29.4.10
DNA

Wikipedia's parent company distributing child porn: Co-founder

California: Wikipedia’s co-founder, Larry Sanger, has said that the online encyclopedia’s parent company, Wikimedia Commons, is knowingly distributing child pornography in their products
Sanger, who left Wikipedia in 2002, said the Wiki products, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikinews and Wikiquote, is rife with renderings of children performing sexual acts.
He said he has sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) outlining his concerns and identifying two specific categories, which he believes violate federal obscenity laws.
The first category, entitled “Pedophilia”, created three years ago, contains 25 to 30 explicit and detailed drawings of children performing sexual acts, while the second, “Lilicon,” provides cartoons similar in detail and depiction.
“I was not shocked that it was online, but I was shocked that it was on a Wikimedia Foundation site that purports to be a reference site,” Fox News quoted Sanger, as saying.
“I think a lot of teachers and education technologists responsible for the filters at public schools don’t realize how much and what level of pornography there is in the system. I’m quite sure that if they knew there were pages devoted to pedophilia, it might make them think twice about giving students unrestricted access in schools.”
“I’m going to sound really old fashioned, but I felt that it was my duty. I really did. Wikimedia has quite a bit of pornography on it and they had no idea,” he added.

27.4.10
Times of India

Teens using secret online lingo to deceive parents

LONDON: Teenagers are increasingly using a secret language on social networking sites like Facebook to stop parents from judging them by their social activities such as partying and drinking, a new study found.

Instead of writing they are drunk, teens post "Getting MWI" — or mad with it; being in a relationship is known as "taken" or "Ownageeee", and "Ridneck", a corruption of redneck, means to feel embarrassed. Meanwhile, girls posting "Legal" are indicating they are above 16 and legally allowed to have sex, researchers found.

Lead researcher Lisa Whittaker of Stirling University said the slang had been created to keep their activities private, and cited the example of a girl who was sacked after bosses found pictures of her drinking on the website.

"By doing this they are able to communicate with their in-group and conceal the content from the out-group. This further adds to their online identity," she said.


27.4.10
Times of India

Judge rues huge backlog of cases in courts

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday bemoaned the huge backlog of cases that have piled up over the decades.The fact cannot be ignored that suits,which have been instituted in the 8th and 9th decades of the previous century,are still pending in this court for adjudication, said Justice D G Karnik.Though the situation in the district and civil courts in the state is slightly better,there too,suits are pending for several years, the judge added.
The remarks came during the hearing of a plea challenging a civil courts order appointing a court commissioner to record evidence.
Considering the present strength of judges,it would well nigh be impossible to hear the suits expeditiously if the task of recording evidence in every case is also to be performed by the judge, said the HC,while ruling that a court can appoint a commissioner to record the evidences of witnesses on affidavits.The matter before the court concerned a petition relating to secession.A trial court had appointed a court commissioner for recording of the evidence on affidavit.But one of the parties concerned objected
to the court commissioners appointment.Advocate Ajay Panicker said the court commissioner has no power to examine any witness on affidavit and the affidavit must be tendered in court.Thereafter,the matter could be referred to the court commissioner for cross-examination.
Rejecting the argument,the HC said according to the Civil Procedure Code,in the interest of justice or for speedy disposal of the case,a court commissioner could be appointed.The HC has sent the case back to the court commissioner.