One of the worst parts of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was its ridiculous secrecy, under which it was easy for negotiators and industry reps to see draft text, but impossible for the public to do so except through leaks. Thankfully, those leaks showed just how bad ACTA was going to be for the Internet, and public pressure helped remove the worst provisions[......]
Archive for the ‘Policy & Law’ Category
When it comes to information privacy concerns, Facebook already has a bullseye on its back. That won't change now that Facebook is going public in its highly anticipated Initial Public Offering (IPO). But disclosure rules affecting publicly traded companies may force Facebook to reveal privacy-related investigations that it otherwise might have kept secret[......]
The Recording Industry Association of America found itself in an unusual position this week: opposing an anti-piracy bill that's gaining momentum in Congress. "The OPEN Act does nothing" to stop online infringement and "may even make the problem worse," the industry group says in a statement it is circulating on Capitol Hill this week. "It does not establish a workable framework, standards, or remedies[......]
Facebook is hoping investors will "like" the social network just as much as its users already do. [......]
Facebook is hoping investors will "like" the social network just as much as its users already do. Following a series of rumors that have multiplied in recent weeks, Facebook filed for Initial Public Offering (IPO) on Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission at a value of $5 billion. [......]
Not this again... Given easy access to the Internet, the source of so much information, one might expect that Internet activists would be the best informed on the facts[......]
The Swedish lawsuit against four of The Pirate Bay's previous administrators concluded today as the country's Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal . Jail sentences and fines against the group now become final[......]
The Swedish lawsuit against four of The Pirate Bay's previous administrators concluded today as the country's Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal . Jail sentences and fines against the group now become final[......]
The Akamai State of the Internet report for the third quarter of 2011 is out, and as usual, it is full of interesting data about global broadband developments. Many observers read the survey to get updates on the nations with the fastest broadband speeds and greatest high speed Internet penetration. But what caught our eye this time around was the extent to which two of the world's most important nations, India and China, lag in advanced broadband adoption[......]
Yesterday, after almost no debate, the Indiana State Senate approved a bill that would allow its schools to teach the origin stories of various religions when a class touches on the origin of life. It now moves on to the state's House, where one of its cosponsors is currently the Speaker of the House. Although the bill as written could be used to create a comparative religion class, its sponsor, Senator Dennis Kruse, has made it clear that he hopes to see it foster the teaching of creationism in science classes[......]
Carpathia Hosting, the Virginia company that owns more than 600 servers previously leased by Megaupload, today joined forces with the EFF to collect the stories of legitimate users who want access to their now-inaccessible files stored with the defunct file-locker. The new site, megaretrieval.com , hopes to hear from the "multitude of innocent users who stored legitimate, non-infringing files on the cloud-storage service were left with no means to access their data." EFF can't promise that the data will be retrieved, though, and Carpathia says it has no direct access to the content on the servers[......]
The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it has begun a formal investigation into Samsung's strategy of using FRAND-encumbered patents related to 3G wireless networking standards in lawsuits. The announcement comes after the Commission began a preliminary inquiry into the matter last November and several courts in the EU have struck down Samsung's attempts to use the patents against Apple. [......]
An old legal aphorism says, "If the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. If the law is on your side, pound on the law. If neither is on your side, pound on the table." After reading the latest salvo in the P2P porn copyright wars, it's clear that some poor table has been abused horrifically. [......]
The saga of West Virginia's homegrown P2P porn lawyer appears headed to a strange, sad end after felony charges were filed against him in state court. Lawyer Kenneth J. Ford of Martinsville, West Virginia filed more than 22,000 "John Doe" lawsuits in 2010 against people across the country, accusing them of downloading super-raunchy films like Teen Anal Nightmare 2 and Juicy White Anal Booty 4 from the Internet. [......]
