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Monday, April 19, 2010

Toyota has agreed to pay a record $16.4 million fine to the US government over allegations that the automaker concealed defects in its vehicles.

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood made the announcement Monday, saying in an e-mailed statement that “Toyota has accepted responsibility for violating its legal obligations to report any defects promptly.” Toyota has still not admitted any wrongdoing, and said that it disagreed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which levied the fine against Toyota. In a statement, Toyota said it “denies N.H.T.S.A.’s allegation that it violated the Safety Act or its implementing regulations. We believe we made a good faith effort to investigate this condition and develop an appropriate counter-measure.”

Toyota is still at risk of lawsuits from those affected by cars that crashed due to a safety defect in the accelerator pedal. Numerous such lawsuits have been filed, and analysts said that the total cost of the lawsuits could be upwards of two billion dollars in 2010, and possibly as much as ten billion in total. While the government fine is largely symbolic, as the amount was limited by US law, it could provide support for lawyers who are filing legal charges against Toyota. If the cap on the fine was not in place, Toyota would have been fined a total of $13.8 billion; each of the 2.3 million defective vehicles sold would have had a $6,000 fine.

Additionally, the NHTSA is reportedly considering a second fine, also of $16.4 million, based on evidence that there were two separate defects in the affected vehicles, and the company is facing an investigation from both the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released a report on the environmental performance of the New Zealand Government. Although the Government applauds the findings as vindicating its path to sustainability the report makes a wide range of recommendations in order to improve environmental performance. It calls for better protection of water, a clarification and strengthening of climate change policy, an upgrade of waste management and improvement environmental reporting.

The previous report was released in 1996 and a number of improvements have been noted. Thse include minimising harmful substances in agriculture and fisheries, improving drinking water, balancing social and environmental concerns and expanding protected areas.

It is part of a second cycle of peer reviewed reports on the OECD member countries.

The time is 22:00 (UTC) on January 4, 2007, and this is Audio Wikinews News Briefs.

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Saturday, December 3, 2005

A U.S. federal judge ruled on Nov. 28 that 17-year old Charlene Nguon can sue her high school principal who revealed to her mother that she is lesbian.

The lawsuit, brought in September by a high school senior in California, claims she was unfairly disciplined by the school for kissing her girlfriend. She also alleges that her sexuality caused the school to suspend her when there was no specific policy addressing displays of public affection in the student handbook, and that her privacy rights were violated when the school principal revealed to her parents that she was lesbian.

The school district sought to have the charges dismissed by arguing in part that Nguon was openly gay on campus, and therefore had no right to privacy on the matter.

Judge James V. Selna of the Central District Court of California found that the school district was immune from the plaintiff’s claims in a 13-page finding issued on Monday. However, the individual administrators, the school principal and superintendent, did not qualify for immunity. In his findings he noted that the administrators did not take “action to stop or remedy the alleged harassment and discrimination”, and did not enact an “adequate formal or informal policy to ensure that Santiago High is providing a learning environment free from discrimination”, which is a requirement of the California Education Code.

In allowing the lawsuit to move forward, Judge Selna found that Nguon had “sufficiently alleged a legally protected privacy interest in information about her sexual orientation.”

Nguon is seeking unspecified damages and is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

“This is the first court ruling we’re aware of where a judge has recognized that a student has a right not to have her sexual orientation disclosed to her parents,” said Christine Sun, Nguon’s lawyer.

Nguon was found in the hallway openly kissing and hugging her girlfriend, actions permitted between heterosexual students at the Santiago High School in Garden Grove, California. The school principal, Ben Wolf, told Nguon’s mother about her daughter’s sexuality after the student failed to stop the displays of affection between her and her girlfriend. During this time, Nguon was suspended numerous times for ignoring the requests, and was ultimately forced to temporarily change schools.

No trial date is set. The parties are scheduled to return to court on Jan. 23.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Two weeks ago, on February 1^st, it was the second day of the national environmental Focus the Nation teach-in. One of these events, which took place at the same time at other educational institutions across the country, took place in the city of Lynn at the campus of North Shore Community College.

