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Censorship

Submission + - Supreme Court rules against free speech

Submitted by
palewook
palewook writes: "The Bong Hits 4 Jesus kid lost 5-4 in the Supreme Court decision. Chief Justice Roberts summary, "A principal may, consistent with the First Amendment, restrict student speech at a school event, when that speech is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use." While Justice Breyer dissented and warned, "One concern is that, while the holding is theoretically limited to speech promoting the use of illegal drugs, it could in fact authorize further viewpoint-based restrictions.""
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA Sued for Malicious Prosecution

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Tanya Andersen, the disabled single mother in Oregon who had been defending herself against baseless copyright infringement allegations by the RIAA for almost two years, until the RIAA finally dropped its case against her, has filed a lawsuit for malicious prosecution, Andersen v. Atlantic. Included as defendants in the complaint (pdf), in addition to the record companies, are the RIAA itself, Safenet (which owns MediaSentry), and Settlement Support Center LLC."
Censorship

Citizen Journalism Combating Chinese Censorship 86

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the civil-disobedience dept.
teh_commodore writes to tell us that Breitbart has a look at how Citizen Journalism is shining a whole new light on China. "Recognizing the threat of China's growing online community, Chinese President Hu Jintao called in January for the Internet to be 'purified', and the government has since launched a number of online crackdowns. [...] 'One cannot truly say that the Internet in China is becoming more and more free, because at the same time as the development of citizen journalists, the government finds ways of blocking or censoring content,' Pain said."
Privacy

Submission + - Protect Privacy Online Using Secret Identity (akacard.com)

Submitted by
techna
techna writes: "A new credit card is in the works that offers users an alternative identity, including name, address, credit card number, CVV and exp date to protect their privacy online. Several racy uses have been suggested for the card but generally it's best for avoiding new account fraud- the bad kind where the carders take your name, SSN, bday and start a new life in FL. The card is launched but under the radar for now. There are a few blogs on it and a few articles on the website too. http://www.akacard.com/"
Privacy

Submission + - iPhone and AT&T - It's the devil's bargain (wordpress.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Scholars & Rogues has posted an interesting argument against buying the new iPhone, not on it's lack of support for open standards but rather because "...that means for the next two years or so, your bills are going to support a company that is turning over your calling records to the government without your knowledge or consent. AT&T also provided extensive assistance to the NSA in developing and facilitating its massive illegal wiretapping initiative, which violates everything from FISA to the Constitution."
Google

Thailand Sues YouTube 435

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the let's-all-take-off-our-left-shoe dept.
eldavojohn writes "Thailand is hitting YouTube with charges of lese majeste (up to 15 years in prison) regarding the recent videos on YouTube showing the king next to feet, something extremely offensive in Thailand. 'Since the first clip, more new videos mocking the king have appeared on YouTube, including pictures of the monarch that had been digitally altered to make him resemble a monkey. Thailand's 79-year-old king, almost universally adored by Thais, is the world's longest-reigning monarch, and one of the few who is still protected by tough laws that prohibit any insult against the royal family.'"
The Courts

How the RIAA has Dodged RICO Charges 126

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the still-quite-a-racket dept.
Gerardo writes "Wondering why the RIAA hasn't been hit with racketeering charges over its shady legal fight against file-sharing? Ars Technica looks at why the RIAA has been able to dodge RICO charges. '"Right off the bat there are some problems with the predicate claims for RICO," explained IP attorney Rich Vazquez. "You have to have a pattern of racketeering activity: either criminal acts where there is a one-year jail penalty, or mail or wire fraud." Any RICO action brought against the RIAA would have to focus on the wire fraud component, likely accusing the record labels of poking around someone's PC without permission.' That's going to be a difficult argument to make, given that Kazaa's default settings give users no reasonable expectation of privacy."
Editorial

Submission + - MySpace photo sagas continue

Submitted by gwoodrow
gwoodrow writes: We've all heard the "fired because of myspace" issues, where a simple blog or picture gets someone canned. But even as it's getting worse, the targets are fighting back:

"Teacher in training Stacy Snyder was denied her education degree on the eve of graduation when Millersville University apparently found pictures on her MySpace page 'promoting underage drinking.' As a result, the 27-year-old mother of two had her teaching certificate withheld and was granted an English degree instead. In response, Snyder has filed a Federal lawsuit against the Pennsylvania university asking for her education diploma and certificate along with $75,000 in damages."

