@#$!

I don't even know what to say about this. Fox News, Iraqi branch.

Digital Rights.

This bill of rights is obviously not recognized by our nation's legal system as it currently stands, but it's pretty cool none the less. Here's a link to digitalconsumer.org.

Hope?

The U.S. Senate recently conducted the first hearing on the subject of network neutrality. This article discusses the results of the hearing and covers some of the basic issues. If you want to know more about network neutrality, as well as its importance for the future of the internet, I'd strongly suggest that you read some of the works of Lawrence Lessig, a digital rights lawyer and lobbyist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Say goodbye to "fair use".

This really sucks.

Transnationalism.

Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and Cisco Systems flipped the bird to United States Congress this week, by refusing to attend a hearing in Washington with regard to their business practices in China. In essence, these and other Corporate Entities are aiding the Chinese government in their attempts to limit access to certain information in China.

U.S. Congress has stated that these American firms have not been operating in keeping with the principles of free speech. I think they're rather missing the point. A Corporation is very much like a highly adaptable animal in that it will do whatever is necessary to survive. This includes methods such as diversification and transnationalism. These entities are larger in both population and income than many small nations. They operate across national borders with no prejudice, and in clear cooperation with the governments of their host nations. Furthermore, the American legal structure in recent years has been shaped to cater to the interests of these beings. In this case, I don't think there is anything that the U.S. Government could do to stop this activity.

The Corporation has evolved beyond the legal structure which created it. People talk about whether China or possibly India will overtake the United States as a world economic power. Again, this is not the point. We are leaving the age of the Nation-State. The lines of money are no longer the lines of international borders. Whether we like it or not, the Corporation is now more powerful than the Nation-State, and is the true inheritor of wealth and power here on Earth.