| |
|
Thursday, September 7, 2006
|
|
DMCA 'Terror' Case Dismissed.
A federal magistrate today dismissed with prejudice a disgraceful DMCA prosecution against three young Texas men who bought a lot of cell phones while looking Arab.
Adham Othman, 21, his brother Louai Othman, 23, and their cousin Maruan Muhareb, 18, were cleared of money laundering and conspiracy charges after a day-long preliminary hearing.
The three were rousted by local law enforcement in Michigan last month after they were spotted driving from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart buying as many low-cost pre-paid cell phones as they could get their hands on.
Tuscola County authorities arrested them as suspected terrorists and made a lot of noise. Then when the case didn't pan out the feds stepped in with charges that the men conspired to violate the DMCA.
After hearing the evidence today, Michigan U.S. District Court Magistrate Charles Binder threw out the case.
"I think (law enforcement) dug themselves a hole and they tried to dig themselves out," defense attorney Nabih Ayad told me. "The government had no evidence whatsoever that the phones and been modified or tampered with [sigma] And they didn't show that there was a third party they were conspiring with."
 [27B Stroke 6]
10:49:55 PM 
|
|
National Call-In To Stop the Surveillance Bills! Congress returns from recess this week, and EFF is joining a coalition of organizations for a two week national call-in to stop the dangerous NSA spying bills. Visit our Action Center to call your members of Congress now, and spread the word to friends and family about these bills as well. Let's keep those phones ringing in the Congressional halls for two weeks straight!
Senator Arlen Specter is still rushing to pass his surveillance bill, which would help the government and the NSA continue to break the law by spying on ordinary Americans. He's planning a committee vote this Thursday, and a floor vote as early as next week. Senator Mike DeWine has also proposed a bill that would attempt to retroactively legalize the NSA dragnet surveillance.
That's bad enough, but now there's another dangerous bill afoot -- Representative Heather Wilson's H.R. 5825. The House will hold a hearing tomorrow on this proposal and a vote may shortly follow.
Take action now to stop the surveillance bills.
Full list of call-in coalition groups after the jump: [EFF: Deep Links]
10:31:33 PM
|
|
36 Organizations Oppose New Rights for Broadcasters. For immediate release
Sept. 5, 2006
36 Organizations Oppose New Rights for Broadcasters
Background: The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is considering a new treaty that would grant broadcasters a new 50-year property right over the content of broadcasts, regardless of whether the broadcasters own the content they are transmitting.
Thirty-six companies, public-interest groups and non-profit associations today declared their opposition to the proposed World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaty that would extend new property rights to broadcasters. Signers ranged from AT&T, Verizon Communications, Dell, Intel and HP to Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Consumer Project on Technology.
The statement, released at a roundtable discussion of the proposed treaty held today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), set out the basic objections on which all of the signers agreed. Individual organizations also had other areas of concern. read more [Public Knowledge - Press Releases]
10:29:14 PM
|
|
|
© Copyright 2006 Paul Hardwick.
Last update: 10/1/06; 4:19:47 AM.
|
|
|
