Collatoral damage of our surveillance state

By Julian Sanchez – We have unwittingly constructed a legal and technological architecture that brings point-and-click simplicity to the politics of personal destruction. The Petraeus affair has, for a moment, exposed that invisible scaffolding ‑ and provided a rare opportunity to revisit outdated laws and reconsider the expanded surveillance powers doled out over the past panicked decade.

Congress should seize the opportunity to re-examine and revise these myriad surveillance techniques and update the oversight process. At a bare minimum, lawmakers should drag the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act into the 21st century ‑ requiring a warrant for all law-enforcement access to communications contents and tightening the rules for access to sensitive information, such as cellphone location data. more> http://tinyurl.com/a2sxgba

Related articles

• Collatoral damage of our surveillance state (blogs.reuters.com)
• Petraeus and the Surveillance State (slog.thestranger.com)
• The FBI Can Trawl Through Your Email Archives Anytime it Wants (motherjones.com)
• Why Petraeus’ Email Troubles Should Make You Nervous (huffingtonpost.com)
• Yes, the FBI and CIA can read your email. Here’s how. (lynleahz.com)
• Gmail And The FBI Took Down David Petraeus: Why It Matters To You (huffingtonpost.com)
• The Petraeus Scandal And The Surveillance State (outsidethebeltway.com)
• The Real Reason You Should Care About the Petraeus Affair: Privacy (motherjones.com)

Debunking Innovative Copycats and the Patent Monopoly

Patent 573907
(Photo credit: Michael Neubert)

By Gene Quinn – Those who argue against a patent system and say that patents inhibit innovation are intellectually bankrupt; willing to say anything no matter how wrong to achieve what they predetermined to be the preferred outcome. There is no talking to the anti-patent community because they simply ignore facts and reality. They prefer to wrap themselves around academic thought experiments rather than real, verifiable truths. They ignore the undeniable facts that when a country adopts a patent system economic progress follows.

The truth is a patent is an asset like any other business asset. Some will be quite valuable and some will be marginally valuable and many will be worth little or nothing. What matters is the quality of the patent and the breadth of the claims. What you want is a broad set of claims that offers wide coverage, but not so wide that the claims are likely easily defeated. more> http://tinyurl.com/c5kykvw

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• Debunking Innovative Copycats and the Patent Monopoly (ipwatchdog.com)
• Copycat, copycat! (jasonhanley.com)
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Supreme Court Rules on Health Care Law: What Now?

By Sheehan Phinney Bass – Justice Roberts held that Congress has the authority under its constitutional taxing power to impose a fine on those who do not buy health insurance. Thus, Congress cannot regulate the inactivity of not buying health insurance, but Congress may tax that inactivity.

Business owners should have at least a basic understanding of the key provisions of the law, particularly those provisions that are already in effect and those that will go into effect in 2013 and 2014. Following is a summary of key provisions of PPACA that should be of interest to every business owner. more> http://tinyurl.com/brchx7n

Related articles

• Supreme Court upholds health care law (jurist.org)
• Health reform sticks: Now what? (insurance.com)
• Insurance and Medical Options at Stake in Health Care Ruling (blogs.lawyers.com)
• Healthcare Survives Supreme Court [Page 3.14] (scienceblogs.com)
• The PPACA Ruling At A Glance (rjwh617dotcom.wordpress.com)
• ‡ The Supreme Court’s ACA Ruling (tightwind.net)
• Both parties wield health care law to their advantage, Paige Winfield Cunningham, Washington Times
• Governors put off health care questions, for now, CBS News

Forget About the Mandate. Let’s Fix Health Care

Rube Goldberg devices.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By John H. Cochrane – The legal distinctions among a mandate, a tax, a penalty, or a credit, and between federal and state powers, are important legally and constitutionally. But they are irrelevant in economic terms for this law.

Let’s stop playing lawyer and get back to economics and policy.

Opponents: Return to articulating the disastrous economic and health-care effects of this law. And articulate better ways to solve the mess.

Supporters: Try to make this Rube Goldberg contraption work. Good luck. more> http://tinyurl.com/7cewe5d

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• Why ObamaCare Will Kill Medicine, You and The US Economy (thedifferencesofus.com)
• Kentucky says it will implement central piece of Obama’s health law, Sam Baker, Hill
• How each state will approach health care act, USA TODAY/Detroit Free Press
• Universal health care on the horizon, James Burdick, baltimoresun.com
• Seeking to Preserve Obamacare, Chief Justice Roberts Eviscerated It, Grace-Marie Turner, Forbes

The ObamaTax Ensures Extraordinarily Expensive ObamaCare

By Michael Strain – The fine for not buying health insurance under ObamaCare is quite small — the greater of $695 per year or roughly 2.5 percent of income for a single person. Put more simply, the fine is much less than the cost of an insurance policy for the overwhelming majority of Americans. But many of the law’s supporters have been very optimistic that a large number of the currently uninsured will comply with the mandate and purchase insurance.

Given the small penalties, will people comply with the individual mandate?

The Supreme Court explicitly states (pdf) that noncompliance with the mandate is lawful. This changes the psychology completely.  People’s desire to obey the law will allow them to choose the cheaper option and pay the tax. more> http://tinyurl.com/87l2n6u

Related articles

• Ira Stoll on Why ObamaCare Is, in Fact, the Largest Tax Increase in History (reason.com)
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