Saturday, April 14, 2012


Keep everything in limbo...
Judge Won’t Purge Megaupload User Data, At Least Not Yet
A federal judge on Friday declined to pull the plug on 25 million gigabytes of Megaupload data seized when the government shuttered the file-sharing service in January.
… U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady — according to CNET’s Greg Sandoval who attended the Virginia hearing — for the moment declined to go along with that plan, instead ordering the various parties connected to the case to broker a deal. [Why would the MPAA agree to anything, short of a full “confession?” Bob]


Well, as long as I have assurances from such a staunch defender of privacy...
Facebook defends CISPA while pledging not to share more data
The latest Internet oversight bill coming up before Congress -- the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (H.R. 3523) -- is only just starting to get much attention. And it certainly hasn't sparked a backlash the way SOPA did.
Unlike SOPA, CISPA has the support of a range of tech companies, including Facebook, IBM, Intel, Verizon, and AT&T. As my colleague Violet Blue explained in her piece "Say 'hello' to CISPA, it will remind you of SOPA":


What an amazing coincidence...
Interesting: Law Firm Leading The Antitrust Charge Against Apple Shares A Seattle Address With Amazon


What possible strategy was being followed?
"Following on the heels of the FCC and U.S. mobile carriers finally announcing plans to create a national database for stolen phones, a group of iPhone users filed a class action lawsuit against AT&T on Tuesday claiming that it has aided and abetted cell phone thieves by refusing to brick stolen cell phones. AT&T has '[made] millions of dollars in improper profits, by forcing legitimate customers, such as these Plaintiffs, to buy new cell phones, and buy new cell phone plans, while the criminals who stole the phone are able to simply walk into AT&T stories and 're-activate' the devices, using different, cheap, readily-available 'SIM' cards,' states their complaint. AT&T, of course, says the suit is 'meritless.'"


Should you always ask for the records that prove the government was monitoring you? Then you can claim that “This prosecution is actually persecution for my political beliefs” OR “The government claims they have not been monitoring me – if they are lying about that, what else are they lying about?” We're at the point where anyone could find technology the government has admitted using that could be connected to your case: (e.g. Speeding? GPS )
April 12, 2012
Protecting Classified Information and the Rights of Criminal Defendants: The Classified Information Procedures Act
Protecting Classified Information and the Rights of Criminal Defendants: The Classified Information Procedures Act, Edward C. Liu, Legislative Attorney; Todd Garvey, Legislative Attorney - April 2, 2012
  • "The Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) provides criminal procedures that permit a trial judge to rule on the relevance or admissibility of classified information in a secure setting. It requires a defendant to notify the prosecution and the court of any classified information that the defendant may seek to discover or disclose during trial. During the discovery phase, CIPA authorizes courts to issue protective orders limiting disclosure to members of the defense team that have obtained adequate security clearances, and to permit the government to use unclassified redactions or summaries of classified information that the defendant would normally be entitled to receive. If classified information is to be introduced at trial, the court may allow substitutes of classified information to be used, so long as they provide the defendant with substantially the same ability to present a defense and do not otherwise violate his constitutional rights. Among the rights that may be implicated by the application of CIPA in a criminal prosecution are the defendant’s right to have a public trial, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, and to have the assistance of counsel. CIPA may also be implicated by the obligation of the prosecution to provide the defendant, under Brady v. Maryland, with exculpatory information in its possession, and to provide the defendant with government witnesses’ prior written statements pursuant to the Jencks Act."


Something I should make my students use?
Friday, April 13, 2012
Last month I learned that Qwiki was launching a creation tool that allows users to create their own multimedia Qwikis. A Qwiki is a short narrated story that includes images, videos, and text. This morning I received my invitation to try out the new Qwiki Creator, these are my initial impressions.
Creating the basics of a Qwiki is very easy. There are three steps to the process; uploading content (or linking to hosted content like a Flickr image), recording narration, and captioning content. One of the things that I learned in my first attempt at creating a Qwiki is that the order in which you upload content is the order in which it will appear in your Qwiki. Perhaps I overlooked it, but I couldn't find a way to reorder my uploads. Voice recordings are limited to 20 seconds. You can also record with your webcam and have a video of yourself appear in your Qwiki. Captioning your content is very straight forward. After uploading content and making your recordings you're presented with a grid of all of your content to caption. Just fill in the blanks in the caption fields. The caption screen is where you can insert links.
The Qwiki Creator browser bookmarklet, titled Qwik It!, is a handy little product that will help some students clip and organize content for their Qwiki projects. With Qwik It! installed students can clip sections of webpages and send them directly to their Qwiki Creator accounts. From there they can use the clipped content to build a Qwiki.
Applications for Education
I was hoping for a bit more from the Qwiki Creator, but despite some of its editing limitations it could be a good tool for students to use to create short multimedia stories. Students could create personal narratives using Qwiki Creator. Or you might have students create short introductory narratives about topics that they're studying in your classes.


Harry Potter grows up?
J.K. Rowling Reveals Her New Book — For Adults
As widely reported yesterday, J.K. Rowling and her publisher Little, Brown have announced her new book. And, as you may have heard, it’s not for kids.
The “blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising” book, her publisher says — her first aimed at adults — is called The Casual Vacancy. It will be released worldwide (at least in English) in hardcover, ebook, unabridged audio download and CD on Thursday, September 27, 2012.

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