Tag: corporations

Disney Shamed into Retracting Phony ‘Steamboat Willie’ Copyright Claim After Film Enters Public Domain

The Disney Grooming Syndicate has been forced to back down from bullying a private citizen who legally used Steamboat Willie in a YouTube video.

YouTuber and voice actor Brock Baker published all eight minutes of Steamboat Willie on his popular YouTube channel (1.1 million subscribers). That alone would normally be considered a copyright violation. On top of that, Brock added his own audio to the classic cartoon that introduced Mickey and Minnie Mouse to the public in 1928.

But.

Steamboat Willie has been in the public domain since the beginning of the year, and Brock published his video a few days after that. Nevertheless, Disney still slapped him with two copyright claims. First, Disney filed a copyright claim on the cartoon itself. The result was that YouTube demonetized the video. After Disney backed off that, the Grooming Syndicate filed a second copyright claim for Steamboat Willie’s soundtrack — which is also in public domain. The whole thing is public domain. Nevertheless, Brock’s video got demonetized — until they earned enough negative media attention to reverse course.

In a way, you can see Disney’s point… The disgraced company is losing billions on its lousy streaming service and theatrical releases, so every dollar does count. But public domain is still public domain, and this bullying campaign is obviously meant to scare off anyone else who would dare do what Disney can no longer do: make money by entertaining the public.

This vile multinational corporation has enjoyed so much special treatment over the years with copyright protection and legislation, and it’s still harassing a private citizen on YouTube who is only guilty of having a few laughs about a cartoon that no longer enjoys copyright protection.

Overall, unless no one files for copyright protection, I’m opposed to the idea of public domain. As evil as Disney is, it is still in business, and its property should be protected for as long as it stands. That’s Good John’s thinking…

Bad John loves seeing Disney lose, fail, and drown in its own greed and perversions.

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Get Ready to Spend Two Years in Prison

Hunter Biden most likely isn’t going to jail any time soon despite an obvious track record of fraud and criminality. But if you happen to be a small business owner in the Land of the Free, you are looking at potentially two years in prison if you don’t comply with a new law that just took effect yesterday.

It started nearly five years ago, in the spring of 2019.

Back then, a member of Congress from the state of New York– a career politician with five decades of experience named Carolyn Maloney– introduced a new bill to the House of Representatives called the Corporate Transparency Act, or CTA.

At first her bill didn’t go anywhere.

But the following summer, during the peak Covid insanity of 2020, the CTA was jammed into the nearly 1,500-page National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), i.e. the military budget that Congress is required to pass each year.

The NDAA (and hence the CTA along with it) were passed on January 1, 2021. And now, three years later, the CTA has formally taken effect.

Now, the whole premise behind the Corporate Transparency Act is the classic bogeyman premise that evil criminals and terrorists use US corporations and LLCs to conduct their illicit activities, so therefore the government wants more rules, regulations, and reporting for US companies.

This is the same simple-minded hysteria that we always hear about cryptocurrency, i.e. criminals and terrorists use Bitcoin, therefore it should be tightly regulated by hapless government bureaucrats.

Obviously, it’s true that criminals can and do use crypto– or US business entities like Delaware LLCs– to commit their crimes.

Criminals also use iPhones, Facebook, Gmail, Dell laptops, JP Morgan Chase bank accounts, Ford F-150 pickup trucks, Amazon gift cards, and Verizon Wireless to commit their crimes.

But in this case, in the infinite wisdom of Congress, it’s business entities that are being singled out for additional scrutiny.

So, because criminals sometimes use US business entities to launder money, every law-abiding US citizen with a completely legitimate business now must jump through all sorts of hoops and reporting requirements.

And if you fail to report, you’re looking at two years in prison.

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Do Not Under Any Circumstances Nationalize Greyhound

America has an extensive network of private, for-profit (and profitable) intercity bus services primarily serving lower-income people. It’s a great example of how the free market can provide an essential service without public subsidies.

Naturally, the socialists want to shut it all down.

In response to recent news reports about Greyhound closing bus stations (in favor of curbside pick up) and shutting down service to some midsized cities entirely, Jacobin columnist and Rutgers philosophy professor Ben Burgis advocates for nationalizing the company and running its buses on dedicated interstate lanes.

“A publicly owned intercity bus service with dedicated highway lanes could do for travelers what the US Postal Service does for letters and packages,” writes Burgis.

Travelers, like Postal Service packages, would “criss-cross the country cheaply and quickly,” says Burgis. This new government-run bus company would extend service to everywhere, he writes, and “like the USPS,” this government-run bus company would be “financially self-sufficient.”

