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Submission + - Egyptian blogger sentenced to 4 years in prison

Submitted by on Friday February 23, 2007 @01:29PM

An anonymous reader writes: 22-year old Egyptian blogger and former law student Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman (aka Kareem Amer) was sentenced by an Egyptian court on Thursday to 4 years in prison, three years for "disparaging religion" and a fourth one added for "defaming the president." Amer, whose blog is still online, has become a cause celebre for human rights activists in Egypt and around the Arab world, who have set up a "Free Kareem!" campaign calling for his release online. Amer's case is interesting in that almost everything, from the crime itself to those rallying to Amer's aid, has been conducted in large part over the Internet. At one point, the legal defense team even tried to force the court to bring in a computer expert who could testify that the blog was hosted outside of Egypt and therefore out of the court's jurisdiction. While for an increasing number of individuals like Amer, blogging has become another form of regulated expression, it is also "an essential communication strategy for many frustrated Arabs who use blogging as a tool to promote democratization," as this editorial by one of the leaders of the "Free Kareem!" campaign claims.

Submission + - BBC mulls less DRM; wider OS support for iPlayer

Submitted by

zombieflesheater

on Friday February 23, 2007 @09:41AM

zombieflesheater writes: "The BBC has detailed its proposals for new on-demand services to be made available through its iPlayer software. Among the offerings are TV catch-up over Internet and live TV streaming. Now the Beeb asking its customers how they think the services should work. Under its new Public Value Test process, the BBC trust has started a public consultation to gather license payer opinion. Among other things, Auntie wants to know whether the proposed service should be made available to consumers who are not using Microsoft software. The removal of DRM restrictions from certain audio downloads are also being considered. The consultation period ends on 28 March."

Submission + - Anti-DRM Petition Response From Downing Street

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19, 2007 @03:15PM

An anonymous reader writes: Downing Street have released a statement in response to a petition on their website.
It states that all products with DRM should be labelled on how the product can be used or not used.

It is clear though that the needs and rights of consumers must also be carefully safeguarded. It is reasonable for consumers to be informed what is actually being offered for sale, for example, and how and where the purchaser will be able to use the product, and any restrictions applied.

It also references the Gowers Report [PDF warning] published December 2006 and the recommendations proposed in the report.

Recommendations include introducing a limited private copying exception by 2008 for format shifting for works published after the date that the law comes into effect. There should be no accompanying levies for consumers. Also making it easier for users to file notice of complaints procedures relating to Digital Rights Management tools by providing an accessible web interface on the Patent Office website by 2008 and that DTI should investigate the possibility of providing consumer guidance on DRM systems through a labelling convention without imposing unnecessary regulatory burdens

Submission + - UK government responds to ID card petition

Submitted by

TsukiKage

on Monday February 19, 2007 @01:42PM

TsukiKage writes: "After nearly 28,000 people signed a petition to scrap the UK's ID card proposals, the petitioners received an emailed response on behalf of Tony Blair. It said "no"."

Submission + - Google developing AI

Submitted by

chonny69

on Monday February 19, 2007 @01:16PM

chonny69 writes: "Developers at search engine giant Google "are really trying to build artificial intelligence and to do it on a large scale," Google co-founder Larry Page said at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science conference Saturday. "It's not as far off as people think," he said. Page also said that in the programming language of humans the brain's algorithms weren't all that complicated and could be approximated, eventually, with a lot of computational power."

Submission + - Firefox 3 to support offline apps

Submitted by thinkingpen on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:41AM

thinkingpen writes: Read/Write web is carrying an interesting story about Firefox 3. From the article — "An interesting tidbit came out of the recent Foo Camp New Zealand (which unfortunately I wasn't able to attend). Robert O'Callahan from Mozilla, who is based in NZ but drives the rendering engine of Mozilla/FireFox, spoke about how Firefox 3 will deliver support for offline applications. This is significant because you'll be able to use your web apps — like Gmail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, etc — in the browser even when offline. I deliberately mentioned all Google web apps there, because of course this plays right into Google's hands." Now thats web 3.0 ?

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