interesting items in the news

[technomage]

some of these are linux related, a few others are open source and the rest 
are just intersting items that might have an impact on us (a very few are 
simply for amusement).

from the filez of alt/2600.hackerz:

Cafe Owners or Porn Police? (Politics 2:00 a.m. PST)
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50615,00.html?tw=wn20020225
Cybercafe proprietors in Mumbai are angry over a proposal that would
make them responsible for keeping track of websites viewed by
customers. Manu Joseph reports from India.

Can the World Be Copyrighted? (Politics 2:00 a.m. PST)
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50658,00.html?tw=wn20020226
International treaties designed to globalize standards that currently
exist only the U.S. have advocates and opponents staking claims to what
is copyright and copywrong. By Brad King.

Are Crackers Behind AOL Spree? (Business 2:00 a.m. PST)
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,50697,00.html?tw=wn20020227
Thousands of AOL users have complained they were sent merchandise they
didn't order, and charged for it. They've filed a class-action suit,
but veteran AOL hackers say the problem may not have been a glitch at
all. By Michelle Delio.

Hack a PC, Get Life in Jail (Politics 8:50 a.m. PST)
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50708,00.html?tw=wn20020227
Look out, online miscreants: A House panel voted unanimously to make
some forms of illegal computer intrusions a crime punishable by life in
Club Fed. Declan McCullagh and Robert Zarate report from Washington.

Digital Security Fomenting a Feud (Politics 2:00 a.m. PST)
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50702,00.html?tw=wn20020227
A proposed bill with heavyweight support from the entertainment
industry garners distrust from technology factions; it would make
creating, selling or distributing digital systems without embedded copy
protection a crime. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington.

'Marked' Mom Births Clean Baby (Med-Tech Center Tuesday)
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,50693,00.html?tw=wn20020227
A woman with a gene that causes early-onset Alzheimer's has her eggs
screened in a lab, then gives birth to a baby free of the defect.

Morpheus' File-Trading Fiasco (Politics 2:00 a.m. PST)
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50725,00.html?tw=wn20020228
How come a software upgrade shuttered the system if Morpheus, part of
a popular file-trading network, was supposed to be decentralized?  By
Brad King.

Designer Baby or Problem Child? (Med-Tech Center 2:00 a.m. PST)
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,50726,00.html?tw=wn20020228
Advances in genetic testing can lead to a better chance for a healthy
child. But bioethicists worry that picking and choosing biological
traits can be a slippery slope. By Kristen Philipkoski.

What Would Jesus Surf? (Culture 2:00 a.m. PST)
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,50757,00.html?tw=wn20020301
The Catholic church gives its blessings to the Internet, saying it's a
'marvelous technological tool.' But it also says that the 'ideology of
radical libertarianism is both mistaken and harmful.' By Farhad Manjoo.

More Anime on the Way (Hollywood Tech 2:00 a.m. PST)
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,50518,00.html?tw=wn20020302
Anime, with its weird cartoons and stop-action storyboards, not to
mention characters with bug-eyes, has caught Hollywood's fancy. By Brad
King.

Another Cannabis Drug Sans Buzz (Culture 2:00 a.m. PST)
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,50762,00.html?tw=wn20020302
Israeli researchers develop a technique to provide the medicinal
benefits of cannabis without the psychotropic 'side' effects. Tania
Hershman reports from Jerusalem.
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Candidate: Spam in Every Pot (Politics Friday)
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50761,00.html?tw=wn20020302
A California gubernatorial candidate is sending out unsolicited e-mail
to gain support, but the tactic seems to be backfiring. By Michelle
Delio.

House Cool to Copy Protection (Politics 2:00 a.m. PST)
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50784,00.html?tw=wn20020304
Key legislators in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of
Representatives aren't keen on embed
-- 
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or 
numbered!
My life is my own - No. 6