Yearly Archives: 2003

Europrotections

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On Tuesday I complained about pending Eurostrictions. Today I’d like to give the EU some credit. Not a lot, but some. In the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights are a couple of articles that might make our Total Terrorist Information Act folks cringe

Article 7
Respect for private and family life

Everyone has the right to respect for his or her private and family life, home and communications.

Article 8
Protection of personal data

1. Everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning him or her.

2. Such data must be processed fairly for specified purposes and on the basis of the consent of the person concerned or some other legitimate basis laid down by law. Everyone has the right of access to data which has been collected concerning him or her, and the right to have it rectified.

3.Compliance with these rules shall be subject to control by an independent authority.

This looks pretty good. I give the EU credit for this.

How fragile such protections are, though, when modified with words like “or some other legitimate basis laid down by law.” This phrase contradicts the idea that Article 8.1 is a fundamental right and allows for its abrogration.

Thus we find Statewatch saying that the EU folks, maybe the above referenced independent authority, are “highly critical’ of arrangements being made to give private information to the US. A reading of the report itself suggests they have already buckled under and that it is a matter of how much data for how long not a flat out no.

Yea, they are critical but they are not adamant and when it comes to fundamental rights you must be adament.
Via Bespacific

Still Down the Hatch

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The new headline at PC World reads:

Senator Softens Threat Against Pirates
Destroying PCs for copyright violation may be drastic, Hatch concedes.

What the Senator says is this:

“I made my comments at yesterday’s hearing because I think that industry is not doing enough to help us find effective ways to stop people from using computers to steal copyrighted, personal or sensitive materials,” he says in the statement.
“I do not favor extreme remedies–unless no moderate remedies can be found. I asked the interested industries to help us find those moderate remedies.”

What he said yesterday:

“If we can find some way to do this without destroying their machines, we’d be interested in hearing about that,” Hatch said. “If that’s the only way, then I’m all for destroying their machines.”

So some editor at PC World thinks saying the same thing using different words and structure softens the threat?

I still say let’s shove this guy down the hatch.

Down the Hatch

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Amish Tech Support asks the million dollar question:

Also will the RIAA and the Entertainment Lobby be calling for Senator Hatch to step down from his post on Judiciary, or will they just settle for getting their money back?

Hatch probably hadn’t a clue that he’d be hoist with his owne petar‘ when he said:

“There’s no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws,”

as he, in essence, advocated handing over police and judicial powers to the RIAA/Entertainment industry.

If those folks don’t ask him to step down, if he does not do it on his own, the rest of us should give him a shove.

What’s Your Temperature?

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Judging from the time stamps on a series of posts beginning at 1:36 AM The Apostropher didn’t get much sleep last night. This clearly was partially due to a prodigious amount of blogging and this post, entitled 2:06 AM tells the rest of the story:

In acknowledgement of the time of this entry, I’ll mention this story. Japanese researchers at Akita University School of Medicine published a study indicating that viewing computer monitors at night, particularly bright ones, produces physiological changes that could disrupt the sleep cycle.

Read it all here for the chuckle and something to think about the next time you are up late at night polishing that next post.

The Economy is Going Again!

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As reported* by Mr. Bush at last nights party the economy is better:

We got the economy going again because we worked with the US Congress to pass historic tax relief not once but twice

I’m sure that all those unemployed folks feel a lot better.

I wonder if as many people believe this already as believe that WMD’s have been found in Iraq?

A third of the American public believes U.S. forces found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, according to a recent poll. And 22 percent said Iraq actually used chemical or biological weapons.

Does he really believe his own words?

*In NPR News this morning. Audio is labeled Bush Launches Re-Election Fundraising Campaign