Copyright - Fair Use | Abuse of DMCA - RightHolders Must Consider FairUse Prior to Issue of Takedown Notices

ꕤ Article SOURCE http://boingboing.net/2015/09/14/eff-scores-a-giant-victory-for.html EFF scores a giant victory for fair use and dancing babies By Cory Doctorow at 11:26 am Mon, Sep 14, 2015 8 years ago, Universal Music sent a takedown notice over Stephanie Lenz's 29-second Youtube video of her kids dancing in the kitchen to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy." EFF took on Lenz's case, arguing that Universalknew that 29 seconds of incidental background music was fair use and was abusing the DMCA through its censorship notice. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Lenz's and EFF's favor today, ruling that rightsholders must consider fair use before issuing takedowns.  The court found that people whose creations were censored through DMCA abuse could sue the companies that filed the censorship demands, even if they couldn't show monetary damages from the censorship. Next up: another trial where we find out if Universal has to pay damages for knowingly abusing the DMCA. Today’s ruling in the Lenz case comes at a critical time. Heated political campaigns—like the current presidential primaries—have historically led to a rash of copyright takedown abuse. Criticism of politicians often includes short clips of campaign appearances in order to make their argument to viewers, and broadcast networks, candidates, and other copyright holders have sometimes misused copyright law in order to remove the criticism from the Internet. “The decision made by the appeals court today has ramifications far beyond Ms. Lenz’s rights to share her video with family and friends,” said McSherry. "We will all watch a lot of online video and analysis of presidential candidates in the months to come, and this ruling will help make sure that information remains uncensored.” http://boingboing.net/2015/09/14/eff-scores-a-giant-victory-for.html ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- other Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (9th Cir.) San Francisco, California USA appellate (federal) court / appellate jurisdiction over the District (federal) Courts in given set of locations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Ninth_Circuit So this is: a federal case heard on appeal arising from an earlier District Court (federal) decision ꕤ

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - Notes Part 1

FBI Notes - Pt 1 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Origins: 'Threat' from 'anarchists 1901 [Guessing that would be labour movements seeking social justice] Govt keeping records for years, but Theodore Roosevelt sought more monitoring powers FBI started off as Bureau of Investigation (BOI) - 1908 from Department of Justice (DoJ) funds  (FBI = Dept. of Treasury off-shoot) incl. members of Secret Service (est. 1865), role:  (1) financial crimes investigation  (2) physical protection of assigned persons counterfeit currency was a big issue / 1865 one-third currency circulating was counterfeit Fast-forward:  1984 1984 = Comprehensive Crime Control Act, extending  Secret Service jurisdiction over credit card fraud & computer fraud. [see Phreakers - prior 1990 illegal 'tapping' into telecommunications services / free phone calls.]  Analog to digital telecommunications switch =  more exposure of telcoms to hackers 1990 Secret Service initiated Operation Sundevil ext. wire fraud / to counter rampant credit card & calling card fraud  Operation Sundevil  = multiple USG agencies, incl. Secret Service + FBI new laws to investigate + prosecute:   phreaking, hacking, wire &  cit card fraud  Op Sundevil drama - resulted in establishment of Electronic Frontier Foundation (f. Mitchell Kapor, f. Lotus Development Corp) + John Perry Barlow, an author = hired lawyers to represent hackers in two of cases re  Operation Sundevil > intended sting against malicious hackers, allegedly responsible for disrupting telephone services across entire US  > No convictions / Secret Service was sued & required to pay damages [no Wikipedia citation given] Due to publicity, Op Sundevil seen as public-relations stunt & message to hackers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sundevil 2012  2012 - El Salvador - Secret Service agents hiring strippers & prostitutes prior to Obama  visit.  ;) -- Name change to FBI - 1935  HQ =   J. Edgar Hoover Building, Washington, DC FIELD OFFICES = 56 RESIDENT AGENCIES (smaller cities) = 400 + LEGAL ATTACHÉS (International embassy & consulate attachments) = 50 2012 Budget =  approx.  $8.12 billion --  J Edgar Hoover  John Edgar Hoover, Director (48 years) JEH =  FBI Director who served from 1924–1972 48 years with BOI, DOI + FBI. DOI = Dept of Interior = Fed dept re management of federal lands, resources etc.  aka   "The Department of Everything Else"  - ie broad range of responsibilities  GW Bush - emphasis on commerce over conservation Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney:   "Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of Interior. [1] -- FBI = US government (USG) agency,  within the US Department of Justice FBI is a USA security service & the agency is part of the US 'Intelligence Community' FBI organisation serves two functions: 1.  federal criminal investigations. 2.  internal intelligence agency. FBI investigates these: counter-terrorism / terrorist attacks counterintelligence / foreign intelligence ops & espionage cyberwarfare / cybercrime major white-collar crime significant violent crime transnational/national organised crime civil rights  [ummm, think they might actually subvert, rather than 'investigate' these ;)] public corruption (all levels) * Indian reservations = federal / FBI responsibility  * FBI works in conjunction with other USG federal agencies -- PATRIOT Act  increased FBI powers, esp. wiretapping & monitoring of Internet activity Controversial PATRIOT Act provision = 'sneak & peek' provision ie.  The State (via its FBI agency) can enter & search  a home while occupant is out, without notifiying occupant of this gross  violation "for several weeks". [Wow, that's seriously sick & totalitarian conduct, in the 'land of the free.'] FBI can also inquire into the 'library records' of targets / that presumably is a library of government stored data, rather than one's book library. FBI  Late 1970s - early 1980s -  Abscam controversy - allegations of FBI  entrapment of elected officials http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscam FBI, aided by Justice Department & a convicted con-man, Melvin Weinberg (convicted swindler, international con artist & informant) FBI videotaped politicians accepting bribes from a fraudulent Arabian co. in return for political favours. 31 targeted officials / 1 Senator + 6 House of Reps - convictions Weinberg avoided prison re prior scams & was paid $150,000 in agreement with Abscam operation Criticism:  "widespread and serious misuse" of national security letters (an administrative subpoena used to demand records & data of individuals). -- Counterintelligence 1940s - 1970s - FBI investigation of spying on US & allies cases Ex parte Quirin x8  Nazi agents (planned sabotage ops) - x8 arrested  / x6 executed Ex parte Quirin - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_parte_Quirin EX PARTE Lat. 'By or for one party' or 'by one side.' http://www.lectlaw.com/def/e051.htm US Supreme Court -  precedent - 1942 Trial by military commission of unlawful combatant against USA "the law of war draws a distinction between the armed forces and the peaceful populations of belligerent nations and also between those who are lawful and unlawful combatants. Lawful combatants are subject to capture and detention as prisoners of war by opposing military forces. Unlawful combatants are likewise subject to capture and detention, but in addition they are subject to trial and punishment by military tribunals for acts which render their belligerency unlawful. The spy who secretly and without uniform passes the military lines of a belligerent in time of war, seeking to gather military information and communicate it to the enemy, or an enemy combatant who without uniform comes secretly through the lines for the purpose of waging war by destruction of life or property, are familiar examples of belligerents who are generally deemed not to be entitled to the status of prisoners of war, but to be offenders against the law of war subject to trial and punishment by military tribunals." Leitenant Colonel Kenneth Royall:  Roosevelt had no right to create a military tribunal to try his clients, citing Ex parte Milligan (1866), a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could not establish military tribunals to try civilians in areas where civilian courts were functioning, even during wartime.   Prosecutor Francis Biddle rebutted his argument, citing the case of British Major John André, who was executed as a spy by the Continental Army for passing through American lines to meet with American officer Benedict Arnold during the American Revolutionary War.  