Kevin Kelly provided a nice summary of Larry Lessig's recent SALT ( Seminar About Long-Term Thinking) talk. It was about corruption in the US congress.
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Lessig said the type of corruption rampant in the US Congress is not the old type of bribery, where congressional representatives had safes in their offices to hold the cash they received for voting in certain directions.
As Xeni wrote on Tuesday, the MPAA isn't pleased about sites like this one going dark to protest SOPA and PIPA. Former Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America called it "an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today." — Read the rest
Former Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA), pooh-poohs the January 18 internet blackout protests over SOPA and PIPA:
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It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use
their services.
MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd is making the rounds in DC, trying to gin up support for the Stop Online Piracy Act, which establishes a national censorship regime in which whole websites can be blocked in the US if the MPAA objects to them. — Read the rest
In this remarkable 30 minute speech captured from CSpan, Sentator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) speaks eloquently and rationally about the risk to America and its people should Congress pass the new FISA wiretap law, which will forgive phone companies for participating in the NSA's illegal warrantless spying on the entire nation. — Read the rest
Clockwerks sez, "Apparently the U.S. Senate is trying to rush through the bad FISA bill that includes immunity for telcos because they're in a hurry to catch their jets to Davos to hang out with rich people. What is standing in their way? — Read the rest
Tim from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "At EFF, we've just sent out an urgent action alert. Monday morning, the Foreign Intelligence Service Bill bill finally goes to the Senate floor, and at noon the Senate will cast their most important votes yet on Telecom Immunity for participation in massive, nationwide illegal NSA wiretapping. — Read the rest
Danny sez, "Mark Klein, the whistleblower at the heart of EFF's case against AT&T over their complicity in the warrantless wiretapping of their users, went to Washington this week. He's explaining to Congressfolk and journalists there exactly what AT&T is doing, why it's blatantly illegal, and why Congress shouldn't give them retroactive immunity for their crimes. — Read the rest
The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Danny O'Brien sez,
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News broke last night that Democrat senators were going to cave to the White House's demand for ful retroactive immunity to US phone companies who broke the law and allowed the authorities to conduct warrantless wiretapping on their customers.
Archie panel from the Spire Christian Comics era. Link
Video — Great commercial for an awful toy from the 1960s called the Swing Wing. It's a beanie with a pendulum. You put on your head and swing it around. I have a dim memory of seeing this on TV when it originally appeared. — Read the rest
