PATH: BS | Legal

Sharper Image Aborts Lawsuit Against Consumer Reports

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[Faulty Products]
In October 2003, Consumer Reports ran a review of air cleaners and found that the heavily-over-hyped Ionic Breeze was "ineffective." The Sharper Image people countered by creating a new and improved model designed to out-perform similar products and address critics complaints. Really, they did? Of course not. Instead they sued Consumer Reports for libel, and several years later, Sharper Image realizes it can't bully Consumer Reports when it has no case and pays them off to make their lawsuit disappear. Not only do their products seem to be giant paperweights, but they can spit out dangerous levels of ozone gas. Congratulations to Consumer Reports for being one of the last advocacy groups to not take corporate bullying.

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Hair Replacement Company Left Exposed

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[Faulty Products]
Victory in the courts today for anyone who wants to use the Internet to call attention to companies they think have dubious business practices. Bosley Medical Institute in Seattle sued former client Michael Kremer after he created a Web site in 2000 in a "bald-faced effort to get even" with the company, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.

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FL Bill Lets Students Sue Teachers They Disagree With

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A group of republican lawmakers in Tallahassee, Florida have proposed a new bill that aims to stamp out “leftist totalitarianism” by “dictator professors” in the classrooms of Florida’s universities.

The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights [SIC], sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, passed 8-to-2 despite strenuous objections from the only two Democrats on the committee.

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Slashdot/Ziff-Davis Becoming "Scareware" Promoters

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[Get-Rich-Quick]
There are a number of certainties in life: Death, Taxes and companies with lots of resources and little innovation will try to patent derivative technology and push others around legally. The story of Microsoft's patent-mania is renown, but in a new twist we have both Ziff-Davis and Slashdot who seem to have been hoodwinked by a group that likes to spread FUD about the threat of patent litigation to sell 'Linux Insurance' to foolish corporations. Congrats. You all have been punked.

Allow me to christen this new tactic, "Scareware", the art of intimidating people through the impending threat of IP litigation.

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AOL Pays Millions to SEC to Make Fraud Charges Go Away

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In a statement the SEC said: "The Commission today charged Time Warner Inc. with securities fraud for materially overstating online advertising revenue and the number of its Internet subscribers and aiding and abetting three other securities frauds.

"Without admitting or denying the allegations in the complaint, Time Warner consented to the entry of a judgement that, among other things, orders it to pay $300m in civil penalties," it said.

You gotta love corporate America. Let's kick back a few hundred mil to the government and "neither admit nor deny any wrongdoing." Ok, right.

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Bush Administration Seeks To Secretize Everything

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Slate has a very scary article on how the Bush administration is pushing the boundaries of what previously public information should now be classified as secret and made unavailable to most people, citing terrorist concerns. What information may no longer be public? How about how taxpayer money is spent and Federal budgets, maps, old science archives that have been public for more than 50 years, government telephone directories, and much more. This plays right into the plan of the current administration to hide as much information on what the government is doing as it possibly can.

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Worldcom CEO Found Guilty of Fraud

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US prosecutors on Tuesday won a landmark victory in their battle against white-collar crime when Bernie Ebbers, the former WorldCom chief executive, was found guilty of leading an $11 billion accounting fraud that pushed the telecommunications group into the largest bankruptcy in US history.

Meanwhile over at CNN (the CHEESE NEWS NETWORK), the Scott Peterson and Michael Jackson trials get more attention.

UPDATE: Financial Firm J.P. Morgan is reportedly trying to settle over their involvement in the Worldcom fraud for US$2B.

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Apple Wins Right To Shakedown ISP For Journalist's Source

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The rights of online journalists were crushed today by California superior court judge James Kleinberg when he authorized the pursuit of action on the part of Apple to force an online journalist's ISP to reveal private details in order to expose a source of news on Apple products that was leaked to online web sites.

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Microsoft Settles Infringement Case and "Loses" E-Mail Evidence

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Microsoft has agreed to pay Burst.com $60M in a settlement over Burst's claim that Microsoft entered into an agreement to learn about Burst's technology, cut them loose, then built the technology into their own media player, in defience of Burst's 37 patents. To add further irony, Microsoft failed to produce subpoena'd e-mail correspondence relevant to the case claiming the information was erased from all workstations, servers and backup files. Yea right.

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Apple Sued Over DRM Patent Violation

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As companies jockey to stake a claim in the next generation media distribution medium, the current market giant Apple is being sued by a Hong Kong company claiming that their technology violates a US patent on digital rights management. What's also interesting about this issue is that the most comprehensive info currently available is from a blog, but it appears this "blog" is basically Ziff-Davis columnists renaming their byline as a blog. Is that a new trend? Maybe more mainstream media will usurp the "blog" moniker?

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Martha Stewart Released From Prison - Will Crime Now Go Up?

