The Pirate Bay Responds to RIAA Rant. A war with words has erupted. In the wake of all that SOPA/PIPA business, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) put up a blog post describing The Pirate Bay as “one of the worst of the worst.” And now, the Pirate Bay has prepared a response. In the first part of the guest post, The Pirate Bay’s “Winston” points out the error in thinking by the RIAA’s Mitch Glazier when it comes to copyright “theft.” In Winston’s mind, theft is when person A takes something from person B, so that person B no longer has it. By contrast, if you copy the something, both people still have it and that’s the fundamental idea behind torrenting.
The copyright owners still own to the copyright. He also talks about how jobs aren’t being “stolen” in the US, but rather the technology and music industries need to “evolve” into a more modern form. Dodd's fall: Former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd's fall to shill - Courant.com. January 22, 2012|Colin McEnroe, To Wit We plain people of Connecticut would be well advised to limit the activities of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, simply because we cannot afford to have another current or former senator join the ranks of the intensely disliked.
The Lieberman Problem has been lavishly chronicled in this space. Dodd now pulls down $1.2 million as the front man for the lobbying arm of the movie industry. As most people know, Dodd has devoted his recent hours — when not swanning around at the Golden Globes — to seeking the passage of the Stop Online Piracy Act, legislation that inspires such widespread revulsion that a whole bunch of major and minor websites went dark Wednesday in protest. Dodd called the blackout a "dangerous" tactic and an "an abuse of power. " What's more, Wikipedia is offered to all without charge, mostly though volunteer efforts. SOPA shuddered to a stop late Wednesday as key senators pulled out their support, despite having been co-sponsors. Stop SOPA: How People And Social Media Changed Lawmakers' Minds (INFOGRAPHIC) Jan. 18, 2012 was a big day for supporters of Internet freedom. Not only did several major websites go dark in protest of two online piracy bills before Congress, but several key lawmakers, withdrew their support for the legislation.
So what changed these politicians minds about the Stop Online Piracy Act and its Senate equivalent, the Protect IP Act? And what got other lawmakers -- who had previously said nothing about the two bills -- to suddenly come out against them? A new graphic from visual.ly suggests both the blackout and pressure from citizens who became more aware of what the two bills could do to certain websites deserve credit for the reversals. SOPA and PIPA Are just a Start: More Will Come. On Wednesday, January 18, 2012, Wikipedia initiated a 24-hour blackout of its own site in order to protest and raise awareness about the SOPA and PIPA bills being debated in the US Congress and Senate, respectively. Though they’ve been leading the charge, the Wikipedians haven’t been alone. I visited many of my favorite sites throughout the day only to discover they, too were symbolically self-censoring.
Not that I needed the reminder. I’ve lived behind the Great Firewall of China — I know how frustrating it is. Victory in an ongoing battle I agree these bills are bad news. For those who don’t know him, Cory is an activist, journalist and socially-conscious science fiction writer. If you don’t have an hour to spare, you can pretty much get his whole argument in an analogy he makes about halfway through: The difficulty, he goes on to say, is in applying this same way of thinking to computers and networks. Solution too radical All computers are general-purpose devices. PROTECT IP Act Breaks the Internet. Censoring Wired. S.968: PROTECT IP Act of 2011. OpenCongress brings together official government data with news coverage, blog posts, public comments, and more to give you the real story behind what’s happening in Congress.
Small groups of political insiders and lobbyists already know what’s really going on in Congress. Now, everyone can be an insider. OpenCongress is a free, open-source, not-for-profit, and non-partisan web resource with a mission to make Congress more transparent and to encourage civic engagement. OpenCongress is a joint project of two 501c3 non-profit organizations, the Participatory Politics Foundation and the Sunlight Foundation.
To read more about our mission, our open data sources, and how Congress works, see About OpenCongress. To read more about how individuals and organizations can use this site to find and share valuable info about their political interests, see How To Use OpenCongress. Make Your Voice Heard All too often, Congress is closed-off from meaningful public input. Watchdog Your Government Sample: