Phil Lelyveld, a Vice President for Disney, has written to the FCC to tell them to ignore Digital Consumer‘s comments on the Broadcast Flag issue. The Broadcast Flag is an inter-industry conspiracy to turn over the keys to general-purpose computing to Hollywood studio execs — under this proposal, no one will be able to ship digital television technology (like DVD recorders and FireWire) without Hollywood’s permission. Lelyveld wrote to the FCC — who are taking comments on the proposal — without mentioning his day-job, to tell them that Digital Consumer, a civil liberties groups with more than 40,000 members, is nothing more than a two dot.com millionaires
working to create a world where we are all artist/waiters
— via Slashdot
The release of the Internet Industry Association’s cybercrime code has been delayed because of concerns raised by the Privacy Commissioner
Gay men, lesbians and bisexuals are to be offered the same rights as married couples under revolutionary UK Government plans to create legally-recognised civil partnerships
Advocates of royalty-free policies in standards are slowly but surely turning the tide against intellectual property owners. But the battle isn’t over. While the World Wide Web Consortium will no longer allow its process to be manipulated in a way that turns royalty-encumbered technology patents into standards and patent holders into jackpot winners, other standards bodies like the Internet Engineering Task Force are not following the W3C’s lead just yet
Growing numbers of lawyers are pushing the murky edges of the law, hoping to strengthen — or at least clarify — the rights of animals, beyond traditional bans on cruelty
The Department of Family and Community Services has breached the Privacy Act by spamming web site competition entrants on behalf of a universit
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon and two legislators announced a plan to make spam illegal in the same way that the state already has put a stop to millions of unwanted telephone calls: through a No-Call Law
Access to plain facts is on the auction block as a result of recent decisions in Australia and overseas that seek to tie up databases under international copyright laws
According to the Australian Consumers’ Association, selling music CDs that cannot be copied digitally is a bad move by an industry that seems to be intent on self-destruction
When Nike tried to rebut charges that its foreign subcontractors used sweatshop labour, it landed before the Supreme Court. The issue: Whether corporations be given full free-speech rights to defend themselves and their business practices without fear of being sued
The ACCC has filed proceedings against the New York based operator of a web site it alleges posed as the official site for the Sydney Opera House
Australia’s telecommunications complaints authority has welcomed federal government moves to cut off a practice whereby consumers are unknowingly lured into copping excessive telephone bills for Internet usage, but industry groups are less than happy with the proposed legislative changes
Pixar has been sued by artist Stanley Mouse. Mouse created a movie treatment titled Excuse My Dust
, which was set in Monster City
, where the animated monster characters worked for the Monster Corporation of America
. One of the characters was a green, wisecracking, ambulatory eyeball. Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that a story artist from Pixar visited Mouse in 2000, and discussed Mouse’s work
The Federal Privacy Commissioner is expected to get tough with business over privacy breaches in response to a record quadrupling of formal complaints in the past year
Homosexuals are to be offered legally-registered civil partnerships under UK Government plans to give them the same rights as married couples
Six thousand police are camped in the Tuscan city of Florence in readiness for possible violence when up to 200,000 anti-globalisation protesters pour into the city tomorrow for a huge demonstration
John Halderman, a computer scientist from Princeton University in New Jersey, plans to show delegates at a digital copyright conference in Washington DC next week that the idea of CD copy-prevention is fundamentally misguided
Clare Milne, whose grandfather AA Milne gave the world Winnie the Pooh, is seeking to claw back US commercial control of the honey-loving bear who has enchanted children across the globe for three-quarters of a century
One local small town chocolate company, DeBrand’s, is planning to fight back against San Diego based PanIP’s claim that they hold the patent over any automated commerce done by text and graphics on a video monitor. The owner of DeBrand’s has even set up a web site to organise the different e-merchants, www.youmaybenext.com — via Slashdot
Nancy Carter, a Toronto-based freelance TV producer, has been battling US-based Inter.net Group for the past 16 months over a billing dispute she says may have cost her a lucrative job opportunity. Now she wants $110,000 in damages over a policy that led Inter.net’s Canadian subsidiary to keep her ISP account open for incoming e-mail even while denying her access to the account
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