'Rogue Site' The Internet Archive To Go Dark In Protest Of SOPA/PIPAYou may recall that, a few months ago, the popular "library of the internet," The Internet Archive, was among the popular sites listed as a "rogue site" dedicated to "piracy," by ad giant GroupM, with inputs from Universal Music, Paramount Pictures and others. It seems that Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Archive, has recognized that SOPA and PIPA are impo... (more)
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TSA To Test Body Scanner Operators For Radiation ExposureFollowing reports of cancer clusters at Boston-Logan Airport, the TSA is set to test its naked body scanner operators for radiation exposure, but still refuses to test the actual machines that thousands of Americans are forced to pass through each day.
“After years of rebuffing health concerns over airport scanners, the Transportation Security Administration plans to conduct new tests on the potential radiation exposure from the machines at more than 100 airports nationwide... (more)
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UCSF Professor: “Society Will Pay a Huge Price in Cancer” Because of DHS Full Vehicle X-Ray MachinesInternal Homeland Security documents describing specifications for border-crossing scanners, which emit gamma or X-ray radiation to probe vehicles and their occupants, are raising new health and privacy concerns, CNET has learned.
Even though a public outcry has prompted Homeland Security to move away from adding X-ray machines to airports--it purchased 300 body scanners last year that used alternative technology... (more)
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It's Official: Wikipedia To Go Dark On WednesdayLast week, we noted that Jimmy Wales was in favor of a blacking out Wikipedia on Wednesday in protest of PIPA, joining with Reddit and lots of other sites, but that the community need to weigh in quickly. It appears they've now done so, as Wales is telling students to do their homework early, because the site is a goner for Wednesday: ... (more)
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No, The White House Did Not Say 'They Will Not Support SOPA & PIPA'The Huffington Post is wrongly reporting the White House will not support SOPA or PIPA. If you read the White House's actual statement, it's full of strongly worded language, but absolutely nowhere does it say they will not support the bills. On the other hand, it does s... (more)
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Parents Furious Over Apparent Use Of 'Scream Rooms' Inside Middletown, Conn. Elementary SchoolMIDDLETOWN, Conn. (CBSNewYork) – Parents in a Connecticut suburb are outraged over disturbing disciplinary actions at a local elementary school.
They claim students are being locked in unsupervised “scream rooms,” where some children have harmed themselves, reports CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez.
[...]“My daughter is telling me that there’s kids being taken out in ambulances, by stretcher,” parent Sean Archer told CBS 2’s Hazel... (more)
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Obama to hand Commerce Dept. authority over cybersecurity IDSTANFORD, Calif.--President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said here today.
It's "the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to centralize efforts toward creating an "identity ecosystem" for the Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said.
That news, first reported by CNET, effectively pushes the dep... (more)
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Are Drones Watching You?Today, EFF filed suit against the Federal Aviation Administration seeking information on drone flights in the United States. The FAA is the sole entity within the federal government capable of authorizing domestic drone flights, and for too long now, it has failed to release specific and detailed information on who is a... (more)
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CES 2012: CEA Prez. Blasts "Copyright Extremists", Stop Online Piracy ActGary Shapiro pulls no punches in alleging federal bribery, anti-business politics
At a Tuesday morning Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) keynote of the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show Gary Shapiro, President of the Consumer Electronics Association, did not waste much time in getting down to business, talking about serious issues.
Alluding to the upcoming Orwellian "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) (H.R. 3261), a visibly furious Mr. Shapiro commented, "[SOPA is championed by] politi... (more)
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Law enforcement officials can now secretly install GPS tracking on your vehicle and spy on you without a warrant, says judgeAs long as law enforcement officials claim to have reasonable suspicion that you might be involved with committing a crime, they are free to affix a GPS tracking device to your car without your knowledge and monitor your every movement. At least this is the opinion of US Magistrate Judge David Noce from the Eastern District of Missouri, who recently decided that no warrant is needed to secretly track individuals suspected of criminal behavior.
