Free Republic

Internet users are fighting back after Congress voted to block Obama-era internet privacy protections. Two fundraising campaigns have so far raised more than $215,000 to purchase and reveal lawmakers' browsing histories. Actor Misha Collins, the star of television show “Supernatural,” has raised more than $63,000 on his GoFundMe page. More than 3,000 people have donated to the page, which has a goal of $500 million. “Great news! The House just voted to pass SJR34. We will finally be able to buy the browser history of all the Congresspeople who voted to sell our data and privacy without our consent!” he...

What if your telecom company tracked the websites you visit, the apps you use, the TV shows you watch, the stores you shop at and the restaurants you eat at, and then sold that information to advertisers? In theory, it’s possible, given the stance Washington is taking on online privacy. Lawmakers on Tuesday voted to overturn privacy rules that required telecom companies to get customers’ permission before sharing their web-browsing and app usage history with third parties. The White House said Wednesday President Donald Trump intends to sign the measure into law. Undoing the rules, which had been adopted last...

I was reading a blog at another site, and came upon this excellent post. With full permission of the author I repost it here. Enjoy! It's long but worth the time IMHO. It's also the most sense out of The Ninth Circuit that I've ever seen. By California Lawyer | Friday, January 24, 2014 at 4:23 pm What First Amendment protections are afforded a blogger sued for defamation? This was the question presented recently in a case just decided in the most liberal appellate court jurisdiction in the USA, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The issue was one of...

Technology that provides a platform for Internet users to express their views on a range of topics has proliferated over the past several years. Many of these technologies, such as financial message boards, blogs, social networking websites and e-mail, allow users, or “posters,” to express themselves anonymously by using pseudonyms traceable only through the hosts of the sites or their Internet service providers. As such speech has increased, so to have actions against Internet-based companies—such as Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft—seeking to discover the identity of someone who posted allegedly defamatory material. But courts have adopted a standard that creates...

An unlikely Internet frontier is Paris, Texas, population 26,490, where a defamation lawsuit filed by the local hospital against a critical anonymous blogger is testing the bounds of Internet privacy, First Amendment freedom of speech and whistle-blower rights. A state district judge has told lawyers for the hospital and the blogger that he plans within a week to order a Dallas Internet service provider to release the blogger's name. The blogger's lawyer, James Rodgers of Paris, said Tuesday he will appeal to preserve the man's anonymity and right to speak without fear of retaliation. Rodgers said the core question in...