Free Republic

Boy Scouts of America and all off its emblems and insignia are copyright protected. If you are a Scoutmaster, Cubmaster, an anindividual, or a business that Silkscreens hats, neckerchiefs, hats or embroider any item with scout insignia please see below.Boy Scouts of America is waiving the $250 application fee for all new Tier IV (National council and local council supplier) applications received from June 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007. Please be sure to send in a full and complete application package along with samples, otherwise your application will not be reviewed. If you have requested an application packet prior...

News Release California, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire Restrict the Most Jobs Hair braider, fortune teller, florist and interior designer are some of the jobs for which states require licenses Los Angeles (August 24, 2007) – Do you want to be a fortune teller in Maryland? Your future better include a license from the state. How about being a hair braider in Mississippi? You'll need 300 to 1,500 hours of training and government permission. Want to sell flowers in Louisiana? Only licensed florists can do that. And almost every state requires certification if you want to move furniture and hang art...

I just got off the phone with the manufacturer of the new notebook computer I just bought, Acer, and the publisher of the operating system installed on that notebook, Microsoft. You see, since I just purchased a brand new computer with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, I was under the impression that I should actually receive Windows Media Center Edition 2005. But it turns out that I was woefully naive about buying computers. That's an odd statement for me to make, since I am a computer professional at least eight hours per day. I support Windows for a living....

My name is Koroush Ghazi, and I run the site TweakGuides.com. As you can probably guess by the site's name, I like to tweak and tinker with hardware and software. I'm what you might call a 'PC enthusiast': one of those guys who builds his own PC, regularly upgrading it to keep up with the demands of modern gaming. When Paul asked me to write a reply to his Licensing Changes to Vista article I jumped at the chance, given that this issue really affects guys like me. I know from the emails I've received, and from comments I've read...

For most Americans, driving is the most dangerous activity they undertake on a regular basis. We ought to try to make the roads as safe as is humanly possible. Unfortunately, government ownership of the roads and the vehicle-registration/driver-licensing process undermine safety. In “Highways: Public Problems and Private Solutions” (The Freeman, March 1985), I wrote about privatizing the roads. Now I will examine the possibility of privatizing registration and licensing. One approach governments have adopted to deal with the hazards of driving is mandatory insurance. In 44 states plus the District of Columbia, liability insurance is a requirement for vehicle registration....

All too many denizens of the city instinctively rail against corporate America as an article of their political faith but inevitably undermine the entrepreneurial spirit of the mom-and-pop tavern operators in their neighborhoods. This disconnect is played out in various areas of the city, initiated by civic association groups and the elected officials of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission. Their hubris is surpassed only by their thorough misunderstanding of the marketplace.

SALEM — In a paranormal public hearing last night, dozens of psychics argued before a city licensing panel about what the future holds if Salem cracks down on rogue clairvoyants. Unfortunately, no clear vision emerged from the meeting. One side told councilors the city needs to embrace its standing as the Witch City by allowing more licensed psychics. But opponents warned that oversimplifying the process could bring predators bent on making an easy dollar, rather than ethically telling fortunes. The debate unfolded before a hearing of the City Council's licensing committee, which is pondering tightening its regulation of Salem's fortunetelling...

Dog Owner Protests Force Virginia Senators to Postpone Bill Vote Responding to a wave of dog owner concerns, the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee yesterday postponed until February 20, 2006 its vote on HB339 - "Licensing of dogs and cats." HB339 passed the House of Delegates by a split vote on February 14, 2006. Only after its passage did most Virginia pet owners become aware of the bill's far-reaching negative implications. Pressures to defeat this legislation continue to mount. HB339 is a major assault on citizen's privacy. It requires that a Virginia pet-owner database be established, first at...

pple's Made for iPod licensing program may drive away some big-name manufacturers from producing iPod accessories. As noted earlier this year, Apple has notified companies that it will collect a 10 percent royalty fee for products that access the iPod port and may drive manufacturers such as Bose and Altec away from the iPod accessory market, as many believe the fee is much higher than comparable license fees, which are about 1-2 percent, according to Smarthouse: "The move will significantly impact iPod accessory manufacturers with some considering dropping accessories from their portfolio.... Dominique Water the head of Bose's Asia Pacific...

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation that puts restrictions on 16- and 17-year-old drivers, creates an office to prevent sexual abuse in prisons and ban "pocket bikes" from roads, sidewalks and public trails. __ YOUNG DRIVERS: Young drivers will be barred from driving between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. during the first year after getting a drivers license unless accompanied by a licensed driver who is at least 25 years old. The new law also prohibits 16- and 17-year-old drivers from transporting passengers under age 20 during that first year of licensed driving. The law,...

