The protection of e.g. software, computer games, film and music is increased

Intellectual property rightholders to e.g. music, film, literature, computer games and software will be given better possibilities to act against illegal file sharing on the Internet. This is proposed in a bill adopted by the Government and delivered to the Parliament today.

- If the creators of computer games, movies or music lack the possibility of making money on their products, they will not be able to afford hiring the people they need in order for their companies to grow. This Bill gives the creative industry the possibility to grow, says Minister for Justice Beatrice Ask.

Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights applies to all types of intellectual property rights, such as copyright, patent, trademark and so forth, in the physical as well as the digital environment.

The Swedish legislation already complies with most of the provisions in the Directive. However, in order to reach full compliance, some amendments needs to be done. Among other things, Sweden has to introduce provisions that give rightholders a right to information on the origin and distribution networks of the goods or services which infringe an intellectual property right. In respect to the enforcement of copyright, the European Court of Justice has stated that the Member States have a certain room for manoeuvre, but the result must be an effective protection also on the Internet. Therefore, it is up to each Member State to decide if rightholders shall be given a possibility to get access to information about the identity of an individual behind an IP-address on the Internet, or if the effective protection should be accomplished in a different way.

In the area of intellectual property rights, the main rule has for a long time been that these rights should first and foremost be upheld by the rightholders themselves, through civil remedies (e.g. damages). Infringements of intellectual property rights can also result in criminal sanctions such as fines or imprisonment, but this is more of a complement to the civil remedies. However, when it comes to infringements on the Internet, it has often been almost impossible for rightholders to make use of the civil remedies. The reason for this is that all you can see on the Internet is an anonymous IP-address. Today, rightholders cannot obtain information about the identity of the person behind the IP-address.

The proposal put forward by the Government will make it possible for a Swedish court, in the same way as in many other countries, to order an Internet Service Provider to give the rightholder information about the identity of the individual behind an IP-address. The information will only be disclosed after a court order. Such an order may be issued if the rightholder has presented sufficient evidence (probable course) that an infringement has been committed from the IP-address in question. The court has to respect principle of proportionality and has to balance the rightholders interest of receiving the information against other interests, such as the integrity of the individual behind the IP-address. This means that the infringement must be of a certain degree in order for the rightholder to obtain the information. This is generally the case when e.g. one movie or one piece of music is made available to the public - e.g. via file sharing - on the Internet, since this typically results in considerable damage for the rightholder. This is also the case when it is a question of more frequent downloading. In such cases, the rightholder will normally get access to the information. However, if it is only a matter of downloading a few works, the interest of integrity will normally prevail. In such cases, the information will not be disclosed. If the person behind an IP-address is disclosed, he will receive information about this after a certain time.

This legislation will, contrary to what is normally the case concerning this kind of provisions, only apply to infringements that have been committed after the legislation has entered into force.

Furthermore, the Government will immediately initiate an evaluation concerning the application of this legislation. The evaluation shall, among other things, include a follow-up on the question whether or not the legislation primarily is used to act against more serious infringements.

The proposal does not - as claimed by some people during the debate in media - give rightholders the authority to act as policemen. It is only a question of creating a real possibility for rightholders to use the civil remedies that already exist in the legislation.

Nor does this mean that the person that holds the subscription behind the IP-address in question automatically will be responsible for illegal activities, e.g. illegal file sharing, carried out by someone via his connection to the Internet. But it will give rightholders a possibility to contact the subscriber and a possibility for the subscriber to prevent further infringements via his connection. If the rightholder wants to go further and obtain a court order obliging a person to pay damages, he has to initiate a proceeding against that person and in this proceeding prove that the defendant has caused the rightholder the damages claimed.

Maldives participates in human rights reviews of Sri Lanka and Tonga

15 May: Permanent Representative of the Maldives to the United Nations office at Geneva, H.E. Mr. Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed has this week participated in the Universal Periodic Reviews (UPR) of Sri Lanka and Tonga at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The Universal Periodic Review is an important new mechanism under which the human rights records of all UN Member States are assessed by their peers in the international community. During the interactive debate on the National Report of Sri Lanka, Ambassador Ghafoor expressed the Maldives’ strong support for the efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka to strengthen human rights promotion and protection under very difficult security circumstances: “As a close neighbor and friend, having extensively rich and varied historical cultural and social ties that extend over centuries past, Maldives is only too aware of the many challenges faced by the Government of Sri Lanka as it tries to balance its national security needs and ensuring the protection and promotion of its human rights obligations to all its citizen, while combating one of the most ruthless and deadliest terrorist organizations in the world. This situation was further exacerbated by the terrible devastation and destruction caused by the tsunami of December 2004, from which the country is still recovering. Maldives takes note of the many commitments made, and efforts underway, by the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure the continued protection and promotion of human rights of its people. Sri Lanka has taken a number of important steps to better guarantee its human rights obligations, and identified key priority areas of action for the future. It is evident that Sri Lanka will need the continued understanding, empathy, support and assistance of the international community as it tries to achieve the goals it has set forth for itself. My delegation hopes and it confident that the international community will be forthcoming in its response. Maldives especially welcomes the Sri Lankan Government’s commitment to pluralism and notes the recently initiated targeted recruitment of policemen and women from a minority community. We recommend that Sri Lanka pursue this initiative and move to greater integration of all communities in the public and security services. Maldives would like to take this opportunity to wish the Government and people of Sri Lanka an early and everlasting peaceful solution to the deadly conflict that has brought so much misery and suffering to its people, and hindered the realization of the country’s full developmental potential for many years”, concluded the Ambassador. Maldives’ participation in the review of Tonga reflects the common challenges faced by the two countries as Small Island Developing States with limited human and technical resources. Tonga’s Review is the first of a Small Island State. Maldives will be reviewed in late 2010.Ambassador Ghafoor said“ As the Government of Tonga makes clear throughout the report, two of the key challenges it faces are to strengthen human rights protection while respecting and promoting its proud cultural heritage; and secondly to take such steps in the face of extreme human and technical resource constraints. Indeed, such challenges are common to many Small Island States and we urge Members of the Council to be sensitive to this fact when conducting today’s Review. Considering the resource constraints faced by Small Island States such as Tonga, it is vital that relevant international organizations and donor states engage positively and constructively to help the country undertake the reforms that it itself identifies as imperative in its own National Report. In the human rights field, there are considerable resources that can be made available to Tonga in order to strengthen national policy, institutions and practice. For example, United Nations Special Reporters can offer invaluable, impartial expert advice in areas such as press freedom, judicial independence, and women’s rights. Likewise, human rights Treaty Body recommendations can act as a catalyst and guide to encourage international donors and agencies, including the OHCHR, to engage and extend much-needed financial and technical assistance”.

