A leading privacy campaigner has described an upcoming EU electronic identification system as “one of the most dangerous schemes of the past decade”, after it emerged the scheme will require website owners to register their identity.
“By establishing an identity framework the Commission is inviting a free-for-all on the privacy rights of all users,”
View Link [zdnet.co.uk]
Downloaded software can be resold just as software on physical media can, the advocate-general of the Court of Justice of the European Union has said in a legal opinion.
Yves Bot gave his opinion on Tuesday morning, in relation to a case between Oracle and a German second-hand software retailer called UsedSoft.
View Link [zdnet.co.uk]
Something that was nearly missed from yesterday – Andrew Crossley, the controversial solicitor who sent thousands of letters to alleged illegal file-sharers, has been suspended from the profession for two years.
View Link [bbc.co.uk]
The jury in the inquest into the death of Ian Tomlinson has concluded he was unlawfully killed by a police officer at the G20 protests.
View Link [guardian.co.uk]
Simon Indelicate, from The Indelicates, tells ORGZine about his experiences in the music industry and why the traditional model for record companies is out-dated
View Link [zine.openrightsgroup.org]
The Federal Court of Australia has dismissed a case from the movie industry which argued that ISPs must take action against file-swappers, based on allegations of infringement from copyright holders.
View Link [arstechnica.com]
A mass-lawsuit campaign directed by MediaCAT and their calamitous lawyers (ACS:Law) has taken yet another turn for the worse today, as a court hearing this morning became a total fiasco.
View Link [openrightsgroup.org]
Nicky Wishart, a pupil at Bartholomew School, Eynsham, Oxfordshire, organised the event on Facebook to highlight the plight of his youth centre, which is due to close in March next year due to budget cuts.
“He said even if I didn’t turn up I would be arrested and he also said that if David Cameron was in, his armed officers will be there ‘so if anything out of line happens …’ and then he stopped.”
View Link [guardian.co.uk]
Consumer Focus hit out at the use of the existing system to launch inaccessible, punishing and misleadingly-led lawsuits against legally naïve Internet subscribers accused of copyright infringement through p2p filesharing. Such cases are only ever won against individuals with no lawyer, against no-shows, or after admissions of guilt or liability.
View Link [openrightsgroup.org]
The High Court of England and Wales has created significant controversy by ruling that article headlines can be protected by UK copyright law.
The judge then declared that users of news aggregators, email services and digital device are potentially infringing copyright when they click a link to an email or a website and view content on it without a licence.
View Link [openrightsgroup.org]
The police are seeking powers to shut down websites deemed to be engaged in “criminal” activity.
The Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has tabled a plan for Nominet, which oversees .uk web addresses, to be given the domain closing power.
View Link [bbc.co.uk]
Accused file-swapper Jammie Thomas-Rasset was yesterday hit with a $1.5 million fine for downloading and distributing tunes by Richard Marx, Journey, Def Leppard, the Goo Goo Dolls, No Doubt, and others. Each of the 24 songs at issue in the case cost her $62,500. Meanwhile, the same offense in Germany might cost you €15 ($21) a song.
View Link [arstechnica.com]
Britain’s intellectual property laws are to be reviewed to “make them fit for the internet age,” prime minister David Cameron has announced.
He said the law could be relaxed to allow greater use of copyright material without the owner’s permission.
View Link [bbc.co.uk]
A polite, calm and impassioned response to the UK Government’s ‘Comprehensive Spending Review’, in the face of continued inaction against corporate tax-dodgers.
View Link [benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com]
The recording industry has deep pockets, but even RIAA largesse has its limits. Case in point: the Jammie Thomas-Rasset peer-to-peer trial in Minnesota, the first of the file-sharing cases to make it all the way to a verdict. In two weeks, Thomas-Rasset will have an extraordinary third trial, and the recording industry is sick of the expenses it’s ringing up to prosecute someone who (let’s face it) is just never going to cough up much money.
View Link [arstechnica.com]
Luke Geissbuhler and his kids decided they wanted to send an HD video camera high into the stratosphere, so they spent eight months researching and testing for their project before finally launching their Go Pro Hero HD-laden balloon from Newburgh, New York
View Link [petapixel.com]
Rights-holders will bear the brunt of the costs for tackling copyright infringers, the government has said.
View Link [bbc.co.uk]
A Sardinian snack bar owner who incurred the legal wrath of McDonald’s for daring to use the prefix ‘Mc’ on his shop front has become an unlikely hero for Italian politicians and food campaigners fed up with the global clout of the American hamburger chain.
View Link [guardian.co.uk]
Corneas made in the laboratory have successfully restored the sight of 10 Swedish patients with significant vision loss.
View Link [bbc.co.uk]
A new book claims the amount of time we spend on the internet is changing the very structure of our brains – damaging our ability to think and to learn
View Link [guardian.co.uk]
A Pennsylvania school that was caught secretly snapping photos of students via laptop Webcams will not face criminal charges in the case.
View Link [news.cnet.com]
DominicSayers is discussing.
DominicSayers 12:49 am on 02/11/2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
+1
I can’t believe Boing Boing hasn’t covered this. SOCA are asking for exactly the same powers that ICE have abrogated in the US – the ability to shut down web sites without judicial oversight.
This is a big issue.