martinchulov Martin Chulov
Benghazi's organising committee has just formally asked UN to help end Ghaddafi's air strikes in eastern #libya
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Why is Julian Assange trademarking his name?
Julian Assange. Photograph: ANDY RAIN/EPA The news that Julian Assange is seeking to register his name as a trademark will surprise those who imagine the besieged WikiLeaks founder might have grown weary of his infamy – and of lawyers.
Turning your name into a trademark is an increasingly common legal move for celebrities seeking to protect the commercial use of their name to sell goods and services. Everyone from Lady Gaga to Alan Titchmarsh has done it. The tactic can look more self-aggrandising when deployed by free speech campaigners or politicians, who supposedly move in less nakedly commercial worlds. But that hasn't stopped Sarah Palin and her daughter, Bristol, who are currently seeking to register their names as trademarks in the United States. "It's a bizarre thing for someone associated with freedom of information to do," says David Allen Green, head of media practice at Preiskel & Co and the New Statesman's legal correspondent.
According to Abida Chaudri, an associate of trademark attorneys Grant Spencer , however, Assange's application, through his own law firm, Finers Stephens Innocent, is "quite logical". "I suspect the application is more to do with his going it alone and using his WikiLeaks website to publish material, as opposed to somebody else pretending to be Julian Assange, which is probably unlikely," says Chaudri.
Assange is an internationally recognised figure, widely praised for his role in obtaining and leaking official secrets. He also has a distinctive brand because of his memorable name (there are no Julian Assanges on the UK electoral roll).
It can be harder to get a common name accepted as a trademark by the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) but trademark law ensures that if there was a masseur from Edinburgh called Julian Assange, he could continue to sign his name, even if the other Julian Assange was successful in his application. Another clause allows for "honest concurrent use" so Assange Masseurs, if it existed, could continue to trade.
There are plenty of infamous and unfamous people who have trademarked their names, including Tecwen Whittock, the coughing academic convicted in 2003 of helping Major Charles Ingram cheat his way to winning £1m on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? But if every Z-lister gets their name trademarked these days, celebs can always play a new game – competing for how many of the IPO's 45 different categories, covering every conceivable use of a trademark, they are protected under.
As Gillian Davies records in her paper, The Cult of Celebrity and Trade Marks, Catherine Zeta-Jones registered her full name under the IPO's "entertainment services" classification. Robbie Williams's registration featured four different classes of use, covering video, film, sound recordings, books, calendars, posters and clothing. Jamie Oliver registered his name in 11 different classes - but Alan Titchmarsh has trumped him with 12.
Modern celebrities put their names to a huge range of products, which gives them legal protection if their names are exploited on counterfeit products or used to endorse goods or services that have nothing to do with them.
Court cases hearing of the infringement of individuals' trademarked names are rare in the UK, which is either a sign that the law is a useful deterrent or that lawyers are making easy money. Many celebrities, such as David Beckham, take an even more thorough approach, filing for a "Community Trade Mark" in Alicante, Spain, so their name will be protected in all 27 EU countries. But that kind of application is more likely to receive objections from third parties.
Cynics who imagine Assange is seeking to profit from the production of Hacker Hunks 2012 calendars or silver-haired Assange dolls (ideally with swivelling "hawk eyes") are wrong. Mark Stephens, Assange's lawyer, says the applications to trademark Assange and WikiLeaks have been made in a "not for profit" category, unlike many celebrities.
"It's not about restricting free speech," says Stephens. "It's not that he's out there trying to make huge amounts of money. It's about protecting himself from being associated with things he doesn't know about or approve of." There have already been examples of merchandising, such as T-shirts, produced without Assange's assent, although Stephens does concede that is "not a big issue".
Assange's lawyers have sought to register his name under just one class, the same "entertainment services" bracket as Zeta-Jones. Within this classification, Assange is seeking to protect his name in public speaking services, news reporter services, journalism, the publication of texts other than publicity texts, education services and entertainment services. Like every case, his applications will take up to eight months for the IPO to determine.
It suggests that, whatever the fate of his legal fight over extradition to Sweden, Assange is determined to be the very public face of dramatic computer leaks for a while yet, and determined not to let new rivals, such as OpenLeaks, steal his thunder. Critics who view such attempts to trademark an individual name as the ultimate act of self-love may smile at the date when Assange's lawyers filed his application: Valentine's Day of course.
Patrick Barkham @'The Guardian'
AbdulHamidAhmad Abdul Hamid Ahmad
Pakistani Minorities Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti has been shot dead by unknown gunmen.
