U.S. Invites War with World: Intellectual Privilege, Jurisdiction, and Property Rights

Cross posted on my blog.

Recently the United States Customs and Enforcement(ICE) agency has shutdown more than a hundred .com and .net websites, on the grounds these websites are under U.S. jurisdiction.

Erik Barnett, Assistant Deputy Director for ICE, claims the United States has jurisdiction over all .com and .net websites because all Domain Name Service (DNS) indexes are “routed” through Verisign, a United States-based company. In this article, I will outline three protests against the over-expansion of ICE's power: jurisdiction, international law, and constitutional law. And, ultimately, I will question the very nature of intellectual privilege that has lead to these abuses.

YAL at UC-San Diego Chalks up School to bring discourse over TSA

On November 17, YAL at the University of California-San Diego flyered and chalked up their school. They informed the student body about the local protests in both the LA and San Diego areas as part of the National Opt-Out protest. Only having a handful of volunteers, a camera, a box of chalk, and pre-designed flyers by YAL at Vanderbilt University, within the hour, students around campus saw our work and began discussions amongst themselves.

**update: youtube link

21st Century Prohibition: FDA to Ban Alcoholic Energy Drinks

From ABC News:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will effectively ban the sale of beverages that combine caffeine and alcohol, including Four Loko and Joose, by ruling that caffeine is an unsafe food additive, according to Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

In a press release, the Senator also announced that the Federal Trade Commission will notify manufacturers that they're potentially marketing the products illegally.

A spokesperson for the FDA would not confirm the release, adding that the agency announced a review of the products in November 2009. She could not comment on a projected date for completion of the review.

 If we keep banning things at this rate, maybe the 2020's will be like the 1920's....Great Gatsby, Boardwalk Empire, fedoras (we really need to bring those back)...  Life wouldn't be so bad, right?

Our government has banned flavored cigarettes and now alcoholic energy drinks. Seriously -- what is going on America? These nannies have to go.

Are Google and Paypal a Threat to Banks?

From ZDNET:

RaboDirect general manager Greg McAweeney told an audience from the finance sector in Sydney last week that companies such as Google and PayPal are more responsive and trusted than banks

....They are a non-traditional bank yet they have great reach, access, distribution and trust — they probably have more trust than most of the banks.

Is this a sign that innovation and an exposition of Austrian economics is working?

According to Peter Thiel, PayPal is not a bank in the traditional sense; they do not have fractional reserve lending nor are they backed by the Federal Reserve. Thiel suggests Paypal is equivalent to a money market account.