Happy Reading,
Hollywood Studios Tried To Add File Sharing Sites To New Zealand’s Child Porn Blacklist from the the-audacity-of-egotistical-self-interest dept https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140704/16300627788/hollywood-studios-tried-to-add-file-sharing-sites-to-new-zealands-child-porn-blacklist.shtml
We just wrote about the UK’s filtering systems blocking access to 20% of the world’s top 100,000 sites, even though only about 4% of those host the porn Prime Minister David Cameron seems so obsessed with blocking. Also noted in that story was the fact that many “pirate sites” are being blocked at ISP level via secret court orders. MPAA head Chris Dodd absolutely loves web filters, proclaiming them to be the best tool the industry can (ab)use to thwart piracy.
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For Taylor Swift, the Future of Music Is a Love Story
The Singer-Songwriter Says Artists and Fans Will Still Form Deep Bonds, but They Will Do It in New Ways By Taylor Swift Updated July 7, 2014 6:39 p.m. ET http://online.wsj.com/articles/for-taylor-swift-the-future-of-music-is-a-love-story-1404763219
Where will the music industry be in 20 years, 30 years, 50 years?
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Double Union, a feminist hacker/maker space in the Mission in San Francisco, is opening applications for memberships again.
http://doubleunion.tumblr.com/post/91068943814/applications-open-july-2014
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Cyber-Senate’s cyber-security cyber-law cyber-scares cyber-rights cyber-fighters Proposed rules puts private data into hands of Uncle Sam By Iain Thomson, 8 Jul 2014 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/08/privacy_groups_protest_senate_cybersecurity_sharing_law/
On Tuesday the US Senate will meet in a closed-door session to mark up the forthcoming Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2014 (CISA) – and the proposed new rules on data sharing between big biz and government have privacy groups seriously worried. CISA is an offshoot of the proposed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which was introduced nearly three years ago and has had a rocky road. The ostensible reason for the new law is to formalize information sharing between the US government and companies on ongoing security threats – provided firms hand over users’ information to the government to help identify new attack vectors. CISPA passed a vote in the US House of Representatives, but went no further. CISA is the Senate’s response to CISPA, and was cowritten by NSA-friendly Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The new bill is somewhat broader in scope than CISPA and the language used so far has led more than 30 groups, from both sides of the political spectrum, to issue an open letter on its failings. “In the year since Edward Snowden revealed the existence of sweeping surveillance programs, authorized in secret and under classified and flawed legal reasoning, Americans have overwhelmingly asked for meaningful privacy reform and a roll back of the surveillance state created since passage of the Patriot Act. This bill would do exactly the opposite,” the open letter [PDF] warns. Under the terms of the new legislation, the government would be allowed to collect people’s data from firms not just for cyber threats to infrastructure, but also for terms of service violations, the prosecution of identity theft, aiding prosecutions under the Espionage Act, or even to find the identity of whistleblowers. The data that companies hand over should be stripped of personally identifiable information, but according to the new bill this only applies if the supplying firm has evidence that the user is a US citizen and if the information isn’t directly related to a “cybersecurity threat.” In addition, companies that take part in such information sharing are exempt from public disclosure laws that would require them to tell users what is going on. Government agencies using that data also get broad liability protection and have very limited oversight. “We do not discount the legitimate dangers posed by cyber threats, both from domestic criminals and hostile foreign powers,” concludes the letter writers – which include the likes of the EFF, the ACLU and the National Latino Farmers and Ranchers Trade Association. “But, as with all national security authorities, we need not sacrifice crucial civil liberties and privacy safeguards, and especially whistleblower protections, in order to effectively address such dangers. We urge the committee and Congress to carefully reconsider CISA as drafted, and to bring it in line with our law, our Constitution and our national values.” The White House has shown concern over the overarching scope of the CISPA/CISA legislation and sort-of threatened to veto the laws as they stand – but we all know how jellylike President Obama’s promises can be.
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#Financial Literacy
BNP Paribas’ $8.8bn fine shows it’s time to break up the banks
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jun/30/bnp-paribas-fine-break-up-banks-crime
The crisis of student loans is real, no matter what pundits tell you
A recent report downplays a generation’s $1tn crisis, using misleading data on a problem shackling the economy at large
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jun/26/student-debt-selective-statistics-crisis-misleading-data
Economists and reports get the ‘dismal science’ wrong all the time
http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/jun/29/economists-wrong-fed-report-flaws-meaning
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