June 27, 2020

Venezuelans take extraordinary steps to beat water shortage

fromAP: Critics of the socialist government blame chronic infrastructure failures on years of corruption and mismanagement that have also left the electrical grid fragile and destroyed Venezuela’s once-thriving oil industry.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Will government mandate COVID-19 vaccinations?

fromTheHill: Government mandated vaccinations for adults would be a major and controversial step. But then government has taken a number of major and controversial steps recently, such as shutting down the economy.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

California agency blocks release of police use of force and surveillance training, claiming copyright

fromActivistPost:Our elected officials can pass laws regulating the police, and watchdog bodies can review law enforcement policies, but if training materials are kept secret, it provides a back door for manufacturers of surveillance technology and private organizations to influence police practices without oversight or accountability.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make        Police State America         Regulation Nation

Walter E Williams: Insults to black history

fromCreators: Both blacks and whites can benefit from a better appreciation of black history.
Indoctrination and Censorship

The pandemic's economic carnage looks worse than expected

fromReason: If you thought the economic toll wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic was only going to be horrendous, you may have been overly optimistic.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

VIDEO: Black Wisdom Matters - Good Intentions of the Welfare State

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Thomas Sowell, Walter E Williams, Star Parker, Jason Riley, Bob Woodson and Larry Elder share their insights on how a half century of the welfare state has changed America and the American family.
The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

More People Recognizing Copyright's 'Free Speech Problem'

by Mike Masnick.  For many years now, we've written about the fact that copyright law and the First Amendment are actually in quite a lot of conflict. After all, copyright is regularly used to stifle speech, and the First Amendment isn't supposed to allow for the barring of speech. Over the years, legal experts have been increasingly starting to realize    ... MORE

Judge Rules Nobody Owns "Happy Birthday To You"

by Ted Johnson.       A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the lyrics to “Happy Birthday to You” are not protected by copyright, concluding that Warner/Chappell Music does not hold a valid claim to the song. It raises the prospect that royalties will no longer be collected from public performances of the song in movies, TV shows and other         ... MORE

Farmers Unable to Repair Tractors Because Of Copyright

by Rick Falkvinge.  Stories are starting to appear about farmers unable to repair tractors and car aficionados unable to tinker with cars because of copyright legislation. That's not a side effect. It was the whole idea of the law. This week, there have been stories about farmers who can’t legally repair their John Deere tractors, as copyright monopoly   ... MORE

How 10 years Of YouTube Transformed The Internet

A laissez-faire approach to copyright.     It all began with a 19-second video clip recorded at a zoo. One of the founders of YouTube, Jawed Karim, uploaded the video on April 23, 2005, showing him describing the length of an elephant's trunk. "Anyone could be a star and there was no gate keeper," CNET.com senior editor Bridget   ... MORE

Mike Masnick: GM Says That While You May Own Your Car, It Owns The Software In It, Thanks To Copyright Laws

You buy but you don't own it.  Last week, we noted that Senator Ron Wyden and Rep. Jared Polis had introduced an important bill to fix a part of the DMCA's broken anti-circumvention laws found in Section 1201 of the DMCA. For whatever reason, some people still have trouble understanding why the law is so broken. So here's a story that  ... MORE

Copyrights & Patents Have Become A Religion

by Tim Cushing.   If you've read Techdirt for any length of time, you'll have noticed that intellectual property laws have been decoupled from logic for several years now. Because the entities heavily-reliant on IP protections (and who mostly serve as gatekeepers and middlemen, rather than perform any creative work of their own) have trouble    ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - The Copyright Fight

VIDEO: John Stossel - The Knockoff Economy

John Stossel - Owning Ideas

Thinking about copyrights.   For most of history, people suffered in miserable poverty. Then, in a few hundred years, some new ideas made life hugely better for billions of us — things like running water, the printing press, the steam engine, electricity, the Internet. We want people to keep coming up with new and better ideas. But there's a problem:   ... MORE

VIDEO: Copyright - Intellectual Property Or Privilege?

VIDEO: "We Don't Need More Copyright"

VIDEO: Why SOPA Is A Bad Idea

VIDEO: Software Patents Last Too Long

Are copying and innovation implacable enemies.

Supreme Court To Determine Legality Of Reselling

Testing the boundaries of copyright laws.    All eyes will be on Justice Elena Kagan on Monday, when the Supreme Court considers a copyright case that some fear could prevent people from reselling certain products they own such as the iPhone, as she may have the deciding vote. In a case that tests the boundaries of copyright law,    ... MORE

Jennifer Waters: Right To Sell Your Own Stuff Is In Peril

It could even become illegal to resell almost anything. Tucked into the U.S. Supreme Court’s agenda this fall is a little-known case that could upend your ability to resell everything from your grandmother’s antique furniture to your iPhone 4. At issue in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is the first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to ... MORE

VIDEO: Too Much Copyright

Josh Peterson: Democrats To Continue Internet Assault

A new cyber bill emerges. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, following a recent anti-piracy legislative debacle with SOPA and PIPA, will lead his second effort of 2012 to push Internet-regulating legislation, this time in the form of a new cybersecurity bill. The expected bill is the latest attempt by the Democrats to broadly expand the authority of executive branch ... MORE

VIDEO: Defend Our Freedom To Share

Learn the truth about the pernicious effects of SOPA and PIPA.