Legal and Legislative News

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Sony settles 'rootkit' class action lawsuit

CNET News.com

by Ingrid Marson

December 29, 2005

Sony BMG has struck a deal with the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit over copy-restriction software it used in music CDs, according to a settlement document filed at a New York court Wednesday.

The record label has agreed to compensate buyers of CDs that contained the XCP and MediaMax DRM programs and to provide software utilities to allow consumers to uninstall both types of software from their computer. The furor over Sony's DRM software began at the end of October when a U.S. programmer discovered that XCP software on a Sony music CD had installed copy-restriction software on his computer that was hidden using a rootkit. Antivirus companies later discovered Trojan horses that exploited this software to avoid detection and found that another type of Sony DRM, MediaMax, also posed a security risk.

Claim back £300 per spam

The Register

December 29, 2005

Net expert Nigel Roberts has won a landmark legal victory by chasing down a UK spammer and winning £300 in costs.

Roberts, who runs his own Internet business as well as the Jersey and Guernsey country code domains, used his legal know-how to apply EU legislation to a UK company, Media Logistics. It is believed to be the first time the legislation has been used in the UK, and could open the doors for thousands of other cases.

Librarians sounding off on Patriot Act

The Madison Eagle

by Max Pizarro and Garry Herzog

December 29, 2005

As the House, the Senate and White House wrangled last week over a reauthorization of the Patriot Act with the clock ticking toward an end-of-year deadline, librarians were not being shushed on their concerns over the privacy of their patrons.

The flashpoint is Section 215, the so-called "library provision" in the Patriot Act, that allows federal investigators to seize "any tangible things" such as books, records and papers from libraries if they are deemed relevant to a terrorism investigation by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which routinely approves such orders without evidence that a search is likely to produce evidence of a crime.

All Dogs Go to Heaven

Metro Active (CA)

by Vrinda Normand

December 21, 2005

The story of the San Jose police raid on Hell's Angels has gone from gruesome tragedy to civil rights victory.

For Bob and Lori Vieira, 1998 started with a bang-literally. Twenty-one days into the year, at a chilly 7am, they awoke to gunshots outside of their home on Monterey Highway in San Jose. Lori hopped out of bed, threw on some clothes and ran out the front door yelling, "Don't kill my dogs!" She yelled it over and over, but it was too late. A squad of San Jose police officers lined up, guns poised, outside of the chain-link fence that enclosed the Vieira property.

1st Amendment 'doesn't create church-state wall of separation'

World Net Daily

December 21, 2005

A U.S. appeals court today upheld the decision of a lower court in allowing the inclusion of the Ten Commandments in a courthouse display, hammering the ACLU and declaring, "The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state

Attorneys from the American Center for Law and Justice successfully argued the case on behalf of Mercer County, Ky., and a display of historical documents placed in the county courthouse. The panel voted 3-0 to reject the ACLU's contention the display violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.

President's Admission Fuels Privacy Concerns

Teleclick (Canada)

by Jeremy Maddock

December 18, 2005

There is little doubt that this slow and quiet weekend before Christmas has aroused great deal of passion and concern around the relationship between government and communication privacy.

After years of denial, it has finally come out that America's Republican government is spying on the telephone and email communications of, well, whomever they feel like. And what makes it worse still is that they have absolutely no warrant - no legal justification to be doing this. This renews the frequently asked, yet never properly answered question of just how far governments can go in the ongoing quest to fight terrorism.

Bush, NSA & Wiretaps - Hot Off The Biased, Leaky Press

Magic City Morning Star (ME)

by Doug Wrenn

December 18, 2005

'Tis a complex web which we weave, when 'tis the American people we try to deceive, exacerbated still, and against our will, just after the Patriot Act's demise on the previous eve! Yeah, I know. Poetry just isn't my gig. Sorry.

But the point, nevertheless is still well taken. As I write this article, President Bush's public mea culpa to the American people is still only about two or three hours old. We now know, first by the New York Times story of December 16th, and now by President Bush's confirmation of that story today, that he authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct allegedly warrantless wiretaps on several American citizens deemed to be a threat to our national security.

Evolution Trial in Hands of Willing Judge

The New York Times (PA)

by Laurie Goodstein

December 18, 2005

In Harrisburg, Pa., next week, Judge John E. Jones III is to issue a decision in a what will likely be a bellwether case on teaching intelligent design.

Driving home one day last December from the courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa., Judge John E. Jones III tuned in to a radio news report about 11 parents in the nearby town of Dover who had filed a lawsuit challenging their school board's decision to include intelligent design in the high school biology curriculum. John E. Jones III, a Pennsylvania judge, will rule in a trial involving the teaching of intelligent design.

Congressional Chicanery About H-1B Visas

Eagle Forum

by Phyllis Schlafly

December 17, 2005

"Why is it taking you five years to get through college'" I asked a student attending one of my campus lectures. "Because I changed my major from computer science to accounting after I discovered there are almost no jobs available for computer majors."

Of course there are plenty computer jobs, but not for Americans because big business would rather hire foreigners. The latest piece of chicanery is buried in the 817-page Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005 (S.1932) now going through Congress. Without any hearings, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) got the Judiciary Committee to insert language that will raise the annual cap on H-1B visas from the current 65,000 to 95,000, reissue unused immigrant work visas or green cards up to a maximum of 90,000, and exempt the H-1Bers' family members from the cap on employment-based immigration.

19 Arrested in Federal Crackdown on Child Prostitution Rings

The Washington Post

December 17, 2005

Prostitution rings from New York to Hawaii forced 30 children, some as young as 12, to have sex at truck stops, hotels and brothels, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said yesterday in announcing a government crackdown.

Nineteen people have been arrested among 31 who have been indicted for sexual trafficking in children, taking minors across state lines for prostitution and other crimes, Gonzales said. "The abhorrent acts alleged in these charges include children being herded around the country as sex slaves . . . and beaten at the hands of pimps and peddlers," he said at a Justice Department news conference.

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