Loss of Privacy

An eloquent rebuttal by Rachel North.

There have been many stories recently concerning your rights when taking pictures in a public place.  What used to be permissible now isn’t and, even if it is, you can be threatened by the police anyway.

If you happen to live in the United Kingdom and can get to London on 4 February, London Calling Photographers is having a meeting discussing this very topic.

For those of you not familiar with Manga, it is a comic or print cartoon from Japan.  There are many types that you can purchase or read it for free online.  Under the PROTECT Act (18 U.S.C. Section 1466A), Christopher Handley is now facing up to 20 years in prison for purchasing manga.

Handley purchased the manga in question legally from Japan in May 2006 and had it shipped to his home in the United States.  A postal inspector opened the mail and that’s when the trouble began.  The government now claims that the manga was obscene and depicts minors in sexual situations.  The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is now helping him with his case.

According to CBDLF’s site, Handley’s situation began in May 2006 after a postal inspector at his local post office in Glenwood, Iowa, intercepted a package addressed to Handley from Japan and searched its contents. After deciding the content of the books depicted minors engaged in sexual acts, the inspector applied for a search warrant. The post office allowed Handley to pick up the package and law enforcement officers pulled his vehicle over and eventually followed him home.

At Handley’s residence, the police then seized his collection of manga, DVDs, VHS tapes, laser disks, computers and various documents. In a follow-up article, Handley’s case took a small victory but the case is far from over. In an updated report by Anime News Network, some of Handley’s charges were dropped July 2, 2008.

The trial is set to begin on 2 February 2009.

RFID is great for controlling inventory and Foxwoods is capitalizing on this new technology to promote better inventory handling of their chips and help to prevent counterfeiting.  Each chip will also have its own serial number, allowing the casino to better track where their chips have been.

The 2 million new computerized chips have been implemented since the opening of the MGM Grand at Foxwoods last May. They have a similar design: Foxwoods on one side, and either MGM or the WPT World Poker Room logo on the other.

For people who’ve held on to the old gaming chips, the next few weeks will be the last opportunity to cash them in. After Jan. 31, the old discs will lose their value and become little more than collector’s items.

The old chips will be destroyed after the 31st, but you can still mail them in or exchange them in person before the deadline.

The EFF has created a new project called, the Surveillance Self-Defense Project aimed at informing and educating the public of various laws and technologies of government surveillance.

Surveillance Self-Defense (SSD) exists to answer two main questions: What can the government legally do to spy on your computer data and communications? And what can you legally do to protect yourself against such spying?

Read all about it on the SSD Project site.