Regulators Reject Proposal That Would Bring Fox-Style News to Canada
As America's middle class battles for its survival on the Wisconsin barricades -- against various Koch Oil surrogates and the corporate toadies at Fox News -- fans of enlightenment, democracy and justice can take comfort from a significant victory north of Wisconsin border. Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canada regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada's right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.
Canada's Radio Act requires that "a licenser may not broadcast....any false or misleading news." The provision has kept Fox News and right wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. As a result of that law, Canadians enjoy high quality news coverage including the kind of foreign affairs and investigative journalism that flourished in this country before Ronald Reagan abolished the "Fairness Doctrine" in 1987. Political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the U.S. airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper's proposal was timed to facilitate the launch of a new right wing network, "Sun TV News" which Canadians call "Fox News North."
Harper, often referred to as "George W. Bush's Mini Me," is known for having mounted a Bush like war on government scientists, data collectors, transparency, and enlightenment in general. He is a wizard of all the familiar tools of demagoguery; false patriotism, bigotry, fear, selfishness and belligerent religiosity.
Harper's attempts to make lying legal on Canadian television is a stark admission that right wing political ideology can only dominate national debate through dishonest propaganda. Since corporate profit-taking is not an attractive vessel for populism, a political party or broadcast network that makes itself the tool of corporate and financial elites must lie to make its agenda popular with the public. In the Unites States, Fox News and talk radio, the sock puppets of billionaires and corporate robber barons have become the masters of propaganda and distortion on the public airwaves. Fox News's notoriously biased and dishonest coverage of the Wisconsin's protests is a prime example of the brand of news coverage Canada has smartly avoided.
Robert F Kennedy Jr @'HuffPo'
Canada's Radio Act requires that "a licenser may not broadcast....any false or misleading news." The provision has kept Fox News and right wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. As a result of that law, Canadians enjoy high quality news coverage including the kind of foreign affairs and investigative journalism that flourished in this country before Ronald Reagan abolished the "Fairness Doctrine" in 1987. Political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the U.S. airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper's proposal was timed to facilitate the launch of a new right wing network, "Sun TV News" which Canadians call "Fox News North."
Harper, often referred to as "George W. Bush's Mini Me," is known for having mounted a Bush like war on government scientists, data collectors, transparency, and enlightenment in general. He is a wizard of all the familiar tools of demagoguery; false patriotism, bigotry, fear, selfishness and belligerent religiosity.
Harper's attempts to make lying legal on Canadian television is a stark admission that right wing political ideology can only dominate national debate through dishonest propaganda. Since corporate profit-taking is not an attractive vessel for populism, a political party or broadcast network that makes itself the tool of corporate and financial elites must lie to make its agenda popular with the public. In the Unites States, Fox News and talk radio, the sock puppets of billionaires and corporate robber barons have become the masters of propaganda and distortion on the public airwaves. Fox News's notoriously biased and dishonest coverage of the Wisconsin's protests is a prime example of the brand of news coverage Canada has smartly avoided.
Robert F Kennedy Jr @'HuffPo'
ChasLicc Chas Licciardello
Charlie Sheen's been on Twitter for 6 hours and he's already smoked the hash out of all the tags.
You Should Have Stayed At Home
(Photo:TimN - Westgarth 01/03/11)
G20: The Untold Stories
They were the most unlikely of troublemakers. There were thousands of ordinary citizens on the streets at Toronto G20 Summit marching peacefully until the police closed in and shut them down. Many had gone downtown simply to see what was going on, only to find themselves forcibly dragged away by police and locked up for hours in a makeshift detention center without timely access to lawyers or medical treatment.
It's been eight months since the G20 and the iconic images are still with us — burning police cars, rampaging mobs, the massive security presence that according to the official story is all that stood between Canada's largest city and chaos. But that’s not the whole story of Toronto’s G20. Astonishing new images caught on camera are now emerging and they expose a troubling new picture of what happened to hundreds of ordinary citizens caught in the huge police dragnet during those three highly-charged days last June.
Gillian Findlay presents a revealing new street-level perspective of what happened when thousands of police were deployed in downtown Toronto and instructed to do what was necessary to ensure the wall around the G20 Conference Centre was never breached. Exclusive eyewitness video obtained by the fifth estate brings to light startling images captured on cellphones and minicams by the innocent bystanders who found themselves on the wrong side of all that G20 "order." In a rare television interview, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair explains why police took the actions they did.
On this edition of the fifth estate: the summit from the street, and the people who never dreamed it could happen to them. The stories you'll hear will raise questions about what protest means in this country and what the limits to dissent have become.
