After the rough-and-tumble of yesterdays events, here’s day two of the 2013 PPI Conference. Join in the chat and discussion. Continue reading
-
-
LIVEBLOG PPI 2013 Conference Day 1
Today is Day1 of the PPI 2013 conference, brought to you from an area you’ve never heard of – Kazan Russia. Because of the way last years conference was run, I thought we’d start off with a liveblog, rather than 3 hours into the first agenda item. Continue reading
-
CISPA, SOPA, PIPA, ePARASITE, ACTA, TPP: What is Congress Smoking?
In 2012, I was moderating a panel on the major technological legislative acts that were pending or had been proposed in the last year. On the panel were two lawyers from the copyright field, and two computer security experts. Since the resurrection of CISPA has occurred, I thought it prudent to take the audio and photographs, and create a video, which many people find more engaging.
People don’t realize just how damaging these sorts of laws are, proposed by lobbyists who have an angle, but who sell it on another angle. The bills are then championed by legislators who understand what’s in it as much as they understand saying ‘No’ to lobbyists. Seriously, these bills do nothing good for the people, but a lot of harm – some deliberately, the rest inadvertently. Continue reading
-
EU President and, IT Staff Don’t Understand Democracy, Maths, Truth
Last month there were revelations about the EU Parliament IT system, and the arbitrary way in which email blocks on legitimate topics can be implemented with lighting speed. Yesterday, Christian Engstrom MEP, received a response (shown below) to his complaint from EU President Martin Schulz.It states, in short, that Mr Schulz can’t do maths, and doesn’t understand technology, or the importance of being able to contact elected representatives. Continue reading
-
Tennessee’s Primary Idea Shows the Right Direction
A highly publicized bill in Tennessee has drawn a lot of comment nationwide over its attempt to eliminate primary elections for Senate seats. Instead the party caucuses State Legislature would pick the candidates. Understandably, it’s drawn the ire of people claiming it’s ‘anti-democratic’, and has, for now, been shelved.However, it’s not the worst idea of them. Frankly, when I first got involved with politics, the primary election was one of the biggest surprises of the lot. A publicly funded election to decide who a political party would put up for election; that just doesn’t seem right I thought. These people are running a public campaign to elect them, not to office, but for the chance to run for office? That’s ridiculous.
-
£53 and the Problem With UK Politics
The current furore over the Work and Pensions Minister, Ian Duncan Smith, is highlighting not just the glibness of modern politicians when speaking to the media, but also that much of the media is focused on partisan bickering rather than on the reporting of news.There are two main aspects to this story. The first is the promise made by Ian Duncan Smith, and the second is the response to it.
-
LiveBlog – Prenda’s “Good Old Fashioned Bench Slapping”
Many are aware of the impending courtroom dustup in the Prenda case. For those that aren’t, here’s the worlds briefest precis (from the worlds most longwinded blogger).
Prenda and a slew of other companies are the creation of half a dozen people, (mostly lawyers, but some are imaginary). These companies try to sue people under copyright law for the alleged sharing of media (in part or whole) they claim is copyright registered. However, aside from suing to get personal info, they avoid litigating the case on its merits, because its all about extorting settlements. There’s been a lot of contradictory statements to different courts, and now one judge, Federal Judge Otis D Wright II, wants to get to the bottom of it. His last attempt, March 11th, was foiled but now it’s time for “A Good Old-Fashioned Bench Slapping” as one person has put it.
