Actors unhappy with Canada's Bill C-32

There is a lot of debate over Canada's Bill C-32 which deals with copy right issues.

Actors believe the bill provides too much leeway for consumers. They are pushing for a levy to be added to hard drives and mp3 players in Canada. They are also against providing teachers with greater exemption with copy righted material used for education.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/101116/entertainment/actra_content

A really interesting article from the New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/11/01/101101fa_fact_hersh

Obama administration to target Internet privacy

After all this time, a certain degree of government regulated privacy may be in order...

Obama’s administration, in a break from previous governments that relied on the Internet industry’s self-regulation, will take a more hands-on approach to online privacy, an issue that has embroiled Internet giants Google and Facebook in recent months.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Obama+administration+target+Internet+privacy+report/3818787/story.html#ixzz15DjvKNXe

It's not "hypertext" as we know it...

Related to several topics from the censorship / online speech / internet addiction unit...

Sex, drugs more common in hyper-texting teens

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer – Tue Nov 9, 4:09 am ET

ATLANTA – Teens who text 120 times a day or more — and there seems to be a lot of them — are more likely to have had sex or used alcohol and drugs than kids who don't send as many messages, according to provocative new research.

The study's authors aren't suggesting that "hyper-texting" leads to sex, drinking or drugs, but say it's startling to see an apparent link between excessive messaging and that kind of risky behavior.

...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101109/ap_on_he_me/us_med_teens_texting

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I get the feeling a lot of people aren't going to notice the difference between correlation and causation...

Wednesday, November 24, 2010 is NATIONAL OPT-OUT DAY!

An activist opposed to the new airport body scanners is encouraging passengers to opt-out when security asks them to go through one of the machines on November 24 (America's Thanksgiving Day).

News source: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/national-opt-out/

"...the government has done little to ensure that images taken by the devices are not saved. The TSA has asserted that the machines cannot store pictures, but security personnel at a courthouse in Florida were found to not only have saved images but shared them among colleagues in order to humiliate one of their co-workers."

More information National Opt-Out Day: http://www.optoutday.com/ As stated on the site, the goal of National Opt Out Day is to "send a message to our lawmakers that we demand change.  We have a right to privacy and buying a plane ticket should not mean that we're guilty until proven innocent.  This day is needed because many people do not understand what they consent to when choosing to fly."

Facebook for the "privacy paranoid"

Facebook has created another option for users who want to maintain more privacy: the super-logoff. It works the same way as deactivating your account, so no one can post on your wall, tag you in photos, or see your profile while you are super-loggedoff. The article itself is pretty interesting.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/11/12/facebook.superlogoff/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

Sask. man fights for Internet privacy after child porn conviction

This article kind of relates back to the privacy unit. Basically this guy was caught sharing child pornography on Limewire and claims that this activity should have been private and he therefore shouldn't have been convicted, even though he was openly sharing the files with other users. This case could also set a legal precedent for government associated ISPs to be able to give out people's contact information to law-enforcement agencies, a precedent that could potentially have implications far beyond child pornography convictions; for example, people illegally sharing files through Limewire and other similar programs might be affected.

Sask. man fights for Internet privacy after child porn conviction