Dear FCC, Please Don't Let Hollywood Break My TV

Gary Shapiro, 11.12.2009

President & CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association

The MPAA is back -- this time, before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) -- asking permission to disable lawfully purchased HDTV-capable TVs.

Another (Yawn) Sexy Nurse? Hallow'green Is Freakier Than Packaged Costumes

Vanessa Richmond, 10.16.2009

Pop Culture Critic

Halloween is getting scarier. It's starting to rival Christmas in toxicity without so much as a "boo." It's the costumes, mostly. Somehow, along with going less green, they've also become more boring.

Financial Health: No Cures Please, We'd Rather Be Sick?

Jodie Allen, 10.14.2009

PewResearch senior editor, former editor/biz columnist@USNews, Slate, WaPo Outlook editor

No doubt, the medicine needed to cure a chronically ailing economy can be mighty bad tasting. But hanging tough can often yield fast and substantial results.

Anti-Globalization Is Back! Police vs. the People and the "Pirates"

Vivian Norris de Montaigu, 09.27.2009

Based in Paris and holds a PhD in Cinema Studies

The anti-globalization movement is back, and it is taking forms that extend beyond the left of center radicals to those who are out of work, out of money, and losing what little they have left to the greed of a very few.

Should Internet Content Be Free? The Best Model to Save Newspapers, Books, and Music in the Digital Age

Anis Shivani, 09.10.2009

Writer

How can we retain, even enhance, creativity in the digital age, taking advantage of near-zero costs of redistribution? Two recent books consider the question.

Vandals On The Side of The Angels: How Far Is Too Far?

Eric Lurio, 08.30.2009

Artist, writer, adventurer!

I am not a fan of whaling and have long supported the ban, but what Sea Shepherd and its friends have been doing, has been mostly ineffective and somewhat counterproductive.

Piracy vs. Availability: A Parable

Hugh McGuire, 08.30.2009

Co-founder of BookOven.com, founder of LibriVox.org

If as providers of content, give me what I want, when I want it, at a reasonable price, I'll be happy to pay for it. If not, I'll be compelled -- when I really want something -- to find other ways to get it.

Somalia Focus: Q&A On Pirates, Politics, and Poverty

Susan Ryan, 08.23.2009

Susan Ryan is a writer based in New York. ...

A gang takes people hostage and hopes it will make them millionaires because the government of those hostages will step in and pay the ransom. Governments have created a market.

Culture Clash on the Internet

Jonathan Handel, 08.21.2009

Entertainment Attorney at TroyGould in Los Angeles

many people expect much of their Internet content to be free. Why is this, how did it happen, and, focusing on music and movies, what can be done about it?

Somalia's Pirate Problem

Craig and Marc Kielburger, 07.27.2009

Co-founders, Free The Children

Everyone agrees that there are pirates off the coast of Somalia. Actually identifying them is tougher. To the western media and commercial shippers,...

Tackling European Security in Corfu

Dora Bakoyannis, 07.26.2009

Foreign Minister of Greece

Today, the renewed commitment from Russia and the U.S. to work on common ground, focusing their relationship on what unites them, creates a momentum we should built on.

Somalia's "State" of Emergency An International Affair

Andrew Belonsky, 07.26.2009

Somalis are given two alluring choices: join the Islamists' fight or head to the high seas. There's no state to either welcome them or be aligned with.

R.I.P. Analog Television, Hello Digital: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer

Shelly Palmer, 07.13.2009

President, National Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences, NY

Today marks the end of Analog Television; AOL acquires local news site Patch and events site Going.com; Yahoo announces that Timothy Morse will serve as the company's new CFO.

Pirates Gain Seat in EU Parliament

Joshua Glazer, 07.09.2009

Editor and Content Director, "URB Magazine" and URB.com

They're not the "yo-ho-ho" kind of pirates, nor the "taking-ships-hostage-with-rocket-launchers" pirates. But Sweden's Pirate Party won a seat in the European Parliament in yesterday's election.

Whale Wars - Eco-Terrorism as Reality TV

Richard Spilman, 07.06.2009

Writer, Videographer, and Multimedia Designer

While Whale Wars presents a simplistic case of us against them, the noble environmentalists against the evil whalers, the reality, of course, is not so black and white.

World Breathes Easier Now That Susan Boyle's Reign of Terror Ends

Bill Matthews, 07.01.2009

thepeoplesnewsonline.com

The media seemed to forget that Great Britain has filled the world with ugly singers, whether Mick Jagger or Amy Winehouse.

Castro, Carter, Clinton -- Not in My Backyard

Reese Schonfeld, 06.30.2009

Television journalist

Just like the folks in Arkansas, you don't want a bunch of terrorists in your neighborhood, and no Senator wants to lose his job because he didn't vote against putting them there.

Copyright Needs Limits, As It Restricts Innovation

Gary Shapiro, 06.27.2009

President & CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association

Defenders of expanded copyright restrictions imply that content owners have been on a losing streak and have few tools at their disposal. Wrong.

Guardrails for the Internet: Preserving Creativity Online

Michael Lynton, 06.25.2009

Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment

In no other realm of our society have we encountered so widespread and consequential a failure to put in place guidelines over the use and growth of such a major industry.

Killing "Rebels" in the Niger Delta

Ann Medlock, 06.21.2009

The people looking at you in this photo are Job Bebenimibo and his students in the Giraffe Service Club International in Oporoza, Nigeria. Take a ...

The Solipsist and the Internet (a Review of Helprin's Digital Barbarism)

Lawrence Lessig, 06.20.2009

Co-founder of Change Congress, founding board member, Creative Commons

Helprin's thesis is simple and familiar to any intelligent sort who first comes to think about the way the law regulates creative work: that there's something fundamentally unjust about the law of copyright.