Wikinews accredited reporter Patrick Mannion was there in attendance along with Congressman John F. Tierney of Massachusetts’s 6th congressional district and Lynn’s State Senator Thomas McGee. One of Lynn’s two representatives, Robert Fennell, also attended; the other representative Steven Walsh sent an aide. The representatives for the nearby cities of Salem and Beverly, John Keenan and Mary Grant along with various local area mayors and city councilors also attended the event.

John F. Kerry, the senator for Massachusetts was supposed to attend but could not due to voting on the economic stimulus package in Washington D.C.. However, Senator Kerry did record a video statement DVD for the event in which he addressed the gathered crowd. North Shore’s president, Wayne M. Burton, hosted the event.

Senator McGee started things off by talking about the need to recreate the North Shore Technical High School to include a focus on environmental jobs and the need to improve the Essex Agricultural and Technical High School which is deteriorating, but is known for it’s agricultural teaching which would help to save the dwindling farming areas north of Boston.

McGee urged people that should get more involved with their local farming co-ops and that farmland needs to be recognized and redeveloped. He noted that obesity in young people is a problem and that schools are developing partnerships with local farms to provide more healthy meals and to show students whats going on at their local farm.

Representative Keenan commended the college for holding this dialogue and Al Gore along with his movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Keenan noted the need for Salem’s coal-fired power station for the need to switch to clean coal.

Walsh aide’s brought up the fact he is committed to ending paper waste at the Massachusetts State House.

The city council president from Chelsea, Roseann Bongiovanni, who is also the associate executive director of the local community organization, the Chelsea Collaborative, asked the various reasons for the crowd in why they became concerned about global warming. The audience noted the melting of ice sheets, air quality, Hurricane Katrina and Al Gore.

Bongiovanni then noted that Chelsea and neighboring East Boston have no green space or waterfront due the industrialization of both areas, noting that 100% of the jet fuel for planes at Logan Airport, 70% to 80% of heating oil and that the trucks delivering the oil are spewing diesel. She also noted the large salt pile in Chelsea used for the deicing of highways in the Commonwealth and said that it is located there “illegally.”

She further noted the company, Energy Management Inc., behind the controversial Cape Wind project, proposed building a diesel power plant across the street from a Chelsea elementary school and that air quality in Chelsea is bad. She closed her dialogue by noting that “Global warming does not recognize boundaries.”

Mary Grant said she was interested in hearing ideas and noted the redeveloping of Beverly’s high school to include more solar panels and a new wind turbine and that the school would be powered by 50% of it.

One person asked the need to lower the level of bureaucracy in government as she was “running aroundcity government” in order to have a bee farm in her backyard.

Robert Fenell, the owner of Lynn’s Capitol Diner who is notable for keeping chickens at the establishment located in downtown Lynn just two blocks away from the college noted that people should start going organic and going back to nature, that people should switch to more energy efficient lighting and grow gardens in their backyard.

After Fennell spoke it was time for questions and answers, and questions were given by various audiences members including Mannion himself, who asked about the MBTA‘s Blue Line and rapid transit and others asking various questions such wither or not to include a green curriculum in state education or asking for the politicians to talk more on some of their positions.

After questions and answers finished, the video statement from John Kerry began to play. Kerry noted that there are still skeptics of global warming and climate change in Congress who “test the science” despite the efforts and research of Al Gore and the United Nations and noting that “the White House is the last place for change.”

He then went on to say that the world needed a new international treaty on climate change and noted that America is horrendous when it comes to energy efficiency. Kerry also noted that the Bush administration resisted the change and the points of the climate conference in Bail; “Luckily, time is almost up,” added Kerry.

Kerry went on to mention the need for massive new research on new energy and capturing carbon and noted he was working with Alaska’s senator, Ted Stevens on pushing for sequestering plants.

Kerry continued the theme of environmental conservation and change by topping off his statement by reminding the crowd of first Earth Day and how it lead to the creation of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and the Environmental Protection Agency and it noted it happened because of people’s actions.

Tierney finished off the speech by noting the need for high risk energy research in the style of DARPA so we can better compete against the “Chinas and Japans.” He also called for more green-collar jobs and noted his work on last year’s Green Jobs Act.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The online payment service PayPal has received a banking licence in Luxembourg, promoting it to the status of a bank. As a consequence PayPal will move their headquarters to Luxembourg.

