Brazilian President Blasts NSA Spying In Front Of World Leaders -- Including Obama -- At UN

It was expected that the Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, would raise the issue of NSA spying when she addressed the opening session of the UN General Assembly in New York this week. But few would have predicted that her speech would be quite so excoriating (pdf), especially since it was given in the presence of President Obama, who spoke immediately after her. 

On Techdirt.

We, the People; We, the Coders

It's generally accepted that one of the reasons Barack Obama was re-elected as US President last year was the superiority of the IT system his campaign team used. It will come as no surprise to readers of this blog that it was built on open source foundations, as this fascinating article in The Verge explains:

On Open Enterprise blog.

Libelling Larry Lessig

Wow, outrageous:

Although it is unclear at this point who Senators Obama and McCain might choose, AAP believes it essential that key officials who will deal with intellectual property issues in a new administration have a full understanding of the importance of intellectual property rights for those who hold these rights and for broader U.S. economic and trade interests. AAP is concerned, for example, that based on their past academic relationship, Senator Obama might choose among his appointments a divisive figure such as Larry Lessig - a law professor and leading proponent of diminished copyright rights.

Lessig has done more for *extending* the usefulness of copyright than anyone. The Association of American Publishers (AAP) are simply beneath contempt. (Via Arbeit 2.0.)