In a surprise move, Switzerland has a bill passing through parliament that would introduce net censorship to protect domestic gambling against foreign competition. This…
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Is it reasonable for a private industry to demand governmental censorship power over general communications?
The copyright industry is trying – again – to forcefully conscript Internet Service Providers into doing their bidding. This time, the RIAA and other…
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Why Google is making a mistake in demoting “pirate” sites from search results
Google has agreed to demote so-called “pirate” sites from its search results, at the demands of the copyright industry. All experience from the past…
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History tells us the wars on privacy and sharing will get worse before it gets better
All governments of the world are cracking down on privacy and increasing mass surveillance, sometimes in the name of copyright enforcement, sometimes in the…
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How to talk to your non-tech friends about Net Neutrality
Net Neutrality is being discussed again, and it’s important that your friends understand why this concept is crucial. Instead of explaining it in typical…
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How the copyright industry works methodically to erode your civil liberties and human rights
In a previous column, I outlined how the copyright monopoly is fundamentally, irreparably incompatible with privacy at the conceptual level. While the copyright industry…
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In an EU without Britain and France, weaker and sensible copyright policy would emerge
Britain and France have been the primary copyright hawks in the EU, pushing for stronger distribution monopolies and harsher penalties at every turn. With…
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Understanding the fundamental, irreconcilable conflict between copyright enforcement and privacy of communication
Enforcement of copyright is fundamentally, conceptually incompatible with privacy of correspondence. You can't have the sealed and private letter in existence at the same…
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The entire modern copyright was built on one fundamental assumption that the Internet has reversed
When the copyright monopoly was reinstated in 1710, the justification was that of publishing being many orders of magnitude more expensive than authoring, and…
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Old lady denied exchanging life savings in old banknotes for new issue; could not prove innocence of money; dies
Ethel Hülst had saved for some old-age luxury all her life, cash-in-mattress style, and wanted to exchange her old-issue-note savings for new-issue banknotes. Faced…
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