Tech Bones

The EU celebrated America's Independence Day by rejecting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) with a vote of 478 against and 39 for with 165 abstentions. Despite all the back room negotations and closed meetings, common sense prevailed. Now that's a great way to celebrate freedom. Happy Independence Day!

An upsetting trend looms over proposed national legislation and international agreements that threatens First Amendment rights on the internet. While public outcry has successfully hindered the advancement of such measures so far, attacks to our freedom of speech on the internet continue to increase according to Google. A Fox News article entitled "Google sees 'alarming' uptick in government censorship' outlines several recent examples of governments submitting requests to have material it finds "illegal, hateful, terrorism-promoting, or offensive" removed from the internet. While Google has refused the requests in some cases, they have been forced to comply in others. Fox News: Google sees 'alarming' uptick in government censorship http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/06/18/google-sees-alarming-uptick-in-government-censorship/ Dorothy Chou, Google's senior policy analyst, wrote in a Sunday blog post, "It's alarming not only because...

Prior to the proposed legislation of the Senate's PIPA (Protect IP Act of 2011) and House of Representatives' SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), an international effort to enforce Intellectual Property (IP) rights, known as ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), was already in the works. Though PIPA and SOPA were both left to languish as a result of negative response from the IT user community, ACTA remains alive and well. Public scrutiny over the extent and regulations of both PIPA and SOPA thwarted congressional approval of either act. However, the ACTA effort is not subject to such openness. Negotiations for its enactment continue behind closed doors. With minimal industry or user input allowed, representatives from major industrialized nations continue to negotiate the terms of ACTA. Based upon leaked copies of drafts, the combination of broader controls and even more vague wording will compromise the First Amendment on the internet and erode privacy concerns far beyond ...

If you think battling all the viruses, trojans, malware, and other perpetrators in the internet world is tough enough, imagine trying to defend against someone with a passkey to your backdoor. Virtually everything used on a daily basis is computerized and networked. The latest gadgets, alarm clocks, appliances, houses, cars, and virtually everything else we use for entertainment or work, are computerized and inter-connected. Imagine a nefarious entity, such as Austin Powers' Dr. Evil, who intends to control the world and force his way of life on the rest of us. What if Dr. Evil covertly, over time, gained control of the manufacture of technology by replicating creations throughout the world and selling them at a fraction of the price, thanks to lower labor costs and a willingness to take a short term loss to gain long term control of the market? What if Dr. Evil succeeded in not only becoming the manufacturer of a majority of all electronics produced in the world including mili...

Despite being an intellectual property developer, I do not support the proposed Protect IP Act (PIPA Senate Bill 968) or Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA House Resolution 3261) legislation. Granted, piracy of Intellectual Property creates signifcant problems and those who profit by completely ignoring IP rights need to be stopped. However, typical of legislative redress, both proposals overreach in their attempt to resolve the situation. Senate Bill 968 - Protect IP Act of 2011 http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s968/show House Resolution 3261 - Stop Online Piracy Act http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261/show While this legislation attempts to curb the piracy of IP, it allows the Department of Justice to circumvent due process based upon their interpretation of what constitutes a violation and the justification for immediate action. Protecting property rights should not come at the expense of constitutional rights. If only for that reason, opposition to the proposed legisla...