29350685
submission
Ralph Spoilsport writes:
A coalition of 17 publishing companies has shut down library.nu and ifile.it, charging them with pirating ebooks. This comes less than a month after megaupload was shut down, and SOPA was stopped. If the busting of cyberlockers continues at this pace and online library sharing dismantled, this under-reported story may well be the tip of a very big iceberg — one quite beyond the P&L sheets of publishers and striking at basic human rights as outlined in the contradictions of the UN Charter. Is this a big deal — a grim coalition of corporate power? Or just mopping up some scurvy old pirates? Or somewhere in between? Those concerned with the future of file sharing should watch these events closely.
15520886
submission
Ralph Spoilsport writes:
Proponents of marijuana legalization, which is on the California ballot in 2010, have hit a Facebook wall in their effort to grow an online campaign to rethink the nation's pot laws. Facebook initially accepted ads from the group Just Say Now, running them from August 7 to August 16, generating 38 million impressions and helping the group's fan page grow to over 6,000 members. But then they were abruptly removed. Should the phone company prevent phone calls on pot legalisation? If not, then what makes Facebook so special?
5432157
submission
Ralph Spoilsport writes:
It seems digg has banned laughingsquid. Why this is so is anyone's guess. Digg ain't talkin' and everyone else is puzzled. Is this pernicious? Or some kind of a non-malicious screw up? Or something in between? Any ideas out there?
3549671
submission
Ralph Spoilsport writes:
Major annoucement from First Solar: $1 per watt solar modules. The entire announcement is HERE. This is an extremely important price barrier breakthrough. Inexpensive PV solar is critical to maintaining an industrial society in a postCarbon context, and is a great example of how green tech can and will be central to business plans over the next few decades as we transition out of the age of fossil fuels. Solar has its obvious problems (doesn't work in the dark, etc.) but finally cost is becoming not one of them.
3517501
submission
Ralph Spoilsport writes:
One of the recurring fears in a digitally linked global economy is the scenario where there is an electronic "run on the bank", a scenario that would make the run on banks of the early 1930s look like a pocketful of change. Even Bill Maher in his broadcast of 20.FEB.09 mused to the effect of "What would happen if the Chinese took all their money out?" Well it seems that Doomsday Scenario passed already, on 15.SEP.09. It seems that in a period of minutes, $550 billion dollars disappeared electronically from the Federal Reserve System in the form of liquidated money market funds. This story was told by Rep. Kanjorski (D-PA). Now, whether this was the Chinese doing a panic withdrawal or the major banks pulling out all stops to cover their bad debts is unknown at this time, but it does show one important thing: technology permitted a panic sell-off of unprecedented proportions that could have been completely catastrophic. What is also distressing is that there has been ZERO media coverage on this.