Watch it
Gaddafi's billionaire children
Saif al-Islam, the suave, western-educated second son of the Libyan dictator, was the best known of the sons.
Seen as the natural successor to his father before the wave of protests across the north African nation, the 38 year old Saif al-Islam presented himself as a reformer. He was welcomed in the West as the acceptable face of the regime, and claims the Duke of York, Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair among his "good friends".
In 1995, he received his degree in architecture and engineering at Tripoli's al-Fateh University, and then went on to obtain a management degree from the International Business School in Vienna before gaining a doctorate at Britain's London School of Economics (LSE).
Presenting himself as a humanitarian ambassador through the charitable body he set up in 1997, the young Gaddafi – whose name means the sword of Islam in Arabic – was at the heart of the complex negotiations over the Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor freed by Libya in July 2007.
His foundation also negotiated the release of Western hostages held by a group of Islamist extremists in the Philippines in 2000 – who had earlier been funded by his father. He is said to have personally negotiated the financial compensation paid by Libya to the families of victims killed in the Lockerbie plane bombing in 1988 and the 1989 bombing of a French airliner.
The shaven headed bachelor, who keeps lions as pets, enjoys sea fishing and has a number of falcons with which he hunts, pledged a £1.5 million through his foundation to his alma mater, the LSE, a donation that in the light of recent events has caused no end of embarrassment to the university.
Saif al-Islam was a regular at London's top night spots. He and his brothers reportedly paid over £600,000 a pop to get Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Usher to sing at their birthday parties.
It is reported that Saif al-Islam owns an £10 million mansion in Hampstead, North London – complete with suede-lined cinema room and swimming pool. The house was bought in 2009 by a holding company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
According to US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks, the Gaddafi children routinely benefited from the Libya's wealth. One cable written by Chris Stevens, a US diplomat in Libya, said it had "become common practice" for government funds to be used to promote companies controlled by Gaddafi's children. He also indicated that their companies have all benefited from "considerable government financing and political backing."
Gaddafi's fifth eldest son, Hannibal, also developed a reputation for things unconnected to his business acumen. In 2001, he attacked three Italian policemen with a fire extinguisher. In September 2004, he was briefly detained in Paris after driving a Porsche at high speed in the wrong direction and through red lights down the Champs-Elysees while intoxicated.
A year later his model wife, Aline Skaf, filed an assault suit against him. And on July 15, 2008, Hannibal and his wife were held for two days and charged with assaulting two maids in a hotel in Geneva, Switzerland. Gaddafi retaliated by arresting Swiss nationals in Libya and suspended oil deliveries to Switzerland.
Rumours have long abounded that state funds were used to further the career of Col Gaddafi's footballing son, Saadi, who despite his limited talent once played for Perugia in the Italian football league. The 37-year old, third son of Gaddafi was planning a new city styled on Vegas in the west of Libya.
Fiona Govan @'The Telegraph'
The shaven headed bachelor, who keeps lions as pets, enjoys sea fishing and has a number of falcons with which he hunts, pledged a £1.5 million through his foundation to his alma mater, the LSE, a donation that in the light of recent events has caused no end of embarrassment to the university.
Saif al-Islam was a regular at London's top night spots. He and his brothers reportedly paid over £600,000 a pop to get Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Usher to sing at their birthday parties.
It is reported that Saif al-Islam owns an £10 million mansion in Hampstead, North London – complete with suede-lined cinema room and swimming pool. The house was bought in 2009 by a holding company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
According to US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks, the Gaddafi children routinely benefited from the Libya's wealth. One cable written by Chris Stevens, a US diplomat in Libya, said it had "become common practice" for government funds to be used to promote companies controlled by Gaddafi's children. He also indicated that their companies have all benefited from "considerable government financing and political backing."
Gaddafi's fifth eldest son, Hannibal, also developed a reputation for things unconnected to his business acumen. In 2001, he attacked three Italian policemen with a fire extinguisher. In September 2004, he was briefly detained in Paris after driving a Porsche at high speed in the wrong direction and through red lights down the Champs-Elysees while intoxicated.
A year later his model wife, Aline Skaf, filed an assault suit against him. And on July 15, 2008, Hannibal and his wife were held for two days and charged with assaulting two maids in a hotel in Geneva, Switzerland. Gaddafi retaliated by arresting Swiss nationals in Libya and suspended oil deliveries to Switzerland.
Rumours have long abounded that state funds were used to further the career of Col Gaddafi's footballing son, Saadi, who despite his limited talent once played for Perugia in the Italian football league. The 37-year old, third son of Gaddafi was planning a new city styled on Vegas in the west of Libya.
Fiona Govan @'The Telegraph'
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