Only weeks after protests over two digital copyright bills demonstrated the political muscle of Internet users, the White House is publicly endorsing new copyright legislation that also would target suspected pirate Web sites.
Last week, the Conseil Constitutionnel, the highest authority on the French Constitution, declared the provisions of a law permitting judicial and police use of a centralized national ID database to be unconstitutional. 200 members of the French Parliament referred the law to the Conse... (more)
IP maximalists now seem to be targeting ICANN as yet another way to overclaim their rights and block legitimate domains from existing. As we've been discussing, there have been several fights concerning the new generic top level domains (gTLDs) where we've seen folks like the entertainment industry demand extra special measures to keep them from being used to infringe copyrights. But the trademark folks may be going even further. We already have the (somewhat flawed) UDRP (Uniformed Domai... (more)
The federal government seems to have a real blindness for the fact that companies given government-granted monopoly privileges in the form of trademarks, copyrights and patents might seek to abuse those rights beyond what is reasonably allowed. Instead, they seem to assume that private companies will always properly limit any efforts to use those laws against true violators. Of course, we know that's not true, and that such monopoly holders regularly abuse the laws to block or shut down compet... (more)
This is the second young man now jailed for free speech in the UK over the last month, the previous was jailed for criticizing the war, which the state deemed 'racist', this one now for an insensitive comment about a footballer.
The U.S. legislature has cybersecurity on the brain. In the coming months, Congress and the Senate will consider a confusing variety of cybersecurity bills--including H.R. 3523 (Rogers), H.R. 3674 (Lungren), S. 2105 (Lieberman), and S. 215 (McCain)--all of which purport to keep U.S. co... (more)
In recent weeks, we've read about NYPD surveillance of student groups, community-based organizations and even small businesses. Press accounts show that the Police Department has spied on people up and down the eastern seaboard, not because they're engaged in wrongdoing, but because of their religion, national origin and their political associations.
The state of Michigan is only days away from engaging in what can only be called true "animal genocide" -- the mass murder of ranch animals based on the color of their hair. It's all part of a shocking new "Invasive Species Order" (ISO) put in place by Michigan's Department of Natural Resources (DNR). This Invasive Species Order suddenly and shockingly defines v... (more)
On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder signed expansive new guidelines for terrorism analysts, allowing the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) to mirror entire federal databases containing personal information and hold onto the information for an extended period of time--even if the person is not suspected of any involvement in terror... (more)
The TSA ensured that a leading security expert, who has been vocally critical of the agency’s screening methods, was barred from speaking before a Congressional hearing yesterday.
The hearing, before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, was held Monday in an effort to evaluate the agency’s performance and address concerns raised by lawmakers, experts in the field, and members of the public.
After the US shutdown of Megaupload, we noted that there were serious issues with the indictment, in that the US Attorneys seemed to make all sorts of le... (more)
In the wake of a horrific rampage, in which Mohamed Merah (now dead after a 32-hour standoff with police) reportedly murdered three French soldiers, three young Jewish schoolchildren, and a rabbi, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has begun calling for criminal penalties for citizens who visit web sites that advocate for terror or hate. "From now on, any person who hab... (more)
All too often I hear that the copyright industry doesn’t understand the Internet, doesn’t understand the net generation, doesn’t understand how technology has changed. This is not only wrong; it is dangerously wrong. In order to defeat an adversary; you must first come to understand their state of mind, rather than painting them as evil. The copyright industry understands exactly what the Internet is, and that it needs to be destroyed for that industry to stay even the slightes... (more)
Shahed Hussain, a long-time FBI terrorism informant Mother Jones profiled last year, has surfaced again—but this time, Google appears to have foiled his effort to identify a new target. Khalifah al-Akili, a 34-year-old Pittsburgh man, says he was approached by Hussain and another informant in January. Al Akili told the Albany Times-Union that after Hussain "repeatedly made attempts to get close" to h... (more)
Radiation firing body scanners are set to be used by events organizers during the Olympics in London as part of a huge security lockdown from 27 July to 12 August.
Event Magazine reports that promotion company Live Nation, organizer of the London Live series of events scheduled during the games, will work in con... (more)
This video was taken in in the spring of 2010 at either O'Hare or Midway Airport.
A toddler in a wheelchair is stopped by the TSA at the Airport in Chicago and forced to into a sequestered area. On his way to a family vacation in Disney, this 3 year old boy is in a body cast for a broken leg. Despite assurances from his father that "everything is ok", he... (more)
A new feature story in this month’s Wired blows the lid off plans for a massive new National Security Agency data center in Utah that represents the resurrection of a program that Congress killed in 2003, known as “Total Information Awareness,” targeting literally all electronic communications all over the world — including those made by American citizens.
Remember that battle over SOPA, in which the world's largest websites beat back a congressional threat that would have changed the Internet forever? It was pretty obvious within a day after this Pyrrhic victory that the existing laws in place were enough to give the government the power to wreck the digital world. But how would it happen? How would government end digital freedom?
Well, the excuse is obvious. It is "intellectual property." This phrase serves the same purpose for wo... (more)
Azhar Ahmed is to be prosecuted by police over a Facebook statement about the British army in Afghanistan. Photograph: Gaz Faulkner/MoD Crown Copyright/PA Azhar Ahmed is the latest victim of a concerted effort to redefine racism as "anything that could conceivably offend white people". Ahmed is being prosecuted by police over a statement that appeared on his Facebook page. The police say it is a "racially... (more)
Rep[ulsive] John "The Toupee" Mica (R-FL) is out there again, prattling about "privatizing" the "security" at airports. By that he means the TSA should "supervise" checkpoints, not staff them, while "private" companies supply the personnel.
You'll never hear The Toupee nor the media's lapdogs admit that this was precisely the arrangement that prevailed on 9/11, except that the FAA rather than the TSA was supervising -- and minutely: It dictated everything "private" screeners did, ... (more)
Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom's cash, cars and property were seized using a court order which should never have been granted.
A judgment from Justice Judith Potter on Friday declared the restraining order "null and void" and having "no legal effect".
The blunder might now lead to the beleaguered internet mogul getting back everything that was stripped away in the surprise dawn raid on his mansion eight weeks ago.
Police commissioner Peter Marshall and th... (more)
When people download a film from Netflix to a flatscreen, or turn on web radio, they could be alerting unwanted watchers to exactly what they are doing and where they are.
Spies will no longer have to plant bugs in your home - the rise of 'connected' gadgets controlled by apps will mean that people 'bug' their own homes, says CIA director David Petraeus.
The CIA claims it will be able to 'read' these devices via the internet - and perhaps even via radio waves from o... (more)
