While not writing the essay that I should be writing, I thought I’d check out what other people wrote after the changes to copyright law announced two Sundays ago. Turns out pretty much anyone with a brain agrees that the changes are ridiculous — or in SJ Hutcheon’s words, “dumb and dumber”.

This ABC article makes the excellent point that the legal changes do nothing for new cultural forms like mashups, and plenty of bloggers have pointed out issues the AG has been too stupid to address, like the up-and-coming problem of DRM. Even Gizmodo and Boing Boing ran stories about how ridiculous these new laws are.

There is a very eloquent wrap-up of the matter at Piss & Vinegar.

Meanwhile, the subject of my post yesterday, Timor-Leste, has generated remarkably little from the blogosphere. There’s plenty of sympathy for our northern neighbour, but little analysis — this view from NZ is the most interesting post I could find.