Tag: law

EFF wins protection for time zone database

Every time I proudly wear my EFF member t-shirt, people ask me what is EFF.  And every time I explain and point them to EFF.org for more information.  It’s a shame that many of those who even live and breath online don’t know what EFF is and what those guys do.  Have a look at their most recent victory:

In a statement, Astrolabe said, “Astrolabe’s lawsuit against Mr. Olson and Mr. Eggert was based on a flawed understanding of the law. We now recognize that historical facts are no one’s property and, accordingly, are withdrawing our Complaint. We deeply regret the disruption that our lawsuit caused for the volunteers who maintain the TZ database, and for Internet users.”

“It’s a fundamental principle of copyright law that facts are not copyrightable, and Astrolabe should have known that,” said EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry. “While the lawsuit should never have been filed, we’re pleased that the legal threat to an important resource has been eliminated.

You can help them do what they do, by joining and donating.

American freedom and democracy

Russia Today reports:

The terrifying legislation that allows for Americans to be arrested, detained indefinitely, tortured and interrogated — without charge or trial — passed through the Senate on Thursday with an overwhelming support from 93 percent of lawmakers.

Only seven members of the US Senate voted against the National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday, despite urging from the ACLU and concerned citizens across the country that the affects of the legislation would be detrimental to the civil rights and liberties of everyone in America. Under the bill, Americans can be held by the US military for terrorism-related charges and detained without trial indefinitely.

Additionally, another amendment within the text of the legislation reapproved waterboarding and other “advanced interrogation techniques” that are currently outlawed.

That’s exactly the same freedom and democracy that the US is violently spreading to the rest of the world… This is a rather predictable milestone in The War on Terror.  Terrorists are still winning.

Sex worker excuses

Cyprus Mail reports:

A SEX WORKER in Nicosia’s old town yesterday spoke out after a heated altercation with residents and police outside her place of work on Tuesday night. “I’ve been in the business on this street for six years, and now all of a sudden the neighbours remember to get annoyed” the 49-year-old told the Cyprus Mail. 

I’ve heard this excuse so many times and even used it myself a few times. But if you think about it for a second, you’d realize that it’s plain silly. If something wrong is going on and it annoys you and you don’t do anything about it for a long period of time, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do anything about it forever. There is a breaking point for everything.

“I do not bother anyone and if they do not like my line of work, then they should help me get out of it, not persecute me.”

Obviously, you do bother someone. And even though they probably should help you to get out of this line of work, they don’t have to. After all each one of them makes an effort on his own not to get into it. And each one of them succeeds, so why shouldn’t you?

Not that I have anything against this line work.

Residents complained that clients of the sex worker would often wander on the street in their underwear or completely naked, while some drunken clients would even urinate outside their doors.
“Several cars pass by every night, blowing their horns and shouting at the sex worker” said another neighbour.

There we go against “I do not bother anyone”. Maybe not you, but your clients do.

Mavrou said that the authorities had encountered serious difficulties in proving the pimping charges due to the vagueness of the current legislation on prostitution.
According to police, the legislation is unclear as to whether brothels can operate in residential areas or anywhere else, while the circumstances by which a person engages in paid sex are also vague.

That, for some reason, is my favorite bit of the article, together with this:

Nicosia’s “red light district” has been predominantly confined to three streets in the old town since the 1950s on Soutsou, Pentadaktylou and Theseos streets. The woman in question was working out of a house on Theseos Street.

It’s so nice of them to specify exactly where the “red light district” is for those of us who don’t know Nicosia highlights that well.

On Cyprus’ marriage laws

Being happily married now, civil marriages and other forms of living together aren’t high on my interest list, but I still found this Cyprus Mail article interesting.

Cyprus law does not provide for any other form of recognised cohabitation beyond marriage.

The matter came to the fore after authorities denied a 93-year-old woman a widow’s pension because she had never married her partner of 67 years who was also the father of her eight children. The woman had applied for a widow’s pension after her spouse – who had been making his social insurance contributions as long as he was alive – died in February last year.

The couple had been living together since 1943 and had eight children. They were not married because they were relatives by marriage – her brother married his sister – and were banned from doing so at the time.

This makes me think of the laws in historic perspective. Each and every law currently in existence has a history. Some time ago, someone somewhere had a need for a law being introduced or changed. There was a human being, a life, and likely more than one that would be affected by the law. How often do we really look back at and consider that?