The Australia Institute, a public policy research centre, says the Federal Government risks trade sanctions if it does not ratify the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas emissions. Russia has announced it will sign the protocol, which will ensure it comes into effect worldwide. Australia and the US are still refusing to ratify the agreement and the Federal Government says Australia is reducing emissions anyway. Australia Institute executive director Clive Hamilton says nations bound by the protocol could impose trade barriers on Australia
The Supreme Court of Canada says that you’re liable if a plant with a patented gene infects your property. If you recall, Schmeiser claims (and research supports) that Roundup Ready canola seeds infected his own crops. Monsanto prosecuted him for patent infringement
There is a renewed call for the Tasmanian devil to be nominated as a threatened species. Research is continuing to determine the cause of the cancer-like disease that has wiped out up to 85% of devil populations in some areas. Greens Senator Bob Brown says the State Government has allocated nothing further in this week’s Budget for programs to save the marsupial
Auto insurance company Geico has sued Google and Overture Services for allegedly violating its trademarks in search-related advertisements, in the latest legal salvo against the Internet companies
The home state of presidential contender John Kerry has held the first legal gay marriages in US history, while the loony fundies demand that the constitution be rewritten to outlaw such unions forever. Congratulations to Tanya and Marcia, the first couple to take the plunge
Retired Congressman Al Smith testified on the DMCRA, Rep Boucher’s bill to reform copyright. Smith’s been home-taping for 54 years, and he knows what’s what: When I buy a CD or a DVD, that content should be wholly mine to do with as I please as long as I am in no way selling its contents or profiting from it… Present law is predicated on the assumption that consumers will rip-off copyright holders. The vast majority are innocent of that assumption, but all are treated as guilty
Those radicals in Holland have protected the right of a search engine to search for MP3s — via Lawrence Lessig
Sir John Sulston, a Nobel Prize winning scientist, has called on the British government to introduce legislation to prevent discrimination on the basis of people’s genetic make-up
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has recommended that all children in immigration detention centres be released as soon as possible. And leaked details of the commission’s final draft report say Australia’s detention laws should be changed urgently, to comply with the international Convention on the Rights of the Child, with minimum standards of treatment enshrined in legislation. It will come as no surprise that John Howard and his simpering minions have dismissed the report, the Greens have slammed the government’s dismissal as bloody-minded and deliberated child neglect
US court rulings have pulled the most popular software for copying DVD movies off the market, but a new program is trying to get around these rulings and still let users duplicate copy-protected discs
If you have ever seen the cult ’60s British television program The Prisoner, in which captured Cold War spies live on an island under constant surveillance, you can imagine what life may soon be like on Ayers Island
Disney is blocking [BugMeNot] its Miramax division from distributing Fahrenheit 911
, a new documentary by Michael Moore that harshly criticises the retarded monkey boy. Disney is pushing the family friendly card, total bollocks considering Miramax is their adult arm that releases kiddie flicks like Pulp Fiction. It’s more likely that Disney is scared the film might jeopardise tax breaks [BugMeNot] granted to Disney for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Jeb Bush is governor. If that is the reason for Disney’s move, it would underscore the dangers of allowing huge conglomerates to gobble up diverse media companies
Businesses in certain US states are required by law to collect, among other privacy invasive information, the thumbprints of customers who want to sell their used video games, CDs, and books
A few political sketches took a 15-year-old Prosser boy from his art class to questioning by the Secret Service — and thrust him into a debate over free speech
A long-awaited review into digital copyright laws has been released, but recommendations for ISPs who may be hosting copyright-breaching material have been clouded by the new Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the US
Domain Names Australia Pty Ltd and its director Chesley Paul Rafferty have been found guilty by the Federal Court of breaching the Trade Practices Act, following the company’s re-registration mailout scam in 2003
Thousands of demonstrators banged pots and pans, blew whistles and beat drums on Saturday in a Latin American-style protest of World Bank and IMF policies in poor countries. Some carried signs reading people over profits
and debt relief now
to underscore their message to international lenders holding their spring meetings
An international effort to dismantle major internet piracy groups has identified more than 100 people in the US and abroad involved in the theft of more than $US50 million in music, movies, games and computer software — nice to see they live in a little fantasy world where they believe this will make a difference
The FBI is trying to convince the government to mandate that providers of broadband, Internet telephony, and instant-messaging services build in backdoors for easy wiretapping. That would constitute a sweeping expansion of police surveillance powers. Instead of asking Congress to approve the request, the FBI (along with the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration) are pressing the FCC to move forward with minimal public input
John Howard had the bone pointed at him as part of a warning by embattled ATSIC chairman Geoff Clark yesterday that he was not welcome in western Victoria. Moorap, an Aboriginal woman from the Tjapwuurrong people, from Mortlake, performed the traditional ceremony yesterday morning as the Prime Minister arrived in Colac
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