The Senate Judiciary Committee intends to vote on the CASE Act, legislation that would create a brand new quasi-court for copyright infringement claims. We have expressed numerous concerns with the legislation, and serious problems inherent with the bill have not been remedied by Congress before moving it forward.
In short, the bill would supercharge a “copyright troll” industry dedicated to filing as many “small claims” on as many Internet users as possible in order to make money through the bill’s statutory damages provisions. Every single person who uses the Internet and regularly interacts with copyrighted works (that’s everyone) should contact their Senators to oppose this bill.
Making it so easy to sue Internet users for allegedly infringing a copyrighted work that an infringement claim comes to resemble a traffic ticket is a terrible idea. This bill creates a situation where Internet users could easily be on the hook for multiple $5,000 copyright infringement judgments without many of the traditional legal safeguards or rights of appeal our justice system provides.
The legislation would allow the Copyright Office to create a “determination” process for claims seeking up to $5,000 in damages:
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Showing posts with label Free Speech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Speech. Show all posts
Thursday, July 11, 2019
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Monday, May 06, 2019
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Americans Have No Idea What “Freedom of the Press” Means
Many people believe that freedom of the press means that credentialed, professional journalists working for mainstream media outlets are protected when they criticize the government.
And they think that Julian Assange – or some random blogger – are not entitled to press freedoms, since they aren’t real reporters or publishers.
Indeed, a Google Search for “Assange is not a journalist/reporter/publisher” turns up 62,000 web pages, many of them from the largest media corporations.
What Is Freedom of the Press?
However, as we noted in 2014:
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And they think that Julian Assange – or some random blogger – are not entitled to press freedoms, since they aren’t real reporters or publishers.
Indeed, a Google Search for “Assange is not a journalist/reporter/publisher” turns up 62,000 web pages, many of them from the largest media corporations.
What Is Freedom of the Press?
However, as we noted in 2014:
Read the entire article
Monday, April 15, 2019
Assange Held at “Britain’s Guantanamo Bay” as UN Urges Fair Trial
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces a likely extended extradition battle after this week’s dramatic end to his seven-year asylum stay holed up in Ecuador’s London embassy.
He’s now in a British jail, and though UK authorities have yet to confirm the precise place of his detention, multiple reports suggest that he’s being held in what’s dubbed “Britain’s Guantanamo Bay” — or Belmarsh Prison, given its reputation as a holding facility for terrorists and high-profile criminals.
Crucially, the United Nations human rights office has now weighed in, on Friday urging that the UK government holds a fair trial as a US extradition request hangs over the proceedings.
U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva news briefing: “We expect all the relevant authorities to ensure Mr. Assange’s right to a fair trial is upheld by authorities, including in any extradition proceedings that may take place,” according to Reuters.
Read the entire article
He’s now in a British jail, and though UK authorities have yet to confirm the precise place of his detention, multiple reports suggest that he’s being held in what’s dubbed “Britain’s Guantanamo Bay” — or Belmarsh Prison, given its reputation as a holding facility for terrorists and high-profile criminals.
Crucially, the United Nations human rights office has now weighed in, on Friday urging that the UK government holds a fair trial as a US extradition request hangs over the proceedings.
U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva news briefing: “We expect all the relevant authorities to ensure Mr. Assange’s right to a fair trial is upheld by authorities, including in any extradition proceedings that may take place,” according to Reuters.
Read the entire article
Monday, March 18, 2019
The Psychology Of Getting Julian Assange, Part 4: Why Even Some Lefties Want To See Him Hang
On Sunday March 3rd and 10th, hundreds attended rallies organised by the Socialist Equality Party of Australia in Sydney and Melbourne, demanding that the Australian government secure freedom for Julian Assange.
Acclaimed journalist and film-maker John Pilger spoke at the Sydney rally along with founder of the Sydney Peace Foundation, Professor Stuart Rees AM, and editor-in-chief of US news website Consortium News, Joe Lauria.
The rallies called for the Australian government to intervene to protect its citizen, Julian Assange, who has been confined to the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012. Assange is suffering arbitrary detention according to two UN rulings. Should he leave the embassy he is expected to be extradited to the United States and prosecuted for his publishing activities, most likely over 2010 disclosures of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), Julian Assange faces “well founded” risks of “political persecution and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment” and “physical harm” in the United States. The WGAD further ruled that Assange is entitled to compensation and the restoration of his freedom.
Read the entire article
Acclaimed journalist and film-maker John Pilger spoke at the Sydney rally along with founder of the Sydney Peace Foundation, Professor Stuart Rees AM, and editor-in-chief of US news website Consortium News, Joe Lauria.