The ruling came after 69-year-old Fre... (more)
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The Truth about the Economics Behind the Blacklist BillsIn the face of mountains of evidence that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA) will censor online speech, hurt Internet security and infrastructure, and criminalize tools used by human rights activists in oppressive regimes, supporters of the blacklist bills say one subject trumps all others: jobs.... (more)
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Leaked Memo Says Apple Provides Backdoor To GovernmentsVoline writes "In a tweet early this morning, cybersecurity researcher Christopher Soghoian pointed to an internal memo of India's Military Intelligence that has been liberated by hackers and posted on the Net. The memo suggests that, "in exchange for the Indian market presence" mobile device manufacturers, including RIM, Nokia, and Apple (collectively defined in the document as "RI... (more)
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New Law Requires Photo ID To Buy Drain CleanerCHICAGO (CBS) – A new state law requires those who buy drain cleaners and other caustic substances to provide photo identification and sign a log.
It’s getting a rough reception from customers and merchants alike although perhaps none more than a cashier at Schroeder’s True Value Hardware in Lombard.
“They’re not very happy about it at all,” said Don Schroeder, one of the store’s owners. “One of the customers actually ... (more)
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US Threatened To Blacklist Spain For Not Implementing Site Blocking LawIn a leaked letter sent to Spain’s outgoing President, the US ambassador to the country warned that as punishment for not passing a SOPA-style file-sharing site blocking law, Spain risked being put on a United States trade blacklist . Inclusion would have left Spain open to a range of “retaliatory options” but already the US was working with the incoming government to reach its goals.
United States government interference in Spain’s intellectual property la... (more)
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Feds Want Judge to Force Suspect to Give Up Laptop PasswordFederal prosecutors want a judge to order a Colorado woman to provide the password to decrypt her laptop, which the government seized with a search warrant.
With backup from digital rights groups, the woman is fighting the feds, arguing that being forced to provide her password violates the Fifth Amendment’s protection against forced self-incrimination.
[...]The feds also played the terror card.
Davies said that, if the defendant is not compelle... (more)
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Rep. Lamar Smith Decides Lying About, Insulting And Dismissing Opposition To SOPA Is A Winning StrategyIt appears that SOPA sponsor Rep. Lamar Smith has decided that his best strategy continues to be to ignore any and all criticism of SOPA and pretend that none of it "is legitimate." That's kinda funny since we've shown, in great detail, where many of the problems in the bill are (see here, here and here for example -- all of which cite speci... (more)
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'Karma' Facebook post leads to criminal chargesLARGO - Is it a crime to wish bad karma on someone? A Pinellas County teenager says she was suspended from school and charged with a crime just for posting a karma comment on her Facebook page.
Allie Scott is a junior at Osceola High School. The 16 year old says it all started in the school parking lot last month when she parked her brother's car in another girl's spot. She was asked to move it, and when she did at the end of the day, the car had been scratched up with a key.
... (more)
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Nintendo, Sony and EA Quietly Withdraw Support for SOPANintendo, Sony, and EA, the three largest gaming companies who came out in favor of the Stop Online Piracy Act, have removed their names from a list of supporters. As you can see from the recently updated list, Nintendo and EA's names are nowhere to be found. Sony's electronics division is absent as well, though the company's music publishing divisions remain.
For those of you not u... (more)
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School goes ballistic when boy eats pizza into gunIn the past, a gunmaker's name on a pen and a drawing of a space weapon have been enough to bring down school officials' wrath on students; now it's a piece of pizza.
At an elementary school in Smyrna, Tenn., student Nicholas Taylor, 10, has been ordered to spend lunches for the rest of the semester at the lunchroom's "silent table" because he allegedly picked up a piece of pizza and waved it around like a gun.
According to a WKRN television report, school offic... (more)
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GoDaddy bows to boycott, now 'opposes' SOPA copyright bill"Dump GoDaddy Day" appears to have worked.
GoDaddy, the domain register targeted by online activists in response to its enthusiasm for a pair of Hollywood-backed copyright bills, has finally denounced the legislation in response to a boycott scheduled for today.
Warren Adelman, the company's chief executive, said today that "GoDaddy opposes SOPA," meaning the Stop Online Pira... (more)
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