WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that textbooks and other goods made and sold abroad can be re-sold online and in discount stores without violating U.S. copyright law.
In a 6-3 opinion, the court threw out a copyright infringement award to publisher John Wiley & Sons against Thai graduate student Supap Kirtsaeng, who used eBay to resell copies of the publisher’s copyrighted books that his relatives first bought abroad at cut-rate prices.
Justice Stephen Breyer said in his opinion for the court that once goods are sold lawfully, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere, publishers and manufacturers lose the protection of U.S. copyright law.
“We hold that the ‘first sale’ doctrine applies to copies of a copyrighted work lawfully made abroad,” Breyer said.
Had the court come out the other way, it would have crimped the sale of many goods sold online and in discount stores, and it would have complicated the tasks of museums and libraries that contain works produced outside the United States, Breyer said. Retailers told the court that more than $2.3 trillion worth of foreign goods were imported in 2011, and that many of these goods were bought after they were first sold abroad, he said.
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Doctors opened a medical review Sunday on a U.S. soldier charged with killing 16 civilians, most of them women and children, near his Army post in Afghanistan in an effort to determine his state of mind at the time of the killings and ability to stand trial.
The review, known in the military as a “sanity board,” will be conducted by three doctors at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, and will be completed by May 1, according to a U.S. Army spokesman.
The hearing started on Sunday morning and is expected to continue for several days, base spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Gary Dangerfield said.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Robert Bales, a decorated veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan accused of gunning down the villagers in cold blood during two rampages through their family compounds in Kandahar province last March.
“The bottom line is it is unclear how long veterans are waiting to receive care in VA’s medical facilities because the reported data are unreliable,” Draper told the panel.
By Patricia Kime – Staff writer
Internal Veterans Affairs Department documents show that at least two veterans died last year waiting to see a doctor while others couldn’t get primary care appointments for up to eight months, members of a House oversight and investigations panel said Thursday.
Addressing the ongoing problem of vets who suffer through long waits for appointments at VA hospitals and clinics, House lawmakers joined federal investigators and veterans service organizations in castigating VA on an issue that has endured for more than a decade.
“Evidence shows that many VA facilities, when faced with a backlog of thousands of outstanding or unresolved consultations, decided to administratively close out these requests. Some reasons given included that the request was years old, too much time had elapsed, or the veteran had died,” said Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., chairman of the House Veterans Oversight and Investigations panel.
“This is unacceptable,” said Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., the panel’s ranking Democrat. “Veterans deserve timely, accessible health care.”
According to VA, about 49 percent of new patients and 90 percent of established patients are able to see a primary care doctor or specialist within VA’s goal of 14 days, a metric established in 2011.
But the first-time patients who weren’t seen within 14 days waited an average 50 days to schedule initial appointments.
Police push protesters back on Church Ave. in East Flatbush. / Photo New York Daily News
Protesters enraged over the fatal shooting of a teenager by police poured into Brooklyn streets for a third straight night Wednesday, pitching bricks, bottles and garbage in furious clashes with cops.
At least 46 demonstrators were arrested along Church Ave. in East Flatbush. Police struggled to control a hostile crowd that broke away from a planned peaceful vigil for Kimani (Kiki) Gray, 16, killed by police on Saturday night.
Gray’s sister Mahnefeh was among those arrested. A police officer suffered a gash in the face when a tossed brick hit him, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, and a window was smashed in an inspector’s car.
It has long been an axiom that drinking and driving can kill. It is unknown if Texas legislatures are drafting new Slurpee regulations. No toaster pastries were reported at the scene. This comes just days after 7-11 started offering a free Slurpee to download their iPhone or Android app. It appears that you can download the app and activate the coupon in the store to obtain the Slurpee without a background check. Offer probably void in New York.
SAN ANTONIO — A driver lost control of his truck and crashed it into four other vehicles on the Southwest Side Friday.
The accident happened around 2:30 p.m. Friday in the 2800 block of General Hudnell. The driver said he was drinking a “Slurpee,” when he got a ‘brain freeze’ and blacked out. His truck went over a curb and hit four vehicles in a parking lot at an office building on Port S.A. When he came to, his foot was still on the gas pedal.
