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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 4,917 posts.
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IBM: The cost difference is too great for business not to look for H1B workers
Read more on IBM and H-1BsWorkers from around the country send me examples of H-1B abuse that is taking place around them. I organize this data to decipher patterns. There is usually no legal action that can be taken due to the way the law is structured and the circumstances of the information provider. Generally, I…
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Statement on President Carter’s Health
ATLANTA (Feb. 18, 2023) — After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention. He has the full support of his family and his medical team. The Carter family asks…
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Negotiators Lose Last Chance to Salvage the TPP by Caving on Copyright Extension
New reports indicate that Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators have agreed to language that would bind its 12 signatory nations to extend copyright terms to match the United States' already excessive length of copyright. This provision expands the reach of the controversial US Sonny Bono...
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Germany opposes client-side scanning planned by EU
Germany opposes client-side scanning planned by EU - it would create an unprecedented surveillance monster that violates fundamental rights.
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Digital surveillance technologies to fight pandemic must respect human rights
The COVID-19 pandemic is a global public health emergency that requires a coordinated and large-scale response by governments worldwide. However, States’ efforts to contain the virus must not be...
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9th Circuit rejects TSA claim of impunity for checkpoint staff who rape traveler
Last December, we attended and reported on oral argument before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a case in which the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) argued that TSA checkpoint staff have absolute immunity from lawsuits for assault, even sexual assault or rape, committed against travelers they are…
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Congress passes Take It Down act despite major flaws
It would give the powerful a dangerous new route to manipulate platforms into removing lawful speech that they simply don't like, with President Trump himself saying that he would use the law to censor his critics. The bill passed the Senate in February, and it now heads to the president's desk.
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The Public Domain Starts Growing Again Next Year
We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, and addressing what's at stake, and what we need to do to make...
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Poverty, not trauma, affects cognitive function in refugee youth: study (2019)
Household poverty alone drives cognitive decline in war-displaced children, a study has found — in keeping with research on U.S. children living under hardship.
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Reauthorizing mass surveillance shouldn't be tied to funding the government
Section 702 is the controversial and much-abused mass surveillance authority that expires in December unless Congress renews it. EFF and others have been working hard to get real reforms into the law and have opposed a renewal, and now, we’re hearing about a rushed attempt to tie renewal to funding...
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The culture of rejection in computer science publications
Unlike most disciplines, in Computer Science, conference publications dominate over journals, and program committees carry out the bulk of the peer reviewing. Serving on a PC is a yeoman’s service, and the community owes them a debt of gratitude. However, I believe that a toxic culture has emerged. This blog is a call…
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Why Forcing Apple to Write and Sign Code Violates the First Amendment
EFF filed an amicus brief today in support of Apple's fight against a court order compelling the company to create specific software to enable the government to break into an iPhone. The brief is written on behalf of 46 prominent technologists, security researchers, and cryptographers who develop...
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State of Clojure 2016 – Results and Analysis
Welcome back to the annual State of Clojure survey results. This year we held steady in our response rate as 2,420 of you took the time and effort to weigh in on your experience with Clojure - as always, we appreciate that time and effort very much. And, as always, thanks to Chas Emerick for starting this survey 7…
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Obama Calls for Patent Reform to Topple Trolls
In a welcome turn of events, President Barack Obama spoke directly to the patent troll problem and the need for more comprehensive patent reform yesterday in a "Fireside Hangout" — a live question and answer session hosted in a Google+ hangout. The President was responding to a question by the...
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If Not Overturned, Bad Copyright Decision Will Lead Many to Lose Internet Access
This post was co-written by EFF Legal Intern Lara EllenbergIn going after internet service providers (ISPs) for the actions of just a few of their users, Sony Music, other major record labels, and music publishing companies have found a way to cut people off of the internet based on mere...
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Mozilla Raises Concerns Over Facebook’s Lack of Transparency
Today Denelle Dixon, Mozilla’s Chief Operating Officer, sent a letter to the European Commission surfacing concerns about the lack of publicly available
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The antitrust case against Google
State and federal authorities are reportedly preparing to bring antitrust charges against Google. We talked to Yale SOM’s Fiona Scott Morton about the company's dominant role in online advertising and how it limits competition.
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The Triple Failure of 2U, EdX, and Axim
The future of Coursera's only credible alternative for universities rests in the hands of 2U's creditors.
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EFF Flew a Plane over Apple's Headquarters
For the last month, civil liberties and human rights organizations, researchers, and customers have demanded that Apple cancel its plan to install photo-scanning software onto devices. This software poses an enormous danger to privacy and security. Apple has heard the message, and announced that it...
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Paperwall: Chinese websites posing as local news outlets target global audiences
A network of at least 123 websites operated from within the People’s Republic of China while posing as local news outlets in 30 countries across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, disseminates pro-Beijing disinformation and ad hominem attacks within much larger volumes of commercial press releases. We name this campaign…
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Don't Let Congress Hand Patent Abusers Their Ultimate Wishlist
Congress is considering a bill that would throw out the best defenses against bad patents. The Senate IP Subcommittee recently had a hearing about the Stronger Patents Act, a batch of recurring terrible ideas that has been introduced by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) for the third time in three years....