Saturday 28 May 2011
Draconian Anti-Piracy Censorship Bill Passes Senate Committee
The controversial PROTECT IP Act unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee today. When the PROTECT IP Act becomes law U.S. authorities and copyright holders will have the power to seize domains, block websites and censor search engines to prevent copyright infringements. Introduced just two weeks ago, the bill now heads over to the Senate for further consideration and another vote.
The U.S. Government continues to back legislation that opens the door to unprecedented Internet censorship.
Two weeks ago a group of U.S. senators proposed legislation to make it easier to crack down on so-called rogue websites, and today the Senate’s Judicial Committee unanimously approved the bill.
When the PROTECT IP Act becomes law the authorities can legitimately seize any domain name they deem to be facilitating copyright infringement. All that’s required to do so is a preliminary order from the court. But that’s just the start, the bill in fact provides a broad range of censorship tools.
In case a domain is not registered or controlled by a U.S. company, the authorities can also order search engines to remove the website from its search results, order ISPs to block the website, and order ad-networks and payment processors to stop providing services to the website in question.
Backers of the bill argue that the PROTECT IP Act is needed as an extension of the already controversial domain seizures. As reported previously, it is now relatively easy for a seized website to continue operating under a new non-US based domain name.
Not everyone agrees with this stance. Yesterday several Internet giants including Google, Yahoo, eBay and American Express asked the Senate Committee not to adopt the bill, warning it would “undoubtedly inhibit innovation and economic growth.”
However, the concerns raised by the companies did not affect the vote today.
“Today the Judiciary Committee took an important step in protecting online intellectual property rights. The Internet is not a lawless free-for-all where anything goes,” commented Senator Orrin Hatch. “The Constitution protects both property and speech, both online and off.”
“The PROTECT IP Act targets the most egregious actors, and is an important first step to putting a stop to online piracy and the sale of counterfeit goods,” Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said commenting on the importance of the bill.
“Both law enforcement and rights holders are currently limited in the remedies available to combat websites dedicated to offering infringing content and products. These rogue websites are often foreign-owned and operated, or reside at domain names that are not registered through a U.S.-based registry or registrar,” Leahy added.
Similar comments were made by the other Committee members and the various entertainment industry lobby groups.
For Hollywood and the major record labels the PROTECT IP Act is the legislation they have dreamed of for a long time. It allows for copyright holders to obtain a court orders to seize a domain, or prevent payment providers and ad-networks from doing business with sites that allegedly facilitate copyright infringement. All without due process.
The PROTECT IP Act will now move on to the Senate where it’s expected to be opposed by Senator Ron Wyden, who also stopped the bill’s predecessor COICA, fearing it would stifle free speech. Whether it will be enough to prevent the legislation from becoming law has yet to be seen.
Ernesto @'Torrent Freak'
The U.S. Government continues to back legislation that opens the door to unprecedented Internet censorship. Two weeks ago a group of U.S. senators proposed legislation to make it easier to crack down on so-called rogue websites, and today the Senate’s Judicial Committee unanimously approved the bill.
When the PROTECT IP Act becomes law the authorities can legitimately seize any domain name they deem to be facilitating copyright infringement. All that’s required to do so is a preliminary order from the court. But that’s just the start, the bill in fact provides a broad range of censorship tools.
In case a domain is not registered or controlled by a U.S. company, the authorities can also order search engines to remove the website from its search results, order ISPs to block the website, and order ad-networks and payment processors to stop providing services to the website in question.
Backers of the bill argue that the PROTECT IP Act is needed as an extension of the already controversial domain seizures. As reported previously, it is now relatively easy for a seized website to continue operating under a new non-US based domain name.
Not everyone agrees with this stance. Yesterday several Internet giants including Google, Yahoo, eBay and American Express asked the Senate Committee not to adopt the bill, warning it would “undoubtedly inhibit innovation and economic growth.”
However, the concerns raised by the companies did not affect the vote today.
“Today the Judiciary Committee took an important step in protecting online intellectual property rights. The Internet is not a lawless free-for-all where anything goes,” commented Senator Orrin Hatch. “The Constitution protects both property and speech, both online and off.”
“The PROTECT IP Act targets the most egregious actors, and is an important first step to putting a stop to online piracy and the sale of counterfeit goods,” Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said commenting on the importance of the bill.
“Both law enforcement and rights holders are currently limited in the remedies available to combat websites dedicated to offering infringing content and products. These rogue websites are often foreign-owned and operated, or reside at domain names that are not registered through a U.S.-based registry or registrar,” Leahy added.
