Politics

Pirate Bay to be blocked in the UK, court rules

May 1, 2012 By Aaron Leave a Comment

End of the line for PB?

By Marc Chacksfield on April 30th, 2012

The Pirate Bay is set to be blocked by five of the main ISPs in the UK, after a High Court ruled the site is in massive breach of copyright.

According to the BBC, the Swedish website is set to be blocked by Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media.

So far only Virgin has spoken out about the blocking saying it is set to comply with the High Court’s ruling, but believed that it shouldn’t set a precedent for policing the web in the future.

“As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media complies with court orders addressed to the company but strongly believes that changing consumer behaviour to tackle copyright infringement also needs compelling legal alternatives, such as our agreement with Spotify, to give consumers access to great content at the right price,” explained A Virgin Media spokesperson.

Infringing copyright

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is obviously pleased with the ruling, with its chief executive Geoff Taylor explaining: “The High Court has confirmed that The Pirate Bay infringes copyright on a massive scale.

“Its operators line their pockets by commercially exploiting music and other creative works without paying a penny to the people who created them.

“This is wrong – musicians, sound engineers and video editors deserve to be paid for their work just like everyone else.”

“TalkTalk have always maintained that we are not in principle against blocking provided there is a court order.”

One person who is critical of the ruling is Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group. He said about the situation: “Blocking the Pirate Bay is pointless and dangerous. It will fuel calls for further, wider and even more drastic calls for Internet censorship of many kinds, from pornography to extremism.

“Internet censorship is growing in scope and becoming easier. Yet it never has the effect desired. It simply turns criminals into heroes.”

The Pirate Bay has been under pressure for some time now to close, but its owners have been finding inventive ways to evade closure.

The latest plan was to send its servers into space, but this sounded more like a pipe dream than something that would actually happen.

It was back in February that the High Court originally ruled that the Pirate Bay’s operators “incite or persuade” copyright infringement.

The judge presiding over the case was the same on that forced BT to block Newzbin2 back in October 201 – which is interesting as BT doesn’t seem to be on list of ISPs which have to block the site.

According to PC Pro, BT has asked for a few more weeks to ‘consider its position’ about whether or not to block the site.

Sources:

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/pirate-bay-to-be-blocked-in-the-uk-court-rules-1078186

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17894176

Filed Under: ACTA, Censorship, CISPA, Education, Featured, Internet, United Kingdom

The end of Internet privacy (with petition)

April 18, 2012 By Aaron 2 Comments

Dear friends,

Right now, the US is poised to pass a new law that would permit US agents to spy on almost everything we do online. But we can stop them before the final vote.

Companies that we trust with our personal information, like Microsoft and Facebook, are key supporters of this bill that lets corporations share all user activity and content with US government agents without needing a warrant in the name of cyber-security — nullifying privacy guarantees for almost everyone around the world, no matter where we live and surf online.

If enough of us speak out, we can stop companies that profit from our business from supporting cyber-spying. Sign the petition to these key net corporations now:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_cispa_corporate_global/?vl

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) would allow companies doing business in the US to collect exact records of all of our online activities and hand them over to the US government, without ever notifying us that we are being watched. No warrant, no legal cause and no due process required. To make matters worse, the bill provides the government and corporations with blanket immunity to protect them from being sued for violation of privacy and other illegal actions.

The bill’s supporters claim that consumer information will be protected, but the reality is that huge loopholes would make everything we do online fair game — and nowadays, from banking to shopping, our private information is all stored on the Internet.

CISPA is being moved forward in Congress and will be voted upon in days. Let’s raise a massive outcry to stop corporations from giving the US a blank check to monitor our every move. Click below to take action:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_cispa_corporate_global/?vl

This year, we helped stop SOPA, PIPA and ACTA — all dire threats to the Internet. Now, let’s block CISPA and end the US government attack on our Internet.

