richards1052 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Seattle Blogger Successfully Defends Libel Suit (richardsilverstein.com)

Submitted by

richards1052

on Thursday November 29, 2007 @02:55AM

richards1052 writes: "Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John Reid yesterday dismissed a suit filed by a controversial local pro-Israel activist who sued me for saying in my blog that she was a "Kahanist." She claimed that in doing so I had called her a terrorist, since there was an Israeli political party, Kahane Chai, which the U.S. Treasury Department labelled a terrorist organization. The plaintiff, Rachel Neuwirth, also included noted Stanford University Middle East historian Joel Beinin as a party to her suit. My pro bono attorneys filed an anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) arguing that a blog is a public forum, that the pro-Israel activist was a public figure, and the issues under discussion were vital ones that merited discussion in public discourse. The judge accepted our thinking and dismissed the suit. This is a victory not only for blogging free speech, but for the widest possible discussion of the thorny issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There are those who only believe in speech they agree with, while speech they disagree with should be stifled. This is a pernicious principle and one the court rejected. The plaintiff will have to pay reasonable legal fees for the defendants."

Submission + - Yahoo on Congressional Hot Seat (nytimes.com)

Submitted by

Richard Silverstein

on Wednesday November 07, 2007 @06:55AM

Richard Silverstein writes: "Congress put Yahoo's Jerry Yang on the hot seat for the company's complicity in the arrest and imprisonment of Chinese pro-democracy journalist, Shi Tao, currently serving 10 years in prison:

"While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," Tom Lantos, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said angrily after hearing from the two executives, Jerry Yang, the chief executive, and Michael J. Callahan, the general counsel... Mr. Lantos angrily urged the two men to apologize to the journalist's mother, who was sitting directly behind them. Mr. Yang and Mr. Callahan turned around from the witness table and bowed from their seats to Mr. Shi's mother, Gao Qinsheng, who bowed in return and then began to weep.
Yahoo responded to a Chinese supeona by providing identifying information allowing Chinese authorities to track down Mr. Shi."

Comment Re:Scan My Books (Score 1) 115

by richards1052 on Tuesday October 23, 2007 @12:48AM (#21081383) Attached to: Internet Archive Challenges Google

I'm no expert on this subject. But it seems to me that if you want to digitize yr own library for yr own personal use you should be able to do that. But if you make use of the material in ways that are no longer personal (uploading material to a website or blog for example), you might have copyright issues. Also, OCA costs 10 cents/pg. for scanning. That's a significant cost for a 10,000 volume library. Don't know if this answers yr question or not.

Submission + - Internet Archive Challenges Google (nytimes.com)

Submitted by

richards1052

on Monday October 22, 2007 @02:41AM

richards1052 writes: "The Internet Archive, whose main claim to fame is the Wayback Machine, designed to archive the internet's web history, has created a new project: the Open Content Alliance. It's purpose is to open the nation's library collections to universal web search. A number of major library systems, including the Boston Public Library and Smithsonian, have refused to sign up with competing ventures by Microsoft and Google because they do not provide for universal access to digitized books. These commercial ventures prohibit books being accessed by competing search engines. So far, 80 libraries and research institutions have signed on with Open Content Alliance. They must pay for the scanning of their books while Google and Microsoft offset that cost for their participating institutions."

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