South African Bill Poses Grave Threat to Press Freedom
“The [South African] media enjoys probably greater freedom than any other country in Africa and is seen by some as an unofficial opposition.” ~ Guardian, November 21, 2011
Today, the South African parliament is expected to pass one of the most draconian secrecy bills in world. Known as...
FBI Sanctioned for Lying About Existence of Surveillance Records
An order from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has revealed the FBI lied to the court about the existence of records requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), taking the position that FOIA allows it to withhold information from the court whenever it thinks...
Syrian Surveillance Project Raises Concerns About Effectiveness of Export Controls
Over the past few weeks, numerous stories have emerged documenting just how pervasively the Syrian regime patronizes American companies. First it was Blue Coat, the company that first denied the use of their tools in Syria, which then later backtracked, admitting that thirteen of their appliances were “phoning...
Free Speech is Only as Strong as the Weakest Link
Carrier IQ Tries to Censor Research With Baseless Legal Threat
Last week, security researcher Trevor Eckhart posted an analysis of software produced by Carrier IQ, which describes itself as "the world's leading provider of Mobile Service Intelligence solutions." Eckhart concluded that the software, which comes by default on many mobile devices and runs quietly in the background, logs...
Northern Exposure: Unmasking Online Spying in Canada
The Canadian national anthem proudly honors "The True North strong and free!” Yet Canadians face an imminent round of frightening online spy proposals that threaten long held civil liberties and privacy rights. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has insisted that he won’t budge in his support of online spying...
Righthaven Case Ends in Victory for Fair Use
Music Publisher Claims Copyright on the Public Domain's "This Land is Your Land"
During the 2004 Presidential Election, the Internet animation company JibJab produced one of the most notable viral hits of the season -- an animated video of candidates George Bush and John Kerry singing a song to the tune of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land." After the JibJab founders...
Righthaven Case Ends in Victory for Fair Use
San Francisco - In a victory for fair use, the publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Stephens Media, filed papers yesterday conceding that posting a short excerpt of a news article in an online forum is not copyright infringement. The concession will result in entry of a judgment of non-infringement...
Paranormalist Claims Three-Second Copyright in Attempt to Censor Critical Video
Uri Geller -- the "paranormalist" famous for seemingly bending spoons with his mind -- got bent out of shape when a critic from the "Rational Response Squad" posted a video with a segment from a NOVA program called "Secrets of the Psychics," which challenged the performance techniques of Geller.
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