A LANDMARK ruling down under means that if people link to a page with copyrighted material they could be sued for piracy.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, an Aussie Federal Court upheld a ruling against Stephen Cooper, who ran a site called pp3s4free.net for providing a search engine to enable the illegal downloading of music MP3s.

Also in the dock was his ISP, E-Talk, which had made no efforts to take the site down after it was requested to do so. The court decided that it was making money off the site by running advertisements.

Sabiene Heindl, general manager of Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) said the decision meant that anyone who stuck a link on MySpace or on their bogs could now expect a knock on the door from its briefs. (more…)

I’ll give you a hint - it won’t be at The Ritz.

[T]he administration is preparing plans to bolster the nation’s permanent active-duty military with as many as 70,000 additional troops.

But, WHERE will they come from???

The government doesn’t have very many options.

Support for the war, especially in Iraq, is at an all time low, they can’t reinstitute the draft, or they might have a domestic revolution on their hands, and there are only so many desperate young men who are willing to risk their lives for a few bucks and a college education.

But, thanks to persistent inflation, relentless job cuts, and other benefits and perks of globalization, there ARE increasing numbers of desperate young single mothers, who will do anything to support their children. (more…)

In a disciplinary complaint, the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) alleges that Morgan Stanley used a “9/11 smokescreen” to hide e-mails sought by angry claimants in numerous arbitration proceedings from October 2001 through March 2005.

The securities industry’s self-regulating arm accuses Morgan Stanley of “falsely claiming that millions of emails it possessed had been lost in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, where its email servers were housed.”

“In fact, according to the complaint, Morgan Stanley possessed millions of pre-September 11 emails that had been restored to its system shortly after September 11 using back-up tapes,” stated an NASD press release obtained by RAW STORY. “Many other emails were maintained on individual users’ computers and were therefore never affected by the attacks, yet Morgan Stanley often failed to search those computers when responding to requests.” (more…)

FARMINGTON HILLS — The attorney for a Detroit police sergeant who was Tasered three times by Farmington Hills police says his client did not try to flee police after a traffic violation.

Sgt. David Marshall is charged with running a red light at 10 Mile and Inkster about 1:05 a.m. Dec. 13 after getting off work from the Detroit Police Department. The 12-year veteran, who was in uniform at the time of the incident, is also charged with interfering with police authority.

Attorney Arnold Reed also said Marshall was unnecessarily stripped down to his underclothes at the police station after surrendering his police radio and ammunition.

“There is no reason my client had to go through what he did,” Reed said. (more…)

“We had a hunch that today would be a good day for a lockdown,” explained Tim Hamilton, CHS principal. “We like to do these every now and then to ensure that the students know we remember them and are looking out for their safety.”

Hamilton said the high school administration worked with the Coolidge Police Department and Pinal County Juvenile Probation Department to set up the lockdown. At 12:45 p.m. on Dec. 14, four officers from those departments joined Hamilton and CHS deans Vance Danzy and Craig Cutshaw to comb the school for illegal materials. Hamilton said the seven members of the search party divided into three teams to expedite the process. It took the three teams about an hour and a half to scour the entire school site.

“I’m pleased to announce that we checked every student and every classroom, and no illegal drugs were found,” he said. The search did turn up some Tylenol and Aleve, Hamilton said; while not illegal, even painkillers such as those must be approved by the school nurse. (more…)

President Bush has dropped to new lows on his handling of Iraq as well as the overall war on terror, according to survey data presented today on CNN.

“Only 28 percent of Americans say they approve of the way President Bush is handling Iraq,” reports CNN’s senior political analyst Bill Schneider. “Disapproval has reached 70 percent.”

Source: Raw Story

Film avoids assassination conspiracy questions but Yoko Ono’s cryptic quote lets suspicions linger

The U.S. vs John Lennon is an ultimately uplifting story of how one man put his hard earned fame, fortune and adulation on the line, neutralized the nagging voice of ego and gave up everything including eventually his life to affect change and take on the behemoth of the criminal Nixon administration.

The newly released documentary film charts Lennon’s progression from outspoken Beatle to iconic rallying figurehead for the Vietnam peace movement of the late sixties and early seventies. The U.S. government’s attempt to deport Lennon and derail the political juggernaut that at one point threatened to organize a road show of protests leading up to the 1972 Republican Convention is presented with an implicit knowing wink to contemporary events. (more…)

Francis A Boyle says 9/11 was allowed to happen, war on terror is facilitating the downfall of The Republic, concentration camps are in place and US citizens are the targets

Alex Jones was joined on air this week by a leading American professor, practitioner of and expert on international law to discuss his detailed knowledge of the cover up of the 2001 anthrax attacks, which he is adamant were perpetrated by criminal elements of the US government in an attempt to foment a police state by killing off opposition to hardline post 9/11 legislation.

Dr Franics A. Boyle literally helped write the law with regards to terrorism, as he was responsible for drafting the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 that was passed unanimously by both Houses of Congress and signed into law by President Bush Snr. (more…)

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon wants the White House to seek an additional $99.7 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to information provided to The Associated Press.

The military’s request, if embraced by President Bush and approved by Congress, would boost this year’s budget for those wars to about $170 billion.

Military planners assembled the proposal at a time when Bush is developing new strategies for Iraq, such as sending thousands of more U.S. troops there, although it was put together before the president said the troop surge was under consideration.

Overall, the war in Iraq has cost about $350 billion. Combined with the conflict in Afghanistan and operations against terrorism elsewhere, the cost has topped $500 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. (more…)

UNITED NATIONS — Iran demanded Tuesday that the U.N. Security Council condemn what it said was Israel’s clandestine development of nuclear weapons and “compel” it to place all its nuclear facilities under U.N. inspection.

If Israel refuses to comply, Iran said the council must take “resolute action” under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter which authorizes a range of measures from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military action.

Iran insists its own nuclear program is a purely peaceful effort to develop energy, but the United States and many European nations believe Tehran’s real aim in enriching uranium is to produce nuclear weapons. The Security Council is currently debating a resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend its enrichment program. (more…)