“MPAA boss Chris Dodd is apparently continuing his “how far can I stretch the truth” tour in support of SOPA/PIPA. His latest stop was an interview on Bloomberg TV. He talks about a bunch of things, blowing some hot air about how this debate is a “breakthrough.” But the part that interested me is around the 3:30 mark, where he insists that what SOPA allows we already do to American sites, and “no one has suggested freedom of speech has been hampered.”

Oh really? Perhaps Chris Dodd is entirely unfamiliar with the blatant censorship and denial of due process for Dajaz1.com, a site taken down under the laws of today… and denied due process before the government finally admitted it had no case, more than a year later. There also have been tons of complaints about bogus DMCA claims (including many from top MPAA members). This is not an idle concern. We have the evidence of wrongdoing under today’s laws. We have the evidence that it is not narrow, but widespread, and it happens all the time.

That’s our key concern. It’s not some “hypothetical.” We have tons and tons of evidence of today’s laws being widely abused, so we’re quite reasonably freaked out about a law that has much, much broader implications, in that it doesn’t just take down specific content, but entire websites. And, when that happens, speech is definitely restrained, and legitimate companies get killed.

So when I hear Chris Dodd claim that “no one has suggested freedom of speech has been hampered” under today’s laws, I wonder if he’s simply completely ignorant of what’s happening… or if he’s just lying. Either answer looks bad for Dodd. But it does highlight the desperation of SOPA/PIPA supporters today that they’re resorting to such ridiculous claims…”

Mike Masnick, Techdirt - Original Link

Related Article:

Rep. Lamar Smith Decides Lying About, Insulting And Dismissing Opposition To SOPA Is A Winning Strategy

Shelby.tv To Launch “Touch Play”: An AirPlay-Based Gesture Remote

Video-sharing startup (and stars of Bloomberg’s TechStars reality show) Shelby.tv is about to launch a pretty nifty feature called “Touch Play.” The new addition, a gesture-based remote control that works via Apple’s AirPlay, will be shown off at next week’s CES, with its launch planned for the week following.

For those unfamiliar, Shelby.tv launched in October with a service that automatically pulls in all the videos your friends share on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr into a curated video channel with videos you can watch, favorite and then re-share.

Says Shelby.tv founder Reece Pacheco, with Touch Play, it’s about using the right screen for the right thing. And the TV was made for watching videos! You’ll be able to control the videos on your TV via the Shelby.tv mobile app.

The new gestures are built into Shelby.tv’s iOS applications, but will only work on the latest hardware: the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2.

Touch Play is a bit more complex than Apple’s Remote app, it seems. There are a number of gestures included, like a one finger tap for the video’s context, a one finger swipe up for a like, a swipe down for a “watch later,” a swipe left or right to move back or forward in a video by 10 seconds, a two finger up or down to change “channels” (e.g. your favorites queue, your “watch later” queue, etc.), a pinch to return to the guide, an expand to expand the sharing controls, and a double tap to play and pause videos. Whew! 

The list seems long, but like all iOS gestures, it’s easier to get the hang of them by doing, not reading some “how to” guide.

~Sarah Perez - TechCrunch, See Video Here

“It’s amazing how a little bad reporting turns into a big story. Late last week, we saw a report on Business Insider, by Matt Lynley, claiming that Nintendo, EA and Sony Electronics had dropped support of SOPA. However, the reporting on this story is highly questionable. It was based on a report from November from Joystiq about how those three companies supported the bill. But, if you read the actual article on Joystiq, you’ll see that it notes that these three companies had not specifically come out in favor of SOPA, but rather had signed onto a letter from the US Chamber of Commerce (or, rather, its front group, the Global IP Center) which was sent before SOPA was introduced. While it does urge Congress to support something like SOPA, it was not a direct endorsement of SOPA itself.

Now, jump forward to last week. A number of lists have been put out listing the companies who supposedly support SOPA — but many of the lists were made up by combining two separate lists. One was the official list from the House Judiciary site, which does, in fact, list out companies who have explicitly said they support SOPA. The other… was that letter that the Global IP Center sent. So, here’s the problem. It appears that Lynley just checked the list from the House Judiciary Committee… and saw that Sony Electronics, EA and Nintendo were not on that list… and decided they must have quietly removed themselves from the list.

Here’s the problem: those three companies were apparently never on that list. They were on the other list.

You can see an older version of the House Judiciary Committee list of SOPA supporters here. Note that it has GoDaddy on it, as well as all those law firms who demanded removal from the list. This was the original list that the Judiciary Committee came out with. You know what you’ll see? Absolutely no mention of EA, Sony Electronics or Nintendo.”

~ Mike Masnick, read more here

“Rejoice, brothers! File sharing is now an official religion in Sweden. For real. It took two years, but it’s done: it’s called the Missionary Church of Kopimism and has Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V as its sacred symbols.”

- Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo Read more here