Posts Tagged ‘contract’
Sony orders gamers to sign away rights or face ban from PSN
Sony is preparing to ban gamers from the PlayStation Network (PSN) unless they waive the right to collectively sue it over future security breaches. The firm has amended PSN’s terms and conditions and users have to agree to them next time they log in…
The new clauses, dubbed “Binding Individual Arbitration,” state that “any Dispute Resolution Proceedings, whether in arbitration or court, will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class or representative action or as a named or unnamed member in a class, consolidated, representative or private attorney general action”…
Those that want to opt out will have to send a letter to Sony’s Los Angeles headquarters in the US. Once they do, the subscribers will be able to keep their right to file a class action lawsuit without any need for arbitration.
But before subscribers have a chance to opt out, they will still be required to agree to the new terms the next time they log into their accounts. Otherwise they will not be able to use the online services.
In many countries, forcing individuals to agree to contracts which violate constitutional rights – are automatically invalid. Someone might mention that to Sony.
Hit man hire was part of pilot for reality TV show – she says
Dalia Dippolito never planned to have her husband killed, her attorney told a jury on Tuesday. Rather, she thought she was acting in a reality show orchestrated by her husband to achieve fame and publicity.
In his opening statement in her murder-for-hire trial, defense attorney Michael Salnick said Michael Dippolito was a controlling husband who duped his wife into taking part in his hoax.
“Michael Dippolito’s hoax to orchestrate his own murder to achieve fame and fortune was a bad prank,” Salnick said. “It was never anyone’s intention to harm anyone…”
Video from an undercover sting by Boynton Beach police showed Dalia Dippolito in August 2009 trying to hire an undercover officer to kill her husband. Video of her wailing at news of his murder went viral and will be featured on the television show “COPS.”
Salnick told jurors that Dalia Dippolito knew the entire time that she was being recorded, because her husband persuaded her to take part in his reality-show idea. Michael Dippolito won’t admit it, Salnick said…
Dippolito faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of solicitation to commit first-degree murder. Her alleged plan to have a hit man kill her husband backfired when the man she hired to do the job was the undercover Boynton Beach police officer.
Boynton Beach police were fooled by Michael Dippolito’s staged murder-for-hire scenario, Salnick said, and were more focused on pleasing COPS producers…
On Aug. 5, 2009, police staged the elaborate crime scene, and recorded video of her shrieks and tears when they told her that her husband had been killed.
Later they confronted her, brought her face-to-face with her husband and arrested her. Her reaction and arrest also were caught on video, which will be evidence in the trial.
Michael Dippolito was the victim in the case, Parker said, and was blinded by his love for his wife of six months.
Do you think this is going to work better than the twinkie defense used in San Francisco to justify the murder of Harvey Milk? You have to admit it’s creative and including in a reasonably sleazy reality TV show like COPS is brilliant.
Republicans hate choosy women, birth control, the right to have a union and now – they would get rid of public schools!
Three potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates expressed hostility toward the public school system at a home schooling rally on Wednesday in the early presidential caucus state of Iowa.
Texas Congressman Ron Paul told the crowd government wants “absolute control” of the “indoctrination” of children. Paul spoke along with Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Georgia businessman Herman Cain.
“The public school system now is a propaganda machine,” Paul said, prompting applause from the crowd of hundreds of home schooling families. “They start with our kids even in kindergarten, teaching them about family values, sexual education, gun rights, environmentalism – and they condition them to believe in so much which is totally un-American.”
Bachmann said home schooling is the “essence” of freedom and liberty. “It’s about knowing our children better than the state knows our children,” she said.
“It is not up to a bureaucrat to decide what is best for your children,” Bachmann said, drawing cheers from the crowd. “I am so tired of the establishment telling us that they know best. We know best…”
Cain, former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza and another prospective Republican candidate, denounced government involvement in education at all levels.
“That’s all we want is for government to get out of the way so we can educate ourselves and our children the old-fashioned way,” Cain said.
Justin LaVan of the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators said it was encouraging to see potential presidential candidates talking about the home-schooling movement.
“More importantly, talking about our Creator – our rights that came from our Creator, acknowledging that and giving him the glory, folks,” said LaVan, who served as master of ceremonies at the rally.
Hallelujah – have a snake!
I should say “seriously – something or other” right now; but, these retrograde demagogues can’t be taken seriously except as a threat to the Bill of Rights and the American Constitution.
We are a nation that has grown on the ethic of individual freedoms. Something these jokers include in every speech – while they advocate government control to prevent choice, government control to halt negotiated contracts between workers and employers, government control to monitor individuals who feel they have the freedom to choose family planning over mindless procreation – and if the government won’t step in and mandate allegiance to whichever religion is in favor this week among bible-thumping Republicans – well, then, they advocate crushing what opportunity there is in this land to provide free public education.
By the way, our rights came from the struggles of ordinary people who fought against reactionaries like this for decades to achieve what we have. Not from Charlton Heston marching down a movie mountainside. Even the freedom to be a religious nutcase came from political battles against oppressors ranging from Kings to Klan members.
Disclaimer: it makes me a bit sad even to call these fools Republicans. I grew up with traditional North American conservatives. People who cared for the dignity of those they disagreed with as strongly as their arguments. People who cared for the land and nature and the freedom of the ocean and prairie – as much as their pride in invention.
These people calling themselves Republicans, today, are less Republican than George Wallace, David Duke, Father Coughlin and all the bigots who tried previously to take over that once-principled party.
One more let’s-sue-a-successful-geek lawsuit
A few days ago, at the Allen & Co. mogul conference in Sun Valley, Mark Zuckerberg was approached by a “fan” apparently seeking an autograph. The fan was actually a process server who handed him a lawsuit. And now we know what that lawsuit was about.
