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Comment Re:Lawful reason (Score 1) 491

by TheGreatHegemon (#23143928) Attached to: Laser Pointers Classed as Weapons in Australia
It's not so much the laser point as the reason behind removing it.
It is, in essence, a "protecting us from ourselves" reasoning that was used by the Great Grandparent.
"not the sort of thing you want drunken kids playing with" is a very dangerous justification, and one that could EASILY be bent to a lot of other things (If it was the U.S., for example, the same could be said of firearms).
Toys

Submission + - U.S., Aussie Officials Yank GHB-Metabolizing Toys 1

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "Questioned about concerns over China-made toys, Toys 'R' Us CEO Jerry Storch predicted 'this will be the safest holiday season ever.' Oops. On the same day Fortune ran Storch's interview, Toys 'R' Us joined other North American and Australian retailers to pull millions of Chinese-made toy bead sets from shelves after scientists found they contain a chemical that metabolizes into the date-rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate (GHB) when ingested. Two children in the U.S. and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads."
Music

Juror From RIAA Trial Speaks 918

Posted by kdawson from the tell-us-what-you-really-think dept.
Damon Tog notes a Wired blog posting featuring quotes from a juror who took part in the recent RIAA trial. Some excerpts: "She should have settled out of court for a few thousand dollars... Spoofing? We're thinking, "Oh my God, you got to be kidding."... She lied. There was no defense. Her defense sucked... I think she thought a jury from Duluth would be naive. We're not that stupid up here. I don't know what the f**k she was thinking, to tell you the truth."
The Courts

Submission + - Judge bars RIAA prez from testifying in P2P case (arstechnica.com) 3

Submitted by Eskimo Joe
Eskimo Joe writes: A federal judge surprised observers in the Captiol v Thomas file-sharing trial today by barring RIAA president Cary Sherman from testifying. 'After a brief recess this afternoon, plaintiffs' counsel Richard Gabriel and defendant's counsel David Toder made their cases before the judge as to the relevance of Sherman's testimony. Toder argued that Sherman's testimony was not relevant to the question at hand, the fact of whether Thomas was liable for copyright infringement. Gabriel said that Sherman would be able to tell the jury why this case was significant, and more importantly, describe the harm the RIAA believes piracy has caused to the music industry. "I don't want to turn this case into a soap box for the recording industry," Toder argued in response.' Testimony wrapped up today with closing arguments expected Thursday morning.
The Courts

Misleading Data Undermines Counterfeiting Claims 91

Posted by Zonk from the fake-counterfeiting dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Canada has been the home to a growing debate on counterfeiting with politicians, law enforcement, and copyright lobby groups all pushing for stronger copyright and anti-counterfeiting laws. Writing in the Toronto Star, Michael Geist reports that the claims are based on fatally flawed data. The RCMP, Canada's national police force, has been claiming that counterfeiting costs Canadians $30 billion per year. When pressed on the issue, last week they admitted that the estimate was not based on any original research but rather on 'open source documents found on the Internet.'"
The Internet

Canadian MP Calls For ISP Licenses, Content Blocks 273

Posted by CowboyNeal from the fun-time-over dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A member of Canada's ruling Conservative party has pledged to "clean up" the Internet with new bill that would mandate ISP licensing, know-your-subscriber rules, and allow the government to order ISPs to block content. ISPs that fail to block would faces possible jail time for the company's directors and officers."
Television

Submission + - Jack Thompson blames VT killings on Video Games

Submitted by
Kaessa
Kaessa writes: "From Kotaku:

"School shooting expert" Jack Thompson appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews today to ramble incoherently further about the gossamer-thin connection between Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui's actions and the Half-Life mod Counter-Strike. According to Jack — and no one else — Seung-Hui might have played Counter-Strike in high school at some point making him a calm and efficient killer. While Jack defends that connection in the most what-the-fuck way possible, Matthews takes him to task for his massive leaps in "logic."

http://kotaku.com/gaming/hardball/clip-jack-thomps on-gets-hardballed-253501.php"
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Death of Open Source in Russia?

Submitted by
Alexander Ufimtsev
Alexander Ufimtsev writes: "CNews reports that the Russian Ministry of Information and Communication has come up with an ingenious plan to prevent Alexander Ponosov-like cases once and for all by purchasing a blanket software licenses for all schools in the country (English translation).

From the article:

The ministry has negotiated with major producers of software on the possibility of a single centralized procurement. According to the minister, as a result of discussions producers have agreed to the unique conditions of licensing for the school...

After studying the needs of regions, Ministry of Information and Communication formed the a unified list of software for school computers. This list includes operating system, office, graphical editors and antivirus software...
With this communist era plan looking very likely to be approved, soon we could be witnessing beginning of the end of open source movement in Russia."
Communications

Submission + - Vonage Receives Temporary Stay

Submitted by Jedi Holocron
Jedi Holocron writes: A slight reprieve...

Vonage Receives Temporary Stay In Verizon Patent Litigation, Continues to Sell Service

HOLMDEL, N.J., April 6, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — Vonage today secured a temporary stay from U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC. The stay enables Vonage to continue to sign up new customers until the Appellate court can hear Vonage's request for a permanent stay. The Court's ruling allows Vonage to continue to provide phone service to existing customers.

Earlier today the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. indicated it would enter an injunction against Vonage effective April 12, 2007 in connection with certain Verizon technology on which it was found to be infringing. The Court indicated that Vonage would be barred from acquiring new customers during its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. In response, Vonage filed for and received an emergency stay of the injunction from the Federal Circuit.
The Courts

RIAA Receives Stern Letter, Folds 382

Posted by kdawson from the turning-tide dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In SONY BMG v. Merchant, in California, the defendant's lawyer wrote the RIAA a rather stern letter recounting how weak the RIAA's evidence is, referring to the deposition of the RIAA's expert witness (see Slashdot commentary), and threatening a malicious prosecution lawsuit. The very same day the RIAA put its tail between its legs and dropped the case, filing a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal. About an hour earlier NYCL had termed the letter a 'model letter'; maybe he was right."
Music

Submission + - One million CC albums downloaded with BitTorrent

Submitted by
lkratz
lkratz writes: "Jamendo, a free music community, has distributed freely and legally more than one million albums using the popular peer to peer technology BitTorrent. The music is Creative Commons Licensed and is coming from everywhere in the world. Inspired by Chris Anderson's theory, this online music platform helps volunteered artists promote themselves in search engine like mininova or torrentz.

Music is free, but supporting these artists is ok too !"
Space

Submission + - SkyNet launch postponed

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The launch of the British military's Skynet satellite has been postponed because of a "last-minute technical glitch" — a fault in the launch pad cooling system.

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