Since 2004 PayPal had the status of an Electronic Money Issuer supervised by the U.K. Financial Services Authority. Having an official bank status opens new prospects for the company: “This will allow us to actively scout retailers in different European countries. With our British licence, we could only do that in the U.K. itself, and in other countries we could only react to requests of the retailers themselves,” Christopher Coonen, General Manager of PayPal Southern Europe and Benelux, explained.

The change will not affect existing customers dramatically, says Coonen: “We are going to inform them of the new status, and they will have to accept our terms of service again.” He also said that for now, there were no plans to use the new licence to offer traditional banking services, but the possibility was being evaluated by PayPal. Working with local partners would be an option to accomplish this, according to Coonen.

The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph speculates that the move is part of a strategy to compete with Google’s payment service Google Checkout, which launched in the U.K. last month.

PayPal has 130 million users worldwide, and 35 million customers in Europe. Payments via its mother company eBay continue to make up 60% of PayPal’s revenues. More than half of Britain’s internet users have a PayPal account.

Friday, June 20, 2008

The third annual Taste of Taiwan Cuisine opened on Wednesday of June 18, 2008 and runs until June 21. Organized by Taiwan External Trade Development Council to promote the culinary culture of Taiwan, the tradeshow featured three main shows for food and food packaging industries: “Food Taipei”, “Foodtech Taipei”, and “Taipei Pack”.

Twenty-seven countries including United States, South Korea, Canada, Japan, Sri Lanka, Austria, Philippines, Chile, Malaysia, Spain, Fiji, Poland, and six nations from Africa, grouped their own national pavilions for sourcing and procurement. In addition, the Taiwan Pavilion featured sections on culture, product image, brand design, and agriculture verification in Food Taipei.

Industrial solutions including medical applications, packaging machines, food CNCs, and bar-code printers are showcased in the “Foodtech Taipei” and “Taipei Pack”. Seminars and forums from security, global marketing, and policies for food, machinery, and packaging industries are also held during show hours.

After the 3-in-1 show in Taipei, the Kaohsiung International Food Show will be scheduled for November.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

PRS for Music is the UK’s music royalty collection society tasked with working on behalf of copyright holders, specifically authors and music publishers. Founded in 1914, the PRS is a non-profit organisation with 350,000 UK businesses holding PRS licenses. The society works in conjunction with PPL which collects fees on behalf of the copyright holders of the actual recording.So, if a cover version of a song is played on UK radio, PRS collect a fee on behalf of the original writer and publisher, whilst PPL collect a fee on behalf of the record company of the cover. In a recent Wikinews interview, Paul Campbell, founder of Amazing Radio, an unsigned UK radio station, lambasted PRS for their “barmy standard contract” and their outdated equipment. That interview can be found here.

Wikinews reporter Tristan Thomas interviews PRS, following up on Campbell and others’ criticism as well as finding out about future plans.

((Wikinews)) Firstly, thank you for the time in doing this interview.

((WN)) Last year, you were involved in a high profile dispute with YouTube. Can you briefly explain to our audience what that was all about and the final outcome of it?

((PRS)) PRS for Music was the first collecting society in the world to license the YouTube service, meaning if music videos were watched online then our members – who created them – would receive a small royalty payment. When we went to renew the licence that YouTube held we couldn’t agree as to how much should be paid and exactly what should be covered within it. We believed that music had become a much larger part of the YouTube service and that YouTube/Google should reflect the increased use of our members’ creative talent in the amount they paid.

The great thing is that we kept talking to YouTube throughout the dispute and managed to reach an agreement in September which meant that the videos could be accessed again by UK YouTube users and that our 65,000 songwriter, composer and music publisher members would be paid.

((WN)) How many artists do you represent and how much did you collect during 2009 for them?

((PRS)) We represent 65,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. We haven’t released our 2009 figures yet but in 2008 we collected over £600m for them. The main sources of revenue come from recorded media (CDs, DVDs etc), international use, public performance use and use in television, radio and online.

