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Enric Duran, the Catalan 'Robin Hood of the Banks' has been released on 50,000 euro bail after being held in preventative detention for two months on fraud charges. Enric's upcoming trial for 'financial civil disobedience' offers another moment of publicity to Spain's 'We Can Live Without Capitalism' campaign is gearing up for its September 17th launch.
Argentina Copyright Case Brings Access To Education Into The Spotlight From IP Watch Catherine Saez An Argentinean philosophy professor is being sued for alleged copyright infringement for posting translated versions of French philosopher Jacques Derrida’s works on a website, according to the Copy South Research Group. The case is bringing international attention to the limitations on access to education brought about by copyright. In an attempt to make foreign philosophers’ work available to Spanish language readers and students, Prof. Horacio Potel said he created an open source website named “Nietzsche in Spanish” in December 1999, one named “Heidegger in Spanish” in June 2000 and one entitled “Derrida in Spanish” in June 2001. On 19 February he was advised that a criminal case was opened against him. In December 2008, French publishing company “les Editions de Minuit” lodged a complaint which was passed on to the French Embassy in Argentina and it became the basis of the Argentina Book Chamber’s legal action against Potel, according to CopySouth.
The Perfect Wave Edu-factory The Anomalous Wave has invaded the streets, and blocked the cities again, and again has conflicted on the link education-work, starting from the protests against the unsustainable and illegitimate G8 University Summit. In Turin, ten thousands students, moving from the Block G8 Building,decided to march across the centre, sanctioning banks and temporary employment agency, crying again that "We won't pay for your crisis". The whole Wave decided to break into the red zone, not to accept prohibitions to the freedom of movement, and to try to reach the venue of the illegitimate summit of the chancellors' baronial lobby: we protected the demonstration from the charges and we denounce the massive and excessive use of tear gas thrown at eye level against students. Yet another Wave that subverts the G8 University Summit, once again we demonstrate our dissent, day after day in every faculty we build up the autonomous university by the "self reform", we build up the reappropriation of income and the autonomous production of knowledge!
Italian Pirate Bay Trial in the Making Ernesto, from Torrent Freak Following the Swedish verdict, Italy is now considering starting its own trial against the people involved with The Pirate Bay. This would be the first criminal prosecution against the Pirate Bay ‘founders’ outside their home country. During August last year, The Pirate Bay was “censored” in Italy when ISPs were ordered to block access to the worlds largest BitTorrent tracker. The Pirate Bay appealed the block and eventually won the court case. In October the Court of Bergamo ruled that no foreign website can be censored for alleged copyright infringement. However, with the Swedish verdict against The Pirate Bay in hand, the Italian justice authority is now looking into the possibility of starting their very own trial against the Pirate Bay ‘operators’. Interesting to say the least, because The Pirate Bay and those involved with the site have no direct link to Italy.
Seven Greenpeace Activists Arrested in Banner-Hanging at Major Economies Forum Matt Leonard @ Greenpeace.org Hello everyone. At the Major Economies Forum this morning, 7 Greenpeace activists were arrested hanging a giant banner from a construction crane above the State Department. The banner remained up for several hours, including while Hillary Clinton was scheduled to address the MEF, and while Obama was speaking across the street at the National Academy of Sciences. The 7 arrested were charged with misdemeanors, and include Phil Radford, who begins his first day as the new Executive Director of Greenpeace today. This meeting is a major step in the lead up to Copenhagen. While not officially part of the UN process, the need for urgent action from the world's biggest polluters makes this meeting (today and tomorrow) a very important international event. There is also a large coalition rally happening now (with hundreds expected from Greenpeace, 350, AVAAZ, CCAN, Friends of the Earth and many more).
Lindy Blake, Presidio 27 Mutineer, RIP Dear Friends, Below is a beautiful tribute to Lindy Blake, one of the Presidio 27 mutineers, written by his friend and comrade Randy Rowland (who, along with Keith Mather, told the story of the Presidio 27 in "Sir! No Sir!"). Lindy died recently at his home in Canada, where he has lived since escaping the Presidio stockade in 1968. Lindy's Great Escape It was 40 years ago. We were all young. Facing a potential death sentence for singing "We Shall Overcome," the 27 "mutineers" held a meeting in the cell block of the Presidio Stockade. Everyone who could escape should, we decided. We were not cooperating with the Brass, not even to participate in their kangaroo court-marital. Not long after, some of the Presido 27 did escape. Walter Pawlowski, the guy who stood up during our sit-down, to read our demands to the commandant, was one of the escapees. Keith Mather, one of the "9-For- Peace," and the contact I was supposed to meet up with when I arrived in the stockade, was another. They were recognizable ringleaders in the stockade protest which became known as the Presidio Mutiny. They had good reason to leave. Even before the sit- down strike, both were already facing many years in prison for GI resistance to the US invasion and occupation of Viet Nam. Now they faced additional charges of mutiny, the most serious of military offenses. Military regulations simply say "there is no maximum sentence" for mutiny.
