A litany of disinachting news and articles

Oh, where to begin?

The University of Wisconsin's WiscNet is under attack from corporate service providers.  According to the Ars Technica article, the Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association is working legislation through the state house that would force UW to return millions in stimulus money:

Under a proposed new law, the University of Wisconsin system could be forced to return millions of dollars in federal broadband grants that it has already won, spend far more money on network services, and perhaps even withdraw from the Internet2 project.

Universities have traditionally been strong proponents of open and free access to information resources, often partnering with communities and K-12 institutions to ensure low cost internet access. 

However, a federal law being proposed now, PROTECT IP, if passed, is likely to drastically change the land scape of higher education networks.  In short, the act will be onerous burdens on network operators to protect and safeguard the intellectual property rights of copyright owners.  Sounds like a great effort, but in reality, the RIAA and MPAA are shifting the cost of copyright protection from their for-profit members to network operators, all under the assumptions that network traffic is likely to infringe on a copyright.

Along the same lines, the MPAA and RIAA want to give police the power the search without a warrant for potentially illegal optical disc manufacturing facilities.  Again, protecting copyrights is all well and good, but is it so important that we are going to make it easier for the government to infringe on our fourth amendment rights?

As it is, the FBI is lowering the bar for search and surveillance: giving them:

more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention.

To put another way, it will be easier for agents to work without an formal, open investigation which means less of a paper trail and less supervision, setting up a system that is more vulnerable to abuse.

On a slightly different note, Tennessee has just made it illegal to post offensive images.  The upside is that maybe this would make Weinergate illegal?

Good news all around.  Maybe time to listen to some Joy Division.