|
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||
police payout for mclibel twoLondon's Metropolitan Police recently agreed to pay £10,000 to the McLibel Two as part of an out of court settlement of a case in which the police were accused of disclosing confidential information to McDonald's in relation to 1994's McLibel trial. As part of the settlement, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner also agreed to warn all officers not to pass on confidential data. Helen Steel (34) and Dave Morris (46) launched proceedings on 17 September 1998 against the Commissioner and Detective Sergeant David Valentine over their disclosure of confidential information to McDonald's, claiming damages for misfeasance in public office, breach of confidence and breach of their right to privacy. The trial had been set to start in June, but in order to avoid what they called "a difficult and lengthy trial" the Met agreed to pay £10,000 to the McLibel Two, plus their legal costs, and most significantly "to bring this settlement to the attention of the three Area Commanders of the Metropolitan Police Force and ask them to remind their officers of their responsibility not to disclose information on the Police National Computer to a third party." Under the consent order, DS Valentine also stated he "regretted any distress of the claimants caused by the disclosure of their details" to a private investigator hired by McDonald's to infiltrate London Greenpeace. It emerged during the McLibel trial that police (including Special Branch) officers had passed private and in some cases false information about the McLibel Two (and other protestors), including home addresses, to McDonald's and to their private investigator. In a press statement, the McLibel Two stated: "At the 11th hour the police pulled out of facing a case which would've demonstrated illegal police practices. In recent years there have been a number of publicised incidents of the police passing information about campaigners to private companies. It's clear that their claim to be impartial defenders of the public is a hollow one. This collusion reveals the political role of the police in ensuring the wheels of big business keep turning. This case has forced the Met to warn all London police officers against such practices."
|
CONTENTS
|
||
mcenglishSome people think anarchists have paranoid delusions about McDonald's. Those of you who don't read the capitalist media may have missed a report in The Economist (July 15-21, 2000) which suggests we haven't been paranoid enough. According to this brilliant bastion of the establishment, McDonald's have extended their well-known legal attacks against any business using a common Celtic prefix in their name. The company has sued a sausage stand in Denmark (McAllan's), a coffee shop in California (run by a woman named McCaughhey) and a British sandwich shop (named McMunchies). However, the scary case involves a small internet-based health care company in Switzerland named McWellness. McDonald's wrote to the US patent offices' trademark trial and appeal board claiming the company is likely to "expand the use of its 'Mc' formative marks to include the same services on which the McWellness is intended to be used." McDonald's, it seems, intends to branch out into medical services, and amongst other things claims to have registered ownership of the slogan "Immunise for Healthy Lives".
Other McDonald's-registered trademarks include 'McTravel' and 'McSpaceStation'. A McFuture looms.
|
|