Lord Mandelson is seeking to amend the laws on copyright to give the government sweeping new powers against people accused of illegal downloading.
[...]
The proposed alteration to the Copyright Act would create a new offence of downloading material that infringes copyright laws, as well as giving new powers or rights to “protect” rights holders such as record companies and movie studios – and, controversially, conferring powers on “any person as may be specified” to help cut down online infringement of copyright.
The changes proposed seem small – but are enormously wideranging, given both the breadth of even minor copyright infringement online, where photographs and text are copied with little regard to ownership, and the complexity of ownership.
Mandelson says in his letter that he is concerned about “cyberlockers” – websites that offer users private storage spaces whose contents can be shared by passing a web link via email.
“These can be used entirely legitimately, but recently rights holders have pointed to them as being used for illegal use,” Mandelson writes in the letter.
But the proposal to alter the Copyright Act in this way has caused alarm within government, where some fear that an incoming Tory administration could use it to curry favour with Murdoch, head of the News International publishing group.
The nation’s economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people — including almost one child in four — struggled last year to get enough to eat.
At a time when rising poverty, widespread unemployment and other effects of the recession have been well documented, the report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides the government’s first detailed portrait of the toll that the faltering economy has taken on Americans’ access to food.
The magnitude of the increase in food shortages — and, in some cases, outright hunger — identified in the report startled even the nation’s leading anti-poverty advocates, who have grown accustomed to longer lines lately at food banks and soup kitchens.
When the hostess agency put out the call for attractive, well-dressed women, under the age of 35 and over 1.7 metres (5ft 7in) tall, it was inundated with responses from hundreds of Roman women.
Most seemed to think they would be bringing a little glamour to a gala dinner with the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Instead, they found themselves being lectured by him for two hours on the role of women and invited to convert to Islam. “We were at least expecting a snack”, grumbled Silvia Figliozzi afterwards.
[..]
The women at Sunday’s event were promised €50 (£45) and told not to arrive in miniskirts or low-cut tops. They assembled outside a hotel in the centre, where several were rejected because they were either too short or revealingly dressed. The rest – most teetering on stilettos and some wrapped in furs – boarded buses and were driven to the Libyan ambassador’s residence.
According to the Italian news agency Ansa, about 200 filed through the heavily protected gates, where a security guard insisted to reporters that they were assembling for a “medical conference”.
After a delay of an hour, Gaddafi appeared, in a black uniform with a black beret. As he launched into his address, female members of his entourage distributed embossed copies of the Qu’ran and the colonel’s own great work, The Green Book.
Scouts have been told to be slightly less prepared than usual. Penknives may have formed as much part of the scouting experience as badges and campfires, but according to advice from the Scout Association they must no longer be brought on camping trips, except when there is a “specific” need. Modern Britain’s knife culture, including the rise in fatal stabbings, has been cited by troop leaders — although some have countered that the code contradicts the tradition that Scouts are to be trusted for their honour.The advice, published in the official in-house magazine, Scouting, says that confusion over the legality of carrying a knife in public has made it necessary to revise the rules.
Oregon opened another chapter in U.S. marijuana history when at 4:20 p.m. Friday, about three dozen people christened the nation’s first cafe for licensed residents to sit down, sip coffee and smoke marijuana.
“Welcome to a place of our own,” said Madeline Martinez, a leader in the state’s medical marijuana movement and the leading force pushing to open the Cannabis Cafe in Portland. “Welcome to freedom.”
[...]
The only people permitted in the Cannabis Cafe are those licensed to smoke who also hold membership in the lobbying group Oregon NORML. Patrons will be charged $5 a day. They can bring their own or smoke donated marijuana. Oregon law says medical marijuana may not be sold.
[..]
After last week’s announcement of the cafe’s opening, the neighbors in the Woodlawn neighborhood weren’t happy. At a crowded neighborhood association meeting, people complained, among other things, that they could smell smoke from the meetings. Martinez promised to install air filters.
Clinton looked out at the diverse crowd and said it was different than a crowd of white men that might be seen on the TV show “Mad Men.”
“You ever watch that TV series ‘Mad Men?’ ” Clinton asked. “If I keep watching this program, will I ever find a happy person? Great television. Good drama. But a lot of really painful reminders in that show about how black people were supposed to run the elevators… were supposed to ask permission before they get on an elevator. The way women were treated is appalling, and only occasionally funny to me.”
AN ABORIGINAL boy, 12, will face a children’s court today charged with receiving a stolen Freddo frog.
The chocolate frog, allegedly shoplifted by the child’s friend from a Coles supermarket in regional Western Australia, usually sells for about 70 cents.
The boy, who has no prior convictions, also faces a second charge involving the receipt of a novelty sign from another store. The sign, which was also allegedly given to the boy by his friend, read: ”Do not enter, genius at work.”
The boy’s lawyer, Peter Collins, has lobbied WA police for the charges to be withdrawn, but authorities had failed to respond to his request, he said.
”It’s scandalous that a 12-year-old child should be subject to prosecution for a case of this type,” he told The Age.
Mr Collins said that when the boy last month missed a court date due to a family misunderstanding, police had apprehended him about 8am on a school day and taken him into custody. The boy was then imprisoned for several hours in the holding cell at the police station.
The young stripper wrapped herself around a chrome pole inside a giant Plexiglas box on the back of a rolling truck.
Heather “Passion” Matson, 21, beckoned drivers and pedestrians on the [Las Vegas] Strip with her skimpy outfit, come-hither smile and suggestive moves that included flipping upside down with legs spread. Even under the Strip’s chaotic neon, the lone pole dancer encased beneath a bright, stagy light drew wide-eyed stares late Tuesday night. Couples stopped, pointed and smiled. Cameras flashed. Carloads of people gave her thumbs-up signs.
[...]
The all-nude clubs Déjà Vu Showgirls and Little Darlings began hauling dancers up and down Las Vegas Boulevard a couple weeks ago to lure patrons, whose numbers have dwindled in the recession. [...] Commissioner Steve Sisolak said he opposes live entertainment on wheels because he thinks it’s far more distracting to drivers than static images such as billboards mounted on trucks. Although he has received some complaints about the risqué element, he considers that a lesser concern.
[...]
Matson said she hopes the mobile stage works as intended. She estimates her income has dropped by 75 percent in the past year.
“I used to make $800 a night,” Matson said. “Now I’m down to $200.”
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At a time when rising poverty, widespread unemployment and other effects of the recession have been well documented, the report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides the government’s first detailed portrait of the toll that the faltering economy has taken on Americans’ access to food.
Gaddafi’s Bodyguards
