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"Edited by Annie J. Randall Music, Power, and Politics Overview Photo: Barry Feinstein Peter, Paul, and Mary at The Long March, August 28th, 1963 Music, Power, and Politics presents thirteen different cultural perspectives on a single theme: the concept of music as a site of socio-political struggle. Essays by scholars from seven countries (UK, People's Republic of China, Germany, South Africa, USA, Serbia and Montenegro, and Iran) explore the means by which music's long-acknowledged potential to persuade, seduce, indoctrinate, rouse, incite, or even silence listeners has been used to advance agendas of power and protest."

"Richard Stallman's personal site. https://stallman.org For current political commentary, see the daily political notes. RMS' Bio | The GNU Project On Hacking In June 2000, while visiting Korea, I did a fun hack that clearly illustrates the original and true meaning of the word "hacker". I went to lunch with some GNU fans, and was sitting down to eat some tteokpaekki (*), when a waitress set down six chopsticks right in front of me. It occurred to me that perhaps these were meant for three people, but it was more amusing to imagine that I was supposed to use all six. I did not know any way to do that, so I realized that if I could come up with a way, it would be a hack. I started thinking. After a few seconds I had an idea. "

"Richard Stallman's personal site. https://stallman.org For current political commentary, see the daily political notes. RMS' Bio | The GNU Project On Hacking In June 2000, while visiting Korea, I did a fun hack that clearly illustrates the original and true meaning of the word "hacker". I went to lunch with some GNU fans, and was sitting down to eat some tteokpaekki (*), when a waitress set down six chopsticks right in front of me. It occurred to me that perhaps these were meant for three people, but it was more amusing to imagine that I was supposed to use all six. I did not know any way to do that, so I realized that if I could come up with a way, it would be a hack. I started thinking. After a few seconds I had an idea. "

"from the funny-how-that-works dept We've noted for a long time now that copyright laws are regularly used as a tool for censorship. In Russia, abusing copyright law for censorship and to harass political opponents has become standard. Remember how the Russian government teamed up with Microsoft to use questionable copyright claims to intimidate government critics? And then how the MPAA gleefully got into bed with Russia's media censor to celebrate copyright? Of course, Russia also expanded its ability to use copyright to censor the internet, following pressure from short-sighted US diplomats, demanding that Russia better "respect" copyright laws. "

"from the funny-how-that-works dept We've noted for a long time now that copyright laws are regularly used as a tool for censorship. In Russia, abusing copyright law for censorship and to harass political opponents has become standard. Remember how the Russian government teamed up with Microsoft to use questionable copyright claims to intimidate government critics? And then how the MPAA gleefully got into bed with Russia's media censor to celebrate copyright? Of course, Russia also expanded its ability to use copyright to censor the internet, following pressure from short-sighted US diplomats, demanding that Russia better "respect" copyright laws. "

ScienceDaily (Mar. 7, 2011) - Despite the fears of some, a new study suggests that use of the internet in general does not make people more likely to believe political rumors.

[ Book: Wolfgang Hoeschele. The Economics of Abundance: A Political Economy of Freedom, Equity, and Sustainability. Gower Publishing, 2010 Contents [hide] * 1 Description * 2 Contents * 3 Excerpts o 3.1 Introduction o 3.2 Oppressive Scarcities (pp. 19-20) o 3.3 Conclusions: Strategies for Change o 3.4 Table 9.1: Coalitions for change o 3.5 Resource Use and Property Rights to Minimize Scarcity + 3.5.1 Contributory resource uses + 3.5.2 Neutral resource uses + 3.5.3 Rivalrous resource uses + 3.5.4 Key References on resource use Description "The "economics of abundance" is based on a critique of our present economic system, which finds value only in scarce commodities - i.e., things which can be sold at a high price because demand exceeds supply. Because this economy depends on demand always outstripping supplies, it also depends on "scarcity-generating institutions" - institutions that either manipulate supply or demand in order to keep us in a constant state of need. An economy of abundance seeks to dismantle or reform these scarcity-generating institutions in such a way as to affirm our freedom to live life as art (self-expression to others), social equity (so that everyone can live life as art), and sustainability (so that all life can thrive into the future). Among other things, this implies a much greater role for various forms of shared property, individual and community-level self-reliance, and participatory decision-making." (http://shareable.net/blog/event-the-economics-of-abundance) ]

The networked information economy improves the practical capacities of individuals along three dimensions: (1) it improves their capacity to do more for and by themselves; (2) it enhances their capacity to do more in loose commonality with others, without being constrained to organize their relationship through a price system or in traditional hierarchical models of social and economic organization; and (3) it improves the capacity of individuals to do more in formal organizations that operate outside the market sphere. This enhanced autonomy is at the core of all the other improvements I describe. Individuals are using their newly expanded practical freedom to act and cooperate with others in ways that improve the practiced experience of democracy, justice and development, a critical culture, and community. ... [M]y approach heavily emphasizes individual action in nonmarket relations. Much of the discussion revolves around the choice between markets and nonmarket social behavior. In much of it, the state plays no role, or is perceived as playing a primarily negative role, in a way that is alien to the progressive branches of liberal political thought. In this, it seems more of a libertarian or an anarchistic thesis than a liberal one. I do not completely discount the state, as I will explain. But I do suggest that what is special about our moment is the rising efficacy of individuals and loose, nonmarket affiliations as agents of political economy.