The rallies called for the Australian government to intervene to protect its citizen, Julian Assange, who has been confined to the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012. Assange is suffering arbitrary detention according to two UN rulings. Should he leave the embassy he is expected to be extradited to the United States and prosecuted for his publishing activities, most likely over 2010 disclosures of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), Julian Assange faces “well founded” risks of “political persecution and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment” and “physical harm” in the United States. The WGAD further ruled that Assange is entitled to compensation and the restoration of his freedom.
Read the entire article
Monday, January 28, 2019
Friday, January 11, 2019
Julian Assange’s Living Conditions Deteriorate – More Akin to Stasi-Era Dissident Than an Award-Winning Publisher With Asylum
While Ecuador presents this surveillance operation as a mission to “protect and support” Assange, this is contradicted by the fact that he isn’t even allowed to confidentially speak with a reporter and friend without being recorded. In May, the Guardian reported that there are “extraordinary reports” from these spies that include daily logs of Assange’s activities inside the embassy, even noting his “general mood.”
As John Pilger pointed out after his visit with Assange on New Year’s Eve, it could be any newspaper publisher or editor stuck in that embassy. For the crime of publishing journalism, Assange has not only had to give up his freedom, but also any semblance of privacy. It’s impossible to overstate how unsettling it feels to have multiple lenses pointed at you wherever you stand.
Unable to speak privately, even with a noise machine attempting to muffle the microphones from picking up conversations, we resorted to passing notes. Assange is not only barred from sharing his views online under the new regulations — thanks to the constant surveillance, he can’t even do so among his friends in the embassy where he is arbitrarily detained.
If we value the principle of the freedom of speech — we must do something to stop this madness. While we do not know what Assange has been charged with by the U.S. as it remains under seal, we do know that it is related to his work as a publisher, the only publisher with a record of 100% accuracy. His dedication to truth is so profound that he has never once had to issue a correction or retraction.
Read the entire article
As John Pilger pointed out after his visit with Assange on New Year’s Eve, it could be any newspaper publisher or editor stuck in that embassy. For the crime of publishing journalism, Assange has not only had to give up his freedom, but also any semblance of privacy. It’s impossible to overstate how unsettling it feels to have multiple lenses pointed at you wherever you stand.
Unable to speak privately, even with a noise machine attempting to muffle the microphones from picking up conversations, we resorted to passing notes. Assange is not only barred from sharing his views online under the new regulations — thanks to the constant surveillance, he can’t even do so among his friends in the embassy where he is arbitrarily detained.
If we value the principle of the freedom of speech — we must do something to stop this madness. While we do not know what Assange has been charged with by the U.S. as it remains under seal, we do know that it is related to his work as a publisher, the only publisher with a record of 100% accuracy. His dedication to truth is so profound that he has never once had to issue a correction or retraction.
Read the entire article
Thursday, December 13, 2018
What the Marc Lamont Hill Affair Really Tells us About Zionist Goals
There are many things wrong with ideologues. Here I mean those who see the world through a narrow dogma. It is as if they wear figurative blinders, like those real ones placed on draft horses, so as to prevent their gaze from wondering away from a designated path. As a consequence ideologues can sometimes be embarrassing—making gross general pronouncements based on the narrowest sets of beliefs and expecting the world to go along. Often they are just boring. However, give them a modicum of power and they can become downright dangerous.
For instance, take the recent dustup at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It started when Marc Lamont Hill, a tenured professor holding an endowed chair in the School of Media and Communications, gave a speech at the United Nations. The occasion was the U.N.’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Hill, who is a longstanding critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, summarized the official discrimination practiced by Israel against the Palestinians—that is he laid out examples of Zionist Israel’s racist nature and practice—and then “endorsed a free Palestine from the river to the sea.”
It was at this point that local supporters of Israel, specifically the ideologues who see things through the lens of the dogma of Zionism, went on the attack. Their claim was that Hill was “calling for the end of Israel.” Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, claimed Hill’s endorsement of a “free Palestine” amounted to the “violent genocide of Jews in Israel.” Leonard Barrack, “a major donor to the university,” accused Hill of calling for “the destruction of the State of Israel” and said “I think it [Hill’s speech] was anti-Semitic.” And then Patrick O’Connor, the chairman of Temple University’s board of trustees, called Hill’s remarks “hate speech” and “disgusting.” He went on to claim that “no one at Temple is happy with his comments.” By the way, Temple has a student enrollment of over 30,000, so how can the chairman be sure? O’Connor has instructed the university’s lawyers to explore ways to punish Hill. In the meantime CNN, obviously responding to Zionist pressure, immediately fired Lamont Hill from his position as an on-air commentator.
