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(The Hague) The Dutch Supreme Court ordered Internet company Lycos to reveal the identity of a client in a benchmark decision on privacy that copyright groups said would facilitate prosecution of illegal swapping of music and movies online.

The country's highest court ruled Friday that Lycos wrongly protected the identity of a user who anonymously posted slanderous allegations against an Internet postage stamp dealer on a member site.

[...]

Supreme Court spokesman Steven Bakker said the court found Pessers' claim of having suffered damages sufficient to order Lycos to release the client's name and address, even though no criminal offence had been committed.

It issued a sweeping rejection of Lycos' argument that personal client details should only be released if they are suspected of a crime and the information is wanted by the police.

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First I hear that they're taking a harder line against cannabis in reponse to American pressure.

Then I here that there is an assault against our immutable cyber-liberties in the Netherlands.

To be precise, Jan Peter Balkenende has his head so far up the ass of George Bush, he can see the feet of Tony Blair. (This old classic was actually told about two Canadian figures who would mean nothing to you.)

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Originally posted by Navigator:
First I hear that they're taking a harder line against cannabis in reponse to American pressure.

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Originally posted by Clog-boy:

Dude, you couldn't have been more right...
Today, a proposition has been sent to the Chamber by the VVD and the ChristenUnie to outlaw smoking weed and hash in public.
When this propostion is accepted, smoking pot in the streets will not be tolerated anymore. You can only smoke it in coffeeshops and in a private residence...

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Unless there's more to the bill than you have state, why is that so bad? I don't believe that anything should be smoked in too public a location due to the dangers associated with second-hand smoke. While these dangers apply less to cannabis smoke than to cigarette smoke (due to the fact that cannabis smoke, while often having more tar than cigarette smoke, lacks nicotine and the other artifical carcinogenic chemicals contained within cigarettes), they still merit consideration.