"It was in Russia that the word "oligarchs" was first used to denote very rich businessmen. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has adopted the term to refer to billionaires who create or take over media empires to serve their business or political interests. There is a worldwide trend towards increasingly concentrated ownership of conglomerates that combine media outlets (TV channels, radio stations, newspapers and news websites) with banks, telecoms, property firms and construction companies. All this suits the rulers of countries such as China that espoused capitalism in order to better suppress democracy. "

"Would you be better off paying for online newspapers like this one? Should you feel guilty about downloading free music? Is the Web's "information-wants-to-free" culture hurting writers, musicians and the rest of the "digital peasants," as Jaron Lanier calls us, now providing unpaid content to be exploited by the "lords of the clouds" like Google? In my Findings column, I discuss Mr. Lanier's new book, "You Are Not A Gadget," a manifesto decrying the Web's effect on individual creativity. (You can see excerpts of his criticism at Edge and at Cato Unbound.) Mr. Lanier mentions this newspaper as one of the victims as well as the promoters of the Web's ideology. "The New York Times," he writes, "promotes so-called open digital politics on a daily basis even though that ideal and the movement behind it are destroying the newspaper and all other newspapers. It seems to be a case of journalistic Stockholm syndrome." Mr. Lanier also faults himself: "

[Here's a quit extensive synthesis of "The Penguin and the Leviathan," in my opinion a wonderful book for anyone who is interested in improving and transforming our economic and political institutions. Human motivation is a subject that 'makes me tick'. I really enjoyed reading "The Penguin and the Leviathan", not only because it paints a much nicer picture of "human nature" than the one used by the free marketeers, but also because it gives a glimpse of a future, higher form of society that will be much more based on human cooperation. I think it is important to see that the seeds of this future society are very much present today. ...]

agreed! thanks for this share... the book's on my wishlist.

"... The principles that drive the open source movement are principles that concern everything from the right to share, to a coherent view on privacy; from the right of access to explore and modify work under the hood, to a belief in the power of openness and collaboration; and principles such as a belief in commons, in altruism, and in free access to education and information. ..."

"After the Paris attacks late last year, we noted that it was clear that they were evidence of an intelligence community failure, rather than an "encryption" problem -- which kind of explained why the intelligence community quickly tried to blame encryption. But, as we noted, most of the attackers were already known to the intelligence community and law enforcement -- and there's still little evidence that they used any encryption. "

"After the Paris attacks late last year, we noted that it was clear that they were evidence of an intelligence community failure, rather than an "encryption" problem -- which kind of explained why the intelligence community quickly tried to blame encryption. But, as we noted, most of the attackers were already known to the intelligence community and law enforcement -- and there's still little evidence that they used any encryption. "

"by Cathleen O'Grady Nov 24 2014, 4:00am CET If you know how to do something and people around you start doing it differently, you have two options: stick to what you know, or change to use their strategy. If the new strategy is more efficient than yours, or gets better results, it's a no-brainer, so you switch. But if it's exactly as efficient and produces the same results, the decision to switch is based on another factor-conformity."

"by Cathleen O'Grady Nov 24 2014, 4:00am CET Share Tweet 24 If you know how to do something and people around you start doing it differently, you have two options: stick to what you know, or change to use their strategy. If the new strategy is more efficient than yours, or gets better results, it's a no-brainer, so you switch. But if it's exactly as efficient and produces the same results, the decision to switch is based on another factor-conformity."

"Stop us if you've heard this one before: Comcast has done something wrong to one of its customers and didn't make it right until he contacted a reporter."

"California's push for renewables may provide a preview of the world's changing grid. by John Timmer (US) - Nov 1, 2015 12:00am CET"

"from the double-irish-with-a-dutch-sandwich dept For quite some time now, we've seen EU regulators talk fairly openly about their desires to harm American internet companies, mostly in a misguided attempt to boost local European companies (and to collect more money). It's why we keep hearing about weird, carefully targeted regulations designed to pump up how much money companies like Google, Apple and others pay. "