In an attempt to take education back to the 19th century enhance discipline in schools, Education Secretary Michael Gove is proposing a variety of new measures and powers for teachers, including the power to confiscate pupils’ mobile phones, search for objectionable content on them and erase it. This is the latest in a series of education policies designed to make today’s children as ill-prepared for the future as possible. Other proposals include the move to “fact-based teaching” and the rewriting of history to fit into a particular, ideologically sound world view.
Read more at ORGZine.

How much do you trust the state? In particular, how much do you trust the state to only use powers it has by law for the purpose they were intended for? One of my favourite science fiction stories is by Charles Stross in an anthology edited by Farah Mendlesohn titled “Glorifying Terrorism”.
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The long legal struggle on the part of the music industry to kill yet another P2P filesharing platform – LimeWire is slowly coming to an end. In May last year, Judge Kimba Wood at the Manhattan Federal District Court ruled that LimeWire and its founder Mark Gorton were liable for copyright infringement and inducement to copyright infringement. In October last year, the court ordered LimeWire to stop distributing its software. Over the next few months, the trial will continue to determine the damages due to the 13 suing record companies.
Read more at ORGZine.

Earlier this month, Jon Bon Jovi accused Steve Jobs of killing the music industry [1]. (I would link to the original source but it’s behind the Times paywall, so I’ll save you the hassle). The same day, I came across this article on PaidContent.org, a website covering “the economics of digital content”.
It looks at the proposed review of copyright law in the UK, and some of the key vested interests involved. Representatives of the music industry in particular, such as Fergal Sharkey, are attacking the government’s fledgling plans for copyright reform – and not because they’re afraid of “piracy” but because they are afraid of Google and the technology industry in general.
Read more at ORGZine.

I would be willing to bet you a not-insubstantial amount of money that Steve Jobs would love to be able to say that the iPhone was the first mobile phone to control a space craft. But it’s not going to be. Instead, British scientists are planning to put an Android phone – exact model to be confirmed – in space.
Read more at ORGZine.

Netflix, the US TV and movie streaming service has been in the news rather a lot recently. It seems Hollywood can’t quite figure out whether it should be embracing or trying to kill the company.
As Greg Sandoval points out, Netflix is posing significant commercial challenges to Hollywood’s current business models and distribution channels. It competes – with astounding success – with channels as diverse as DVD sales, movie sales to airlines, and cable and broadcast television.
Read more at ORGZine.

When you signed up to Twitter, did you read the small print? Or did you just scroll past the 10-line box of monospaced font Twitter gives you to view their Terms of Service (which are actually six-and-a-half pages long, excluding the “Twitter Rules” which are also part of the ToS), and click “Create Account”? If you’re anything like me, you probably did the latter, and thus missed the following crucial point:
Read more at ORGZine.

Maker Faire UK is a two-day celebration of creativity, sharing and the pure joy of making things, which took over Newcastle’s two main science venues, the Centre for Life and the Discovery Museum, over the weekend of March 12th and 13th. It’s an event with a long tradition in the US, and this year saw its third UK incarnation.
Read more at ORGZine.

Much has been talked recently about what (if any) impact Twitter has on revolutions, and what Wikileaks will do for Western democracy. Mr. Morozov’s glum assessment aside, technology is having a massive impact on the relationship between the state and the individual in many areas – sometimes to the advantage of the state and sometimes otherwise.
Read more at ORGZine.

Earlier this week, BoingBoing covered the story of Zazzle – an online merchandise company – taking down a badge which read “While you were reading Tolkien I was watching Evangelion”. The original story alleged that this was prompted by the Tolkien Estate claiming copyright infringement, though subsequently it has emerged that it was actually Zazzle acting on their own initiative who caused the withdrawal of the product.
Read more at ORGZine.