| Labor department cites Forest Service for safety violations | | Posted Friday, January 26, 2007 2:55:58 PM by Blog57 Team | | Officials with the U.S. Department of Labor say the agency has issued repeat citations against the U.S. Forest Service for alleged safety violations after a worker was killed. The department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration says the Forest Service failed to protect an employee during an emergency. The inspection was initiated after a Forest Service employee died in August, while doing maintenance at the USFS Awke Mountain telecommunications site near Yakutat. The worker fell 225 feet down treacherous mountain terrain. One citation says employees had poor training and lacked protective equipment for poor weather. Another citation says the Forest Service didn't inspect workplace operations often enough. The Forest Service has 15 days to contest the violations. .... | |
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| | | Chinese Supreme Court Orders Stricter Penalties for Copyright ... | | Posted Thursday, January 25, 2007 1:00:47 PM by Blog57 Team | | Beijing, 16 January: China's Supreme People's Court has issued a notice ordering stricter penalties on violators of intellectual property rights (IPR). All illegal gains and manufacturing tools of IPR violators should be confiscated and their pirated products shall be destroyed, according to the notice. Courts should also impose fines large enough to strip pirates of their ability to resume production of illegal copies, said the notice, without giving details about the value of the fines. Victims of piracy in China have long been complaining that punishments are not severe enough. But experts point out that it is a problem of enforcement rather than of the law. The Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate jointly released a judicial interpretation at the end of 2004, decreeing that counterfeiters could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison.... | |
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| | | Static on the GoogTube | | Posted Monday, January 08, 2007 2:54:27 PM by Blog57 Team | | YouTube's failure to create a copyright detection software to help avoid legal entanglements may put spell trouble for the GoogTube. Since the announcement of Google's purchase of YouTube on October 9, the answer to every question of copyright violations and lawsuits has been this software. It was the also arguably the pretext that allowed Google to imagine partnerships with major media companies and music labels. Probably more to come on this... more @ source. .... | |
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| | | Winny inventor convicted / Fined 1.5 mil. yen over copyright ... | | Posted Monday, January 01, 2007 12:53:52 PM by Blog57 Team | | The Kyoto District Court on Wednesday convicted a 36-year-old former research associate of Tokyo University's graduate school for enabling users to violate the Copyright Law by developing and distributing the peer-to-peer file-sharing software Winny, fining him 1.5 million yen. The defendant, Isamu Kaneko, plans to appeal to a higher court. Presiding Judge Makoto Himuro said in his judgment: "[Kaneko] deserves criticism for his selfish and irresponsible attitude. He clearly knew [Winny] was being used to violate the law and allowed users to do so." But Himuro also said: "Kaneko did not specifically intend to cause copyright violations on the Internet." Prosecutors had demanded a year's imprisonment for the defendant. The case was the first to tackle the criminal responsibility of a software developer for illegal acts committed by the software's users.... | |
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| | | US Experts Want China To Pay For Copyright Violations | | Posted Friday, December 01, 2006 12:54:23 PM by Blog57 Team | | Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has recommended that the U.S. to sue China before the World Trade Organization (WTO) over rampant copyright violations, and ban American internet companies from revealing their users' identities to Beijing. The bipartisan panel of experts which were commissioned by Congress made the recommendation in its annual report. The report also urges Congress to recommend to the administration "to press ahead aggressively with a WTO case against China for its manifest failures to enforce intellectual property rights (IPR)." It adds, "Congress should prohibit disclosure by U.S. companies to the Chinese government, in the absence of formal legal action by the Chinese government, of information about Chinese users or authors of online content." The commission said any U.S.... | |
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| | | Google holding onto more than US$200 million in YouTube deal | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 10:53:38 AM by Blog57 Team | | SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has set aside more than US$200 million in its just-completed takeover of YouTube Inc. to cover possible losses on the deal, creating a financial cushion that might protect the Internet search leader if it's hit with legal bills for the frequent copyright violations on YouTube's video-sharing site. Without elaborating in a late Monday statement, Google said it is withholding 12.5 per cent of the stock owed to YouTube for one year "to secure certain indemnification obligations." The Mountain View-based company disclosed the escrow account in an announcement commemorating the completion of its much-anticipated YouTube acquisition. As of Tuesday afternoon, Google representatives hadn't responded to requests for more details about the escrow account.... | |
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| | | Search Continues for Missing Children in Lake Yale | | Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006 11:08:25 AM by Blog57 Team | | Crews are searching for two missing children after their family's boat sank in a lake. Authorities now say the search has now gone from a rescue mission to a recovery mission. The search is going on Lake Yale, just northwest of Eustis area of Lake County. Florida Fish and Wildlife says a family of five from Summerfield, just south of Ocala, went out on their boat last night around sunset. When the 16-foot boat began to sink the father, 36-year-old Eric Singleton, grabbed his 3-month-old daughter and paddled about 300 yards to the shore. He found a house in Umatilla where he called 911. About an hour later, crews found the mother, Michelle, treading water about 200 yards from the sunken boat. However, two other children, 8-year-old Eric and 2-year-old Kaytlin are still missing.... | |
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| | | Baggage and TR rules violations: CBR provided valuation data to determine duty | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 7:00:21 AM by Blog57 Team | | ISLAMABAD (November 13 2006): The Directorate General of Valuation and Post-Clearance Audit (PCA), Karachi, has provided valuation data to the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) for determination of customs duty on import of goods in commercial quantity, violating baggage rules. Sources told this scribe on Sunday that the CBR has issued instructions for assessment of goods brought in commercial quantity by overseas Pakistanis under personal baggage as well as Transfer of Residence (TR) schemes. The DG Valuation and PCA has compiled the valuation data pertaining to baggage-related items, on the request of CBR Law and Procedure Wing. In many cases, persons coming under TR scheme did not specify the value of old (used) goods brought in large quantity. The data would help in ascertaining the actual value of any new or old goods for valuation purposes.... | |
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| | | Duke case: Beware Kerry Sutton | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 1:05:55 PM by Blog57 Team | | Willie Sutton was a notorious bank robber who explained that he robbed banks because "that's where the money is." At least he told the truth about that. Kerry Sutton is a lawyer. She works in Durham, North Carolina. She has represented one of the un-indicted co-captains (Matt Zash) and did legal work for one of the Duke Three (fellow co-captain David Evans). Ms. Sutton recently broke the heart of Liestoppers poetess Joan Foster, who let Ms. Sutton know it in a memorable poem titled "Kerry Sutton's Eyes": "The day Dave Evans met the Press, Yes, his courage did impress. His words were moving, but to my surprise All I saw was one woman's eyes. "I watched her, and I thought I saw Her pain in every breath he'd draw.... | |
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| | | Possibilities of prosecuting Turkish leaders for crimes against humanity and war crimes IX | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 7:01:14 AM by Blog57 Team | | Agence France Presse (AFP), Bomb blast kills seven in Turkey's main Kurdish city, Diyarbakir, 12 September 2006, , (last visited 18 September 2006). Agence France Presse (AFP), Turkish parliament to probe bomb attack that sparked riots, 23 November 2005, Ankara, , (last visited 02 September 2006). Ahmed, Nafeez, Modern Turkey - A Shining Example of Secular Democracy? Media Monitors Network, 18 December 2001, , (last visited 10 September 2006). Ahmed, Nafeez, Routing out the Opposition: The Comprehensive Repression of Human Rights in Turkish Society, Islamic Human Rights Commission, London, 2000, , (last visited 10 September 2006). Akhavan, Payam, Beyond Impunity: Can International Criminal Justice Prevent Future Atrocities? American Journal of International Law, Vol.... | |
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