CNET takes an in-depth look at the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, backed by Hollywood and opposed by the largest Web companies and civil liberties groups.
Category: Rights, Justice, & Judgement
Indefinite Detention Bill No Longer Faces Veto Threat From White House (UPDATE)
The White House on Wednesday abandoned its threat to veto a defense bill that sets in stone the commander in chief’s authority to indefinitely detain terrorism suspects, including Americans, in military custody.
Source: Indefinite Detention Bill No Longer Faces Veto Threat From White House (UPDATE)
Dentist charges patient for negative Yelp reviews, suit says – CNET
A New York dentist is accused of making patients sign away their copyright to negative reviews and then billing a patient $100 a day for posting unhappy reviews on Yelp. The dentist is now being taken to court.
Source: Dentist charges patient for negative Yelp reviews, suit says – CNET
This brings up some interesting questions about what it is okay to post online, where you may post it, and what other people (especially companies) may be allowed to do about it.
The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality – Salon.com
Without a shred of due process, far from any battlefield, President Obama succeeds in killing Anwar al-Awlaki
Source: The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality – Salon.com
The thing that bothers me about it is that, well, how do I know he was bad? The media? We know that governments have historically been able to bend/manipulate media reporting. I feel that is why we have a judicial system; my fellow citizens are only bad if they have charges brought against them and those charges are upheld in court, which frees me to assume that the average American I encounter on the street is a good person that I can trust more than distrust (e.g. for directions to a parking structure or major thoroughfare). That is, of course, idyllic and we live in an imperfect world where this is not always the case, but that doesn’t mean we should discard or overrule the system even when we think it is good to do so, because eventually it won’t always be the case that we were right to demonize and extra-judicially hunt down a fellow citizen. I’m not even sure that we as a nation can afford much more distrust of each other given that there are good statistics correlating honesty, trustworthiness, and trust with productivity, happiness, and safety, and I for one believe that there is almost certainly a directional causality from the former to the latter.
Missouri Hedges On ‘Teachers Can’t Friend Students’ Law – Slashdot
Missouri senators took a step Wednesday toward repealing a contentious new law limiting online conversations between teachers and students, but stirred opposition from the governor by still attempting to mandate that schools adopt their own policies about online chats and text messages. The action by the Senate Education Committee comes a couple of weeks after a Missouri judge blocked the new law on teacher-Internet communications from taking effect because of concerns it infringes on free-speech rights.
Source: Missouri Hedges On ‘Teachers Can’t Friend Students’ Law – Slashdot
RE: Missouri Law: Teachers and Students Can’t Be Facebook Friends – TIME
Are teachers so distrusted that we must have laws denying contact between them and students after-hours?
Then why are we willing to let teachers spend multiple hours alone with our children, unsupervised except by the other children?