Biddle responded that the U.S. and Germany were at war and cited the Alien Enemies Act of 1798:  whenever there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation government, and the President makes public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies  Supreme Court unanimously denied Royall's appeal, writing:  "The military commission was lawfully constituted ... petitioners are held in lawful custody for trial before the military commission and have not shown cause for being discharged by writ of habeas corpus." Writ of habeas corpus  =  writ to decide if a state's detention of a prisoner is valid / demands prisoner be brought before court Ex parte Quirin - SC decision controversy Justice Robert H. Jackson - draft opinion, expressing his disagreement with portions of SC opinion  http://www.greenbag.org/v9n3/v9n3_articles_goldsmith.pdf *Controversy revived - legal implications during War on Terror. Venona Project (1943-1980) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venona_project  Joint US + UK code-breaking project  - Venona (1943-1980) initiated by forerunner of National Security Agency (NSA), ie US Army Signal Intelligence Service FBI was heavily involved Broke Soviet diplomatic & intelligence communications codes, allowing US + UK  to read Soviet communications Australians collected Venona intercepts Walter Seddon Clayton (cryptonym 'KLOD') - Australian, suspected of being Soviet spy-master. Communist Party of Australia / underground network within CPA, operable even if party shut down http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Seddon_Clayton Clayton mocked ASIO by going back into hiding shortly after his appearance at the Royal Commission. ASIO retaliated against Clayton with Operation Pigeon. Menzies cancelled Clayton & his wife's passports day before they were due to depart Australia. Clayton kept under ASIO surveillance throughout 1950s and 1960s as part of Operation Pigeon. Surveillance may have even extended into 1970s and 1980s. ASIO reportedly recruited services of local fishermen in Port Stephens area to monitor his movements at sea / submarine rendezvous preventative  [>> LMAO] Hoover, administering Verona, did not inform CIA re Verona until 1952. Summaries sourced at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation and/or other, as linked. COMMENT Must have looked at some of this stuff before, at some point.  But I've got a shocking memory, so any time I look something up it's like a wonderful revelation all over again. Doing some basic summaries is supposed to help me retain what I've read, but I wouldn't bet on it. Even if I don't remember this, it was really fun checking it out today. Surprised that the FBI seem to be quite powerful among the US agencies.  Always thought they were just fancy police or something like that. It looks like methods of operation remain the same:  ie use crooks facing time to participate in entrapment activities (see Melvin Weinberg, Abscam), combined with pay-offs. Also sounds like a creepy organisation - eg  'sneak & peak', wiretapping, data access etc. Activities extend beyond US national boundaries, as there's an international avenue through embassies (embassy & consulate legal attachments). OTHER * Check out the USD$8.12 billion est. 2012 budget of FBI (alone) vs their targets:  eg WikiLeaks & others. * USD$14.7 billion  2013 requested funding CIA - source here and here. So that's probably something like USD$22.82 billion vs. WikiLeaks publisher & other targets, in two US agencies' resources alone, and much a greater figure than that in resources of various combined USG agencies. "An espionage empire The summary provides a detailed look at how the U.S. intelligence community has been reconfigu by the massive infusion of resources that followed the 2001 attacks. The United States has spent more than $500 billion on intelligence during that period, an outlay that U.S. officials say has succeeded in its main objective: preventing another catastrophic terrorist attack in the United States. The result is an espionage empire with resources and a reach beyond those of any adversary, sustained even now by spending that rivals or exceeds the levels at the height of the Cold War." [Washington Post] "We the people" should be feeling dwarfed and freaked out by the size of the secret state apparatus ... and the size and power of the state. [ Edited out some colour code ( #A83128 ) that had somehow got into my text.  Very strange.  Did a global change of colour in notepad because the red was too bright.  But I somehow wound up with code among text without realising.  Hence the 'strange code'.   LOL Noooooo!  My colour code wasn't a code, as such.  It was the word 'red', which I globally searched & replaced with a HTML colour code ... but the letters 'red' appear in a number of words in the text document.  And they've been replaced with a code.  A code I removed.  So, why am I still having to edit?  Because it's has taken the letter combination - 'red' - out of the entire document.  Sh*t.  Now I've got to proofread and I'm really sleepy.   :(  Updated as best I could when I can barely stay awake.  Sure to have missed something.  It's a work in progress.  LOL]

