Archive for July, 2010

Following high level talks with the IFPI and very public declarations on national TV, it recently became clear that Bulgarian authorities would start taking down torrent sites and other file-sharing services. This week the Ministry of Affairs has been busy targeting what it describes as a "criminal network" of file-hosting services which allegedly generated more than $3 million. Full story

For the first time in 25 years, the North Carolina. legislature has passed much-needed reform regulating how local school districts use corporal punishment. Back in 1985, the legislature passed a law allowing schools to decide whether or not to use corporal punishment – as opposed to being required to do so. That led to big improvements, and by the start of the 2009-10 school year, ... Full story

Hi. My name is Ron Hedges. I am a Visiting Research Collaborator with the CITP for 2010-11. Let me tell you a little about myself. I am a graduate of the University of Maryland and Georgetown University Law Center. I spent over twenty years as a United States Magistrate Judge and sat in Newark, NJ. I came to the Center through my work with the use ... Full story

Hi. My name is Ron Hedges. I am a Visiting Research Collaborator with the CITP for 2010-11. Let me tell you a little about myself. I am a graduate of the University of Maryland and Georgetown University Law Center. I spent over twenty years as a United... Full story

July 26, 2010 marked the 20 th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The passage of the ADA, as well as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, has made the U.S. a self-proclaimed global leader in disability rights. The U.S. government is justifiably proud of the progress it has made ... Full story

The Federal Trade Commission recently issued a factsheet in response to questions it received about its revised guidelines requiring disclosure of compensated endorsements. As I've explained in detail in prior posts, the Commission revised the gui... Full story

A letter from the Prime Minister dated 29 May 2010 confirmed the Coalition's commitments on transparency within the central government procurement process. This was followed earlier this month by a new OGC procurement policy note for central government departments -... Full story

I tweeted this yesterday, but thought it merited more comment.  According to an article in the Washington Post: “Betty “B.J.” Ostergren wanted to persuade Virginia to take sensitive personal data off state Web sites. To make her point, she created her own site and then posted public records that included the Social Security numbers of Full story

The U.S. Copyright Group (USCG) has been all over the news in recent months. The lawyer group sued thousands of BitTorrent users who allegedly file-shared motion pictures belonging to their clients, including the Oscar-winning Hurt Locker. However, it turns out that USCG are not copyright purists either, as they have blatantly copied the website of a competitor without permission. Full story

Now that the dust has settled on the long-awaited announcement of new DMCA circumvention exemptions, it’s time for an explanation of what these exemptions will (and will not) do for consumers and creators. We’ll start with a tremendously important exemption that we fear was somewhat overlooked in the excitement about jailbreaking and unlocking: breaking DVD encryption in order to take short clips for ... Full story