Judicial activism is taking hold in France, much to the dismay of the recording industry, as judges are beginning to suspend the sentences of convicted file swappers. Further, they believe they are starting a revolution against the draconian laws at the base of the industry’s legal agenda, and that sometimes laws need to be changed. Says Judge Dominique Barella of the laws against file swapping in today’s society: It is similar to the sociological consequences of the Prohibition period in the U.S. (during the 1920s). Certain laws can have unexpected consequences on society
Amnesty International has accused governments around the world, including Australia’s, of abandoning their commitments to human rights in the so-called war on terror
. The human rights group said the international community lacked the willpower and the means to prevent and punish atrocities. Amnesty’s 308-page annual review covered 145 countries. In it, it said the anti-terrorism tactics used have not only failed to prevent attacks on civilians, but encouraged what it described as the rampant abuse of human rights
Jorge Cortell, a teacher at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain, was forced to resign after a talk about P2P networks — via BoingBoing. Jack eloquently points out, in the comments, that Jorge Cortell has lost all credibility in Spain thanks to him being a lying sack of shit with a resumé full of fake degrees
Animal Liberation Victoria‘s ten year fight to shut down the Learmonth puppy farm, the largest in Australia, has ended in victory with Ballarat Council announcing the farm will close at the end of July 2005. The misery is almost over for the dogs, but not for owner Dr Ron Wells who has been called up before the Victorian Veterinary Registration Board and asked to explain cruelty and neglect allegations
A school resource officer arrested an 11-year-old Rawlinson Road Middle School student Wednesday after the boy went to school with ten nails in his pocket — via meta-roj blog
The rise of the iPod and digital video technology has forced the federal government to rethink copyright laws. Under current laws it is illegal to copy a CD onto a digital music recorder such as an iPod or to videotape a television program. But millions of Australians breach these sections of the copyright laws as a matter of course every day
US courts have struck down the FCC’s broadcast flag requirement. In a stunning victory for hardware makers and television buffs, a federal appeals court has tossed out government rules that would have outlawed many digital TV receivers and tuner cards in the US from mid year. The EFF has details on the flag and the official ruling is online for examination
Jeff Ferguson, a teacher who encouraged students to drink milk until they vomited as a classroom experiment, has lost another attempt to win back his job. Superior Court Judge E. Lynn Johnson ruled Monday that the Johnston County school board had sufficient cause
to fire him — via Improbable Research
When an online exortionist comes calling, threatening a DDoS, do you pay or fight? For many, paying may seem like a sensible option when compared to going out of business. CSO Magazine has a riveting article about how an online gambling site and a DDoS specialist teamed up to take on such an extortionist. When everybody else was rolling over and paying, this company risked its very existence to fight back
NSW will be the first Australian state to outlaw unauthorised spying of employees using technologies including video cameras, e-mail and tracking devices with the introduction of the Workplace Surveillance Bill 2005 to state parliament today. The new laws will make it a criminal offence to take part in any form of covert surveillance unless an employer can prove they had reasonable suspicion of wrong doing by an employee
Christie’s auction house has won the right to sell off a $20 million art collection by beating rival Sotheby’s in a children’s game. Japanese art collector Tashi Hashiyama was unable to decide which of the prestigious auction houses should handle his collection, which featured works by Picasso, Van Gogh and Cezanne. To settle it, he had them play scissors, paper, rock to decide
Acting Immigration Minister Peter McGauran says an Australian woman who was deported by mistake four years ago is missing overseas. The woman’s case is one of a number Mr McGauran has referred to the inquiry investigating the detention of Cornelia Rau, who was kept in immigration detention for 10 months even though she is an Australian resident. Mr McGauran says a search is under way for the woman and says there might be other cases of the same severity
Last month’s Cornell Copyright Debate of the Century (with EFF’s senior IP attorney, a copyfighting media scholar, and the legal heads of the MPAA, RIAA, Universal and Napster 2) is finally available online as a series of torrents in MP3 and Quicktime format, thanks to Allison Muri at the University of Saskatchewan — via BoingBoing
The US forced out a top human rights investigator at the United Nations, Egyptian-born law professor Cherif Bassiouni, just days he released a report criticising the US for committing human rights abuses. Cherif Bassiouni says, The US has done an enormous disservice to the cause of human rights in Afghanistan simply because they wanted somebody who was going to look the other way on what their practices were
New York State has gone on the attack against spyware and adware by filing a lawsuit [PDF] against a Los Angeles-based marketing company that allegedly installed invasive
software onto consumers’ computers without proper notice as part of free software downloads. In an announcement today, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said he had filed the lawsuit against Intermix Media, a 6-year-old Internet marketing company
The retarded monkey boy has signed into law the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act. A lawbreaker can land in jail for up to three years for distributing a single copy of a prerelease movie on the Internet. The MPAA’s president Dan Glickman applauded the move, stating he wanted to thank the congressional sponsors of this legislation for their strong advocacy for intellectual property rights
Tony Blair was told by the government’s most senior law officer in a confidential minute less than two weeks before the war that British participation in the American-led invasion of Iraq could be declared illegal. Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, spelt out to Mr Blair the dangers of Britain going to war without a second resolution. It is understood that he then went on to warn that British soldiers could be hauled before the International Criminal Court
A Jordanian man shot dead his divorced sister after seeing her photo on his friend’s camera-equipped mobile in the latest honour
killing in the kingdom. The unidentified man shot the 31-year-old mother twice in the head Sunday night and then turned himself in to police saying he committed the murder to cleanse his family’s honour
. The incident is the fifth example of a so-called honour killing in Jordan this year. Those found guilty usually face sentences of a maximum of one year in jail under Jordanian law — via BoingBoing
The French courts have banned DRM copy-protection on DVDs [english], because it is a consumer right to make a backup or to change formats — via BoingBoing
UK music lovers are getting frustrated with restrictions placed on digital music tracks once they buy them from online stores. The magazine reported that people are also being turned off net music stores because of pricing and disappointing sound quality compared with CDs — via BoingBoing
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