Spain presented the papacy of Benedict XVI with its first big challenge yesterday when the Vatican and the Socialist government of the Roman Catholic country traded blows in a heated row over its plan to legalise homosexual marriage. The dispute erupted after the government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero drove a bill through the Cortes on Thursday that will allow homosexuals to marry and adopt children. The Vatican hit back yesterday by advising Spanish Catholic civil servants to refuse to officiate at homosexual wedding ceremonies, even if it meant risking losing their jobs
Lesli Reed-Brennan, a 19-year-old Los Angeles woman, has sued AOL saying that a former monitor of its kids only
chat room seduced her online when she was a lonely teenager, persuading her to send him nude photos of herself and to engage in phone sex. It appears that AOL is being sued for Lesli’s own stupidity
BBC, Channel 4, British Film Institute and OU (Open University) issue call to action for Creative Archive Licence. Media and arts organisations, universities and libraries have today been urged to join an innovative new scheme designed to give the public access to footage and sound from some of the largest film, television and radio archives in the UK, as well as specially commissioned material
John Pinnock, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, says he needs the power to investigate customer complaints over content issues as well as carriage services. Pinnock said the fact he was prohibited from investigating complaints about content was one of the key limitations of his office
Sony’s rolling out their new line of flash-based music players to the market these days. More stylish than ever, they surely look like a serious attempt to regain territory lost to the iPod, and perhaps even to create the Walkman of the 21st century. And it looks like Sony has finally given in to consumer pressure: these new MP3 players
can finally play MP3 natively, not just Sony’s proprietary ATRAC format. But wait — you cannot just put your MP3s onto the device, you have to run them through Sony’s obfuscation software first. The obfuscated files, when installed properly on the device, can be played. But you can’t just move them around, share them with your friends, whatever. Well, of course the obfuscation scheme has already been broken by a brave hacker — via Slashdot
Australians are driven to pirated music because just 65% of the country’s top music tracks are available from the three legitimate online music sites, according to a study on the digital downloads industry
The Photo Card Bill that has passed through the NSW’s lower house represented the most fundamental attack on our personal freedoms since the failed Australia Card proposal of the 1980s
, Australian Privacy Foundation chair Anna Johnston said
US delegates to the US Commission on Human Rights say that body’s country membership must be reformed to prevent those who abuse human rights from using their positions on the committee to prevent criticism of their records
A report [PDF] by Homeland Security Department Acting Inspector General Richard Skinner, said the agency misinformed individuals, the press and Congress in 2003 and 2004. It stopped short of saying TSA lied, Bruce Schneier didn’t
Ovid had an unfortunate brush with identity theft when he discovered that thieves had racked up thousands of dollars on his credit card. But he’s an intrepid and easily pissed-off soul, and by that afternoon had tracked the bastards down and had them arrested
A televised anti-piracy concert watched by 150 million included one performer asking; A copyrighted CD for 200 yuan [US$24], pirated one for 10 yuan, what will you buy?
— The pirated one,
answered the thousands of people in the stadium — via BoingBoing
In the aftermath of India being forced/coerced to adopt patent law that quite literally kills people as a condition for joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO), US representatives at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) are moving to counter efforts by developing countries and numerous non-government organisations (NGOs) to bring public-interest considerations — like protecting human health — to its decision-making. Specifically, representatives have reportedly been circulating a draft paper that attempts to reframe the problem, arguing that WIPO is already addressing development issues and proposing merely a WIPO Partnership Program
— an Internet-based database to bring together donors and recipients of IP development assistance
— via BoingBoing
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
Greek prison guards will go on strike next week demanding a change of their American-made weapons that date back to the US wars in central America almost a century ago. While antique shops would be eager to get their hands on them, prison guards just want to get rid of their obsolete 1911 US Cavalry revolvers. The guns do not scare inmates any more as safety experts have advised guards not to fire them — via Neil Gaiman
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
Jon Johansen has published a small program which allows the acquisition of DRM-free files from Apple’s iTunes Music Store. He explains that his program works by bypassing iTunes which adds the DRM itself at the end of the transfer. His program, pymusique, is Windows-only compliant but it’d be easy to port it to other platforms. Alas, Apple were far from amused and have blocked the security hole the hack exploited. Pymusique is, once again, functional
Canadian blogger Jeremy Wright was detained and interrogated by US Immigration when he arrived in New York last week for a meeting with a media company to discuss a business opportunity in the area of blogging. It appears that the immigration people simply did not believe that Jeremy could make a living as a blogger. As a result they gave him the third degree for several hours — including a strip search — and incorrectly informed him that he was banned him from entering the US — via NevOn
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
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