The Canadian government has reportedly said no to the DMCA. It has released its plans for copyright reform with a limited anti-circumvention provision that would not cover the likes of DeCSS. It even avoided the US notice and takedown system
that has caused a big headache for US ISPs
John Howard is showing his willingness to roll over for the loony fundies reviewing the cases of long time illegally jailed immigrants who have converted to Christianity. Local Muslim leaders are far from impressed at the rank hypocrisy
The Dutch Attorney-General advises against reversal of the last verdict in the Scientology vs Karin Spaink case (part of Scientology’s War on the Internet). A series of court battles between writer Spaink and the Church of Scientology has changed the copyright landscape of the internet in the Netherlands. In an early case, linking to infringing documents was considered infringement itself. Later this was reversed, although by then several unrelated cases (notably Deutsche Bahn vs Indymedia) had been decided on the basis of this judgement. On appeals, the court held that free speech sometimes trumps copyright: even though Spaink may have infringed on the Church’s copyright, she was allowed to do so to bring to light the doings of what she considers an evil sect. According to the XS4All document, not only did the Attorney-General uphold the decision that Free Speech can trump Copyright, but concluded also that there may not have been infringement. The Attorney-General feels a work can be considered published even if publication happened against the will of the author. In the Netherlands, the Supreme Court can only reverse previous decisions by lower courts. Before it renders a verdict, it asks the Attorney-General for advice — via Slashdot
The head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency told the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, that the case for war in Iraq was being fixed
by Washington to suit US policy. Richard Dearlove, head of MI6, briefed Blair and a group of ministers on the United States’ determination to launch the invasion nine months before hostilities began in March 2003
MIT has recommended Brazil install open source software instead of proprietary software offered by Microsoft on thousands of computers that will be sold to the poor
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer said that California could no longer justify limiting marriage to a man and a woman. The ruling came after litigation stemming from the city’s decision last year to allow gays to marry. Those marriages were ruled invalid by the state‚Äôs Supreme Court but it then referred the issue to a lower court — via Warren Ellis
A french appeal court has ruled in favour of a filesharer who downloaded 500 odd movies, on the grounds that they were private copies, that he didn’t redistributed them and that a tax was payed on blank media
A Pentagon report into the interrogation of detained prisoners found senior officials and US military policy hasn’t led to abuse, despite failing to interview any of the detainees who claim they were abused. They vehemently deny the report is a whitewash and I have a bridge I’d like to sell them
William Poole, a George Rogers Clark High School junior, was arrested Tuesday for making terrorist threats. The terrorist threats
turned out to be a short story he wrote for English class about a high school overrun by zombies. Unfortunately for Poole, the local plods are so thick they can’t tell the difference between fact and fiction and the kid is still locked up — via Ben Templesmith
An Iranian weblogger has been jailed for 14 years on charges of spying and aiding foreign counter-revolutionaries. Arash Sigarchi, who also edits a newspaper in northern Iran, was arrested last month after using his blog to criticise the arrest of other online journalists — via Politechbot
John Gilmore, the millionare who cofounded the EFF, has been prohibited from travelling because he refused to show an ID while boarding an airplane. He’s been under this self-imposed ban since 2002. When a gate agent asked for his ID. Gilmore asked her why. It is the law, she said. Gilmore asked to see the law. Nobody could produce a copy. To date, nobody has. The regulation that mandates ID at airports is Sensitive Security Information
. The law, as it turns out, is unavailable for inspection. What started out as a weekend trip to Washington became a crawl through the courts in search of an answer to Gilmore’s question: Why?
John Howard has caved in to his bestest buddy in the whole, wide world and has agreed to send more Australian troops off to be slaughtered in
the retarded monkey boy‘s illegal occupation of Iraq. This from a men who swore he’d never, ever increase troop numbers. Liar
Plans to privatise the £48 billion clean-up of UK nuclear sites could put public safety at risk. Government advisers fear that financial pressures will encourage the companies to cut corners and will increase the risk of accidents
It has been called everything from a crying shame
to environmental vandalism as the debate over climate change management heats up in Australia. The Australian Medical Association, state governments and environmentalists protested Little Johhny Coward‘s refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol when the treaty, known officially as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, came into effect Wednesday
A federal judge has struck down a Bush administration rule that lowered Endangered Species Act protection for wolves that are migrating out of strongholds in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes into neighbouring states. In a ruling released yesterday, US District Judge Robert Jones in Portland rescinded the April 2003 decision by the US Fish and Wildlife Service which had divided wolf range into three areas and had reclassified the Eastern and Western populations as threatened instead of endangered. The agency had left wolves in the Southwest in the endangered category
South Australian Premier Mike Rann wants an immediate investigation into why an Australian woman was held in the Baxter detention centre for four months. Cornelia Rau, 39, who went missing from the Manly psychiatric hospital in Sydney in March 2004, spent four of 10 months’ detention in Baxter after being found in far north Queensland without identification. She spent the other six months in the Women’s Correctional Centre in Brisbane, after Queensland police believed she was an illegal immigrant. She was turned over by police to immigration officials, who could not confirm her identity
Two key witnesses appearing before a Senate inquiry in Canberra have backed bribery claims made by federal independent MP Tony Windsor. Mr Windsor says he was offered an overseas posting to quit politics, a claim he has repeated under oath at the inquiry. He says that businessman Greg McGuire made the offer on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson and Nationals Senator Sandy Macdonald. John Howard‘s cronies are still trying to weasel out of the charge
The Canadian government is moving to counter worries surrounding Canadian citizens’ privacy being compromised by the United States’ Patriot act. Apparently the FBI currently has the right, through Patriot, to search documents which may contain Canadian information sent to US firms carrying out work under contract. Thankfully, privacy still means something up there
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a statement to the State Duma, or lower house of parliament, attacking part of an anti-terror bill that would restrict media coverage of terrorist attacks and calling it unconstitutional. You’ve got to laugh when it’s Russia who are more progressive than the so-called free west
When told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three American high school students said it goes too far
in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories — via Warren Ellis
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