Read the entire article
For instance, take the recent dustup at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It started when Marc Lamont Hill, a tenured professor holding an endowed chair in the School of Media and Communications, gave a speech at the United Nations. The occasion was the U.N.’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Hill, who is a longstanding critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, summarized the official discrimination practiced by Israel against the Palestinians—that is he laid out examples of Zionist Israel’s racist nature and practice—and then “endorsed a free Palestine from the river to the sea.”
It was at this point that local supporters of Israel, specifically the ideologues who see things through the lens of the dogma of Zionism, went on the attack. Their claim was that Hill was “calling for the end of Israel.” Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, claimed Hill’s endorsement of a “free Palestine” amounted to the “violent genocide of Jews in Israel.” Leonard Barrack, “a major donor to the university,” accused Hill of calling for “the destruction of the State of Israel” and said “I think it [Hill’s speech] was anti-Semitic.” And then Patrick O’Connor, the chairman of Temple University’s board of trustees, called Hill’s remarks “hate speech” and “disgusting.” He went on to claim that “no one at Temple is happy with his comments.” By the way, Temple has a student enrollment of over 30,000, so how can the chairman be sure? O’Connor has instructed the university’s lawyers to explore ways to punish Hill. In the meantime CNN, obviously responding to Zionist pressure, immediately fired Lamont Hill from his position as an on-air commentator.
Read the entire article
Monday, October 15, 2018
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
The Real Reason the Government Won’t Hold Big Tech Accountable
The villagers are marching with their torches and pitchforks. Big tech companies are in trouble.
The government is coming to regulate them.
Someone leaked a draft of an executive order from President Trump. It calls on various agencies to use all current laws to look into possible anticompetitive practices by Facebook and Google.
In fact, the EU already fined Google $5 billion in July for “abusing the market dominance of Android.” And now they’ve set their sights on how Amazon uses customer and seller data.
Elizabeth Warren wants to force Amazon to choose between providing a platform for sellers and selling goods. Echoing European Union regulators, she says Amazon has an unfair advantage by competing against the same sellers it collects information from on its platform.
Real the entire article
The government is coming to regulate them.
Someone leaked a draft of an executive order from President Trump. It calls on various agencies to use all current laws to look into possible anticompetitive practices by Facebook and Google.
In fact, the EU already fined Google $5 billion in July for “abusing the market dominance of Android.” And now they’ve set their sights on how Amazon uses customer and seller data.
Elizabeth Warren wants to force Amazon to choose between providing a platform for sellers and selling goods. Echoing European Union regulators, she says Amazon has an unfair advantage by competing against the same sellers it collects information from on its platform.
Real the entire article
Friday, August 03, 2018
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
California Considering Creating Advisory Group For Fake News With Orwellian Bill
In an Orwellian move straight out of 1984, California has proposed a bill to consider creating a “fake news” advisory group in order to monitor information posted and spread on social media, CBS reported.
Senate Bill 1424 would require the California Attorney General to create an advisory committee by April 1st, 2019. Further, the council would need to consist of at least one person from the Department of Justice, representatives from social media providers, civil liberties advocates, and First Amendment scholars.
The advisory group would be required to study how false information is spread online and come up with a plan for social media platforms to fix the problem. The Attorney General would then need to present that plan to the Legislature by December 31st, 2019. The group would also need to come up with criteria establishing what is “fake news” and what is just biased information.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposes the bill, calling it “flawed” and “misguided.” The group argues the measure would make the government and advisory group responsible for deciding what is true or false. It also points out the First Amendment prevents content-based restrictions, even if the statements of “admittedly false.”
Last year the previous iterations of California’s crusade against fake news Assembly Bill 1104 or “The California Political Cyberfraud Abatement Act,” included making it against the law to publish and spread so-called “fake news” that could potentially impact a political race.
Read the entire article
Senate Bill 1424 would require the California Attorney General to create an advisory committee by April 1st, 2019. Further, the council would need to consist of at least one person from the Department of Justice, representatives from social media providers, civil liberties advocates, and First Amendment scholars.
The advisory group would be required to study how false information is spread online and come up with a plan for social media platforms to fix the problem. The Attorney General would then need to present that plan to the Legislature by December 31st, 2019. The group would also need to come up with criteria establishing what is “fake news” and what is just biased information.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposes the bill, calling it “flawed” and “misguided.” The group argues the measure would make the government and advisory group responsible for deciding what is true or false. It also points out the First Amendment prevents content-based restrictions, even if the statements of “admittedly false.”
