Search results for:sopa

Connecticut State Representative Proposes 10 Percent Tax On Mature Video Games

By

Ed. note: This post appears courtesy of our friends at Techdirt. We’ll be sharing law-related posts from Techdirt from time to time in these pages.

Silly reactions to violent video games are coming so fast these days it makes one’s head spin. Redundant labeling of games, doubling down on unconstitutional laws, and even special 1% taxes for games with a rating of “Teen” and above… It’s quite difficult to parse out the well-intentioned silliness from the grandstanding silliness. What’s clear, however, is that there are a great many people who don’t recognize games as the speech that they are.

One state representative from Connecticut, home of the Sandy Hook tragedy, is now upping the ante on that last idea and proposing a 10% tax on games that are rated “mature”….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Connecticut State Representative Proposes 10 Percent Tax On Mature Video Games”

Pol Dancing: Democratic Platform Tragically Light On Porn Policy

By

Down in Charlotte, at the quadrennial “We Hate America” (spelled “Amercia”) Convention, the Communist Pander-Bears have released a 70-page Party Platform replete with dozens of references to specific pieces of legislation that no one necessarily understands to remind us of the scores of bills that the Democrats have failed to pass since 2008.

The Democrats don’t provide nearly as many bold changes to the legal structure of the country as the Republicans. But there are a few legal planks worth reviewing, though tragically little on the subject of porn. How dare they not respond to the strongest plank of the Republican platform?

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Pol Dancing: Democratic Platform Tragically Light On Porn Policy”

9 Comments

‘Declaration of Internet Freedom’ Contemplates No Rights or Freedoms Worth Declaring

By

We celebrate America on July 4th because that is the day in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress. The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in history. Even though the brilliant men who wrote it and signed it were largely hypocrites who couldn’t see the self-evident truth that women and blacks were endowed with the same inalienable rights as white male landowners, the fact that they bothered to write them down is a starting gun for the modern march of freedom that even today topples tyranny and oppression.

Nobody will ever write the above paragraph about the “Declaration of Internet Freedom” that is making the rounds this week. In fact, most likely nobody will write anything at all about the Internet Declaration two weeks from now because the document is devoid of anything approaching a coherent articulation of the rights of “the internet” or anybody else.

Apparently, 85 organizations and many people have signed this thing, which looks to capitalize on the grassroots effort to stop SOPA legislation. I’m not sure if anybody involved with the project ran this by a lawyer, because this doesn’t appear to be a serious effort to promote a legal construct that will protect the freedom of anything….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “‘Declaration of Internet Freedom’ Contemplates No Rights or Freedoms Worth Declaring”

36 Comments

The Justice Department Appears to Be Losing the Battle Against Megaupload

By

We have been covering the Justice Department’s case against Megaupload, the formerly massive file hosting site, ever since the government shut it down in January.

We have seen the government’s piracy case devolve from a slamdunk into a slopfest with what appears to be less and less of a chance of successful prosecution. Although charismatic CEO Kim Dotcom is still under house arrest in New Zealand, judicial officials there are getting frustrated with the United States. And the company’s attorneys at Quinn Emanuel are still continuing their assault against the Feds. The firm filed two important briefs yesterday, which could significantly impact the future of the case…

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “The Justice Department Appears to Be Losing the Battle Against Megaupload”

25 Comments

Megaupload Trial May Never Happen Because of Possible FBI Error

By

The U.S. government seems to be losing ground quickly in the PR war surrounding the case against Megaupload, the massive file-sharing site, and the company’s leader, Kim Dotcom. Just over a week ago, we learned that Quinn Emmanuel had signed on as the company’s defense team; the firm hit the ground running with a brief calling B.S. on one of the government’s objections.

And on Friday evening, news broke that the FBI may have again screwed the Megaupload pooch. The potential procedural goof was apparently severe enough that a federal judge wondered aloud if it might have killed the case…

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Megaupload Trial May Never Happen Because of Possible FBI Error”

11 Comments

Since When Is Merely Linking to Copyrighted Content an Extraditable Offense?

By

The war on internet piracy currently being waged by entertainment industry lobbyists the U.S. Justice Department seriously puts me in an ideological bind. On one hand, I am a creative person. I understand the need for content creators to be compensated for their work. Whether that means movie producers, musicians, or journalists, the internet has deeply screwed with the compensation structure for “artists.”

On the other hand, that should not be the internet’s problem. The entertainment industry needs to figure out a way to update its outdated business model. Going after every 23-year-old with a few personal servers and high-speed internet is never going to fix the piracy problem.

