Rogue landlord told to pay

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28 September 2011
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Notorious rooming house operator George Maatouk has been ordered to pay more than $9000 in accumulated fines and costs for breaches of the residential tenancies act over the past two years.

As the operator of the Sydney Road rooming house that burned down in 2006, causing the deaths of a young couple, Mr Maatouk featured prominently in the 2009 Coroner’s inquiry, which heard that he earned $40,000 a week running 60 properties.

Mr Maatouk, who has convictions for fraud and forgery, is one of the four directors of Melbourne’s largest rooming house service, Victorian Accommodation Centre — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Digging into Australians’ right to privacy

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26 September 2011
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Following on from its move to fast track the issue of whether Australians should have a statutory right to privacy, the Minister for Privacy and Freedom of Information Brendan O’Connor today released an issues paper to discuss proposed legislation on the topic.

The issues paper is in response to a 2008 Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) proposal that legislation be introduced to allow Australians to take legal action if they feel that their privacy has been seriously invaded. As it currently stands, Australians have no legal right to privacy, and cannot take legal action when their privacy is invaded.

Before mass adoption of devices such as smartphones and the use of social networks, privacy had been a relatively simple issue, with O’Connor stating in the paper he released today that serious invasions are infrequent. However, he said that advances have made the issue more complex, and that discussion is now warranted as to whether legislation that gives Australians the right to privacy is appropriate — via redwolf.newsvine.com

California bill would ban warrantless mobile phone searches

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26 September 2011
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If you get arrested in California, the photos, e-mails and other personal data on your mobile phone soon could be a bit safer from prying police eyes soon. A bill passed by the state legislature would require law-enforcement officers to obtain a warrant before searching the mobile phone of a person placed under arrest.

If signed by the governor, the bill would override a January ruling by the California Supreme Court. According to California Senator Mark Leno, who sponsored the legislation, this ruling had legalised the warrantless search of mobile phones during an arrest, regardless of whether the information on the phone is relevant to the arrest or if criminal charges are ever filed.

The new California law unanimously passed in the state Assembly. Governor Jerry Brown has until 9 October to sign it into law, according to a spokesman from the governor’s office.

Under this legislation, California law enforcement officers would have to first obtain a search warrant when there is probable cause to believe a suspect’s portable electronic device contains evidence of a crime

Mark Thompson: Met’s order to Guardian part of disturbing trend

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26 September 2011
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The BBC director-general has warned that British journalism is facing a dangerous period because of attempts by police to force news organisations to hand over confidential sources.

Mark Thompson was speaking the week after Scotland Yard dropped its attempt to obtain a production order, which would have compelled the Guardian to disclose the source of a story revealing that a mobile phone belonging to Milly Dowler was hacked by the News of the World.

In a speech in Taiwan on Sunday morning, Thompson said the affair was part of a disturbing trend for police forces in many parts of the UK routinely to demand that journalists disclose sources and hand over journalistic materials.

He added: At the BBC, we receive an ever-growing number of demands for untransmitted news rushes which the police seem to regard as having no more privilege or protection attached to them than CCTV pictures.

The police asked broadcasters to pass them footage of rioters in the summer, a request which most of them said they were happy to comply with providing the police obtained court orders requiring them to do so — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Yahoo blocks emails about Wall Street protest

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23 September 2011
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Ready for conspiracy theories? Folks emailing information about the Wall Street protests on Monday using Yahoo discovered their emails failed, and received a message from Yahoo claiming suspicious activity. Does that sound suspicious?

ThinkProgress.org has perhaps the best coverage, including a YouTube video of users trying to send emails that mention the OccupyWallSt.org web site. That seemed to be the magic phrase to get your email blocked.

Yahoo spokespeople claim it was a glitch, a mistake, unintentional, and they don’t know how their spam filters became so sensitive. Via Twitter, Yahoo announced the blockage was now fixed, but there may be residual delays. There will certainly be some residual questions. But remember, censorship requires a government entity squelching speech, not an email provider — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Italy prepares one strike anti-piracy law

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23 September 2011
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The Italian government is preparing an anti-piracy law that could ban Internet users from access after one alleged infringement, a lawyer and an analyst warned.

ISPs would be required to use filters against services that infringe copyright, trademark or patents under terms of the draft law. The proposed changes to Italy’s e-commerce directive were drafted in July by members of parliament belonging to the Il Popolo della Libertà (PdL) party of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. After analysing the proposed amendments, Paolo Brini, spokesperson for ScambioEtico, a grassroots movement committed to copyright reform, concluded the Italian government is in fact proposing a one strike out Internet law.

