Harvard's Lawrence Lessig Sees Left/Right Unity in Occupy Wall Street

Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig -- known primarily as an advocate for curbing the extremes of copyright law -- offers an interesting take on Occupy Wall Street.

Lessig theorizes that the Occupy movement has elements that should attract people from both the Right and Left. Assuming this development isn't thwarted, the Occupy Movement could herald a significant populist opposition to the Establishment's powers that be.



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Rise, Consise & Krookid -- Rappers for Ron Paul

Perhaps disgusted by Barak Obama's mimicry of George W. Bush, youth and hipsters are shifting their support from Obama to Ron Paul.

Rappers "Rise, Consise & Krookid" celebrate Ron Paul's peace and thrift policies in this latest song -- What If? Ron Paul 2012.



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2011 Tabloid Witch Award Winners Announced!

The 8th annual Tabloid Witch Awards, sponsored by the Hollywood Investigator, have now been announced!

The Tabloid Witch Awards are a No Entry Fee horror film contest and festival.

Read about this year's winning horror films in the Hollywood Investigator.

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Union Dancers Demand Fair Music Video Contract

Remember way back when MTV still ran music videos?

No, the format is not dead. In fact, music videos are doing financially well enough so that union dancers are demanding that producers give them a fair contract.

According to AFTRA (American Federation of Radio and Television Artists -- one of several unions that represent dancers), their members have formed the "It's About Time" Campaign to obtain a fair contract from music video producers.

In a recent press release, AFTRA says:

"AFTRA dancers have stepped up their campaign for a fair contract covering dancers and other performers in music videos by launching a social media and video campaign over the weekend.

"'It's About Time' features prominent dancers and choreographers calling for a contract that provides for safety, fair pay, residuals, health and retirement benefits and other provisions for professional performers. In this campaign, AFTRA is partnering with the Dancers' Alliance, a grassroots organization dedicated to educating dancers and building solidarity in the dance community.





"The online campaign began with a video message from dancer and choreographer Galen Hooks, who is a AFTRA Los Angeles Board member and a leader of the Dancers’ Alliance. Other participants include choreographer/director Brian Friedman, former Pussycat Doll Carmit Bachar, comedian Affion Crockett and many established dancers, including Bryan Tanaka, Randi Kemper and Shaun Evaristo.

"The campaign's theme of 'It's About Time' refers to the 30-year history of the modern music video, the recent resurgence in the popularity and profitability of music videos, and the need for dancers and other performers to finally be recognized for the talent and professionalism they bring to the music video industry.

"The launch of the campaign coincided with the weekend of the MTV Video Music Awards, which this year drew the largest audience in the network’s 30-year history.

"With the rise of Vevo and other ad-supported streaming services, music videos are generating revenue for the record labels like never before. According to ComScore, Vevo is now the second most viewed video content property after Google sites, with 63 million unique monthly viewers. Vevo is also the top partner channel on YouTube (a Google site), with nearly 60 million unique monthly viewers watching monetized Vevo content on YouTube.

"AFTRA commenced negotiations for a music video contract on June 21, 2011 with representatives of Sony, UMG, Warner, EMI, Disney and most of their subsidiary labels.

"While AFTRA has placed a high priority on achieving a fair agreement, industry representatives have been slow in responding to AFTRA's proposal and setting dates for continued negotiations."

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Police Can "Detain" You -- For Taking Photographs!

If you take photos, they'd better have some "apparent esthetic value" -- or the cops can detain (i.e., arrest) you! This is because photography is a "suspicious activity."

Other "suspicious activities" cops are on the lookout for include using binoculars or attempting to "acquire uniforms without a legitimate cause." (Better not shop at any Army surplus clothing stores -- or you may might have 'splaining to do down at the police precinct!

Writing for the Long Beach Post, Greggory Moore reports:


Police Chief Jim McDonnell has confirmed that detaining photographers for taking pictures "with no apparent esthetic value" is within Long Beach Police Department policy.

McDonnell spoke for a follow-up story on a June 30 incident in which Sander Roscoe Wolff, a Long Beach resident and regular contributor to Long Beach Post, was detained by Officer Asif Kahn for taking pictures of a North Long Beach refinery.1

"If an officer sees someone taking pictures of something like a refinery," says McDonnell, "it is incumbent upon the officer to make contact with the individual." McDonnell went on to say that whether said contact becomes detainment depends on the circumstances the officer encounters.

McDonnell says that while there is no police training specific to determining whether a photographer's subject has "apparent esthetic value," officers make such judgments "based on their overall training and experience" and will generally approach photographers not engaging in "regular tourist behavior."

This policy apparently falls under the rubric of compiling Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) as outlined in the Los Angeles Police Department's Special Order No. 11, a March 2008 statement of the LAPD's "policy … to make every effort to accurately and appropriately gather, record and analyze information, of a criminal or non-criminal nature, that could indicate activity or intentions related to either foreign or domestic terrorism."

Among the non-criminal behaviors "which shall be reported on a SAR" are the usage of binoculars and cameras (presumably when observing a building, although this is not specified), asking about an establishment's hours of operation, taking pictures or video footage "with no apparent esthetic value," and taking notes.

Also listed as behaviors to be documented are "Attempts to acquire illegal or illicit biological agent (anthrax, ricin, Eboli, smallpox, etc.)," "In possession, or utilizes, explosives (for illegal purposes)," and "Acquires or attempts to acquire uniforms without a legitimate cause (service personnel, government uniforms, etc.)." Special Order No. 11 does not distinguish between how these behaviors should be handled and how (e.g.) photography should be handled.


Read the entire article.

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Las Vegas Police Beat Up Citizen Videographer Mitchell Crooks

Although the Fullerton police's beating of Kelly Thomas is now in the news, it's only one of many police beatings -- often of innocent civilians.

Cops especially hate citizens videotaping cops -- despite Americans' First Amendment rights to tape anyone on public streets.



In the above tape, taken on March 20, 2011, office Derek Colling beats up American citizen Mitchell Crooks for videotaping him on duty.

Seems that while Big Brother is installing video cameras everywhere to monitor US -- Big Brother doesn't like to be monitored back.

Big Brother is even passing laws in some states to make it illegal to videotape cops on duty -- a clear violation of the Constitution.

Fight Big Brother's Tracking YOUR Internet Use -- Stop HR 1981

David Moon of Demand Progress reports:


"A direct assault on Internet users" is what the ACLU is calling it.

Yesterday a U.S. House committee approved HR 1981, a broad new Internet snooping bill. They want to force Internet service providers to keep track of and store their customers' information -- including your name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Library Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Demand Progress, and 25 other civil liberties and privacy groups have expressed our opposition to this legislation.

Will you join us in opposition by emailing your lawmakers right away? Just click here.

They've shamelessly dubbed it the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act," but our staunchest allies in Congress are calling it what it is: an all-encompassing Internet snooping bill.

CNet Reports: Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, who led Democratic opposition to the bill said, " 'It represents a data bank of every digital act by every American' that would 'let us find out where every single American visited Web sites.' "

"The bill is mislabeled," said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the panel. "This is not protecting children from Internet pornography. It's creating a database for everybody in this country for a lot of other purposes."

Please click here to join the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Consumer Federation of America, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Demand Progress and 25 other civil liberties and privacy groups in opposing this legislation.

Thanks for fighting for Internet freedom.

-- The Demand Progress team

P.S. The bill just passed committee, so it's time to push back hard. Will you please ask your friends to take action too?


Join the effort to protect YOUR internet privacy!

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