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Exclusive: Baltimore Teacher Discusses The Side Of The Protests MSM Ignored

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Meghann Harris, a teacher at the Baltimore Design School who teaches graphic design and architecture classes to middle and high school students, recently received a great deal of publicity for her Facebook statuses pertaining to the recent protests in Baltimore, Md., and the effect they were having on students.

In an exclusive interview with Truth in Media’s Rachel Blevins, Harris discussed the side of the story that the mainstream media has completely ignored, and she shared the ways her students have responded to the recent rioting and destruction, and turned it into an opportunity to restore their community.

Harris said the first protest she attended was on Saturday, in the western district of Baltimore. She said she was part of a group of people who started near the neighborhood Freddie Gray was from, and then continued down North Avenue, where they joined thousands of others, who marched with them down to City Hall.

[pull_quote_center]“The whole protest was really peaceful,” Harris said. “In fact, at the beginning of the protest, there were two people who got into a fight and the protesters stepped in and helped them to break it up immediately, on their own, without needing any intervention from police. It was amazing, and that was the only altercation we saw all day.”[/pull_quote_center]

While peaceful protests, such as the one Harris was a part of, were held for several days following the mysterious death of Freddie Gray on April 19, those protests garnered little attention from mainstream media. Harris said she saw very few cameramen marching with protesters, and that most stayed near City Hall, waiting for something to happen.

What did receive a great deal of attention were the riots that broke out after a flier circulated through local high schools promoting a planned “purge” of police near Baltimore’s Mondawmin Mall at 3 p.m. on Monday.

Harris took to her Facebook account to post a status about what she witnessed:

Meghann Harris Facebook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post has received nearly 2,000 shares, and was quoted by websites such as Upworthy and the Washington Post.

Harris tells Truth in Media that many students were trapped when their school buses were declared “out of service” and they were stranded in the area where the “purge” was scheduled to take place.

Harris said that she heard her students talking about the flier on Monday morning, and several of them voiced concerns about not being able to get home after school, because they lived in the area where the “purge” was supposed to occur.

After contacting their parents, Harris agreed to transport two of her students who were from the Mondawmin area. She said they left the school at about 2:55 p.m. and were in Mondawmin by 3:05 p.m.

“When we pulled up, we saw that all of the streets in the area had been blocked off, and it took us about 30 minutes just to turn the corner,” said Harris, who went on to explain that while they didn’t see a lot of students in the area rioting, as the flier had promised, they did see lines of police officers, fully armed in riot gear, marching in preparation.

[pull_quote_center]“We saw a line of what looked like 15 to 20 buses that had pulled up and said ‘not in service,’ and the passengers were being evacuated from the bus, into the area where the ‘purge’ was supposed to happen,” Harris said. “Once all of the buses were shut down, there was really no way for a lot of the people to get out of the area.”[/pull_quote_center]

In addition to overlooking the peaceful protests that were held in Baltimore before, during, and after the Monday night riots, the mainstream media has also overlooked the community’s efforts on Tuesday to cleanup and restore the city of Baltimore.

Harris tells Truth in Media that she has been overwhelmed by the willingness from both her fellow teachers and her students to jump in and clean up. She said that she received multiple messages from students on Monday night, asking what they could do to help on Tuesday.

As a result of the riots, Baltimore schools were shut down on Tuesday, and Harris said that several of the teachers from Baltimore Design School joined the school’s principal to pass out lunches to students in need. She said that she and another teacher joined with the organization Communities United to clean up businesses and residential areas.

[pull_quote_center]“There are a lot of really good things happening, and none of those things are getting media coverage,” Harris said. “The most awesome thing we saw on Tuesday was that there were so many people out cleaning and helping out that there actually wasn’t enough to clean – it got to the point where people began cleaning up litter in the neighborhood.”[/pull_quote_center]

Harris said that while a lot of negative media attention has been directed towards the youth of Baltimore, she has witnessed the opposite of what has made headlines. “I haven’t heard a single student say that they weren’t willing to jump in and help,” said Harris, who explained that on Tuesday, there were groups of students all along North Avenue helping in the cleanup efforts.

