Claims that China harvests organs from live Falun Gong prisoners without consent — then destroys their remains — are real, according to a report from a human rights lawyer and a former MP in Canada. The document cites an organ price published online for a transplant centre in Shenyang City, China. Corneas are $30,000 US, kidneys $62,000 US, livers $130,000 US and lungs up to $170,000 US, which would make this a most profitable trade — via Boing Boing
Scott Adams cuts to the heart of the recent stupidity over flag burning: I was delighted to learn that American politicians are trying to make it illegal to burn the American flag. That can only mean that my dedicated public servants have finally solved the problems of crime, drugs, war, poverty, terrorism, healthcare, immigration, and the mystery of why our children are such idiots compared to Norwegians. Evidently those issues are now under control. I was starting to worry that Congress was wasting my tax dollars doing stupid shit
The Queensland police force has begun using the first phase of a $35 million technology system that will grow into a one-stop access point for officers
Award-winning photojournalist Martin Adler was killed in Mogadishu this week while filming a political demonstration. He was shot at close range by a single, hooded gunman. Mr Adler often covered conflict zones alone, filling the multiple roles roles of writer, cameraman, producer and correspondent — via Boing Boing
In a rare case of music retailer-turned-Internet pirate, the Virgin store chain in France said Tuesday that it had been found guilty of downloading and reselling a Madonna hit without permission. The store’s online portal, virginmega.fr, was ordered by the Paris Tribunal de Commerce to pay €600,000, or US$754,000, in damages for downloading the Madonna song Hung Up
from a France Télécom Web site that had exclusive rights to distribute the song for one week
A publishing firm fell foul of the law by using unlicensed typefaces worth £80,000, according to licensing lobby group the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The publishing firm had claimed to be using just one font but in fact was found using 11,000. The publisher was the subject of a BSA enquiry after an ex-employee tip-off, said the BSA, which is funded by software companies
Many individuals currently without permanent housing still manage to stay connected via a mobile phone, laptop or some other gadget. Many homeless have email addresses and find that it offers them a way to get their foot back in the door of normal
society via Slashdot
France has given the thumbs-up to the defanged version of a controversial law that would have forced Apple Computer to open up its iTunes digital rights management to players other than its iPod
The banking details of thousands of Australians have been revealed and an international police investigation jeopardised in a bungle by Australia’s peak internet crime-fighting agency. The details of 3500 customers from 18 banks, including names and account numbers, were lost when a classified computer dossier on Russian mafia phishing
scams was misplaced by the Australian High Tech Crime Centre in April last year
Hasbrouck Heights Library Director Michele Reutty is under fire for refusing to give police library circulation records without a subpoena. Her lawyer explained; Reutty did the right thing… At no time did Michele Reutty say to any police officer or anybody else that she would not give the information if it was properly requested.
However, borough labor lawyer, the exceedingly dim and clueless Ellen Horn, who also represented the library trustees, said Reutty was more interested in protecting
her library than helping the police
A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position. The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders — via Boing Boing
The 25 European Commission member states and nine accession countries have all signed up for a plan that could make e-accessibility mandatory — via digg
Apple’s iPods are made by mainly female workers who earn as little as £27 per month, according to a report in the Mail on Sunday. The report claims Longhua’s workers live in dormitories that house 100 people, and that visitors from the outside world are not permitted. Workers toil for 15-hours a day to make the iconic music player and the iPod nano is made in a five-storey factory (E3) that is secured by police officers. Apple is currently investigating the sweatshop allegations. [Update: Apple has published their findings]
The proposed services access card is essentially identical to the Australia Card proposal for a national identity card overwhelmingly rejected 20 years ago, according to a privacy study to be released today
John Perry Barlow — Grateful Dead lyricist, copyfighter, and co-founder of EFF — conducted an electronic debate with ex-congressman Dan Glickman, the head of the Motion Picture Association of America on the BBC’s web site. The exchange is fascinating in that it shows Glickman lives in an information vacuum and doesn’t have a clue about electronic media — via Boing Boing
UK music fans no longer face the threat of prosecution for copying their own CDs on to PCs or MP3 players, as long as the songs are only for personal use. Peter Jamieson, chairman of the British Phonographic Industry, said consumers would only be penalised if they made duplicates of songs for other people. Mr Jamieson also called for Apple – which makes the popular iPod portable music player — to open up its iTunes software so it is compatible with the technology of other manufacturers
The NSA is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness advances in Internet technology — specifically the forthcoming semantic web
championed by the Web standards organisation W3C — to combine data from social networking websites with details such as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of individuals — via Slashdot
A recent vote in the US House of Representatives has led to a rejection of the principle of Net Neutrality from the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (Cope Act), in spite of massive lobbying from prominent businesses
Queensland Police are to be given power to force suspects to hand over passwords and encryption codes
A group of four Connecticut librarians recently announced that the US government had requested to view private patron records and also threatened imprisonment if the librarians spoke up about it — via digg
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