WIth hope and determination,

Dalia, Allison, Emma, Ricken, Rewan, Andrew, Wen-Hua, and the rest of the Avaaz team

More information:

CISPA: The internet finds a new enemy (Global Post)
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-grid/cispa-the-internet-finds-new-enemy-sopa

CISPA protests begin amid key changes to legislation (Los Angeles Times)
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-cispa-protests-begin-amid-key-changes-to-legislation-20120416,0,5314596.story

Cybersecurity Bill FAQ: The Disturbing Privacy Dangers in CISPA and How To Stop It (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/04/cybersecurity-bill-faq-disturbing-privacy-dangers-cispa-and-how-you-stop-it

New CISPA Draft Narrows Cybersecurity Language as Protests Loom (Mashable)
http://news.yahoo.com/cispa-draft-narrows-cybersecurity-language-protests-loom-134202431.html

Source: avaaz.org email, April 18, 2012

Filed Under: ACTA, Campaigning, Censorship, CISPA, Featured, Internet, Privacy, Protests, Social Media Websites, SOPA/PIPA, USA

Where Does Your State Rank In Equal Pay?

April 17, 2012 By Aaron Leave a Comment

by Jessica Pieklo on April 17, 2012

Today marks Equal Pay Day and an opportunity to take a closer look as the wage disparities between the genders. The bottom line: the wage gap is real and it is persistent.

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) released a new state-by-state report on equal pay rankings, along with an interactive map that shows wage disparities in each state. How does your state rate? Some of the rankings may surprise you.

Overall the wage gap is the narrowest in Washington D.C., where women earn 91 cents on the dollar to men and worst in Wyoming where women make just 64 percent of men’s earnings. As expected, the numbers get worse when you account for race. African American and Hispanic women earn much less–just 70 percent and 61 percent of what white men on average earn. Nationally women earn just 77 percent of their male peers.

This discrepancy in pay costs working women and their families tens of thousands of dollars a year. It directly impacts women’s retirement security and ability to save for emergencies and college and it reinforces an outdated and offensive world view that women’s work is simply not of the same value as men’s.

Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/where-does-your-state-rank-in-equal-pay.html

Filed Under: Economy, Equality, Income Inequality, Money, Sexism, USA, Women

Max Igan’s Trance-Formation (Full)

April 16, 2012 By Aaron Leave a Comment

Full film available for download at:
http://thecrowhouse.com
IP: http://67.20.81.143
from May 15th 2012

“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders and millions have been killed because of this obedience. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves and the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem. – Howard Zinn

Universal Law trumps all others.

1. No man or woman, in or out of government shall initiate force, threat of force or fraud against my life and property and, any and all contracts I am a party to, not giving full disclosure to me, whether signed by me or not, are void at my discretion.

2. I may use force in self-defense against anyone that violates Law 1.

3. There shall be no exceptions to Law 1 and 2.

Filed Under: Banks, Corporations, Corruption, Crime, Education, Environment, Equality, Featured, Human Rights, Illuminati, Politics, Population, Privacy, Revolution, Rights, Safety, Technology

Russia stunned after Japanese plan to evacuate 40 million revealed

April 16, 2012 By Aaron Leave a Comment

Chinese ghost city (credit: Business Insider)

A new report circulating in the Kremlin yesterday prepared by the Foreign Ministry on the planned re-opening of talks with Japan over the disputed Kuril Islands during the next fortnight states that Russian diplomats were “stunned” after being told by their Japanese counterparts that upwards of 40 million of their peoples were in “extreme danger”of life threatening radiation poisoning and could very well likely be faced with forced evacuations away from their countries eastern most located cities…including the world’s largest one, Tokyo.

That’s according to the What Does It Mean blog, which also reports that “Japanese diplomats told their Russian counterparts that they were, also, ‘seriously considering’ an offer by China to relocate tens of millions of their citizens to the Chinese mainland to inhabit what are called the ‘ghost cities,’ built for reasons still unknown.

However, according to a knowledgeable intel source, this report is Russian disinformation, with the intention of neutralizing what the Russians see as a Japanese threat.

