I guess after being paid craploads of taxpayer money ($174,000 annually), Senators need to show something for it, given they have one of the laxest schedules imaginable. Some of the bills that have gone through the house in the last week or two have included rolling back insider trading rules, making Congress immune to prosecution, […]
Twitter is a powerful tool. It can be used for good or for evil. Whether to enlighten the masses as to who JBieb’s latest crush is or for potential GOP candidates to spew nonsense about whatever they desire, tweeting is an extremely influential social media tool and, sometimes, weapon. As is the current trend of […]
Between Wikipedia’s and Reddit’s blackouts on January 18 along with Google and other websites posting statements against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), the legislation that would destroy the internet as we know it has been a popular topic. Millions of Americans protested these acts last week, which led to both […]
The hacker collective known as Anonymous claims “the largest attack ever” on ten government and music industry websites yesterday, in retaliation for the U.S. Justice Department’s shutdown of Megaupload. A second wave of attacks continue today, with Anonymous claiming responsibility for taking down MGM Studio’s online store and the New Zealand police’s website. Reportedly, the […]
The U.S. Justice Department shut down commercial file hosting service Megaupload today, accusing them of copyright infringement in excess of one billion dollars. Founder of Megaupload, Kim Schmitz (known as “Kim Dot Com”), was taken into custody along with co-founder and CTO Mathias Ortmann, chief marketing officer Finn Batato, and programmer Bram van der Kolk. […]
The internet’s back on. Everybody okay? No lost limbs? Good. A lot has happened in the last 24 hours since Wikipedia, Reddit, and many other powerful websites went dark to protest SOPA and PIPA. Let’s take a look at the developments, but first a new short video released by New Left Media explaining why PIPA […]
We at Techcitement stand with Wikipedia, Google, Craigslist, MoveOn, WordPress, BoingBoing, Cheezburger, and many other influential websites in protesting the proposed SOPA and PIPA bills currently before the U.S. Congress. (Leaders of The House say they’re dropping SOPA, but it’s not dead yet.) Many of these sites have gone dark today to demonstrate the danger […]
The U.S. House of Representatives put a freeze on SOPA legislation today, as Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia (R) announces he’ll take no further action on the bill. Although a somewhat unexpected move, perhaps it’s unsurprising considering the amount of negative press the controversial legislation has received and the fact that the White House stated […]
Recently, a petition to get Marvel Comics to stop supporting SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, appeared online. While the SOPA name sounds reasonable enough, because of course creators’ intellectual property rights deserve protection, the onerous nature of the actual legislation along with the Protect IP Act (PIPA) is nothing short of super-villainous. An […]
Thanks to Wikileaks’s distribution of diplomatic cables between the United States and Spain, we now know that the U.S. government heavily influenced the drafting of Spain’s copyright legislation. Now, a leaked letter, dated December 12, 2011, indicates the U.S. ambassador’s anger towards the Spanish Prime Minister’s office for failing to pass the Sinde Law, a […]
