The First Amendment enables us to wear t-shirts that say, “Vote Romney—He’s White,” and protects late-night talk show hosts when they denigrate the nation’s most prominent political figures. Nonetheless, many lower courts have held that the same preservation of expression that extends to speech, written words, and art does not carry the same weight when [...]

“Online activists who helped sink the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) earlier this year have now turned their sights to a House cybersecurity bill, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).”  While some argue that CISPA is nothing like SOPA, others say it’s a censorship bill much worse than SOPA. Read more about the [...]

Why was a YouTube video containing no music flagged as containing a musical composition and hit with a copyright infringement claim?  This question arises after a British vegan and YouTube user, “eeplox,” uploaded a video about foraging and making a wild salad from mustard leaves and dandelions. The video contained no music, but the recording’s [...]

If you were to find yourself in Warsaw last week, you might have thought you stumbled onto the set of a V for Vendetta sequel. The crowds of people donning Guy Fawkes masks were actually protesting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA); an international trade agreement which seeks to create uniform standards for enforcing intellectual property [...]

A California Sikh, Dr. Randeep Dhillon, has filed a lawsuit against Jay Leno, alleging that the Sikh community was the unfair butt of The Chin’s joke on the January 19th episode of The Tonight Show.  The joke at issue portrayed Mitt Romney, the uber-wealthy Republican presidential candidate, as the summer resident of the Golden Temple [...]

This week, Twitter announced that it would block certain messages upon request in countries where they are deemed illegal. The new policy has sparked outrage among many users, who argue that it will cripple a vital outlet for free speech in countries with autocratic regimes. Twitter and other social media platforms played a crucial role [...]

The White House navigated into the choppy waters of the international online piracy debate over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), which both seek to regulate online piracy by foreign companies that violate U.S. copyright law. In an official statement the Administration responded to two online petitions, which [...]

Well, we were hoping to have a normal Internet day tomorrow. But it seems like the Internet is going to be unavailable because it is going on strike.  Well, not all of the Internet but some very big players are voluntarily “going dark” to protest the SOPA bill.  On January 24th, Congress will vote to [...]

Wikipedia plans to “go dark” on Wednesday as a protest against two highly controversial Congressional bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). The tech world has launched an ardent opposition to the acts, projecting that several aspects of the proposed legislation would “stilfe innovation, enable censorship and tamper with [...]

Even the Wall Street Journal thinks SOPA is a bad idea. The Journal Op-Ed says that Hollywood is trying to “strangle” the internet with legislation. For those of us without an online subscription, Techdirt.com summarizes the Wall Street Journal piece. From the article: “Technology makes many things possible, good and bad. One thing that seems [...]