BLACK WALNUT - Juglans nigra, Linn

WALNUT IS UNQUETIONABLY the finest wood in the world. Our forefathers sought it out and used it lavishly in their homes, barns and fences. The warm brown wood finishes beautifully. It is easy to work, yet durable. It shrinks and swells less than any other wood, which makes it valuable to cabinet makers and gunsmiths alike.

Practically everyone recognizes a walnut tree when the nuts are on it. Their distinct shape, pattern and smell are hard to miss. The stain the hulls leave on your skin when you hull walnuts is hard to get off; pioneers used this to dye their cloth. There are other distinctive characteristics to identify the tree in other seasons and at ages when it is too young to bear fruit. A sure method is to cut through a twig at an angle and check the pith. This pith is chambered--somewhat like a honeycomb. Only black walnut and butternut--a close relative--have pith like this. Walnut pith is brown and butternut is buff colored. The rather large, horse-faced leaf scars on the twigs, the large naked buds (no scales cover the embryonic leaves), and the smell of the bark and twigs are other easy ways to identify it.

Missouri has been the leading state in the nation in the production of walnut logs and lumber for 50 years. Today large quantities of walnut logs are shipped to Japan, Germany, and Italy. Always in demand, prices for walnut trees now are higher than ever.

High quality logs are made into veneer. Slices of wood 1/28th of an inch thick are glued to cheaper woods to make it economically possible for all of us to buy walnut furniture and paneling. Demand far exceeds supply. We use both veneered and solid in our finest furniture. Its strength, stability and beauty make it unexcelled for gunstocks, too. Hickories and pecans are first cousins (botanically) to walnut.

Walnut grows throughout Missouri in a variety of soils. However, it grows best on the deep, well-drained soils of north Missouri and on alluvial soils in the south. Usually it occurs as scattered trees or in small groves. Strangely, walnut roots transmit a growth-inhibiting chemical which keeps many other trees and plants and even its own kind from growing near it. Blue grass, however, thrives in the light shade of walnut.

Every farm in the state should have a few walnuts. Work should start early to grow high quality trees which the market demands. Young trees two to four inches in diameter should be pruned and formed. Inferior trees crowding the walnuts should be removed.

It should be enough to have a tree with superb wood. Walnut has a double value, though, over a million dollars is paid each year for the nuts. The richly flavored nut meats are used by bakers, candy and ice cream makers. The uses go even further. The hard shells are used as ornaments, and pulverized, they ares used to drill oil wells, clean jet engines and to make activated carbon (a type of industrial charcoal used in a variety of ways). During World War II, gas mask filters were made from this activated carbon. Wildlife loves the walnut, too.

Get to know walnut. Plant it. Care for it. It is Missouri's most valuable tree.

Iron's Safety: Taking a Closer Look

Iron-fortified foods such as breakfast cereals don't pose a special health risk to most people. That includes the one out of every 10 Americans who has one normal and one altered form of a gene linked to iron overload.Men and women volunteers with that genetic makeup did not absorb significantly more iron from their foods in comparison to volunteers with two normal genes for iron absorption, researchers have found.

Scientists at the ARS Grand Forks (N.D.) Human Nutrition Research Center worked with data from volunteers—100 healthy men and women in this study—and presented their findings in a 2004 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.Certain foods are iron-fortified to ensure that we get the recommended daily amount of this essential mineral.

Kara cratert

Kara is a meteor crater in the Yugorsky Peninsula, Nenetsia, Russia.It is 65 km in diameter and the age is estimated to be 70.3 ± 2.2 million years old (Upper Cretaceous). Impactite outcrops located on the Baydarata Gulf shore north-east of the crater imply that the original size of the crater, now greatly eroded, was 120 km in diameter . The crater is not exposed to the surface.

The Kara crater lies in the southeastern end of the Yugorsky Peninsula, while the Ust-Kara site lies offshore, 15 km east of the small Kara or Karskaya Guba inlet. It was formerly believed that these two sites were two separate craters and that they formed a twin impact structure from a large-scale meteorite hit in the late cretaceous. However, it seems that the Ust-Kara site does not exist as a separate site. Apparently, the Suevite outcrops of the Ust-Kara impact structure are only a part of the Kara impact structure. (Hodge 1994 and NASA 1988)