owens: “Obama’s EPA Not a Rogue Agency After All.”
“President Barack Obama recently enraged some of his supporters by issuing an executive order postponing a plan by the Environmental Protection Agency to tighten ozone standards, a step that by the EPA’s own reckoning would incur an annual compliance cost of anywhere from $19 billion to $90 billion and that private sector analysts estimate would result in the loss of 7.3 million U.S. jobs.”

Timothy B. Lee: “America’s Illegal Pioneers”
“Everyone knows that America was settled by immigrants. But few realize how much of this settlement was done illegally. Shortly after winning independence, Congress enacted legislation that called for newly acquired western lands to be divided into large 640-acre plots and sold for a dollar an acre.”

NEWS

LIGHT BULB BAN – Easy-Bake Oven Gets Updated for 21st Century
“Chalk it up as an unintended consequence of the federal government’s move to phase out the incandescent light bulb. The compact fluorescents that are becoming the new standard for household use are so energy efficient that they’re useless in baking a brownie – or any of the other miniature treats the Easy-Bake has been cooking up for nearly 50 years.”

LABOR – UAW Sees Progress at GM, Expects Contract Deal
“The United Auto Workers union has made “much progress” toward a new contract with General Motors Co to replace the current deal on wages and benefits that expires just before midnight on Wednesday, a senior union official said.”

EUROPE – French, Greek, German Leaders Discuss Greek Crisis
“The leaders of Greece, France and Germany have discussed in an emergency teleconference the financial crisis that has shaken global financial markets.”