Harris tells Truth in Media that the national media coverage of Baltimore has also prompted many of her family and friends to reach out to her and to ask if she is safe. She attributed this to the fact that that most people don’t realize that the neighborhoods being affected by the riots are the poor black neighborhoods “the city has forgotten until now.”

While she is frustrated with the public’s perception of Baltimore, Harris said that she couldn’t blame people who don’t live in Baltimore for not understanding it. She explained that all the public is seeing are “crazy perspectives on video cameras that are waiting around all day.”

“On top of that, the media is not showing what is inciting some of these things,” Harris said. “If you go past a crowd of protesters at Canyon yards, and the sports fans are calling out the n-word to some of the protesters, or they’re calling the white protesters ‘n-word lovers,’ people are going to get upset. But nobody really wants to show any of those things. They just want to show the response. They’re trying to make it look like something that it’s not.”

Harris said that students in Baltimore have PTSD rates that are considered higher than some military service members. She attributed this to extreme poverty, living in areas of drugs and high crime, having parents that have to work multiple jobs to provide for their family, and living in a country with a welfare program that “encourages black mothers to be single, because they receive more government assistance than they would if they had a supportive father in the home.”

Harris tells Truth in Media that while the protesters are demanding justice for Freddie Gray, they are searching for an answer to the bigger problem that is plaguing both the city of Baltimore and the country as a whole.

“Freddie Gray is like the catalyst in the situation,” said Harris. She explained that while there are many Americans who are wondering “why all of the sudden are black people getting killed by cops,” this issue is nothing new for those living in poor black communities.

[pull_quote_center]“There are historic deep roots in this country that completely disenfranchise the black community and especially the black inner city youth,” Harris said. “Most of my students could tell me from day one, when I met them, that police brutality happens to black people in Baltimore city, and throughout the country.”[/pull_quote_center]

Activism, Civil Liberties, Police Accountability, US

NYC to Boston, Thousands Protest Across the Country in Solidarity with Baltimore

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Washington D.C.- Thousands of protesters took to the streets of New York City, Boston, Minneapolis, Washington D.C. and of course in Baltimore, Wednesday evening. Those coming out rallied in solidarity with the people of Baltimore and the family of Freddie Gray.

Ben Swann talks with Marina Portnaya live from the scene and gives updates on the arrests made by the NYPD as protestors stood in the streets in an act of civil disobedience.

One officer was injured during the demonstrations in New York City when a bottle struck him on the chin, the police said. In all, just over 100 people were arrested.

Some protesters stopped traffic on Houston Street in Lower Manhattan while others blocked the entrance to the Holland Tunnel. Another group marched uptown to Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen, where, later in the night, a police van filled with marchers who had been arrested sat idling in traffic.

On Thursday, some of the protest organizers criticized Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William J. Bratton for what they called a heavy-handed response.

In Boston, hundreds marched through the streets chanting, “Being black is not a crime, same story every time,” and “every night and every day. Join the fight for Freddie Gray!” Students linked arms, and families peered curiously out of low income housing along Shawmut Avenue.

Activism, Featured, Police State, Politics, US

What Martin Luther King Jr. Said About Violence As Protest- 1964

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-The Quest for Peace and Justice Martin Luther King Jr. Nobel Lecture December 11, 1964

“Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

In a real sense nonviolence seeks to redeem the spiritual and moral lag that I spoke of earlier as the chief dilemma of modern man. It seeks to secure moral ends through moral means. Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.

I believe in this method because I think it is the only way to reestablish a broken community. It is the method which seeks to implement the just law by appealing to the conscience of the great decent majority who through blindness, fear, pride, and irrationality have allowed their consciences to sleep.

