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Don't drink and drive, then post on Facebook
Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, the 20-year-old college junior attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner. Pictures from the party showed him in a black-and-white striped shirt and an orange jumpsuit labeled "Jail Bird."
In the age of the Internet, it might not be hard to guess what happened to those pictures: Someone posted them on the social networking site Facebook. And that offered remarkable evidence for Jay Sullivan, the prosecutor handling Lipton's drunken-driving case.
Sullivan used the pictures to paint Lipton as an unrepentant partier who lived it up while his victim recovered in the hospital. A judge agreed, calling the pictures depraved when sentencing Lipton to two years in prison.
Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, the 20-year-old college junior at... more -
YouTorrent riparte con 67.170 contenuti legali
Abbiamo già parlato di YouTorrent, motore di ricerca per file torrent, intimato in passato da minacce legali. Come già anticipato qualche tempo fa, YouTorrent ha deciso di ripulire il suo database di tutti i contenuti non legali. Adesso il motore di ricerca permette di trovare file tra 67.170 contenuti “legali”.
Nessuno dei responsabili del sito si era aspettato una popolarità così enorme in poco tempo. Ma purtroppo questa popolarità ha portato qualche problema. Dal mese di aprile YouTorrent ha smesso di indicizzare siti come ThePirateBay e isoHunt, ovvero siti che forniscono contenuti non autorizzati.
Dopo un po’ di tempo di traffico stabilizzato, il sito ha continuato a crescere di nuovo e oggi, dopo questo nuovo cambiamento drastico, YouTorrent è pronto a diventare il faro del file sharing legale. Ora il sito si concentra su fonti come Jamendo, LegalTorrents, Legittorents ecc… Abbiamo già parlato di YouTorrent, motore di ricerca per file torrent, intimato in passato da minacce legali. Come già anticipato qual... more -
EU vs. Intel in anti-trust charges
They went after Microsoft and won, and now they're after Intel, the US microchip giant.
The EU is filing charges claiming Intel pays distributors to use/sell their product, stash/hide a competitor's product, and offers discounts to PC makers.
The EU cost Microsoft almost $1.5 billion the last time it filed a charge. Intel says no-fair. Competitor AMD is just being a bad sport. Intel makes and controls 80% of the worldwide computer chip market.
We'll see. They went after Microsoft and won, and now they're after Intel, the US microchip giant. ... more -
Nevada businessman trumped the IRS in federal court, challenged America's dual mon...
"On a 106-degree May afternoon in 2003, government agents raided several establishments belonging to Southern Nevada businessman Robert 'Bobby' Kahre. With guns drawn, officials held more than 20 handcuffed workers in the sun without water as agents collected records and other materials.
Kahre hadn’t committed a crime. He had upset the Internal Revenue Service by paying his workers based on the face value of gold and silver coins, versus the market value in the Federal Reserve system (the value of the coins in U.S. paper dollars). Even though the coins were in circulation, displayed a face value, and were regulated by Congress, the IRS’s confusing and endless tax code did not determine how to handle these gold and silver coins if used for payroll. The tax code only references dollars. It does not distinguish between coined money and paper money.
Kahre didn’t opt for the precious metal bullion system without first doing his homework. He consulted monetary experts, engaged in extensive research, and even met with congressmen. Kahre’s conclusion was simple: While the currency in the precious-metal system was greater in value than the currency in the other system, as money and a medium of exchange, the law knows no difference between the face value of both currencies..."
(End of excerpt)
Full story at link by Mike Zigler// Liberty Watch
"On a 106-degree May afternoon in 2003, government agents raided several establishments belonging to Southern Nevada businessman Rober... more -
So sue me! Riches v Bush, Wu Tang, Google et al
Awesome use of our judicial resources. From the docket:
MINUTE entry before Judge Harry D. Leinenweber : It has come to the Court's attention that the docketing department of the Clerk's Office is still inputing the names of the hundreds of defendants named in this action. This action was dismissed on 8/17/07 for failure to state a claim, and the Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal on 10/31/07 for failure to pay the required docketing fee. It is a waste of judicial resources for the Clerk's Office to continue adding these names to a closed case that the Court determined was delusional in its order of 8/17/07. The Clerk is therefore directed to cease adding the defendants' names to this docket. As this is an internal housekeeping matter, the Clerk is directed not to send notice of this order to Plaintiff. No notice to be mailed (gcy, ) Awesome use of our judicial resources. From the docket: ... more -
Court Backs Bush on Military Detentions
"President Bush has the legal power to order the indefinite military detentions of civilians captured in the United States, the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled on Tuesday in a fractured 5-to-4 decision...