Similar comments were made by the other Committee members and the various entertainment industry lobby groups.
For Hollywood and the major record labels the PROTECT IP Act is the legislation they have dreamed of for a long time. It allows for copyright holders to obtain a court orders to seize a domain, or prevent payment providers and ad-networks from doing business with sites that allegedly facilitate copyright infringement. All without due process.
The PROTECT IP Act will now move on to the Senate where it’s expected to be opposed by Senator Ron Wyden, who also stopped the bill’s predecessor COICA, fearing it would stifle free speech. Whether it will be enough to prevent the legislation from becoming law has yet to be seen.
Ernesto @'Torrent Freak'
Friday 27 May 2011
FIFA Ethics Committee Call Blatter
Sepp Blatter will appear before FIFA's ethics committee on Sunday to answer charges that he knew about alleged cash payments, the world governing body announced on Friday.
The charge has been made by Mohamed Bin Hammam, his rival for the FIFA presidency in next week's election, who will also be at the hearing to answer a charge of bribery.
The latest development means that three of the most powerful men in world football - FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has also been charged with bribery - will now appear before the ethics committee on Sunday.
The ethics committee are bound by their rules to investigate any complaint by an executive committee member under article 16 of the ethics code.
FIFA said in a statement: "On 26 May 2011, FIFA ExCo member Mohamed Bin Hammam has requested the FIFA ethics committee to open ethics proceedings against FIFA president Joseph S. Blatter on the basis that, in the report submitted by FIFA ExCo member Chuck Blazer earlier this week, FIFA vice-president Jack A. Warner would have informed the FIFA president in advance about alleged cash payments to delegations attending a special meeting of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) apparently organised jointly by Jack A. Warner and Mohamed Bin Hammam on 10 and 11 May 2011 and that the FIFA President would have had no issue with these.
"Subsequently, the FIFA ethics committee today opened a procedure against the FIFA president in compliance with art. 16 of the FIFA code of ethics.
"Joseph S. Blatter has been invited to take position by 28 May 2011, 11:00 CET and to attend a hearing by the FIFA ethics committee at the Home of FIFA (Zurich) on 29 May 2011."
FIFA's code of ethics rules state that as the complaint came from a member of the body's executive committee, the independent ethics committee must now also investigate Blatter.
The code states: "FIFA accepts complaints only from the executive committee of an association, the executive committee of a confederation, members of the FIFA executive committee and from the FIFA secretary general."
The code also declares that FIFA officials have a duty to report any wrongdoing. It says: "Officials shall report any evidence of violations of conduct to the FIFA secretary general, who shall report it to the competent body."
@'The Express'
The charge has been made by Mohamed Bin Hammam, his rival for the FIFA presidency in next week's election, who will also be at the hearing to answer a charge of bribery.
The latest development means that three of the most powerful men in world football - FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has also been charged with bribery - will now appear before the ethics committee on Sunday.
The ethics committee are bound by their rules to investigate any complaint by an executive committee member under article 16 of the ethics code.
FIFA said in a statement: "On 26 May 2011, FIFA ExCo member Mohamed Bin Hammam has requested the FIFA ethics committee to open ethics proceedings against FIFA president Joseph S. Blatter on the basis that, in the report submitted by FIFA ExCo member Chuck Blazer earlier this week, FIFA vice-president Jack A. Warner would have informed the FIFA president in advance about alleged cash payments to delegations attending a special meeting of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) apparently organised jointly by Jack A. Warner and Mohamed Bin Hammam on 10 and 11 May 2011 and that the FIFA President would have had no issue with these.
"Subsequently, the FIFA ethics committee today opened a procedure against the FIFA president in compliance with art. 16 of the FIFA code of ethics.
"Joseph S. Blatter has been invited to take position by 28 May 2011, 11:00 CET and to attend a hearing by the FIFA ethics committee at the Home of FIFA (Zurich) on 29 May 2011."
FIFA's code of ethics rules state that as the complaint came from a member of the body's executive committee, the independent ethics committee must now also investigate Blatter.
The code states: "FIFA accepts complaints only from the executive committee of an association, the executive committee of a confederation, members of the FIFA executive committee and from the FIFA secretary general."
The code also declares that FIFA officials have a duty to report any wrongdoing. It says: "Officials shall report any evidence of violations of conduct to the FIFA secretary general, who shall report it to the competent body."
