WikiLeaks saga pushes businesses to adapt

Hungary media law 'may change'
A Controversial New Media law in Hungary could be amended, a senior member of the governing party has said. Janos Lazar said that if the law was applied "in a wrong way, or there are problems" parliament would change it. He said the Fidesz party's aim was to "improve" the Hungarian media, and "not to wage a war" against it. The opposition, foreign governments and media watchdogs have raised concerns about the law, which creates powers to monitor and fine the me...

Students heading to Israel and Palestine
CANTON — A St. Lawrence University government Professor is taking five Students to Israel and Palestine for 10 days over winter break to study aspects of the conflict for research projects. "A lot of the research they want to do, you really need to be on the ground," said Ronnie M. Olesker, who has a doctorate in international relations. "Plus, we live in Canton and one of the main ways to study political conflict, especially one as complex as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is to be o...

WGA issues contract demands
Published: Dec. 24, 2010 at 4:06 PM Actress Sandra Oh joins Writers Guild of America (WGA) members as they marched down Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles on Novemeber 20, 2007, along with supporters on the 16th day of their strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). (UPI Photo/Jim Ruymen). LOS ANGELES, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- The Writers Guild of America issued a list of official demands for its upcoming contract negotiations with film and television producers, gui...

Jonathan Handel: WGA Sends Out 'Pattern of Demands' Seeking Major Contract Improvements
Goals include increases in minimums, Pension and health, home video residuals and New Media reuse, and revamps of pitching process. Details: The Hollywood Reporter. ------------------------------ Watch for my new book "Hollywood on Strike!," due out next month. Subscribe to my blog (jhandel.com) for more about entertainment law and digital media law. Check out my residuals chart there too. Go to the blog itself to subscribe via RSS or email. Or, follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, or...

Early Christmas for Comcast: FCC Chair Approves NBC Universal Merger
It may be going too far to say that Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) got a Christmas miracle, but FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's approval of its takeover of NBC Universal comes awfully close. As The Wall Street Journal notes, Genachowski agreed to back the $13.75 billion deal, which will give Philadelphia-based Comcast a 51% stake in NBC Universal. This approval comes tied to the following conditions: Comcast needs to provide NBC and its other Comcast-owned video content to pay-TV competitors at "re...

Senator Bernie Sander Deplores the FCC Approval of the Comcast Acquisition of NBC Universal
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Thu, 12/23/2010 - 2:28pm. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski proposed approving Comcast's takeover of NBC Universal: "The FCC released some very bad news for the future of American media and, in my view, for the future of American Democracy.  FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has circulated an order that would allow Comcast, the country's largest cable and Internet prov...

Hungary's new media law puts EU presidency in doubt
The Hungarian government is facing suspension from the EU over New Media laws that greatly expand the state's power to monitor and penalise private media....

Writers Guild inks bargaining goals for upcoming contract talks
The union representing Hollywood's writers is beginning to script its upcoming contract negotiations with the major studios. The Writers Guild of America on Wednesday sent to more than 10,000 members its so-called "pattern of demands," the bargaining goals that members will vote on by Jan. 24. The demands set the framework for film and TV contract negotiations with the studios, expected to begin early next year. The guild's current contract expir...

Russia's Medvedev: WikiLeaks won't harm US ties
MOSCOW - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says that revelations from confidential U.S. cables released by the Wikileaks will not harm Moscow's relations with Washington. Medvedev said in a live interview with state television stations Friday that he and other Russian leaders were long aware of the opinions expressed in the cables that are similar to those found in the media. In the Wikileaks cables, American Diplomats and their sources described Russia as "virtual mafia state." The leaked...

WikiLeaks Poised for Major Israel Document Dump
The paucity of information on Israel in the early Wikileaks releases led to a flurry of speculations and Conspiracy theories, insisting Wikileaks may have made a secret deal with the Netanyahu government or that the lack of data proved the organization’s insincerity as a Whistleblower. After all, in a dump of 250,000+ classified documents from the US, surely Israel would figure pretty prominently. And actually it does. Though the information has not been released there will be a consider...

Zimbabwe to set up WikiLeaks commission
Harare (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's Attorney General plans to set up a commission to investigate possible Treason charges against locals over briefings with U.S. Diplomats reported in confidential State Department cables released by Wikileaks. The move appears to be targeting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, following state media reports that hawks in President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party wanted an official Probe into Tsvangirai's briefings with the U.S. ambassador in Harare. In comments cited in ...

Russia's Medvedev: WikiLeaks won't harm US ties (AP)
Moscow – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says that revelations from confidential U.S. cables released by the Wikileaks will not harm Moscow's relations with Washington. Medvedev said in a live interview with state television stations Friday that he and other Russian leaders were long aware of the opinions expressed in the cables that are similar to those found in the media. In the Wikileaks cables, American Diplomats and their sources described Russia as "virtual mafia state." The leak...

How Do We Shift Power to the People and Away from Concentrated Corporate Power?
The purpose of the Powell memo, written to the head of the Chamber of Commerce, was to lay out a plan to restore and build corporate power. Powell laid out a plan that is instructive for those of us who want to shift power from concentrated capital to the people, who want to see a democratized economy in which people have greater control of their economic lives and are more represented in both The Economy and government. Powell's plan was a long-term one built primarily on education and organ...

Zimbabwe to set up WikiLeaks commission
By MacDonald Dzirutwe Harare | Sat Dec 25, 2010 9:19am EST Harare (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's Attorney General plans to set up a commission to investigate possible Treason charges against locals over briefings with U.S. Diplomats reported in confidential State Department cables released by Wikileaks. The move appears to be targeting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, following state media reports that hawks in President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party wanted an official Probe into Tsvangirai's briefi...

Now Random Webhosts Are Demanding Wikileaks Mirrors Be Taken Down Over Possibility Of DDoS?
With all the attempts by corporations to distance themselves from Wikileaks -- often claiming dubious legal issues or terms of use violations that don't seem to really exist -- the EFF is pointing out that one of the (many, many) Wikileaks mirror sites was told by his hosting company he had to remove it or he'd lose his account. The reasoning was quite bizarre. The host claimed that its upstream provider was worried about potential DDoS attacks: Recently we heard from a user who mirrored the Ca...

Info Shows WikiLeaks' Spending is Up
(Wall Street Journal) - New data from the German foundation that processes Wikileaks' bills show that the document-leaking website has sharply increased its spending as it seeks to professionalize its activities by paying salaries -- primarily to founder Julian Assange, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. At the same time, the Germany-based Wau Holland Foundation says it has collected about €1 million ($1.3 million) in donations in 2010, the year in which WikiLeaks exploded into pub...

Netwar meets Oprah: The Wikileaks Files, Volume whatever
<![CDATA[Netwar meets Oprah: The Wikileaks Files, Volume whatever by Dr. David Betz at Kings of War. A a member of an e-mail discussion group I belong to puts it: "This has a little of everything from NETWAR to Clausewitz to a neo-Marxist scholar mixed with some sarcasm and humor." Good stuff to include: 1. North Korea, complete arseholes-even the Chinese have outgrown them. 2. Russia, a whole country run like The Sopranos only with less charm and public spiritedness. 3. Iran, such manifest di... </p>

Russia's Medvedev: WikiLeaks won't harm US ties
MOSCOW -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says that revelations from confidential U.S. cables released by the Wikileaks will not harm Moscow's relations with Washington. Medvedev said in a live interview with state television stations Friday that he and other Russian leaders were long aware of the opinions expressed in the cables that are similar to those found in the media. In the Wikileaks cables, American Diplomats and their sources described Russia as "virtual mafia state." The leaked U.S...

An Assange On Both Your Houses!: Novaya Gazeta, Russia
Those who have criticized Wikileaks and its founder for targeting U.S. misdeeds and not Russia’s or China’s are about to get their wish. And in terms of Russian politics, this is sure to be a Battle Royal. That’s because Russia’s Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper partly owned by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, has just entered into a partnership with WikiLeaks. And according to this article from the newspaper by columnist Roman Anin, an acquaintance of Julian Assang...

U.S. Investigation of Julian Assange: Legal Process or Witch-Hunt?
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange committed the worst possible crime, but it's not the one that the U.S. government wants to prosecute him for. His most serious offense isn't the theft or publication of thousands of documents, but the loss of face he has caused for some very powerful people. Hillary Clinton has vowed to vigorously investigate and prosecute those responsible, but who is really to blame? Julian Assange published the documents, and it may be possible to prove he had some complicit...

Obamas Attny Gen. Says Americans More Dangerous Than Al Qaeda
From the All-American Blogger: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told ABC News that he has “sleepless nights” over his worry about domestic Terrorists. He thinks that Americans, natural born are far more dangerous than foreign Terrorists. At some level he has a point, but the way he phrased the whole issue once again proves that neither he, nor his president by extension, really have any logical grasp of the evil we face in Radical Islam. In fact, they are philosophically resistant to even...

David Schwimmer's violent film loses ratings appeal
"Trust," due out in theaters on April 1, was handed a restrictive "R" rating for "disturbing material involving the Rape of a teen, language, sexual content and some violence." An appeal filed by distributor Millennium Entertainment was fell on deaf ears at the Motion Picture Association of America's Classification and Rating Appeals Board, which on Wednesday upheld the original rating. Executive Producer Avi Lerner had said in a statement that it was important for the film be seen by teenagers...

Medvedev Praises START Ratification
Reuters reports: (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev praised President Barack Obama on Friday for winning U.S. support for an arms treaty at the center of a “reset” in ties and lamented the slow pace of his own drive to modernize Russia. In an annual year-end interview with Russia’s three top television channels, Medvedev said carrying out his ambitious reform agenda would take time, but gave no indication of whether he would seek a Second Term in 2012. Medved...

StupidiNews!
California gets a break from torrential winter rains, but only until later this weekend. Congressional Democrats have included a measure to prevent the President from closing Gitmo in the spending package he has signed. Ahead of Wikileaks' promised reveal of information that could cause Bank of America executives to "resign", the company is buying up Domain Names critical of top execs. Aggressive deals and holiday discounts have boosted holiday online sales by 15% over last year. The FCC plans ...

Imagine There's No Rape Culture It's Easy If You Try!
I've spent most of the day fascinated by the residuals from the progressive feminist's #MooreandMe hysteria on Twitter. You know, with stuff like, "Imagine there's no Rape culture - it's easy if you try!" I had a couple of exchanges with feminists, especially Elinor Greenberg, who avoided substance and instead attacked my "male privilege. She repeatedly linked to a hilarious blog called "Finally, Feminism 101." It's all been pretty amazing. The news cycle's been pretty mild, however, and I thin...