Balance Sheet

Jeff Taylor from the February 2003 issue

ASSETS

Home Court

The California Supreme Court rules that Hollywood cannot drag a Texas man into Golden State courts because he posted an unlicensed DVD decoder on the Net. The DVD Copy Control Association should file suit in the man's home state or the state where it thinks the offense occurred, the court says.

French Stew

A French court brushes aside arguments from Jose Bové's lawyers that the tech-hating sheep farmer had no choice but to attack and destroy a field of genetically modified crops. Bové now faces several months in prison and wants President Jacques Chirac to pardon him.

Net Good

Web charity is alive and well. Visitors send $20,000 to the youthful proprietress of savekaryn.com to help defray her credit card bills. And Ernie's House of Whoop Ass enters its second year of PayPal donations to fund holiday travel for overseas U.S. military. Last year visitors donated $13,000.

Duty Call

The Bush administration calls for the elimination of all tariffs on manufactured goods by 2015. The change would affect an estimated $6 trillion in goods.

Change Due

The Ohio Education Association backs down and allows a member teacher to use her dues to support the American Cancer Society instead of the union's political activities. The union admits no wrongdoing, however, and refuses to acknowledge the "sincerity" of teacher Kathleen Klamut's "professed beliefs."

Quantum Leap

Just in time for the total surveillance state, here comes quantum encryption. The process, which scrambles individual photons, is fast, requires no keys, and is thought to be unbreakable.

LIABILITIES

Mystery Map