@'The Express'
Badlands: An Oral History
Badlands tells a classic lovers-on-the-lam story. In a shabby South Dakota suburb, garbage man Kit Carruthers meets thirteen-year-old Holly Sargis as she twirls her baton in her front yard. They fall in love, but after Holly's father deems Kit unsuitable, Kit shoots him dead in the Sargis living room. Kit and Holly flee across the vast, empty badlands of South Dakota, killing anyone who gets in their way.
The action behind the scenes was hardly less turbulent. The mild-mannered Malick brawled with his producer, brutalized his crew (which turned over at least twice), and saw a special-effects man gravely burned in a terrible accident. As the shoot ran on and on—twice as long as it was supposed to—crew members quit en masse. Back home, they would tell their friends Malick had gone crazy. That he had amassed more than a million feet of footage. That he just wouldn't stop shooting. A movie that had begun production in 100-degree heat wrapped amid snow flurries.
Malick's belief in his picture never faltered, though, and after ten months in the editing room he emerged with what critic David Thomson has called "one of the most assured debuts in all of American film." Badlands launched not only his own career but also those of Sheen and Spacek, cinematographer Tak Fujimoto, producer Edward R. Pressman, art director Jack Fisk, and many others. Rather than exploit his moment, though, Malick withdrew. He stopped speaking to the press completely in 1975, and after making Days of Heaven (1978) and beginning pre-production on an extravagantly ambitious new film, he abruptly fled Hollywood. Twenty years would elapse before he made another movie, and during this period the legend of the elusive director grew to Salinger-esque dimensions. Where had he gone, and why had he repudiated such a promising career?
On the eve of the release of Malick's fifth film, The Tree of Life, GQ revisits the making of Badlands. We spoke with actors, crew members and admirers* to discover the roots of its driven and enigmatic director's love/hate relationship with Hollywood...
Continue reading
Nathaniel Penn @'GQ'
XLR8R Podcast 199: Rod Modell's MUTEK Mix
MUTEK festival, which always serves as one of the year's premiere showcases for techno and forward-thinking electronic sounds. In hopes of getting everyone as much in the MUTEK spirit as we are, we decided to enlist one of the festival's heavyweights for the XLR8R podcast series. And who answered the call? Detroit techno veteran Rod Modell, best known for his work as Deepchord and as one half of Echospace with Steve Hitchell. Deepchord presents Echospace will be performing live as part of MUTEK's Nocturne 03 event—a party that also features a live set from Plastikman—and Modell has put together a preview of sorts with this exclusive mix, a session of dark and dubby techno that digs heavily into his own catalog. Highlighted by its incessant pulse, underwater synth melodies, and ever-present sense of foreboding, the podcast also serves as a primer for Modell's forthcoming Deepchord album, Hash-Bar Loops, which is slated for a July 4 release on the long-standing Soma label.
01 Steve Roach "Groundswell" (Fortuna)
02 Studio 1 "Rosa" (Studio 1)
03 Sustainer "Múltiplo" (Italic)
04 The Advent "Electro 8.07 FM" (Tresor)
05 Deepchord "Sofitel (Processed)" (Soma)
06 CV313 "Subtraktive (Intrusion's Road To Zion Dub)" (Echospace [Detroit])
07 STL "A Beautiful Mind" (Echospace [Detroit])
08 Dick Richards "Lichen" (Raum...Musik)
09 Intrusion "Intrusion Dub" (Echospace [Detroit])
10 Infiniti "Thought Process" (Tresor)
11 Marko Fürstenberg "Untitled 10" (Artless)
12 Martin Schulte "The Fog" (Rare Noise)
13 Pendle Coven "Uncivil Engineering Calm Mix" (Modern Love)
14 STL "Checkmate" (Echospace [Detroit])
15 Deepchord "Stars" (Soma)
16 Studio 1 "Silber" (Studio 1)
17 Le Clic "Jack Is Whack (2000 and One Classic Cut)" (Wolfskuil)
18 Kotai + Mo "Bu" (Electro Music Department)
19 Deepchord "Tangier" (Soma)
20 CV313 "Subtraktive (Intrusion's Twilight Dub)" (Echospace [Detroit])
21 CV313 "Sailingstars (Intrusion's Reform)" (Echospace [Detroit])
22 Steve Roach "Ancestral Horizon" (Fortuna)
Shawn Reynaldo @'XLR8R'
How slums can save the planet
(Thanx Stan!)
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