shouting loudly

The movie poster for a documentary about Guantanamo has been rejected by the MPAA for depicting torture (specifically, a sack over a man’s head). The edited version is more closely cropped, still revealing restrained wrists but hiding the sack. Read about it and see it here.

Good news! Unfortunately, it may have been partially for the “wrong” reasons: Judiciary members spoke out about defending their turf in order to preserve their ability to oversee antitrust enforcement. Barton’s bill (see my opinion here), passed by Energy & Commerce, gives the FCC the “exclusive authority” to address the issue. Of course, it also [...]

[Cross-posted from a comment made in response to this CNet story, "Net neutrality fans pressure U.S. Senate". Here's the link to the comment.] The other thing the ISPs fail to mention is that network neutrality has been the FCC-enforced norm of the internet since its inception due to federal common carrier requirements. Phone companies are [...]

That’s what Torrentspy.com’s parent company, Valence Media, is alleging. Valence claims that the hacker is now cooperating with their investigation into what it calls “a Hollywood drama” of subterfuge and espionage. Here’s a quote from the CNet story: Some of the information that the man allegedly pilfered included a spreadsheet containing Torrentspy income and expenses [...]

As seen on CNet.

The Federal Communications Law Journal has accepted my network neutrality article for publication in early 2007. In the meantime, the current version of the paper, Opening Bottlenecks: On Behalf of Mandated Network Neutrality, is online at SSRN.com.

It appears that network neutrality has really caught a lot of people’s attention, in the general population and (therefore, also) in Congress. The link fest which follows is just a sliver of the gigantic mass of grassroots support and press coverage. Even the cable industry has acknowledged that net neutrality is now the number one [...]

Graphic designer and critic Michael Beirut is slightly unnerved by what passes as plagiarism. I wonder if his example is much better than the recent “Opal Mehta” controversy, and whether the answer to that would say more about the nature of visuals versus text, or the nature of IP law.

In reaction to the Smithsonian’s recent deal with Showtime, Design Observer discusses the “erosion of fair use and the public domain in America.” It’s nice to see a carefully reasoned essay on this subject on a design blog, as many graphic designers’ knee-jerk reaction to IP reform is to complain that professionals are invariably going [...]

The LA Times has an article about technology outpacing privacy laws and the bewildered technology companies who aren’t quite sure how to keep up. “It’s so easy to say yes,” said technology security expert Bruce Schneier. “The government sings a patriotic song, and you want to do what’s right. We all want to band together.”