The nonviolent resisters can summarize their message in the following simple terms: we will take direct action against injustice despite the failure of governmental and other official agencies to act first. We will not obey unjust laws or submit to unjust practices. We will do this peacefully, openly, cheerfully because our aim is to persuade. We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself. We will try to persuade with our words, but if our words fail, we will try to persuade with our acts. We will always be willing to talk and seek fair compromise, but we are ready to suffer when necessary and even risk our lives to become witnesses to truth as we see it.”

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Activism, US, Videos

Influx Of Volunteers Organize To Clean Up Streets Of Baltimore

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Baltimore, MD- In response to the chaos and destruction that has taken place during the riots in Baltimore, thousands of volunteers have pledged to help clean up the community through several Facebook events that have been initiated.

A “Baltimore clean-up effort” event has more than two thousand people offering to help, while a similar event in West Baltimore has marked over 700 volunteers. A “Clean up Baltimore!” event is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

Local news stations took note of the volunteer cleanup efforts in the city; some of the volunteers set to work early Tuesday morning. “I thought it was my civic duty to come out to restore my neighborhood, to clean up,” resident Myra Keane told CBS Baltimore. “I seen a young man on TV out here by himself cleaning, so I brought out my O’Cedar and I found a trash can while I was walking up the street and I just started picking up trash.”

Activism, Featured, Police Accountability, Police State, US, Videos

The Powerful Baltimore Protest on Monday That Media Ignored

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Baltimore, MD- It is the scene that most media is ignoring. While the wall-to-wall focus of national media on Baltimore is on the rioting and violent imagery, most media ignored the growing crowds calling for an end to the violence and demanding that young people stop burning buildings and looting stores. Over 100 clergy marched through the streets of Baltimore last night in an effort to end the violence, and they did it without riot shields and military vehicles.

As over 5,000 law enforcement officials are converging on Baltimore as well as another 5,000 National Guard troops, the nation continues to watch the city that exploded with violent riots on Monday. Images of a CVS looted and burning, buildings set ablaze, juveniles in the streets who have thrown rocks at police. These are the images that most of the nation will associate with Baltimore, and yet most media has all but ignored more than a week of peaceful protests demanding answers into the death of Freddie Gray.

The question that must be answered: how did Freddie Gray’s spinal cord become severed while in police custody? I had the chance to interview the attorney for the Gray family as the riots in Baltimore took place. Jason Downs points out the family of Gray has specifically called for no violence in the wake of Freddie’s death, and also points out that while media will turn their head to watch the violence, the Gray family continues to wait for answers.

Activism, Foreign Policy, Government Accountability, International, Politics, Swann TV

“Americans Don’t Know What The Hell Is Happening In Yemen” says Activist

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Washington, D.C.- Hundreds of Yemeni civilians have found themselves in the crossfire of the Saudi-led bombing campaign that is in its second month, while Yemeni-Americans watch in desperation at the brutality taking place.

The Saudi’s are bombing the largest cities in Yemen in an attempt to destroy gains made by Houthi rebels who are overthrowing the government of Yemen. The Saudis claim that the Houthis are a proxy force fighting on behalf of Iran, even though the Houthis are a native tribal group from Yemen.

Since March 26, 2015, more than 750 Yemenis have been killed by Saudi airstrikes, over 2,500 have been injured and more than 150,000 people have been displaced. None of that reflects the incredible destruction to the nation’s infrastructure as more than 12 million Yemenis are facing food and water shortages.

Ben Swann speaks with Yemeni activist Rabyaah Al-thaibani about the plight of the country’s citizens and their struggle for survival.

Activism, Government Accountability, Police Accountability, Police State, US, Videos

Ben Swann To Broadcast Live In Baltimore At 4PM

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Ben Swann will be broadcasting live from Baltimore, MD on April 22nd at 4p.m., 5p.m., and 8p.m. Eastern. Swann will be covering the protests and demonstrations that are a result of the unexplained death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray.

The Baltimore Police Department has recently fallen under intense scrutiny following news that Gray had been severely injured after he was arrested on April 12. Gray suffered from a spinal cord injury and died last Sunday from “a very tragic injury to his spinal cord.” Gray’s autopsy report has not been released.

