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Urgent: Please write to your MEP – Now!
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| There is a very important EU vote taking place on July 7th on some amendments
| to telecommunications legislation that threaten to sneak in a number of
| catastrophic measures...
|
| [...]
|
| Inevitably, that data would leak out – no database is secure, as recent
| events in the UK remind us – with huge and irreparable damage to the
| individuals concerned.
|
| Finally, and in many ways most extraordinarily, these amendments effectively
| give special legal powers to a particular class of private entities, allowing
| courts and police to be by-passed. This is wrong not only on a practical
| level – there are countless cases where mistakes have been made in alleging
| copyright infringement, for example – but also as a matter of principle.
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http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=1001&blogid=14
This is nuclear stuff. The media companies sneak by the back door something
that puts them above the law.
European Parliament rushes towards Soviet Internet
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| Amendments to the European Telecommunications directive being rushed through
| the European Parliament propose a "Soviet internet" where software publishers
| and internet service providers watch traffic and data for Hollywood. Software
| and services that run on the internet would have to ask for permission of the
| regulators.
|
| [...]
|
| Benjamin Henrion, FFII representative in Brussels, rings the alarm
| bell: "Tomorrow, popular software applications like Skype or even Firefox
| might be declared illegal in Europe if they are not certified by an
| administrative authority. This is compromising the whole open development of
| the internet as we know it today. Once the Soviet Union required the
| registration of all typewriters and printing devices with the authorities."
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http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-72379/european-parliament-rushes-towards-soviet-internet
Recent:
Recording Industry Decries AM-FM Broadcasting as 'A Form of Piracy'
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| But now the debate is getting meaner; there's more at stake as the recording
| industry seeks new income avenues in the wake of wanton peer-to-peer piracy
| and declining CD sales in part due to the iPod and satellite radio. A U.S.
| House subcommittee could vote as early as Thursday on a royalty measure.
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http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/recording-indus.html
Lessig: Don't fall into the four-year trap
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| On a massive display screen, he loaded up a portrait of legendary New England
| statesman and eventual Secretary of State Daniel Webster, whose professional
| conflicts of interest would have been enough to make even the most lukewarm
| of political bloggers cringe.
|
| "Bribery wasn't even a crime in our Congress until 1853. The 19th century was
| a cesspool of this kind of corruption," Lessig explained. "Up to 25 percent
| of the voters literally sold their votes. I'm not talking about a golden
| past."
|
| [...]
|
| And then there's the big one: global warming, and the "junk science" research
| put forth at the behest of the oil industry.
|
| "Just putting money on the table removes the conditions of trust," Lessig
| said. "Money destroys the opportunity for trust. Eighty-eight percent of the
| people in my district believe they have their votes bought."
|
| [...]
|
| He left his role as founder and CEO of copyright reform advocacy group
| Creative Commons in April to focus on Change Congress.
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9975958-36.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Global Warming Twenty Years Later: Tipping Points Near
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| My presentation today is exactly 20 years after my June 23, 1988, testimony
| to Congress, which alerted the public that global warming was underway. There
| are striking similarities between then and now, but one big difference.
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http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/008149.html
Related:
RIAA, MPAA urge pro-copyright vows from presidential candidates
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| One question, for instance, asks: "How would you promote the progress of
| science and creativity, as enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, by upholding
| and strengthening copyright law and preventing its diminishment?"
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http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9821141-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
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