Citizens could be disconnected from the Internet if a provider is notified of an alleged copyright, trademark or patent infringement on the Web, Brini said. ISPs would have to blacklist citizens who are only suspected of infringements and providers might be compelled to install filters to sniff out copyright, trademark or patent abuse, he said. Furthermore, ISPs that do not comply with the filter requirement could be held liable under civil laws — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Fraser decries bipartisan appeal to redneck minority

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21 September 2011
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Malcolm Fraser has accused both sides of federal politics of appealing to a redneck minority in the asylum seeker debate.

The former prime minister says the Federal Government has a responsibility towards asylum seekers from Afghanistan because of Australia’s military intervention in that country.

Mr Fraser allowed tens of thousands of refugees into Australia after the Vietnam War in the 1970s and says people trying to flee the war in Afghanistan also deserve protection.

He says the current debate over asylum seekers is one of the most terrible in the history of the Parliament, with both the Government and Opposition chasing cheap votes at the expense of the lives of vulnerable people — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Don’t ask, don’t tell formally ends

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21 September 2011
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An 18-year-old law that prevented serving US military personnel from disclosing that they were gay has been formally repealed.

At one minute past midnight eastern time (0401 GMT), the controversial don’t ask don’t tell (DADT) law was abolished after its repeal was signed into law some nine months ago.

Introduced by President Clinton in 1993 as a compromise step to full equality, DADT allowed gay and lesbian members of the military to serve only if their sexuality remained secret or was not reported.

The Servicemembers Legal Defence Network estimates that since the law’s introduction, 13,000 gay men and lesbians have been discharged after their sexual orientation was revealed.

In some cases dismissals were made on the basis of testimony from jilted lovers or those with personal grievances — via redwolf.newsvine.com

FBI Trainer Says Forget Irrelevant al-Qaida, Target Islam

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21 September 2011
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The FBI has publicly declared that its counter-terrorism training seminars linking mainstream Muslims to terrorists was a one time only affair that began and ended in April 2011. But two months later, the Bureau employee who delivered those controversial briefings gave a similar lecture to a gathering of dozens of law enforcement officials at an FBI-sponsored public-private partnership in New York City.

And during that June presentation, the FBI’s William Gawthrop told his audience that the fight against al-Qaida is a waste, compared to the threat presented by the ideology of Islam itself.

At the operational level, you have groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida. Like teeth in a shark, it is irrelevant if you take one group out, Gawthrop said during his lecture to the New York Metro Infragard at the World Financial Center in downtown Manhattan — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Phone hacking: Met police drop Guardian demands

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21 September 2011
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Scotland Yard has decided not to pursue its legal bid to force the Guardian to reveal the sources it used for stories about phone hacking.

A hearing was scheduled for Friday but police said it had consulted the Crown Prosecution Service and opted at this time not to go ahead with the hearing.

The CPS said it had asked for more information and more time.

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said the paper welcomed the Met’s decision to withdraw this ill-judged order — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Home Office considers gender-free UK passports

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20 September 2011
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UK passport holders may be able to opt out of identifying themselves as male or female under proposals being investigated by the Home Office.

Discussions on the introduction of gender-free documents are still at an early stage, with officials in the UK and other countries examining the security implications of not requiring transgender people to state whether they are men or women.

Passport holders might be able to simply put an X in a box marked sex — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Toxic Policy Helps No One

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19 September 2011
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The unseemly squabble between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott over offshore processing of asylum seekers ignores an unspoken but inescapable reality: one in four refugee claims are currently decided onshore, with asylum seekers residing in the community. Families are monitored and unaccompanied children closely supervised, but unlike those held behind razor wire in remote detention facilities, they are free to come and go.

Despite all the bluster and tough talk about stopping the boats and breaking the people smuggling business model, Australia has been quietly doing what most Western countries (including the United States and Britain) do: processing asylum seekers in the community with minimal social discord.

And there is capacity in the system to process far more in this way, perhaps 50 per cent of current claims. Both the Red Cross and the Immigration Department, who oversee the bipartisan policy of community detention for families and children, believe about 2000 of the 4110-plus asylum seeker claims could be handled this way — via redwolf.newsvine.com

FBI Teaches Agents: Mainstream Muslims Are Violent, Radical

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15 September 2011
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The FBI is teaching its counter-terrorism agents that main stream [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathisers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a cult leader; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a funding mechanism for combat.

