Most member states of the European Union have signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) at a ceremony in Tokyo, Japan on Thursday, Jan. 26. ACTA is a global treaty that tries to normalize copyright protection and IP standards. It’s similar to SOPA and PIPA, proposed U.S. laws whic…

(via Tell the Copyright Office to Make it Legal to Rip DVDs | Public Knowledge)

(via Information Diet Livestream)

Our Director of Government Affairs is on right now, explaining how things work (or don’t work on the hill with SOPA and PIPA) 

The Day The LOLcats Died (by LaughPong)

Supporters of stronger intellectual property enforcement — such as those behind the proposed new Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills in Congress — argue that online piracy is a huge problem, one which costs the U.S. economy between $200 and $250 billion per year, and is responsible for the loss of 750,000 American jobs. 

These numbers seem truly dire: a $250 billion per year loss would be almost $800 for every man, woman, and child in America. And 750,000 jobs – that’s twice the number of those employed in the entire motion picture industry in 2010.

The good news is that the numbers are wrong — as this post by the Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez explains. In 2010, the Government Accountability Office released a report noting that these figures “cannot be substantiated or traced back to an underlying data source or methodology,” which is polite government-speak for “these figures were made up out of thin air.” 

shipordie:

Today Ben and I are announcing the release of a new iPhone app called Contact Congress. What it does is really simple: grabs your location (or you can give us an address), locates your representatives, and lets you get on the phone with them in two taps.

Why we built it

Like many…

I want one. They’ve even got it in the PK red

So the astroturf front group Creative America pretty much copied our last email, and Meetup Group word for word… 

(via LiveLeak.com - Al Gore comments on SOPA)

motherjones:

President Obama’s Christmas present to America: New air quality standards that sharply reduce the emissions of mercury and other airborne toxins from power plants. Also: this photo.

jeffepstein:

Follow these step-by-step directions to transfer all of your domains from GoDaddy to NameCheap.

I’m Boycotting GoDaddy because they are pro-SOPA.

Step 1: Login to GoDaddy and get to the domain manager.

Step 2: Select all domains

Step 3: Click on the “Locking Icon”

Step 4:…

In this awesome video, musicians and celebs praise Megaupload, one of the websites being slammed by the RIAA and MPAA for being a “rogue website”, for its speed and usefulness. Check it out!

univisionnews:

Red Social has been allegedly set up by Cuba’s Ministry of Education. It’s impossible to access from outside the island. (Screenshot by La Chiringa de Cuba)

By SANDRO MAIRATA
Channel: Latin American Affairs

Launched under the radar a few days ago, “Red Social” (literally, “Social Network”), is Castro’s regime latest attempt to squeeze the information flow in Cuba.

The site mimics the look and feel of Facebook, replacing the site’s famous depiction of all continents linked by its service with an illustration of the island, with Cubans only connecting with fellow Cubans. “A virtual meeting point for Cuban universities,” the homepage slogan reads.

“It appears to be a Ministry of Education-sponsored idea,” writes Carlos Alberto Pérez Benítez, on the blog La Chiringa de Cuba. Pérez Benítez points out the network is available Intranet-only within the island. In fact, Red Social uses a Facebook-clone address,  http://facebook.ismm.edu.cu/, which is impossible to access from the United States.

Read More

Excellent take by NMW World Edition: “SOPA: Silicon Valley vs. Hollywood in fight against online piracy act”