What do you think?

Source: http://www.kurzweilai.net/russia-stunned-after-japanese-plan-to-evacuate-40-million-revealed

Filed Under: China, Environment, Fukushima, Health, Japan, Nuclear, Pollution, Population, Radiation, Russia

Syrian Peace Deal: UN’s Cloak to NATO’s Dagger

April 10, 2012 By Aaron 1 Comment

Turkey begins fabricating “cross border” incidents to justify Brookings prescribed “safe havens” inside Syria.
by Tony Cartalucci on April 9, 2012

From the very beginning, US policy makers admitted that Kofi Annan’s “peace mission” to Syria was nothing more than a rouse to preserve NATO’s proxy forces from total destruction and create “safe havens” from which to prolong the bloodshed. It was hoped that with established “safe havens” in Syria, protected by Turkish military forces (Turkey has been a NATO member since 1952) violence and pressure verses the Syrian government could be perpetually increased until it finally collapsed and the carving up of Syria could commence.

Photo: Annan is a trustee of Wall Street speculator George Soros and geopolitical manipulator Zbigniew Brzezinski’s International Crisis Group (ICG), along side Neo-Conservative corporate lobbyist and warmonger Kenneth Adelman, US State Department-listed Iranian terror organization MEK lobbyist - General Wesley Clark, Wall Street-backed color revolution leader- Mohammed ElBaradei of Egypt, and Brookings Institution’s Samuel Berger. Serving as “advisers” to the International Crisis Group include, Neo-Conservative warmonger Richard Armitage, former Foreign Minister of Israel Shlomo Ben-Ami, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Bank of Israel Governor Stanely Fischer, and President of Israel Shimon Peres. While Annan poses as a representative of the “United Nations” he is in reality representing the pro-regime change agenda of the ICG and the special interests that fund its work.

….

This has been confirmed by Fortune 500-funded, US foreign-policy think-tank, Brookings Institution which has blueprinted designs for regime change in Libya as well as both Syria andIran. In their latest report, “Assessing Options for Regime Change” it is stated (emphasis added):

“An alternative is for diplomatic efforts to focus first on how to end the violence and how to gain humanitarian access, as is being done under Annan’s leadership.This may lead to the creation of safe-havens and humanitarian corridors, which would have to be backed by limited military power. This would, of course, fall short of U.S. goals for Syria and could preserve Asad in power. From that starting point, however, it is possible that a broad coalition with the appropriate international mandate could add further coercive action to its efforts.” -page 4, Assessing Options for Regime Change, Brookings Institution.

Click to enlarge

Image: Also out of the Brookings Institution, Middle East Memo #21 “Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf),” makes no secret that the humanitarian “responsibility to protect” is but a pretext for long-planned regime change.

….

And while “peace” was being peddled by Soros-funded International Crisis Group trustee Kofi Annan, the US, UK, France, and members of the West’s proxy Arab League simultaneously called for Assad to stand down and withdraw troops from secured cities while openly declaring that arms and cash would continue to flow to the rebels. The “Friends of Syria” summit would even ludicrously declare that “wages” would be paid to rebels to continue their battle to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Clearly the label “peace deal” is inappropriate for a proposal that seeks to empower and indeed see one side prevail militarily over another whose hands are purposefully tied. It is an unconditional surrender to foreign-funded terrorists simply labeled as a “peace deal.”

The Brookings Institution’s “safe havens” and “humanitarian corridors” are meant to be established by NATO-member Turkey, who has been threatening to partially invade Syria for weeks in order to accomplish this. And while Turkey claims this is based on “humanitarian concerns,” examining Turkey’s abysmal human rights record in addition to its own ongoing genocidal campaign against the Kurdish people both within and beyond its borders, it is clear they are simply fulfilling the agenda established by their Western patrons on Wall Street and in the city of London.