The court effectively reversed a divided three-judge panel of its own members, which ruled last year that the government lacked the power to detain civilians legally in the United States as enemy combatants. That panel ordered the government either to charge Mr. Marri or to release him. The case is likely to reach the Supreme Court."
Indefinite military detentions of civilians captured in the US? Slippery slope or protection? [yes, i had to find the goofiest pic of bush possible!] "President Bush has the legal power to order the indefinite military detentions of civilians captured in the United States, the federa... more -
Auto confiscation for misdemeanor offense of cruising for prostitutes considered i...
"The Easton City Council is considering a law that would let the city permanently seize the car of anyone caught cruising for a prostitute."
(End of excerpt)
Full story at link by NBC10.com
Photo by flickr user telethon
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanjunell/382523918/
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
"The Easton City Council is considering a law that would let the city permanently seize the car of anyone caught cruising for a prosti... more -
Drugs cheat Chambers to be allowed Olympic spot
Despite being a convicted drugs cheat, steroid-abuser Dwain Chambers has utilised a loophole in the British Legal system to demand a place in the British Olympics team set to compete in Beijing next month. Despite being a convicted drugs cheat, steroid-abuser Dwain Chambers has utilised a loophole in the British Legal system to demand a p... more
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Sudanese President may be charged with genocide by ICC: "Sudan fury at possible ge...
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir may be charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court.
Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has scheduled a news conference Monday, just after he is expected to filed the warrant with the court.
The Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations told CNN said Friday that the ICC has indicated to Sudanese officials that al-Bashir may be charged over the five-year campaign of violence in the country's Darfur region.
"We have been hearing that this prosecutor is going to announce some names, possibly the leadership of the country, that will be indicted," said Adbalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad. "It is a criminal move that should be resisted by all."
Such an indictment, Mohamad said, would be a destabilizing move that would "take us back to square one." Sudan, he said, is "condemning it in the strongest possible terms" and urged the international community to do likewise. "We will resist it by all possible legal means," he said.
(End of excerpt)
Full story at link by CNN Intertnational Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir may be charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court. ... more -
ACLU Sues Over Unconstitutional Dragnet Wiretapping Law
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a landmark lawsuit today to stop the government from conducting surveillance under a new wiretapping law that gives the Bush administration virtually unchecked power to intercept Americans' international e-mails and telephone calls. The case was filed on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal and media organizations whose ability to perform their work - which relies on confidential communications - will be greatly compromised by the new law.
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, passed by Congress on Wednesday and signed by President Bush today, not only legalizes the secret warrantless surveillance program the president approved in late 2001, it gives the government new spying powers, including the power to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans' international communications.
"Spying on Americans without warrants or judicial approval is an abuse of government power - and that's exactly what this law allows. The ACLU will not sit by and let this evisceration of the Fourth Amendment go unchallenged," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "Electronic surveillance must be conducted in a constitutional manner that affords the greatest possible protection for individual privacy and free speech rights. The new wiretapping law fails to provide fundamental safeguards that the Constitution unambiguously requires."
In today's legal challenge, the ACLU argues that the new spying law violates Americans' rights to free speech and privacy under the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution. The new law permits the government to conduct intrusive surveillance without ever telling a court who it intends to spy on, what phone lines and email addresses it intends to monitor, where its surveillance targets are located, why it's conducting the surveillance or whether it suspects any party to the communication of wrongdoing.
(End of excerpt)
Full story at link by the American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union filed a landmark lawsuit today to stop the government from conducting surveillance under a new wire... more -
Big Brother gets the greenlight
FTC says it won't intervene to protect Internet user privacy
WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission indicated Wednesday that it would leave it to data-mining Web companies and Internet marketers to decide how best to protect users' privacy.
