For a while, as the transitional Iraqi government was being assembled, I heard the word "technocrat" over and over. Generally the person employing it was using the term to differentiate a boring career functionary from the crowd of charismatic religious figures, dictator wannabes and sinister Iranian double-agents that were competing for a stake in Iraq's future. The term served that purpose well enough, but it's not an accurate use: the reporters sprinkling it throughout their copy really just wanted to avoid the negative connotations of the word "bureaucrat".

Compared to bureaucrats, technocrats are a rare and wondrous thing: administrators that are selected and given authority based on their technical or scientific knowledge. I think we could use a little more technocracy these days. Today's news is full of the kind of crap that happens when legislation of technical issues is left to self-serving demagogues -- eg congressmen.

• The Supreme Court has just handed down a ruling affirming a lower court's decision against the Child Online Protection Act. COPA -- which, let's be fair, was signed into law under the Clinton administration -- would have set substantial fines and criminal penalties for folks who made material on the internet available that is "harmful to minors". Sex educators, artists and authors weren't thrilled about having a serious technical hurdle placed on the online publication of their work. The folks who've been commentspamming us with URLs ending in "zoosex.com" were probably upset, too. Striking this law down is a good thing; making the ACLU fight the same first amendment battle over the internet every four or five years is not. The administration has already promised to defend COPA, and if they can't you can be sure a similar law will soon be passed and struck down yet again.
• The judicial branch gets the blame for this one: a state court in New Jersey has issued a temporary restraining order allowing customers who leave an ISP to take the blocks of IP address space they were previously assigned along with them when they leave the ISP. This may not sound like a big deal -- after all, we've got cell phone number portability now, right? But this decision is completely incompatible with the basic principles of how the internet works. Imagine what street address portability would do to the postal service and you've got an idea of what I'm talking about.
• Finally, bringing things back to the legislature, Orrin Hatch has proposed the INDUCE Act, which would make it a crime to "induce" people to violate copyright. The nominal target is Kazaa and its kin. In practice the bill seems to cover VCRs and Xerox machines as well. The EFF has put together a hypothetical brief based on INDUCE suing Apple Computer for selling the iPod, Toshiba for making its hard drive, and C-Net for reviewing it. Mark my words, within five years one of these asinine DRM laws will be accidentally passed -- or the DMCA shit will finally hit the fan -- and you'll have a substantial backlash of angry voters who don't see why they should be inconvenienced for the sake of Disney & friends.

It's no secret that Hatch is batshit crazy, but he's at least an intelligent man of principle. And don't get me wrong, Orrin, the thought of 12 year olds illicitly trading copies of "Let The Eagle Soar" bothers me at least as much as it does you. But it's just, well, kind of quaint how you legislators think you can control the internet. Even aside from the difficulty of tracking down the US authors of programs when binaries and source code can be spread anonymously with ease, there's the little problem of outfits like EarthStation 5, a P2P app that proudly lists a Palestinian refugee camp as its base of operations*. So let's be realistic for a moment and simplify your options for controlling content on the net:

1. Build a nationwide firewall through which all US net traffic is routed and use it to stamp out the transfer of information of which you don't approve. The Chinese do it, and they seem like nice guys, right?


2. Conquer the rest of the world, bringing it under your jurisdiction. Then figure out how to enforce copyright throughout.

I dearly hope that neither of these options are being considered.

*link not provided because ES5 installs loads of malicious spyware

those four trivia teams who all had the same punchy name of "premature iraqulation" last night? yeah, not clever. just plagiarists. jerks.

whereas i am still confused as to how "blow it like beckham" beat out our supremely more awesome team name of "US pulls out early, iraq still getting fucked." not very concise, true, but FUNNY. really.

speaking of terrible euro teams, well, tangentially, now that italy's been kicked out but good, the american press can go back to focusing on more important italian news items, like this lovely one: "Italy Tightens Rules for Teen Drivers." which is such awesomeness, because you don't know what the grim reaper looks like until you see a maniacal 14 year-old italian bearing down on you on his vespa of death:

or a 16 year-old masturbating vespa boy. either way.