The offending picture? A picture from halloween 2005 of Stacy in a pirate outfit drinking from a cup.
Censorship

Submission + - State laws target used CD sales

Submitted by NetDanzr
NetDanzr writes: According to this article in PC World, at least four US states have passed or are considering legislation that would curb the resale of used CDs. In Florida, for example, a store that wishes to sell used CDs must post a $10,000 bond, fingerprint CD sellers, hold onto the CDs for 30 days and only offer store credit (no cash) for CDs. While these rules are in line with existing pawnshop laws, they haven't been applied to used records and book stores previously. Used video and video game resellers have gotten a break, though: they'll have to hold onto the merchandise for only 15 days.
Censorship

Submission + - Ontario Government Bans Gov't Access To Facebook

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Ontario Government has banned access to Facebook for thousands of government employees, arguing that it serves no useful purpose in the workplace. The move comes soon after Ontario schools began suspending students for posting derogatory comments on the social networking site.
United States

Submission + - GAO Study Contradicts Counterfeiting Claims

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new study (pdf) from the U.S. General Accounting Office contains data confirming that claims about counterfeiting are massively overstated. Michael Geist notes that the report found that less than one percent of shipments entering the U.S. contained counterfeit goods, a far cry from the 5 to 7 percent of international trade that is often claimed.
Education

Submission + - Improve Our Knowledge Through The Internet

Submitted by
madalinna
madalinna writes: "As we all know, the Internet represents nowadays one of the most important means of communication. Its use is due to our constant need of getting new information in different fields, such as: culture and civilization, science, education. The Internet also facilitates communication between individuals, realizing virtual communities among people united by the same passions and ideas; and by doing this they overcome political, social and linguistic boundaries.

We can also use the Internet to enrich our knowledge, our culture, but, at the same time, we shouldn't forget the traditional methods of improving our knowledge. I t is said that the Internet gives us different points of view or different perspectives on how to approach a certain situation, but it's our job to establish a relation between the traditional methods of learning and the modern methods. I know that the advantages of using the Internet can be sometimes overwhelming, in a good way. The choice is ours. We can use it to enjoy ourselves or we can use it to solve our tasks, related to school. No matter what we choose, we know that we can learn a lot by connecting ourselves to the system, that is the Internet.

The Way To Improve Our Knowledge Through The Internet "
Privacy

Submission + - Nordic ISP circumvents spying

Submitted by
Ceriel Nosforit
Ceriel Nosforit writes: "
The Swedish government has proposed a law which would allow the National Defence Radio Establishment to intercept all electronic communications passing the national border. To meet customers' demand for integrity, TeliaSonera has decided to move the production of e-mail services for Finnish customers to Finland.
— Kauppalehti

TeliaSonera's move is however not completely benevolent, but a necessity for compliance with Finnish privacy laws, as they state in their press release. This is interesting because even in the liberal paradise of Northern Europe Finnish and Swedish law and practice can be in such contradiction. Compare with Echelon & local variants and the rest of the world."
Censorship

EFF and Dvorak Blame the Digg Revolt On Lawyers 262

Posted by kdawson from the jet-fuel-on-a-fire dept.
enharmonix writes "A bit of an update on the recent Digg revolt over AACS. The NYTimes has taken notice and written quite a decent article that actually acknowledges that the take-down notices amount to censorship and documents instances of the infamous key appearing in purely expressive form. I was pleased to see the similarity to 2600 and deCSS was not lost on the Times either. More interesting is that the EFF's Fred von Lohmann blames the digg revolt on lawyers. And in an opinion piece, John Dvorak expands on that theme."
GNU is Not Unix

You Can't Oppose Copyright and Support Open Source 550

Posted by kdawson from the baby-with-the-bathwater dept.
Reader gbulmash sends us to his essay on the fallacy of those who would abolish copyright. The argument is that without copyright granting an author the right to set licensing terms for his/her work, the GPL could not be enforced. The essay concludes that if you support the GPL or any open source license (other than public domain), your fight should be not about how to abolish copyright, but how to reform copyright.

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