Despite it having been a slow news day, the European Union can always be counted on as a beacon of hope to bureaucrats and dictators everywhere on how to destroy civil liberties.
EU Holding Disabled Rights Hostage For New ACTA
Proving that there are no depths to which the European Union won’t happily sink, passage of the ‘Treaty for the Visually Impaired’ has been blocked by EU negotiators in Geneva this week. The treaty would have led to copyright exceptions allowing the non profit development of tools necessary for the disabled, including both the blind and deaf to consume content that they are currently unable to do so. Instead, the EU is now holding the exceptions hostage and is attempting to demand what look to be copies of sections of ACTA be included in the treaty. According to the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue blog,
…members of the European Blind Union will attend the [next] meeting with black pirate flags and one pirate patch over each eye.
Nintendo Investigation Reveals Child Labour Used At Foxconn
After unconfirmed reports of children present at factories owned by the now infamous Foxconn, Nintendo launched an investigation into it’s manufacturers operations. Whiles interns were known and publicly working at Foxconn, the report found them also working on factory floors, against the corporations own policies.
References:
1. EU Holding Disabled Rights Hostage For New ACTA: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121020/23344420778/eu-us-negotiators-looking-to-hold-blind-deaf-access-rights-hostage-to-get-new-actasopa.shtml
2. Nintendo Investigation Reveals Child Labour Used At Foxconn: http://kotaku.com/5954397/the-result-of-nintendos-investigation-into-underage-foxconn-workers