According to police documents, Gray “fled unprovoked upon noticing police presence” and was arrested “without force or incident.” Gray was reportedly found carrying a switchblade when captured. The report mentions that Gray “suffered a medical emergency” during transport.

“When he was placed inside that van, he was able to talk, he was upset,” said Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez. “And when Mr. Gray was taken out of the van, he could not talk, he could not breathe.”

A cell phone video was released showing a police transport van stopping near the initial arrest site. Police said Gray became “irate” during transport, so the van was stopped and he was placed in leg cuffs.

Six police officers involved with Gray’s arrest have been suspended with pay: Lt. Brian Rice, Officer Garrett Miller, Sgt. Alicia White, Officer William Porter, Officer Edward Nero and Officer Caesar Goodson. There are three ongoing investigations being conducted by the local prosecutor’s office, the Baltimore Police and the federal government.

Activism, Featured, Gun Rights, Politics, US

Gun Activists Start 3 Recalls In Oregon, Prepare For More

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Advancement of  legislation that would require criminal background checks for private gun transfers has sparked a recall effort in Oregon by gun rights activists.

According to The Oregonian, papers were filed Wednesday against State Senator Chuck Riley and State Representative Susan McLain, both in their first terms and “part of an expanded Democratic majority enabled, in part, by campaign donations from gun-control advocates.”

Riley received money from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his campaign where he narrowly defeated the Republican incumbent. McLain and Riley sponsored the gun control bill, SB941.

Papers were also filed against state House Majority Leader Val Hoyle, who expected this ridiculous legislation to move quickly through her chamber.

Recall organizers told The Oregonian that they expect more recall papers to be filled.

Riley’s office called the efforts work done by “extreme right-wing groups.” They released the following statement:

“The voters of Senate District 15 know that I have always supported common sense legislation to promote gun safety. I proudly cast a “Yes” vote on SB 941 to close the loophole that allows felons, domestic abusers, and people with severe mental illness to get access to a gun. Common sense gun safety was a key issue in my campaign and I’m delivering on my promises to the voters. Extreme right-wing groups may not like the fact that I won, but I am doing exactly what I said I would do. I respect the right of citizens to exercise their beliefs in the democratic process. I am also confident that the vast majority of people in my district support gun safety, and that my vote for SB 941 is democracy in action.”

These recall efforts are similar to ones that took place in Colorado under similar circumstances.

Activism, Government Accountability, Police State, Politics, US, Videos

Oath Keepers Muster in Oregon to Prevent 139-Year-Old Gold Mines from Being Seized by BLM

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Earlier this month, officials with the Bureau of Land Management sent a letter ordering local miners working at the Sugar Pine Mining Claim in the Galice Mining District near Merlin, OR to vacate the property that locals have mined for the past 139 years. Raw Story notes the fact that the owners of the claim subsequently contacted the Oath Keepers of Josephine County, an organization of ex-and-current military and law enforcement professionals who have sworn an oath to refuse orders that violate the US Constitution, who then called for militia members from around the country to gather at the mining claim in order to ensure that the Bureau of Land Management respects the miners’ Fifth Amendment right to due process.

As armed Oath Keepers began to gather at the site on Tuesday, SWAT vehicles were seen staging nearby, raising fears that a Bundy ranch style standoff might take place.

The dispute centers around the Sugar Pine Mining Claim itself, which Congress set aside for local miners in 1876, allowing them to establish their own rules and regulations. KDRV-TV notes that the Bureau of Land Management says that the claim does not allow the miners to sidestep its regulatory authority as the claim has changed hands in the past, but locals say that the claim’s community regulatory system has been grandfathered in and that, absent intervention through a specific process by the Department of the Interior, BLM lacks the authority to regulate the mines. The Galice Mining District Executive Committee said in a statement, “Under the 1955 Surface Resources Act, claims of this age have exclusive surface rights unless the Department of Interior utilized a mechanism outlined in that Act to sever those surface rights. Demands to BLM to produce evidence of their surface authority in accordance to the 1955 Act have thus far garnered only ‘because we say so’ answers and numerous stonewalling tactics. The Stop Orders came after several months of back and forth maneuvering from both sides, and are clearly retaliatory in nature.”

