What was not expected, and most welcome, was the emphasis on civil liberties and the commission's reminder that these liberties and security concerns are not mutually exclusive.

Terrorism and Liberty

] Norway's most famous computer whiz got an early Christmas
] present on Monday. An appeals court in Oslo upheld Jon
] Lech Johansen's earlier acquittal on all counts of
] alleged copyright violations.

]]Round Two goes to Jon!

Cheers! This along with the US appeals court ruling this week that the RIAA cannot subpeona ISP records without filing formpal criminal charges is VERY GOOD NEWS. I'm slowly but surely starting to gain more confidence that MAYBE the system does not always automatically bend over and take it up the pooper when the big corps cry "boo!"

LB

DVD-Jon wins new legal victory

] NASA scientists say soot, mostly from diesel engines, is
] causing as much as a quarter of all observed global
] warming by reducing the ability of snow and ice to
] reflect sunlight.
]
] Their findings on how soot affects reflective ability,
] known as albedo, raise new questions about human-caused
] climate change from the Arctic to the Alps.

Gee... watching all those 18 wheelers on the interstates belch clouds of black, ***BLACK*** smoke when they downshift, who would have EVER guessed they were having an impact on the earths albedo???

LB

Diesel soot major global warming factor

] The recording industry can still bring civil lawsuits
] against people who download music illegally, but Friday's
] court ruling will make that more expensive and
] time-consuming.
]
] A federal appeals court said Internet providers, such as
] Verizon, EarthLink and America Online, do not have to
] turn over the names of their customers when music
] companies serve them with a subpoena.
]
] The industry had been relying on such subpoenas to find
] out the names of those they suspect of online music
] piracy. More than 300 lawsuits have already been filed
] against individuals, many of whom have settled for
] thousands of dollars.
]
] Legal experts say the recording industry can still bring
] civil lawsuits against individuals, even without knowing
] their identity, by filing what is known as a "John Doe"
] lawsuit.
]
] Under those guidelines, the industry's lawyers could ask
] a judge for permission to send out subpoenas, legal
] experts said.
]
] "That's a time-consuming and fairly expensive process,"
] said Daniel Ballard, a Sacramento-based intellectual
] property attorney who represents an unidentified woman
] who had sought to block Verizon from releasing her
] identity to the recording industry.

Chalk up one more for the "little guy"

USATODAY.com - Downloading lawsuits getting more costly, time-consuming

Decius wrote:
] ] Libya wants to solve all problems and we want to focus on
] ] development and advancing our country. This (weapons)
] ] programme does not benefit our people or country... We
] ] want to have ties with America and Britain because this
] ] is in the interest of our people.
]
] Saddam's capture has overshadowed two other major wins for the
] administration this week. The first was Iran's agreement to
] allow inspections of it's nuclear facilities. The second was
] Libya's disarmament agreement. In the wake of the Iraq war a
] number of our enemies have decided that opposing us is counter
] productive.

Either that or they just think Bin Laden's methods are more successful.

RE: BBC NEWS | Africa | World reaction to Libya's decision

] A federal appeals court on Friday rejected efforts by the
] recording industry to compel the nation's Internet
] providers to identify subscribers accused of illegally
] distributing music online.
]
] In a substantial setback for the industry's controversial
] anti-piracy campaign, the three-judge panel from the U.S.
] Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned
] a ruling by the trial judge to enforce a copyright
] subpoena from a law that predates the music downloading
] trend.
]
] The ruling does not make it legal to distribute music
] over the Internet, but it removes one of the most
] effective tools used by the recording industry to track
] such activity and sue downloaders.
]
] The appeals court said the 1998 law doesn't cover the
] popular file-sharing networks currently used by tens of
] millions of Americans to download songs. The Digital
] Millennium Copyright Act "betrays no awareness whatsoever
] that Internet users might be able directly to exchange
] files containing copyrighted works," the court wrote.
]
] The appeals judges said they sympathized with the
] recording industry, noting that "stakes are large." But
] the judges said it was not the role of courts to rewrite
] the 1998 copyright law, "no matter how damaging that
] development has been to the music industry or threatens
] being to the motion picture and software industries."

HA HA HA! Stick *THAT* in your pipe and smoke it, RIAA! :p

Laughing Boy

USATODAY.com - Appeals court: RIAA can't use copyright subpoenas

You know it's true. How many televisions do you have? Do you even know? How many channels do you get? Do your kids refuse to watch black-and-white programs? No one had a VCR in 1970. Now 240 million of us do, but VCRs are history now that Wal-Mart is selling DVD players for $29.

Hrm, I have two TV's, though only one in use, but I don't get cable and don't miss it... I don't have a car... I cook at home way more often than I eat out...

But I do own somewhere around $2,000 of makeup. Nevermind.

Hi. My name is Paris. Pleased to meet you ::giggle::

Fortune.com - Value Driven - Admit It: You, Too, Are Paris Hilton

inignoct wrote:
] ] What NOT to do while in the theatre when watching "LOTR:
] ] Return of the King":
]
] some of these are pretty funny.

The link changed... MIS-TER ANDERSONNNNN!

http://www.geocities.com/fossilfreak.geo/j03/0312/12.htm

LB

RE: What NOT to do...

] Wal-Mart is recalling a candle gift set collection
] because paint used on the candles could pose a fire
] hazard.
]
] The company, which hasn't heard any reports of injuries,
] is recalling 69,804 units of the Snow House Candle gift
] set; 29,064 units of the Snowman Candle gift set; and
] 62,428 units of the Snowflake Candle gift set.

BURN!!

TheHawaiiChannel - Money Watch 4 - Wal-Mart Recalls Candle Gift Collection

] OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Keiko, the killer whale made famous
] by the "Free Willy" movies, has died in Norwegian coastal
] waters where he remained after millions of dollars and a
] decade of work failed to coax him back to the open sea,
] his caretakers said early Saturday.
]
] The whale, who was 27, died Friday afternoon after the
] sudden onset of pneumonia in the Taknes fjord. He was old
] for an orca in captivity, though wild orca live an
] average of 35 years.
]
] David Phillips, executive director of the San
] Francisco-based Free Willy-Keiko Foundation, said Keiko
] had been in good health but started showing signs of
] lethargy and loss of appetite on Thursday.
]
] "This is a long sad day for us," Phillips said.

CNN.com - 'Free Willy' whale, Keiko, dies - Dec. 12, 2003