Category: Politics

Schiavo Donors Information Sold to Marketers

The New York Times is reporting the the parents of Terri Schiavo have given permission to use a list of names and addresses of those who donated to their cause to conservative direct-marketing firm Response United.

The firm is looking to charge $150 per month for the names of 6,000 donors and $500 per month for the email addresses of 4,000 people who responded to an email from Terri’s father, Bob Schindler.

Orphan Works

What happens to a photograph, piece of music, book or software when the person or company that created it can no longer be found? How do you get permission to use that work in your own if there’s no one to get that permission from? Can you copy a piece of software if the company that original developed it went out of business years ago?

Organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, freeculture.org and Public Knowledge have come together to answer some of the questions surrounding these “Orphan Works” and provide the public with an easy to use form to communicate their opinion on this matter to the US Copyright Office, which is seeking public opinion up until March 25th of this year.

So go to orphanworks.org and read up on what you as a citizen should know about this issue and make your opinion heard.

Applebee’s, hate groups and dinner

The SF Weekly has an article on their website entitled “My Dinner at Applebee’s With White Supremacists!” about the author’s attempts to infiltrate online hate groups. The story involves him meeting a family of members at the local Applebee’s restaurant, something that’s simultaneously disturbing and yet sadly funny.

Not a read for the easily offended, but a good one none-the-less due to how it shows just how normal and mundane seeming the people behind hate that is often sensationalized can be.