net.wars columns, published every Friday since November 2, 2001 at (new address as of January 2023) the net.wars blog, on Saturdays on CIX (join! discuss!), at Cybersalon, and sometimes at other sites. If there's any column you'd like to republish/cross-post, just ask. net.wars also has a rarely used Pinboard for stories that come up between columns on the subject net.wars covers: computers, freedom, and privacy, aka the border wars between cyberspace and real life. We do not publish "guest posts", edit past posts to include suggested links, accept payment, even in kind, to include third-party links, or "share resources" offered by unsolicited email. We have no trackers on this website.

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2006

From its inception in November 2001 until March 3, 2006 net.wars appeared first at The Inquirer. Almost all of those links have vanished and been replaced here with links captured by the Internet Archive.

  • In search of clarity (3/10/06) - Is it clarity they want - or software patents? (also here)
  • AOL's email tax (3/3/06) - Threat of AOL's introduction of fee-paid guaranteed email delivery probably exaggerated despite the EFF's fears. (also here)
  • Digital magazines: still not ready for prime time (2/24/06) - You'd think Business Week would know better. (also here)
  • Widows and orphans first (2/17/06) - Attributing copyrights. (also here)
  • Security versus security (2/10/06) - Which security demand is more important: wiretapping VOIP or securing the Internet?(also here)
  • Cubiclife (2/3/06) - Life in the office; unutterably anthropological. (also here)
  • The revenge of the Digital Rights Manifesto (1/27/06) - Discussing the responses to last week's column. (also here)
  • Digital Rights Manifesto (1/20/06) - the National Consumer Council has called for regulation of how DRM may be used. We present some handy suggestions for what that regulation should look like. (also here) Update (1/21/06): a lot of mail in response to this one. The most interesting one came from a games player who says that the copy protection embedded in some games renders his expensive debugging software inoperable. That's just nasty.
  • How to be annoying and stay out of jail (1/13/06) - a new US law may (or may not) mean that anonymously posting annoying content is a crime (also here)
  • A tempest in a Wikipedia (1/6/06) - Web contains inaccurate information; pictures at 11. (also here)

  • 2005

    2004

    2003

    2002

    2001


    And...

    The full text, online of the 1998 book - or buy net.wars (1998)

    or From Anarchy to Power (2001)


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