Surely they have a better
argument than “I don't like it?”
"The hacktivist group Anonymous
today
hacked multiple UK government websites over the country's
'draconian surveillance proposals' and 'derogation of civil rights.'
At the time of writing, the following websites were taken down:
homeoffice.gov.uk, number10.gov.uk, and justice.gov.uk. The group is
not pleased with the UK
government's plans to monitor Internet users."
(Related) No more stories
about the loss of privacy, they will be censored a s disruptive!
"As congressmen in Washington
consider how to handle the ongoing issue of cyberattacks, some
legislators have lent their support to a new act that, if passed,
would let the government pry
into the personal correspondence of anyone of their choosing.
This is SOPA being passed in smaller chunks...
'H.R. 3523, a piece of legislation dubbed the Cyber Intelligence
Sharing and Protection Act (or CISPA for short) has vague definitions
that could allow Congress to circumvent existing exemptions to online
privacy laws and essentially monitor, censor
and stop any online communication that it considers disruptive to the
government or private parties.'"
Different cultures have
different views, however (via the Internet) citizens can now see how
other countries protect copyright...
"The National Copyright
Administration of the People's Republic of China ('NCAC') is seeking
public comments on a controversial draft amendment to China's
copyright law. A number of recording artists and musicians have
reacted
strongly against this proposed amendment because it appears to
encourage using others works without compensation. The amendments
that have drawn particular ire are article 46 & 48. Per Article
46, one does not need consent to make recordings of another person's
musical work if 3 months have passed since
such work was published. Per Article 48, to use
such person's musical work, one must contact the NCAC, identify the
published material and its author, and within 1 month of use, submit
a usage fee as per the NCAC, to facilitate the distribution of
payment to applicable parties. I wonder what happens when someone
applies to make use of Chinese Democracy by Guns N' Roses."
What would you do, if copyright were so
strongly time-limited?
What can I tell my
students without forcing them to pay for it?
Are
College Professors and Librarians Digital Pirates?
… In case you hadn't heard, college
students these days consume a lot of their information online, and
university faculty have tried to accommodate them by posting more
course materials on college library Web sites. But academic
publishers are crying foul in federal courts from Georgia to New York
to California. Backed by trade groups and copyright enforcement
houses, the publishers are litigating aggressively, while the
universities—almost all of them public—are zealously defending
the practice of putting some portion of course content online.
Federal district court judge Orinda
Evans in Atlanta is expected to throw down the first marker when she
rules on Georgia State University's "e-reserve" service,
where professors post individual chapters of books—or sometimes
multiple chapters—when the entire book isn't necessary for a class.
There's "not a single case in the U.S. at any level that spells
out what the standards are for fair use within a university like
Georgia State," Evans said during closing arguments in a
three-week bench trial conducted last spring.
… However, the case hasn't gone
well for the publishers so far. Judge Evans
dismissed claims of direct and vicarious infringement in 2010 while
approving the university's creation of a "fair use checklist"
that professors fill out before deciding whether to make book
excerpts available online without permission. But Evans
agreed to hold a trial on whether professors were abusing the
checklist process, which could make university officials indirectly
liable.
… The university argues that the
fair use exception to copyrights applies broadly at nonprofit
[“For profits” are another matter? Or is education education
everywhere? Bob] educational institutions, and that even
if Georgia State is giving away some content, the university remains
an enormous paying consumer of academic literature.
… As a public, nonprofit
educational institution, Georgia State would appear to be a
sympathetic defendant. But the school created a curious system for
copyright compliance. Rather than have university lawyers or
librarians decide what could be put online for free, the college
entrusted individual faculty with determining fair use.
Perspective: Numbers like
this are only possible when you have an established product, right?
The Harry Potter Books are estimated to
have sold 164,000 copies and the books are really reasonably priced.
The first few books are sold for $9.99 and the later books are
available for $11.99.
For my geeky friends and
my Ethical Hackers...
Bzeek is a free to use desktop client
for Windows XP, Vista, and 7 users. The app utilizes your Internet
connection in such a way that it transforms your laptop into a Wi-Fi
hotspot. You can do this on your desktop computer too, provided you
have a supported Wi-Fi card installed.
(Also Geeky)
Online Python Tutor supports the core
Python 2.5 language, with no module imports or file I/O and can be
used as a platform for creating programming tutorials. Can also be
useful for debugging code. Completed examples inlcudes as well as
practice exercises.
Interesting Infographic.
The
100-Year March of Technology in 1 Graph
But you can't measure a century's
progress by numbers alone.
… That's why this
graph below from Visual Economics, which shows the adoption rate
of new technologies across the century, is one of my new favorites --
and a cousin to this
beaut, which Alexis made viral ...
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