p2pnet World Headlines: Sept 8, 2010
Fairfax Media loses copyright battle news.com.au
The Federal Court has ruled against Fairfax Media’s attempt to claim copyright over headlines in The Australian Financial Review. The decision is seen by the publishing industry to have significant implications for the reproduction of newspaper articles, The Australian reports. Judge Annabelle Bennett yesterday ruled that publisher Reed International had not infringed on copyright laws by reproducing The AFR’s headlines as part of its LexisNexis and ABIX news and business information services that provide abstracts of articles in newspapers and magazines. The reproduction of news content has become an increasingly vexed issue for media companies such as Fairfax and News Limited (publisher of The Australian). The AFR, under chief executive Michael Gill, has embraced an expensive but exclusive paid-content model. Mr Gill claimed that Reed’s summaries were intended to “substitute for the article for a very significant number of readers” and that Reed had breached copyright by reproducing some headlines and bylines verbatim. However, Justice Bennett found that none of the 10 headlines selected by Fairfax for the case “are capable of being literary works in which copyright can subsist”.
Oracle to Pay Mark Hurd $950,000 a Year Wall Street Journal
Oracle Corp. said it will pay Mark Hurd, its new co-president, an annual base salary of $950,000 and be eligible for up to a $10 million bonus in the current fiscal year. he software company hired the former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive in recent days following his August departure from the computer giant in the wake of a probe that turned up violations of H-P’s code-of-business conduct. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison came out as one of Hurd’s biggest backers after his breakup with H-P. he company has responded by suing to block the 53-year-old from joining Oracle, whose focus is business software but which has been increasingly moving into hardware, saying the move breaches an exit agreement with H-P and will lead to a transfer of its trade secrets to a competitor. Ellison called the suit “vindictive.”
Assange asks for new lawyer The Register
Julian Assange has requested a new lawyer to represent him during a rape investigation in Sweden because his previous brief, Leif Silbersky, was not engaged enough with the case. Assange wants Bjorn Hurtig to represent him as authorities continue to investigate the allegations, according to AP. Various alleged Wikileaks insiders are busy giving anonymous briefings to the press in support of, or opposition to, Assange’s continued role as spokesman for the organisation. ssange told Sweden’s TV4 that he had never blamed the CIA for the “smears”.
Assange: ‘I’m the only victim’ in rape scandal The Local
Julian Assange has alleged the United States pressured Swedish intelligence to deny WikiLeaks “safe-haven”, claiming in an interview that the rape charges against him are part of “a clear set-up”. “The only victim here is me,” stressed the 39-year-old Australian spokesman of the whistleblower website notorious for having recently published nearly 77,000 classified US military documents about Afghanistan. “These accusations are baseless, and the process by which they’ve come out is disturbing,” Assange told AFP in a telephone interview, maintaining that he has decided to stay in Sweden to prove his innocence. “This entire rape investigation has been conducted without my input,” he lamented, pointing out that “no one has asked me any questions regarding the rape case. The police refuse to say if there is a warrant out for me or not.”
Free rice game gets social boost BBC
An online game reminiscent of quiz show Call My Bluff is getting a facelift in order to provide rice to the hungry. Launched in 2007, Freerice.com challenges people to find the correct meaning of a word from four alternatives. or every correct answer given, 10 grains of rice are donated to countries such as Uganda and Bangladesh. Already attracting 40,000 players every day, the site is now aiming to integrate with Facebook and Twitter. A mobile phone app will also be available for iPhone and iPad users, and the site is extending its challenges so that users can also test their knowledge of other subjects, such as art, geography, chemistry and maths. The site is the brainchild of computer programmer John Breen, who originally designed it to help his teenage sons prepare for their college entrance exams.
Facebook ‘fiends’ are narcissistic, insecure, study says The Star
Compelled to tell your 500 Facebook chums every time you can’t find your sunglasses? Want the world to know you look like Robert Pattison? Post new Photoshopped pictures every day? You, my friend, are narcissistic and insecure. You’re also the subject of Soraya Mehdizadeh’s just-published York University study. ‘Everybody knows somebody like that,’ Mehdizadeh told the Star on Tuesday. ‘They’re updating their status every five minutes. They’re telling you what celebrity they look like. They’re posting pictures of themselves in a bikini.’ For her undergraduate psychology thesis, Mehdizadeh recruited 100 fellow university students and analyzed their Facebook postings under About Me, Status Updates, View Photos of Me, Main Photo and Notes. The more prolific the Facebook activity, the lower they rated on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the higher in the Narcissism Personality Inventory. Men tended to be more self-promotional in About Me and Notes, she said. Women leaned toward using their Main Photo to boast.
Are Scanners Worth the Risk? New York Times
The next time you go through security at the airport, you might be told to empty your pockets, put your hands over your head and stand still while an X-ray machine looks for anything hidden under your clothing. If this body scanning option sounds unappealing, you have another choice: an ‘enhanced pat down’ conducted by a Transportation Security Administration employee, which some travelers have described as quite intimate.
September, 2010
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September 9th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Assange told Sweden’s TV4 that he had never blamed the CIA for the “smears”.
Oh we do! Deuce!
September 9th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
“This entire rape investigation has been conducted without my input,” he lamented, pointing out that “no one has asked me any questions regarding the rape case. The police refuse to say if there is a warrant out for me or not.”
Deuce! The Swedish justice has been hijacked by the CIA in total violation of the Swedish law and constitution. Do they really believe that people are going to obey the law in the light of such a flagrant violation?
There is no law folks. Your guns are your law. The bigger your guns the more “legal” power you have.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
“Are Scanners Worth the Risk?”
Ha! That’s it. They are crossing the line this time.
This Xray scanner is dangerous and will kill more people per year than Ben laden crashing airplanes into towers.
It is safer to let this piece of shit of Ben Laden crashing few airplanes into building every year than to scan every passengers
with this machine. These homeland security morons are definitively a public danger.
Hello Spino and basal cell carcinoma! More concerning is hello melanoma!
I urge every one to refuge the scan into this machine. Microwaves are ok but X rays even soft are not.
I am sorry but the guy who would put me under this Xray machine is not born yet.
Sorry!