Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
The Courts

Submission + - Sex Suit in Second Life Develops (physorg.com)

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "Second Life has become a growing source of income for some & has recently been the scene of a lawsuit centered around the sale of sexual acts. This story is a follow up of from last month where the plaintiff was seeking the defendant's real name and now have brought suit against the owner of the avatar "Volkov Catteneo." This is a case of copyright law, the lawyer for the plaintiff said, "It's a piece of software and software is copyrightable. It's also expressed in graphics, which also are copyrightable. There is some sizzle. People like to say it's really far out there, but at the end of the day I equate it to basic intellectual property principles ... In a virtual world, you have the ability to gather evidence you don't have in the real world. Everything that happens in 'Second Life' is reflected on computer servers. Depending on how long they keep the records, you could actually replay the event as it happens.""
Privacy

Submission + - UCLA Probe Finds Taser Incident Out Of Policy (ucla.edu)

Submitted by Bandor Mia
Bandor Mia writes: Last November, it was reported that UCLA cops Tasered a student, who forgot to bring his ID, at the UCLA library. While an internal probe by UCLAPD cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, an outside probe by Police Assessment Resource Center has found that the police actions on Mostafa Tabatabainejad were indeed out of UCLA policy. The probe was conducted at the behest of acting UCLA Chancellor Norman Abrams.

From the report:
"In light of UCLAPD's general use of force policy and its specific policies on pain compliance techniques, Officer 2's three applications of the Taser, taken together, were out of policy. Officer 2 did not take advantage of other options and opportunities reasonably available to de-escalate the situation without the use of the Taser. Reasonable campus police officers, upon assessing the circumstances, likely would have embraced different choices and options that appear likely to have been more consistent both with UCLAPD policy and general best law enforcement practices."
Music

Submission + - German court: No P2P IP lookup for music industry (heise.de)

Submitted by RichiH
RichiH writes: German news site heise.de reports (Babelfish) that a court in Offenburg rejected the state attorney's request to get the private data of a file sharer because it was 'obviously unreasonable'. 'Based on logic', the study speaking of 5 billion traded files per year in 2001 and 2002 which the music industry in Germany often cites can not apply as the user in question uploaded only a single song that the music industry knows of. The court also said that many p2p users are not aware that the programs automatically starts hidden and mandatory upload of files it has access to, so that, unless proven otherwise, the person in question did not upload anything on purpose. Furthermore, the court said that the claim of high damages does not hold water as a song typically costs less than a Euro and 'at a price of 0, someone who will not even spend a single cent will still want to get a product', citing a study that shows no negative impact of p2p on revenues. Finally, the court said that the music simply wants the data of the person in question so it can sue them in civil court and that it did not have any right to the data trying 'via several tens of thousands of criminal charges' to 'get at information the law is explicitly keeping from them'. Several state attorneys said, under strict promise of anonymity, that they would now try to get similar rules so that they 'dedicate their time to more severe crimes'. Go ahead, tag this one 'haha' :)
Anime

Submission + - Dattebayo Fansub Staff Arrested at Otakon (dattebayo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Talk about overreaction, Dattebayo fansub reports that some of their staff was arrested on Saturday at Otakon. To make matters worse today's update describes the authorities shooting and tasering a staff member while searching his home.
Privacy

Submission + - FBI Requires a Warrant to Install Spyware

Submitted by mrogers
mrogers writes: The FBI requires a warrant to install spyware on a suspect's computer, according to a new appeals court ruling. An earlier ruling had appeared to grant the FBI permission to install spyware under the weaker provisions applied to pen registers, which record the telephone numbers or IP addresses contacted by a suspect. However, yesterday's amendment made it clear that the pen register provisions only apply to equipment installed at the suspect's ISP.

The FBI recently used spyware to determine the source of a hoax bomb threat, as reported here and here.
The Courts

Submission + - Drink Or Die leader jailed

Submitted by docfisher
docfisher writes: According to AustralianIT (news.com.au), Hew Raymond Griffiths has been sentenced to 51 months in prison for copyright infringement. The Australian-resident British National pleaded guilty to copyright infringement charges on April 20 after being extradited to the US as part of 'Operation Buccaneer", which, according to US officials "has resulted in more than 30 felony convictions in the United States and 11 convictions of foreign nationals overseas".
Privacy

Submission + - "John Doe" ISP wins civil liberties award (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "Here's irony for you: A president of a New York Internet Service Provider (ISP) who stood up against the Patriot Act and refused to violate the privacy of his clients has won a top civil liberties award, but the recipient cannot be named because of FBI gag orders. An anonymous ISP legally challenged the NSL statute after the FBI demanded personal information on costumers using the statute, and the judge ruled that NSL violates First amendment rights. But the FBI's gag order on the ISP is still in place."
Republicans

Submission + - Congressman Orrin Hatch caught pirating software

Submitted by
Rocketship Underpant
Rocketship Underpant writes: "Orrin Hatch, the Congressman viewed by many as a shill for corporate copyright interests, recently stated that people who download copyrighted materials should have their computers destroyed as punishment. However, as Wired.com reports, Hatch's own website uses copyrighted software without permission — a Javascript menu system developed by a British company. Is Mr. Hatch accepting volunteers to go through his home and office destroying all his computers, or were his comments to Congress just a bunch of hypocritical hot air?"
Biotech

Submission + - Slow Drug Tests Cause False Positives

Submitted by MissDemeanor
MissDemeanor writes: Wired science reports that chemists at the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia have proven that the illicit drug Gamma Hydroxy Butyrate is slowly produced in refrigerated urine samples, which could cause innocent people to accidentally test positive. Drug testing labs often have a massive backlog of samples. This means that a urine sample could be left in a refrigerator for months before it is tested. During that time, the drug known as liquid ecstasy, forms naturally and can lead to a false positive result that fools even the most rigorous laboratory testing by gas chromatography mass spectrometry. To make matters worse, the field test for GHB gives a false positive when exposed to natural soaps.
Privacy

Submission + - Bush derails attempts to end illegal wiretapping

Submitted by
P. Rivacy
P. Rivacy writes: "Remember how the Congress tried to outlaw the already illegal NSA wiretaps authorized by the President?

