A recent vote in the US House of Representatives has led to a rejection of the principle of Net Neutrality from the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (Cope Act), in spite of massive lobbying from prominent businesses
A group of four Connecticut librarians recently announced that the US government had requested to view private patron records and also threatened imprisonment if the librarians spoke up about it — via digg
In yet another blow against free speech rights, the Supreme Court decided that government employees who report wrongdoing do not enjoy 1st Amendment rights while on the job
China has launched a case against American chipmaker Intel’s near-monopoly on encryption standards for wireless local area network equipment
France is contemplating legislation designed to to force compatibility between digital songs and the different machines that play them
. Known colloquially as the iPod bill, it is opposed by Apple, the Business Software Alliance, and others who refer to it as state-sponsored piracy
. Two versions of the bill have already passed France’s Senate and National Assembly. Under the proposed law companies could have to reveal trade secrets of their software so that their songs can play on competitors’ devices
In the wake of high-profile lawsuits involving BlackBerry and eBay, Congress is once again talking about fixing what the technology industry says is a thoroughly broken patent system
John Howard’s junket to Ireland has allowed him to show the world his true colours. A talk at University College Dublin saw Howard out himself as rampant homophobe by claiming that it is not discrimination to deny gay men and lesbians equal marriage status with heterosexual couples and that most Australians do not want gay couples to have equivalent status. Howard’s warmongering, racism and dodgy dealings in East Timor have seen several TDs plan to boycott his address to the Dáil — via The Pagan Prattle Online
Australia is finally reforming its backwards copyright law, which made it illegal to record shows off the TV and radio, and to rip CDs for personal playback. However, in the process, they proposed a new law that is even more backwards — one that prohibits watching your recorded shows more than once, one that doesn’t allow you to make backups of your CDs, and that doesn’t let you loan them to friends — via Boing Boing
Elections officials in several states are scrambling to understand and limit the risk from a dangerous
security hole found in Diebold Election Systems’s ATM-like touch-screen voting machines. Armed with a little basic knowledge of Diebold voting systems and a standard component available at any computer store, someone with a minute or two of access to a Diebold touch screen could load virtually any software into the machine and disable it, redistribute votes or alter its performance in myriad ways — via Bruce Schneier
The National Security Agency’s goal to create a database of every call ever made inside the USA. Aided by the cooperation of US telecom corporations, AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, the NSA has been secretly collecting phone call records of tens of millions of Americans; the vast majority of whom aren’t suspected of any crime. Only Qwest refused to give the NSA information because they were uneasy about giving information to the government without the proper warrants. The usefulness of the NSA’s domestic phone call database as a counterterrorism tool is unclear
The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping programme because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers security clearance
Lakeshore GO Transit rail authority apologised after a mischievous rider hacked into the electronic message board to announce that Stephen Harper Eats Babies
— via Warren Ellis
Unions have labelled proposed independent contractor legislation worse than Work Choices, warning that the federal Government risks creating an underclass
of IT contractors who will undercut the pay of salaried staff
The US government has asked a federal judge to dismiss the EFF’s civil liberties lawsuit against the AT&T Corporation because of a possibility that military and state secrets would otherwise be disclosed
. The statement concludes by saying: Finally, because the United States intends to assert the state secrets privilege and file a dispositive motion to dismiss this action, the United States requests that discovery proceedings be deferred until the government’s submission has been considered and heard.
You can view the full text of the government’s statement of interest (PDF) on the EFF’s web site
The California Public Utilities Commission has approved a plan allowing providers of high-speed internet services to test electricity lines to deliver internet access
The introduction of a national smart card with photo ID has upset Coalition MPs and privacy experts who believe it could develop into a national identity card by stealth
For the last few years, a coalition of technology companies, academics and computer programmers has been trying to persuade Congress to scale back the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Now Congress is preparing to do precisely the opposite. A proposed copyright law would expand the DMCA’s restrictions on software that can bypass copy protections and grant federal police more wiretapping and enforcement powers. The new law would send you to prison for attempting to infringe copyright. It would make it even more illegal to own tools that could be used to remove copy-restrictions, like DVD-ripping software — it could even bust Symantec for making software that removed the Sony rootkit malicious software that the company distributed with its CDs last year
South Carolina’s Legislature is considering outlawing sex toys. The South Carolina bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Ralph Davenport, would make it a felony to sell devices used primarily for sexual stimulation and allow law enforcement to seize sex toys from raided businesses — via Boing Boing
A legal spat over a Web site criticising Jerry Falwell for his antigay views won’t ascend to the US Supreme Court. The justices on Monday declined without comment to take up the evangelical preacher’s appeal, which challenged the operator of Fallwell.com, a site that aims to explain why Rev. Falwell is completely wrong about people who are gay or lesbian
. The televangelist had claimed the domain name’s spelling was too close to that of his official Web presence and asked the courts to shut it down
China’s environment ministry has ordered cleanups at 20 chemical and petrochemical enterprises, including CNPC and units of Sinopec, after they were found to pose serious safety threats
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