They can touch our balls at the airport, but they will never take our internet!!!

British anti-internet propaganda.

Jesus copied bread.

Kim Schmitz Sentencing:

Lamar Smith, hypocrite and psychopath.

GoDaddy not only helped write #SOPA they are also exempt from it.
You may have heard about the mass exodus of customers from GoDaddy due to their support of SOPA. You may have also heard that GoDaddy no longer supports SOPA. The problem is, only one of those things is true. While GoDaddy no longer publicly supports SOPA, that is just a PR move. They have not withdrawn official support for the bill, let alone actually come out in opposition to it. But it gets worse. According to [THIS ARTICLE], not only did GoDaddy help write the damn thing, they are also exempt from complying with the law! (Read more)

Imgur to Boycott GoDaddy Over SOPA Support
(Read more)

http://www.carbonated.tv/biztech/wikipedia-boycotts-godaddy-over-sopa
(Read more)

How to Jump Ship from GoDaddy to a Better Web Host and Registrar
(Read more)

Boycott forces GoDaddy to drop its support for SOPA (Read more)

GoDaddy Boycott Fizzles; Twice As Many Domains Transfer In As Out
(Read more)

List of Companies behind SOPA

List of Companies behind PIPA

The website did not itself host unlawful downloads or video streams, but acted as a directory of links to others that did, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

American authorities allege that Mr O’Dwyer made more than $230,000 by selling advertising on TVShack in three years until December 2010.

District Judge Quentin Purdy rejected all three of the defence’s arguments against extradition, including claims Mr O’Dwyer would not get a fair trial in the United States and that if a crime was committed he should be prosecuted in Britain. (Read more)

SOPA, Piracy, Censorship and the End of the Internet? Stephen Kinsella on Freedomain Radio

WTF is SOPA ? aka The American Government trying to ruin the internet

SOPA Versus Free Speech

Koopia pole vargus — remixed (jazz)

He should go back to arming Mexican drug cartels.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder urged Americans to fink on their neighbors and report intellectual-property offenses like popping or hawking unapproved pharmaceuticals and downloading music and movies illegally.

The announcement at the White House came as the Justice Department kicked off a public campaign against intellectual-property theft, which like all successful wars against societal scourges, will have public-service announcements on MTV.

“Fortunately, we can all be part of the solution. Anyone who suspects an IP crime can visit cybercrime.gov, fbi.gov, or iprcenter.gov to report suspected offenses,” Holder said. “The public’s proactive attention to these issues can help us to disrupt the sale of illegal goods; to prosecute the individuals, gangs, and international criminal organizations that profit from these activities; and to stop those who would exploit the ingenuity of others for monetary gain.” (Read more)

News Corp. honcho Rupert Murdoch threw his weight behind Congress’ attempt to restrict the Internet, personally lobbying leaders on Capitol Hill Wednesday for two measures that purport to combat piracy.

Murdoch’s media empire is among some 350 large corporations that have come out in favor of the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House, as well as the Protect IP Act in the Senate.

Both measures would require Internet operators to police activity online, and would mandate Internet giants like Google and AOL (the parent company of The Huffington Post and an opponent of the bills) and credit card companies to take down sites that have content deemed to be in violation of copyright rules.

The battle has pitted huge content generators like Disney and the motion picture industry against their online competitors, with each side reportedly spending some $90 million on lobbying efforts. (Read more)

The U.S. government wants you to know, when you buy pirated goods, the terrorists win.

A new series of advertisements produced with U.S. taxpayer money is ruffling some feathers among opponents of anti-piracy legislation being considered by Congress. The short films take a highly dramaticized approach to showing the largely made-up world of piracy being run by gangs, thugs and child slavers, all of whom are allegedly supported through illegal downloads and bootleg products.

Nevermind that the facts do not bear these allegations out: the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) is making the case anyway. (Read more)

One in three people in Switzerland download unauthorized music, movies and games from the Internet and since last year the government has been wondering what to do about it. This week their response was published and it was crystal clear. Not only will downloading for personal use stay completely legal, but the copyright holders won’t suffer because of it, since people eventually spend the money saved on entertainment products.

swissIn Switzerland, just as in dozens of other countries, the entertainment industries have been complaining about dramatic losses in revenue due to online piracy.

In a response, the Swiss government has been conducting a study into the impact downloading has on society, and this week their findings were presented.

The overall conclusion of the study is that the current copyright law, under which downloading copyrighted material for personal use is permitted, doesn’t have to change. (Read more)

I think these are types of people generally attracted to government jobs — judges, sheriffs, world bankers, politicians and bureaucrats. They make money by exercising violence against peaceful people. Here, the violence spills into their domestic life.

http://gawker.com/5855478/reddit-video-apparently-shows-texas-family-judge-beating-disabled-daughter
(warning, disturbing video)

Ideas are not property. They cannot be property.

he picture below (from this Flickr feed) illustrates the large number of lawsuits between players in the telecom sector–most seem to be patent infringement suits or suits based on antitrust law, i.e., totally without merit and a complete waste of resources. Without patent and antitrust law, we would have a less wasteful, less litigious, more competitive market. This ain’t the result of capitalism, but of unlibertarian state law. (H/t Jock Coats) (Read more)

New Zealands Three Strikes Law was Pushed, Bought and Paid for by the US – Wikileaks The slow trickle of leaked diplomatic cables from Wikileaks may not be in the headlines as much as it was when it started, but revelations keep pouring out of the website. Recently, new diplomatic cables published on the site revealed just how, not only influential the US was, but just how much control the US had over the passage of the three strikes law in New Zealand.

