Whistleblower Edward Snowden, famous for leaking information about the U.S. government's PRISM internet surveillance program, sat down with The Guardian and its readers to do a live online question and answer session this weekend. … Read More
Pirate Bay Finds Safe Haven in Iceland, Switches to .IS Domain
It has been a busy month for The Pirate Bay’s IT department thus far, with the site skipping from domain to domain.
Two weeks ago the notorious BitTorrent site traded in its .SE domain for the Greenland-based .GL TLD. The Pirate Bay took this decision because they feared that Swedish authorities were about to take over their domain names.
However, TPB did not receive a warm welcome in Greenland.
Within two days of the move The Pirate Bay lost both its .GL domain names. Tele-Post, the private company responsible for .GL registrations, did not wait for a court order and said it would not allow the domains to be put to “illegal” use.
Resilient as always, TPB aren’t about to give up that easily and have already lined up yet another domain name. This time they’re going for Iceland’s .IS TLD, which will be a little harder to take offline.
Ahoy Iceland
Thepiratebay.is was registered after the Greenland debacle and traffic was redirected to the new domain a few minutes ago. Iceland is an interesting choice as the country previously positioned itself as a safe haven for freedom of speech.
Whether The Pirate Bay’s activities are considered protected under this definition remains to be seen, but ISNIC, the company responsible for .IS domains, informs TorrentFreak that they have no plans to treat thepiratebay.is any differently to their other domains.
When we asked whether ISMIC would follow Greenland’s lead and move for a proactive suspension, we got a clear answer.
“The short answer is no. Such an action would require a formal order from an Icelandic court. ISNIC is not responsible for a registrant’s usage of their domains,” ISNIC’s Marius Olafsson told TorrentFreak.
This is not the first time that Iceland’s registry has been asked about possible actions against a controversial domain. In 2010, when Wikileaks was hosted under an .IS TLD, the company gave the same response.
“This policy applies equally to any .is domain,” Olafsson says, adding that it’s the domain owner’s responsibility to abide by the law, not theirs.
“There is an article in our registration rules which states that ‘the registrant is responsible for ensuring that the use of the domain is within the limits of Icelandic law as current at any time’,” he explains.
ISNIC’s position means that The Pirate Bay will probably be operating from the .IS domain for a while. Technically copyright holders could file a complaint, but without a prior ruling against the site in Iceland this will probably turn out to be a time-consuming and expensive endeavor.
Even if the domain was taken away, The Pirate Bay would probably move on to the next one as if nothing happened. Until they run out of domains.
Source: Pirate Bay Finds Safe Haven in Iceland, Switches to .IS Domain
Drones out of everywhere! Washington march against US drone warfare
Organized by the ANSWER coalition, the movement is calling on the administration to stop the use of drones on foreign soil. The coalition urges its members to stop the US government as it “functions as a death squad government, permitting the president and military leaders to create secret ‘kill lists’ of people who have been selected for assassination.” On the organization’s website people have voiced their reasons behind their protest.“No one should sit passively and allow our government to wage a ‘quiet war’ – an undeclared war but a real war in our name!” Rev. Graylan Hagler, a senior minister wrote.“It’s time we Americans join the rest of the world in condemning President Obama’s barbaric drone killing spree, a policy that benefits the war profiteers but makes us hated around the world,” Medea Benjamin, Co-Founder of CODEPINK said in his post. Protesters on the ground have confirmed the overall message of American frustration due to drone strikes worldwide.“We’re saying to this president, we don’t like these policies that turn America into a war-mongering country, an assassination capital of the world,” a protester has told RT.“I don’t want the government that takes my tax money and spends it murdering thousands of people around the world,” another protester concurred.Brian Becker from the anti-war coalition told the RT crew that“drones are being used to make sure that the American people are not part of the political equation” allowing wars to be carried out in total secrecy.“A war could be raged, a real war but all the bleeding is done on one side,” Becker said.“Drones are used to violate every nation’s sovereignty. The Obama administration flies them in whenever it wants and kills whoever it wants – that is not legal.” Many of the participants also voiced their anger over Washington’s recent move to expand its military involvement on the African continent.“As an advocate against the re-colonization of Ivory Coast, I believe that drones will be used as war machines to re-colonize Africa. These war toys will surely target freedom fighters and activists opposing Western stooges in power in Africa,” said Leo Gnawa, Coordinator for CRI-Pan African.The North and West Africa are rapidly becoming yet another frontier of the United States’ war on terror. The US has set up a drone base in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, and flies unarmed Reaper drones from Ethiopia. Washington has also carried out surveillance flights over East Africa from the island nation of the Seychelles.With the recent introduction of Predator drones in Niger the Pentagon is set to secure a drone stronghold in West Africa as the country shares a long border with Mali, where Washington believes Islamist groups have taken root. Niger also borders Libya and Nigeria two nations barely coping to contain armed extremist movements.The Predator drones in Niger are unarmed and are conducting surveillance over Mali and Niger, but Washington has not ruled out arming them with missiles in the future.All this, as US kick starts its African campaign by sending troops to as many as 35 African nations, citing a growing threat from extremist groups. The Department of Defense is hoping to install American soldiers overseas in order to prepare local troops there for any future crises as tensions escalate.Drone strikes were first used after the 9/11 attacks from bases in Pakistan and Uzbekistan, in combat missions inside Afghanistan. More than a decade later, having killed almost 5,000 people, mostly civilians including women and children, Washington has expanded the use of the remotely controlled aircraft into Yemen, Somalia and most of all Pakistan. … Read More
Army officer: Obama’s DHS intends to kill “you and me!”
Terry M. Hestilow, a retired Army officer with nearly 30 years of service under his belt, as well as combat experience in both Vietnam and Afghanistan issued a dire warning to all Americans. … Read More
Pam Geller shouts down Orly Taitz at CPAC panel
During a panel on Islam and national security by CPAC’s “Uninvited” anti-Islam activists, birther queen Orly Tatiz interrupted the question and answer session by repeatedly asking about President Obama’s birth certificate, and demanding that the panel explain why it wasn’t addressing the topic.”I think there’s enough substance on this panel, I mean how many topics can you handle,” Pamela Geller, the blogger for Atlas Shrugged, shot back. “Inappropriate. really.”"We are not a birther site,” the moderator, from Breitbart.com, told Taitz before she was shushed by the crowd. She left the room shortly after.Here’s the video, by Salon’s Alex Seitz-Wald:Continue Reading… … Read More
What’s efficiency got to do with capitalism? Nothing.
For all its vaunted efficiency, capitalism has foisted wasteful inequality and environmental ruin on us. There is an alternative What’s efficiency got to do with capitalism? The short answer is little or nothing. Economic and social collapses in Detroit, Cleveland and many other US cities did…
Why are gay men and straight women friends?
From the title characters of Will and Grace to Kurt and Rachel on Glee, television comedies have picked up on an apparently widespread phenomenon: intense friendships between gay men and straight women. But in real life, what cements this often-close bond?
Newly published research provides a plausible, albeit partial, answer: their unique ability to provide clear-headed counsel regarding romantic relationships.
“Our results suggest that straight women and gay men perceive mating advice provided by each other to be more trustworthy than similar advice offered by other individuals,” a team led by psychologist Eric Russell, a visiting researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, writes in the journal Evolutionary Psychology.