Last year the previous iterations of California’s crusade against fake news Assembly Bill 1104 or “The California Political Cyberfraud Abatement Act,” included making it against the law to publish and spread so-called “fake news” that could potentially impact a political race.
Read the entire article
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Dershowitz on Mueller Raiding Cohen’s Office: The Deafening Silence of the ACLU is Appalling!
On Monday FBI agents raided the office of one of Trump’s personal lawyers Michael Cohen on Monday at the request of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Alan Dershowitz: This is a very dangerous day today for lawyer-client relations. I deal with clients all the time. I tell them on my word of honor all the time that what you tell me is sacrosanct. And now they say, just based on probable cause, even though they know there was cooperation, with Cohen. They can burst into an office grab all the computers. Then give it to another FBI agent and say, “You’re the firewall. We want you to now read all these confidential communications. Tell us which ones we can get and which ones we can’t get.” You know, if the shoe were on the other foot, if this were Hillary Clinton being investigated and they went in her lawyer’s office the ACLU would be on every television station in America, jumping up and down. The deafening silence of the ACLU and civil libertarians about the intrusion into the lawyer-client confidentiality is appalling.
Read the entire article
Alan Dershowitz: This is a very dangerous day today for lawyer-client relations. I deal with clients all the time. I tell them on my word of honor all the time that what you tell me is sacrosanct. And now they say, just based on probable cause, even though they know there was cooperation, with Cohen. They can burst into an office grab all the computers. Then give it to another FBI agent and say, “You’re the firewall. We want you to now read all these confidential communications. Tell us which ones we can get and which ones we can’t get.” You know, if the shoe were on the other foot, if this were Hillary Clinton being investigated and they went in her lawyer’s office the ACLU would be on every television station in America, jumping up and down. The deafening silence of the ACLU and civil libertarians about the intrusion into the lawyer-client confidentiality is appalling.
Read the entire article
Friday, March 09, 2018
Are The Social Media Giants Trying To Steal The 2018 Elections By Censoring Conservative Websites?
Nobody is disputing the fact that YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social media giants are censoring conservative material. In fact, this is probably the largest purge of conservative voices in the history of the Internet. Obviously this is going to cause large numbers of people to stop using their platforms, so why would they do this? Well, to some conservatives the answer is obvious. These social media giants watched Donald Trump use their platforms extremely effectively in 2016, and many believe that they are absolutely determined to never let that happen again. In fact, Mike Adams of Natural News is completely convinced that there is a concerted effort by these social media giants to steal the 2018 elections…
The realization is suddenly obvious: The Google / YouTube selective “censorship rampage” that has targeted conservative websites and content creators is a brazen, illegal scheme to interfere with U.S. elections and steal the 2018 mid-terms.
The systematic silencing of conservative views is necessary, of course, for Democrats to win enough seats to gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives after the mid-term elections. Once control is established, Democrats will immediately move to impeach President Trump. Although the Senate would not likely prosecute that impeachment, the mere achievement of the U.S. House declaring “impeachment” would be enough to convince most brainwashed news consumers that Trump is somehow a guilty criminal (nobody will remember that Bill Clinton was also impeached by the House). From there, the 2020 presidential election is also stolen, and Democrats land their selected tyrant in the White House just in time for Ginsberg’s retirement from SCOTUS.
If voices on the left were being censored to the same degree as conservative voices, it would be really hard to make such an argument.
But the truth is that the numbers show that conservative voices are being hit extremely hard by the censorship while liberal publishers have been mostly “unaffected”…
Read the entire article
The realization is suddenly obvious: The Google / YouTube selective “censorship rampage” that has targeted conservative websites and content creators is a brazen, illegal scheme to interfere with U.S. elections and steal the 2018 mid-terms.
The systematic silencing of conservative views is necessary, of course, for Democrats to win enough seats to gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives after the mid-term elections. Once control is established, Democrats will immediately move to impeach President Trump. Although the Senate would not likely prosecute that impeachment, the mere achievement of the U.S. House declaring “impeachment” would be enough to convince most brainwashed news consumers that Trump is somehow a guilty criminal (nobody will remember that Bill Clinton was also impeached by the House). From there, the 2020 presidential election is also stolen, and Democrats land their selected tyrant in the White House just in time for Ginsberg’s retirement from SCOTUS.
If voices on the left were being censored to the same degree as conservative voices, it would be really hard to make such an argument.
