“Record labels have a very strong voice when it comes to arguing for their particular business model, which is in fact out of date,” he said. “The result is that laws have been created which make out as if the only problem on the internet is teenagers stealing music. The world is bigger than that. The internet is bigger than the music industry. The economic impact of the internet is bigger than the music industry.”
via Berners-Lee: Don't let record labels upset web openness.
Chilling Effects aims to help you understand the protections that the First Amendment and intellectual property laws give to your online activities. We are excited about the new opportunities the Internet offers individuals to express their views, parody politicians, celebrate their favorite movie stars, or criticize businesses. But we’ve noticed that not everyone feels the same way. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some individuals and corporations are using intellectual property and other laws to silence other online users. Chilling Effects encourages respect for intellectual property law, while frowning on its misuse to “chill” legitimate activity.
As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.
Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries’ limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.
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People Power 2.0
How civilians helped win the Libyan information war.
MAY/JUNE 2012BY JOHN POLLOCK
The force of laughter: Graffiti on a wall in Tripoli represents the Libyan leader, Colonel Qadaffi, as a fleeing rat. Credit: John Pollock
UK Supreme Court: ISPs must block The Pirate Bay
by Cyril Kowaliski — 5:54 PM on April 30, 2012
Well, this is interesting. As the debate over CISPA rages on here at home, content providers seem to be getting their way in Europe. BBC News reports that the UK Supreme Court has ordered major British ISPs to block access to The Pirate Bay.
The
via UK Supreme Court: ISPs must block The Pirate Bay – The Tech Report.
An example of “censorship via search engines.” In this case it should be technically quite feasible since a clear URL is being blocked.
A list from EFF of some inappropriate uses of DMCA “copyright takedown” notices to silence undesired speech.
The Obama administrations “Internet freedom” agenda — already tarnished — is on the line, and at least this time, officials seem to realize that their actions will have a direct effect on their foreign policy. …. There are signs, however, that the Obama administration is learning that it cant have a “do as I say, not as I do policy” when it comes to Internet freedom. During the SOPA debate, the State Department refused to comment on the bill despite virtually the entire tech industry complaining that it would amount to mass censorship. A spokesperson even released a statement at the time saying, “The Department of State does not provide comment on pending legislation,” despite a provision that would have made much of the circumvention software it is funding — to the tune of tens of millions of dollars — illegal.In stark contrast this time around, Secretary of State Hillary Clintons senior advisor for innovation, Alec Ross, was the first U.S. official to definitively say, “The Obama administration opposes CISPA,” as he matter-of-factly told the Guardian Monday. Prior to that, the administration had only released a broad statement saying that “privacy and civil liberties” should be preserved in any cybersecurity bill.
Art and Science in Technology - Roger Bohn's Blog 