"Self-regulation may be the preferable approach for this dynamic marketplace," Lydia Parnes, the director of the commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, told a Senate committee.
The FTC's decision not to step in — even as Microsoft and Google representatives testified that some regulation would be helpful — means that Washington won't address the matter before a new administration and Congress take office in January.
At issue is what privacy rights consumers have when data-mining companies use their Web browsing patterns to target them for ads. It's a gold mine for online advertising and Internet marketing, but consumer and e-privacy groups say it's intrusive.
NebuAd, a media company based in Redwood City, Calif., has been in the hot seat for partnering with Internet service providers to deliver personalized ads to users' computer screens.
The company's chief executive officer, Bob Dykes, told the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that there's no privacy lost in the process.
"NebuAd's systems are designed so that no one, not even the government, can determine the identity of our users," Dykes said.
Leslie Harris, the chief executive for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based civil liberties group, said that NebuAd and other data-miners shouldn't be able to track browsing patterns without advance consent from computer users.
She also fears that privacy will be lost as more companies enter the field and their techniques become more sophisticated.
"Self-regulation is a piece, but self-regulation alone is not enough to protect privacy, and we need to have some baseline legislation in place," Harris said.
Microsoft and Google representatives said they supported a privacy protection scheme that included advance consent, encryption of identities and clear notification of what information was being collected.
Federal regulation would be easier for Internet companies to live by than inconsistent state and local regulations.
"There's just this emerging patchwork of federal and state privacy laws," said Michael Hintze, associate general counsel for Microsoft.
FTC says it won't intervene to protect Internet user privacy ... more -
Computer hackers: Internet flaw sparks biggest security fix in web history
A flaw in the way the internet works has prompted the "largest security update" in the history of the web, and fears of millions of people remaining exposed to criminals and malicious hackers.
Microsoft was among net companies yesterday which announced action to close the loophole that has potentially affected every site on the web.
The bug was spotted this year by Dan Kaminsky, a director at the American security specialist IOActive, who immediately contacted big technology firms to alert them to the problem.
The scam involved hijacking internet addresses and sending surfers to websites other than those they intended to see. By this route criminals stood the chance of tricking victims into handing over personal details or making payments to the wrong people.
Details of the bug, which uses a technique known as "cache poisoning", have not been made public. The idea is to let firms find a solution before hackers learn how to exploit the situation further.
"Computers use the equivalent of address books to figure out where they need to go on the web. This attack could compromise that by attacking the servers that give out the addresses," said Rich Mogull, of the US-based firm Securosis.
Although there is no evidence of the bug being exploited by hackers, news of the flaw drew an unprecedented response from the technology industry. Large companies, including Microsoft and Cisco Systems, scrambled to fix the problem.
"This is the largest synchronised security update in the history of the internet," said Kaminsky. "The severity of this bug is shown by the number of those who are on board with patches."
As fixing the problem is largely the duty of those who operate the millions of web servers, which hold all the information on the internet, rather than those who use the web, most computer users will not have to do anything.
However, a failure to update software could mean surfers still being at risk. And the fixes may not make things entirely safe. The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team, an American agency which deals with security breaches, said that even the changes put forward by Microsoft and others would not remove all possibilities of a hijack. "It is important to note that without changes to the DNS [domain name system] protocol these mitigations cannot completely prevent cache poisoning," said the agency on its website.
A flaw in the way the internet works has prompted the "largest security update" in the history of the web, and fears of millions of pe... more -
The right to peer inside your iPod
The heads of the G8 governments, meeting this week, are about to ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), which - it's claimed - could let customs agents search your laptop or music player for illegally obtained content. The European Parliament is considering a law that would lead to people who illicitly download copyrighted music or video content being thrown off the internet. Virgin Media is writing to hundreds of its customers at the request of the UK record industry to warn them that their connections seem to have been used for illegal downloading. Viacom gets access to all of the usernames and IP addresses of anyone who has ever used YouTube as part of its billion-dollar lawsuit in which it claims the site has been party to "massive intentional copyright infringement".