At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more devout a Muslim, the more likely he is to be violent. Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: Any war against non-believers is justified under Muslim law; a moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah.

These are excerpts from dozens of pages of recent FBI training material on Islam that Danger Room has acquired. In them, the Constitutionally protected religious faith of millions of Americans is portrayed as an indicator of terrorist activity — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Passport changes for the gender diverse

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15 September 2011
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Transsexual Australians will be able to get a passport in their preferred gender without undergoing a sex-change operation.

Under new guidelines released by the federal government today, gender reassignment surgery will no longer be a pre-requisite for sex and gender diverse people to get a passport identifying them the way they wish — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Outrage over egg industry’s definition of free-range

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15 September 2011
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For the first time, the country’s egg industry has defined the term free-range and wants it to be legally enforceable. But free-range farmers and animal welfare groups are outraged and say the standard is not ethical.

The Australian Egg Corporation, which represents most egg farmers, this week sent new draft standards to producers, which would allow a free-range egg farm to run as many as 20,000 chickens per hectare. The industry’s current model code, which is not legally enforceable, allows 1500 chickens per hectare.

The managing director of the corporation, James Kellaway, said he wanted an agreed definition of free-range that was enshrined in legislation and enforceable to replace the loose standards that currently existed — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Internet troll jailed after mocking deaths of teenagers

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14 September 2011
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An internet troll who posted videos and messages mocking the deaths of teenagers, including a girl hit by a train, has been jailed.

Sean Duffy, 25, targeted Facebook tribute pages and posted videos on YouTube taunting the dead and their families.

Among his victims was Natasha MacBryde, 15, who died instantly when hit by a passenger train near her home in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.

The day after Natasha’s death in February, Duffy posted comments including I fell asleep on the track lolz on the Facebook tribute page created by her brother James, 17.

Four days later he created a YouTube video called Tasha the Tank Engine featuring her face superimposed on to the front of the fictional engine — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Filesharing service sues Warner Bros for copyright fraud

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14 September 2011
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The battle over software and video piracy took a turn yesterday when a Florida file hosting service sued Warner Brothers for allegedly engaging in copyright fraud and abuse of anti-piracy laws. Hotfile accuses the Warner Bros of using the hosting company’s anti-piracy tools to remove titles the studio doesn’t own, including open source software. Hotfile is asking a court to make it whole for the losses they claim Warner Bros caused.

The suit is in response to a ruling in a related case. This spring, Warner joined with four other studios and the Motion Picture Association of America to sue Hotfile for facilitating illegal file transfers. Two weeks ago, a judge ruled that Hotfile must release detailed information about its users and affiliates. Hotfile’s countersued yesterday, alleging copyright fraud — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Will copyright extensions ever end?

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14 September 2011
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It’s now more than a decade since the internet began killing the music industry. The situation is so much worse than the last thing to kill music — home taping — that the industry is enjoying considerable success in getting its business model protected by law.

Just last year the Government passed the Digital Economy Act, which the industry argued was needed to tackle piracy, and yesterday the European Commission extended the copyright term on sound recordings from 50 to 70 years.

And the European copyright extension is great news for artists. At least according to the IFPI, the organisation that represents the international recording industry — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Church of Scientology facing back-pay claims

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14 September 2011
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The Church of Scientology is facing the prospect of back-pay claims that on some estimates could run into millions of dollars.

In March last year the ABC’s Four Corners broadcast a program containing allegations of mistreatment and exploitation of some of the church’s most loyal members.

The next day, the Fair Work ombudsman started an investigation into the church.

ABC’s Lateline has obtained a draft copy of that investigation’s report, which contains allegations of false imprisonment and forced labour — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Xenophon names priest accused of sex abuse

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14 September 2011
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Independent Senator Nick Xenophon says he has named a priest at the centre of an alleged seminary rape scandal because the Catholic church failed to stand the man down while investigating the allegations.

Speaking under parliamentary privilege last night, Senator Xenophon named the priest as Monsignor Ian Dempsey, a parish priest in the Adelaide suburb of Brighton.

Senator Xenophon said there were allegations that Monsignor Dempsey raped the Archbishop of the Traditional Anglican Communion, John Hepworth, more than 40 years ago — via redwolf.newsvine.com

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