Mayor’s speed cameras would help political ally

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14 March 2012
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When Rahm Emanuel was a first-time candidate for Congress, Greg Goldner was behind him, quietly marshalling the patronage troops that helped get him elected. When Emanuel ran for mayor, Goldner was there again, doling out campaign cash to elect Emanuel-friendly aldermen to City Council.

And when the rookie mayor was looking for community support for his school reform agenda, there was Goldner, working behind the scenes with the ministers who backed Emanuel’s plan.

Now, it turns out the longtime allies share another interest — the installation of automated speed cameras in Chicago.

As consultant to the firm that already supplies Chicago its red-light cameras, Goldner is the architect of a nationwide campaign to promote his client’s expansion prospects. That client, Redflex Traffic Systems Inc, is well-positioned to make tens of millions of dollars from Emanuel’s controversial plan to convert many of the red-light cameras into automated speed cameras — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Government uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97%

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14 March 2012
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In a landmark decision that could set a precedent on how life-saving drugs under patents can be made affordable, the government has allowed a domestic company, Natco Pharma, to manufacture a copycat version of Bayer’s patented anti-cancer drug, Nexavar, bringing down its price by 97%.

In the first-ever case of compulsory licencing approval, the Indian Patent Office on Monday cleared the application of Hyderabad’s Natco Pharma to sell generic drug Nexavar, used for renal and liver cancer, at Rs 8,880 (around $175) for a 120-capsule pack for a month’s therapy. Bayer offers it for over Rs 2.8 lakh (roughly $5,500) per 120 capsule. The order provides hope for patients who cannot afford these drugs.

The approval paves the way for the launch of Natco’s drug in the market, a company official told TOI, adding that it will pay a 6% royalty on net sales every quarter to Bayer. The licence will be valid till such time the drug’s patent is valid, ie 2020. As per the CL (compulsory licence) order, Natco is also committed to donating free supplies of the medicines to 600 patients each year — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia chief to advise Whitehall on policy

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13 March 2012
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The American internet entrepreneur, 45, will become an unpaid adviser across all government departments to help civil servants develop innovative new technology.

Under his role, it is expected that Mr Wales will also advise civil servants on how the public can be better engaged through the internet as part of its open government initiatives.

A Whitehall source told The Daily Telegraph on Sunday night that Mr Wales was one of a number of unpaid advisers who would provide help to civil servants rather than ministers — via redwolf.newsvine.com

E-health record will be hacked, says AusCERT

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12 March 2012
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One of Australia’s top IT security organisations has warned that the Federal Government’s flagship e-health records project is likely to be broken into, with Australians’ medical and identity information to be used for fraud and other criminal activities.

AusCERT, Australia’s Computer Emergency Response Team, which is not associated with the Government, in its submission to an inquiry about the legislation dated in January (PDF), criticised the Government’s Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records (PCEHR) Bill (2011). In its commitment to protecting the privacy and security of Australian Internet users, AusCERT has expressed concern that miscreants could potentially use the PCEHR for identity theft and fraud. The submission was first reported by the AustralianIT.

AusCERT opines that enabling accessibility to personal identifying information in the form of the PCEHR from personal computers over the Internet will only worsen an ongoing problem that will make Australians vulnerable to fraud and identity theft. The submission focuses on the use of untrustworthy end point computers and mobile devices, which when compromised, will enable attackers exert full control over the PCEHR to look at or change its contents with the same privileges as the owner or authorised users — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Hollywood will regret the Dotcom trial

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7 March 2012
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Big Hollywood and the US government may think that by closing down Megaupload, they will have thwarted the alleged piracy problem.

But as Kim Dotcom says in his interview, much demand stems from people wanting the latest US movies or TV programs now, as opposed to typically waiting months for it.

Furthermore, there are similar sites offering the same or related content that Megaupload.com did, including sites in the US that are unmolested by the FBI.

Like a many-headed hydra, if you cut off one head, others will take its place.

The US authorities are fighting a losing battle, especially since digital downloads seem the way of the entertainment future — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Judge rules eavesdropping law unconstitutional

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5 March 2012
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A Cook County judge today ruled the state’s controversial eavesdropping law unconstitutional.

The law makes it a felony offence to make audio recordings of police officers without their consent even when they’re performing their public duties.