That the Postal Service is “financially self-sufficient” would be news to USPS, which reported a $6.5 billion net loss this past fiscal year. Indeed, the Postal Service is currently shuttering facilities and raising prices as part of a 10-year restructuring plan meant to get it out of the red.

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Pornhub Admits To Profiting From Sex Trafficking, Agrees To $1.8 Million Settlement In Deal With Feds

Aylo Holdings, the owner of Pornhub – one of the largest adult content websites, has admitted to profiting from the sex trafficking, including minors, and has agreed to pay $1.8 million to the US government, as well as separate payments to women whose videos were posted without their consent, federal prosecutors in New York announced late Thursday.

The move comes months after the acquisition of Aylo (formerly MindGeek) by investor and Rabbi Solomon Friedman, who says he wants to turn the company’s image around following this and other scandals involving illegal content on the platform.

In addition to the $1.8 million and individual compensation to women harmed by trafficking, Pornhub must appoint an independent monitor for three years, after which the charges will be dismissed.

“It is our hope that this resolution, which includes certain agreed payments to the women whose images were posted on the company’s platforms and an independent monitorship brings some measure of closure to those negatively affected,” according to US Attorney Peace in a statement.

The company is estimated to have generated more than $200 million in 2022, with operating margins of nearly 30%. 

James Smith, head of the FBI’s New York office, said Aylo Holdings “knowingly enriched itself by turning a blind eye” to victims who told the company they had been deceived and coerced into the videos.

Prosecutors said Aylo has agreed to pay victims compensation, but details such as who is eligible and how they can apply will be forthcoming.

The charge stemmed from Aylo’s role in hosting videos and accepting payments from GirlsDoPorn. -CBS News

The operators of GirlsDoPorn, the now-defunct adult film production company, were charged with and eventually convicted of a range of sex trafficking crimes, including coercing young women into sexual acts on camera which were then posted on Pornhub and other adult websites.

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Carnival Cruise Lines Denies That Anti-Marijuana Enforcement Measures Are Meant To Boost Alcohol Sales On Ships

Passenger cruise lines like Carnival and Royal Caribbean have policies against marijuana, noting that the substance is illegal in many ports it sails to and that they’re following federal law. But as more people return to the ships, and as more of them come from states where the drug is legal, operators are reportedly taking more extreme measures to detect cannabis and cracking down on people who attempt to use it—including those who simply pack CBD products, which are legal across the U.S.

As the Wall Street Journal reported in a story on the trend this week, Carnival Cruise Lines not only sends pre-cruise messages reminding passengers not to bring marijuana, but also now employs drug-sniffing dogs.

Companies say they’re focused on legal compliance and providing a comfortable experience for non-users, but the article notes that cruise operators may have an ulterior motive to discourage marijuana use.

“Besides limiting potential legal liability, cruise lines could benefit financially by prohibiting cannabis on board,” the paper reported. “Alcohol is a major revenue-generator for ships, and cruises also limit how much booze passengers bring on board.”

It talked to a Florida-based personal-injury attorney who said he’s “convinced that the decision to take such a hard line on marijuana or CBD is because they’re trying to drive alcohol sales.”

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Federal Civil Rights Complaint Filed Against IBM for Racial Discrimination and Unlawful Hiring Practices Targeting White and Asian American Executives

O’Keefe Media Group on Monday evening released a leaked video of IBM CEO Arvind Krishna admitting to using coercion to fire people and take away their bonuses unless they discriminate in the hiring process, as reported by The Gateway Pundit.

IBM, or International Business Machines, is a multinational technology company that specializes in producing and selling computer hardware, middleware, and software.

“You got to move both forward by a percentage that leads to a plus on your bonus,” Krishna said about hiring Hispanics, “and by the way if you lose, you lose part of your bonus.”

James O’Keege pointed out that after pulling ads from X for ‘racism,’ IBM chief Arvind Krishna says he will fire, demote, or strip bonuses from execs who don’t hire enough blacks and Hispanics — or hire too many Asians.

“Asians are not an underrepresented minority in tech in America…I’m not going to finess this, for blacks we should try to get towards 13 percent,” says Krishna.

O’Keefe: Paul Cormier, the chairman of Red Hat, a subsidiary of IBM, says in the leaked recording that Red Hat has terminated people because they weren’t willing to engage in racial discrimination through hiring and promotion.

“Title VII of the Civil Rights Act makes it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of race in the workplace,” James O’Keefe said.

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Michigan Lawmakers Signed Nondisclosure Agreements, Can’t Discuss Corporate Welfare Scheme

When a state gives away tax money to a private company in an attempt to sway its business decisions, the least that a taxpayer can hope for is some openness in the process.

