When Counterfeits Attack

Last night on 60 Minutes: The World's Greatest Fakes, discussing China as "the undisputed capital of counterfeiting." The story had this utterly chilling conclusion:

Since this report last January, dozens of children from one eastern Chinese city died after being fed counterfeit baby formula. Thousands of boxes of counterfeit formula have been discovered.

More on the arrests of those charged with making or selling the fake formula, which apparently has led to at least some 50-60 malnutrition deaths.

Lawyers Go A-Conference Bloggin'

The American Bar Association's Cyberspace Law Committee is blogging at the ABA's annual meeting happening now in Atlanta. Complete with key alimentary recommendations, nightlife reports, a separate rant blog, and the obligatory "Here I am, blogging this" photo.

Oh, and Vince likes Snow Crash, so there's always the possiblity of a Hiro Protagonist reference, you never know.

And Elliot Should Know

Elliot Noss, on artificial distinctions between business vs. residential users: "It is the size of the bundle, not where you use it."

We The Audiobook

A readers' audio version of Dan Gillmor's We The Media (don't miss the blog) is not just desireable, it's necessary, yes? AKMA organized such an effort for Free Culture, and has useful information about what software to use, how to format ID3 tags, etc. Niall Kennedy kicked things off by recording the Introduction, which I did too before I realized Niall had this covered. Niall got the ball rolling and has offered to be the repository, so send your links his way. As best I can, I'll update this post to serve as an index as well. There's an Introduction, 12 chapters, and an Epilogue. (Watch all the blawgers pick Chapter 10.)

• Introduction: read by Niall Kennedy (MP3; Ogg Vorbis); Denise Howell (MP3)*


• Chapter 1, From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond: read by ___


• Chapter 2, The Read-Write Web: read by ___


• Chapter 3, The Gates Come Down: read by ___


• Chapter 4, Newsmakers Turn the Table: read by ___


• Chapter 5, The Consent of the Governed: read by ___


• Chapter 6, Professional Journalists Join the Conversation: read by ___


• Chapter 7, The Former Audience Joins the Party: read by ___


• Chapter 8, Next Steps: read by ___


• Chapter 9, Trolls, Spin, and the Boundaries of Trust: read by ___


• Chapter 10, Here Come the Judges (and Lawyers): read by ___


• Chapter 11, The Empires Strike Back: read by ___


• Chapter 12, Making Our Own News: read by ___


• Epilogue and Acknowledgements: read by ___

*For the time being this was the best way I could figure out to upload the MP3 I recorded (It's too big to upload to blog*spot, which has a roughly 3MB limit, but I'm not thrilled with putting it on .Mac.) Suggestions for improvement welcome.

Mission: Abort

R.I.P., 321.