ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER 6/27/06

Reprinted below is an article which appeared in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's newsletter last week. This is important!
~radical sapphoq



* DoJ Reports on Criminal IP Enforcement

This week the Department of Justice issued a 100-page
"progress report" measuring its activities in the
intellectual property arena (copyright, trademark, patents,
trade secrets). This "progress report" is fascinating
reading, describing the DoJ's current enforcement
priorities in the intellectual property realm.

The feds have been staffing up on cybercrime generally,
with more than 230 attorneys working either as CHIP
Coordinators or directly assigned to CHIP Units. The
number of CHIP Units around the country, moreover, has
nearly doubled from 13 to 25 since 2004. (CHIP Units are
specially-trained federal cybercrime prosecutors
concentrated in a particular region.) CCIPS has also
grown, with 35 attorneys, 14 of which are exclusively
devoted to prosecuting IP crimes. (Based in Washington DC,
CCIPS is DoJ's "brain trust" on cybercrime.)

The report mentions several high-profile copyright
enforcement actions, including the colorfully named
Operations Gridlock, Copycat, and Western Pirates. All of
the featured copyright prosecutions involve commercial
piracy or large-scale "release groups." (Notably
overlooked was the federal indictment in Nashville of two
Ryan Adams fans for uploading a few tracks from pre-release
promotional CDs.)

The report details a wide variety of new international
initiatives, including pressuring countries in treaty
negotiations, developing an international "24/7 network" of
law enforcement contacts for computer crime cases, and
adding DoJ "attaches" in Asia and Eastern Europe.

The report endorses the proposed Intellectual Property
Protection Act, which would dramatically expand the scope
of criminal copyright infringement, adding attempt
liability, conspiracy liability, and asset forfeiture. As
we've discussed previously, these proposals are an outrage,
effectively allowing the feds to put people in jail without
having to prove that any actual copyright infringement ever
took place.

All of this suggests that we can expect to see a marked
increase in criminal IP cases being brought by the DoJ.

For the full DoJ "progress report":
<http://www.eff.org/IP/criminal/DoJ-IP-Crime-Report-June2006.pdf>

For more analysis:
<http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004758.php>

NPR AND PBS POTENTIAL DEMOLITION AGAIN...6/13/06

letter below was copied and pasted from the link above [and below] where the electronic
petition resides.


Subject: Save NPR and PBS (again)

Hi,

Everyone expected House Republicans to give up efforts to kill NPR and PBS after a massive public outcry stopped them last year. But they've just voted to eliminate funding for NPR and PBS—unbelievably, starting with programs like "Sesame Street."Public broadcasting would lose nearly a quarter of its federal funding this year. Even worse, all funding would be eliminated in two years--threatening one of the last remaining sources of watchdog journalism.Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS again this year:http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

Last year, millions of us took action to save NPR and PBS, and Congress listened. We can do it again if enough of us sign the petition in time.This would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting. The Boston Globe reports the cuts "could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs." NPR's president expects rural public radio stations may be forced to shut down.The House and Senate are deciding if public broadcasting will survive, and they need to hear from viewers like you. Sign the petition at:http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

Thanks,

sapphoq on behalf of the folks at MoveOn

CENSORSHIP

Part of the reason why I got my own domain and have chosen to host some of my blogs on my own domain is due to censorship.

Censorship does exist out here in netville. I have seen what happens when censorship strikes in a misogenous and hurtful way. Some of the most talented women writers over at Yahoo [Yahell, Yahole] 360 blogsite have been TOSsed out for various things like daring to write about love and sex. Some of the most untalented men have been allowed to stay on even though they post pictures of what one can only assume to be their own penises on their homepage. Those grown men who offer "friendship" to boys are also unmolested by the y-bots.

Yahoo and others are free to censor us as they choose. We are free to go and be heard in other places. Am I still on 360? Yeah. Will I stay "forever?" Who knows? I suppose I too could be TOSsed out of Yahoo 360-land.

Part of freedom of speech and electronic expression involves freedom of distribution. If you are a blogger and you care at all about preserving your right to type away about things that you feel passionate about, then please consider joining the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Someday, the axe may be whistling at YOU.

~radical sapphoq