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Category Archives: Rights
Mozambique takes first step against backroom abortions
In March, the Mozambican legislature is expected to pass a bill that would revise the country’s draconian abortion law and legalise voluntary abortions in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy… Continue reading
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Prominent Tory disowns ‘religious right’ and supports gay marriage
A prominent Conservative has broken ranks with his allies on the “religious right” by declaring his support for the Government’s controversial plans to legalise gay marriage… Continue reading
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The Target Isn’t Hollywood, MPAA, RIAA, Or MAFIAA: It’s The Policymakers
Big Monopoly has learned in the past century that when they look like a little spoiled brat having a tantrum, politicians will throw taxpayer money their way to shut them up. Therefore, this is a behaviour they emulate as soon they are given a good … Continue reading
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You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You
Now that the SOPA and PIPA fights have died down, and Hollywood prepares their next salvo against internet freedom with ACTA and PCIP, it’s worth pausing to consider how the war on piracy could actually be won… Continue reading
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Norwegian alarm system monitors length of office lavatory visits
Call centre workers in Norway are protesting against a hi-tech surveillance system that triggers an alarm if they spend more than eight minutes per day in the lavatory…
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Angry Birds boss: ‘Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business’
Rovio Mobile learned from the music industry’s mistakes when deciding how to deal with piracy of its Angry Birds games and merchandise, chief executive Mikael Hed told the Midem conference in Cannes this morning… Continue reading
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Dutch ISPs Refuse To Block The Pirate Bay
Two large ISPs in the Netherlands have said they will not be blocking subscriber access to The Pirate Bay, as demanded by the Hollywood supported anti-piracy outfit BREIN… Continue reading
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Why Twitter’s new policy is helpful for free-speech advocates
My initial reaction upon a cursory reading of the announcement was also that it wasn’t too bad, given the alternatives… Continue reading
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Twitter to censor content in some countries
Twitter has announced it will begin restricting tweets in certain countries, marking a policy shift for the social media platform that helped propel the popular uprisings recently sweeping across the Middle East… Continue reading
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MegaUpload Users Plan to Sue the FBI over Lost Files
In most reports following the MegaUpload shutdown, the site is exclusively portrayed as a piracy haven… Continue reading
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ISP data retention still an issue, Ludlam warns
Speaking at Electronic Frontiers Australia’s “War on the Internet” event on Saturday in Melbourne (full video available online here), Ludlam, who is the Communications Spokesperson for the Greens, said much of the thinking around t… Continue reading
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Stop ACTA: secretive treaty will bring in the worst of SOPA through trade obligations
ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is the notorious, unprecedented secret copyright treaty that was negotiated by industry representatives and government trade reps, without any access by elected representatives, independent business, th… Continue reading
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Australia: US Copyright Colony or Just a Good Friend?
The Canberra Wikileaks cables revealed the US Embassy sanctioned a conspiracy by Hollywood studios to target Australian communications company iiNet through the local court-system, with the aim of establishing a binding common-law precedent which wo… Continue reading
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SOPA lessons for Australia
PIPA and SOPA may be dead in the water for now, but it’s worth remembering that the most controversial part of the legislation is something the Australian Government has been thinking about for years… Continue reading
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Hospital apologises for forced adoptions
Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital has apologised for forcing unwed mothers to give up their children for adoption until the mid-1970s… Continue reading
Posted in History, Politics, Rights
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Julian Assange: The Rolling Stone Interview
At 40, the WikiLeaks founder comes across more like an embattled rebel commander than a hacker or journalist… Continue reading
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Undercover police had children with activists
Two undercover police officers secretly fathered children with political campaigners they had been sent to spy on and later disappeared completely from the lives of their offspring, the Guardian can reveal… Continue reading
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What Megaupload’s demise teaches about cloud storage
Megaupload users are crying foul after their personal files, not necessarily copyright-infringing material, stored with the file-sharing service was seized on Thursday along with a trove of illegally distributed copyrighted works… Continue reading
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Dangerous abortions ‘on the rise’, says WHO
A rising proportion of abortions worldwide are putting women’s health at risk, researchers say… Continue reading
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Swiss ‘contract children’ speak out
A dark chapter of Swiss history is getting increased attention, with the release of a feature film about “Verdingkinder” or “contract children” and an exhibition about them which is touring the country… Continue reading
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SOPA: copyright industry threat to internet in Australia
What initially sounded like a somewhat gormless idea — ?blacking out websites to draw users’ attention to the Stop Online Piracy and Protect IP acts before US Congress — ?has turned out to be dramatic intervention in the battle aga… Continue reading
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Germany backs neo-Nazi database after far-right murders
German ministers have approved plans to establish a national register of far-right extremists, after revelations of 10 neo-Nazi murders since 2000.
