DHS relied on bizarre legal reasoning and crappy evidence to seize "pirate" domains
Techdirt's Mike Masnick enumerates the litany of crappy law, evidence, and assumptions behind the
Department of Homeland Security's decision to seize a group of music-blog and search-engine domains. The
seizures were backed copyright industry lobbyists. The story should scare all of us: if you have a
.com or .net domain, the US government is prepared to censor you on the evidence-free say-so of
a corporate lobbyist from the copyright cartel.
It looks like the four blog/forum sites (RapGodFathers, OnSmash, Dajaz1 and RMX4U) and Torrent-Finder were all lumped together into a single warrant and affidavit. The affidavit was written by a Special Agent with ICE, named Andrew Reynolds, who indicates in the affidavit that he only recently graduated from college (he notes that he's only been on the job for one year, but before that he was a "student trainee with the group"). Much of the affidavit relies heavily on the MPAA. This fits with what ICE assistant deputy director Erik Barnett said soon after the seizures, admitting that they basically just took what sites Hollywood said were a problem and seized them...
...In other words, the "support" that Agent Reynolds provides for why Torrent-Finder's domain should be seized is that he claims that Torrent-Finder's admin linked directly to infringing material. But that's not true. Instead, the admin was simply pointing to a bunch of different news stories. Even worse, some of those news stories highlight why the claims of the MPAA, which Agent Reynolds relies upon, are simply made up -- such as TorrentFreak's story about comic artist Steve Lieber (which was actually based on a Techdirt story about how Steve Lieber embraced the so-called "pirates" and ended up making a lot more money -- we later interviewed Steve about his experiences). The CNET article is all about the COICA law -- which is about the legality of seizures like this one. How is that evidence of probable cause?
Even going beyond the fact that Agent Reynolds can't seem to figure out that a search engine is different than a torrent tracker or a torrent hosting site, he also seems to think that linking to blog posts like the ones we write here is probable cause for criminal behavior. Holy crap! That's just downright scary.
Homeland Security Presents 'Evidence' For Domain Seizures; Proves It Knows Little About The Internet - Or The Law
(via /.)
RNC Chairman Candidate Mike Duncan: ‘There Is Not Enough Money’ In Politics
The Republican National Committee will soon hold elections to potentially replace its gaffe-prone chairman Michael Steele, and today, FreedomWorks held a forum for those vying for the job. All the candidates present — Steele was conspicuously absent — touted their fundraising ability, but Mike Duncan, a former chairman running for another term, took the opportunity to wax poetic about campaign finance. Despite the recent troubling and unprecedented explosion of money in politics, Duncan called money “the mother’s milk of politics,” and argued, “there is not enough money” in politics:
DUNCAN: Money is the mother’s milk of politics. There is not too much money in politics, there is not enough money. When you consider that we spend $7 billion in this county a year on potato chips. We spend $4 billion, a little over $4 billion, according to the National Retailer Association on Halloween — on costumes and candies.
Watch it:
Thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, this year’s election saw a flood of money into politics, with corporations, special interests, and wealthy individuals spending like never before. Nearly $4 billion was spent on the 2010 cycle, making it the most expensive midterm in history, with more spent by outside groups this year than during all the midterms since 1990 combined. A disturbingly large portion of this was secret money spent by front groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, which do not have to disclose their donors. This system allows a tiny group of individuals to have an outsize impact on American democracy. For example, in August, an astonishing 91 percent of the millions American Crossroads raised came from just three billionaires. And while the Chamber claims to represent hundreds of thousands of businesses large and small, the vast majority of their funding comes from just 45 mega-corporations.
But it’s not surprising that Duncan would support this flood of special interest money in politics, as Republicans benefited most from secret money, and spent more than Democrats overall. According to a New York Times analysis, eight of the top ten outside political groups were GOP-aligned, including the top four.
However, the American people do not agree with Duncan that there should be more money in politics, especially when it comes to corporate money. A PCCC poll from last week showed that by a double-digit margin, voters would support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and once again restrict corporations from directly spending on elections. Meanwhile, a People for the American Way poll from June found that 85 percent believe that there is too much corporate money in politics. And a poll from the 2008 presidential campaign found that “Americans by 3-1 think too much money is” spent on politics.
surface encounters review surface encounters rock tops surface encounters complaints surface encounters review surface encounters complaints surface encounters rock tops surface encounters review surface encounters complaints surface encounters surface encounters review surface encounters surface encounters review surface encounters surface encounters review surface encounters surface encounters complaints surface encounters complaints surface encounters complaints surface encounters review surface encounters complaints
<b>News</b>.me, Betaworks & NYT's Stealthy Social <b>News</b> Project, Starts <b>...</b>
News.me, the stealthy social news project being developed by Betaworks in conjunction with The New York Times, has just started accepting invite requests. As part of the partnership deal, ...
Warren Buffett boosts Iowa wind | Green Tech - CNET <b>News</b>
Berkshire Hathaway-owned subsidiary goes big for wind in Iowa, inks deal with Siemens as turbine provider. Read this blog post by Candace Lombardi on Green Tech.
Kidney Donation Set as Condition of Miss. Sisters - AOL <b>News</b>
Gov. Haley Barbour has pardoned Gladys and Jamie Scott, who were each serving life sentences for an $11 armed robbery. But to be released, Gladys, 36, must donate a kidney to her 38-year-old sister, Jamie, who requires dialysis and ...
surface encounters rock tops surface encounters surface encounters rock tops surface encounters complaints surface encounters surface encounters surface encounters surface encounters complaints surface encounters rock tops surface encounters surface encounters rock tops surface encounters rock tops surface encounters complaints surface encounters rock tops surface encounters rock tops surface encounters review surface encounters
No comments:
Post a Comment