3 posts tagged “law”
Inquiry Set on Mormon Aid for California Marriage Vote
By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: November 25, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — California officials will investigate accusations that the Mormon Church neglected to report a battery of nonmonetary contributions — including phone banks, a Web site and commercials — on behalf of a ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage.
Roman Porter, the executive director of the Fair Political Practices Commission, which oversees California campaign finance laws, signed off on the investigation after reviewing a sworn complaint filed on Nov. 13.
The complaint, filed by Fred Karger, founder of the group Californians Against Hate, asserted that the church’s reported contributions — about $5,000, according to state election filings — vastly underestimated its actual efforts in passing Proposition 8, which amended the state’s Constitution to recognize only male-female marriage.
Broadly speaking, California state law requires disclosure of any money spent or services provided to influence the outcome of an election...
Tennessee to swear in first woman chief justice
Tennessee will swear in its first woman state Supreme Court chief justice today in Nashville.
Janice M. Holder, 58, of Memphis will be one of 20 women chief justices nationwide, according to the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Va.
Judge Orders YouTube to Give All User Histories to Viacom
By Ryan Singel July 02, 2008 | 7:16:54 PM
Google will have to turn over every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users' names and IP addresses, to Viacom, which is suing Google for allowing clips of its copyright videos to appear on YouTube, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Viacom wants the data to prove that infringing material is more popular than user-created videos, which could be used to increase Google's liability if it is found guilty of contributory infringement...
...Although Google argued that turning over the data would invade its users' privacy, the judge's ruling described that argument as "speculative" and ordered Google to turn over the logs on a set of four tera-byte hard drives...
...The order also requires Google to turn over copies of all videos that it has taken down for any reason...
