Excellent May Day article

This is a great look at how different the political cultures of the United States and Europe, specifically Greece, by examining media coverage of May Day.

http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/3854

Americorps: Commie re-education camps

So Michelle Bachmann and her minions are at it again... you won't believe this. 

Americorps re-education camps

p.s. I am an Americorps alum, the only re-education we received was from the polluted streams and deforested areas that we cleaned and re-planted. 

zine resource

Hey everybody,
I thought I'd share this with you after our last discussion, zinelibrary.info. read, contribute, even print and pass them around. Enjoy.

The Pirate Bay Trial: The Official Verdict - GUILTY

Just minutes ago the verdict in the case of The Pirate Bay Four was announced. All four defendants were accused of ‘assisting in making copyright content available’. Peter Sunde: Guilty. Fredrik Neij: Guilty. Gottfrid Svartholm: Guilty. Carl Lundström: Guilty. The four receive 1 year in jail each and fines totaling $3,620,000.

While only a few weeks ago, it seems like an eternity since the trial of The Pirate Bay Four ended and the court retired to consider its verdict. The prosecution claimed that the four defendants were ‘assisting in making copyright content available’ and demanded millions of dollars in damages. The defense did not agree, and all pleaded not guilty - backed up by the inimitable King Kong defense.

Today, Friday April 17, the court issued its decision: article continuously updated

“The court has found that by using Pirate Bay’s services there has been file-sharing of music, films and computer games to the extent the prosecutor has stated in his case,” said the district court. “This file-sharing constitutes an unlawful transfer to the public of copyrighted performances.”

Peter Sunde (born September 13, 1978) alias ‘brokep’:

Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000

Peter Althin, brokep’s lawyer said, “I spoke to Peter and he wasn’t very surprised. A journalist he’d spoken to knew an hour before it was public that all four would be convicted. The verdict was leaked from the court. I have to think about what effects that can have on the sentence. It is unacceptable that the court is leaking.”

Fredrik Neij (born April 27, 1978) alias ‘TiAMO’:

Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000

Similar to the other defendants, Fredrik Neij was not present to hear the verdict. He currently lives in Thailand from where he manages The Pirate Bay’s servers.

Gottfrid Svartholm (October 17, 1984) alias ‘Anakata’:

Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000

Anakata’s lawyer Ola Salomonsson said, “We’re appealing. It’s very surprising that the court has chosen to treat the accused as a team.”

Carl Lundström (born April 13, 1960)

Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000

Carl Lundström’s verdict came as a surprise to most people since he was only remotely related to The Pirate Bay. His lawyer Per E Samuelsson announced that he has already sent in his appeal and the others are expected to follow soon.

The court said that the four defendants worked as a team, were aware that copyrighted material was being shared using The Pirate Bay and that they made it easy and assisted the infringements. It categorized the infringements as ’severe’. The judge said that the users of The Pirate Bay committed the first offense by sharing files and the four assisted this.

It appears that the court chose to not take any of the technical details into account and only judged based on intent. They find it clear that the intention of the defendants is to facilitate sharing of copyrighted works and based their verdict on this.

While the court did not agree with the plaintiff’s exaggerated estimates of losses, it still set the damages at 30 million SEK ($3,620,000). This a hugely significant amount and the court has ordered that the four should pay this amount between them.

The judge also stated that the usage of BitTorrent at The Pirate Bay is illegal. Rest assured, other torrent sites hosted in Sweden will be keeping a close eye on developments.

The defense put it to the judge that he had folded under intense political pressure. The judge denied this stating that the court made its decision based on the case presented.

At one point the judge was asked if he was concerned for his personal safety after handing down this decision. The judge said he hadn’t received any harassment and was quite surprised at the question.

While the judge won’t be getting any flowers for this verdict, Roger Wallis who spoke in favor of The Pirate Bay at their trial and received a mountain of floral tributes in return, noted, “This will cause a flood of court cases. Against all the ISPs. Because if these guys assisted in copyright infringements, then the ISPs also did. This will have huge consequences. The entire development of broadband may be stalled.”