The stakes are high, as The Blaze notes that the Galice Mining District has already yielded over 10 million ounces of gold, with experts saying that 90 million more ounces are available to be extracted.

An unconfirmed report cited by The Shasta Lantern claims that “local BLM officials have threatened to burn the buildings down if they are not removed by [April 25].” Locals fear that the Bureau of Land Management will attempt to seize the property before the owners of the mines get the opportunity to defend themselves in court.

Arizona State Militia member Blaine Cooper said in a YouTube clip that he posted while on his way to the Galice Mining District, “That’s what being an American’s all about… We don’t allow our neighbor to be enslaved or beaten or tortured by government jackboots because they want to steal our land and our resources to keep us under their thumb.”

Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel has been attempting to mediate the dispute between the two parties and said he would step in if the tensions escalated.

Jim Whittington, an official with the Bureau of Land Management, said that BLM does not intend to seize the land without due process. Said Whittington to KDRV-TV, “We’ve sent them those letters. They also have the right to appeal our notice, that it requires either a plan of operation or notice, and some informal contacts with their lawyer… it sounds like they may appeal. So if they appeal, that starts another administrative appeal process.”

Oath Keepers representative Mary Emerick said, “We defend the Constitution… And we are here just to make sure that they receive their Fifth Amendment rights which is due process… Sometimes that’s going to take days or even weeks, and we are preparing for this to potentially last that long.”

A statement on the website of the Oath Keepers of Josephine County which calls for help from Oath Keepers from around the country says, “NOTICE: This is NOT a standoff with BLM. We are NOT promoting any confrontation with BLM. This is a security operation for the protection of Constitutional Rights. If you have a different agenda outside of the above peaceful mission statement, we don’t need your assistance. Please DO NOT make any type of threatening phone calls to the local BLM or USFS as it undermines our mission, professionalism and is unwarranted. Thank you.”

Update April 16, 3:54 PM: The title of this article has been slightly modified to improve its readability.

Activism, Government Accountability, Politics, Truth In Media Episodes, US, Videos

Exclusive: NSA Using Copyright Claims To Crush Free Speech?

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Update: Dan McCall tells BenSwann.com that it is no longer just the NSA that is claiming trademark infringement. He has now had any of his shirts with DHS parodies also removed from the Zazzle marketplace. DHS is also claiming the that parodies infringe on their trademark. McCall is talking with attorneys and may take the issue to court.

Ben Swann Truth in Media

Episode 3

NSA Using Copyright Claims To Crush Free Speech?

 

Can a government agency block criticism by claiming copyright infringement? Sounds a bit ridiculous but it is happening.  The NSA is effectively stopping one small business owner from criticism, claiming that by using its name he has infringed on their copyright.

Can they do that?

The first step toward truth is to be informed.

This is a story I had a hard time believing until I looked into it for myself.  Here is the backstory.

Dan McCall is the owner of a company that makes snarky t-shirts.  The company is called Liberty Maniacs. Liberty Maniacs carry a number of t-shirts dealing with lack of privacy and the growing police state.  They sell on a site called www.Zazzle.com

None of it has been a problem—until Liberty Maniacs released a shirt called “The NSA.”

The image looks like the NSA logo but has a motto that is clearly a pun—“Peeping while you are sleeping”—followed by the phrase “The NSA, the only part of government that actually listens.”

Shortly after the shirt went online, www.Zazzle.com pulled the shirt from its website, sending this message: “Thank you for publishing products on Zazzle.

Unfortunately, it appears that your product, The NSA, contains content that is in conflict with one or more of our acceptable content guidelines. We will be removing this product from the Zazzle Marketplace shortly.

“Policy Notes: Design contains an image or text that may infringe on intellectual property rights. We have been contacted by the intellectual property right holder and we will be removing your product from Zazzle’s Marketplace due to infringement claims.”