Judge Stanley Sacks, who is assigned to the Criminal Courts Building, found the eavesdropping law unconstitutional because it potentially criminalises wholly innocent conduct –via redwolf.newsvine.com

The twisted logic of pokie reform

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3 March 2012
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It’s been a few weeks since the Gillard Government backflipped on its agreement with Andrew Wilkie to introduce pokie reform.

In retrospect, and with the benefit of hindsight, it seems that the main lesson to be gleaned from this was, as Tim Costello said a little after event: if something looks like it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

The gambling lobby, notably ClubsNSW and their casino-owning comrades, were never going to take this lying down. Their response was well organised, very well funded, and well targeted at governments (both state and federal) with no stomach for a fight.

The pokie back-down provided, it seems, a case study in how corporate money can defeat social reform. I’m sure it will be studied as such for years to come — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Conroy misleads public on Internet filter

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29 February 2012
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Communications Minister Stephen Conroy today appeared to consciously tell a factual inaccuracy with respect to the current implementation status of Labor’s controversial Internet filtering project, stating that Telstra and Optus had implemented the mandatory filtering system, when they have only implemented a drastically reduced voluntary version.

In a press conference this afternoon with Prime Minister Julia Gillard televised live nationally, Conroy was asked whether he was still philosophically committed to the Internet filter project, and whether it would be implemented during the current term of government, or the next. The full transcript is available online here.

Well, two companies, in fact three companies have already introduced it, he said. It may come as a great surprise to you that the internet hasn’t slowed down or collapsed. Telstra and Optus and a small — apologies to the third company — have introduced the filter.

However, as Conroy is aware, no Australian Internet service provider has implemented the Internet filtering system which remains the current policy of the Federal Government — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Social worker tells of forced adoptions

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27 February 2012
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A former social worker has told how she was instructed to actively encourage young unmarried mothers to give up their babies for adoption at a Sydney hospital in the 1970s.

The woman, who wishes to be known only as Jan, was a trainee social worker at Sydney’s Royal Hospital For Women when it was run by the Benevolent Society in 1972.

She has told ABC1’s Four Corners she has always felt awful about her part in pressuring young unmarried women 40 years ago.

Basically my job was to shut them up, stop them crying, get them to realise that giving up their baby was the best thing that they could do and get on with it, she said.

Jan says it was made clear to her by her superiors that adoption was the only message to be delivered to unmarried mothers.

I was one of the people who was involved with telling the girls that if they kept their baby they were being selfish. They were being selfish to the baby and selfish to the adopting parents who really wanted to have a child, she said — via redwolf.newsvine.com

HR 1981: SOPA Author Lamar Smith’s New Internet Surveillance Bill Intensifies Threats to Online Privacy

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22 February 2012
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Following the massive world-wide protests over the Internet in January, the infamous SOPA and PIPA are mostly dead with the author Lamar Smith saying he won’t take the bill up in committee until a wider agreement on a solution is reached.

While people have been celebrating the victory over SOPA and PIPA, here’s what has managed to slip by relatively unobserved, until now.

A bill, titled HR 1981, Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011, is being sponsored by Lamar Smith and is considered to be a wide-ranging Internet surveillance bill with many other domineering attempts by the government to invade privacy and control the Internet.

According to David Seaman, a prominent new media advocate, the bill has been named thus so that politicians in the House and Senate are strong-armed into voting for it, even though it contains utterly insane 1984-style Big Brother surveillance provisions — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Name changes outlawed for NSW criminals

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21 February 2012
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New laws will be introduced to the New South Wales Parliament this week which will prevent serious criminals from changing their names to escape detection.

Attorney-General Greg Smith says the state’s Registry of Births, Death and Marriages will be sent an alert list of serious offenders, such as murderers and rapists.

Mr Smith says under the current laws there is nothing to prevent such criminals from securing a new identity.

If they have a criminal record they’re supposed to indicate that on the form, but a lot of them just ignored that and they got through, he said — via redwolf.newsvine.com

A Kenyan village tweets to fight crime, foster hope

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20 February 2012
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When the administrative chief of this western Kenyan village received an urgent 4.00am call that thieves were invading a school teacher’s home, he sent a message on Twitter. Within minutes, residents in this village of stone houses gathered outside the home, and the thugs fled.

