Faradays law

On Monday, California state Senator Connie Leyva introduced the Silenced No More Act, a bill that advocates say will protect employees who speak out about discrimination at work, even if they’ve signed nondisclosure agreements. “SB 331 will prevent workers from being forced to sign non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements that would limit their ability to speak out about harassment and discrimination in the workplace,” Leyva said in a statement. “It is unacceptable for any employer to try to silence a worker because he or she was a victim of any type of harassment or discrimination—whether due to race, sexual orientation, religion, age or any other characteristic.” The newly introduced legislation builds on work by Ifeoma Ozoma, a former Pinterest employee who went public in June, alongside her colleague Aerica Shimizu Banks, with allegations of racism and sexism at the company. Ozoma knew she was partially covered by a California law called … [Read more...] about New California law would exempt employees who speak out about discrimination from NDAs

Polish spies could be secretly eyeballing world leaders attending the NATO summit in Warsaw, but it's impossible to know if such snooping is taking place—all thanks to a new law that came into force just last week. The new anti-terrorism legislation was signed by Polish president Andrzej Duda on June 22. It came into force one week later. Under the law, secret surveillance may be carried out on any foreigner for up to three months without a court order. This includes undercover audio and video taping, bugging private premises, and accessing private electronic and phone communications. National leaders including British Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (who will face tough questions over his decision not to invest in military aircraft ), German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Francois Hollande are all in the Polish capital for the summit over the next few days. The new law, which also allows police … [Read more...] about How Poland’s intrusive new spying law could bug world leaders at NATO summit

US President Donald Trump signed legislation on Thursday that stops telecom carriers from using government funds to buy network equipment from Huawei and ZTE. Initially, the Chinese technology company's equipment was deemed a threat to national security under a draft of the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) then decided in November 2019 to bar the use of its $8.5 billion a year Universal Service Fund for purchasing equipment and services from the Chinese companies . "This legislation will help protect our telecommunications infrastructure by prohibiting the use of Federal funds to purchase equipment from companies that pose a national security threat," a White House briefing release said on Thursday. Read more : Huawei ban: Full timeline as Trump signs law to stop rural carriers from using its gear In addition, the law requires the FCC to make a program to help smaller providers with the cost of ripping out … [Read more...] about Trump signs law barring rural carriers from using Huawei gear

In 2012, Illinois saw a rash of cases involving the Illinois Eavesdropping Act, which forbade making audio or visual recordings of people without explicit consent from everyone in the recording. In practice, the law made recording on-duty police officers a felony in the state. The prosecutions of citizens that ensued prompted the ACLU to challenge the state's Eavesdropping Act, and it was eventually ruled unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds in the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals . In November 2012, the US Supreme Court denied a request from a Chicago-based prosecutor to review the Seventh Circuit’s decision, letting it stand. That victory for defendants who were charged with violating the Act has helped the ACLU in similar cases. In 2010, the group brought a case against Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, who had been prosecuting ACLU staff members for recording on-duty police officers. The Northern Illinois District Court judge overseeing the case ruled that … [Read more...] about Illinois county to pay ACLU $600K after high court voids eavesdropping law

Less than two weeks ago, Texan gunsmith and law student Cody Wilson made headlines ( Ars included ) when he demonstrated a new 3D-printed lower receiver for an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle that can fire more than 600 rounds. At that time, the United States Department of Justice told Ars that Wilson's initiative was completely legal. On Monday afternoon at 5pm CT, Wilson is scheduled to give a talk at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, where he plans on announcing the next phase of his existing nonprofit organization, Defense Distributed . He's already released a promo video in advance of the talk. Wilson's new company is called DefCAD, and public records show it was registered as a Delaware corporation on March 4, 2013. Wilson told Ars that this new company will expand the work DefCAD.org has been doing so far. The company is looking to raise $500,000 in the next 30 days, after which it will formally open for business. Wilson said DefCAD will become a … [Read more...] about 3D printing gunmaker forms company to flout copyright law, à la the Pirate Bay