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News of the movement for January 15, 2013 |
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over the weekend, the Internet lost one of its biggest champions. Aaron Swartz, age 26, died on Jan. 11. The cause was suicide. The loss to his friends, colleagues, fellow activists and the Internet at large is enormous. How the Legal System Failed Aaron Swartz -- and Us
Tomorrow is the funeral for Aaron Swartz, the programmer and sometime activist who killed himself last week while facing federal trial. No one knows, or will ever really know, what caused Swartz to take his own life. But his suicide, in the face of possible bankruptcy and serious prison time, has created a moment of clarity. We can rightly judge a society by how it treats its eccentrics and deviant geniuses -- and by that measure, we have utterly failed.
Limits on Consumers’ Internet Use Fuel Calls for Federal Investigation
Liberals and consumer advocates are pushing the Obama administration to investigate Internet providers for limiting the amount of online material that customers can consume each month. Critics of data caps say they are unnecessary and are unfairly used by monopolists to squeeze more profits out of consumers.
Here's an animated presentation about broadband and mobile data caps -- specifically, how they discourage innovation, how the excuses used to justify data caps don't hold water, and the real reasons that ISPs and mobile providers are moving toward caps. Jay Rockefeller Retirement Shakes Up Privacy Battle
Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s announcement that he’ll retire in 2015 is the latest personnel move in a month that has thrown the legislative end of the online consumer privacy world into flux.
How Mobile Phones and the Internet Fight (and Help) Human Trafficking
Prepaid mobile phones and websites are changing the nature of illegal sex trafficking in the United States. But tech giants like Google, Palantir and Microsoft are all contributing resources to fight human traffickers worldwide. Thirty-Five Percent of Smartphone Owners Use Them While Driving
Thirty-five percent of smartphone owners use their devices while driving, according to a McKinsey study released today on “Mobility of the Future.”
Rupert Murdoch Says Los Angeles Times Purchase Not a Sure Thing
Now that Rupert Murdoch is spinning off News Corp.’s publishing properties into a separate company, media observers have identified the Los Angeles Times as a likely target for acquisition. Murdoch isn’t one of them. Sen. Jay Rockefeller Has Never Been Shy About Criticizing Media
Sen. Jay Rockefeller's announcement that he won't seek reelection in 2014 may not upset too many folks in the entertainment business. The Democrat from West Virginia and chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has never been shy about bashing the media industry.
CBS has seriously damaged the tech review and news site it bought for nearly $1.8 billion in 2008. How can you tell readers what the best gadgets are if you’re prevented from writing about them? How can readers trust your judgment when the corporate creeps fiddle with your newsroom? What else does CBS tell CNET to do that we don’t find out about? CBS Says It Won't Interfere in CNET's 'Actual News,' Just Reviews
Are news and reviews subject to different ethical standards? That appears to be the message from CBS in response to DISH's controversial Hopper DVR. Official CBS policy now bans CNET from reviewing products implicated in lawsuits, but claims CNET still has complete editorial independence over "actual news." Why Journalists Are Covering Rapes Differently in New Delhi and Steubenville
It’s not often that two stories about rape -- one in India and one here in the U.S. -- get so much attention at the same time. What’s striking about the simultaneous stories is how differently journalists are covering them. It's All About Trust: The Atlantic's Scientology Problem
The Atlantic presented a Church of Scientology ad dressed up as a news article. The response from journalists and readers was immediate and bruising and within hours the piece had been removed and replaced with a note from the editors promising to “review their sponsored content guidelines.” Al Jazeera America: Will They Watch?
In a matter of weeks, a new television channel called Al Jazeera America will launch with the hopes of achieving the impossible: convincing Americans that they should break from their regularly scheduled programming to watch a 24-hour global news network owned by a Middle Eastern government. What Al Jazeera America is really worried about is this: Will anyone actually watch?
Whether it’s taking stock of one’s own wealth or gawking at others', people’s interest in money seems limitless. So says the Wall Street Journal, which is giving personal finance the glossy treatment with a new magazine insert, WSJ. Money.
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Register today for the 2013 National Conference for Media Reform! Join thousands of activists, media makers, journalists, technologists and artists flocking to Denver for this can't-miss event.
In Other News..Obama, Put a Woman in Charge of the FCC Lifting the Curtain at the Consumer Electronics Show Ex-IRS Director on Dark-Money Groups: "Investigate Them and Prosecute Them" How Big Data Keeps Cable TV Watchers Hooked Rockefeller Plans to Reintroduce Bill to Study Violent Video Games FAA Proposes Rule to Stop Pilots from Using Phones, Tablets and Laptops in the Cockpit Starring in Drama in Iran: TV Itself America's First Bookless Public Library Will Look 'Like an Apple Store' Fifty-Four Percent of U.S. Kids Have Never Read an eBook Dell Stock Soars on Report of Potential Acquisition by Private-Equity Firms
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