Shameless plug for This American Life

This is seriously one of thr best episodes of TAL I ever listened to. Even if you aren’t a podcast or radio listener, this is worth your time.

This American Life
#461: Take the Money and Run for Office (mp3)
Description:
For anyone who has ever heard the term “Washington insider” and felt outside — we are with you. So this week, we go inside the rooms where the deals get made, to the actual moment that the checks change hands — and we ask the people writing and receiving the checks what, exactly, is the money buying? Continue reading

Message received. No #SOPA. No #PIPA.

This week, the American (and international) public stood up and won in the face of big-dollar lobbyists in Washington, D.C. Protests Wednesday against SOPA and PIPA worked … for now.

You've been heard. #PIPA has been pulled so we can find a better solution.

Sen. Chuck Schumer’s tweet announcing that PIPA is a no-go.

The Protect Intellectual Property Act was taken off the Senate floor and just minutes later, the House took the Stop Online Privacy Act off the calendar.

What does this week’s win mean moving forward? Obviously, it’s too early to tell. Continue reading

#SOPA #PIPA … WTF?

Yesterday, key portions of the Internet went dark. Google, Wikipedia, Reddit and other sites all stood in solid opposition to two bills in Congress. But what was it all about and how big of a problem is online piracy?

Over at Ars Technica, there’s a good read about what this all means with a hard and critical look at what the SOPA/PIPA supporters are yelling about.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/internet-regulation-and-the-economics-of-piracy.ars