My wife and I were terrified, said teacher Michael Kimotho. But the alarm raised by the chief helped.

The tweet from Francis Kariuki [@Chiefkariuki] was only his latest attempt to improve village life by using the micro-blogging site Twitter. Mr Kariuki regularly sends out tweets about missing children and farm animals, showing that the power of social media has reached even into a dusty African village. Lanet Umoja is 160 kilometres west of the capital, Nairobi — via redwolf.newsvine.com

ACTA loses more support in Europe

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16 February 2012
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Support for ACTA in Europe is waning as both Bulgaria and the Netherlands refuse to ratify the international anti-piracy agreement.

Bulgaria will not ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement over fears it will curb freedom to download movies and music for free and encourage internet surveillance, economy minister Traicho Traikov said on Tuesday.

More than 4,000 people marched in the capital Sofia last Saturday calling on parliament not to ratify the act. Similar rallies drew thousands of protesters across eastern Europe, as well as in Germany, France and Ireland — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Polishing Putin: hacked emails suggest dirty tricks by Russian youth group

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12 February 2012
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A pro-Kremlin group runs a network of internet trolls, seeks to buy flattering coverage of Vladimir Putin and hatches plans to discredit opposition activists and media, according to private emails allegedly hacked by a group calling itself the Russian arm of Anonymous.

The group has uploaded hundreds of emails it says are to, from and between Vasily Yakemenko, the first leader of the youth group Nashi — now head of the Kremlin’s Federal Youth Agency – its spokeswoman, Kristina Potupchik, and other activists. The emails detail payments to journalists and bloggers, the group alleges.

Potupchik declined to confirm or deny the veracity of the emails, but appeared to acknowledge that her email had been hacked. I will not comment on illegal actions, she told the Guardian — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Mozambique takes first step against backroom abortions

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8 February 2012
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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. In doing so, Mozambique would become the ninth African country to liberalize its abortion policy in the last decade. Since 2003, 28 countries have ratified an African Union protocol supporting the right to abortion in cases of rape, incest, or high-risk pregnancies. In these incremental changes, there may be signs of a continental shift — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Prominent Tory disowns ‘religious right’ and supports gay marriage

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7 February 2012
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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.

In an interview with The Independent, Tim Montgomerie dismissed criticism that extending equal rights to gays and lesbians would weaken marriage. He said Tories and church leaders should support gay marriage because it would save the institution, not destroy it. Marriage is probably the most important Conservative institution and excluding people from it is therefore excluding people from Conservativism to a significant extent, he said — via redwolf.newsvine.com

The Target Isn’t Hollywood, MPAA, RIAA, Or MAFIAA: It’s The Policymakers

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6 February 2012
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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 enough excuse. It’s simply a reinforced, learned behaviour.

A boycott against Big Monopoly will not work. Any noticeable drop in profits will cause them to throw a tantrum at policy makers and complain how their profits are dropping due to piracy, and request harder enforcement of their copyright monopolies at the expense of our civil liberties and the freedom of the net.

Buying more of their products (yeah, right) will not work. Any noticeable raise in profits will cause them to commission reports to policy makers illustrating their grandiose importance to the economy as a whole, suggesting that they are the direct reason for at least several hundred per cent of the gross national product. Therefore, they will argue, they need additional protection as a national interest.

Doing nothing will not work either, as we are constantly on the retreat in civil liberties — via redwolf.newsvine.com

You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You

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5 February 2012
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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.

It can’t, is the short answer, and one these companies do not want to hear as they put their fingers in their ears and start yelling. As technology continues to evolve, the battle between pirates and copyright holders is going to escalate, and pirates are always, always going to be one step ahead.

But what’s clear is that legislation is not the answer. Piracy is already illegal in the US, and most places around the world, yet it persists underground, but more often in plain sight. Short of passing a law that allows the actual blacklisting of websites like China and Iran, there is no legislative solution. That’s what SOPA and PIPA were attempting to do, but it so obviously trampled on the First Amendment, it was laughed out of existence as the entire internet protested it. The only other thing you could get the internet to agree on was if they tried to institute a ban on cat pictures — via redwolf.newsvine.com

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