The heads of the G8 governments, meeting this week, are about to ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), which - it's c... more -
Lotto rapist victim permitted to sue attacker
20 years after being raped in broad daylight in Leeds, the 78-year-old victim of lottery winning rapist Hoare won the right to claim damages from him.
The victim was unable to sue Hoare for monetary compensation at the time of the rape because he was penniless. But in 2004, Hoare won the lotto, making him a millionaire. The victim was told that she would be unable to sue for his lottery winnings because it was beyond the 6 year statute of limitations. That ruling, however, was overturned on Tuesday and she was told that she would be allowed to sue.
20 years after being raped in broad daylight in Leeds, the 78-year-old victim of lottery winning rapist Hoare won the right to claim d... more -
Iran considers death penalty for bloggers that promote "corruption, prostitution a...
Iran's parliament is set to debate a draft bill which could see the death penalty used for those deemed to promote corruption, prostitution and apostasy on the Internet, reports said on Wednesday.
MPs on Wednesday voted to discuss as a priority the draft bill which seeks to "toughen punishment for harming mental security in society," the ISNA news agency said.
The text lists a wide range of crimes such rape and armed robbery for which the death penalty is already applicable. The crime of apostasy (the act of leaving a religion, in this case Islam) is also already punishable by death.
However, the draft bill also includes "establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy", which is a new addition to crimes punishable by death.
Those convicted of these crimes "should be punished as "mohareb' (enemy of God) and "corrupt on the earth'," the text says.
(End of excerpt)
Full article at link// Khaleej Times Online
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Image by flickr user Daniella Zalcman licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 generic
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
Iran's parliament is set to debate a draft bill which could see the death penalty used for those deemed to promote corruption, prostit... more -
Sharia law could have UK role
The Lord Cheif Justice has suggested that Islamic Sharia Law could have a role to play in the British legal system.
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Millionaire's widow sues her own children, aged one and three
The widow of a millionaire businessman is suing her own children - aged one and three - over her husband's fortune.
Actress Taryn Dielle, 42, has launched the action because she claims the law does not let her have enough of the money to look after daughter Molly, three, and son Maximillian.
Her husband, Mark Butler, died last year from cancer aged 45 leaving an estate worth £2,231,201. However, he failed to leave a will, meaning his wife is entitled to just £125,000.
Of course the headline is very misleading, she's suing her kids so she can get more money to look after them. Apparently £50,000 a year isn't enough to look after two kids. The widow of a millionaire businessman is suing her own children - aged one and three - over her husband's fortune. ... more -
Wal-Mart faces $2 billion in labor law violations
"A Minnesota judge has ruled that Wal-Mart Stores Inc violated state wage and hour laws, requiring employees to work off the clock, and the discount retailer could now face more than $2 billion in possible fines."
Another example of Big Business breaking the law. I have a feeling Wal-Mart won[t get away with this one, however, I also have a feeling they won't see a drop in profits as a result of these criminal acts "A Minnesota judge has ruled that Wal-Mart Stores Inc violated state wage and hour laws, requiring employees to work off the clock, an... more -
Fake Federal Officer charged for attempting to clean up town in rural Missouri
Unemplyed Bill Jakob convinced the residents of rural Gerald, Missouri that he was a federal officer sent to clean up their drug problem for nearly five months. Unemplyed Bill Jakob convinced the residents of rural Gerald, Missouri that he was a federal officer sent to clean up their drug probl... more
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California to legalize weed for everyone
There is an initiative in the works that could end up on the November ballot that allows for marijuana to be sold to anyone, and anywhere that already sells alcohol. Its being called The Inalienable Rights Enforcement Initiative. From the full text of the measure:
This initiative will amend the Constitution of California to defend and safeguard the inalienable rights of the People against infringement by governments and corporations, providing for the lawful growth, sale, and possession of marijuana. Marijuana will be taxed through a system of stamps and licenses--a $5 stamp will be required for the sale of an eighth ounce of marijuana and a $50 annual license will be required for the growth of one marijuana plant. To protect participants and encourage participation in the system, such licenses and stamps will be available anonymously in stores where marijuana is sold. There is an initiative in the works that could end up on the November ballot that allows for marijuana to be sold to anyone, and anywh... more
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