The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 is the latest effort by Congress to do something about the threat of cyber attacks and cyber crime. Fortunately, and perhaps thanks to the efforts to quash SOPA and PIPA, the Act is quite a bit more restrained in scope than its predecessors. You can read the whole thing here. […]
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Julian Sanchez has an excellent piece in Ars Technica which takes a look at the claim that content creators are being discouraged from creative pursuits due to online piracy – a claim that has fueled the recently stalled anti-piracy legislation in congress. Whether SOPA and PIPA would have actually worked is an open question, but […]
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This is via ProPublica, and it’s a wonder to behold: It’s not a done deal yet, of course, but opponents of SOPA and PIPA at least have the momentum at this point. This may be the first time we’ve seen the power of online grassroots activism combined with beneficent tech corporations but it won’t be […]
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All across the internet today, websites have gone dark to protest two bills in congress that aim at cracking down on online piracy. However, these bills – SOPA in the House and PIPA in the Senate – are widely believed to go too far, netting many law-abiding citizens and websites in their attempt to quash […]
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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, right, and Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. are the men behind the latest attempt to stamp down on piracy – and free speech – online. The Stop Online Piracy Act and its counterpart in the Senate, the Protect IP Act, represent the greatest threat to […]
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Nearly every elected official in Congress voted for the National Defense Authorization Act, a bill placing domestic terrorism investigations into the hands of the US Military. We need to elect more politicians willing to vote ‘Nay.’ Over on Google Plus, in a response to this very excellent post by Alex Tabbarok, Jim Henley writes: The […]
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Police action against Occupy protesters has been over the top, but that doesn’t mean that the government and economic elites are coordinating the crackdown. Much to the dismay of those of us who value civil liberties and the right to peaceful dissent, the nascent Occupy movement has been met with violence at numerous protests around the […]
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“There is great danger it seems to me to arise from the constant habit which prevails where anything is opposed or objected to, of referring without rhyme or reason to the Constitution as a means of preventing its accomplishment, thus creating the general impression that the Constitution is but a barrier to progress instead of […]
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It’s funny how history repeats itself. Conor Williams has an excerpt from Michael Kozin’s The Populist Persuasion up at his blog describing the 1896 elections. The echoes of our own time are glaring: During the presidential campaign, the major parties fought, more pointedly than ever before, to control the symbols and definitions of patriotism. The […]
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