Some guy in New York state claims he owns 84% of Facebook based on a two-page “contract” he entered into with Mark Zuckerberg 7 years ago–9 months before Facebook was founded…
Now, this claim sounds (and almost certainly is) ridiculous–especially coming 7 years after the fact. But Paul Ceglia was apparently persuasive enough that a New York court has issued a temporary restraining order that bars Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg from transferring any assets.
The restraining order was filed by a state court, and state courts do occasionally go batty. Facebook has since filed to have the lawsuit transferred to a Federal court, which will probably help the company’s cause…
In his suit, Mr. Ceglia claims he signed a contract with Mr. Zuckerberg on April 28, 2003, to develop and design a website, paying a $1,000 fee but getting a 50% stake in the product. The contract stipulated that Mr. Ceglia would get an additional 1% interest in the business for every day after Jan. 1, 2004, until it was completed…a suitable website for the project Seller [Mr. Zuckerberg] has already initiated that is designed to offer the students of Harvard university [sic] access to a wesite [sic] similar to a live functioning yearbook with the working title of ‘The Face Book.’”
The contract was signed 8 months before Mark actually registered the domain thefacebook.com in January 2004.
One other fact worth mentioning: Last year, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo accused Ceglia of defrauding the customers of his wood-pellet fuel company.
I hear he sells bridges in Brooklyn. And oceanfront property in Arizona.
Cybercrooks are hiring – just click on their ad. Har!
The people who brought the world malicious software that steals credit card numbers from your personal computer and empties bank ATMs of their cash are hiring, and they’re advertising online.
Two companies that are hiring — at least on a contractor basis — advertise online, said Kevin Stevens, a threat intelligence analyst for SecureWorks, who presented findings on the organizations at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference outside Washington on Monday.
What they are seeking is people who are willing to take malicious code they provide and link it to something that people will click on — like a picture of Britney Spears getting out of her car. These people then collect a fee for each 1,000 times that the malware is downloaded.
One site, for example, pays $180 for each 1,000 times that malware is downloaded onto a U.S. computer but less for computers elsewhere. It refuses to pay for any downloads to Russian computers, causing Stevens and others to strongly suspect that it, like other similar sites, are based in Russia.
“We pay your wages via the following systems: Fethard, WebMoney, Wire, e-gold, Western Union (WU), MoneyGram, Anelik and ePassporte, and PayPal,” the site said…
Cripes. What makes the sleazy entrepreneurs who sign for these contract jobs think they’re any less likely to be screwed – than the people they themselves are setting out to screw?
China willing to spend big on Afghan commerce
Aynak – former Al-AQaeda stronghold – soon to be copper mine
Behind an electrified fence, blast-resistant sandbags and 53 National Police outposts, the Afghan surge is well under way.
But the foot soldiers in a bowl-shaped valley about 20 miles southeast of Kabul are not fighting the Taliban, or even carrying guns. They are preparing to extract copper from one of the richest untapped deposits on earth. And they are Chinese, undertaking by far the largest foreign investment project in war-torn Afghanistan.
Two years ago, the China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, bid $3.4 billion — $1 billion more than any of its competitors from Canada, Europe, Russia, the United States and Kazakhstan — for the rights to mine deposits near the village of Aynak. Over the next 25 years, it plans to extract about 11 million tons of copper — an amount equal to one-third of all the known copper reserves in China.
While the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda here, China is securing raw material for its voracious economy. The world’s superpower is focused on security. Its fastest rising competitor concentrates on commerce…
Nice to hear someone raise that point besides me.
British Asians are outsourcing murder to the home continent
A BBC investigation has uncovered the deadly practice of British Asians travelling to India to hire contract killers. Family and business associates, who are lured to the sub-continent, are often the targets.
In a country where murder is cheaper and less fraught with risk, the perpetrators of these crimes are rarely brought to justice.
Campaigners in both India and the UK believe this to have claimed the lives of hundreds of victims over several years.
These armchair murder plots are hatched in the living rooms of Britain and executed mainly in the rural Indian state of Punjab…
So how easy is it for British Asians to outsource murder..?
According to Indian journalist, Neelam Raaj, finding a person to carry out the killing is simple.
In India, murder is cheap, with hired assassins paid up to $800. And it appears there are few risks.
RTFA. Details, examples.
Of course, living here in the beautiful American Southwest it’s even cheaper do the deal in Mexico.
Pentagon ends crony contract with Lockheed
The U.S. Defense Department announced Monday it was taking back responsibility for billions of dollars in pay and benefits for veterans, a task handled since 2002 by Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon’s No. 1 contractor by sales.
A switch to using government workers, prompted by Congress, will save $22 million to $25 million over the next 10 years, said Tom LaRock, a spokesman for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS).
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat who led an investigation and held hearings into the matter, said Lockheed’s performance under its contract had been marked by “mishandling, delay, poor quality and exorbitant charges.”
“This is a great day for veterans and a victory for government oversight,” Kucinich said in a statement…
Kucinich’s investigation found delays of as much as 5-1/2 years in delivering retroactive pay awards to eligible disabled veterans under legislation enacted by Congress in 2003 and 2004. He blamed government mismanagement and Lockheed Martin…
“I hope that this experiment in privatization will demonstrate to other agencies the costs, both financial and otherwise, of outsourcing the responsibilities of government,” he said.
Bush and Cheney kept their buds at Lockheed rolling in the green for providing mediocre support to our vets. These past eight years have been an exercise in corporate cronies getting payoffs – and the taxpayer getting the shaft.
Oh, yeah. A footnote to the whiners who babbled their fears about Kucinich over the span of the last couple of elections. It wasn’t the Kerrys and the McCains of this political world that led the fight to repay our vets.
