Senate boldly advances to 2005 with updated Web linking rules

Via ARS Technica

By Julian Sanchez | Published: September 25, 2008 – 10:44AM CT

At long last, John McCain and Barack Obama can pantomime lightsaber duels or get their Numa Numa on like any other red-blooded American. In a move that a spokesperson for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) called “a major step into the future,” the Senate Rules and Administration Committee has deigned to permit links to third-party sites like YouTube and Flickr from Senators’ official pages.

Roll Call reports that the change was made last week, ending the oft-ignored ban, but preserving general rules against using official resources for either commercial or partisan political purposes. The details will presumably need working out as, for instance, an embedded YouTube video will typically display a list of “related” videos after it ends, over which members of Congress would have little control.

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Malaysia arrests second blogger

Via the BBC

An opposition blogger has been arrested for allegedly displaying a national flag upside down on his website, as the government comes under more pressure.

Syed Azidi Syed Aziz, better known as Kickdefella, is the second blogger to be arrested in a week.

The Malaysian opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, is demanding a vote of no confidence in the government.

Mr Anwar says he now has the support of enough MPs to bring down Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi.

Mr Syed Aziz, picked up late on Wednesday, is being held under the Sedition Act.

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Federal lawsuits take on the humble hyperlink

Via ARS Technica

By Nate Anderson | Published: September 18, 2008 – 05:34AM CT

R.E.M. once sang about “the end of the world as we know it,” but Michael Stipe & Co. never suspected that the brat-loving, cheese-eating, grain-growing Midwest might be the source of the world-ending scourge. But a pair of recent federal court cases coming from Wisconsin and Illinois have threatened to turn the most primitive functionality of the web—the hyperlink—into an “ask permission before linking” system.

Perhaps the full lyric should run, “It’s the end of the web as we know it, and I feel fine,” except that it’s hard to feel to great about the end of the web.

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