EFF

Exporting Hollywood Protectionism – A Hollywood Ambassador [Article]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation makes a case about why a “Hollywood Ambassador” is a bad idea.

An US Senator has introduced a bill in the US Senate to create a new position “Chief Innovation & Intellectual Property Negotiator”.

The USTR has negotiated dozens of agreements and official publications with no true public consultation, upholding the one-sided concerns of Big Media and its allies. The U.S. copyright system is broken, yet we are exporting and reinforcing this broken system through these misguided treaties.

In other words, an Ambassador from Hollywood, paid for by the general public.

No, that was not a swear word. Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit organisation, is fighting the US legal system against the throttling of the Internet by Big Business, & which has implications for the rest of the world’s Internet users. They’ve just helped to win a case in the US which confirms that scanning books, in order to enhance research & to provide access to print-disabled individuals, is lawful. Read more about the EFF here

Kim DotCom- Updates

I mostly thought of MegaUpload as an illegal site, an opinion I formed (as perhaps you too), entirely without using the site. It’s founder Kim DotCom (yeah, that’s his real name!) ‘s residence was raided & he was arrested by the New Zealand police, with much fanfare a few months ago. The case is throwing up some very interesting facts, besides getting very serious support for MegaUpload from some very respected judicial authorities (yes, they do exist!) in the US. “There has been a trail of illegality by the NZ Police, & the forces who incited this raid (read Hollywood)”.