Sunday, March 28, 2004

G.I.'s Padlock Baghdad Paper Critical of U.S.. U.S. soldiers closed a Baghdad paper after occupation authorities accused it of printing lies that incited violence. By Jeffrey Gettleman. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] So much for democracy - didn't Powell say recently that the dissenting views expressed by iraqis was evidence that democracy was taking hold n Iraq? 8:58:33 PM

Climax for a Best-Selling Series: Jesus' Return. The last book in the "Left Behind" series, which is based on a bloody interpretation of Revelation, goes on sale Tuesday. By David D. Kirkpatrick. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] You can talk about the Taliban and muslim extermists all you want, but we've got an American Taliban movement ourselves - fundamentalist christians who are convinced that they represent the one true way, and everyone else should move out of their way..... 8:52:29 PM

PIRATE Act Introduced in Congress Posted by michael on Saturday March 27, @09:02PM from the shiver-me-timbers dept. certron writes "Xeni Jardin has written a story for Wired about the "Protecting Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation Act of 2004" aka the PIRATE Act. It and another related bill are designed to criminalize P2P filesharing by lowering the burden of proof for law enforcement and proposing jail terms of up to 10 years. The bill was introduced by Sens. Orrin Hatch and Patrick Leahy, both of whom received large contributions from the entertainment industries. Under the bill, even sharing a single file (if a judge decides the value is over $10,000) could land a user in jail. Read the full text of Orrin Hatch's remarks." From slashdot - those in power can't resist the urge to pander to the entertainment industry.  It won't be long before it will be illegal to even quote famous lines from films without the thought police coming down on your ass.... 8:41:44 PM