Fox News in Baltimore is reporting that a 7-year old in Maryland was suspended from school for a pastry. Not because he had the Obama-denounced snack food in school, but because he chewed the triangle-shaped pastry into the shape of a *gasp* gun.
It is presumed that the “assault pastry” was chewed into the form of a hand-gun. It is not clear whether it was a revolver or semi-automatic with a high-calorie magazine.
“Progressive” indoctrinated idiots such as this do tend to lend support to the opposition of the NRA plan of arming teachers in school to prevent school shootings.
One of the reporters correctly points out, “Baltimore has a crime problem. There’s actual crime in Baltimore. If you see that boy, and you consider that threatening, I suggest that you should not be in a position of leadership.”
Frank Borelli in an article for Officer.com wrote of the incident, “Again, I understand ‘zero tolerance’ toward the presence of weapons in schools but to date I’ve seen articles where children were suspended for having cut a piece of notebook paper into the shape of a gun, for having pointed their finger and said, ‘Bang!’, for having thrown an imaginary grenade on a playground and now… for eating their breakfast wrong.”
What this does appear to be is yet another incident of terrifying our children into a fear of weapons.
The company Law Enforcement Targets has apologized on their Facebook page for a new series of targets they were selling for law enforcement.
The targets, apparently based on the requirements of the Department of Homeland Security and other Federal law enforcement agencies, depict such “targets” as a seven-year old boy with a gun and a pregnant woman with guns pointed at the Federal shooter.
The advertisement reads, “Designed to prepare officers for the worst possible situation. Background is faded further highlighting and highlighting the threat.” The product description of the little boy reads, “…dipicting a very young boy holding a real gun.”
The targets are apparently intended to desensitize law enforcement to shooting citizens of the United States no matter what the circumstance.
The apology reads:
We apologize for the offensive nature of our “No More Hesitation” products. These products have been taken offline due to the opinions expressed by so many, including members of the law enforcement community.
This product line was originally requested and designed by the law enforcement community to train police officers for unusually complex situations where split-second decisions could lead to unnecessary loss of life.
Consistent with our company mission as a training supplier (not a training methods company), we will continue to seek input from law enforcement professionals to better serve their training objectives and qualification needs. We sincerely appreciate law enforcement professionals for the risks they take in providing safety and defending freedom.
The comments on the Facebook page show that the people are less than pleased with the apology. Some are charging that the company may have withdrawn the targets from the web site, but are still selling them to the Federal government and local law enforcement.
Marilyn Zimmermann This is surreal… but so is the reality of sharia law, and our own government and culture being slowly and stealthily infiltrated by a theocratic spirit of antichrist. enter the burka clad gorilla in the room.
Michael Ballou All the pictures that I have seen of the “No More Hesitation” targets are all White people. Do you have targets of Asian, Black, Pacific Islander, Native American, and Hispanic pregnant women, children, and old men too? I want to ensure that you are an Equal Opportunity Target Supplier. Post some pix of your products.
NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST You people are truly sick, and I sincerely hope you go bankrupt, and soon. You are a small, but apparent cog in the growing machine of totalitarianism in this country.
NRA Gifting Page I’d like to echo an earlier post: “By denying FULL responsibility for poor judgment and blaming LE and Homeland Security for the design you are confirming they asked you to produce targets of regular Americans defending themselves in their kitchens to specifically desensitize cops to the natural resistance they experience in shooting the innocent. — THAT won’t be soon forgotten.”
Donna Kaplan apparently did some research demanding that the company make a public disclosure of which agencies purchased the targets.
Donna Kaplan Law Enforcement Targets: I would like a list of all government entities who purchased, through contracts, any products from your company. To include, Agency Name, Quantity, Item Name, Item Cost and Purchase Order Number. Ten days is the legal amount of time you have to post that information in this public forum.
