- Social:
journalist and author
Journalist, and author of Free Ride: How Digital Parasites Are Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back
PROFILE
Robert Levine
Guest
FROM Robert Levine
To the Point
Does the FBI Need a Back Door to Your Data? The FBI demands that Apple provide access to a dead terrorist Syed Farook's iPhone, which might contain evidence in December's deadly attack in San Bernardino. But Apple says the privacy of every other iPhone user could be lost forever, and it's challenging the power of government in the Era of Smart Phones. Complicating the issue, the FBI is using a law passed about the time that Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity. We update the case in more ways than one.
Which Way, L.A.?
Internet Piracy: Will SOPA Change the Web as We Know It? There's a major battle on Capitol Hill involving big money with Republicans and Democrats on both sides of the issue. It's all about Internet sites that profit from stolen movies and music. Movie studios and music producers say copyright theft is costing them $58 billion a year. They're backing laws proposed in the House and the Senate to give the Justice Department the power to shut down websites that profit from stolen material. The Internet industry says it's concerned about piracy too, but it claims the proposed laws are a real threat to freedom and openness on line. Can that material be protected without destroying the freedom that makes the Internet so important to so many users? Photo: Netflix is one of several companies that's threatened by Internet piracy. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
To the Point
Internet Piracy: It's Hollywood versus Silicon Valley America's so-called "creative" industries are battling it out on Capitol Hill with a lot at stake for consumers who depend on the Internet. The movie and music industries, some labor unions and the Chamber of Commerce want to crackdown on Internet piracy, which is costing some $58 billion a year. They're backing laws proposed in the House and the Senate to give the Justice Department the power to shut down Internet sites that profit from stolen material. While the Internet industry says it's concerned about piracy too, web giants like Google and Yahoo — joined by consumer groups — claim the proposed laws are a real threat to freedom and openness on line. Would Washington have the power to police the web, like China? Are there other ways of protecting the rights and income of producers and artists?
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To the Point
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
To the Point
Terrorism and tweets, hate speech and murder Just days before an election, Britain is coping with a rash of deadly terrorism, and Prime Minister Theresa May is on the defensive. And again today, President Trump has tweeted criticism of the Mayor of London. Later, a double murder in Portland, Oregon has revealed the ugly past of a supposedly “progressive” city. One immediate question: is “hate speech” protected by the First Amendment?
To the Point
Replacing Obamacare: Now you see it… now you don’t As the Senate deliberates replacing Obmacare, health coverage for millions of people is at stake. There've been no public hearings, and a draft measure won't be made public. Is the House version so unpopular that that Senate is hiding a version that looks much the same?
To the Point
Trump plays scolder-in-chief with NATO allies At the opening of NATO’s dramatic new headquarters in Brussels today, President Trump acknowledged that Article 5 — promising that “an attack on one nation is an attack on all” -- has only been invoked one time: in the aftermath of September 11. But the President failed to provide what 27 other Alliance members have been waiting for: a re-commitment by America’s new leader to Article 5. Instead, they got a scolding.