But the truth is that the numbers show that conservative voices are being hit extremely hard by the censorship while liberal publishers have been mostly “unaffected”…
Read the entire article
Monday, March 05, 2018
Massive outpouring of support for the Health Ranger after outrageous YouTube censorship of entire channel, wiping 1700+ videos spanning 10+ years
As we reported over the weekend, YouTube terminated the entire Health Ranger video channel on Saturday, wiping out over 1,700 videos and approximately 350K+ subscribers. This was done, of course, as part of the YouTube left-wing PURGE now being carried out against non-establishment speakers who are being targeted for political reasons.
YouTube’s censorship rampage also wiped out all my videos on the donkeys I rescued, the range-free chickens I raise and even the beautiful ice crystals I captured on video over the winter. In its censorship sweep, YouTube is obliterating thousands of videos without cause, violating the civil rights of informative internet users and functioning as a criminal techno-cartel.
My channel wasn’t alone in this, of course. YouTube’s censorship rampage has targeted thousands of other indy media channels over the last two weeks, issuing strikes against content that was uploaded many years ago (and is just now being flagged by ridiculously biased left-wing “trusted flaggers” such as the outrageously biased SPLC group). RightSide Broadcasting’s live event has also been blocked by YouTube, reports The Gateway Pundit.
It’s not about cracking down on so-called “conspiracy theories,” either. YouTube just announced it’s sponsoring a left-wing video creator who says the 9/11 terrorists attacks were an “inside job” — almost identical language to what InfoWars uses, but of course InfoWars gets selectively targeted for banning.
Read the entire article
YouTube’s censorship rampage also wiped out all my videos on the donkeys I rescued, the range-free chickens I raise and even the beautiful ice crystals I captured on video over the winter. In its censorship sweep, YouTube is obliterating thousands of videos without cause, violating the civil rights of informative internet users and functioning as a criminal techno-cartel.
My channel wasn’t alone in this, of course. YouTube’s censorship rampage has targeted thousands of other indy media channels over the last two weeks, issuing strikes against content that was uploaded many years ago (and is just now being flagged by ridiculously biased left-wing “trusted flaggers” such as the outrageously biased SPLC group). RightSide Broadcasting’s live event has also been blocked by YouTube, reports The Gateway Pundit.
It’s not about cracking down on so-called “conspiracy theories,” either. YouTube just announced it’s sponsoring a left-wing video creator who says the 9/11 terrorists attacks were an “inside job” — almost identical language to what InfoWars uses, but of course InfoWars gets selectively targeted for banning.
Read the entire article
Thursday, March 01, 2018
CONFIRMED: Algorithm Change Causes POTUS Trump’s Facebook Traffic to Plummet 45% – Sanders, Warren Traffic UNCHANGED!
(In 2016 Facebook traffic accounted for roughly one-third of our TGP traffic. Today, although our traffic continues to grow our Facebook traffic continues to decline.)
According to a stunning report by Breitbart Tech’s Allum Bokhari, the decline in engagement on Trump’s Facebook cannot be attributed to a drop in posting frequency on the part of Trump.
via Breitbart Tech
“In the 13 days prior to Facebook’s algorithm change (28 Dec – 10 Jan), Trump made 67 posts, with no significant drop in engagement. After the change, Trump posted at roughly the same rate – between 59 and 67 posts in each 13-day period, but was still met with the dramatic decline in engagement seen above,” Breitbart reports.
The changes in the algorithm came following extreme pressure on the platform from Democrats who blame social media for Hillary Clinton’s election loss.
“You’ve created these platforms, and now they’re being misused, and you have to be the ones to do something about it … or we will,” Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein threatened Facebook prior to their changes.
In contrast, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) do not appear to have suffered a comparable decline in Facebook engagement, reports Bokhari.
Read the entire article
According to a stunning report by Breitbart Tech’s Allum Bokhari, the decline in engagement on Trump’s Facebook cannot be attributed to a drop in posting frequency on the part of Trump.
via Breitbart Tech
“In the 13 days prior to Facebook’s algorithm change (28 Dec – 10 Jan), Trump made 67 posts, with no significant drop in engagement. After the change, Trump posted at roughly the same rate – between 59 and 67 posts in each 13-day period, but was still met with the dramatic decline in engagement seen above,” Breitbart reports.
The changes in the algorithm came following extreme pressure on the platform from Democrats who blame social media for Hillary Clinton’s election loss.
“You’ve created these platforms, and now they’re being misused, and you have to be the ones to do something about it … or we will,” Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein threatened Facebook prior to their changes.
In contrast, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) do not appear to have suffered a comparable decline in Facebook engagement, reports Bokhari.
Read the entire article
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
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