Photo: Turkish tanks entering Iraq to raid Kurdish towns and hunt suspected rebels in 2008. More recently, Turkey has been bombing “suspected” rebel bases in both Turkey and Iraq, as well as conducting mass nationwide arrests. Strangely, as Turkey verifiably does what Libya’s Qaddafi and Syria’s Assad have been accused of doing, in all of their hypocrisy, are now calling for a partial invasion of Syria based on “humanitarian concerns.”

….Now, Turkey is fabricating stories involving Syrian troops “firing across” the Turkish-Syrian border. The New York Times published these bold accusations before admitting further down that “it was unclear what kind of weapons caused the injuries on Sunday around six miles inside Turkish territory,” and that “there were conflicting accounts about the incident.” As are all the accusations used by NATO, the UN, and individual member states to justify meddling in Syria’s affairs, these tales involve hear-say from the rebels themselves.

It is clear that Turkey, NATO, and the UN are attempting to set the pretext for the establishment of “safe havens” and “humanitarian corridors” intended to circumvent the UN Security Council which has seen attempts to green-light military intervention vetoed twice by Russia and China. As the UN “peace deal” deadline of April 10 comes and goes, we can expect an ever increasing din of propaganda purporting Syrian violations against Turkish sovereignty, the continued propaganda campaign accentuating the “victimization” of NATO’s death squads, and the public roll-out of Brookings’ Turkish established “safe haven” within Syrian territory.

Image: Some of the corporate sponsors behind the Brookings Institution, from whose playbook Kofi Annan is being directed in his disingenuous “peace mission” to Syria. (click image to enlarge)

Image: Just some of the corporate and “institutional” sponsors of the International Crisis Group, upon which Kofi Annan sits as a “trustee” with other dubious personalities including George Soros, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Israeli President Shimon Peres, Egypt’s Mohammed ElBaradei, and Neo-Cons Richard Armitage and Kenneth Adelman. (click image to enlarge)

….The UN “peace deal” was a rouse from the beginning. The West has no intention of leaving Syria intact and will seek all means by which to prevail in toppling the government, carving up the country along sectarian lines, plunging it into perpetual violence as it has Libya, and moving next toward Iran. While it is essential to expose the truth behind Syria’s unrest, is also important to identify the corporate-financier interests driving this nefarious agenda and boycott them entirely while seeking out viable local solutions to support instead. If none exist, it is our duty to use our time, money, attention, and resources to create such alternatives instead of perpetuating the self-serving agenda unfolding before us.

Ultimately it is “we the people” paying into this current paradigm that allows it to continue moving forward, therefore it by necessity must be “we the people” who undermine and ultimately replace it.

Source: http://landdestroyer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/syrian-peace-deal-uns-cloak-to-natos.html

Filed Under: Africa, British Petroleum, China, Corporations, France, Genocide, Human Rights, Iran, Libya, Military Industrial Complex, NATO, Russia, Safety, Syria, Terrorism, Turkey, United Kingdom, United Nations

Could CISPA Be the Next SOPA?

April 9, 2012 By Aaron Leave a Comment

By Alex Fitzpatrick for Mashable on April 8, 2012

A bill introduced to the House of Representatives late last year could become the centerpiece of the next SOPA-style struggle between the tech community and Washington, D.C.

The bill already has over 100 co-sponsors and the backing of some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent companies, including Microsoft and Facebook — support which SOPAnever enjoyed.

It’s called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (or CISPA, for short). CISPA would alter the existing National Security Act of 1947 to allow private businesses and the government to share information about cyberthreats — including “efforts to degrade, disrupt or destroy” vital networks or “threat or misappropriation” of information owned by the government or private businesses, such as intellectual property.

To ensure that business-government information sharing happens on a two-way basis, CISPA requires the Director of National Intelligence to set up ways for the intelligence community to pass along threat information to private companies and make sure they actually go ahead and do that. To prevent sensitive information from being shared willy-nilly, CISPA requires that any recipient of such threat reports have a security clearance and a valid need for the information.

