MADISON, Wis. (CBSDC) – A video captured a woman shaking and sobbing uncontrollably while being frisked by a Transportation Security Administration agent.
Political blogger Jim Hoft — who runs the Gateway Pundit website — captured the incident at a Madison, Wis., airport Sunday.
In another ratcheting up of the national security surveillance state, the Obama administration has weakened a privacy safeguard that even the Bush administration kept intact. The AP reports:
The U.S. intelligence community will be able to store information about Americans with no ties to terrorism for up to five years under new Obama administration guidelines. ... (more)
In the hopes of creating awareness of what CISPA actually is and how it could effect the lives of every day people, we created this infographic. You can find quotes from Fortune 500 CEO’s who are endorsing the bill here. You can also write a letter to your local representative to protest CISPA here.
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Great infographic, I like how these random companies like "onlinecriminaljusticedegree.org" and this "luminconsulting.com" find it profitable to create and distribute political infographics, presumably to get some sort of favorable treatment from search engines. - Chris
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforced nearly $500,000 in fines and mandatory "environmental projects" on a school bus contractor for "excessive idling," and as part of its anti-idling campaign to reduce the carbon footprint of school buses waiting to pick up children for their routes.
"As part of a settlement for alleged excessive diesel idling in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Durham School Services will commit to reduce idling from its school bus... (more)
Spencer Ackerman, over at Wired, recently had a fascinating article about how the a former Bush official had written a memo detailing how the CIA had committed war crimes in torturing Al Qaeda suspects, in violation of the Geneva conventions. Wired has the full memo, but here's the first page:
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The forces behind HR 3523, the dangerous Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act which is going to move forward in Congress at the end of the month, are beginning to get cagey about the growing backlash from the internet community. In an attempt to address some of the key concerns, the bill's authors, representatives Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger, hosted a conference call specifically geared at digital rep... (more)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has just released a few new details on Operation in Our Sites, the ongoing and often controversial initiative to crack down on sites allegedly used to sell counterfeit goods or that are otherwise involved in copyright infringement.
“The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) and the Department of Justice seized more than $896,000 in proceeds from ... (more)
Chris Dodd, Chair of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) was quoted yesterday as saying he is "confident" negotiations for a SOPA revival are taking place. While it's tempting to write off that confidence as the result of watching one too many zombie movies, it should be no surprise that the MPAA is pushing for a new backroom deal.
A TSA screener has lifted to lid to reveal how the federal agency’s $1 billion dollar plus fleet of body scanners is completely useless in that the machines routinely fail to pick up prohibited items such as knives, guns and powder designed to resemble explosive material.
In an interview conducted by Jon Corbett, the engineer who recently expos... (more)
After the SOPA and PIPA uproar the Internet has become increasingly aware of the US Government’s attempts at meddling with the web. In recent days the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) has moved to the forefront. Critics of the bill point out that it would allow companies to spy on Internet users, and as it’s written CISPA would further allow ISPs to block allegedly infringing transfers and report pirating users to a variety of organizations.
So Chris Dodd just said that there were ongoing backroom negotiations for a new SOPA, with some push from the White House. Of course, he did it with a wink and a nod, by saying he was "confident" that such was "the case" but that he wouldn't "go into more detail, because obviously if I do, it becomes counterproductive." When asked to clarify, he made it... (more)
The government is more concerned with the platforms rather than the games themselves, mainly because newer systems like Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 allow users to communicate with one another via messaging and chat systems
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Navy have launched a new research initiative that will explore ways of allowing the government to hack into gaming consoles like the Xbox 360, Wii, or PlayStation 3 to obtain information on gamers. ... (more)
Ah, Chris Dodd. It seems like every time he opens his mouth, he makes things worse. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, he responds to a series of questions about SOPA by trying to tiptoe around the issue, but basically admits that there are backroom conversations going on between a small number of people, and that "between now and sometime next year," H... (more)
New data from law enforcement agencies across the country has confirmed what EFF has long been afraid of: while police are routinely using cell phone location tracking information, only a handful of agencies are bothering to obtain search warrants.
Since 2005, we've been beating the drum loudly, warning that the government's attempts to track a person's physical location through their cell phone requires a search warrant.... (more)
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) hasn’t received a whole lot of media attention yet, but it continues to pick up support from legislators.
The bill is touted as being much worse than SOPA when it comes to privacy invasions.
Just as SOPA put an emphasis on piracy, CISPA also appears t... (more)
Nero fiddled while Rome burned. And Congress holds hearings on the TSA while the agency sexually assaults passengers, steals their valuables, torments children, the elderly and handicapped, and spits on the Constitution.
It can't be easy to convince millions of subscribers that there's no reason to be worried when their service providers agree to collaborate with big content to tackle online infringement -- especially when those subscribers weren't given a chance to review or comment on the deal. But yesterday's announcement of the membership of the executive and advisory boards for the Center for Copyrigh... (more)
Spain’s Ministry of Culture has just reported on the first month’s activities following the introduction of the country’s ‘Sinde’ anti-piracy law. The controversial legislation, described by some as a Spanish version of SOPA, took effect March 1st and since that time rightsholders have been busy filing notices. Almost 300 complaints have been filed in total including 79 site takedown requests.
After being threatened with a place on a United State... (more)
Does the government have a responsibility to protect innocent third parties from collateral damage when it seizes their property in the course of prosecuting alleged copyright infringement? That is the question a federal district court will consider next week in the latest skirmish in the legal battle between the U.S. government and Megaupload.
When the government shut down Megaupload three months ago, it made it impossible for innocent third parties, like our client Kyle Goodwin,... (more)
A bill approved by the Arizona House last week will make "telecommunications harassment" -- speech others find offensive or threatening -- a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to 25 years in prison.
Arizona House Bill 2549 passed both legislative houses and is now awaiting signature from Arizona governor Jan Brewer.
The legislation will make it "unlawful for any person, with intent ... (more)
A new bill has passed through the Arizona state legislature that would allow for broad censorship of the internet. As with many such bills, this one is weakly "disguised" as an attempt to deal with online "bullying" and "stalking." However, as with many such attempts to outlaw "being a jerk" online, this one goes way, way too far. It says that it's unlawful to "annoy ... (more)
In a few months millions of BitTorrent users in the United States will be actively monitored as part of an agreement between the MPAA, RIAA and all the major ISPs. Those caught sharing copyright works will receive several warning messages and will be punished if they continue to infringe. Today the center responsible for administering the scheme announced its Executive Board, which surprisingly enough doesn’t include any neutral executives.
While most folks are looking elsewhere, it appears that Congress is trying to see if it can sneak an absolutely awful "cybersecurity" bill through Congress. We've discussed how there's been some fighting on the Senate side concerning which cybersecurity bill to support, but there's a similar battle going on in the House, and it appears that the Roge... (more)