Unfortunately, the state of Michigan’s economic development agency is actively preventing transparency, leaving questions on how the state plans to spend billions of taxpayer dollars unanswered.

In December 2021, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, signed legislation establishing the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) program, intended “to ensure the state can compete for billions of dollars in investment and attract tens of thousands of jobs to bolster our economy.” SOAR funds would be disbursed with approval from the state Senate Appropriations Committee and would benefit companies that chose to do business in the Great Lake State.

As Reason reported in May, SOAR disbursed $1.4 billion in its first 18 months, all to benefit companies making electric vehicles, batteries, or battery components.

This week, Beth LeBlanc of The Detroit News reported that since its founding, “at least 163 individuals or entities have signed non-disclosure agreements” (NDAs) related to SOAR projects. The agreements were required by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), which manages the SOAR program.

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Police Circumventing Warrant Requirements By Purchasing Data from Private Vendors

John Adams warned us that if we give government an inch, it will take a mile.

“The nature of the encroachment upon the American Constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour.”

We’ve seen this play out dramatically when it comes to the Fourth Amendment.

The courts have created all kinds of exceptions to the Fourth Amendment. But the government continues to push for more and look for ways to circumvent the restrictions on searches and seizures currently in place.

In the latest ploy to gobble up as much personal information as possible, state and federal law enforcement agencies have turned to buying information from private data miners. According to a report from LawFare Media, buyers of private data include the Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations Division, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and police departments across the country.

If government agents collect the same data directly from cell phones or internet providers, they would have to get a warrant. However, government attorneys argue that purchasing data from private brokers does not violate the Fourth Amendment because once the data becomes “public,” the expectation of privacy disappears. Furthermore, most user agreements stipulate that third parties may collect data. Since customers agree to the TOS, government lawyers contend that they effectively give up their right to privacy.

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Debunking the Myth of “Anonymous” Data

Today, almost everything about our lives is digitally recorded and stored somewhere. Each credit card purchase, personal medical diagnosis, and preference about music and books is recorded and then used to predict what we like and dislike, and—ultimately—who we are.

This often happens without our knowledge or consent. Personal information that corporations collect from our online behaviors sells for astonishing profits and incentivizes online actors to collect as much as possible. Every mouse click and screen swipe can be tracked and then sold to ad-tech companies and the data brokers that service them.

In an attempt to justify this pervasive surveillance ecosystem, corporations often claim to de-identify our data. This supposedly removes all personal information (such as a person’s name) from the data point (such as the fact that an unnamed person bought a particular medicine at a particular time and place). Personal data can also be aggregated, whereby data about multiple people is combined with the intention of removing personal identifying information and thereby protecting user privacy.

Sometimes companies say our personal data is “anonymized,” implying a one-way ratched where it can never be dis-aggregated and re-identified. But this is not possible—anonymous data rarely stays this way. As Professor Matt Blaze, an expert in the field of cryptography and data privacy, succinctly summarized: “something that seems anonymous, more often than not, is not anonymous, even if it’s designed with the best intentions.”

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ISPs Are Still Ripping Off A COVID Broadband Discount Program

During peak pandemic, the FCC launched the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB program), giving lower income Americans a $50 ($75 for those in tribal lands) discount off of their broadband bill. Under the program, the government gave money to ISPs, which then doled out discounts to users if they qualified.

But (and I’m sure this will be a surprise to readers) ISPs erected cumbersome barriers to actually getting the service, or worse, actively exploited the sign up process to force struggling low-income applicants on to more expensive plans once the initial contract ended. Very much in character.

The EBB was rebranded the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) as part of the Infrastructure Bill (the payout to the general public was dropped to $30 a month). But late last year, the FCC Inspector General issued a report saying that ISPs and wireless carriers were consistently and artificially inflating the number of qualified users in order to take taxpayer money they didn’t deserve.

A year has gone by, and another FCC Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report has emerged noting that, yes, ISPs and wireless providers are still ripping the program off. When a low-income user stops using a provider’s broadband service, the ISP is supposed to report this back to the FCC so that funding can be repurposed for folks who actually need it.

The OIG found that’s very often… not happening, and that dozens of ISPs were exploiting the FCC’s lack of follow through:

“We made a startling and troubling discovery: dozens of participating mobile
broadband providers de-enrolled few, if any, ACP subscribers for non-usage and, like Provider X, claimed reimbursement for all or nearly all their ACP subscribers (the suspect providers).”

The OIG also found that a large number of ISPs continue to take taxpayer money for users they never actually served in the first place; part of an ongoing investigation they’ll provide more details on down the road.

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