Hydrofracking Filmmaker Critical of Halliburton Arrested Trying To Protect NYC Drinking Water

Hyrdrofracking video embedded above

Filmmaker Josh Fox, creator of Gasland, was arrested while trying to film Congressional hearings on hydrofracking.   According to media accounts, Republican lawmakers lawlessly threw him out.

Hydrofracking is a toxic, pollutive process graphically illustrated in Gasland used to smash shale to release methane gas.  The problem is, methane gas pollutes drinking water - to the point it is so toxic you can't touch it and it will actually catch on fire.  Halliburton has so far kept the toxic cocktail of pollutants that it uses secret, with Congress's blessing.

Thirty-four states have soiled themselves in this way, and New York State is now poised, with President Obama's and Governor Cuomo's support, to destroy our water supply.

As Gasland explains, under the Bush Administration, VP Cheney got hydrofracking exempted from the Safe Water Act.

Currently, the EPA is not monitoring the safety of our drinking water - what traditionally was the EPA's core mission.

Gasland is probably the most important film I have seen in a decade.

Video of Josh Fox being arrested here. 

Buy Gasland here.

Sign antihydrofracking petition here (text below)

we petition the obama administration to:

Protect communities from the negative impacts of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and natural gas drilling.

Rapid development of fracking has overwhelmed communities with negative impacts: drinking water contamination, intense industrialization of farm and forest lands (with loss of habitat), polluted streams, heavy truck traffic and accidents on rural roads, even earthquakes from deep well injection of wastewater.

Hailed as an abundant bridge energy supply, shale gas drilling was exempted from provisions of major environmental laws, while we now know the supply is much less than previously thought.

We ask the Administration to protect our drinking water by restoring the protections of the Safe Drinking Water Act to natural gas drilling, to eliminate all other exemptions fracking enjoys, to prohibit drilling in national parks and highly sensitive lands and tightly restrict export of shale gas.

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 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here  

Research Works Act - HR 3699 - Stealing From the Public Domain?

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Golan v. Holder last week, bills like the Research Works Act, which is designed to restrict access and limit sharing of scientific data, become more ominous.   More on the Research Works Act from Wikipedia here.   The full text below.

Congressman Darrell Issa and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney are co-sponsors.

Richard Poynder's take here and here. The American Association of Publishers is behind this apparently legislation.

112th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 3699

To ensure the continued publication and integrity of peer-reviewed research works by the private sector.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

December 16, 2011

Mr. ISSA (for himself and Mrs. MALONEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

---

A BILL

To ensure the continued publication and integrity of peer-reviewed research works by the private sector.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘Research Works Act’.

SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON FEDERAL AGENCY ACTION.

No Federal agency may adopt, implement, maintain, continue, or otherwise engage in any policy, program, or other activity that--

(1) causes, permits, or authorizes network dissemination of any private-sector research work without the prior consent of the publisher of such work; or

(2) requires that any actual or prospective author, or the employer of such an actual or prospective author, assent to network dissemination of a private-sector research work.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

(1) AUTHOR- The term ‘author’ means a person who writes a private-sector research work. Such term does not include an officer or employee of the United States Government acting in the regular course of his or her duties.

(2) NETWORK DISSEMINATION- The term ‘network dissemination’ means distributing, making available, or otherwise offering or disseminating a private-sector research work through the Internet or by a closed, limited, or other digital or electronic network or arrangement.

(3) PRIVATE-SECTOR RESEARCH WORK- The term ‘private-sector research work’ means an article intended to be published in a scholarly or scientific publication, or any version of such an article, that is not a work of the United States Government (as defined in section 101 of title 17, United States Code), describing or interpreting research funded in whole or in part by a Federal agency and to which a commercial or nonprofit publisher has made or has entered into an arrangement to make a value-added contribution, including peer review or editing. Such term does not include progress reports or raw data outputs routinely required to be created for and submitted directly to a funding agency in the course of research.

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 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here  

Murder, Mystery and Egon Schiele's Dead City February 8 at Jewish Federation of San Antonio

Thanks to the Federal Bar Association and the Jewish Federation of San Antonio, I will be speaking at the Jewish Federation of San Antonio on February 8 about Egon Schiele's Dead City and the mystery and litigation that it has spawned since District Attorney Robert Morgenthau seized it in 1998 at the Museum of Modern Art.
The MoMA's possession and concealment of artworks stolen from Holocaust survivors has come under fire recently, check out William Cohan's MoMA's Problematic Provenances in December ArtNews here.
For more stolen art by Egon Schiele at the MoMA visit Art Stolen from Fritz Grunbaum.

For the latest brief filed last week in Bakalar v. Vavra, an appeal to the Second Circuit arguing that the District Court's application of the laches doctrine to award a stolen drawing to a Massachusetts art collector, see the embedded document below.
11-4042-Cv Appellant's Brief and Special Appendix

www.dunnington.com
 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here  

Due Process of Law, First Amendment and Copyright Law: SOPA and PIPA's Effects

Great video by TED's Clay Shirky explaining how SOPA and PIPA undermine the First Amendment, creativity, and due process of law.  A frightening vision of Americans being transformed back into mindless consuming couch potatoes, with a great concrete example of child creativity being stifled by abusive copyright claims.



More on TED (Technology Entertainment Design) here
Thanks to Techdirt for pointing this out.
 www.dunnington.com
 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here  

New Petition to White House To End ACTA Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

If you thought SOPA and PIPA were bad, they have nothing on ACTA, which hands over copyright law and policy to an unaccountable trade collective.

I have posted in the past on ACTA, learn more here and here.

Here is the text of a petition to the White House to end ACTA, the link is here if you would like to sign it.   https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/end-acta-and-protect-our-right-privacy-internet/MwfSVNBK

we petition the obama administration to:

End ACTA and Protect our right to privacy on the Internet

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, is a 'plurilateral' trade agreement, currently being negotiated between the US, Canada, Japan, the European Union, South Korea, Mexico, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand. It is somewhat similar to SOPA/PIPA, however ACTA is an executive agreement between countries besides the United States, and it can be passed without the approval from Congress and the Supreme Court. It is potentially hazardous to the Internet we know and how it works.

We need to stop ACTA before it is finally approved by all countries involved. If you value your privacy and you don't want "Big Brother" watching over you, sign this petition and spread the word. Research ACTA and see just how dangerous it is to the Internet, our privacy, and our liberties.

www.dunnington.com
 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here