But that would take a lot of actual work and planning and compromise. In the meantime, it’s business as usual. And that means extraditing a 23-year-old software engineering student from the U.K. who ran the website TVShack, a site which linked to streaming video files.

The kid has never been to the U.S. He did not even break any British laws, but OMG piracy, and woe to all who get caught anywhere near the crosshairs of the American entertainment industry….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Since When Is Merely Linking to Copyrighted Content an Extraditable Offense?”

12 Comments

Fake Filesharing Lawsuits? Dang, That’s Devious

By

After the feds took down Megaupload in January, the major change to many people’s lives is that it is now much harder to stream bootleg versions of the new season of Archer. What also happened is authorities took control of content hosted on the site and a lot of people who posted files there are worried getting busted as well.

Well, one man’s crisis is another man’s golden opportunity.

Keep reading to see how a new batch of criminals is trying to cash in on folks already worried about Megaupload-related copyright liability. It’s actually quite a clever plot…

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Fake Filesharing Lawsuits? Dang, That’s Devious”

4 Comments

Are Lawyers Officially No Longer Technophobic?

By

Ah, yes. I am familiar with this internet of which you speak.

The first month of 2012 was a crazy one for internet law. The Stop Online Piracy Act gloriously crashed and burned, Apple is getting sued in China for naming rights to the iPad, and in America someone is suing to show that porn doesn’t deserve copyright protection. In the wake of all the hot debate and hot tempers, it seems some people highly invested in internet freedom and content protection have begun looking to gain support for their causes outside of the legislature.

This week, we learned from a couple news stories that advocates from both sides of the internet aisle have turned to lawyers and the court system to defend their causes. Earlier this week, some OG internet pioneers testified to a jury, and a major media company executive has begun courting law professors for support.

I’m not sure whether I think the fact that people have decided the legal system is a good place to argue high-level, fundamental internet freedom questions is impressive (give yourselves a pat on the back, attorneys, you are hip to the tech set now), or a little bit scary (do these people realize how technophobic lawyers can be?).

You will have to decide for yourself…

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Are Lawyers Officially No Longer Technophobic?”

14 Comments

The University of Minnesota Is the Facebook Fun Police

By

The battle between educational institutions and loudmouth students who fight for the right to say dumb things is a rich area of recent American history. A student says something inflammatory. The school suspends/fails/disciplines the student. The student sues, and everyone has a big First Amendment debate party.

Usually, I have a lot of sympathy for the schools. Teenagers are, how do I say this, dumb. They think they know everything, and that somehow it’s of cosmic importance that they are allowed to proclaim their love for illegal drugs on campus.

But I cannot abide when schools become the fun police. The University of Minnesota currently falls under this category. In a case that will be heard today by the Minnesota Supreme Court, a mortuary sciences student is fighting to overturn ridiculous penalties levied against her for a couple of (seriously) harmless jokes made on Facebook.

Some commentators are worried about broader implications the case will have on the power colleges have over their students. I’m more upset about the fact that the University of Minnesota can’t take a joke….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “The University of Minnesota Is the Facebook Fun Police”

9 Comments

Non-Sequiturs: 02.02.12

By

* Lawyer who allegedly sued people for illegally downloading such classics as “Teen Anal Nightmare” and “Juicy White Anal Booty 4″ has been charged with a felony. Will he be the next star of “Federal Anal Penitentiary Penetration: 3 – 5.” [Ars Techina]

* Why read Google’s new privacy policy when Kash can do it for you? [Not So Private Parts / Forbes]

* This is a great post about why we need lawyers and judges to be dispassionate. In this tragedy the light punishment probably fits the questionable crime. [Simple Justice]

* SOPA was more than a bad law. It was a total failure to understand a new political reality. [The Volokh Conspiracy]

* Is that somebody criticizing David Boies’ work on AIG? Are people allowed to do that? I don’t know, I try not to look directly into the sun lest my eyes be burned out by its magnificence. [Dealbreaker]

* Ivy Gate wonders why the New York Times wedding section didn’t pick up the Bobbit wedding we reported about earlier today. It probably has nothing to do with the 175 year age difference. [Ivy Gate]

* Video at Lat talking at Michigan Law. Lat has now visited every “T-14″ law school. He’s completed that faster than I’ve been able to complete my own goal of owing money to every T-14 law school. [Michigan Law]

7 Comments
Page 1 of 174112345...1741