In a ruling released Friday, Judge Susan Illston granted Hollywood studios’ request for an injunction against 321 Studios, saying the small software company has seven days to stop distributing its DVD-copying products on the grounds that they are illegal
Peace protesters won a landmark ruling that police acted unlawfully by forcing them to return home as they made their way to an anti-Iraq war demonstration. About 120 demonstrators are expected to claim hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages after the High Court ruled in a test case that the human rights of activist Jane Laporte had been breached
The federal Government has moved to give greater powers to spy agencies to intercept people’s e-mails. The Telecommunications (Interception) Amendment Bill 2004 also allows warrants to be sought in connection with the investigation of a wider range of serious offences, including terrorism. The bill, if passed by parliament, will allow recording of calls to ASIO public lines
The music industry considers Michele Scimeca a pirate. The Morris County mom has her own term for record executives: Racketeers. In what legal experts described as a novel strategy, Scimeca is citing federal racketeering laws like the one that jailed mob boss John Gotti to counter-sue record labels that accused her in December of sharing some 1,400 copyrighted songs over the Internet
Librarians have warned that the free trade deal will lead to huge increases in copyright licence fees paid by Australians for use of intellectual property, including novels, poems, films and songs. And a legal expert said it was literally a Mickey Mouse
deal, as the Disney Corporation had been among its most powerful backers. The 20-year extension of copyright terms brings Australia into line with US restrictions — via Lessig Blog
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had urged the county clerk’s office this week to begin issuing marriage certificates for same-sex partners [BugMeNot], asserting that the state Constitution prohibits discrimination in such matters. The office has been inundated with happy couples wanting to tie the knot. Seth Schoen took a walk down to the San Francisco city hall and watched the hundreds of lesbian and gay couple in various states of marriage
Greens MP Ian Cohen is reporting that the independent
NSW Advisory Council on Gene Technology has become nothing more than a rubber stamp for companies seeking to grow commercial-sized GM crops, despite legislation enforcing a three-year ban
Sharman Networks threw down the legal challenge Tuesday in Australia’s Federal Court in Sydney. Sharman was raided by Music Industry Piracy Investigations, a private investigations unit established by the Australian Recording Industry Association to crack down on copyright infringement, including illegal Internet file sharing. MIPI successfully applied to the federal court for a number of private search warrants, known as Anton Piller orders, which were executed at 12 locations, including Sharman’s offices in Sydney. The order allowed MIPI to seize data and documents from all 12 sites, including the private residence of Sharman chief executive Nikki Hemming. The raids are a prelude to a copyright infringement suit, which will argue that Sharman has the ability to block the transfer of copyrighted works through its software but refuses to do so. Sharman vehemently denies the claim. Telstra is attempting to have the Anton Pillar orders overturned
Chea Vichea [BugMeNot], popular leader of Cambodia’s independent trade union movement and outspoken activist for the rights of textile workers in his country, was murdered recently by three bullets at point blank range, while he was reading a newspaper at a café in a Phomn Penh street. Vichea was responsible for the placement of a complaint with the ILO’s Committee of Freedom of Association in the wake of the sacking of more than 30 textile factory workers, including Vichea himself, who were also union members. Vichea claimed that the workers were fired because of their union membership. The report was scheduled to be made public the day after the murder
I received an email from someone in California about some stationary they bought while in Australia a year ago, with some black and white Australian animal sketches that I did apparently. They wanted to know if there was anywhere in California they could get some more of these items.
I was dumbfounded. Huh? Then I cast my mind back to when I was in high school, there was a teacher who asked if I’d do some sketches for him to print out onto stationary and sell at the markets. I was of course going to get a fee, although undecided at the time. I did the sketches but the teacher then informed me he wasn’t going to go ahead with them after all.
At least that’s what he told ME…
This had to be what the Californians were talking about. My name must be on the pieces some where, so they’ve done a web search and come up with my website and email. I replied asking if they could remember where they got them from, “Paddy’s Markets”.
I’m not quite sure what pisses me off more, the fact that I’m being ripped of by a teacher (whose name I can’t remember), or that very shitty artwork can be traced back to me. Like I said, I did these when I was in high school, they’re crap!
If anyone else seems to have purchased any of these items with said artwork could you please email me with info on where you bought them. I’m not going to blow your head off or sue you, hey you didn’t do anything wrong. I just need more info. Maybe even a scan of the actual item so I can see where my name is or something.
Guess where I’m going this Saturday…
Former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt signed Utah’s 2.4 million residents up for a pilot program — MATRIX, Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange — that gathers dossiers on every single man, woman and child and didn’t bother to tell anyone. The Utah legislature is trying to figure out how to get the state out of the program but the question is how was the Governor able to enroll the whole state without anyone knowing
MoveOn.org organised the BushIn30Seconds campaign to raise the money to air a 30-second spot during the SuperBowl detailing the problems with the Bush administration. CBS baulked at airing the winning ad, claiming that it would be too topical for them and is getting criticised for its blatant censorship of political discourse
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said that people concerned about losing freedom to government anti-terrorism efforts should speak out. The Supreme Court is taking up several terror-related cases this spring, including challenges to the government detention of terror suspects without legal rights
Twenty-two human rights activists, including nuns, priests, a divinity school student, a former New York City firefighter, received three to six month sentences in federal prison for nonviolent actions to close the School of the Americas — a terrorist training camp on US soil
Australian government users of Linux are ignoring SCO’s offer of licences to protect them from possible legal action over the company’s claim to intellectual property used in the open source operating system. Government users, while generally cautious about legal risks, are taking a wait-and-see approach to SCO’s controversial claims
In a victory for animal rights advocates, the state Court of Appeals in Tacoma has established for the first time just how much pain is needed to convict someone of animal cruelty: not much
AA Milne’s granddaughter has had her bid to recapture the licensing rights to Winnie the Pooh denied by a UK court. The Milne heirs licensed the rights to Pooh to Disney, only to discover that Milne had previously sold them to his literary agent, who is now suing Disney for all they’re worth. The UK court ruling is the latest setback on the way to what could be the Disney company’s financial ruination for trademark infringement
The US Military wants to be excused from duty. That is, it’s duty to obey the environmental laws of the United States of America. Last year the Defence Department won exemptions from three major environmental laws — the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty. Now, the military wants to ignore the Clean Air Act and toxic waste laws. To its credit, Congress has already refused to allow these additional exemptions, but the Defence Department is preparing to join the battle once more
The head of the Prison Service the number of inmates serving short-term prison sentences had soared and called for minor offenders to be given non-custodial punishment
The Israeli soldier accused of killing Tom Hurndall, the British peace activist who died last week, tried to cover up his crime by asking for his commander’s permission to shoot an armed man
moments after he had already fired the fatal shot
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