When Facebook held its IPO this past spring and Twitter adopted a censorship policy which allows local authorities to intervene in users’ accounts if deemed necessary by those authorities, I started thinking about the monopoly that communications companies have on our time and money. We may disagree with the trajectory these companies are headed, their policies, and their methods, but still we keep coming back. And they know it. Continue reading
By: Ainsleigh Burelle
At some point on January 18th, you probably found yourself wandering around Internet Land only to be confronted with the blackouts on Wikipedia and Reddit, among other websites. These service interruptions were part of a protest against the proposed SOPA legislation in the U.S., which threatened stricter copyright laws and limited use of protected works. However, it’s not just an annoyance to the average American Joe. While our land may be separated by gated tollbooths and (not the nicest of) uniformed officers, the internet flows freely around the globe. The blackouts raised enough awareness to put SOPA out of effect – for now, anyway.
For those who don’t know, SOPA and PIPA are small aspects of the international movement surrounding ACTA, an opt-in global movement initiated by the governments of various countries to protect copyrighted material circulating the ’net (You know it’s getting out of control when your acronym breeds even more acronyms). Continue reading
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By: Toban Black
Our “Teach-in on the occupy movement” event was held in the “University Community Centre” (UCC) atrium here in London, Ontario on November 22nd. This teach-in was arranged by some campus students and employees who plan to continue to collaborate with one another.
The day after our teach-in, the headline “UCC atrium gets occupied: Unauthorized pamphlets distributed” was on the front page of a campus paper that covered the event.
We had prepared this pamphlet for the teach-in. Sections of it are about Canadian economy, universities, and local issues. This pamphlet was collectively read out into the “Community Centre” atrium during an assembly, where we also discussed its contents.
