Tag: law

Ask, don’t punish

We are all very familiar with how authorities like to punish citizens for any kind of wrong-doing.  Fines, tow trucks, arrests, warnings, police reports – you name it.  Different means of punishment are so widely used that it’s almost a norm.  Like there is no other way.  But here is an excellent example from the city of Copenhagen in Denmark.

If you park your bicycle illegally, the City will move it over to the bike racks. Instead of finger-wagging, they will then oil your chain, pump your tires and leave a little note on your bicycle asking to kindly use the bike racks in the future.

Brilliant!  And the best part is that the idea worked.

When the project started in April they were moving around 150 bicycles a day. Today that number has dropped to between 30 and 50.

Big picture of same-sex marriage

The latest post in Big Picture blog covers the subject of the same-sex marriage.  Being a huge fan of the blog, I feel responsible to share these pictures too.  The pictures themselves are beautiful, irrelevant of what you think about the subject.  That’s just great photography.

Now on to the subject.  There are a few things that I want to make clear, and even if I said them before, I want to emphasize them once again.

  • I am not against gay marriage. If that’s your thing – knock yourself out.
  • I am against calling it marriage. Maybe it’s just me, but the word “marriage” has a very precise meaning.  The same way I don’t call people who live together and have children together married, unless they went through a specific process, I don’t want to call same-sex unions “marriages”.  Just find another word for it.  That’s all I’m asking, and I don’t think that’s too much.  You can enjoy all the same rights married people do.  Just don’t call it “marriage”. Because it’s not.
  • I consider the argument “Why do you care if it does not involve you?” stupid. Not dumb or silly, but stupid.  Gay marriage is not about me or you.  It is about the society in which we live.  And that does involve both me and you.  Asking why I care is similar to asking why I care about the Gulf oil spill or a tsunami in Asia.  Those things do not involve me, and do not directly affect my daily life.  But they have big impact on the society in which we live.  And that’s why I care.  Even if I can’t do much about it.

I think that’s all I wanted to say today.  But feel free to continue the discussion in the comments.

EFF big win over DMCA

Most of the times, when I donate money, I don’t really expect anything back.  I don’t see them as an investment to the future of the person or organization, but rather a gratitude and appreciation for the past.  It was also how I saw my support of Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).  Today I received a press release from EFF, which made me proud to be a member and also a little extra happy about the money I donated over the last few years.  It’s a big win over Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which is one law that I never liked too much.  Here is a quote to get you started:

San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) won three critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) anticircumvention provisions today, carving out new legal protections for consumers who modify their cell phones and artists who remix videos — people who, until now, could have been sued for their non-infringing or fair use activities.

“By granting all of EFF’s applications, the Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress have taken three important steps today to mitigate some of the harms caused by the DMCA,” said Jennifer Granick, EFF’s Civil Liberties Director. “We are thrilled to have helped free jailbreakers, unlockers and vidders from this law’s overbroad reach.”

Continue reading the full press release and supporting documents.

As a side note, once again I am amazed at how much influence some American law has on my life, which happens to be far away from the United States territory.  Being a daily user of many services provided by Americans and from the United States soil, I am impacted by rules and limitations faced by those people who provide those services.

The other side of fighting child pornography

Here is a very dramatic, yet fascinating story of how things can go wrong in what seems to be a much required direction – child protection.

To be accused unjustly of any crime is a terrible thing. But to be accused of using your own children for pornographic purposes or sexual exploitation bears a special taint because no matter how highly people think of you, they don’t know you in your most intimate moments, which forever leaves you open to suspicion.

It is surprising how something as trivial as campfire pictures can be so misleading and abused to such a scale.

Biometric passports coming to Cyprus

Cyprus Mail reports that biometric passports will be implemented in Cyprus later this year:

Parliament also gave the green light to the introduction and implementation of biometric passports as of this autumn.

The new passport will bear the owner’s fingerprints, installed by microchip, eliminating the risk of theft and identity fraud. All passports must be replaced once the system starts operating in October.

The new law contains a clause ensuring that fingerprints will not be used for any other purpose and that this data shall be stored for a period of just 48 hours and then deleted.

Diplomats will be the first to obtain their biometric passports, in early September, followed by the rest of the population in mid-October.

The new passports will cost €70.