Dan McCall, the owner of Liberty Maniacs spoke with me via Skype and says there were multiple items dealing with the NSA that were pulled down from Zazzle.

“In terms of shirts, two, and then maybe four or five bumper stickers.  Basically anything remotely relating to the NSA was taken down.  So I’m not sure if that was subsequently a blanket policy that Zazzle themselves put up because they don’t want to deal with the hassle and they didn’t want to spend time interpreting each thing knowing they would run into problems or if they were plugged into NSA legal and they were watching things as they go,” says McCall.

So to be clear, McCall was using the NSA logo, the NSA claimed copyright infringement and Zazzle.com pulled the content down.

In fairness, what McCall was doing does use the official logo of a government agency.  Can anyone just use that logo?  Actually, yes.  According to both the Electronic Freedom Foundation and the American Bar Association, “parody is recognized as a type of fair use, like other commentary and criticism, and courts recognize that a parody must often take recognizable elements from the work it comments upon.

Courts do distinguish parody from satire. Parody copies from the object it mocks…”

You can’t claim copyright infringement if your logo or image is used as part of a parody.  So the next question, is this logo a parody?

According to the U.S. Supreme Court, a parody “is the use of some elements of a prior author’s composition to create a new one that, at least in part, comments on that author’s works. Like other forms of comment or criticism, parody can provide social benefit, by shedding light on an earlier work, and, in the process, creating a new one.”

“According to the [U.S. Supreme] Court, a parody is the ‘use of some elements of a prior author’s composition to create a new one that, at least in part, comments on that author’s works.’ Id. at 580. Like other forms of comment or criticism, parody can provide social benefit, ‘by shedding light on an earlier work, and, in the process, creating a new one.’ Id.” –Juli Wilson Marshall, Nicholas J. Siciliano, Latham & Watkins LLP

McCall says, “I tried to visually take the most obvious direction at pointing at them that I could. It was their logo.  I just tried to adulterate it a little bit and put a few jabs in there and that will be it. So it wasn’t a huge design coup and it did the job basically.”

Now, what might be the most interesting twist in this entire story is that while the NSA is claiming copyright infringement against McCall for his parody, the NSA itself is facing accusations of true copyright infringement.

Take a look at this image.  This is the official NSA logo for the Prism program. Prism is, of course, the program that deals with NSA spying via email and phone records.

According to reports from England, the Prism image used here is being used without permission.

Adam Hart Davis is a well-known BBC presenter and the image belongs to him.  Here is the Davis pic.  As you can see, the NSA image is just Davis’ picture flipped upside down.  Adam’s son, Damon, who wrote about this in the Register Newspaper, claims that the image is free for use, but a donation is requested and, at minimum, use of the image requires a link to his photo gallery and acknowledgement, none of which he has received from the NSA.

What you need to know is that because the work put out by Liberty Maniacs is clearly a parody, it is not copyright infringement.  That is the easiest part of this story.

But the bigger issue here is the issue of free speech. It is a first amendment issue. McCall sees it that way as well.

“First amendment issues affect everybody and it specifically affects everybody who is expressing themselves—any artist, whether on the right or on the left or in the middle or whatever side.  If you are not allowed to express yourself artistically or in many other ways, we have taken a turn for the worse,” says McCall.

Bottom line, there is no gray area here.  But the NSA is a very powerful government agency. They don’t need a gray area or even to be right to get companies like Zazzle.com to cooperate.

This is why Internet piracy bills like SOPA and PIPA and CISPA are so dangerous.  If those bills become law, all the feds have to do is claim copyright infringement to shut down an entire site.  They don’t have to be right.

Dan McCall’s story is just a taste of what happens when government agencies decide they will enforce laws but not be subject to them.

And that is Reality Check.

 

nsa-ben-swann

 

Sources:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130612/13042623426/nsa-infringed-adam-hart-davis-photograph-its-prism-logo.shtml

http://apps.americanbar.org/litigation/committees/intellectual/roundtables/0506_outline.pdf