Archive for the 'Politics' Category
Just as the U.S Congress is about to debate the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, and before the Telecom Package discussion resumes later this fall, one could regret that the concept of openness of our communications infrastructure is not more salient in the public debate.
What is about anyway? And why does it matter?
An open communications infrastructure [...]
Filed under: Analysis, Challenges, Democracy, Law, Politics, Telecom | Leave a Comment
Tags: Copyright, Democracy, Free Speech, Intellectual Property, Internet, Lessig, Media, Net Neutrality, Network, Progress, Telecom, United States
Yesterday at 5P.M, the French Constitutional Council – in charge of checking the conformity of legislation with the Constitution – rendered a groundbreaking decision regarding the highly controversial “three strikes law” (or graduated response), passed last month by Parliament to fight illegal downloading.
The law established a penalty amounting to the suspension of downloaders’ internet connection [...]
Filed under: Analysis, Civil Liberties, Copyright, Politics | 2 Comments
Tags: Constitution, Copyright, Cultural industries, Europe, France, Human Rights, Internet, Media, Network, New Media
A few weeks ago, the French Journal Le Débat published a compelling piece by Benjamin Loveluck entitled “Internet: Toward a Radical Democracy?“. The author, who is writing a Ph.D thesis on “the hypermodern individual and the genealogy of contemporary media regimes” (sic), successfully locates the recent developments of the internet within the history of liberal-democracies. [...]
Filed under: Analysis, Democracy, Media, Politics | Leave a Comment
Tags: Blogging, Copyright, Cultural industries, Democracy, Google, Intellectual Property, Internet, Journalism, Lessig, New Media, Philosophy
Determined to act swiftly to pass an $825 billion stimulus package, US President Barack Obama used his weekly address (on a revamped whitehouse.gov website) to give more details about this recovery plan. As it stands now, the proposal includes public spending programs in three high-tech areas :
computerization of medical records;
creation of smarter, high-tech enhanced electrical [...]
Filed under: Analysis, Challenges, New Tech, Politics | 2 Comments
Tags: Congress, Crisis, European Commission, European Union, France, Internet, New Tech, Obama, Politics, Reforms, Three Strikes, UK
Copyright Gone Wrong
At the beginning of this year, the head of the European Commission’s Internal Market and Services Directorate General Charlie McCreevy announced his plan to extend copyright terms for performers and phonogram producers from 50 years today to 95 years (1). The Commission advances the argument that many works from ageing musicians dating back to the [...]
Filed under: Analysis, Copyright, Media, Politics | Leave a Comment
Tags: Copyright, European Union, Music Industry, P2P, Politics
The French legislative bill aimed at granting a public agency the right to suspend people’s internet connection if they are suspected of copyright infringement has been turned down by the European Parliament, which resumed session earlier this week.
Voting on the telecom package – a piece of legislation that regulates the EU electronic communication sector – [...]
Filed under: Analysis, Civil Liberties, Copyright, Politics | Leave a Comment
Tags: Civil Liberties, European Union, Internet, Politics
If We Could Free Our Culture
I just finished Lawrence Lessig’s book Free Culture (2004) and it has made me angry. A law professor specialized in intellectual property, Lessig demonstrates that we are caught in a dangerous, reactionary discourse about intellectual property in the Net era. His sincere advocacy for a freer society deconstructs the key elements of the debate on [...]
Filed under: Analysis, Civil Liberties, Copyright, Law, Politics | Leave a Comment
Tags: Intellectual Property, Lessig, Politics
Taylorism vs. Googlism
I talked about Nicholas Carr’s article a few days ago. According to his piece (Is Google Making Us Stupid?) the web is affecting our cognitive abilities. We are now fed with tons information but seldom sit and reflect about them; we google things but rarely research or memorize them anymore. Carr argues that this constant [...]
Filed under: Analysis, New Tech, Philosophy, Politics | Leave a Comment
Tags: Google, Philosophy, Psychology, Web
a diary about how new technologies redefine the polis by felix treguer
-
News from the Wired Polis- File-Sharing good for cultural diversity and business November 11, 2009
- Enforcement of IPR... ACTA not the way to go November 6, 2009
- Europe misses out on a full protection of Net freedoms November 5, 2009
- Telcos turned into the police of the Net? November 4, 2009
- New battle fronts in sight for Net neutrality November 2, 2009
- More spectrum for wireless Internet in Europe? October 31, 2009
- EU to overhaul online privacy rules October 27, 2009
