Tag Archives: unitedstates
Susan Crawford Articulates the Ideas in her Book Captive Audience
“The rich are getting gouged and poor are very often left out”
Must see if you want to understand the reality of the US broadband market.
For the attention of Piers Morgan: three reasons why conservatives oppose gun control
Piers provided a rare moment of insight when he recently admitted that banning assault weapons ???will not solve the gun crime problem in America??? ??? and he captured the myopic authoritarianism of his breed perfectly when he immediately added that Americans should do it anyway. Why? Because they can and they must. It???s the right thing to do. Better than that, it???s what the British would do.
James Boyle: Public by Sufferance Alone: The Worst of 2012
In upholding the law, the Golan majority explicitly endorsed the position that the public has no rights to the public domain. None. Under U.S. law as declared by the Court in this case, copyright is now officially “asymmetric.” While those who have copyrights enjoy vested, legally protected rights, “[a]nyone has free access to the public domain, but no one, after the copyright term has expired, acquires ownership rights in the once-protected works.” The majority could not seem to imagine that the public had rights other than “ownership” over a free, collective culture. In a dissenting opinion, Justices Breyer and Alito asked “Does the [Constitution] empower Congress to enact a statute that withdraws works from the public domain, brings about higher prices and costs, and in doing so seriously restricts dissemination, particularly to those who need it for scholarly, educational, or cultural purposes – all without providing any additional incentive for the production of new material?” Their answer was “No.”
Since no body owns the public domain, except all of us, and property rights, even in the intangible, are an obsession, taking those rights from us all and giving them to a single owner, is righteous.
Way to make us hate you copyright.
The Federal Trade Commission closes its antitrust review
We???ve always accepted that with success comes regulatory scrutiny. But we???re pleased that the FTC and the other authorities that have looked at Google’s business practices???including the U.S. Department of Justice (in its ITA Software review), the U.S. courts (in the SearchKing and Kinderstart cases), and the Brazilian courts (in a case last year)???have concluded that we should be free to combine direct answers with web results. So we head into 2013 excited about our ability to innovate for the benefit of users everywhere.
Strict Copyright Law Hurts Innovation and Consumers, Republicans Say
UPDATE:
That didn’t take long. Displease the Media gatekeepers and feel their wrath. The Director has now backed down on the briefing, noting that it would have far reaching impacts and they need more facts.
via TorrentFreak
Transcript of President Barack Obama’s 2012 election night victory speech in Chicago
I know that political campaigns can sometimes seem small, even silly. And that provides plenty of fodder for the cynics that tell us that politics is nothing more than a contest of egos or the domain of special interests. But if you ever get the chance to talk to folks who turned out at our rallies and crowded along a rope line in a high school gym, or saw folks working late in a campaign office in some tiny county far away from home, you’ll discover something else.
You’ll hear the determination in the voice of a young field organizer who’s working his way through college and wants to make sure every child has that same opportunity. You’ll hear the pride in the voice of a volunteer who’s going door to door because her brother was finally hired when the local auto plant added another shift. You’ll hear the deep patriotism in the voice of a military spouse who’s working the phones late at night to make sure that no one who fights for this country ever has to fight for a job or a roof over their head when they come home.
via newsnet5.com
Jailbreaking now legal under DMCA for smartphones, but not tablets
No more unlocking
In 2006 and 2010, the Librarian of Congress had permitted users to unlock their phones to take them to a new carrier. Now that’s coming to an end. While the new rules do contain a provision allowing phone unlocking, it comes with a crippling caveat: the phone must have been “originally acquired from the operator of a wireless telecommunications network or retailer no later than ninety days after the effective date of this exemption.”
In other words, phones you already have, as well as those purchased between now and next January, can be unlocked. But phones purchased after January 2013 can only be unlocked with the carrier’s permission.
via arstechnica.com
The reasons for the distinction include that none can be made about what is a tablet.
Former RIAA Lobbyist Firm Hired as Independent Technical Expert to Review ‘Six Strikes’ System | GamePolitics
CCI???s choice of a former RIAA lobbying firm makes it clear that the copyright owner parties to the Memorandum of Understanding were more interested in appointing someone they trust than in appointing someone the public can trust,
via gamepolitics.com
Lobbyist firm, “independent and impartial technical expert.”
AT&T Starts Six-Strikes Anti-Piracy Plan Next Month, Will Block Websites
via torrentfreak.com
AT&T, your copyright nanny, policeman and tutor in one bundle. Note, they will not lose revenue, but you will be punished.
Hamish MacEwan 