Articles by Mareike Lucht

Credit: openmarket.org Allegations of voter fraud in Florida is a common occurrence during any presidential election. In each election since 2000, several issues have been reported in the state. Reports in previous years indicated that the problem was defective computers and missing votes. Now, the problems are starting way before the elections. Strategic Allied Consulting, a firm hired by the Republican Party of Florida, has allegedly committed fraud. According to recent reports, numerous reg...

Credit: flikr.com For many Americans, visiting Tijuana is not the most popular of recreational activities, especially in light of the media's coverage of cartel-related violence in Mexico. Negative media coverage has convinced people that kidnapping is an almost mandatory consequence of visiting one of the bars on La Revolucion, the main party corridor in Tijuana. However, it wasn't so long ago that those looking for a good, and relatively cheap, time would head south of the border to take adva...

Earlier this year, an IVN contributor reported that while the stated purpose of the ACTA treaty is to curtail international piracy of copyrighted material, in practice, it would be used to curtail speech, expression, and even Internet access. Furthermore, the article stated that, "for those that care about Internet freedom this news  is a ray of sunshine." Gathering factual information about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement over the Internet, however, is a difficult task. Rather, much of...

From SOPA, PIPA, to ACTA intellectual property issues have been a hot topic for discussion this year in American politics. But, the multi-national Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations underway right now could have an even bigger impact on intellectual property rights held here in the United States. The 14th round of the TPP negotiations is currently being held in Leesburg, Virginia. A multitude of topics are subject to those negotiations, however, the issue of intellectual property righ...