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Author J.G. Ballard Dies After Lengthy Illness Ben Hoyle, London Times Arts Correspondent Pinteresque, Dickensian, Shakespearean. Not many writers are so distinctive and influential that their name becomes an adjective in its own right. J. G. Ballard, who died yesterday morning after a long battle with cancer at the age of 79, was one of them. “Ballardian” is defined in the Collins English Dictionary as: “adj) 1. of James Graham Ballard (born 1930), the British novelist, or his works (2) resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in Ballard’s novels and stories, esp dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments.” His influence stretched across a modern world that he seemed to see coming years in advance. His dark, often shocking fiction predicted the melting of the ice caps, the rise of Ronald Reagan, terrorism against tourists and the alienation of a society obsessed with new technology.
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Pirate Bay Defendants to Fight On Mats Lewan, CNet The verdict has been handed down in the Pirate Bay file-sharing case, but the legal actions are far from done. "The prosecutor leads 1-0 after the first round, but this will of course be appealed," said Per E. Samuelsson, defense lawyer for Carl Lundström, one of the four individuals sentenced in the Pirate Bay trial, according to the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Samuelsson calls the verdict a scandal. He also claims that his client will have to pay the damages ruled by the court--a total of $3.6 million--because the other three sentenced lack economic resources.
Eight-Year-Long Erfurt Squat Broken Up by Police Police in Erfurt, Germany have today forcibly removed squatters who have been living in the former Topf and Sons factory (a company which built gas chambers for Nazis) for the last 8 years. The squat had created a community for up to 60 people, replete with educational facilities. The squatters are now being held in police custody. News report here: http://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/nf-1-10.html#1961294 Please support the Erfurt Squatters! Info here: http://www.topf.squat.net/
Life After the G20 Rampart Collective On the Thursday following the G20 protests, two squatted social centres in East London were raided by riot police, apparently looking for instigators of the attacks on the Royal Bank of Scotland. RampART Social Centre, which has existed for more than four years, and a newly opened Convergence Centre in Earl Street were both being used to house and feed protesters throughout the period of the G20 summit. In both cases, the police acted illegally but, other than a brief report in the Independent which referred to unwarranted violence, the raids remained largely unreported. In both buildings, people were subjected to physical violence and verbal abuse and those that were arrested were later 'de-arrested' for lack of any supporting evidence. Our only 'crime', it seems, is that we are political activists and squatters and thus deemed to be suitable targets. If only we had kept our heads down and stayed away from these kinds of activities, the logic goes, we would not deserve what we had coming. It is right and proper that the events leading up to the death of Ian Tomlinson should be the subject of a criminal investigation but the danger, as we see it, is that it will be seen as an isolated incident and will be dealt with simply by disciplining individual officers, only serving to further obscure the role of the police in perpetuating a climate of fear. Under the terms of the global surveillance state, citizenship has become an exercise in evading a charge of deviance. In fact, the proliferation of forms of deviance is the flip side of the supposed 'lifestyle choices' available under the terms of consumer citizenship. You can 'choose' to spend your money on home improvements, high fashion and high-tech gadgets and are applauded for making the 'right' choices. But if you choose to occupy an unused building for the purposes of providing space for political discussion, self-education and creative activities without the intrusion of CCTV cameras, health and safety monitoring or access restrictions, and particularly if you refuse to levy a charge which situates these activities in terms of market forces, then you effectively become outlaw.. And, if you choose to express your outrage at a system that produces inequalities and then condemns those that become unemployed and homeless, you become a target for repression. The differences between Tomlinson and the people who went to the Bank of England to demonstrate against the iniquitous excesses of neoliberal capitalism are marginal, despite attempts to distinguish between 'innocent' bystanders and 'guilty' protesters. Tomlinson was on his way home from work. The demonstrators were exercising their lawful right to protest. Both were exercising their right to the city as citizens of a supposed democracy
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