An invitation to free internet advocates to join us — Following the sentencing of two Vietnamese songwriters for “spreading propaganda against the state” through their songs, the Copyright Alliance has urged others to call for their release. “We encourage artists and creators, as well as anyone who has shared a link, signed a petition, or blacked out a website in support of internet freedom, to exercise your right to free speech and share the plight of Vo Minh Tri and Tran Vu Anh Binh with your friends, your community and your elected officials.”
Going Memeless – Do civil rights abuses have to be hip to get attention? — This is the question posed by David Newhoff regarding the above convictions. “Almost every day, I encounter some proclamation that democratic governments are trying to stifle free speech, and the claim usually comes from some middle-class American or European whose rights are more than intact. But it really does seem that when we have clear evidence of exactly this kind of oppression, there has to be a hook before it can get much attention.”
I Loved the Whole ‘Information Is Free’ Thing. Until It Was My Book Getting Stolen… — Duke professer Dan Ariely discusses his personal conversion of his views on illegal downloading.
Maintaining Transparency — In response to concerns raised over the methodology of the Copyright Alert System’s process for identifying alleged infringement over p2p networks, the Center for Copyright Infringement, responsible for implementing the System, has released a copy of the independent expert report assessing its system.
Sorry, Internet, SOPA had zero effect on election day results — Digital Trends’ Andrew Couts reports that “Blockage of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) may have served as the Web’s defining political moment of the year, but the anti-SOPA movement appears to have had little to no effect on Congressional elections, with 21 out of 24 SOPA supporters hanging on to their seats.”
Workspace: Cherry Chevapravatdumrong — Screenwriter John August has a wonderful recurring series on how and where other screenwriters get their jobs done. Here, he talks with Family Guy writer Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, who confesses “I’m fine if there’s an actual deadline, I can totally kick it into high gear then, but if there isn’t one staring me right in the face, yikes. This is probably also a problem with writing at home most of the time…it’s so easy to be like ‘Oh, there’s the TV.’ ‘Oh, there’s the kitchen where the snacks live.’ ‘Oh wow, what if I turned on some music and had a one-woman dance party for the next hour?'”
Inside the Music of ‘Nashville’ — I’ve been watching ABC’s new drama Nashville since it premiered and have been pleasantly surprised (Connie Britton, what more could you want?) Rolling Stone looks behind the scenes at Nashville‘s music, a major component of the show, guided by the more than capable hands of executive music producer T Bone Burnett.
NAACP calls Pandora-backed legislation unfair — According to CNet’s Greg Sandoval, “In a letter to Congress, the civil rights group asks that lawmakers vote no on legislation designed to cut the rates paid by Pandora and other Webcasters to artists — some of whom are elderly Motown performers who weren’t compensated fairly for their original work.”
Megaupload Faces Mega Problems Before Relaunch — Kim Dotcom wants you to keep paying attention to him.
Re the third article, perhaps it is a noteworthy representation of “Mr. Academia, I would like you to meet Mr. Real-World.”