Much abuzz online yesterday had to deal with the congressional threat to the internet known as SOPA. The Stop Online Piracy Act is a federal bill which would create a blacklist of websites which internet service providers would be required to maintain and enforce. The blacklist would allegedly include websites which either host or link to data which, per its existence, is violating copyright laws. The very concept of ‘piracy’ is on its face hyperbolic. It is laughable Newspeak to equate data sharing with the practice of pillaging vessels at sea. PIPA, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, is the senate version of the dinosaur recording industry’s legislative attempt to thwart the free exchange of information. Also lobbying very strongly with the MPAA is the pharmaceutical industry, which profits heavily from onerous intellectual property regulation.
Reddit was the first eminent domain of the internet to announce January 18 as its blackout date to protest SOPA. Wikipedia announced its participation with similar measures. Google demonstrated its solidarity by featuring a black stripped homepage with a subheader requesting that people contact their so-called representatives and ask for a rejection of state control over the internet.
Heavy traffic to government servers hosting contact information for congress and the senate caused many pages to be inaccessible for the day.
In the eastern European nation of Slovenia earlier today, a paywall was erected engrossing many of the most prolific digital media distributors. Piano Media, a Slovakian paywall service corporation, has convinced nine publishers and twelve websites to adopt a shared paywall, which will cost subscribers €2 for a weekly pass.
The model for Piano’s cartelization of media is similar to that of television subscriptions. At present, more people are abandoning cable and satellite live programming for the boundless information frontier provided by the internet. Few subscription services have fared well in the purge caused by the internet, with a notable exception being the growth seen by Netflix. Piano’s model divides subscription profits with the companies participating in the paywall, giving 70% of the revenue to media distributors and keeping thirty cents on the dollar for itself. It measures traffic among clients and based on where more traffic is channeled, Piano compensates the company.
Delo, Slovenia’s largest publication, plans to put about 10% of its content behind the wall, keeping the remaining content free so as to keep constant its web traffic. In Slovakia, media giant SME has approximately 5% of its content paywalled at the moment. (more…)
So passed another ubiquitous presidential primary season. The evolution of social media in advancing involvement, as well as disruption and protest in the weeks leading up to the primary was increasingly evident. Whether it was Occupy New Hampshire, undercover Ron Paul supporters, or independent and creative anarchists, the 2012 primary election bloomed into a renaissance for political satire in the granite state. Independent media continues to release intriguing videos and stories from the quadrennial festivity.
One especially overlooked aspect of any primary election is when, like this year, one side of the political divide is a no-contest. Few were shocked that Barack Obama emerged as the highest vote recipient for those who selected the blue-bannered ballot during Tuesday’s primary. The incumbent president was listed among 13 other contenders for the democratic party’s nomination. This ballot is notable for being shorter than its opposition by 20 names. Aside from the potential provided by the write-in slot, the only other candidate who stood for radical change on the roster was Vermin Supreme. His campaign represented what could have been the most honest and accessible movement for variety that this nation has ever seen.
Ed Cowan
But despite amassing 833 votes, Vermin Supreme was not to earn the coveted position of the new number two. He was narrowly edged out by world traveling Vermont resident Ed Cowan. Ed received 945 votes which put him in second place among declared democrats in the democratic primary. Counting republican write-ins, the second, third, and fourth places go to the second, first, and third placing republicans. Ron Paul’s 2,271 democratic write-in votes combined with the official 56,872 votes gained in the republican primary secured him a second place finish in both 2012 New Hampshire primaries.
Bill Gardner’s office has released the total vote counts, including legible write-ins. One surprising trend is that the lesser-contested democratic primary had 759 scatter ballots cast, compared to the 257 scatter ballots in the republican race. As the national show hits the road on its ritual tour, one wonders what our neighbors plan as entertainment for visiting politicians in their home states.
Harvard student blogger Matt Bieber has written yesterday that he was baselessly arrested by Hudson police while at a Mitt Romney event on January 9. Police said that he was identified by campaign staff as someone who was present at a previous protest which Bieber claims to have not attended. His experience is published at his blog here.
The previous protest that he was alleged to have been at could have possibly been one which I had attended in a journalistic capacity. Occupy New Hampshire participants had gathered outside of Romney’s campaign headquarters on Elm Street in Manchester. Some protesters waived signs over the windows while the presidential candidate talked to supporters inside. This occurred during the initial occupation of Veterans Park back in October.
The facts in Bieber’s case are vaguely similar to the circumstances that resulted in the arrest of Dave Ridley at the Radisson in Nashua on May 25.
At Sunday morning’s presidential debate held at the Capitol Center for the Arts, one arrest was made during a foiled “mic check” attempt by Occupy New Hampshire activists. Matthew Richards of Manchester was arrested for trespassing after attempting to hold open a door at the theater to allow protesters into the debate. He was tackled by security and placed under arrest by Concord police. Dave Ridley captured the scene following the arrest, as Matthew is brought out of the building. This is his second protest related trespassing arrest, as he was also taken into custody for a short period following the eviction of the Occupy NH encampment in Veterans Park.
Yesterday while attending Occupy the Primary being held at Veterans Park in Manchester, I met MPD captain Robert Cunha. He had come to the park to discuss altering aspects of the occupation with participants in the protest. I had noticed when mailed my verdict following the trial held stemming from my Chalking 8 arrest that Capt. Cunha was CC’d a copy of the ruling. This indicates that he is likely the supervising officer in dealing with the cases that have stemmed from the chalking 8 incident. Following the arrests, it was the lower ranked sergeant Todd Boucher who spoke with press and was cited as the officer in charge during the incident. Sergeant John Patti was the officer who made or ordered six of the arrests. Joseph Mucci, also a sergeant, made 2 arrests and issued one citation that was later upgraded to a criminal charge.
Not surprisingly, Robert Cunha was not interested in discussing aspects of the case. That the potential still exists for legal action to be taken against Manchester PD for false arrest is likely what drives the silence. See my interaction with Cpt. Cunha embedded below:
On Monday, January 9, Ademo Freeman and Wesley Gilwreath will be sentenced following their convictions on chalking-related criminal mischief charges which were ruled upon December 27. Activists have planned to chalk in solidarity outside of the court prior to the sentencing hearing.
