Musings

By Jon Brodkin 8chan and Daily Stormer now both offline as a cloud provider cuts off access. Getty Images | Mario Tama At an interfaith vigil for victims of a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, which killed 21 people. The suspected terrorist gunman had posted to the website 8chan shortly before the tragedy, prompting Web companies to cut 8chan off. 8chan was able to get back online today despite Cloudflare cutting it off, as operators of the controversial website quickly found a new provider of CDN and DDoS protection services. But as of this writing, 8chan is offline again, apparently as a result of a cloud provider cutting off 8chan's new vendor. More Opinion: Let's shoot the messenger. Yeah, that always works. Don't stop where the ink does.

By Kate Cox - The senators want lawbreaking to come with "serious financial consequences." martince2 | Getty Images You can't send corporate "persons" directly to jail, but you can charge them a lot of money. The Federal Trade Commission's recent $5 billion settlement with Facebook largely drew two responses. One holds that $5 billion is objectively a large sum of money, while the other holds that, against Facebook's $55 billion 2018 revenue, the penalty amounts to mere drops in the ocean that will go completely unnoticed within the mammoth company. More

By Ernesto Several industry groups, including the MPAA, have shared their views on how to curb piracy with the US Department of Commerce. According to the submission, the Government can help to combat piracy by taking a variety of actions, including criminal investigations against key players and better copyright protections in trade agreements. More

By Andy A report compiled by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has concluded that presenting Internet users with warnings that they are visiting 'pirate' sites could breach privacy laws. Citizens' traffic can't be monitored without permission so any system would currently need users to opt in, something that would limit the effectiveness of any trial. More

By Shaun Fluker Shutterstock Whooping cranes, a critically endangered species, breed in one location, a wetland in Wood Buffalo National Park. Yet a federal-provincial review panel has approved an oilsands mine that could kill some of the birds. Widespread species decline at the hands of humans is a powerful tale. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, more than 27 per cent of 100,000 assessed species are threatened with extinction. This disappearance is a warning that something is amiss on Earth. More

By Thomson Reuters · Trump's executive order goes well beyond recent sanctions on oil, officials U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a freeze on all Venezuelan government assets in the United States on Monday, sharply escalating a diplomatic and sanctions drive aimed at removing socialist President Nicolas Maduro from power. More