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While the country is still at "war", CNN. the Cheese-News-Network can't help but make Martha Stewart's release from prison, and the fact that she couldn't easily get cappuccino, front page news. I for one, am now quite worries since this horrible criminal has been put back into society, that crime will again dramatically rise. After all, when we nail Martha Stewart, we're pretty far down the list of criminals that need to be prosecuted.

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Spyware Distributor Demands Websites Stop Calling Them Spyware

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A company called iDownload distributes what many in the industry call spyware, an invasive, "evil" toolbar plug-in for browsers that usurps control from the user. The product in question is called the iSearch Toolbar. ABC News particluarly despised the insideous "utility". However in an amusing twist, the company has been sending cease and desist-type letters from iDownload's law firm calling into question the legality of their products being labelled spyware.

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Amazon seeks to patent search history, and never delete it.

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The USPTO has published Amazon.com's patent application for Persistently storing and serving event data, a fancy way of saying Amazon wants to own the process of remembering everything a user searches on. What's even more interesting is that as part of the patent application, Amazon's version of allowing a user to "delete his search history" merely renders the information "undisplayable" but still makes the information available for other (potentially dubious?) uses. Furthermore, Amazon requested the USPTO to not make the application public.

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SCO's Days Are Numbered

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SCO, the company suing IBM claiming that Linux infringes on their intellectual property, narrowly escaped a summary judgement in what most call a grossly bogus case brought by the ailing software company that is desperate to litigate itself back into solvency.

"Despite the vast disparity between SCO's public accusations and its actual evidence - or complete lack thereof - and the resulting temptation to grant IBM's motion, the court has determined that it would be premature to grant summary judgment," Judge Kimball wrote.

However, any time now, SCO's song-and-dance will end.

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Eiffel Tower: Copyrighted!

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The Eiffel Tower's likeness had long since been part of the public domain, when in 2003, it was abruptly repossessed by the city of Paris. That's the year that the SNTE, the company charged with maintaining the tower, adorned it with a distinctive lighting display, copyrighted the design, and now claims ownership of the nighttime image of France's most famous icon. Then again, goofy tactics like this are ancient history to American corporations such as Disney who is almost single-handedly responsible for the crippling of public domain rights.

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Rappers clash over who legally can "back that ass up"

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[Music]
As often happens in the hip-hop world, two rappers became embroiled in a dispute over who owned the rights to a song that utilized a popular phrase. And it took the musical ear of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to settle the matter.

READ MORE | 2 comments since 2005-02-16 08:34:53 | Comment on this Article

Spamhaus points Feds to Tsunami spammer

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A US man has been arrested for allegedly sending around 800,000 spam emails which attempted to scam money from individuals who believed them to be genuine fundraising messages supporting the Tsunami appeal. Meanwhile the full-time, pro spammers who are responsible for the worm/virus invasion continue to operate. It just goes to show you, you can break the law as long as you don't tread on anything that's big in the news or messes with a major U.S. corporation. However, we are hopeful that the Feds seem to actually be taking action against some people these days, even though this only seems to be because a third party actually did the real detective work.

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Motherboards.net sues Motherboards.com; runs 'em out of business

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The other day I ordered some equipment from a online store listed in Computer Shopper. Motherboards.com. After finding my order was on hold, I visited the web site initially to see it had changed, then it says "Going out of business sale". I called the company on the phone and they seemed indifferent to whether or not we reached a resolution and were just as happy to cancel my order. Then a few days later, I received an interesting e-mail which explained the company's predicament.

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Bush administration wants to hold terror suspects forever

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The Bush administration is preparing plans for possible lifetime detention of suspected terrorists, including hundreds whom the government does not have enough evidence to charge in courts, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

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Use Windows' media files: get infected

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Think you're downloading a new song or video? Watch out--that file may be stuffed with pop-ups and adware. Unscrupulous organizations, some of whom have been helping the RIAA and MPAA fight online piracy are now exploiting holes in *gasp* Windows media file formats to hide malicious programs and spyware.

It should be noted that while this is yet another scare tactic designed to stagnate all forms of media trading, including legitimate, licensed music, MP3 files are immune to these issues. Like anyone needed additional reasons to avoid .WMA, and other Windows-specific file formats.

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Six Reservists court-marshaled for scrounging equipment in Iraq

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[Military]
At a time when some U.S. troops in Iraq are complaining they have to scrounge for equipment, six Ohio-based reservists were court-martialed for taking Army vehicles abandoned in Kuwait by other units so they could carry out their own unit's mission to Iraq.

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We don't need no education... just our royalties please!

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[Music]
A group of former pupils at a London comprehensive school are poised to win thousands of pounds in unpaid royalties for singing on Pink Floyd's classic Another Brick In The Wall 25 years ago.

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Help Congress push for voting investigation

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Regardless of how you voted this year, there have been widespread reports of voting anomolies in the last election. Moveon has set up an automated system to help petition Congress to request a formal investigation. Do your part and sign the petition to urge Congress to ensure the voting system in the United States is secure.

