Daily Archives: October 24, 2009

Obama Introduced UN Resolution To Limit Free Speech

The new resolution, championed by the Obama administration, has a number of disturbing elements. It emphasizes that “the exercise of the right to freedom of expression carries with it special duties and responsibilities . . .” which include taking action against anything meeting the description of “negative racial and religious stereotyping.” It also purports to “recognize . . . the moral and social responsibilities of the media” and supports “the media’s elaboration of voluntary codes of professional ethical conduct” in relation to “combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.”

More at weeklystandard.

    Posted in General Interest, Politics | Comments Off

    EU: Internet disconnection without check is ok

    And things have gone worse apparently…

    The Pirate Party, which holds a seat in the European Parliament, proposed legislation that said, essentially, that no one could be disconnected from the Internet without a fair trial. When the proposal when to the European Commission (a group of powerful, unelected bureaucrats who have been heavily lobbied by the entertainment industry), they rewrote it (detail) so that disconnection can take place without trial or other due process.

    On the national level, France’s Constitutional Court have approved the latest version of the French 3-strikes rule, HADOPI, which has created a kind of grudging, joke oversight by the courts (before your family’s Internet connection is taken away, a judge gives the order 1-2 minutes’ worth of review, and you aren’t entitled to counsel and the rules of evidence don’t apply — the NYT called it similar to “traffic court”). Under this rule, there is now a national list of French people who are not allowed to be connected to the Internet; providing them with connectivity is a crime.
    [article at boingboing]

    Its obvious we can wait for censorship to get started, while even MI15 disapproves!

      Posted in General Interest, Politics, Privacy | Tagged | 1 Comment

      Megatrends

      Short 3 minute pitch of what changes we might expect the coming 50 years.

        Posted in General Interest, Innovation & Knowledge Economy | Comments Off