Category — other research

Netcraft: SCO “own all your code”: “”

(Via .)

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it would be better, of course, if this wasn’t their position…..

EuroScience Open Forum 2004: “”

(Via .)

some good papers here

Senate Passes CREATE Act: “

On 11/20/2004, the Senate passed, and House agreed to S. 2192, the Cooperative Research and Technology Enhancement (CREATE) Act of

…”

(Via beSpacific.)

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it will be interesting to see what effect this has….. not now, but in say 3 years, when people figure out how to exploit it.

Linus, Monty, Rasmus: No Software Patents: “Jan Wildeboer writes “The three most famous European authors of open-source software have issued an appeal against software patents on NoSoftwarePatents.com. Linus Torvalds (Linux), Michael “Monty” Widenius (MySQL) and Rasmus Lerdorf (PHP) urge the EU Council, which will convene later in the week, not to adopt a draft directive on software patents that they consider “deceptive, dangerous, and democratically illegitimate”. They also call on the Internet community to express solidarity by placing NoSoftwarePatents.com links and banners on many Web sites.”"

(Via Slashdot.)

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This is one of those core political decisions that will transform the power structure of europe, not the big P political power structure but the small p political power which actually has more power than big P, it just is not as visible.

The Path to The Handmaid’s Tale: “

While Planned Parenthood is sounding the alarm about an imminent frontal assault on Roe v. Wade from the Bush Administration, today we see instead how it’s going to play out — the end of choice via small and sly nibbles. Flexing post-election muscle, the Senate Republican leadership has just inserted into a must-pass $388 billion omnibus spending bill, an anti-abortion provision that could have broad reach…allowing hospitals and other healthcare providers to duck a responsibility to provide abortion services across the country. This won’t stop people with money from getting abortions; this will only affect those women least able to expand their families.

If you think abortion rights are someone else’s concern; think again. Do you have sexual relations? Do you believe the decision on whether or not to procreate rests with you and your partner? Do you think that the U.S. Attorney General should have final control of your body, your fertility? This is how it is about to be. These are small steps that lead straight down the path to The Handmaid’s Tale.

You have grown up in a society where women’s physical autonomy has been a given. I did not. I am only a couple decades older than you. I remember the terror of a missed period. The shame of a girlfriend who was banished from high school. A college couple’s frantic gathering of money for a drive into the night. You don’t want to have to live like that. Believe me.

Eight female Senators objected to the provision, including Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine and Democrat Barbara Boxer of California who has vowed to stand in the way of the bill. Support California Senator Barbara Boxer and maintain vigilance for the other indirect tactics that will surely follow.

-RH

addendum:

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi had this to say today on the floor:

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the Weldon amendment, an extraordinary sneak attack on women’s rights and a disgraceful display of ideology over health.“
“This language is a radical change in policy that the House has not debated on the floor, and the Senate has never considered, debated, or voted on. Republicans simply slipped it into the appropriations bill when they thought no one was looking.
“If a hospital, health insurance company, or doctor opposes Roe v. Wade, they could simply ignore it. Ignore it. This is the law of the land. A Constitutional right could simply be ignored.”

“

(Via Girl In the Locker Room!.)

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i think this is one of the most cogent points made on this topic of late. just how long will it be until the ability to bear children is so heavily legislated that we end up in the handsmaid tale?

Secret Laws: “

Almost 2000 years BC, Hammurabi put Babylon’s laws in writing for the first time ever “so that all men might read and know what was required of them.” 4000 years later, the U.S. government is making public laws passé, according to an excellent article by Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. When former Representative Helen Chenoweth-Hage (R-Idaho) faced a security guard pat-down before flying, she demanded to see the regulation authorizing the search. One government official responded “That is called ’sensitive security information.’ She’s not allowed to see it, nor is anyone else.”

“

(Via The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog.)

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there can’t be secret laws in a free society. there cannot.

EFF: Deep Links: “”

(Via .)

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the people stealing documents need to grow up and accept differing opinions. this is 3rd grade stuff.

I despise Wal*mart: “Having stood atop the Pyramid of the Sun at ancient Teotihuacan, in awe of the vast and stunning metropolis that has dominated the skyline for thousands of years, I could weep at the mere thought of the Wal-Mart that opens next month only 1.6 km away.

(Via Purse Lip Square Jaw.)

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shopping wins….. yep, in a consumer culture…. it does, and sometimes with horrid results.

At such times, in place of the voice of duty which no longer peaks in men’s hearts, the cheifs are forced to substitute the cry of terror or the lure of some apparent interest by which they deceive their creatures. At such times one has to have recoruse to all the petty and contemptible ruses they call maxims of state and secrets of the cabinet. Rousseau Discourses on Political Economy….

Broadcasters Try to Steal More of the Public Domain, This Week at WIPO: “

Many of you will remember the broadcasting industry’s efforts to push a power-grabbing treaty through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). If the broadcasters have their way, the treaty will:

• Give broadcasters copyright privileges over material they did not create, but merely broadcast, including control over public domain material. They would get these powers for up to 50 years.
• Make it illegal to circumvent technology locks that enforce broadcasters’ control over what users can do with broadcasts.

And if a small group of webcasters gets their way, they’ll get these powers too.

In the last session the pro-treaty forces were pushing to move to the final stages of negotiation, while the developing countries in opposition were trying to slow down the process to get rid of the most odious positions.

The round of negotiations this week is more of the same, except that now there are even more civil society NGOs in attendance and WIPO recently welcomed a “Development Agenda” that explicitly acknowledges the need for these treaties to promote access to the public domain, not inhibit it. On the other side, the webcasters are making an extra hard push, and there still isn’t a great deal of transparency and media coverage to keep the dogs at bay.

Stay tuned. Union for the Public Domain has two people here to make the arguments for the public domain, and we’ll be posting daily updates to the UPD site (http://public-domain.org), including detailed notes on everything that happens in the assembly hall. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to contact your country’s copyright office to urge them to take a stand against this treaty.

(For more details on the treaty, see: http://www.public-domain.org/node/view/47)”

(Via Union for the Public Domain -.)

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so…. if i were a registered broadcaster, and i rebroadcast c-span stuff in a unique format, it would then be mine? neat…… not really. this is a real butchering of copyright and ownership.