From: reasonexpress@reason.com ("Reason Express")
To: reason-express@sonic.sparklist.com ("Reason's e-mail newsletter")
Subject: Reason Express - November 5, 2002
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 04:41:55 -0800


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Reason Express

Reason's Weekly Dispatch
By Jeff A. Taylor and the Reason staff

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Express

November 5, 2002
Vol. 5, No. 45

In this issue:

1. Settling the Score
2. Zero Discipline   
3. Bean Bags   
4. Quick Hits
5. Machine Gun Delivery - and other highlights from Reason Online
6. From Reason's print edition
7. News and Events



Debunking the Doomsters!

Environmental fear mongers have succeeded in spreading their dismal
visions of a poisoned, overpopulated, resource-depleted world spiraling
down into ecological ruin.

In his new book, Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths, Reason Science
Correspondent Ronald Bailey assembles some of the most respected
researchers in the country to explode the myths behind these doom and
gloom scenarios, and expose how the environmental movement uses false
science to scare us to death and stymie progress.

Buy it now!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0761536604/ref%3Dnosim/reasonmagazineA/103-8227741-3717450





Reason Express is made possible by a grant from The DBT Group
( http://www.dbtgroup.com/ ), manufacturers of affordable, high-performance
mainframe systems and productivity software.





1. Settling the Score

America's long national nightmare may be at an end. Microsoft's antitrust
settlement with the Justice Department has survived a challenge by nine
states that claimed it didn't go far enough.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found that the federal
settlement sufficed: Loosening up requirements that Microsoft imposed on
computer makers, along with making the inner workings of Windows more
transparent to outside software developers, addressed the most grievous
complaints about the company's business practices. Namely, that it used
its market position to strong-arm both computer makers and other software
companies into lousy deals.

The states basically wanted the company carved up and/or nationalized,
with Windows becoming the equivalent of a heavily regulated
common-carrier, like a phone company or other utility. The fact that
Redmond's competitors want the states to appeal tells you that they will
be satisfied with nothing less than the dismemberment of the company.
Expect more warnings about Microsoft "controlling" the Internet, a feat
that looks more remote by the month.

The real threat to consumers using computers as they please is "digital
rights management," which guarantees that digital media will never truly
be owned by the people who buy them. Microsoft's Palladium initiative
could force consumers to give up control over their own machines to
distant copyright owners, who could demand payment every time a song or
video is accessed or could simply prevent certain files from being used on
a computer at all.

If millions of consumers find themselves unable to use content they
thought they paid for on Windows boxes, those $600 Linux boxes at Wal-Mart
are going to start to look awfully attractive. Redmond might be ruthless,
but it isn't dumb.

Microsoft might now be in a position to side with computer users against
the copyright owners it has strung along in recent years. Bill Gates
hasn't been able to toss off one of his famous "head feints" in awhile, so
the time is ripe.

Having repeatedly argued during the course of the antitrust proceedings
that it must maintain the "right to innovate," Microsoft could choose to
say it is on the side of the future and innovation. It could, but that
doesn't mean it will.

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56175,00.html
http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=478

http://www3.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=111170
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2002-11-04-pc-users_x.htm




2. Zero Discipline

To see what happens when entrenched interests run up against new
technology -- not to mention a possible preview of what will happen to
American telecom in the near future -- look at Panama.

Like many countries around the world, Panama uses long distance phone
traffic as a cash cow. Not only that, but over the years many
international cable and switching facilities have set up shop in that
strategic locale. In sum, telecom is quite the big business in Panama.

So when the Internet starts sucking traffic off the old circuit-switched
phone network, it gets noticed. Voice-over-Internet protocol services
offered by Panamanian Internet providers dodged all the hefty fees and
taxes of the old phone system, and as a result were much cheaper. The
government responded exactly as you might expect: They effectively banned
such services in and out of the country.

A decree issued last month ordered that all ISPs block the ports typically
used for voice-over-Internet traffic. Local ISPs are upset, but it is
unclear what they can do about it other than agree to pay off someone,
either under or over the table. A heavily taxed, inefficient
circuit-switched system cannot coexist with a tax-free, modern
packet-switched system.

Sooner or later, the U.S. will face this reality, too.

http://www.ersp.gob.pa/busqueda/show_resol.asp?id=JD-3576&idsector=1
http://www.linuxandmain.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=277



3. Bean Bags

The left coast coffee justice campaign has spread to America's heartland.
A proposal to require coffee sold in localities to be politically correct
is on the ballot in Berkeley and is the subject of a petition drive in
Iowa City. No surprise: Both towns harbor coffee houses, big universities,
and fuzzy-thinking college students.

The goal is to effectively outlaw coffee that is grown with pesticides and
fertilizers, setting a "community standard" for P.C. java. The proposed
Iowa City ordinance would require all brewed coffee sold in town to be
from beans that are organic, "fair-trade," shade-grown, or some
combination of them all. Violators would risk fines of up to $1,000 or
three days in jail.

Iowa City Mayor Ernie Lehman is not impressed.

"In the total scheme of things, I'm a lot more concerned with what will
happen in Iraq than with the coffee we drink in the morning," he said.

http://www.press-citizen.com/news/102502coffee.htm
http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4780932/19572249.html



4. Quick Hits

- - Quote of the Week - -

"Al Qaeda is a Faith-Based Initiative" --placard from the first-ever
Godless Americans March on Washington, which drew about 2,000 people.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59379-2002Nov2?language=printer


- - Take Two and Call Me in the Morning - -

The newest Next Big Thing is the slim Tablet PC, supposedly ready to
supplant the laptop. Newsies dream of using it to offer paperless
newspapers.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,56130,00.html
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1753917



- - Fat Cop - -

George Washington University law prof John Banzhaf says that America's
obesity problem compels him to sue the food industry. Not all of his old
anti-tobacco cohorts agree.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51404-2002Nov1?language=printer


- - Toking the Line - -

A former Dallas Cowboy Pro Bowler tackles drug laws. Mark Stepnoski says a
little pot never hurt him.

http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2002-10-31/news.html/1/index.html


5. New at Reason Online

Machine Gun Delivery
Government gets in on dope dealing. Tim Cavanaugh
http://reason.com/hod/tc110402.shtml

12 Stupid Men
Is a pool of fools better than one on the bench? Jacob Sullum
http://reason.com/links/links110102.shtml

When Paranoids Get Lazy
Was Paul Wellstone Murdered? Jesse Walker
http://reason.com/links/links103102.shtml

And much more! http://www.reason.com



6. The Print Edition


Get your personal copy of the latest issue of Reason's print edition each
month -- before it hits the newsstands and before it's posted on the Web!
Subscribe Today!  https://www.kable.com/pub/anxx/newsubs.asp



7. News and Events


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