Finally, CISPA allows third-party cybersecurity firms (which provide cyber protection to the government and private businesses) to “use cybersecurity systems to identify and obtain cyber threat information in order to protect the rights and property” of their clients. They’re also allowed to share that information with any other business or government department, provided their client gives them permission to do so.

SEE ALSO: SOPA 2.0: Why the Fight for Internet Freedom Is Far From Over

CISPA prevents these private firms from using shared cybersecurity information to gain an advantage, and if they share information with the federal government, they don’t have to disclose it to the public. Meaning, if Company X is hacked, they can tell the government about it without alerting employees, shareholders or the public at large.

As long as a cybersecurity firm acts in “good faith” according to these stipulations, it’s immune to civil or criminal lawsuits regarding information sharing.

Rep. Mike Rodgers (R-Mich.), who introduced the bill along with Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), has framed CISPA as a bill to protect American intellectual property from state-sponsored digital theft of intellectual property.

“Every day U.S. businesses are targeted by nation-state actors like China for cyber exploitation and theft,” said Rodgers in a statement. “This consistent and extensive cyber looting results in huge losses of valuable intellectual property, sensitive information, and American jobs. The broad base of support for this bill shows that Congress recognizes the urgent need to help our private sector better defend itself from these insidious attacks,” he said.

Facebook called CISPA a “thoughtful, bipartisan” bill in a letter of support written in February.

“Effective security requires private and public sector cooperation, and successful cooperation necessitates information sharing,” wrote Joel Kaplan, vice president of U.S. Public Policy at Facebook. “Your legislation removes burdensome rules that currently can inhibit protection of the cyber ecosystem, and helps provide a more established structure for sharing within the cyber community while still respecting the privacy rights and exceptions of our users.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group, feels differently.

According to the EFF, the language in CISPA is worded so broadly that it could be interpreted to allow Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and companies such as Google and Facebook to intercept your messages and transmit them to the government.

They also warn that CISPA could be used as a blunt instrument against copyright infringement, similar to concerns about SOPA. Finally, they’d rather not see the Director of National Intelligence in charge of information sharing — they feel a civilian position would provide for more transparency and accountability.

“The idea is to facilitate detection of and defense against a serious cyber threat, but the definitions in the bill go well beyond that,” said the EFF in a blog post. “The language is so broad it could be used as a blunt instrument to attack websites like The Pirate Bay or WikiLeaks.”

You can read the full text of CISPA for yourself at the Library of Congress.

Do you think CISPA is a welcome tool to ward off cyberattacks, or are you concerned it will be used to clamp down on Internet freedom? Sound off in the comments below.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, PashaIgnatov

Source: http://mashable.com/2012/04/08/could-cispa-be-the-next-sopa

Filed Under: CISPA, Featured, USA

Navy builds 50,000 square foot lab to simulate desert, jungle to test military robots

April 9, 2012 By Aaron Leave a Comment

By Kurzweil AI on April 9, 2012

The 50,000 square foot

Tropical High Bay at NRL's Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research is a 60' by 40' greenhouse that contains a re-creation of a southeast Asian rain forest (credit: NRL)

Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research (LASR) at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. is a real-world testing lab for robots, where they’ll be tested in sandstorms, jungle humidity, and water.

It can be used for small autonomous air vehicles, autonomous ground vehicles, and the people who will interact with them. A motion capture video system allows engineers to track up to 50 objects and gather high-accuracy ground truth data of all positions of these tracked objects.

The facility includes four human-systems interaction labs that can be used as control rooms for human-subject experiments, or for development of autonomy software.

An audio system allows for injecting directional sound into the environment, such as the sound of troops marching or environmental background noises.

The labs also contain eye trackers (useful for studying how people work with advanced interfaces for autonomous systems) and multi-user/multi-touch displays.

Sounds like a great place to test those taco-delivery drones. — Ed.

