WCSH6 in Portland, Maine: "Gingrich Says Government May Have To Limit Speech In Terror War: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich used a New Hampshire event dedicated to freedom of speech to say the United States will have to re-examine that constitutional right as it fights terrorism." He reportedly singled out the Internet as a channel that needs "a different set of rules."

This story has been making the rounds of the Internet, I've seen it in a couple of places. I sure hope Gingrich is being misquoted or quoted out of context here, because if he actually means this, it shows a shocking disregard for fundamental American values.

Does anybody reading this know if this is what Gingrich actually said?

Update: Eric Hall points me to www.newt.org, which has a transcript of the relevant portion of Gingrich's speech. It appears that Gingrich was, indeed, quoted accurately and in context.

So let's say we revoke free-speech protection for terrorists and their supporters. Who decides who's a terrorist? That's the danger of censorship, it's too tempting for government to use it to stifle dissent, disagreement, and unpopular opinion. Censorship simply swaps the threat of terrorism for government oppression.

There are already laws against speech which incites to violence, those are sufficient.

And if the terrorists are planning attacks, we want them to do it on the Internet, in the open, where we have a better chance of keeping an eye on them.

TechCrunch is reporting that BitTorrent received $25 million in funding and ousted CEO Bram Cohen, who created the BitTorrent protocol. The company signed licensing agreements with Warner Bros., Paramount, and others to sell movies and TV shows priced starting at $1 each, and will put its software on DVRs, cable boxes, and wireless routers to allow BitTorrent users to download legal movies or TV shows to PCs or TVs.

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer protocol used for many legitimate purposes, such as distributing Linux code. But there's no denying that it's also the favorite channel for people to get pirated movies and TV shows -- I know a few people who routinely use BitTorrent to watch the latest episodes of favorite TV shows -- especially British TV that won't air in American for months, if at all.

Says TechCrunch:

BitTorrent is making a real effort to stay legitimate and in favor with the RIAA and MPAA, which of course doesn’t sit well with the majority of the world’s 70 million BitTorrent users. Napster failed miserably when they tried to work with the RIAA. We’ll see how well BitTorrent does this time.

Update @ 8:03 pm EST: Om Malik reports:: "We have received confirmation that the $25 million round is closed and Accel is indeed leading the round of financing. In addition, Bram emailed us and lets us know that he is still with the company. “I’m still happily here at BitTorrent, and there’s no plans for me to leave,” he wrote to us in an email." And my colleague Tom Claburn writes:: "BitTorrent spokesperson Lily Lin denied that BitTorrent had won further funding and stated definitively that Cohen remains with the company. 'He's still here,' said Lin. 'He's not going anywhere.'"

Lore Sjöberg gives a rundown of the worst superhero names ever:

Jean Grey
It bothers me that Jean Grey doesn't get a superhero name. And her real name isn't really that interesting. It's as if the Avengers included Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Dave Henderson. She was originally Marvel Girl, and I can see why she didn't want to stick with that name. And the Phoenix thing didn't really work out for her, OK. But come on, she's not even trying anymore. Even "The Amazing Henna-Woman" would be better than just "Jean Grey."

Yeah, I know this has nothing to do with tech. It's just for laughs.

Cooliris is a browser extension that give you previews of links without clicking on them, by hovering the mouse pointer over the link, then moving your mouse pointer over a tiny little icon that appears when you hover the mouse over a link. It works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.

Cooliris reduces back-and-forths that result from clicking a link and finding out that the page is unsuitable or the link broken.

To get a look at Cooliris in action, check out the animated doohickey on the Cooliris page.

I have it installed right now on Firefox. It's nifty--but is clicking a link really that much trouble?

Lifehacker recommends it but it's not a big hit in the Lifehacker comment threads. NineTailedFox says: "It's like having the world's most obnoxious cat walk repeatedly across your keyboard."

When I last tread this space, it was to alert readers who weren't already aware, of the Dec. 1rst launch of new federal rules regarding electronic discovery. By the way, there's no new law. The new requirements are just an extension of existing rules, which you can find here.

Continue reading "The Ripple Effects Of E-Discovery..."