The Electronic Frontier Foundation is continuing their campaign of making every artist suffer to the full extent of the law–and now they are going after indie film makers trying to protect themselves from the onslaught of theft that the EFF loves to lionize. And EFF have a couple new friends that make it all the […]

As we lurch into the second decade of the post-Napster era, I am struck by how many similarities there are between the problems that the creative community has online and the problems that we are asking our government to protect us from. Given fundamental flaws in the Internet’s initial architecture, the lack of authentication and […]

Interesting video of mob riots obfuscating evidence. I particularly love the familiar line from an apparent Black Bloc fan to the film maker: “We don’t want your ___ing evidence!” and “We’re trying to ___ing commit crime here!” And if you listen closely you can hear someone scream “You forgot the ____ing Frappachinos!” Where’s the EFF […]

Remember when Lester Lawrence Lessig III (call sign “Ace“) said he liked everything about the Pirate Party except the name? How about this: Travis McCrea of the US Pirate Party [said] the news about the US government’s plans [to stop Internet theft] is not a surprise, since Obama and his party have consistently failed to […]

Thanks to Nick Kristof for the t/o

Interesting U.S. Supreme Court case may offer some guidance regarding digital democracy. Although online communications were not at issue in the case, the Utah Supreme Court is dealing with that issue directly and may be influenced by the SCOTUS opinion in Doe v. Reed: “The State’s interest in preserving the integrity of the electoral process […]

POLITICO (http://www.politico.com/email-alerts/morningtech/morningtech_06242010.html): “CLOSED-DOOR FCC MEETINGS CONTINUE – Wednesday marked Day 3 of meetings between FCC staff and industry stakeholders on reclassification and Genachowski’s proposed ‘third way.’ While some participants have already cast doubt on the utility of these talks, it seems clear the negotiations won’t stop key players from duking it out in public. The […]

Recently I was discussing the effect of the Internet on Chinese dissidents with a friend from a world that concerns itself with that kind of thing. He told me that what bothered the Chinese was not so much that dissidents had access to any particular information which does bother them, and it wasn’t so much […]

The Register has an interesting story today (“Poker Money and the Ethics Professor“) about the rather bizarre connections between the Berkman Center of Harvard Law School, Lawrence Lessig (call sign “Ace”) and Charles “The Gambler” Nesson one the one hand and confessed felon Anurag Dikshit and Partygaming.com. There is a fairly interesting, if not serious […]