Free Expression
t was Google co-founder Sergey Brin who warned that the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act "would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world." Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Twitter co-founders Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman argue that the bills give the Feds unacceptable "power to censor the Web."
But these companies have yet to roll out the heavy artillery.
When the home pages of Google.com, Amazon.com, Facebook.com, and their Internet allies simultaneously turn black with anti-censorship warnings that ask users to contact politicians about a vote in the U.S. Congress the next day on SOPA, you'll know they're finally serious.
An effort by GoDaddy customers to boycott the domain registrar over its support for Hollywood-backed copyright legislation has sparked allegations of foul play.... technical barriers to prevent its customers from leaving. GoDaddy lost over 70,000 domains last week.... denies any wrongdoing... On December 23, GoDaddy partially caved, announcing that it was no longer backing SOPA, but stopping short of saying it will oppose the legislation.... [Note: This site is hosted on GoDaddy. For now.]
What the SOPA legislation allows government to do is to consign all those foolish “pulldown” requests to the dustbin, and simply to freeze the entire offending site on the basis, not even necessarily of that site having reproduced some copyright-infringing (in their judgments, of course) material, but simply to have linked to it. Once a complaint is made, there is a presumption of guilt, and the matter drops out of their hands, to be litigated in the usual ways.
Such a process clearly works against the small, independent blogger, and provides a lot of potentially remunerative busywork for lawyers. It also provides a lot of potential for professional and semi-professional “offense chasers” to get kickbacks (or referrals, if you prefer) for discovering transgressions, and for ideologically driven offense chasers to tie up sites whose views offend them personally with nuisance lawsuits.
The documents we uncovered show that the Obama FCC was deeply involved in discussions with the radical leftist organization Free Press in the run up to the December 2010 FCC vote. How deep? Free Press reached out to the FCC to invite FCC Commissioner Michael Copps to write an op-ed for the Albuquerque Journal in advance of a November 16 hearing on Internet Access. Free Press helped coordinate a speaker's list for FCC "Internet workshops" — which was a "Who's Who" of liberal activists. ... Allow me to introduce you to the people who seem to be running the FCC's Internet policies ... Two socialists, a radical feminist, and a left-wing eccentric billionaire who uses his wealth to drive the liberal agenda ... Proponents of net neutrality, like Free Press, believe Internet access is a civil right. And what happens when you make something a civil right? You put the government in charge of "protecting" those rights. In the case of net neutrality, proponents want taxpayer-funded online access for everyone, most especially communities they deem "underserved." This, of course, would require government control. If allowed to move forward, the Left's version of "net neutrality" could stifle innovation by preventing Internet service providers from managing their information networks with any flexibility. And it could effectively kill the digital economy.
Gardens of Southgate filed the suit this month against Timothy and Jodi Burr, who have lived in the subdivision since 2006. The Burrs placed a large multicolored banner with a picture of their 20-year-old son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Corey Burr, and the phrase "Our son defends our freedom" in January after Corey Burr was deployed to Afghanistan. Jodi Burr says her family will fight the suit and do not intend to remove the sign.... Burrs contend signs supporting a school or team are visible throughout the neighborhood.
A La Mesa man who posted racial epithets and a call to "shoot" Barack Obama on an Internet chat site was engaging in constitutionally protected free speech, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in overturning his criminal conviction. Walter Bagdasarian was found guilty two years ago of making threats against a major presidential candidate in comments he posted on a Yahoo.com financial website after 1 a.m. on Oct. 22, 2008, as Obama's impending victory in the race for the White House was becoming apparent. Bagdasarian told investigators he was drunk at the time.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Starting Friday, Tennessee drivers caught with obscene or patently offensive bumper stickers, window signs or other markings on their vehicle visible to other drivers face an automatic $50 fine.
To recap, the Houston National Cemetery Director, Arleen Ocasio, requires grieving families to not use the words "God" or "Jesus" at any personal funeral ceremony without her written approval. ... Ms. Ocasio is not being inclusive of other religions, she is against freedom of religion and against freedom of speech. Her tyranny in treating our veterans and their families as "customers" must no longer be tolerated. ... Houston wants a new Director. Immediately. We demand it. Political correctness is out of hand in our country. Today is Independence Day and here in Houston, Texas, just as what began 235 years ago, we stand with our veterans, their families and friends in declaring our freedom from tyranny again.
Houston National Cemetery.... Cemetery officials ordered volunteers to stop telling families 'God bless you' at funeral and said that the words 'God bless' had to be removed from condolence cards, according to court documents filed this week in federal court.
I am an atheist and appreciate that the Constitution protects my right to be so... First Amendment... Which, I take to mean that the government cannot force you to practice a religion of its choosing nor interfere with your practice of a religion of your choice, or choosing to not practice one at all. So if I'm correct about that…then where, exactly, does the Department of Veterans Affairs get off telling anybody they can't say "God bless you" to the family of a fallen soldier?
A lawsuit has been filed in California to protect the rights of three men who were arrested after being accused of "impeding an open business" even though the "business" was the local department of motor vehicles, and it was closed. Oh, and the men were standing at least 50 feet from the entrance, impeding no one.... The arrests happened on Feb. 2, 2011, when the assistant pastor from Calvary Chapel of Hemet and two church elders went to the public property. Mackey then started reading the Bible aloud.... He was arrested less than 30 minutes later, and the two others were arrested a short time after that, even though they had not actually been reading the Bible aloud. The men believed they had a First Amendment right to free speech and they were standing in a planter in the parking lot and were on public property. A member of the California Highway Patrol approached Mackey, grabbed his Bible and arrested him.... "The arresting officer could find no appropriate penal code to use when arresting these men. The purpose of the arrests appears to have been to censor them...."
...countries such as Iran and China block access to the internet at their peril. "The internet is the strongest force for individual self-expression ever invented...."
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has plans to crack down on blogosphere payola with guidelines that would impose penalties on bloggers who promote products without adequate disclosure.... [WHY?] first time a government agency is attempting to hold bloggers accountable for the content they produce...
Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean... "I've had some inappropriate appearances that Keith Lewis has asked me to do.... one of them being Playboy... Another one was a gay movie premiere that he wanted me to attend incognito. He actually said he wanted me to wear a hat and go in disguise and attend this movie premiere promoting gay marriage and then come out with a statement the next day saying that Carrie Prejean attended a gay movie premiere....
A man who used a four-letter word to describe to his neighbors how their cat left feces in his yard was acquitted Tuesday of a disorderly conduct citation... three men and three women deliberated 15 minutes before reaching their not guilty verdict... [What did the jury do with the other 14 minutes, I wonder!]
Immelt Orders Nielsen Media Iced Over GE-NBCU-Obama Story: NBCU's Zucker Follows Orders And Freezes Out The Hollywood Reporter For Past 6 Weeks... It's a very dangerous situation when any huge multinational corporation wages war against media companies. Especially when that huge multinational corporation is General Electric, which itself owns a media company, NBC Universal, and it's using all its power and influence and money to try to harm another media company, Nielsen, and Nielsen Business Media, and its trade publication The Hollywood Reporter. This certainly sounds like a situation which the FCC, and the FTC, and the U.S. Justice Department should be investigating. Just one problem: the controversy stems from GE/NBCU's coverage of President Obama.
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