The recent US-Australia Free
Trade Agreement Chapter 17 (IP) locks Australia into our existing DMCA-style laws and extends them further: banning access control
circumvention, extending copyright, guaranteeing penalties greater than actual damages for deliberate copyright infringement, committing us to recognising patents whether a product or process, in all fields of technology
, etc. Linux Australia has produced a draft position paper (rough HTML version), has a how to help page, and started a petition
How hard would it be to swing an election by hacking computerised voting machines? How valuable would it be? Counterpane.com’s Bruce Schneier did the math, and the results are even scarier than he expected them to be
A proposed California law that would have significantly broadened the scope of an existing state identity theft law has been quietly amended in what appears to be a concession to groups opposing it
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has unexpectedly suspended plans for a massive dam system on the Nu River in western China that scientists had warned could ruin one of the country’s last unspoiled places. Wen’s intervention signals that China’s top leaders have not approved a plan that most opponents had considered a fait accompli. However, environmentalists cautioned that the dam project could still eventually go forward in some form
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader called Tuesday for the retarded monkey boy to be impeached [BugMeNot] for deceiving the American people night after night after night
about US involvement in Iraq. When you plunge our country into war on a platform of fabrications and deceptions, and you bring back thousands of American soldiers who are sick, injured or dead, and that war is unconstitutionally authorised to begin with, Mr Bush’s behaviour qualifies for the high crimes and misdemeanour impeachment clause of the Constitution,
the 2000 Green Party presidential nominee said to applause from about 200 students at Columbia College Chicago. Nader said President Clinton was impeached for far less of an offence
Greens MP and justice spokesperson Lee Rhiannon has called for a review of the use of capsicum spray by police after a group of up to 20 students were sprayed today while protesting against fee increases at Sydney’s University of Technology. People have a right to protest in our society and the use of capsicum spray by police today on students should be condemned,
said Ms Rhiannon
NSW will outlaw unauthorised cybersnooping on employees using technology including video cameras, email and tracking devices. The new laws would make it a criminal offence to undertake any form of covert surveillance unless an employer could show a reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing by an employee
The federal Government’s second push to fully privatise Telstra has been quashed by the Senate
Congress appears to be preparing assaults against peer-to-peer technology on multiple fronts. A draft bill recently circulated among members of the House judiciary committee would make it much easier for the Justice Department to pursue criminal prosecutions against file sharers by lowering the burden of proof and would also would seek penalties of fines and prison time of up to ten years for file sharing. They dubbed the bill Protecting Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation Act of 2004
, or the Pirate Act
Pet owners in the US city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, may soon be required to provide seat belts for pets if the city council approves new rules. Under the proposed regulations, animals travelling in the open beds of cars and trucks would have to be tethered
Despite President Bush’s pledge that homosexuals ought to have the same rights
as all other people, his Administration this week ruled that homosexuals can now be fired from the federal workforce because of their sexual orientation
The European Union on Wednesday issued its ruling in the long-running case against Microsoft, fining the American software giant US$613 million, the heaviest punishment in any European competition case to date. European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti ruled that Microsoft had failed to provide to rivals information that they needed to compete fairly in the market for server software and that the company has been offering Windows on the condition that it come bundled with Windows Media Player, stifling competition
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane‘s dismissal of renewable energy and energy efficiency as neither practical nor affordable
at the Coal Plan launch demonstrates a government badly out of touch with modern clean energy technologies around the world
Western Australian Premier Geoff Gallop has defended the State’s new cannabis laws which come into effect today. People caught with a small amount of cannabis, or with no more than two plants, will either be fined or will have to complete a counseling session, rather than incur a criminal record
Why won’t John Howard admit that our participation in the invasion of Iraq increased the risk that Australia will be targeted for a terrorist attack? Pretty simple really. If he admits the obvious, as the AFP chief Mick Keelty did, then he’s back to square one in explaining his decision to go to war
The city of Aliso Viejo, California nearly banned foam cups when they learned they are produced from a substance known as dihydrogen monoxide. A paralegal working for the city apparently found a professionally designed web site put up to describe the dangerous properties of this chemical. Apparently, the report about Dihydrogen Monoxide was written by a then 14-year-old Nathan Zohner who was researching the gullibility of fifty ninth graders
Greens MP and transport spokesperson Lee Rhiannon said that the final report from the Unsworth Review of Bus Services in NSW opens the door to privatisation of the public bus network
Federal welfare agency Centrelink has paid more than $5.3 million for a web content engine and two relatively simple web applications
California’s Supreme Court has ordered San Francisco officials to immediately suspend same-sex marriages. The move was made pending a legal review on the issue later this year and comes amid conservative outrage and calls for a constitutional ban. More than 3,000 ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples have been performed in San Francisco since the city began issuing marriage licences last month. The court has yet to rule on the legality of these existing marriages — via Die Puny Humans
The spineless Prime Minister has been accused of taking his electoral cues straight from Washington following his announced intention to overturn new ACT laws that allow homosexuals to adopt children
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