The head of the US copyright office has accused Congress of making a mistake by extending the length of copyright in America, calling the term too long
, and saying that Congress made a big mistake
. The remarkable admission came at the tail end of an event held at the UNC Law School on 2 November 2005, when Mary-Beth Peters, the Register of Copyrights, and a panel of copyright scholars, lawyers and bureaucrats convened to deliberate copyright in public
US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld is unhappy with the existing propaganda systems in place and insists that the US must create a more effective, 24-hour propaganda machine
or risk losing the battle for the minds of Muslims
Houston’s police chief is suggesting putting surveillance cameras in apartment complexes, downtown streets and even private homes. Scott Henson with the American Civil Liberties Union calls Hurtt’s proposal to require surveillance cameras as part of some building permits — radical and extreme
Harry Whittington, 78, was alert and doing fine
after US Vice President Dick Cheney sprayed Whittington with shotgun pellets on Saturday at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas. Does this mean it’s open season on lawyers? — via Boing Boing
The French courts have ruled that using peer-to-peer networks (P2P), providing you are doing so for personal rather than commercial reasons, is legal. The decision comes just as the French Parliament meets to discuss whether internet users should pay a voluntary tax or surcharge of €5 a month to use P2P networks. The decision was actually made back in December but has only just been made public
The US Justice Department asked a judge to approve Patriot Act e-mail monitoring without any evidence of criminal behaviour and now e-mail surveillance has been approved
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts said Friday the Bush administration’s domestic spying is within the retarded monkey boy‘s inherent power under the Constitution
Senators have voted in favour of a bill removing control over the abortion drug RU486 from the federal health minister, a noted loonie fundie. Senators were given a rare conscience vote on the bill, with 45 voting in favour of the change and 28 voting against. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives and if passed will end the Health Minister’s power to ban RU486 and allow the Therapeutic Goods Administration to make a decision on the drug. It is the first conscience vote since 2002
Minnesotans buying mail-order prescription drugs from Canada are having medications confiscated by US Customs in escalating numbers, a step that has some worried that life-saving supplies may not reach customers on time
Hundreds of thousand of people could die in a nuclear attack, but hundreds of thousands of others could be saved. That’s because the Pentagon — after decades of searching — believes it has found a drug to treat radiation exposure. Why isn’t that drug available? Because bureaucratic red tape is blocking the availability of Neumune, a drug developed by San Diego biotech firm Hollis Eden to treat Acute Radiation Syndrome — via Boing Boing
The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T accusing the telecom giant of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency in its massive program to wiretap and data-mine Americans’ communications — via digg
An FCC mandate will require that all hardware and software have a wiretap backdoor that allows the government to tap into all your communications — via digg
A librarian at Brandeis University forced the FBI to obtain a warrant to seize computers used to send threats. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents tried to seize 30 of the library’s computers without a warrant, saying someone had used the library’s Internet connection to send the threat to Brandeis. But the library director, Kathy Glick-Weil, told the agents they could not take the machines unless they got a warrant first. Newton’s mayor, David Cohen, backed Ms Glick-Weil up. After a brief standoff, FBI officials relented and sought a warrant from a judge
Five current and former National Security Agency employees have said that the agency frequently retaliates against whistleblowers by falsely labeling them delusional
, paranoid
or psychotic
The Russian justice ministry has asked a court to shut down the Russian Human Rights Research Centre, one of the country’s oldest human rights group — via Boing Boing
US Representative Marty Meehan’s staff has been heavily editing his Wikipedia bio, among other things removing criticisms. In total, more than one thousand Wikipedia edits in various articles have been traced back to congressional staffers at the US House of Representatives in the past six months
The ACLU has received complaints from six organisations and nearly two dozen people who fear they have been spied upon, photographed, videotaped or had their events infiltrated by government agents. They say none of them did anything that would justify surveillance but rather are critics of the Bush administration — via digg
Russia’s federal security service, the successor to the KGB, has launched a cold-war style attack on non-governmental organisations and human rights groups, linking them with alleged espionage by British diplomats in Moscow
A group called the Metamorphosis Foundation reports that 126 nongovernmental organisations in Macedonia have signed an open letter to that country’s president and parliament demanding prompt adoption of the Law on Free Access to Information
— via Boing Boing
Premier Iemma has been embarrassed into cancelling government plans to put a new toll on the M4 following the public release of secret government documents obtained by the Greens. The government had planned to continue the M4 toll past
the 2010 date when it was due to become free for public use
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