The controversial PROTECT IP Act unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee today. When the PROTECT IP Act becomes law U.S. authorities and copyright holders will have the power to seize domains, block websites and censor search engines to prevent copyright infringements. Introduced just two weeks ago, the bill now heads over to the Senate for further consideration and another vote.
The U.S. Government continues to back legislation that opens the door to unprecedented Inter... (more)
Do you want your children and grandchildren to live in a futuristic "big brother" control grid where everything they do is watched, recorded, tracked and tightly controlled? Well, that is exactly where things are headed. We witnessed some really bad totalitarian regimes during the 20th century, but what is coming is going to be far more restrictive than any of the despots of the past ever dreamed was possible. Today, nearly every government on earth is tightening their grip on ... (more)
In an interview with Wired, Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, adds yet more confirmation to what many of us have known for years -- the government has built a secret surveillance structure far more portentous and dangerous than anything devised by the PATRIOT Act now up for renewal.
Wyden points to the so-called "business-records provision" of the PATRIOT Act which empowers the FBI to force businesses, medical offices, banks and other organizations to turn over any "tangible thi... (more)
Police in two countries have coordinated to close down a 30,000 torrent private BitTorrent tracker. The operation, which spanned Sweden and Germany, closed down XNT.nu, a site which had risen through the ashes of other sites shut down by authorities in 2009. Police have arrested two suspected administrators and seized the site’s server.
In the wake of first Pirate Bay trial in 2009, emboldened anti-piracy groups – “guilty” verdict in hand – started to... (more)
For those that thought the US crackdown on online poker would end at PokerStars, Full Tilt and the Cereus Poker Network, think again. Breaking news from Maryland indicates that three individuals affiliated with two online gaming companies are being indicted on charges of conducting an illegal gambling business and money laundering.
Monday the Department of Justice issued a statement announcing that Darren Wright and David Parchomchuk of BetEd and Ann Marie Puig of BMX Entertai... (more)
This is just the "new normal," I guess? Websites being seized every day by whatever state government wants to steal them? - Chris
A Star Wars ride at Disneyworld in Orlando has been equipped with a TSA style checkpoint complete with naked body scanners and authoritarian security agents.
Of course, it’s a “joke”, the scanners are not real. However, critics contend that the move represents a normalization of grossly invasive security theater.
Thrill seekers entering the newly re-opened Star Tours Star Wars simulator ride will now find themselves in a security line similar... (more)
Last week it was announced that TSA goons would conduct a grope-down of students during prom night at a Santa Fe high school. The TSA promised to move from airports into the New Mexico high school after two girls said security personnel groped them and a federal judge ruled the TSA should conduct pat-downs at dances or graduations.
On Saturday night, the TSA did not conduct the searches at the ... (more)
Our schools are nothing more than glorified prisons. It's amazing to read all the idiot socialists blabbering about how without the state stealing from people to fund these indoctrination centers children wouldn't get educated.
I went to one of the so-called "best" schools in America and it was absolutely horrible. It was just a bunch of losers and failures at life "teaching" us prisoners how to do things they either can't do, or can barely even do themselves. Every teacher I ever had was not only a total idiot, but many of them we're power mad petty dictators who got off on abusing children.
The best of the whole lot were the ones who had given up on life and therefor weren't pressed to humiliate, abuse, and lord over their students. I can say in all honesty, with full sincerity, I never had one good teacher, though I suppose that's like a prisoner saying they never had a good prison warden. (Yet, no doubt they all think they're underpaid!) - Chris
Yesterday and without warning, US authorities resumed “Operation In Our Sites” seizing several domain names associated with copyright infringement and counterfeiting. Today, yet more domains were added to the growing list. TorrentFreak caught up with one site owner who told us that while they were taken by surprise by a “pointless” seizure, they’ll soon be back.
As indicated in our exclusive report yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Im... (more)
US authorities have resumed “Operation In Our Sites” and have seized several domain names associated with copyright infringement or counterfeit related crimes. Among the new targets are two sites that linked to copyrighted films hosted on third party streaming sites such as megavideo.com and veoh.com. Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has yet to officially announce the new operation.
Over the past several months a series of domain name... (more)
The idea that you’re “innocent until proven guilty” is already a joke, since the deck is stacked against criminal defendants and the government can lock you up before trial.
Now, though, it’s even worse, if you’re a doctor or other healthcare professional in Illinois.
Under a new measure just passed by the state legislature, health workers who are charged with a sex crime, criminal battery against a patient, or a forcible felony wil... (more)
During a speech on Wednesday, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said that proposals from both the U.S. and British governments to block access to file-sharing websites would threaten freedom of speech. Google, he said, is opposed to such measures and will fight them, presumably in court, if necessary.
There can be little doubt that when it comes to hot tools for dealing with sites allegedly infringing the copyrights of the music and movie industries, site blocking and web fil... (more)
In a 60 Minutes hit piece, constitutionalists who believe the federal government has grabbed too much power and has become tyrannical are lumped in with Jerry Kane and his 16-year-old son Joseph. Kane and his son, who claimed to be aligned with the sovereign citizen movement, gunned dow... (more)
I don't know who this guy is they're interviewing, but I honestly would not be surprised to find out he was a Fed just like Hal Turner. - Chris
"Let's say the U.S. did it, it would have to be an independent federal agency that no president could countermand or anything else because people wouldn't think you were just censoring the news and giving a differen
Britain's largest police force is using software that can map nearly every move suspects and their associates make in the digital world, prompting an outcry from civil liberties groups.
The Metropolitan police has bought Geotime, a security programme used by the US military, which shows an individual's movements and communications with other people on a three-dimensional graphic. It can be used to collate information gathered from social networking sites, satellite navigation equi... (more)
Surprise! After months in the oven, the soon-to-be-released new version of a major US Internet censorship bill didn't shrink in scope—it got much broader. Under the new proposal, search engines, Internet providers, credit card companies, and ad networks would all have cut off access to foreign "rogue sites"—and such court orders would not be limited to the government. Private rightsholders could go to court and target foreign domains, too.
The U.S. Government is determined to put an end to online piracy. In an attempt to give copyright holders and the authorities all the tools required to disable access to so-called rogue sites, lawmakers will soon introduce the PROTECT IP Act. Through domain seizures, ISP blockades, search engine censorship, and cutting funding of allegedly copyright infringing websites, the bill takes Internet censorship to the next level.
... (more)
The announcement that Americans are set to be bombarded with mandatory government propaganda via their cellphones represents a shocking lurch forward in the Obama administration's bid to launch a total takeover of all communications as part of a wider move towards controlling the Internet, developing an omnipresent wiretap system, and creating a constant environment of suspicion and distrust by enlisting citizens to spy on each other.
Often when the government tries to suppress information about its surveillance programs, it cites national-security concerns. But not always.
In 2008, a few years after the Bush administration's warrantless-wiretapping program was revealed for the first time by the New York Times, Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act. That act authorizes the government to engage in dragnet surveillance of America... (more)
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wants to control your smartphone.
Yesterday, Schumer went after Google, Apple, and other smartphone-industry players who have refused to follow a "voluntary" request by him and Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) that they ban apps that show where police are setting up driving under the... (more)
It's not enough the government and its corporate media propaganda tool commandeer the television and radio with phony terror alerts and incessant nonsense about Muslim miscreants who are inspired by FBI agents provocateurs to talk about terrorism.
Soon it this propaganda will reach out to your cell phone. It will be mandatory to receive this propaganda.
