Author: Justin Lane

It’s a scary government that justifies its means by the ends produced. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized a website last November that displayed violent and graphic images of children being assaulted, and abused. The department continued to host and run the site for two weeks while it attempted to identify the sites over 5,000 users. The practice of operating a child pornography site to lure and catch consumers of child pornography is new. The FBI had previously been in the practice of seeking out existing sites and operating as insiders or...

In response to the online availability of the first functional 3D-printable gun, the Department of Defense, as part of its trade controls, seized the intellectual property of DEFCAD and restricted the distribution. The organization’s website notified users of the change by placing a red banner at the top of the site with the following: “DEFCAD files have been removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls. Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.” Unfortunately for the US government, once something is placed online, it is nearly impossible...

Below are the most popular stories from Ring of Fire from the past week. Private Money is Enough to Silence Public Television America’s Public Broadcasting System, or PBS, is surrendering to private influence of the Billionaire industrialists, the Koch Brothers. “Citizen Koch,” a documentary that exposes the money driven politics that influenced the Wisconsin uprising, was rejected by PBS for fear of offending on of its key contributors, David Koch. The move by PBS was not the failed negotiation as they suggest it was, but a censorship, against their better judgment, to protect the hand that feeds them. …...

Whatever your belief regarding the activities and conviction of Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer, it can’t be denied that he is pitted against titans in the telecom industry. Free speech, data exploitation, identity, and security of and for individuals are just a few of the issues that his case highlights as vulnerable online. Currently Weev is being held in a federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania. At the penitentiary, Weev is being regularly kept in solitary confinement and released for 15-minute showers, three times a week, according to Vice, and being threatened with constant relocation, also known as diesel therapy, to disrupt his...

For almost two decades General Motors (GM) has been in protracted litigation against whistleblower Roger Thacker. Unfortunately for GM and its creditors, the case just won’t die. The trouble surrounding the lawsuit, including a rollercoaster ride of resurrection through the trial and appellate courts, was, until now, drowned out by the implosion of the automotive industry and subsequent structured bankruptcies. GM and its creditors hope to distribute approximately $50 million laying in a bankruptcy trust, and the undying case of Roger Thacker won’t let that happen. Mr. Thacker filed suit against GM in 1995, along with two other employees,...