It is thought there are almost 10,000 neo-Nazis in Germany and the database would include information h… Continue reading
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Balibo
Some of you will have seen Balibo, but many more of you will know vaguely the story: that of five Australian journalists killed by Indonesian soldiers during the invasion of East Timor in 1975… Continue reading
Posted in History, Politics, Rights
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The Great Martin Luther King Copyright Conundrum
Believe it or not, to legally watch that famous Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream” speech — arguably one of the most hallowed moments in American history — costs $10 thanks to the twisted state of United States copyright law… Continue reading
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Vet pleads for landlords to allow pets
Brisbane vet Michael O’Donoghue has seen too many people have to give up, or put down, their pets because they could not find a rental property that welcomed animals… Continue reading
Posted in Rights, Wildlife
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Email after hours? It’s overtime by law for some
The backlash against 24-hour connectivity is gathering pace around the world… Continue reading
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Nike agrees $1m overtime payment for Indonesian workers
Sportswear group Nike has agreed compensation in a dispute with workers in Indonesia over unpaid overtime… Continue reading
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North Carolina Sets $50K Compensation for Victims of Eugenics Program
A task force assigned to the grim undertaking of deciding how much to compensate as many as 2,000 living victims of a decades-long North Carolina sterilisation program finally settled on a number on Tuesday… Continue reading
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Nursing’s modern day miracle workers doing it tough
Welcome to the world of the Brown Nurses, an intriguing benevolent organisation unknown to most except those who require its services… Continue reading
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Hungry Jack’s cops whopper staff pay bill
A Hungry Jack’s fast food outlet in central Victoria has been penalised for underpaying its staff for more than four years… Continue reading
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Israeli bill would prohibit Nazi comparisons
Draft legislation in Israel would make it a crime in the country to use the word “Nazi” or symbols of the Holocaust for purposes other than teaching… Continue reading
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Boy ‘tortured and drowned’ over witchcraft claims, court told
A teenage boy underwent “unimaginable physical torture” before being drowned by his sister and her partner because they believed he was a sorcerer who was practising witchcraft, a court heard on Thursday… Continue reading
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Brown slams surveillance of green activists
Greens leader Bob Brown has accused Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson of turning Australia into a police state, after reports he pushed for increased surveillance of environmental activists… Continue reading
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US Threatened To Blacklist Spain For Not Implementing Site Blocking Law
In a leaked letter sent to Spain’s outgoing President, the US ambassador to the country warned that as punishment for not passing a SOPA-style file-sharing site blocking law, Spain risked being put on a United States trade blacklist… Continue reading
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Canadian Government Considers Plan To Block Public Domain
Canada celebrated New Year’s Day this year by welcoming the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Carl Jung into the public domain just as European countries were celebrating the arrival of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, 20 years after both entered … Continue reading
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Japan tests $2.28m cyber-defence virus
The Japanese government is testing a self-defence virus that has the objective of tracking down the source of cyber attacks and removing the threat… Continue reading
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‘Spam capital’ India arrests six in phishing probe
Police in India say they have arrested six foreign nationals suspected of defrauding hundreds of people using text message and email scams… Continue reading
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Belarus Bans Browsing of All Foreign Websites
As citizens of the United States worry over the implications of the pending SOPA legislation, a small land-locked country on the fringes of Europe is showing how bad things can really get… Continue reading
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Tech solution developed for disabled parking abuse
What does it mean when a parking spot is marked with a wheelchair symbol? If you answered, “It means I can park there as long as I’m going to be quick,” you’re wrong — yet you’re also far from alone… Continue reading
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Teachers warned over Facebook and Twitter use
Scottish teachers are being warned that their use of social networking sites could put their careers at risk… Continue reading
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What They Won’t Tell You About Pepper Spray
Pepper spray is a safe, non-lethal weapon for police to use against criminals, rioters and the occasional sporting event streaker, right? Maybe not. It seems this non-deadly weapon has caused its share of deaths since 1990, and according to info … Continue reading
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Mexican authorities disband Veracruz police force in bid to stem corruption
The entire police force in the Mexican port of Veracruz was dissolved on Wednesday in an effort to root out corruption, and armed marines were sent in to patrol… Continue reading
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Websites allow Kenyans to report bribes and battle corruption
Ask a Nairobi resident to name the most frustrating part of living in Nairobi, and they’re likely to answer: bribing a cop… Continue reading
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It’s up to parents to resist the tyranny of the pink princesses
On our kitchen wall are photos of our two daughters as a toddler and a baby. The older one is in navy blue and dark green, the younger in a red-and-blue checked shirt and cute little red trousers… Continue reading
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Serco To Run Youth Prison
Serco recently won a West Australian government contract to manage a new, one-of-a-kind youth prison that will house 18 to 24-year-old male offenders from mid-2012… Continue reading
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Punk ‘Re-Education’ Not A Good Look For Aceh
Indonesian media reported that police under the supervision of the Banda Aceh administration arrested on the weekend 64 punk youth who were gathering at a charity music concert for orphans… Continue reading
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Russian journalists condemn ‘gag’ after Putin story
Journalists at a Russian newspaper have signed an open letter of protest after its owner fired two top executives over a photo insulting Vladimir Putin… Continue reading
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Judge Orders Man To Delete Revenge Blog
A Minnesota man violated a restraining order obtained by his ex-girlfriend by blogging about her mental health and sexual issues, and sending links to posts on the blog to her family, friends, and co-workers. The judge then extended the restraining … Continue reading
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Sniffer dogs get it wrong four out of five times
A record 80 per cent of sniffer dog searches for drugs resulted in “false positives” this year, figures show… Continue reading
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Pastor supporter of gay marriage out in the cold
Matt Glover, the Lilydale Baptist pastor who supports gay marriage, has been sacked at a secret church meeting to which he was not invited… Continue reading
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