Nerd News: Internet Defense League

The goal of the Internet Defense League fits with what I do already, so I gladly joined today, see link for full information http://internetdefenseleague.org/ snippet below gives a concise idea:

The plan

When the internet's in danger and we need millions of people to act, the League will ask its members to broadcast an action.  (Say, a prominent message asking everyone to call their elected leaders.)  With the combined reach of our websites and social networks, we can be massively more effective than any one organization.

ACTA defeated in EU

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/europe-declares-independence-from-hollywood-with-acta-vote/

Good News.

As always with Ars, I suggest reading through the comments, often you will find more information in comments section of Ars than in the article itself.

More on SOPA: RIAA CEO Hopes SOPA Protests Were a 'One-Time Thing'

From an Internet Evolution story by Nicole Ferraro:

To some, January 18th -- the day the Internet came together in protest of SOPA and PIPA -- was seen as a day of important democratic action. To others, like the RIAA's CEO Cary Sherman, it was seen as a great failure of the democratic system. An act of "demagoguery" rather than "democracy."

I suggest clicking on the link above and reading the whole story.

For those not familiar with RIAA it is, in their own words:

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade organization that supports and promotes the creative and financial vitality of the major music companies. Its members are the music labels that comprise the most vibrant record industry in the world. RIAA® members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legitimate recorded music produced and sold in the United States.

PSA: SOPA, ACTA, & Secret Treaties about Copyrights

Go read this, from Ars, "ACTA is part of a multi-decade, worldwide copyright campaign."

If your not sure you should take the time, consider this snippet from that article,

"Ars Technica recently talked to Michael Geist, a legal scholar at the University of Ottawa, about this effort. He told us that rather than making their arguments at the World Intellectual Property Organization, where they would be subject to serious public scrutiny, the US and other supporters of more restrictive copyright law have increasingly focused on pushing their agenda in alternative venues, such as pending trade deals, where negotiations are secret and critics are excluded."

This really disturbs me, seriously, why do things like this in secret, unless you have dishonest, discriminatory, or perhaps even malicious, motives?

I can't think of any other reason for negoatiations on Copyrights, and the related laws and agreements, to be held in secret.

Can you?

We need to let the politicians know we don't support this type of behavior, anymore than we did SOPA, or ACTA!

Though it is hard to protest about things that are secret isn't it?

A Better Alternative Than SOPA

The Ars article "TuneCore: first iTunes Match royalties are "magic money" out of "thin air"" is well worth reading.


It seems similar to me to the PLR (Public Lending Right payments) that authors get for books in public libraries. See PLR's link here for more information.

You might also find this post on Cliff's Ebook Review Corner, my book review blog, about Jerry Pournell's thoughts on Ebooks interesting.

Pournell has been writing fiction and non fiction for a long time!  He has had several NYT Bestsellers, and used to have a regular column in Byte Magazine.

Much of the research I do, is looking for how things have been done in different times and places, lot of times you can find that a brilliant idea you have, has been thought of before, and even implemented.

So you can look at that, and see if that idea will really work or not.  Or sometimes, you will be able to spot things that could be done better, when you start, that would not be practical to change once you were in the middle.

Like kayaking a rive, you might decide to portage around a really bad spot, if you knew it was there ahead of time, but can be way to late to do more than your best to survive it, if you see it just a few meters away, while your in the river!

I think software, book, movie, & etc publishers could learn a lot looking around to see how things actually can and do work.

Nerd News: From Slashdot; Delayed Outrage Over A Censored Site; What's a Better Way To Spread News?

A must read Article from Slashdot, here is a snippet:

This is a tale of censorship. From about December 7th until February 3rd, Arizona State University was blocking all users of its network from accessing the Change.org website, where users can create petitions and circulate them for other users to sign. (The lame excuse offered by the university was that a student had created a petition and was using the change.org site to "spam" other ASU accounts; of course, even if that had been the real reason, it would have easily been possible for ASU to block mail from the change.org servers, without blocking all students from accessing the website.) On February 3rd, after a furor of sudden media attention, the block was lifted.

A related article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-levy/arizona-state-censors-cha_b_1253155.html

I don't remember seeing anything about this when it happened, and I am a pretty hardcore News Junkie.