Peter Sunde characterized the verdict as ‘unreal’ and said that he didn’t expect the jail sentence. He briefly spoke with Fredrik and Gottfrid and all were surprised with this outcome. In response to the fines Peter said: “We can’t pay and we wouldn’t pay if we could. If I would have money I would rather burn everything I owned.”

Sunde has already explained that this decision does not mean the end of the line in this case. There will be an appeal which means we are still far away from the ultimate decision - possibly years away. Any appeal from either side must be submitted to Sweden’s higher Court by 9th May 2009.

Rasmus Fleischer, one of the founders of Piratbyrån commented, “The sentence has no formal consequence and no juridical value. We chose to treat the trial as a theater play and as such it’s been far better than we ever could have believed.”

As for the fate of the site, Peter has already promised that The Pirate Bay will continue. The site itself was never on trial, only the four individuals listed above.

This is a breaking news story, please check back frequently for updates.

Riot Grrrl Link

Here is a link to Madigan Shive's web site Bondfire Madigan. http://www.bonfiremadigan.com/

Cybersecurity Act would give president power to 'shut down' Internet

A recently proposed but little-noticed Senate bill would allow the federal government to shut down the Internet in times of declared emergency, and enables unprecedented federal oversight of private network administration.

The bill's draft states that "the president may order a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic" and would give the government ongoing access to "all relevant data concerning (critical infrastructure) networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access."

Full Story on The Raw Story

The Internet Generation Response

I wrote the following as a comment to the Internet Generation post below but put it here because many of you might not look at the comments to the posts. The article is worth reading, but here are my thoughts on it.

This article is interesting. But be aware that it is an official blog of the Wall Street Journal, which is one of the most right wing pro-corporate newspapers in the world. This is written for the business and managerial class and the owners of corporations. While some of the expectations that they talk about related to the "Generation F" workforce might be true if you work in a corporation, this same stuff (or should I say drivel) was written about Generation X, Y, etc. If you have lived long enough and attended professional conferences like I have, there is nothing new in this article. All these so called generational characteristics are the creations of Madison Avenue PR firms and are used to generate so called "generational identities" for branding and marketing purposes.

This article assumes that "Generation F" wants to work in corporations and then lists what this new generation will want from those corporate workplaces. It never stops to think that maybe the next generation whats to get rid of corporations and managers all together and reshape the workplace along truly democratic, egalitarian and humanitarian lines. But that would be a little too much "outside the box" thinking for a Wall Street Journal blog. And if you are young and not on Facebook, are you still a member of "Generation F"?

The Internet Generation

As we were talking about the effect of technology and the internet on people and activism, I was thinking about this article I read recently. The basic premise is that the "Facebook Generation" has new ways of working and engaging with authority. I think it presents a really interesting perspective -and, dare I say it, a hopeful one!

http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2009/03/24/the-facebook-generation-vs-the-fortune-500/

Epic Ad Campaign

Click the link below to see photos of a really cool, really powerful 3 trillion dollar ad campaign going on in Zimbabwe.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trilliondollarcampaign/3395587132/in/set-72157615991240697/

"The Worst Part of the Industrial Revolution"

American Protester Critically Injured by Soldiers in Ni'ilin, Palestine

http://www.awalls.org/tristan

Tristan Anderson, 38, an American citizen, was critically injured on Friday by Israeli troops during protests against Israel's Wall in the West Bank village of Ni’lin. He was hit in his forehead by a new type of high velocity, extended range teargas projectile, and has been transferred to Tel Hashomer hospital, near Tel Aviv. Tristan is unconscious, anesthetized and artificially respirated, has sustained life-threatening injuries to his brain (as well as to his right eye), and is expected to undergo several operations in the coming days, in addition to the one he underwent today.

As fixated as American media tends to be on American casualties (over all others), I wonder if we'll be hearing anything about this on the evening news.

