TLDR: This changes nothing. Today the Librarian of Congress announced new rules promul­gated pursuant to the Librarian’s rule­making authority under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to exempt certain actions from the prohi­bition against circum­vention of copyright protection systems found in 17 U.S.C. §1201. The “anti-​​​​circumvention provision” states: No person shall circumvent a tech­no­logical measure that effec­tively controls access to a work protected under this title. The Librarian is required by §1201 to make a deter­mi­nation every three years as to whether any exemp­tions from this prohi­bition are necessary in order to preserve access to copy­righted works. In the words of the Librarian, his task [ . . . ]

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I have a rosebush. It is a flori­bunda with deep red–almost maroon–flowers. I’ve been working on it for a few years now, and I prune it when it needs pruning, and I water it every other day, and I feed it and rotate it (it is in a large pot) and clip off dead blooms and whatnot. I care for it, rather like some people care for pets. It is a thing that I am proud of. Proud that I have kept it alive (I have a bad track record with plants); proud that I have been able to transform it from the scraggly little runt I bought at a Home Depot somewhere into a big, [ . . . ]

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Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church have, for some time now, been traveling the country protesting at the funerals of American soldiers killed in the line of duty. Back in 2006, they protested outside the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, who was killed in action at the age of 20. See this article, the original complaint, and Monica’s (of Spark a Synapse) post on the same topic for the unpleasant details. English as a language lacks invec­tives of suffi­cient force and color to condemn this kind of behavior in the terms justice demands. However, has WBC done anything properly [ . . . ]

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Some lively back-​​​​and-​​​​forth between Messrs. Inspector and Flibbertigibbet on urbanism, and Mr. Van Horn’s recent cable company travails got me thinking on the role of public roads in government’s ability to exert control over private property. This is mildly unfor­tunate, however, as I am far too busy at the moment to be thinking about such things. So I’ve popped it in the oven on a low roast for now, and later tonight I should have a tender, juicy morsel for you.