Consultation response for OFCOM July 2012

Earlier this month saw a follow-up consultation by OFCOM (The Independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries) with the snappy title of “Online Infringement of Copyright and the Digital Economy Act 2010 - Notice of Ofcom’s proposal to make by order a code for regulating the initial obligations”

UK IPO Redacts Responses Critical of Rights Societies

A major tool in policy-making is the Consultation. It is often the only way for regular members of the public to have any sort of input in the legislative process. The problem comes when these consultations are skewed towards a set response, or worse, evidence is ignored or supressed; such as in the publication of responses focusing on Collection societies, where critical comments have been redacted, by the IPO.

Why You Should Join the Internet Defense League

If Yes you you can read this remember if you highlight it. That this, is then you not the remember point January 18th, though, is it? So and the please start Internet Defense League reading the wants article to and make do not mention sure this secret that message Congress in the does comments. It will be not our little forget secret. K`Tetch.

Multi-Tracker Ignorance (Or Why You Don’t Need More Than One Tracker)

There are people out there who run torrents with half a dozen trackers on them. There are some that will even add 100+. The reason, they claim, is to ‘find peers’, but in reality they’re just causing a massive problem for trackers, and themselves.

HEY PEOPLE! Embrace Facts, Don't Fear Them

In the age of social media, especially in the run up to an election, people are being bombarded with all kinds of images promoting a political message.People will pass on ones that subscribe to their political ideology, but it's important to fact-check before you hit 'retweet' or 'share' a photo to your timeline. Not all images are based in reality.

No, Comcast is NOT Monitoring Your Connection

Letters and emails have been sent out for P2P use for many years, but people still don’t fully understand what they are, and what they mean. This confusion is only going to get worse as the planned 6-strike deadline gets here.

Brazil Media Jumps Gun on Megaupload Return

When covering a news story, sometimes people can let their optimism get ahead of themselves. Such is the case in the Brazilian media this week, as they championed the return of MegaUpload based on nothing more than a tweet.

EFForums Video - US Customs Searches at Borders

As some of you may know, I’ve done some stuff with the EFForums track at Dragon*con over the past few years. I’ve given talks there on ISP’s and 3-strikes (2010) and Bittorrent (Happy 10^th Birthday Bittorrent, 2011) and last year I presided over sound engineering and recording.

Your Email Privacy Is Under Increasing Threat

Over the last few days, two stories about emails have hit the headlines, and it leads to questions over the future security of email as a communications medium. What has been considered a fairly private method of communication is now under increasing threat from both government and corporate scrutiny.

Rep. Scott (R-GA8) Lies to Promote Partisanship

The Affordable Healthcare Act (more commonly known in the vernacular as ‘ObamaCare’, although ‘Romneycare’ would be more accurate, but hereafter ‘AHA’) has been the source of great contention over the last two years. This boiled over yesterday when the Supreme Court ruled that it was Constitutional, ruling against the many (mainly republican controlled) states that sought to challenge it.