Since you receive government contracts (between 2000-2009, $42.3 million), according to the open records law item #3 below dictates that you are obligated to fulfill the request of a list of any and all agencies (federal, state or local) and their purchases:
Sec. 552.022. CATEGORIES OF PUBLIC INFORMATION; EXAMPLES. (a) Without limiting the amount or kind of information that is public information under this chapter, the following categories of information are public information and not excepted from required disclosure unless made confidential under this chapter or other law:
(1) a completed report, audit, evaluation, or investigation made of, for, or by a governmental body, except as provided by Section 552.108;
(2) the name, sex, ethnicity, salary, title, and dates of employment of each employee and officer of a governmental body;
(3) information in an account, voucher, or contract relating to the receipt or expenditure of public or other funds by a governmental body;
(4) the name of each official and the final record of voting on all proceedings in a governmental body;
(5) all working papers, research material, and information used to estimate the need for or expenditure of public funds or taxes by a governmental body, on completion of the estimate;
(6) the name, place of business, and the name of the municipality to which local sales and use taxes are credited, if any, for the named person, of a person reporting or paying sales and use taxes under Chapter 151, Tax Code;
(7) a description of an agency’s central and field organizations, including:
(A) the established places at which the public may obtain information, submit information or requests, or obtain decisions;
(B) the employees from whom the public may obtain information, submit information or requests, or obtain decisions;
(C) in the case of a uniformed service, the members from whom the public may obtain information, submit information or requests, or obtain decisions; and
(D) the methods by which the public may obtain information, submit information or requests, or obtain decisions;
(8) a statement of the general course and method by which an agency’s functions are channeled and determined, including the nature and requirements of all formal and informal policies and procedures;
(9) a rule of procedure, a description of forms available or the places at which forms may be obtained, and instructions relating to the scope and content of all papers, reports, or examinations;
(10) a substantive rule of general applicability adopted or issued by an agency as authorized by law, and a statement of general policy or interpretation of general applicability formulated and adopted by an agency;
(11) each amendment, revision, or repeal of information described by Subdivisions (7)-(10);
(12) final opinions, including concurring and dissenting opinions, and orders issued in the adjudication of cases;
(13) a policy statement or interpretation that has been adopted or issued by an agency;
(14) administrative staff manuals and instructions to staff that affect a member of the public;
(15) information regarded as open to the public under an agency’s policies;
(16) information that is in a bill for attorney’s fees and that is not privileged under the attorney-client privilege;
(17) information that is also contained in a public court record; and
(18) a settlement agreement to which a governmental body is a party.
(b) A court in this state may not order a governmental body or an officer for public information to withhold from public inspection any category of public information described by Subsection (a) or to not produce the category of public information for inspection or duplication, unless the category of information is confidential under this chapter or other law.
Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 268, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993. Amended by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 1035, Sec. 3, eff. Sept. 1, 1995; Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1319, Sec. 5, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.
Amended by:
Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., Ch. 1229, Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2011.
The targets are particularly eerie when considered in light of the massive amount of ammunition that the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies down to the Social Security Administration have been purchasing.
Although the company web site does not have an address, Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the company, founded in 1992, is at 8802 West 35W Service Drive NE, Saint Paul, MN 55114-1614.
Two similar incidents took place on Feb. 5., police said.
Whittier police were seeking a kidnapping suspect Thursday night after two young girls were apparently forced into a car.
About 2:30 p.m. Thursday, an 11-year-old girl walking alone was grabbed by a man and put in the back seat of his vehicle, according to the Whittier Police Department.
“While inside, she noticed a younger female, approximately 7 years old, in the back seat crying,” police said in a statement.
The 11-year-old was able to get herself and the other girl out the vehicle in front of Founders Memorial Park near Broadway and Citrus Avenue.
“They both ran in opposite directions,” police said.
The older girl made her way home and called police. The younger girl’s whereabouts were not known, police said Thursday night.
Atlanta, Georgia —WAFB Investigative reporter Jeff Chirico was reporting a story in Georgia when, without warning, he took a clout on the jaw for the First Amendment.
According to the WAFB story and video, Mr. Chirico was reporting on a man who is under investigation for a tax scheme. He was approached by a man who identified himself as Donald Wilder—the father of the man under investigation—who allegedly threatened to punch the reporter. When Mr. Chirico attempted to follow the man into his business, he turned without warning and punched the reporter.
The story does not say whether or not charges will be pressed, but the reporter was not seriously injured.
You can see the whole story including the full video at the WAFB web site.
