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YouTube - Proud Socialists Dominate Left-Wing "One Nation" Rally in DC
Topic: Miscellaneous
1:44 am EDT, Oct 5, 2010
Socialist protesters and paraphernalia dominated the left-wing protest rally in Washington, DC on 10-2-10. The so-called "One Nation" rally was led by labor unions as an attempt to counter Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally, which took place in DC on 8-28-2010.
Very, very bad Internet Censorship bill makes Senate
Topic: Miscellaneous
1:32 am EDT, Sep 28, 2010
The EFF writes:
As you may or may not be aware, there is an extremely bad Internet censorship bill that is going to be passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee this Wednesday. Senators are claiming that they haven't heard any opposition to this "COICA" bill, and it is being sponsored by 14 of the 19 committee members.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has some heavy guns - having this bill come up this way means there is a serious possibility of passage.
The EFF further writes:
The bill creates two blacklists of censored domains. The first is longer, and includes any sites where the DOJ decides that infringement is "central" to the purpose of the site. The bill gives ISPs and registrars strong legal incentives to censor the domains on that list. The Attorney General can also ask a court to put sites on a second, shorter blacklist; ISPs and registrars are required by law to censor those sites.
The bill provides that the Attorney General can get a court order forcing domain name registrars or registries to pull a particular domain. It also provides that if they don't want to go through that process, they can publish the domain name in a list. DNS registries are strongly encouraged to go ahead and pull any domain on that list if they want to avoid being held legally liable for the content on that domain.
Because DNS registries are implicated, and not just registrars, this could have significant and extremely destructive implications for US control over the DNS systems. This is really very bad.
Wal-Mart plans to roll out sophisticated electronic ID tags to track individual pairs of jeans and underwear, the first step in a system that advocates say better controls inventory but some critics say raises privacy concerns.
While the tags can be removed from clothing and packages, they can't be turned off, and they are trackable. Some privacy advocates hypothesize that unscrupulous marketers or criminals will be able to drive by consumers' homes and scan their garbage to discover what they have recently bought.
They also worry that retailers will be able to scan customers who carry new types of personal ID cards as they walk through a store, without their knowledge. Several states, including Washington and New York, have begun issuing enhanced driver's licenses that contain radio- frequency tags with unique ID numbers, to make border crossings easier for frequent travelers. Some privacy advocates contend that retailers could theoretically scan people with such licenses as they make purchases, combine the info with their credit card data, and then know the person's identity the next time they stepped into the store.
The time for an update to the ECPA is now. For more than a year, privacy advocates, legal scholars, and major Internet and communications service providers have been engaged in a dialogue to explore how the ECPA applies to new services and technologies. We have developed consensus around the notion of a core set of principles intended to simplify, clarify, and unify the ECPA standards; provide clearer privacy protections for subscribers taking into account changes in technology and usage patterns; and preserve the legal tools necessary for government agencies to enforce the laws and protect the public.
Major corps and rights groups call for overhaul of U.S. Internet privacy laws.
