The New York Times has an article about Julian Green, 45, of the UK who was recently acquitted on a charge of child pornography by using a virus as a defense. Apparently, the man's computer started "acting up" due to a virus and became unstable. However, not only was it …

Mike Hawash (of FreeMikeHawash fame), the former Intel employee held in secret for five weeks as a "material witness" before he was charged, has plead guilty and has agreed to testify against his alleged fellow conspirators in a plot to go to Afghanistan in 2001 to help the Taliban, according …

Because no bad idea (or bad name) remains unused for long, the state of Florida has been working to create an information network that gathers information about its residents to aid in "anti-terrorism" and law enforcement. According to this article in the Washington Post, Florida is now working to go …

The US may have decided that the world's largest software company is in the clear, but the EU has a different take, according to this article from BBC News. Their focus, quite happily for me, is Windows Media Player (that bastion of proprietary digital rights management, with which Microsoft is …

CNN is reporting that a California 20-year-old has been sentenced to a year in jail and fined $2,000 for posting information on building bombs to his web site linked with protests on foreign trade. This is a sticky little case. The man entered into a plea agreement which means …

According to an article from CNet this morning that Minnesota Republican, Norm Coleman has sent a letter to the RIAA asking for specifics about their subpoena operation. The lawmaker has said that he is concerned that the industry is using a "shotgun" approach that could harm innocent people. For their …

In a story that just continues to get larger and stranger, yet another Baby Bell (this time Pac Bell) is standing up for your rights to privacy. On the heals of Verizon standing firm until an appeals loss earlier this year, PacBell has filed suit against the RIAA claiming that …

The New York Times is reporting that the ACLU, along with a set of six Muslim groups, is taking the US to court over the USA Patriot Act. The groups contend that the Act violates the privacy, free speech, and due process rights guaranteed by the constitution.

A good article from the Washington Post about the current status of José Padilla, the US Citizen being held incommunicado in a South Carolina military base because he was declared an enemy combatant last year. By way of refresher, Mr. Padilla was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare airport after Defence Department …

Well, hold on to your hats, folks. According to an article from CNet, Mitch Bainwol, former chief of staff to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, will replace Hillary Rosen as the head of the RIAA (one of our favorite organizations. With strong political ties and comments such as …

I read with growing concern an article from CNet about a proposal by the FBI to create a system that would facilitate eavesdropping on telephone conversations made over VoIP networks. The request seems innocuous enough, they already have the right to tap your phone, the internet is being used to …

An article from CNet provides some evidence that people in the United States are cooling to the idea of having their privacy invaded and warming up to the idea of overturning (or at least limiting) some of the additional powers granted the government after 9/11. The article cites a …

Have you ever wondered if you or your family is in the cross-hairs of the RIAA? Well, this article from BBC News describes how you can find out using a new database from the EFF. If you are on one or more of the file sharing services, you can check …

While commenting in Computer Reseller News on the SCO v. IBM lawsuit, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates asserted that he believes there is Microsoft intellectual property inside of not only Linux, but other open source programs as well, and he may be right. The issue at hand here isn't copyrighted code …

It's not aimed at stopping you from traveling, or keeping you from getting an abortion, but the legal tactics being employed by the RIAA (as described in an article from the Associated Press) certainly seem to qualify as using fear to coerce behavioral change, thanks to our duly elected representatives …

An article from BBC News discussing a new paedophile (sic) victim database provides some details into the new database that will contain the faces of children who have shown up in pornographic images on the internet. All told, the database (called ChildBase, but apparently not associated with any of the …

Wired has an article about the response of a number of universities to subpoenas from the RIAA about alleged illegal file sharing. There are a wide variety of good issues that the universities are trying to bring to the table before this situation gets even more out of hand than …

In what is likely to be the stupidest public relations mistake in RFID history so far, British supermarket chain Tesco has apparently been testing RFID tags with Gillette by photographing customers when the pick up the chipped merchandise from the shelves and also as they leave the store. By comparing …

CNet is reporting about a new house bill, just passed by the House, with a component by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Chris Cox (R-CA), that is designed to fund finding ways to reduce or circumvent internet censorship worldwide. The funding is $16 million over the next two years, down from …

Wired has a good article about a new bill proposed in Congress that would "clarify" that uploading a single copyrighted file to a P2P network would make you eligible for a 5 year prison term and $250,000 fine. The proposed bill (sponsored by two Dem's, John Conyers, Jr. (MI …