Darknet

Judge restores Wikileaks website

NY Times: Judge Says Wikileaks Site Can Have Its Web Address Back.

A federal judge in San Francisco said on Friday that he would withdraw an order that shut down the Web address for Wikileaks.org, a site that allows anonymous posting of documents to assist “peoples of all countries who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations.” ...

Crackdown on leaked papers backfires

Associated Press: Crackdown backfires. Leaked papers spread on Web after bank's bid to block them. Excerpt:

In federal court in San Francisco, the bank asked a judge to take down the site. Much to the outrage of free-speech advocates and others, the judge did.

But instead of the information disappearing, it rocketed through cyberspace, landing on other Web sites and Wikileaks' own "mirror" sites outside the United States. The digerati call the online phenomenon of a censorship attempt backfiring into more unwanted publicity the "Streisand effect."

Techdirt Chief Executive Mike Masnick coined the term on his popular technology blog after actress Barbra Streisand's 2003 lawsuit seeking to remove satellite photos of her Malibu house. Those photos are now easily accessible, just like the bank documents.

Masnick said the bank's lawsuit demonstrates the ineffectiveness of such legal actions in the Internet age, when anyone with a computer and online connection can thumb his nose at a judge's ruling and resurrect the "banned" information elsewhere.

"It's a perfect example of the Streisand effect," Masnick said. "This was a really small thing that no one heard about and now it's everywhere and everyone's talking about it."

The case has also become the latest anti-censorship cause celebre, drawing legal filings from the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and several media organizations. Those arguments will be heard Friday when the bank presses on with its efforts to have Wikileaks permanently barred from posting the documents. ...

Sometimes, justice takes place outside the courtroom.

Recording industry loses infringement suit

The Inquirer (via Shelly Palmer): The recording industry lost a major ruling in Atlantic v. Brennan when a federal judge in Connecticut ruled that merely making music available to other users is not evidence of copyright infringement. The judge also found that no proof of infringement was supplied by the record companies that brought the suit. With two of three findings going to the defendant, the case was thrown out.

A rare victory for common sense.

More teens ignore CDs in buying their tunes

San Jose Mercury News: More teens ignore CDs in buying their tunes.

Lessig won't run for congressional seat

First, the buildup to a possibly congressional candidacy by author and Stanford Prof. Lawrence Lessig, who was a key figure in my book Darknet.

Now today comes word that Lessig has decided not to run, and tells us why. (See video above.)

But the Change Congress movement goes on. I hope it achieves extraordinary results in the months ahead.

Cross-posted to Socialmedia.biz.

Support Lessig for Congress

Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig is weighing a run for Congress in California's 12th Congressional district.

Now that would be a fresh face in Washington.

To date, more then $35,000 from 450-plus contributions have been pledged toward his candidacy.

I believe the filing deadline is this Monday, and if you haven't contributed, here's your chance to do so before Monday:

http://www.actblue.com/page/lessig

Rip this book? Not yet

Steve Levy in Newsweek:  Rip This Book? Not Yet. The very existence of a book scanner for consumer use is one of those early warnings of turbulence to come.

Ending tradition, NBC dismisses fall debuts

NY Times: Ending Tradition, NBC Dismisses Fall Debuts.

It soon may be time to retire the phrase “fall television season.”

NBC Universal took a big step toward undoing one of the television industry’s oldest traditions by announcing Tuesday that it would move to a year-round schedule of staggered program introductions. The move is intended to appeal to advertisers, who crave fresh content to keep viewers tuned in.

And if it succeeds — and leads other broadcast networks to shift from their focus on a mass introduction of new shows — it could alter an American cultural cycle that extends all the way back to the days of radio, when families gathered around the Philco every September, as the school year began, to sample the new entertainment choices. ...

Judge shuts down Web site specializing in leaks

NY Times: Judge Shuts Down Web Site Specializing in Leaks.

In a move that legal experts said could present a major test of First Amendment rights in the Internet era, a federal judge in San Francisco on Friday ordered the disabling of a Web site devoted to disclosing confidential information.

The site, Wikileaks.org, invites people to post leaked materials with the goal of discouraging “unethical behavior” by corporations and governments. It has posted documents said to show the rules of engagement for American troops in Iraq, a military manual for the operation of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and other evidence of what it has called corporate waste and wrongdoing. ...

AT&T may monitor Internet traffic for copyright infringement

NewComm Forum: AT&T may monitor Internet traffic for copyright infringement.