Emma Goldman in her own voice

My favorite quote:

Q: "How about Hitler?"

Goldman: "I don't know him and don't want to."

Local Businesses In A Big Box World

Kim Bartmann, creative genius behind local hot spots Bryant-Lake Bowl, Barbette, and Red Stag, will join Justin Dahlheimer (Institute for Local Self-Reliance), David Unowsky (Metro Independent Business Alliance), and Chris Johansen (Seward Civic & Commerce Association), to discuss the many ways local businesses enrich our local economies, communities, and daily lives, as well as the myriad of challenges they're facing. Megan Sheridan of Redesign, Inc. will moderate. This event is in conjunction with Abandoned Spaces/Vibrant Places, currently at Christensen Center Art Gallery. Intended to serve as part meditation on the growing homogeneity of our landscapes, and part chronicle of the array of experiences local entrepreneurs are having. The exhibition will be up through April 3rd.

More info:http://www.augsburg.edu/galleries/2009/povo_johansen.html

Woble Wobles

Anyone doing a paper on The Wobblies? I've posted the video online here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-582501436157763581&hl=en

Regarding education and schooling - A Class Divided

As we were talking about education last Monday, this program came to mind. It's a Frontline piece that I think was done in the 80's. I think it's interesting because not only is it about education and inculturated othering, it's also about the abuse of authority and perhaps some of the "revolutionary" ideas that came out of the 60's

Basically, it's about a teacher in Iowa in 1968 and how she dealt with the assasination of Martin Luther King Jr. with her third grade class. The introduction described it like this:

"One day in 1968, Jane Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and gave them a daring lesson in discrimination. This is the story of that lesson, its lasting impact on the children, and its enduring power thirty years later."

There is some offensive language in this, so be aware of that. Also, I recommend watching all six parts if you have the time - you get a chance to see Elliott working with adults as well.

--Roxanne

Monitoring Aggression

This is an article I found on a new surveillance system being tested in Europe that monitors civilians conversations for "aggressive" tones. Much too invasive for my liking.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7886656.stm

Book Citations from Monday's Class

Here is the full book citation for the chapters that we read for Monday that dealt with the Constitution.

Fresia, Jerry. Toward and American Revolution: Exposing the Constitution & Other Illusions. Boston: South End Press, 1988.

Here is the citation for the other book related to the Constitution and the founding of the country that I mentioned in class:

Holton, Woody. Unruly Americans And the Origins of the Constitution. Array New York: Hill and Wang, 2007.

Book Summary:
Woody Holton upends what we think we know of the Constitution's origins by telling the history of the average Americans who challenged the framers of the Constitution and forced on them the revisions that produced the document we now venerate. The framers who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 were determined to reverse America's post-Revolutionary War slide into democracy. They believed too many middling Americans exercised too much influence over state and national policies. That the framers were only partially successful in curtailing citizen rights is due to the reaction, sometimes violent, of unruly average Americans. [from publisher description]

Finn, Patrick J. Literacy With an Attitude: Educating Working-Class Children In Their Own Self-Interest. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.

Not Super Relevant...

But I'm a Keith Olbermann fangirl... Bask in the awesome power of Olbermann!

Criminalizing dissent? RNC protesters face terrorism charges.

Democracy Now's Amy Goodman talked to Luce Guillen-Givins who is one of the first people ever to be charged under the 2002 Minnesota version of the federal PATRIOT Act. Guillen-Givins and 7 other members of the group RNC Welcoming Committee — also known as the "RNC 8" — were formally charged with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism.

Full Story on The Raw Story

NYU students and other city students in solidarity have taken NYU.

Take a look at the article and the demands that students are making, especially the later ones. This is an example of re-framing the of how people thinking that I was talking about the other day in class.

At approximately 10pm tonight (Feb. 18), students of Take Back NYU! took over the Kimmel Marketplace. They have blockaded the doors and declared an occupation! They presented their demands to the NYU administration. They read as follows:

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2009/02/103580.html