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The Libertarian Blog of Stephan Kinsella
Mises Random Quote:
• BLOG ARCHIVES
• THE DAILY APOLOGY
• KINSELLALAW BLOG
January 30, 2002
Pat Buchanan's latest book, The Death of the West, looks to be an important wake-up call about the dangers that immigration, multiculturalism, and the like pose to western culture and civilization. However, Buchanan has written a recent column linking libertarians with a pro-immigration stance--despite explicitly libertarian anti-immigration arguments by arch-libertarian Hans-Hermann Hoppe (longer PDF article) and other reservations about open borders by other libertarians. In response to Buchanan's lumping of all libertarians together under the pro-immigration banner, WorldNetDaily published today a response to Buchanan from paleolibertarian Karen De Coster, plus other responses and articles on immigration. De Coster makes it clear that not all libertarians are pro-open borders, despite Pat's incorrect assumption to the contrary. 
January 12, 2002
I've come across DynamicDrive.com, a neat website with cool tricks, tips, and tools for web sites, e.g., mouse trail effects.
I've been using Netflix--a great service that I recommend--and the other day rented The Man in the Moon. It's a fantastic movie; I agree with Roger Ebert's review.
January 10, 2002
There are a growing number of sites containing free, electronic copies of classic and other books, such as Bibliomania. Others are listed here.
January 8, 2002
Two good articles: The Seven Wonders of the Web; and Democracy vs. Freedom (And The Nation-State)?, by Jared Taylor (discussing the provocative new book by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Democracy – The God That Failed).
Another fantastic article is Gary North's Advice to a Would-Be Scholar. One I wish I'd read when I was younger.
January 6, 2002
Interesting article on FoxNews.com, Setting Sail on a Giant, Floating City. Unlike some libertarian fantasies, this one may work.
My former partner, Erid Sinrod, reports on an interesting recent case, Intel v. Hamidi, in which a California appellate court ruled that waves of unsolicited e-mails sent to Intel by a former employee constituted trespass on Intel's server. The court applied the common-law doctrine of trespass to chattels. See Intel's argument, which pointed out that, under California law, unconsented access to a computer system constitutes a trespass to chattels. This was established in Thrifty-Tel, Inc. v. Bezenek, 46 Cal. App. 4th 1559 (1996), and extended to e-mail systems in CompuServe, Inc. v. Cyber Promotions, Inc., 962 F. Supp. 1015 (S.D. Ohio 1997). In that case, the court enjoined the defendant from sending unauthorized e-mail onto the plaintiff's proprietary computer systems. The CompuServe court found that the defendant's electronic signals, comprising the e-mail, physically invaded the plaintiff's computers after a demand to cease. America Online, Inc. v. IMS, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17437 at *4-*8 (E.D. Va. October 29, 1998) also based its trespass to chattels holding primarily on the reasoning in CompuServe. In my view, this is a legitimate application of libertarian principles of property rights and trespass.
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