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A Primer On The Fairness Doctrine: How We Screwed Up

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[BSAlert *exclusive*]
EDIT: This post is now well over 10 years old, but it's still relevant today.... So we will keep it as is...

With the Internet overflowing with various pundits speculating on "What went wrong in the 2004 election?", I'd like to add my theory. Unlike other theories dancing around which take into account partisan intent, what people are thinking and the use of lots of tin-foil hats, I think there's a very straightforward path that shows how and why the American populace has developed into the polarized mindset that was responsible for the current political climate.

This is the first part of a two part rambling diatribe. The first part outlines what I feel are the two major causes of most of the problems. The second part outlines ideas I have on solving the problems in a realistic way given an environment that is vehemently hostile towards equitible debate.

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Watchdog group issues huge FOIA request for election records

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BlackBoxVoting.ORG is conducting the largest Freedom of Information action in history. At 8:30 p.m. Election Night, Black Box Voting blanketed the U.S. with the first in a series of public records requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents from 3,000 individual counties and townships. Networks called the election before anyone bothered to perform even the most rudimentary audit.

READ MORE | 1 comment since 2004-11-06 14:57:51 | Comment on this Article

Bush: screw you (American people) enforcing your voting rights

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Bush administration lawyers argued in three closely contested states last week that only the Justice Department, and not voters themselves, may sue to enforce the voting rights set out in the Help America Vote Act, which was passed in the aftermath of the disputed 2000 election.

Veteran voting-rights lawyers expressed surprise at the government's action, saying that closing the courthouse door to aspiring voters would reverse decades of precedent.

Since the civil rights era of the 1960s, individuals have gone to federal court to enforce their right to vote, often with the support of groups such as the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, the League of Women Voters or the state parties. And until now, the Justice Department and the Supreme Court had taken the view that individual voters could sue to enforce federal election law.

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Scott Peterson fan club

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In keeping with my own mantra, I avoid watching live TV wherever possible (and with Tivo, I don't have to wade into the sh*t) but apparently people are still obsessed with this Scott/Lacy Peterson ordeal. A prime example of the overblown media crime hype.

READ MORE | 1 comment since 2004-10-30 23:36:33 | Comment on this Article

LA Senate candidate sends cash to voters in solicitation mailer

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Republican senate candidate David Vitter is catching a lot of flack for sending out cash money in recent mailings soliciting support from voters. Some are claiming it's illegal vote buying. Vitter claims that "technically" what he's doing is not illegal. Democrats say the move is unethical.

“It’s a shameless attempt to influence the outcome of this election,” said Louisiana Democratic chairman Mike Skinner. “The reality is David Vitter is perpetuating the politics of corruption.”

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Fed Court: Terrorism is BS excuse to violate civil liberties

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In what appears to be an unexpected wave of common sense, a Federal Appeals court stated, "Fear of a terrorist attack is not sufficient reason for authorities to search people at a protest", and that Sept. 11 "cannot be the day liberty perished."

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Supreme Court Judge promotes Orgies

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He is the conservative bastion of the US supreme court, a favorite of President Bush, and a hunting partner of the vice-president. He has argued vociferously against abortion rights, and in favour of anti-sodomy laws.

But it turns out that there is another side to Justice Antonin Scalia: he thinks Americans ought to be having more orgies.

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A frank statement to cigarette smokers (in 1954)

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Did you know that the U.S. Department of Justice is in the middle of a $280M trial against the tobacco companies? Neither did we. This is apparently one of the many news stories that the mainstream media's sponsors probably don't want you to hear about, therefore it's not on the "news." Luckily, there are lots of places online where you can find out about the tabacco industry trial.

The trial revolves around a very pecular statement made by the top companies in 1954, called A frank statement to cigarette smokers.

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Blogger gets "cease and desist" from Hasbro/GI Joe

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A local web site that features GI Joe parodies of public service announcements has received a nasty letter from Hasbro's legal team claiming this is infringement. Hasbro apparently has a long history of harassing people via questionable lawsuits.

If you've seen the video clips, you know they're rather innocuous. I suspect the real reason is they may need to re-deploy GI Joe to Iraq to help with the "peacekeeping."

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"They Hate Our Freedom"

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[Terroir-ism]
After nearly three years of confinement at Guantanamo Bay, Australian national David Hicks goes on trial for alleged terrorism before a U.S. military court. "There'll be no pictures allowed of David Hicks, no audio from the courtroom, no pictures of the defence, prosecution or presiding officer entering the building, and military camera operators will choose what images are broadcast
via closed circuit television to most journalists covering the hearing," reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

According to reporter Leigh Sales, some of the restrictions on press coverage "are bizarre and have no parallel. For example, journalists in the courtroom can't use phone lines to file stories
during breaks in the proceedings. If you get up to go to the toilet, you are then barred from the courtroom for the rest of the day. ... Another restriction here, is that no sound or pictures
whatsoever will be taken of the military commissions, even though they're one of the most important legal aspects of the Bush administration's war on terrorism, and the first proceedings of this kind since the Second World War."

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