Totalitarian Britain, CIA Lawsuit, Sacred Cows & Incongruous Libertarian Package

UK Police State Unbelievable harassment of politically active university students by the police state in Britain: Monitoring of protest groups “raw, unvarnished intimidation and activist-busting."  http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/feb/25/police-covert-recruit-activists-spies-cambridge?CMP=share_btn_tw ......................................................... VIDEO UK Police try to recruit activist to spy on Cambridge students & political groups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_hGQETyhXk ......................................................... CIA IS SUED CIA sued by “non-official cover” operative  “Madhouse: A Forbidden Novel of the CIA"  http://triblive.com/usworld/nation/7805012-74/cia-lawsuit-officer ......................................................... SACRED COWS & INCONGRUOUS LIB PACKAGE Snowden praised for fighting government surveillance… by group that LOVES corporate surveillance By Mark Ames  On February 20, 2015 Last Friday, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden Skyped into a Washington DC Marriott Hotel conference hall to proudly accept “The Students For Liberty Alumnus of the Year Award.”  http://pando.com/2015/02/20/strange-bedfellows/ The Gist NSA whistleblower, Snowden, accepts Students for Libery award. Peter Thiel, founder of one of NSA’s biggest contractors, Palantir Technologies Gets Students For Liberty award  "Snowden’s nemesis, former NSA chief Keith Alexander, praised Palantir’s usefulness to the spy agency"  Greenwald has characterized Pando’s criticism of him as CIA plot hatched by Thiel  Thiel Founders Fund $300k in Pando previously Students for Liberty is anything but that: awarded “Event of the Year” to anti-Marxist 'libs' at Honduras’ National University Hey, Students of Liberty: Leftists & journalists in Honduras terrorized since 2009 US-backed coup!!!!!!  Snowden  “If the government will not be stewards of our rights, we can encode our rights into our system.”   Source:  http://pando.com/2015/02/20/strange-bedfellows/ Students For Liberty  gets most of its money from Koch brothers worked closely with US govt big corporate sponsors Students For Liberty’s Board Advisors incl Prince von Liechtenstein offshore banking tax haven of global billionaires / Switzerland too transparent Students For Liberty f. 2008 Alexander McCobin (emp @ Cato Institution, neé “The Charles Koch Foundation”) 💥 Koch Alarm 💥 Students for Liberty Ron Paul + Andrew Napolitano, Cato Institution / FoxNews truther Ron Paul presidential campaign 2012 Thiel funded /Snowden & Greenwald support Sen. Rand Paul Presidential campaign 2016 funded by Thiel’s co-founder at Palantir: Joe Lonsdale (Rand Paul’s finance team) 2011 Palantir sponsored Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Awards winners incl: >Glenn Greenwald >Laura Poitras >Tor Project >EFF co-founder Mitch Kapor >EFF Fellow Cory Doctorow Palantir & Peter Thiel   bravely fighting type of govt surveillance ably assisted by … Palantir & Peter Thiel   [LOL ... Pando] ......................................................... COMMENT Above are some of the things that caught my attention. The police attack on what is supposed to be a democratic right in Britain is disgraceful and, really, quite frightening and totalitarian, if you stop to think about what's going on.  And this is just the tip of an iceberg in Britain. More press on the CIA lawsuit would be good: The officer filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia under a pseudonym, Mack L. Charles. The CIA declined to comment but did not dispute the plaintiff's former association with the agency. [1] CIA stands accused of illegally barring publishing of a novel (which isn't a first, as I recall). Finally, there's the hilarious Pando article (I love those guys).  No idea if they're really the 'bad' guys, if they're just funny bastards poking at some sacred cows, or if there is indeed something very odd about the convergence of these incongruous relationships. Trying to keep an open mind, but Koch, Thiel (NSA praise), Students for Liberty and the rest of it is a package way hard to swallow. Koch is 'cook' in German, by the way. Hmmmm ...