legislation
Lawmakers Punt Patriot Act to Obama
Congress is sending President Barack Obama legislation that extends three provisions of the Patriot Act — despite heated debate among lawmakers that the surveillance measure goes too far. The act, hastily adopted six weeks after the 2001 terror attacks, greatly expands the government’s ability to spy on Americans in the name of national security. Three measures of the act were set to expire at the end of 2009, but in December lawmakers extended the deadline to the end of February in hopes of reaching a compromise.
Continue reading »UK ISP Talk Talk: Copyright Bill Will Increase Piracy
Warns that Digital Economy Bill, as written, will only “hasten the migration away from P2P” as people develop tools and applications to evade anti-piracy measures. Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone is calling for the Government to come to its senses over its threat to disconnect illegal file-sharers from the Internet . Dunstone was speaking at an event hosted by Carphone’s ISP TalkTalk as part of its TalkTalk’s “Don’t Disconnect Us” campaign.
Continue reading »Study shows cell phone bans may not prevent crashes
Legislation banning cell phone use while driving a car was intended to reduce the number of crashes on the roads, but a new study by the Highway Loss Data Institute indicates that the laws may not be fulfilling their purpose. When comparing the frequency of collision insurance claims made in states that enacted a ban against cell phone use to those that didn’t, a study shows that claim rates remain similar. The HLDI looked at the collision claims per 100 vehicles in three areas that had banned all cell phone usage while driving—California, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia—and compared them with surrounding states (for example, Connecticut was compared to Massachusetts and New York).
Continue reading »ISP Stands Up For Torrent Site Owner’s Privacy
In conjunction with the local anti-piracy outfit Antipiratbyrån, three movie companies took legal action last year in an attempt to obtain the personal details of the owner of the SweTorrents BitTorrent tracker. They asked the Södertörn District Court to demand that TeliaSonera give up the information because SweTorrents was infringing on their copyrights. The application was made under the IPRED legislation introduced earlier that year, which was put in place to make it easier for copyright holders to track down and identify potential copyright infringers.
Continue reading »Labour MP experiences nasty video shock horror
Proposes censoring sport, music, religion. Is nothing sacred? UK Government attempts to re-enact legislation designed to police video recordings are bringing out the censorial tendency in parliament.…
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