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Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 01:14:29 -0400 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Declan McCullagh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: FC: Geek humor: American vs. British legal systems http://www.ntk.net/ The American legal system is, of course, just the British kernel with a shorter uptime and a few clumsy security patches slapped in. So whenever a rogue US attempts to buffer-overflow some civil liberties, rest assured our Parliament probably dumped core on it a *long* time ago. This week, we thought we'd report on how to rip the new wave of "copy-protected" CDs. Unfortunately, the CAMPAIGN FOR DIGITAL RIGHTS guys reminded us that we lost that right back in *1988*, when Section 296 of the Copyright, Design, and Patents Act prophetically forbade publishing "information intended to enable or assist persons to circumvent that form of copy-protection". So much for fussing over the DMCA, then. Worse, just as we were planning to smugly report those US plans to make hacking a terrorist offence, we remembered: it already *is* a terrorist offence here, thanks to the new Prevention of Terrorism Act. And check it out - the Americans are putting a time-limit on *their* terrorist legislation, just like we did in the '70s! http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1988/Ukpga_19880048_en_21.htm#mdiv296 - we'd decode the legalise but, well, you know... http://www.blagged.freeserve.co.uk/ta2000/200600.htm - celebrating 29 years of temporary measures http://uk.eurorights.org/ - protest tomorrow, while you still can Meanwhile, it was the WASHINGTON POST who finally unveiled terrorists for the monsters they really are: fiendish forgers and warez doods. Roslyn Mazer unveiled a damning dossier that conclusively showed "trademark pirates in Pakistan producing T-shirts with counterfeit Nike logos and glorifying bin Laden" and that "eight of 10 countries identified by a trade group as having the highest business software piracy rates in the world - Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Ukraine, Russia, Lebanon, Qatar and Bahrain - have links to al-Qaeda". Circumstantial? Perhaps? Necessary to declare war on all IP theft? Of course. Although we still don't get it - who'd pay for pirated stuff anyway? And does bin Laden get to sue for using his image without permission [...]