Nerd News: Reddit "Free Internet Act"

See these links:

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/p1qmo/the_free_internet_act_a_bold_plan_to_save_the/

http://www.reddit.com/r/ACTA/comments/p0zn2/the_free_internet_act_a_bold_plan_to_save_the/

They were posted RoyalWithCheese22, this snippet from first link above clearly explains RoyalWithCheese22's thoughts:

I say its time to change tactics. The MPAA knows very well how to play the game when demanding legeslation: Aim ridiculously high, when opposition builds up, negotiate, sacrifice some of your over the top demands. Force your opponents to sacrifice some of theirs. Voila you didn't get exactly what you wanted but you moved in the desired direction.

Nerd News: Megaupload users losing data?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16787486:

"US prosecutors have said that data belonging to Megaupload users and stored by third parties could be deleted as soon as Thursday."

I don't understand that, I am not a lawyer and can't give legal opinion, but I thought that would be evidence.  And destroying evidence in a trial (for a trial?) is a big no no, it is even a crime I though.

I will probably post a few updates to this.

Nerd News: SOPA & PIPA

Statement from Chairman Smith on Senate Delay of Vote on PROTECT IP Act Smith is the author of SOPA.

And a Tweet from the author of PIPA, SenatorReid:  "In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday's vote on the PROTECT IP Act #PIPA"

More on SOPA & PIPA being tabled at :

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16655272
   
2. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/internet-wins-sopa-and-pipa-both-shelved.ars

Nerd News: Some Results From SOPA & PIPA Blackout

We are seeing a response to the Blackouts against SOPA/PIPA.  One of the most interesting to me, is that "up to 18 Senators, of which seven are former co-sponsors" of PIPA have now said they are against PIPA (PIPA is the Senate sister bill to the SOPA bill in the House).

To get seven of the Co Sponsors in the Senate to change position is a pretty big deal IMO.

Another item to note, is Rep. Darrell Issa announced a different bill, called OPEN Act, as a compromise or alternative to SOPA.  More information at http://issa.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=949&Itemid=28&Itemid=4

From what I have seen online Rep. Issa supported the blackout, but I don't enough yet to know if OPEN would be a real improvement over SOPA.

Nerd News: SOPA Blackout & Protest Headlines

Updated to add this from Ars: A history of IP violence: how SOPA's and PIPA's sponsors have waged war on the Internet

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List here at my favorite Nerd website Ars, which is a sister company to Reddit, be sure to read the comments section http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/01/sopa-blackout-spreads-across-the-internet.ars


djWheat: "Do your part to educate yourself and then reach out about #SOPA - the Internet sucks when your eyes are closed!"

BBC Technology http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16604990 & http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16612628

LA Times:  "SOPA blackout: Bills lose three co-sponsors amid protests"

Reuters: "More than 1,000 people are expected to take to the New York City streets on Wednesday in protest of Congress' pending anti-piracy legislation"

CNN Money: "SOPA explained: What it is and why it matters"

Huffington Post:  "SOPA Forces Obama To Pick Sides Between Donors From Hollywood, Silicon Valley" 

CNET:  "How SOPA would affect you: FAQ"

Nerd News: Totalbiscuits SOPA Blackout VOD

Totalbiscuit has joined the SOPA Blackout protest, this is his excellent VOD on SOPA

Edited to add:  To find your Congress person easily click here.

Nerd News: SOPA Blackouts and Updates

As many of you know Reddit and Ars are connected, they share a parent company, so you can think of them as sister or brother companies.


If your looking for news during the SOPA blackout, or looking for ideas for what else you can do, then Ars is the place to go, here are a few words from their most recent article about SOPA: 

Many sites have chosen to go dark (i.e., offline) today, a stance we respect—but it's not the right path for us. Ars Technica has, for 14 years, tried to be an information resource, and the most appropriate response from Ars is to provide even more information on the legislation, how you can fight it, and what's really at stake.
Our normal publishing schedule has been frozen in carbonite. For a limited time, we're turning our attention to SOPA and its Senate cousin, the PROTECT IP Act. What remains in each bill after the managers' amendments and the removal of DNS blocking?

 Source and full story at http://arstechnica.com/staff/palatine/2012/01/sopa-resistance-day-begins-at-ars.ars

Like I have told many people about Ars, the comments sections are often the best part.

Nerd News: Wikipedia joins SOPA Blackout Protest

Tweeted by Jimmy Wales:

Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!

For more details on Wikipedia Blackout see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative#Summary_and_conclusion

For Wikipedia entry on SOPA itself see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOPA