Some people are trying to reduce their electronic presence, and discovering that doing so is not as simple as it would seem. Seems these people forgot that they were the idiots that published the data online in the first place
Voters in San Francisco will decide this fall whether the city should grow its own marijuana. Under a measure that will be on the ballot in November, city officials would explore growing pot and distributing it to seriously ill patients who have permission from their doctors. Supporters said such a program on city-owned land could double as agriculture job training for the unemployed
The ACLU recently had a study done that suggests that broadband access is a threat to internet freedom. Their study focuses on the control available to broadband providers who don’t have to deal with the same level of competition or regulation as ISP providers. The result is the ability to radically control internet access combined with the omnipresent corporate incentive for profit, whatever the cost to free speech — via Slashdot
Privacy International is questioning the use of fingerprinting technologies by UK schools for library purposes and the role of the Office of the Information Commissioner in reviewing the technology. The practice came to light after a parent discovered that a school had obtained her child’s print without consent
The Federal Government is attempting to change freedom of information legislation to prevent the public discovering that Internet censorship laws have failed, according to civil liberties group Electronic Frontiers Australia
Forgent Networks, a video conferencing company based in Austin, Texas says it’s going to pursue royalties on the transmission of JPEG images. And it’s already found a licensee: Sony Corporation
The RIAA has begun pressing for anti-copying technology in future digital radio standards. While enthusiasts of free software disrupted a Commerce Department meeting, insisting on their right to debate the entertainment industry over anti-copying technologies
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Cyber Security Enhancement Act that would allow for life prison sentences for malicious computer hackers
The Bush Administration aims to recruit millions of United States citizens as domestic informants in a program likely to alarm civil liberties groups
Gigi Sohn hopes that geeks have become so enraged by recent anti-piracy schemes that they’ll finally want to fight back. The 40-year old lawyer, head of the Public Knowledge non-profit group, plans to recruit a ragtag band of technophiles and train them to become a corps of effective political activists on the Internet front
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock has been accused of having a conflict of interest regarding his responsibilities towards children in Australia’s detention centres
The NSW Government will consult with its interstate counterparts before deciding whether to repeal controversial internet censorship legislation
A US state Supreme Court ruled that a Minnesota woman who wrote a message on the internet critical of an Alabama scholar cannot be sued for libel in the scholar’s home state
If your superannuation is with the giant financial multinational ING, don’t complain too loudly about the returns. One Sydney man did, and the company sued him for libel, and silenced him on pain of being put in prison
Canada took a major step toward recognising same-sex couples on Friday when an Ontario court ruled that to do otherwise is unconstitutional
McDonald’s, the world’s largest restaurant company, lost a legal bid to stop a British-based restauranteur from using the name McChina. Frank Yu Kwan Yuen opened the first McChina restaurant in Wimbledon, south-west London in 1991, under the names McChina Stir Fried and McChina Wok Away
Britons, among the heaviest users of cannabis in Europe, will soon be able to smoke dope without fear of arrest after the government relaxed its laws on the drug in the face of a dramatic rise in its use. And voters in Nevada, which up until last year had the US’s strictest marijuana law, will decide in November whether to let adults legally possess small amounts of pot
It’s happened to American cities from Baltimore to Detroit. Now city officials in Stockholm fear the Swedish capital is about to have its name associated with a pornographic web site. The city is looking for ways to stop an adult entertainment company in Spain from launching a web site on a domain that uses the city’s name
Record labels hell-bent on strangling unauthorised music copying on the Internet are considering widening their legal efforts to include lawsuits against individuals. Perhaps they should consider a revolutionary new recording format in a bid to help win the war on illegal file sharing
In United States vs Lucite ball containing lunar material, the Feds are suing to get back a moon rock from an American who brought it back from Honduras. They’re alleging that this rock from the Apollo 17 mission is stolen property; ironic considering that NASA took something that wasn’t under US jurisdiction
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