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Comment Ownership (Score 4, Insightful) 62

So the way I see it, the campaign initiator is asking a whole bunch of supporters to buy this site for him at a cost of $540000, the contributors will not be part owners or have any say in the direction the site is run. They'll just get some trinkets in return, stickers, T shirts or some free advertising for a year.

Submission + - Dotcom drags NZ spook agency into court (stuff.co.nz)

d18c7db writes: Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom has won another court victory, today given the right to drag the secretive GCSB into the spotlight of a courtroom. Forcing the GCSB to be tied to the court action opens it up to court ordered ''discovery'' — meaning Dotcom's lawyers can go fishing for documents as they continue to fight extradition to the US to face copyright charges. But the GCSB claimed any disclosure of what [was] intercepted would prejudice New Zealand's national security interests "as it will tend to reveal intelligence gathering and sharing methods". Dotcom and his fellow Mega Upload accused asked Chief High Court Judge Helen Winkelmann for the right to have the GCSB become part of the proceedings, amend their statement of claim, and for additional discovery.
In a judgment issued today she gave that permission.

Technology

Submission + - A new polygraph that uses "junk" DNA (veritascience.com)

An anonymous reader writes: VeritasScience is developing a new lie detector called Vero, which will become more effective than the older polygraphs. This technology is capable of detecting almost any false statement by encrypting a genetic code in human cell. If the stress level changes, the machine can immediately display it right away. In addition, it shows the physical and mental levels. More info can be read in the site. Looking at what we have so far, I think this technology is plausible.
The Internet

Submission + - US House Votes 397-0 To Oppose UN Control of the Internet (thehill.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. House of Representatives voted 397-0 today on a resolution to oppose UN control of the internet. 'The 397-0 vote is meant to send a signal to countries meeting at a U.N. conference on telecommunications this week. Participants are meeting to update an international telecom treaty, but critics warn that many countries’ proposals could allow U.N. regulation of the Internet.' The European Parliament passed a similar resolution a couple weeks ago, and the U.N. telecom chief has gone on record saying that freedom on the internet won't be curbed. However, that wasn't enough for U.S. lawmakers, who we quite proud of themselves for actually getting bipartisan support for a resolution (PDF). Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said, 'We need to send a strong message to the world that the Internet has thrived under a decentralized, bottom-up, multi-stakeholder governance model.'
News

Submission + - MPAA: The Impact of Megaupload's Shutdown 'Was Massive'

An anonymous reader writes: The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has declared that the Megaupload shutdown earlier this year has been a great success. In a filing to the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), the group representing major movie studios says the file hosting and sharing industry has been massively disrupted. Yet the MPAA says there is still work to be done, identifying sites that make available to downloaders “unauthorized copies of high-quality, recently-released content and in some cases, coordinate the actual upload and download of that content.” Here’s the list of sites, including where they are hosted: Extratorrent (Ukraine), IsoHunt (Canada), Kickass Torrents (Canada), Rutracker (Russia), The Pirate Bay (Sweden), Torrentz (Canada), and Kankan (China).
Science

Submission + - James Cameron spills the details from his deep dive (nature.com)

gbrumfiel writes: "James Cameron has released the first batch of scientific results from his historic dive in March to bottom of the Mariana trench and an earlier series of test dives in the New Britain Trench. The Mariana Trench dive was the deepest by a human since 1960. Some of the most interesting results came from trips to the seafloor made by robotic vehicles built by Cameron’s team. At the bottom of the trench, one of those robots found bizarre carpets of microbes coating rocks, that scientists say may have implications for the origins of life on Earth and other planets."

Comment You've missed the point! (Score 1) 454

No one is telling anyone to go work 80-100 hrs/week, what they are really talking about is this: If person A _loves_ what they're doing so much so that they're willing to _voluntarily_ put in a lot of extra time into it (because they love it and can't get enough of it), whereas person B can't wait to finish with the task so they can get on with other (better) things in life, then the odds of person A succeeding in that field is astronomically (get it?) better than person B.
The Courts

Submission + - New Zealand legalizes illegal police surveillance. (stuff.co.nz)

d18c7db writes: "The Government will introduce legislation to overrule a decision by the Supreme Court on the Urewera terror raids, which rendered nearly all police video surveillance footage unlawful.

The new law would be applied retrospectively, which meant no trials were likely to be aborted and offenders would have no ground to appeal their convictions."

Submission + - Warrantless Searches Coming To New Zealand (nzfoodsecurity.org) 1

sammcj writes: Warrantless searches of houses and marae for food and seeds, even with guns, are coming to NZ soon thanks to the Food Bill.

- The bill will push up mainstream food prices by subjecting producers to red tape and registration costs. Food prices are already rising due to increased energy costs and commodity speculation, while effective disposable incomes are falling.

- Growing food for distribution must be authorised, even for “cottage industries”, and such authorisation can be denied.

- Under the Food Bill, Police acting as Food Safety Officers can raid premises without a warrant, using all equipment they deem necessary – including guns (Clause 265 – 1).

- Members of the private sector can also be Food Safety Officers, as at Clause 243. So Monsanto employees can raid premises – including marae – backed up by armed police.

- The Bill gives Food Safety Officers immunity from criminal and civil prosecution.

- It makes it illegal to distribute “food” without authorisation, and it defines “food” in such a way that it includes nutrients, seeds, natural medicines, essential minerals and drinks (including water).

- By controlling seeds, the bill takes the power to grow food away from the public and puts it in the hands of seed companies. That power may be abused.

Censorship

Submission + - New Zealand's internet filter goes live (stuff.co.nz)

d18c7db writes: The Department of Internal Affairs' (DIA) internet filter is now operational and is being used by internet providers (ISPs) Maxnet and Watchdog. Thomas Beagle, spokesperson for online freedom lobby Tech Liberty says he's "very disappointed that the filter is now running, it's a sad day for the New Zealand internet".

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