Sunday, March 06, 2011

Another case of School Over-reach? The Comments argue both sides, but the lawsuit will likely be the deciding factor... Should the Teachers sue?

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/03/06/0447203/Students-Suspended-Expelled-Over-Facebook-Posts?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Students Suspended, Expelled Over Facebook Posts

"Two students have been suspended, and one student has been expelled, over negative Facebook postings they made about a teacher. The individuals are in seventh grade at Chapel Hill Middle School, meaning they are either 12 or 13 years old, according. The children are accused of violating a portion of the school code that is a "level one" offense, the worst possible: 'Falsifying, misrepresenting, omitting, or erroneously reporting' allegations of inappropriate behavior by a school employee toward a student."

[From the article:

At least two of the students’ families plan to hire attorneys. Douglas County School officials said the three students violated the disciplinary code but that they could not comment because the parents plan to fight the disciplinary charges in a school tribunal on March 10, 2011. The students could face even harsher penalties, including expulsion and banishment to a school for children with behavior problems.



Apparently this happens a lot in Weare... But police dashboard cameras can see the future and “malfunction” whenever they might be subpoenaed.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/03/05/1954216/Leave-a-Message-Go-To-Jail?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Leave a Message, Go To Jail

"A man in Weare, New Hampshire was charged with felony wiretapping for recording the police during a traffic stop — based on a cell phone call he made as an officer approached his vehicle. From the article: Police considered it wiretapping because the call was being recorded by a voice mail service without the officer's consent."



It makes perfect sense, strategically. People who believe “government knows best” will try to expand government programs to cover everything – and to increase the size of their organization. They are quite willing to back off if challenged, because they have countless other programs that don't generate the same reaction.

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=21381

Homeland Security bows to Real ID outcry

March 5, 2011 by Dissent

Declan McCullagh reports:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security today postponed the effective date of the Real ID Act until January 15, 2013, a move that avoided causing tremendous disruptions to air travel.

The reason that Homeland Security granted the delay is that, apart from some Republican stalwarts in Congress, this law creating a digital nationalized ID is hardly popular, with critics calling it a national ID card.

Read more on CBS.



Does this suggest that our Attention Span is getting shorter? Perhaps we can only deal with 140 characters of News at a time? Somehow, I doubt it...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/026675.html

March 05, 2011

AP: Public media puts millions into investigative work

Public media puts millions into investigative work: "PR, PBS and local public broadcast stations around the country are hiring more journalists and pumping millions of dollars into investigative news to make up for what they see as a lack of deep-digging coverage by their for-profit counterparts. Public radio and TV stations have seen the need for reporting that holds government and business accountable increase as newspapers and TV networks cut their staffs and cable television stations have filled their schedules with more opinion journalism."


(Related) Apparently there is a market for “in depth” apps. Why wouldn't that translate to other genres including News?

http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/05/history-of-jazz-ipad/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

955 Dreams Plays The iPad Like Jazz

The shallow experience for a user has to be very interesting. The deep experiences have to be profound.” That statement, which is profound itself, is how 955 Dreams co-founder Kiran Bellubbi approaches app creation. And so far, that approach is working — very well. The companies hit app, The History of Jazz, has been earning rave reviews and selling like crazy.

And it’s not a $0.99 app selling like crazy — The History of Jazz is priced at $9.99. In the age of cheap apps, that may seem like a lot. But the model is working for 955 Dreams because they feel they’ve hit on a deeper experience that the iPad can offer.

The History of Jazz is an iPad app that provides a visual and interactive walk through the musical genre. Filled with pictures, videos, and sound clips, the app delivers much more than a traditional book on the subject matter could.



Why people love us, Chapter 2: “No one wants to buy our songs, but if we accuse someone of stealing them we can force everyone to pay us!”

Still, lots of questions: What about the performers? If I download it under license, can I resell it? Will there be a market for my “Download Everything” app? Will the ISP's have to restrict bandwidth?

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/03/05/2155233/Canadian-Songwriters-Propose-10mo-Internet-Fee?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Canadian Songwriters Propose $10/mo Internet Fee

"Canadian songwriters are proposing a $10 fee to be added to monthly ISP bills, giving users a license to download music using peer-to-peer file sharing technologies for free, without fear of reprisal. The money collected would be distributed to members of a Canadian association of songwriters (SOCAN). The story doesn't make clear whether the license would apply only to Canadian music, or how musicians in other nations would be compensated otherwise."

[From the article:

The group failed in a 2007 bid for a Canadian Copyright Act amendment that would have forced service providers to pay a tax in exchange for music downloading and file-sharing by customers. This time, however, it believes it can bypass Parliament.

"All of the rights that we need are actually already in Canada's copyright laws," said Schwartz.



“If they feel guilty, they will pay?” the voice from the movie “Field of Scams”

http://torrentfreak.com/leaked-docs-show-results-of-fake-riaampaa-bittorrent-scam-110305/

Leaked Docs Show Results of Fake ‘RIAA/MPAA’ BitTorrent Scam

In late March or very early April 2010, a fairly unusual and in parts quite ingenious piece of malware started circulating. After a Windows user was infected with a file – iqmanager.exe in a sub-directory of /documents and settings – the badware went to work, scanning the host machine for evidence of BitTorrent use.

Once the malware had found .torrent files, it used their filenames to generate a fake ‘copyright infringement’ report warning the user that their ‘offenses’ could result in 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Of course, in the true spirit of all pay-up-or-else schemes, they were also given the option to make the whole thing go away by paying a ‘fine’ of around $400, as can be seen from the screenshot below


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