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Government

White House Claims Copyright On Flickr Photos 169

Hugh Pickens writes "US government policy is that photos produced by federal employees as part of their job responsibilities are not subject to copyright in the US. But Kathy Gill writes that after originally putting official White House photos in the public domain, since January the Obama White House has been asserting that no one but 'news organizations' can use its Flickr photos taken by the official White House photographer, who is a US government employee. This change appears to be a heavy-handed response to last month's controversy resulting from a billboard that implied the President endorsed The Weatherproof Garment Co. after the company used an AP photo of the president for a Times Square billboard. However a New York law already protects individuals from unauthorized use of their image for advertising, and the billboard was quickly taken down. Gill writes, 'Whatever the reason, the assertion of these "rights" seems to be in direct contrast to official government policy and is certainly in direct contrast to reasonable expectations by the public, given that the photos are being produced with taxpayer (i.e., public) money. Ironically, the same Flickr page that claims (almost exclusive) copyright also links to the US copyright policy statement.'"

Comment Re:IANAL, etc. (Score 2, Interesting) 215

I don't think it's to the extent you bring up (molestation/sexual contact), but there is mention in the filing of their repeated attempts to contact/harass a minor child in their conduct of their "litigation" which may be subject to various changes to the rules of disclosure. I'd agree that having only one side present for the in-camera discussion would seem to be unusual, the fact that the transcripts were ordered sealed may have something to do with if those discussions were focused around the minor child and thus are subject to stronger protections from public disclosure. Juvenile records are, after all, held in more strict confidence than those of an adult or emancipated minor.

Comment Re:Too shaky, no good (Score 1) 132

How about a RICO case? There would definitly seem to be a "conspiracy" to illegally obtain private and confidential information and trade secrets. Since they hired (read paid for services rendered) the former associate, they should be held responsible for the actions of their employee.

Comment Re:I, for one, welcome.... (Score 1) 150

(B) happens a lot in law enforcement as well. The idea of district/zone integrity has been so ingrained in command staff's head (read: beat in with a 9# hammer) that when you present them an option of using the nearest unit based on location instead of pretty lines on a map, they can't get it in their head. Also, I've seen times where the AVL gets turned off because the union decides that that data can be used for disciplinary actions.

Comment Re:Sounds like a great plan (Score 1) 150

If it's an RF based system, not that hard. Take a laptop, add mapping software, plug a scanner into the line in, use a software radio modem (or a real radio modem) and just listen on the transmitting frequency. Most likely, you'll start hearing the different units with the AVL system sending an NMEA sentence to the controller. As long as it's not encrypted or sent through something like a cell network card, you can probably pick it up and find them, but there's a lot of variables in the mix as well. The system mentioned in the article sounds a lot like a system Motorola is pushing that uses a GPS-enabled remote speaker-mic to send location data. That would go over the systems control channel (seems like it's only available on digital trunk systems). That system would send each time they key the mic, on a timer basis, and when polled by dispatch.

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