Source: http://www.kurzweilai.net/navy-builds-50000-square-foot-lab-to-simulate-desert-jungle-to-test-military-robots

Filed Under: Artificial Intelligence, Military, Neuroscience, Robotics, Technology

Tax squeeze for families set to come into effect

April 6, 2012 By Aaron Leave a Comment

By ITN on 5th April, 2012

Up to a million families with children in the UK will lose £511 a year under a squeeze to the tax and benefit system, a think tank has revealed.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said cuts of over £2 billion will come into effect over Easter, prompting anti-poverty campaigners to brand the start of the financial year “Bad Friday”.

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls dubbed the revelations a “tax credits bombshell” on Thursday, adding: “For all the Government’s talk about increasing the personal allowance, these independent figures show that while they may be giving with one hand they are taking much more away with the other.

“That is why families with children will be an average of £511 a year worse from tomorrow.”

Child Poverty Action Group chief executive Alison Garnham added: “Some of the poorest working families will lose thousands of pounds from their annual income, leaving them in a desperate struggle to pay for basics like groceries, clothes and household bills.”

Labour said Government numbers suggested over 850,000 families will lose their child tax credit, worth around £545 per year, from the start of the financial year.

Another 212,000 couples earning under £17,000 a year would lose working tax credit unless they were able to work for longer, Labour said.

Source: http://www.itn.co.uk/uk/42664/120405TAX

Filed Under: Debt, Economy, Income Inequality, Money, Taxes, United Kingdom, Welfare Benefits

Subject: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE RON PAUL CAMPAIGN

February 24, 2012 By Aaron 2 Comments

This letter was not written by anyone at Exposing The Truth, but was sent to us to be shared. You may also do the same on any subject you wish, just contact us using the Contact Us button at the top, then send us an email.

Wednesday Feb 8th 2012

To whom it may concern,

I don’t usually write letters, let alone regarding politicians. There has never been a President or candidate that I have believed in as much as Ron Paul before. I think I speak for most of his supporters when I say that I strongly believe that he is our ONLY CHANCE at saving the terrible course that this country is on, and I believe things are far, far worse then most people realize. Ron Paul speaks the truth, speaks on logic and experience, and his supporters know that he is the only candidate that can be trusted. Now that I told you about what a big fan of Ron Paul I am, let me get to my point for writing this letter.

As much as I love and support Ron Paul, we all know “the powers that be” or the ruling class is never going to let him be the President of the Untied States. It’s blatantly obvious that most of the non-independent media has been paid off and silenced about Ron Paul. It’s obvious that there is voter fraud, I mean right in front of peoples faces. Heck, “Clinton Eugene Curtis” even testified under oath and well as physically proved how steeling votes can be done after he wrote the software to do so. Ron Paul has been getting screwed from the from the beginning in this campaign and it’s not going to stop. While I agree that the longer Paul stays in the race he at least raises this major issues to the surface, I believe he still has a chance at the presidential office if the fight was stepped up quite a bit.

In my opinion, I think the Ron Paul campaign needs to put together a very sensible, logical infomercial that will air on many of the major TV networks, the internet and anywhere else, as soon as possible. Something that really gives people a chance to find out what Ron Paul is all about. Something that is un-biased and sort of a whistle-blower type infomercial. An infomercial that really puts things into perspective for people. Imagine if the guy that prodices the Zeitgeist films were to produce this! Imagine if Ron Paul were to remain calm and scare people with true facts and their options as citizens of the United States!

There are so many young people (including myself) that would vote for Ron Paul if the media would stop selling the idea that he can’t win.

Now is the time for Ron Paul to really sink or swim and I know that a lot of people would vote for him and wake up to what’s really going on if only given the chance.

PLEASE DO SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY, PLEASE FORCE THE PEOPLE TO WAKE UP AND BELIEVE IN FREEDOM AND LIBERTY AGAIN BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE! SOMETHING DRAMATIC NEEDS TO HAPPEN FROM THE RON PAUL CAMPAIGN RIGHT NOW!

Thank You,

DS – Orange County CA

Filed Under: Personal Opinions/Rants