




International BLOG
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OAKLAND, Northern California - Shock and awe. Police in full riot gear with tear gas and three helicopters overhead cleared anti-Wall Street Occupy Oakland protesters this morning (Oct. 25) from the plaza in front of Oakland's City Hall where they have been camped out for about two weeks. TV news footage shows numerous people in plastic handcuffs being led away from the site by police around after the 5:00 am raid. The protesters did not appear to be resisting, although an officer did fire a [potentially deadly] non-lethal projectile from a shotgun at a protester who lobbed a bottle, authorities told the San Francisco Chronicle. More
This morning at 5:00 am over 500 police in riot gear from cities all over central California brutally attacked the Occupy Oakland encampment at the intersection of 14th & Broadway. Riot police attacked the peaceful protest with flash grenades, tear gas, and [deadly canon style] rubber bullets after moving in with armored vehicles. Apparently, the media was not allowed in to document this repression, and one was warned or allowed to leave. Police established barricades as far apart as 11th and 17th. Over 70 people were arrested, and the camping gear was destroyed and/or stolen by riot police. Contact the mayor and tell her what you think of her actions.
The United State Supreme Court has refused an appeal that would have made downloading music an infringement of Federal copyright law. Take that, Metallica (AFP/Andre Durao).
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, or ASCAP, had been attempting to appeal to the Supreme Court an earlier ruling by an appeals court in New York that said a downloaded song constituted a public performance of the song under federal copyright law.
Attorneys for ASCAP were fighting to reverse that decision in hopes that they’d be able to collect additional royalties off of songs downloaded from the Web.
ASCAP had insisted that digital downloads were on par with public performances, which would thus allow copyright owners to receive compensation for each download. A federal judge and an appeals court had rejected that argument, however, and now the Supreme Court is also refusing to hear it.
According to the appeals court, “Music is neither recited, rendered, nor played when a recording (electronic or otherwise) is simply delivered to a potential listener.”
US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli agreed with the appeals ruling and that just because a song was transferred over the Internet did not mean that it was being performed, reports Reuters. More
"Actually, Butthead, I'm not into Metallica anymore. They suck ever since that Napster thing!" "Huh huh huh, you said 'suck,' Beavis." "Oh yeah, huh huh huh, huh huh huh, huh huh huh."
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