Surfacing

Heaven help me, it took about a month for me to fully switch horses midstream. The TiBook has taken up residence somewhere in sunny California (thanks to eBay). I'm settling in with my iBook, and finally figuring out where all the files I transferred from computer to computer to computer ended up. As if to goad me back onto my blog, NPR reported that today is the day for Congressional hearings into the draconian RIAA lawsuit gambit (with a side helping of technologists who promise to invent next-generation CDs or watermarks that will make the whole problem gone away. This has been a rotten month to be pulled away from my pet issue. The lawsuits against grandmothers and granddaughters have been especially entertaining. And I remain startled by the passion which we, as Americans, now bring to this debate. As I watched the nation plunge into war, my interest in intellectual property started to feel trivial. But the more I watch, the more I see the current intellectual property debates as an index on the ethics and character of the debate's participants. This has renewed my commitment to offering my interpretation of the arguments we've heard, and my desire to try to promote better arguments.

That said, my second daughter is due any day now, and if Lawrence Lessig's blog is any indication, that might also prompt yet another blog hiatus. Congratulations to Professor Lessig on the birth of his son. I'll sound my barbaric yawp as much as possible in this prenatal period, but if I'm absent for a stretch, assume paternity has beckoned.