Category Archives: law
Just a coincidence, of course
NYTeims ed, “Rethinking Criminal Sentences” (2010 July 27): Sentencing for white-collar crimes — and for child pornography offenses — “has largely lost its moorings,” according to the Justice Department, which makes a strong case that the matter should be re-examined by the United States Sentencing Commission. This probably makes more sense when you’re wearing a [...]
Also posted in crime, economics, media, network, sex, standards Tagged brooks, nonsequitur, nyt Leave a comment
The Sow that eats her farrow
The NYTeims reports on the United States of Bananas (Stour, “Coveted but Elusive Summer Internship,” 2010 July 2): As a result, the big-name internship has become coveted capital — a reality that was showcased in the extreme when the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights recently auctioned media internships to help raise [...]
Google’s new motto
Don’t be accidentally on purpose evil. gOfficialblog: Nine days ago the data protection authority (DPA) in Hamburg, Germany asked to audit the WiFi data that our Street View cars collect for use in location-based products like Google Maps for mobile, which enables people to find local restaurants or get directions. His request prompted us to [...]
Also posted in digital, government, neighborhood, network, privacy, technology, urban Tagged data, Germany, google, wifi Leave a comment
0 notes
5th Pillar‘s zero-rupee note (in Tamil, front and back:), intended as a means of protest for those too poor to pay a bribes: they’re supposed to hand this over rather than actual currency. This seems ill-conceived all around: a private protest likely to transform impersonal corruption into personal persecution (where shouting, say, at least can [...]
Also posted in LDCs, design, digital, economics, government, language Tagged corruption, currency, India Leave a comment
Home naming is killing the, oh, nevermind…
IPR ideology trickles down: A former South Dakota lawmaker convicted of [a bunch of awful stuff] has sent news organizations what he claims is a copyright notice that seeks to prevent the use of his name without his consent. A letter and an accompanying document labeled “Common Law Copyright Notice” said former state Rep. Ted [...]
Pretty much
Posner snarks: “If you get old enough, you can commit a white-collar crime.”
Disclaimer
Xe: The joint audit by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and the United State Department of State Inspector General released yesterday does not, as some press reports have suggested, allege that Blackwater was ever complicit in overbilling the United States government for work it performed in Iraq in 2006 and 2007. The audit [...]
Also posted in LDCs, crime, finance, government, international, military, security, trend Tagged Blackwater, corporation, mercenary, war, Xe Leave a comment
Litigator as artist 2
WIN: Coverage: PC Mag, Ars Technica, CNET. See also: “Litigator as artist.”
QOTD
Grimmelmann: Your avatar’s arms are never going to be long enough to box with a game god whose software controls arm length. Or, as we used to put it: he who would snack with the Devil must needs use a long spork… ( jotwell | froomkin )
Also posted in digital, government, international, language, media, network Tagged 2L, VR Leave a comment
Synthetic sewage
“Pirates and Plants” @ Flickr, ULed 2009-07-15: Indeed: WiReD.
Also posted in government, international, military, science, security Tagged protest, sewage Leave a comment
Flickr Pro, Flickr Con
Bernie Kerik’s Flickr photostream includes gems like Officer Kerik in ’93… …“plainclothes” (modulo the assault rifle) Kerik escorting Susan Rosenberg (ca. ’83?; SR playing ping pong here)… …authentic arrest scenes… …and, indeed, pretty much his entire rise and fall. Except for his mugshot: The kommissar disappears: (Left: Flickr, plemeljr, 8 Feb ’05 [detail]; right: m3t00, [...]
KEI FOIAs USTR ACTA NDAs
Expanded: Jamie Love at Knowledge Ecology International has forced the Office of the United States Trade Representative to cough up the names of people who know what the US is secretly negotiating in the proposed multilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. They are: People who’ve signed an NDA in order to see ACTA’s “internet text”: Emery Simon [...]
Also posted in LDCs, crime, digital, economics, government, international, knowledge, language, standards Tagged ACTA, IPR, multilateral, secrecy, US Leave a comment
Twilight of the idlers
NYTeims on the (game of chicken | prisoner’s dilemma | etc) faced by the *ffluent with undeclared offshore money: The whole issue has become a minefield for some wealthy families. Many offshore accounts are held in the names of several family members, who do not always agree on what they should do. Bruce Zagaris, a [...]
Also posted in crime, finance, government, international, trend Tagged deadline, offshore, tax Leave a comment
Tweet tweet: a little birdie told me…
The Guardian reports on an NYC anarcho arrested for twittering whereabouts of police at Pittsburgh G20: Elliot Madison, 41, from Queens, had his home raided and was put on $30,000 (£19,000) bail after he and Michael Wallschlaeger, 46, were tracked to the Carefree Inn motel in Pittsburgh during the summit on 24 and 25 September. [...]
Litigator as artist
This would go over a lot better if the International Association of Imbeciles weren’t the main advocacy organization for washed-up county clerks who supplement their pensions with UDRP arbitration gigs: We are not here because the domain name could cause confusion. We do not have a declaration from the president of the international association of [...]
“Think of us like a coast guard”
Jordan Zinovich and Hans Plomp: Before warlords toppled Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, Somalia had a kind of stability recognized by the “community of nations.” As early as 1971, Somalia’s fishery was considered an increasingly promising economic resource. By 1982, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, the UK, and the USSR had negotiated fishing [...]
Also posted in crime, economics, environment, food, government, international, media, security, trend Tagged piracy, Somalia Leave a comment
Eben Moglen, muckraker
Sergey Aleynikov’s defense: ‘I wasn’t stealing software — Goldman Sachs incorporates GNU software into its high-frequency trading algorithsms…’ Where are all the Slashdottirs when you need them?
Also posted in crime, digital, economics, network, security, standards, trend Tagged GNU, Goldman Sachs, open source, software Leave a comment
If you kids don’t cut it out RIGHT NOW…
Mike Sandman, “Chicago’s Telecom Expert”: It’s a fact… By the time an American or Canadian youth is 21 years old, they’ll be tasered by at least one police officer. Men, women, children — even pregnant women, are all going to be tasered at least once by a police officer who doesn’t like them, doesn’t like [...]
Seven years of 9/11 9/11 9/11…
…only to read this: “New Calls for Regulating Airspace over Hudson” Go team.
Karoo court
Teh Grauniad on ‘internet users’ in Hull, England, subject to a local-monopoly ISP that appears to be run by a sadist: “It is evident that we have been exceeding the expectations of copyright owners, the media and internet users[....] So, we have changed our policy to move in more line with the industry standard approach, [...]
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Music to Ballmer’s ears
FT (13 Jul ’09): “Google represents a serious threat [to MOFT],” said Tom Austin, an analyst at Gartner, who compared the rivalry between the two companies to the browser wars that shaped the early internet. With the free version of its software, “Microsoft is responding as vigorously as it did against Netscape”, he added. Four [...]
Also posted in digital, government, network, standards Tagged antitrust, browser, microsoft, Netscape, web Leave a comment
Patenting will eat itself