Bush is now using delaying tactics to derail the passage of that bill by not providing documents related to the President's warrantless wiretapping program to the Senate Intelligence Committee that is currently reviewing the proposed legislation."
Censorship

Submission + - China won't license new Internet cafes (holyhell.net)

Submitted by dteichman2
dteichman2 writes: While regulators investigate the Internet's impact on young people, China will not be licensing any new Internet cafes. Investigators will evaluate cafes and look for those that improperly rent out their licenses or fail to properly register the identities of customers. Government authorities worry that the Web may provide children with access to gambling sites, sexually explicit material, and violent video games. Chinese President Hu Jintao has ordered officials to clean up 'Internet culture.'
Patents

Submission + - Life Imprisonment for Copyright Infringement

Submitted by
ronadams
ronadams writes: "P. Parameswaran writes in his AFP article:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he proposed comprehensive legislation to Congress Monday against copyright thieves, including raising the maximum penalty to life imprisonment and seizing the illicit profits of offenders.
Nick Ferrel at the Inquirer confirms the reports and adds a few interesting insights of his own. Good to know RIAA is a vital part of the US Government. I must have been asleep when my Government & Law professor glossed over that one."
Privacy

Submission + - No charges for chatroom suicide observers

Submitted by
Benjamin Fox
Benjamin Fox writes: "The BBC reports that chatroom participants who apparently "watched" a man commit kill himself will not face charges for the comments made up to and during the suicide. A crown prosecution spokesman said, "We examined all the evidence passed to us by the police and have concluded that none of the comments made in the chatroom amounted to a criminal offense." What could this mean for electronic witnesses of other meatspace crimes and tragedies in the UK?"
Security

Submission + - Amero Sentencing delayed...again

Submitted by
i_want_you_to_throw_
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: "For a while it looked as if legions of IT pros might descend on Connecticut like a plague of locusts however, short attention span syndrome has pushed the case to somewhere below, "iPhone.. ooh, shinny" on the radar of most geeks. To recap, Julie Amero has hung in limbo since January waiting for the Connecticut DA to either put up ( and put her away for up to 40 years ) or shut up and let her return to picking up the pieces of her shattered life. Her conviction on 4 felony counts came after an unprotected classroom computer running Windows 98 began spewing porn pop-ups."
Censorship

Submission + - Scientologists In Row With BBC

Submitted by
CmdrGravy
CmdrGravy writes: "The Church Of Scientology is currently engaged in a row with BBC over a Panorama investigation by the BBC reporter John Sweeney. John is investigating the Church Of Scientology for the program to find out if they have changed in the last few years and moved away from the questionable practices and secrecy they have employed in the past.

The row centres around a YouTube video posted by the scientologists and a DVD they have released which show Mr Sweeney losing his temper with a scientology spokesman Tom Davis in which Mr Sweeney is driven to yelling at Tom Davis at the top of his voice. Mr Sweeney has since apologised for losing his temper which he says he now realises was both wrong and stupid. In the DVD the scientologists also accuse the BBC of organising an anti scientology demonstration and yelling terrorist death threats at John Travolta, allegations which the BBC denounce as being clearly laughable and utter nonsense. John Travolta has also accused of Mr Sweeney of harbouring "personal prejudices, bigotry and animosity" against Scientology in the documentary, and accused the reporter of displaying "hatred against my religion." This despite the fact that in the UK scientology is not classed as a religion due to the financial nature of their practices.

Mr Sweeneys outburst came at the end of a tour of a scientology exhibition which attempts to portray psychiatrists as evil nazi type torturers entitled "Psychiatry: Industry of Death" which is both gruesome and utterly unconvincing. In the days previous to this Mr Sweeney and his camera team became the latest in a long line of reporters to suffer harassment at the hands of scientologists whereby he has been shouted at, spied on, denounced as a bigot by John Travolta had his hotel invaded at midnight, and had mysterious strangers visit his neighbours and family and spy on his wedding. You can begin to see why someone might lose their temper having been victim to this sort of activity.

There is an excellent article in the Telegraph and you can read about the incident in Mr Sweeneys own words here at the BBC.

The video of Mr Sweeney losing his temper is available on YouTube, the argument is about Tom Davis claiming he has said things in a previous interview with someone else at which Tom Davis was not present and therefore cannot know what he has said. During this interview with, I think, an ex scientologist Tom Davis burst in half way through to make claims that the interviewee was some kind of paedophile.

Happily it looks like the BBC is going to stand behind their reporter, judging by this interview with the programs editor and the general tone of their reporting but, really why I'm posting this on /., what can be done against an organisation so determined to prevent fair and unbiased reporting on their activities and is clearly able to utilise the power of the internet and YouTube to further their aims. The BBC is a large organisation and can survive attacks like this which would easily cause a lot more problems to individuals or smaller organisations, is there a way of levelling the playing field in favour of the general population being able to access accurate information on organisations or corporations rather than propaganda put out by the said organisations or corporations ?"

Slashdot Top Deals

The hardest part of climbing the ladder of success is getting through the crowd at the bottom.

Close