Attorney says Bahamas faces too many risks By MINDELL SMALL,Guardian Staff Reporter mindell@nasguard.com Continuing to voice strong opposition to the proposed Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) attorney Paul D. Moss said The Bahamas faces too many risks if it signs on to it. Mr Moss is Chairman of the group 'Bahamians Agitating for a Referendum on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (BARF)' Over the past three years BARF has been seeking to highlight what it refers to as the "dangers" of not only the CSME but also the WTO and FTAA. BARF said it studied the three...

(CNSNews.com) -- The world's first tobacco control treaty comes into force on Sunday, as the World Health Organization and 57 countries declare war on the tobacco industry and "the tobacco epidemic." More than 160 nations signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), and 57 countries -- including France, Germany, Japan, Canada and Mexico -- have ratified it. The legally binding treaty is "designed to reduce the devastating health and economic impact of tobacco," according to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control website. In addition to banning advertisements for tobacco products, the treaty encourages countries to increase tobacco taxes and...

Having so often been the bearer of bad news from the legal front, I am thrilled to have some good news to report for a change. The old-fashioned shrinkwrap license appears to have suffered from what may well be a mortal wound. Microsoft, Symantec, Adobe, CompUSA, Best Buy, and Staples have agreed in the settlement of a California lawsuit to change their ways, and you can already see the first results at the software retailer nearest you.   In January 2003, California resident Cathy Baker walked into her local CompUSA store to return copies of Windows XP and Norton AntiVirus...

Retiring to the sofa after turkey dinner tomorrow, most Americans may feel they have little in common with the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock. But one defining feature of 17th-century Americans remains: We still migrate for freedom. American mobility is legendary and the notion that it is driven by a desire for liberty is the basis for the methodology behind the Pacific Research Institute's U.S. Economic Freedom Index released last week. Kansas is America's freest state while New York -- home of the Statue of Liberty -- ranks at the bottom. The Index uses five categories -- fiscal, regulatory, judicial, government...

COLUMBUS, Miss., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microtek Medical Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: MTMD - News), a leading manufacturer and marketer of infection control products, fluid control products and safety products to healthcare professionals, announced today the signing of an agreement which grants to Eastern Technologies, Inc. ("ETI") a worldwide exclusive license to manufacture, use and sell the Company's OREX materials and processing technology in the nuclear industry, homeland security industry and certain other industrial applications (the "OREX Nuclear Business"). Dan R. Lee, Microtek's President and Chief Executive Officer commented, "The completion of this agreement is a positive development for Microtek and...

Times (New) Roman and its part in the Development of Scalable Font Technology By Charles Bigelow Charles Bigelow posted this article to the Usenet newsgroup "comp.fonts" in May 1994 in response to the question: What's the difference between Times Roman and Times New Roman? I am grateful to Prof. Bigelow for his permission to publish the article. I have taken the liberty of retitling it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: comp.fonts Subject: Re: What's the difference between Times Roman and Times New Roman? From: Charles Bigelow Date: 5 May 1994 "Times Roman" is the name used by Linotype, and the name they registered...

Pharmacist faces complaint over failure to dispense birth control (Published Tuesday, March 16, 2004 09:10:04 AM CST) Associated Press MADISON, Wis. -- The state Department of Regulation and Licensing has filed a complaint against a pharmacist who refused to fill a woman's birth control prescription because of his religious beliefs. The complaint against Neil Noesen was filed with the Wisconsin Examining Board over an incident that happened in the summer of 2002. It said Noesen, 30, was working as a fill-in pharmacist at the K-Mart Pharmacy in Menomonie and had told the managing pharmacist he wouldn't fill prescriptions for...

A small woodworking tool manufacturer, Stots Corporation, includes a license agreement on its TemplateMaster jig tool. The tool is licensed, not sold, and customers cannot sell it or lend it to others. Nor can they sell or lend the jigs they make with it. We’re all familiar with license agreements on software tools that limit what you can with the product. But what about a license agreement on a real tool limiting what you can with the product and the things you make with it? “Shrinkwrap licenses are showing up everywhere,” a reader recently wrote. “I just bought a jig...

When Burt Rutan rolled out the SpaceShipOne suborbital spacecraft earlier this month (see “Rutan aims for space: A look at SpaceShipOne”, April 21, 2003), one of the biggest surprises had nothing to do with the vehicle’s unique design or flight profile. Instead, despite the fact that the vehicle seemed ideal to win the X Prize and usher in the era of suborbital space tourism, Rutan made it clear there were no plans to put the vehicle into commercial service. SpaceShipOne would fly under an “experimental research and development glider” license on a series of flights to determine what the operating...

<p>Will the licensing efforts of a key patent holder derail Linux's corporate growth?</p> <p>Every so often in the tech world, an intellectual-property lawsuit comes along that gets the coders clucking, predicting that it's the end of the digital world as we know it. A year ago, it was British Telecom's attempt to collect royalties on hyperlinks. And Amazon now and then comes under fire for some of its business-process patents.</p>