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Entries from July 2012

What Follows from “You Didn’t Build That”?

July 19th, 2012 · 40 Comments

Barack Obama’s recent “Elizabeth Warren Moment” at a speech in Roanoke has been getting plenty of attention, though the focus of much of the criticism seems misplaced. Here’s the full relevant passage: Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by […]

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Tags: Libertarian Theory

A First Sale Legal Hack?

July 17th, 2012 · 11 Comments

Here’s a little puzzle for the lawyers out there. It’s pretty obviously copyright infringement to buy a legitimate copy of a CD, make a copy, and then give away or sell the copy. But how about the reverse? Millions of people in their 20s and late-30s have large CD collections acquired back in Ye Olden […]

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Tags: Law

A Few Thoughts on Coercion

July 13th, 2012 · 20 Comments

As I seem to have inadvertently sparked this Crooked Timber essay by Chris Bertram, Corey Robin and Alex Gourevitch (B/R/G) on workplace coercion, I feel like I should probably say something about it, though Matt Zwolinski and Roderick Long already have good responses you should probably just read instead. Some assorted thoughts: First, there is […]

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Tags: Libertarian Theory · Moral Philosophy

A Friday Puzzler: Un-XORing Two Plaintexts

July 6th, 2012 · 16 Comments

I’ve been reading Cryptography Engineering by Bruce Schneier, Niels Ferguson, and Tadayoshi Kohno, on the theory that someone who writes about privacy and surveillance as much as I do ought to have somewhat more detailed understanding of how modern cryptosystems work, even if I’m never going to be competent to work with the actual code. […]

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Tags: Random Cool Link · Tech and Tech Policy