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Debt collectors may join antipiracy fight.

Netneutrality

Terror and security. Privacy. EFF. Intellectual Property and Innovation: Who's Got It Right? - Read. Companies that rely on fair use generated $4.7 trillion in revenues and $2.2 billion in value added - roughly 16.2 percent of U.S.

Intellectual Property and Innovation: Who's Got It Right? - Read

GDP in 2007. This is among the findings of a report released yesterday by the Computer and Communications Industry Assocation. The report based its findings on what it dubs "fair use industries," which includes educational institutions, software developers, Internet search and Web hosting providers, and manufacturers of consumer devices that allow for the copying of copyrighted programming.

Noting the importance of the fair use industries for both innovation and economic growth, the CCIA research argues that "enlightened limitations and exceptions to U.S. copyright law have nurtured Internet industries by providing space for them to develop and expand their service offerings to meet the needs of consumers and businesses. " Indeed on Monday - Intellectual Property Day - the U.S. Wikileaks. White House wants new copyright law crackdown. The White House today proposed sweeping revisions to U.S. copyright law, including making "illegal streaming" of audio or video a federal felony and allowing FBI agents to wiretap suspected infringers.

White House wants new copyright law crackdown

In a 20-page white paper (PDF), the Obama administration called on the U.S. Congress to fix "deficiencies that could hinder enforcement" of intellectual property laws. The report was prepared by Victoria Espinel, the first Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator who received Senate confirmation in December 2009, and represents a broad tightening of many forms of intellectual property law including ones that deal with counterfeit pharmaceuticals and overseas royalties for copyright holders. (See CNET's report last month previewing today's white paper.) Google Should Stand up for Fair Use in Books Fight.

On Tuesday Judge Denny Chen rejected a proposed settlement in the Google Book Search case.

Google Should Stand up for Fair Use in Books Fight

My write-up for Ars Technica is here. The question everyone is asking is what comes next. Facebook's High Pressure Tactics: Opt-in or Else. Facebook users who choose not to link their user accounts to Facebook's public Pages are ending up with blank profiles containing no information at all.

Facebook's High Pressure Tactics: Opt-in or Else

If you haven't experienced this problem, it's probably thanks to the somewhat high-pressure tactics Facebook is using to get you to accept these changes. The next time you visit your Profile page (if you haven't done so already), you'll be introduced to the new "Connected Profiles" option, one of the many potentially concerning privacy-related changes announced at Facebook's f8 developer conference last week. With this option, the text in your Facebook profile section where you list your hometown, education, work and interests, is now being linked to the respective pages on Facebook. Catholic Church in China: heading underground. Years ago a connection of mine who has spent a lot of time in China—someone who has devoted a great deal of his life to attempting to understand the complex, conflicted mindset of the Beijing leadership as it emerged from decades of Maoism—sat down with a prominent party official during a business dinner.

Catholic Church in China: heading underground

This was in the early years just after Deng Xiaoping had begun to unleash what would become a global manufacturing and creative juggernaut out of the middle kingdom. The official told my source, Mao was dead, communism in China was dead and there was now a vast spiritual void opening up in the collective psyche of the Chinese people—a void that the party had once filled with the heroic imagination of a people on the march into a bright, shining future, a collective light to the world. Now he worried it would only be filled by a deep emptiness or worse that the people of China would seek to fill that emptiness with materialism and consumption. Both things seem to have come to pass. Speak Up, Stop Discrimination, Human Rights Day 2010. Religion Scholar RESIGNS After Endorsing Evolution. A prominent Old Testament scholar has resigned from a professorial position after he was recorded on video endorsing evolution.

Religion Scholar RESIGNS After Endorsing Evolution

Until several days ago, Bruce K. Via un.org * Thi. Facebook's Great Betrayal - Facebook - Gawker. SExpand Facebook's privacy pullback isn't just outrageous; it's a landmark turning point for the social network.

Facebook's Great Betrayal - Facebook - Gawker

Facebook has blundered before, but the latest changes are far more calculated. The company has, in short, turned evil. Its new privacy policy have turned the social network inside out: millions of people have signed up because Facebook offers a sense of safety. Facebook's Zuckerberg Says The Age of Privacy is Over. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told a live audience yesterday that if he were to create Facebook again today, user information would by default be public, not private as it was for years until the company changed dramatically in December.

Facebook's Zuckerberg Says The Age of Privacy is Over

In a six-minute interview on stage with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, Zuckerberg spent 60 seconds talking about Facebook's privacy policies. His statements were of major importance for the world's largest social network - and his arguments in favor of an about-face on privacy deserve close scrutiny. Zuckerberg offered roughly 8 sentences in response to Arrington's question about where privacy was going on Facebook and around the web. The question was referencing the changes Facebook underwent last month. Software in dangerous places. Software increasingly manages the world around us, in subtle ways that are often hard to see.

Software in dangerous places

Software helps fly our airplanes (in some cases, particularly military fighter aircraft, software is the only thing keeping them in the air). Software manages our cars (fuel/air mixture, among other things). Software manages our electrical grid. And, closer to home for me, software runs our voting machines and manages our elections.