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Belgium judge orders ISP to clean up network
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A Belgian legal victory by authors and composers means that the country’s third-largest ISP has six months to clean up its networks of copyright infringing material distributed by P2P.
The long-running case was brought by the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers (SABAM) against ISP Scarlet, formerly Tiscali and the third largest operator in Belgium.
In 2004, SABAM obtained an intermediary injunction against Tiscali, leading to the court appointing an expert. The expert recommended 11 techniques the ISP could use to identify P2P material, including Audible Magic’s filtering software. This week a judge agreed that these were acceptable, and gave Scarlet six months to get cracking.
Commenting on the case, SABAM stresses that the ISP is not obliged to monitor its network.
“The solutions identified by the expert are ‘technical instruments’ that limit themselves to blocking or filtering certain information transmitted on the network of TISCALI (SCARLET). They do not constitute a general obligation to monitor the network. Moreover, the court considers that filtering and blocking software are not dealing as such with any personal data and that a blocking measure has a purely technical and automatic character, as the ISP is not playing any active role in the blocking or filtering (sic),” SABAM said in a statement.
Next up: p2p networks move to encrypted protocols.
Next up after that: ISP forced to block encrypted traffic.
Next up after that: all internet commerce screeches to a halt.
All to maintain a crumbling music monopoly. Can the music industry please fucking die already so the rest of the world can actually enjoy the benefits of technology?
Do I live in “Oregon (front)” or “Oregon (back)”?
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Tried to register at this canadian site (http://wirelessandmobile.wowgao.com/registration/), and got the following pop up for state:
Do I live in Oregon (back) or Oregon (front)
I suspect they pulled a list of flags, and Oregon state is weird, having a different front and back.
Now the question is, how many people will register in Oregon (Front) vs Oregon (Back).
The discipline of conformity
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Edgewood school officials said today they are considering testing the mandatory wearing of school uniforms for its 4,000 students.
Edgewood Superintendent Tom York said he discussed the idea with the Butler County district’s school board Monday and plans to propose phasing in school uniforms on voluntary basis for some elementary schools in January.
[..]
For Edgewood, the primary motivation for adopting uniforms would be to enhance school security, York said.
Was there some elementary school shooting I missed in the news? How the hell does this “enhance security”? Maybe the uniforms are transparent, so there is no possibility of bringing dangerous objects into school. All this does is crush individuality at a young age, and you’ll also crush creativity and independent thought. In that sense, it actually may increase security.
Construction Woes Add to Fears at Embassy in Iraq
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U.S. diplomats in Iraq, increasingly fearful over their personal safety after recent mortar attacks inside the Green Zone, are pointing to new delays and mistakes in the U.S. Embassy construction project in Baghdad as signs that their vulnerability could grow in the months ahead.
The first signs of trouble, according to the cable, emerged when the kitchen staff tried to cook the inaugural meal in the new guard base on May 15. Some appliances did not work. Workers began to get electric shocks. Then a burning smell enveloped the kitchen as the wiring began to melt.
All the food from the old guard camp — a collection of tents — had been carted to the new facility, in the expectation that the 1,200 guards would begin moving in the next day. But according to the cable, the electrical meltdown was just the first problem in a series of construction mistakes that soon left the base uninhabitable, including wiring problems, fuel leaks and noxious fumes in the sleeping trailers.
“Poor quality construction . . . life safety issues . . . left [the embassy] with no recourse but to shut the camp down, in spite of the blistering heat in Baghdad,” the May 29 cable informed Washington.
I wonder how much of the half-billion dollar price tag went to things “other” than actually building.
Republican sens. may back contempt charge
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Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), vice chairman of the GOP conference, told The Hill on Friday that he thinks Republican cooperation with a criminal contempt finding will be required.
“It’s just a formal process that sets up a legal challenge,” Cornyn said. “We’ve got to cut out some of the politics and get this to the courts.”
[..]
“At the end of the day, this will be settled by the courts,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said.
“I think this is an issue that’s going to be handled by the courts,” agreed Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.).
“In the end, the courts will decide this anyway,” said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who has called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s resignation in response to the firings.
“We can’t have a Congress that’s constantly bringing administration officials in to harass them,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). “But it’s a matter for the courts.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called a contempt vote “the last thing the country needs,” but advised lawmakers to “let the courts fight this out.”
Following George W. Bush’s pardon (let’s be honest and call it that) of Scooter Libby, a Republican’s admonition to let anything play out in court ought to be regarded as worth exactly squat.
So long as George W. Bush wields the pardon pen, there are no courts. And any Republican who tells you otherwise is pissing on your leg and telling you it’s raining.
Google loses “Gmail” trademark case
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A court in Germany today banned Google from using the name “Gmail” for its popular webmail service following a trademark suit filed by the founder of G-Mail.
Daniel Giersch (33), started using the name G-Mail in 2000, four years before Google released “Gmail”.
“Google infringed the young businessman’s trademark that had been previously been registered,” said the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in its judgement.
“As far as the Hanseatic Higher Court is concerned, the legal situation is unambiguous to the extent that it has not allowed an appeal to the Federal Court of Justice,” said Giersch’s lawyer Sebastian Eble, from the office of Preu Bohling & Associates.
The lawyer claimed that it was It is a legendary victory, because for many Daniels fighting “Googliaths,” confidence and financial means run out in the long course of battle.
The battle for the trademark has dragged on for three years and has been fought in a number of State jurisdictions.
Google has filed lawsuits against Giersch in Spain, Portugal and Switzerland.
“Google has announced, at least in writing, to ‘fight’ my client abroad for as long as it takes before he drops the legal claims lodged in Germany,” Eble confirmed.
This reeks of big money betting they can wear this guy down. He can’t afford to retain a lawyer for ever, and I’m sure they know that.
What was this “not evil” thing again that Google claimed?
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This smells like a game of chicken… Maybe we should set up a funding website for g-mail to finance their legal defense from. See if they like that story on slashdot. $-)
I have to disagree.
I base that on the fact, that I know a bunch of creative and independent people, and we all had to wear school uniforms in elementary school.
One good thing about uniforms is that no one gets mocked because his/her family can’t afford the 1100$ shoes and skirts and such.
Note that I never liked the school uniform thing - actually we all hated it -, but I don’t see it as the “crusher of creativity and independence and individuality”. That line of reasoning, by my own experience is just totally false.