public law

A different take on freedom: Turkey's constitutional ban on head scarfs

Turkey is a free country. The people are free to worship as they wish, travel, vote, conduct business, and all the other things that western liberal democracies allow their citizens. Recently, Turkey's government has become more Islamic in nature due to its free elections. However, the courts made an impressive move to stand firm on constitutional law banning religious elements in public spaces. It's a very interesting take on separation of church and state.

The Constitutional Court said in a brief statement that the change, proposed by Mr. Erdogan’s party and passed by Parliament in February, violated principles of secularism set in Turkey’s Constitution.
-- NY Times

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Submitted by jasonn on June 6, 2008 - 7:23am.

Soak the Rich

Historically, federal taxes have averaged about 18.5 percent of the gross domestic product.

That percentage sank to 16.3 percent of the G.D.P. in 2004, largely because of Mr. Bush’s tax cuts, but it edged up to 18.8 percent last year as a result of booming corporate profits and investment income.
- NY Times

That means the rich paid more tax and nobody raised taxes. Is that possible?

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Submitted by jasonn on March 11, 2008 - 9:33am.

Sun on the Litigation War Path Again

"In addition to seeking the removal of their products from the marketplace, we will be going after sizable monetary damages. And I am committing that Sun will donate half of those proceeds to the leading institutions promoting free software and patent reform (in specific, The Software Freedom Law Center and the Peer to Patent initiative), and to the legal defense of free software innovators. We will continue to fund the aggressive reexamination of spurious patents used against the community (which we've been doing behind the scenes on behalf of several open source innovators). Whatever's left over will fuel a venture fund fostering innovation in the free software community."

Wow, Sun is on a litigation and public relations warpath again. Last time they focussed on Microsoft, won the suit, lost big time in their market cap because they were perceived by investors as they perceived the game themselves, to be playing in the small (personal style) server space instead of the big iron business, where they were once the heavy weights.

Posted in business | public law | tech jasonn's blog

Submitted by jasonn on October 27, 2007 - 6:18pm.

Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act and Development

SOX has an interesting set of impact features for tech. This article has some good intel.

Posted in business | public law | tech jasonn's blog

Submitted by jasonn on May 14, 2007 - 6:02am.

SaaS and GPL Infections

Companies like Google and Barracuda Networks use open source software to run their companies, often modifying the code to provide a service, bundling commercial (privately owned) software together with open source software and providing services that run on open source software, but not distributing their modifications. The issue at hand is whether or not a company can modify open source software and use it in their services without distributing their modifications to competing service providers.

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Submitted by jasonn on March 9, 2007 - 4:09pm.

Thou Shalt Not Deny Global Warming, So Sayeth the Senators!

A letter from Senators Rockefeller and Snowe warn Exxon Mobile that they should get on board with the universal doctrine of global warming.

Posted in culture | economy | public law jasonn's blog

Submitted by jasonn on December 4, 2006 - 1:59pm.

Americans Voted for More Tax, More Spending

[WARNING: THIS IS SARCASM] In a sweeping win, Democrats took both houses, proving that Americans want more spending, more social welfare programs, and big big taxes!

AP Reports

The new masters of the House, the Democrats, are promoting an economic agenda that would put more money in the pockets of ordinary citizens and government, while leading to greater oversight of big business.

Is that really what Americans voted for? Do most voters want more taxes and obstructive government regulations on business. No. People were mad at the Republicans for failing to curtail spending and executing the war in Iraq with the vigor and overwhelming force we demand.

The average American thinks Democrats will control government growth and kill more terrorists than Republicans. Why do they believe this? That's what Democrats campaigned on. Democrats who won did not campaign on withdrawal from Iraq or increased taxes

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Submitted by jasonn on November 8, 2006 - 6:54pm.

My ID Theft Experience

I was cleaning out my credit cobwebs, and clearing up some tax bills when I found out my state issued a Driver's License to someone with my social security number. That someone didn't use my name, address, or any other ID. He just hijacked my social security number.

At this point, I don't know if it was a simple clarical error (though schocking nobody picked up on it) or intentional fraud. Unfortunately, it is more likely it was fraud.

Posted in public law | tech jasonn's blog

Submitted by jasonn on October 12, 2006 - 9:48am.

It's a Series of Tubes

If you've not heard clips of Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska ranting about how the internet is a series of tubes, you're officially not in the internet lifestyle at all. Net neutrality is the latest land grab the [US] federal government is trying to sell the American consumer. And, to his credit, Senator Stevens complained that he didn't think the senate knew enough about the internet and the bill to adequately determine its potential impact. And, for all the laughing, he's correct on that point: senators don't know enough about the internet to regulate it properly.

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Submitted by jasonn on July 25, 2006 - 7:10am.

Spyware or Antivirus: Both Cripple Your PC

An MSNBC article discusses a recent law suit filed by the New York State Attorney General against Direct Revenue, a very lucrative spyware company.

Most users don't care about law suits, and wraggling, etc. They just want these resource thieves to go away. If they died, that wouldn't upset most PC users. But, the big thing is, we're tired of fighting for the right to use the hardware and software we paid to use!

Posted in public law | security | tech jasonn's blog | read more

Submitted by jasonn on July 10, 2006 - 4:53pm.