] Clothing shops and factories have been given a written
] order to stop producing clothes that stray from the
] strict female dress codes, the head of a clothing trade
] union in Tehran told a local newspaper.
]
] Long, shapeless black coats and head coverings have been
] mandatory women's wear - regardless of religion - since
] the country's Islamic revolution 24 years ago.
]
] However, in recent times some Iranian women have been
] sporting shorter, paler coats that end at the knee and
] hug the body.
]
] Some don colourful headscarves that allow their hair to
] spill out from underneath.
]
] But now dress shops have been told they have a month to
] clear their shelves of items that do not conform to the
] code.
]
] Some traders in various shopping districts in Tehran told
] news agency AFP they had already been raided by police.

I know - I just don't understand the culture. Still, I consider this moronic. So your women _want_ to look beautiful, and you won't let them? Idiots caging birds and not only never letting them fly, but covering them so no one can appreciate their beauty.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iran tells women to button up

] Mercado, who brushed back strands of brown hair from her
] reddened eyes as she spoke, has a story that has not
] changed from the start. She told the Richardson police
] officer who responded to the store's call that she had
] always taken pictures of her children nude, and that it
] wasn't uncommon in her native Peru to do so. They were
] innocent baby pictures, taken for the family's benefit,
] she said.
]
] Five days later, when a state child welfare investigator
] and two detectives arrived at her house, Mercado again
] insisted that she saw nothing wrong with the photos. She
] allowed the group to search the couple's cramped room,
] and the detectives went through everything, including
] their photo albums, apparently looking for more evidence
] of child porn. They found nothing.
]
] "We fought so hard to come to this country," says
] Mercado, a 33-year-old who was a nurse in Peru and
] aspires to become licensed in the United States one day.
] "For this to happen is unbelievable."

This is crazy. People are so afraid that they're going to miss a child abuse case that they go after everything and anything.

Printable page

Decius wrote:
] ] This model predicted the CD sales of RIAA members to
] ] within thirty million dollars (less than one-quarter of
] ] one percent) given the performance of the economy in
] ] 2002, as a function of nineteen other similarly-sized
] ] corporate sales, and the performance of the RIAA three
] ] previous years.
]
] In other words, piracy is not impacting sales. (Note: This is
] extremely unlikely to be a conspiracy theory. The people that
] run these companies do NOT get this.)

I did a panel at Dragon*Con 2 years ago during Napsters heyday that clearly demonstrated CD sales were NOT being impacted by the P2P networks. In fact, gross revenues had increased by over $2,000,000,000 over the previous year. No - definitely no conspiracy theory here - these were RIAA's own sales figures from their web site.

The RIAA would just as soon blame P2P networks and make up bogus claims to have legislation passed then look at their own antiquated business model as the real problem. Any "loss" of revenue they are experiencing right now is because we are in a double dip recession, but of course its just easier to blame "those damned kids" and their P2P clients.

Someone pull out the clue sticks.

Laughing Boy

RE: Analysis of RIAA revenue figures versus overall economy

Read how those defending your rights weren't allowed to speak in opposition to this bill.

How Sausage Is Made - House Judiciary Committee OK's HB0457!

] We are a group of Tennesseans who are dedicated to
] preserving your online freedoms. We are specifically
] trying to counteract the new "Super-DMCA" legislation
] proposed by the MPAA. In TN, this legislation has
] been proposed through two bills, namely SB213, and HB457.
]
] Our organization has taken shape very (very) quickly,
] and there is still a lot to be done. We need your help
] if we are going to be able to fight this successfully!

TN Digital Freedom - Down With The TN Super-DMCA Bill

[The Justice Department won't say what Hawash is a witness to or how long they intend to keep him.]

