FC: Geek humor: American vs. British legal systems

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.ntk.net/

         The American legal system is, of course, just the British
         kernel with a shorter uptime and a few clumsy security
         patches slapped in. So whenever a rogue US attempts to
         buffer-overflow some civil liberties, rest assured our
         Parliament probably dumped core on it a *long* time ago.
         This week, we thought we'd report on how to rip the new
         wave of "copy-protected" CDs. Unfortunately, the CAMPAIGN
         FOR DIGITAL RIGHTS guys reminded us that we lost that
         right back in *1988*, when Section 296 of the Copyright,
         Design, and Patents Act prophetically forbade publishing
         "information intended to enable or assist persons to
         circumvent that form of copy-protection". So much for
         fussing over the DMCA, then. Worse, just as we were planning
         to smugly report those US plans to make hacking a terrorist
         offence, we remembered: it already *is* a terrorist offence
         here, thanks to the new Prevention of Terrorism Act. And
         check it out - the Americans are putting a time-limit on
         *their* terrorist legislation, just like we did in the '70s!
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1988/Ukpga_19880048_en_21.htm#mdiv296
                    - we'd decode the legalise but, well, you know...
          http://www.blagged.freeserve.co.uk/ta2000/200600.htm
                         - celebrating 29 years of temporary measures
          http://uk.eurorights.org/
                              - protest tomorrow, while you still 
can

         Meanwhile, it was the WASHINGTON POST who finally unveiled
         terrorists for the monsters they really are: fiendish
         forgers and warez doods. Roslyn Mazer unveiled a damning
         dossier that conclusively showed "trademark pirates in
         Pakistan producing T-shirts with counterfeit Nike logos
         and glorifying bin Laden" and that "eight of 10 countries
         identified by a trade group as having the highest business
         software piracy rates in the world - Pakistan, China,
         Indonesia, Ukraine, Russia, Lebanon, Qatar and Bahrain -
         have links to al-Qaeda". Circumstantial? Perhaps? Necessary
         to declare war on all IP theft? Of course. Although we still
         don't get it - who'd pay for pirated stuff anyway? And does
         bin Laden get to sue for using his image without permission
         [...]




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