Check out the Wired News story titled Battling the Copyright Big Boys, which provides a great introduction to what we, at IPac are building, and the goals we aim to accomplish. There is a lot to do, so if you have some time, and care about copyright and intellectual property issues (including whether or not [...]
From the category archives:
Law & Government
The Associated Press reports that the U.S. government plans to place 30 million pages from historical newspapers online, beginning in 2006. The papers will date from 1836 through 1922. This will be an amazing resource for students, teachers, historians, researchers, and… well anyone who wants to see what life was like during that period. [...]
As CNN is reporting, House Republicans are trying to protect Representative Tom DeLay (R. TX):
> The House Republican Conference, composed of all GOP members in the chamber, planned to vote Wednesday to modify a requirement that would force DeLay to step aside if charged with a felony requiring at least a two-year prison term.
>
> Party [...]
Wired News reports that the Senate may try to pass a hellish cornucopia of copyright and IP laws during the current lame duck session:
The Senate might vote on HR2391, the Intellectual Property Protection Act, a comprehensive bill that opponents charge could make many users of peer-to-peer networks, digital-music players and other products criminally liable [...]
Apparently some on the extreme right have decided that the “U.S. Constitution has been abandoned under our current federal system”, and thus it is time to ” re-introduce the Christian principles once so predominant in America to a sovereign State like South Carolina”. The full posting is located at: Christian Exodus :: Come Out of [...]
Good news on the Intellectual Property front, as five of the six candidates supported by IPac won their races yesterday. The one exception was Brad Carson, who was contesting a tight Senate race in Oklahoma. While these six were the first, IPac is still quite young, and thus didn’t have the opportunity to have a [...]
An interesting commentary on the upcoming election, and the unlikely, though constitutionally possible, situation that electoral shedding could elevate a person who is not running for president to the top spot: Tech Central Station – Tie Goes to the…
> Interested in becoming president this year? If so, hope for an electoral college tie. With an [...]
As reported on Copyfight, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a ruling that was in favor of Lexmark against Static Controls, a company that makes replacement ink/toner cartridges. As the EFF explains “When Static Controls reverse-engineered the authentication procedure in order to enable refilled and remanufactured cartridges to work with Lexmark printers, Lexmark [...]
Wired has a great article discussing the plan to use RFID microchips in American passports. While I am a fan of technology, and the speed and security improvements it often brings, I must admit that I shiver when I think of some of the stupidity that can come along with it. For example, the fact [...]
Ed Felton presents a great explanation of one of the key problems with Diebold’s electronic voting machines. More importantly, he explains the issue in very simple, straight-forward terms. This is an easy article for anyone to read, and everyone should as it may well have a major impact on this year’s elections.
Link provided by the [...]
Yet again, Mr. Lessig presents a wealth of information to the world via the Net. A new site, p2p-Politics makes so much sense, that I am rather surprised that no one else had already done this – I sure as hell didn’t think of it. Luckily he did.
What is it? Well, I’ll let them answer [...]
CNN has posted a great article detailing the history and workings of the Electoral College. I highly recommend people take a couple of minutes to read the post as it provides a wealth of information about one of the most important aspects of our democracy.
Reports that a private voter registration company in Nevada destroyed the voter registration forms of people who marked themselves as Democrats has been circulating the blogosphere, and is gaining the attention of the mainstream media. Unsurprisingly, reports and allegations are coming out of the same type of voter disenfranchisement in other states by other companies. [...]
As Jason Schultz has reported on Copyfight, Senator John McCain (one of the few politicians I personally respect) is standing up against poor legislation that aims to deprive consumers of our fair use rights. A choice quote:
> From the text of the bills that have been available to date for Senators to review, I believe [...]
Via the Stanford Law Center for Internet and Society, comes word of Kahle v. Ashcroft. The FAQ provides a concise set of answers regarding the case and it’s purpose:
What’s this case about?
> It is about freeing our culture from unnecessary and harmful regulation. It is about a series of recent changes to copyright law that [...]
Newsweek has posted an interactive state-by-state voter’s guide. Just click on a state to learn more about the state its results in 2000, and the expected results for 2004.
On a side note, for those of you who are not fond of Flash, this is a key example of a very good use of the technology.
Thanks [...]
Commentary: Are The Copyright Wars Chilling Innovation?
– BusinessWeek
Great News! The INDUCE Act has stalled, and is most likely out for the rest of 2004 according to an AP story, as reported by Newsday, and linked to by Copyfight. A quote from the story:
Sensing an impasse after weeks of acrimonious debate, Hatch invited lawyers and lobbyists representing the sides to propose [...]
The good folks at IPac have sent out their newsletter today, which reminded me that I need to remind everyone to check them out. If you aren’t familiar with the group, you may want to check out my earlier post about this important political action committee which is “dedicated to preserving individual freedom through balanced [...]