((WN)) Paul Campbell in a recent interview with us said the following:“PRS has a barmy standard contract for using their members’ music online. It requires us to pay them a fixed percentage of ALL revenue from that website – whether or not the revenue is derived from their members’ work. So if we had 100,000 songs from non-PRS artists on amazingtunes.com, and one song from a PRS artist, we’d have to pay them a percentage of the revenue from ALL 100,000 songs. I.e., we’d have to take money out of the pockets out of non-PRS artists to pay to PRS. That would be immoral.”How do you respond to that?

((PRS)) Anyone using music in a commercial way – such as a radio station – is required to obtain the permission of those that created the music. This could be numerous writers, publishers and a record label for each song, possibly in different countries around the world. By obtaining a PRS for Music and PPL licence in the UK you are ensuring you have those permissions for over 10million musical works. Obviously much of the music used on radio comes from non-UK writers who may not be members of PRS for Music. Radio and television stations give us almost 100% accurate reports of their music use through their own playlists; this data then enables organisations such as ours to work out who should be paid and how much. PRS for Music has 144 agreements in place with similar societies around the world, resulting in us representing almost 2 million writers worldwide. If French, American, Spanish, Australian or any other writer’s music is used we will pay the respective societies so they can pay their members.

Similarly a writer of musician may be ‘unsigned’ by that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t earn from their music when it is used by others. Many bands, writers and performers are currently unsigned but by being members of PRS for Music they ensure that they can begin earning vital royalties that allow them to continue with their musical career.

((WN)) How does the PRS ensure that artists outside the UK are properly compensated when their music is used within the UK, such as Thai or Chinese restaurants paying their PRS dues and exclusively using music which is from outside Europe?

((PRS)) As mentioned before PRS for Music has agreements in place in over 90 countries around the world to ensure that when music is used the right creators are rewarded. The system – built up over the last century – works both ways and when UK music is used internationally, PRS for Music receives royalties from foreign societies so we can pay our members. In 2008 £139.8m was collected from UK music use abroad, with the UK being one of only a few net exporters of music in the world.

((WN)) There have been a few cases in which PRS have been forced to apologise, exemplified by the threat of prosecution and a fine towards “singing granny” Sandra Burt, a shelf-stacker who sung to herself whilst stacking shelves. How has PRS moved forward from these incidents in order to ensure they do not happen again?

((PRS)) If we have made mistakes we will of course put our hands up and say so. For example when we were approached about the Sandra Burt case – by a journalist incidentally and not Sandra – we did give out slightly incorrect advice, although the questions were a little ambiguous. Once we realised our mistake we contacted Sandra to explain that she wouldn’t need a licence to sing to her customers and offered our sincere apologies. As an organisation we are very quick to admit where we get things wrong and ensure they are put right. We’re proud of our record with our customers and currently have 350,000 businesses choosing to use music in the UK.

To put the complaints in context we have only have 1 for approximately every 5,000 customer contacts we make. This is an exceptionally low ratio and there are many firms who would be envious of a record like this. During 2009 our complaints fell by 50% and we appointed an independent ombudsmen who could handle any complaints if they were not resolved internally. As of January 2010 no complaints have needed to be passed on to the ombudsmen.

((WN)) How does the PRS work with musicians who are not signed to major labels, may make music available for download via their own websites or MySpace, and do not have the financial resources to protect their copyright?

((PRS)) Many of the PRS for Music membership is not signed to a major record label and we represent creators from all genres of music in the UK and abroad. By joining PRS for Music, which only costs £10 deferred to your first royalty payment, you ensure you can begin earning royalties whenever your music is played, performed or reproduced. We have worked hard to license such sites as YouTube, MySpace, Spotify and Sky Songs to name a selection to ensure our members can be rewarded when their work is used.

Our membership team also work hard to support our creators holding showcase events, offering advice of how to get their music used as well as legal and financial advice.

((WN)) Finally, what future plans do you have as an organisation in order to further protect and enhance your members work as new technologies emerge over the next few years?

((PRS)) PRS for Music will continue to be at the forefront of licensing new digital and online services to ensure creators are paid. We aim to get the balance right to ensure new products and music services can launch and develop, but that also they pay for the music they use.

The music industry is changing and the way we use music is continually changing (it always has) but we’ll still be at the forefront enabling people to use music whenever they want, and rewarding those that have created that music.

((WN)) Thank you for taking the time out for this interview. Good luck for 2010.