These aren't the only things the Bush administration won't say. It won't say why it's holding individual detainees at Guantánamo Bay; it won't disclose the factual basis for its prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui; and it won't say how many immigrants it has detained or deported in INS proceedings. It won't say how many of us are having our telephones tapped, our e-mail messages monitored or our library checkout records examined by federal agents. The administration's defenders say such secrecy is an unavoidable cost of the war on terror, but it's an orientation that predated Sept. 11 and that extends beyond the terror threat. The White House won't reveal who Vice President Dick Cheney consulted in concocting the administration's energy policy; it won't disclose what Miguel Estrada wrote while working for the solicitor general; it won't even release documents related to the pardons that former President Bill Clinton granted during his last days in office.

...

Steven Aftergood, a researcher who monitors government secrecy issues for the Federation of American Scientists, calls Hatch's proposal a "direct assault" on Congress' ability to monitor the Justice Department. "If it goes through, we might as well go home," he told Salon. "The administration will have whatever authority it wants, and there won't be any separation of powers at all."

...

With the Domestic Security Act of 2003 -- the draft legislation dubbed "PATRIOT Act II" -- the administration is apparently contemplating other ways in which it might avoid the inconvenience of operating in the public eye or answering to the federal courts.

The draft legislation, prepared by the Justice Department but not yet proposed to Congress, includes provisions that would allow federal agents to keep secret the names of individuals arrested in investigations related to "international terrorism"; expand the circumstances under which agents could conduct searches and wiretaps without warrants; and allow the attorney general to deport resident aliens in certain circumstances without any possibility of judicial review.

Another good update on the scary legislation that is both in effect and being proposed in the future. Keep getting the information out there so that more people will raise their voice - while they still can.

Dolemite

The secret society

In English, this meant that anyone who intentionally let people do drugs at their events could be held liable. It also expanded the crack-house statute in two significant ways: Now the law could be applied to one-night events -- concerts, raves, parties, festivals -- as well as permanent locales like nightclubs, and it added civil penalties for violations, lowering the burden of proof from "beyond reasonable doubt" to a "preponderance of evidence."

And the trampling of Civil Liberties just goes on and on! What would constitute knowledge that people are going to do drugs at your party or festival? The article lists the presence of overpriced bottles of water, glow sticks and pacifiers. Imagine this being applied broadly to shut down hacker conventions because there might be underage drinking or other illegal drug use. Time to cancel the masquerade party where someone would undoubtedly show up as a baby? Then apply it further and you could end up with college fraternities being shut down for throwing a costume party. This law could bring back the days of River City, IA, in The Music Man.

Dolemite

Your glow stick could land you in jail

Instead of the scheduled discussion, several hundred conference attendees were read the cease-and-desist letter, said Scott Milliken, an attendee. Attendees said they saw the case as a clear infringement on the First Amendment rights of the two students, and they contacted the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford law professor who specializes in copyright issues, seeking advice on what to do next.

Hey, that's me!

Decius added: "We live in a society in which we are increasingly dependent on this high-tech infrastructure which our lives are arranged around, and if we can't take these things apart and understand how they work, then I think we have a very serious threat to our freedom."

Hey, I know that guy, too!

Dolemite

The copyright cops strike again

Decius wrote:
] Interz0ne talk censored due to DMCA notice (blogging from the
] sequestered talk (which is instead a discussion about what
] occured)).

As an update, I sent an email to the editors of Salon about this. I have since received two updates, the latter being the most important. Farhad Manjoo is looking into the details for writing this article and has contacted me for more information. If you would like to submit information as well, please let me know today so that I can get your contact information to him. Farhad is the reporter who has written some of the best stories dealing with the hacker community, such as detailed stories about the DMCA, Dmitry Skylarov, the inability to discuss the security of voting machines and more. Do a search at Salon.com for his name and you'll see plenty of articles. This is a very good thing.

Dolemite

RE: Interz0ne: Cease and Desist Letter - 20030411

Some interesting statistics on wars from the Revolutionary War to the (first) Gulf War, on things such as:
- Percentage of population enrolled in the military
- Number of casualties (both absolute and percentage)
- Cost of the war (converted to 1990 dollars)
- Duration of war, average casualties/month, and so forth

Statistical Summary: America's Major Wars