If there wasn’t any anti-American sentiment before in New Zealand, there certainly will be for some after new diplomatic cables were published revealing the role the US had in pushing for a three strikes law in New Zealand. The New Zealand’s new three strikes law was the most controversial copyright laws in the country and one of the most controverisal in the world. While the law was being proposed, debate was fierce. The law sparked repeated blackout protests where websites would black out their website logo’s in protest of the law since it is widely seen as a censorship law more than a copyright enforcement law. Last month, in spite of major opposition and protests, New Zealand passed the law anyway to the dismay of the New Zealand population. Now, thanks to Wikileaks, we can see just how far back the United States was pushing New Zealand to pass that law in the first place. (Read more)

‘Skynet’ law comes into effect Downloaders beware – from today you can face serious fines for online piracy.

The Government’s Copyright Amendment Act comes into force today and anyone caught downloading copyrighted content illegally could face fines of up to $15,000 and have their internet cut off.

Internet New Zealand chief executive Vikram Kumar says the law means the person who pays the bill for the account needs to be very aware of who’s using the internet and what they’re using it for. (Read more)

As a crucial Australian copyright lawsuit goes to its High Court for consideration, a new WikiLeaks cable from the US State Department suggests that the force behind the action is anything but local. On the surface, it appears that the suit against iiNet—on the grounds that the country’s third biggest ISP hasn’t done enough to crack down on illegal file sharers—is an Australian content initiative. But according to the cable, the prime mover behind the suit is actually the Motion Picture Association of America, through the Motion Picture Association, its international arm.

The MPA, “does not want that fact to be broadcasted,” the 2008 communiqué from then Ambassador Robert D. McCallum Jr. explained. “MPAA prefers that its leading role not be made public,” the summary of the case added, to dodge the impression that it is “just Hollywood ‘bullying some poor little Australian ISP’.”

This revelation, along with earlier leaks, once again raises a disturbing question. How far are the US State Department and US-based content industries intruding into the IP affairs of other countries—particularly members of The Commonwealth?
A public face

The movie studio case against iiNet was launched by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) in 2008. The trade association hired a monitoring company to scan BitTorrent networks for infringement, then submitted a “telephone directory-sized list” of allegedly infringing IP addresses to iiNet and insisted that it take action against these subscribers. (Read more)

New York – August 11, 2011 – The 83 family farmers, small and family owned seed businesses, and agricultural organizations challenging Monsanto’s patents on genetically modified seed filed papers in federal court today defending their right to seek legal protection from the threat of being sued by Monsanto for patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed. The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) represents the plaintiffs in the suit, titled Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association (OSGATA), et al. v. Monsanto and pending in the Southern District of New York. Today’s filings respond to a motion filed by Monsanto in mid-July to have the case dismissed. In support of the plantiffs’ right to bring the case, 12 agricultural organizations also filed a friend-of-the-court amici brief.

“Rather than give a straight forward answer on whether they would sue our clients for patent infringement if they are ever contaminated by Monsanto’s transgenic seed, Monsanto has instead chosen to try to deny our clients the right to receive legal protection from the courts,” said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director. “Today’s filings include sworn statements by several of the plaintiffs themselves explaining to the court how the risk of contamination by transgenic seed is real and why they cannot trust Monsanto to not use an occurrence of contamination as a basis to accuse them of patent infringement.”

It is now virtually impossible for a U.S. farmer to grow crops of their choosing (corn, soybeans, canola, etc.) and remain GMO-free because of the numerous biological and human means by which seeds can spread. (Read more from osgata.org)

from Stephan Kinsella: Techcrunch: Android Patent Trouble Worsens: Motorola Considers Collecting IP Royalties. (h/t Rob Wicks) Yet another patent threat (in addition to those from Apple and Microsoft and who knows who else) to Android. I sure love my iPhone but I’m feeling ickier and ickier using it, since part of its success and lack of competition is Apple’s use of patents, instead of superior products, prices, and service, to crush its competition.

This week the Canadian IP Council, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s IP lobby arm, issued a release placing Canadian counterfeiting costs at $30 billion per year. That figure is being used to lobby the government to enact new border measure provisions that could lead to the searching of luggage as travellers enter Canada. It is tempting to dismiss the claims on the basis that the policy rationale makes no sense – if counterfeit toothpaste is indeed “coming across the border in droves” as the Chamber claims, searching traveller luggage won’t address that issue. Moreover, it should be noted that even the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement features an exception for de minimis imports that an individual might carry as it recognizes that addressing counterfeiting concerns does not involve targeting individuals. Yet given the decision to resurrect the bogus $30 billion figure, it is important to again call attention to its origins and how it is simply a fabrication. (Read more from michaelgeist.ca)