For everything from family to computers…
Go democratic power!!
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Residents of a Chinese village who rebelled against corrupt local officials have been choosing an election committee. Some observers are highlighting the unusually open and fair voting process, but there are villagers who think their struggle is far from over. Guest host David Greene checks in with NPR’s Louisa Lim in Beijing.
from News
That is MESSED up! Â Syrian government has a lot to answer to!
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Children as young as 13 say government forces have tortured them by burning them with cigarettes and pulling toenails with pliers.
from News
Wonder how much of it is really true… it does bring up more questions…
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The bombs keep dropping from Anonymous—first local cops, then the FBI, and now the Marine Corps: sensitive documents from 2005’s Haditha Killings trial. Anon doesn’t think the Marine in charge should have gotten off so lightly. This is their payback. More »
from Gizmodo
There’s another legal brouhaha brewing in Germany, where Motorola today won an injunction against Apple’s iCloud. In a decision handed down from the infamous Mannheim Regional Court this morning, Judge Andreas Voss issued a permanent injunction against Cupertino’s cloud-based service and any devices that use it, following a complaint that Motorola originally filed in April of last year. The two companies, as you may recall, have been going at each other rather aggressively in Germany, where Motorola scored a similar victory, back in November. At issue in today’s ruling is a European Patent that outlines a “multiple pager status synchronization system and method,” upon which iCloud, Motorola claims, infringes. The injunction, as FOSS Patents explains, targets Apple’s Ireland-based European distribution branch, but it only applies to the German market — not Europe, as a whole. And while it’s technically “permanent,” it’s still “preliminarily enforceable,” which means Apple can (and likely will) appeal. Motorola, meanwhile, can seek to enforce it, if it’s willing to post a €100 million bond. Apple had been seeking a bond of €2 billion, but was ultimately denied. For more of the legal nitty gritty, check out the source link below.
Update 1: Citing a statement from Apple, Germany’s Deutsche Presse-Agentur news agency is now reporting that the company has pulled the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 4 from its German online store, along with any 3G/UMTS-enabled iPads. The move appears to come in response not to today’s ruling, but to a decision issued in December, when Motorola won an injunction against Apple, on the grounds that its 3G/UMTS technology infringes upon one of Moto’s European patents. According to FOSS Patents, Apple presumably lost its appeal to the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court, after Motorola sought to enforce the injunction.
Update 3: And just like that, the BBC is reportingthat Apple’s exhortations have been heard, and the ban has been lifted. Details are few, but Cupertino had this to say about this latest turn of events:
“All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple’s online store in Germany shortly.”
from Engadget
Finally!! Â I can’t believe that the Congress members were allowed to profit from their intimate and oftentimes proprietary information and not be held accountable! Â That’s ludicrous!!
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The bill would explicitly prohibit members of Congress, top aides and senior administration officials from using nonpublic information to trade. Passed 96-3, the act now goes to the House.
from News
It looks like Pirate Bay‘s legal drama has finally come to a close in Sweden, where the Supreme Court today turned down the site’s final appeal. At the center of the case are the file sharing site’s founders — Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström — who have been battling Swedish prosecutors for quite a few years now. After being convicted of facilitating copyright infringement, the trio was initially sentenced to prison. They appealed the ruling in 2010 and, though they failed to overturn it, managed to see their 12-month sentences reduced by between two and eight months. Today, though, their final attempts were shot down, with the Court’s dismissal. The fines and prison terms remain the same: ten months for Neij, eight months for Sunde and four for Lundström. There’s also a fourth co-founder involved, Gottfrid Svartholm, who has been absent from several hearings. Under today’s ruling, his original 12-month sentence will stand, and the four men will have to pay a total of $6.8 million in damages. Because the case has dragged on for at least five years, however, there’s a chance that the sentences could be reduced by 12 months (bringing them down to zero), as is common in the Swedish legal system. The decision on this matter, however, remains with the court. TorrentFreakreports that at least one defendant intends to appeal to the European Court of Justice, though the results wouldn’t have any effect on Sweden’s decision.
from Engadget
