According to the Guardian, the UK government are subcontracting the administration of the database of all the deaths marriages and births since 1837. That shouldn't be a surprise and it has been quite common practice for the government to privatise functions previously carried out by public service employees.
What I don't quite understand is how they managed to agree to move the database overseas to a company in India, when it is illegal to allow this information outside England and Wales. More likely to be a cock up rather than a conspiracy but it doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence over the future of the coming ID card database, does it?
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Regulating through code
James Grimmelmann builds on Larry Lessig's 'code is law' thesis in a recent Yale Law journal paper. He agrees with Lessig that software regulates behaviour but it does so in subtly different and important ways to physical architecture.
Software is rule based
Software need not be transparent
Software applies the rules whether people engaged in the activity want it to or not i.e. there's no equivalent to blanketly ignoring the idiotic company procedure
Software has bugs and can go wrong (and can get hacked)
He goes on to argue that these characteristics make software (or code) suitable for regulating electronic marketplaces like eBay but unsuitable for regulating access to copyrighted material (ie eBay good, drm no good). The [very clever - one of those 'I wish I'd thought of that' sequences] goes like this:
Both eBay and drm rely on rules. So much for item one. Then we start getting divergence. On eBay and online markets generally the transparency problem with software is mitigated because the parties involved have clear access to the terms of the deal. DRM's lack of transparency causes problems, however. For example, one eboook version of the US Constitution prevents the owner from printing it out. And so the analysis continues.
Excellent paper. Well worth a read for netlaw enthusiasts.
Software is rule based
Software need not be transparent
Software applies the rules whether people engaged in the activity want it to or not i.e. there's no equivalent to blanketly ignoring the idiotic company procedure
Software has bugs and can go wrong (and can get hacked)
He goes on to argue that these characteristics make software (or code) suitable for regulating electronic marketplaces like eBay but unsuitable for regulating access to copyrighted material (ie eBay good, drm no good). The [very clever - one of those 'I wish I'd thought of that' sequences] goes like this:
Both eBay and drm rely on rules. So much for item one. Then we start getting divergence. On eBay and online markets generally the transparency problem with software is mitigated because the parties involved have clear access to the terms of the deal. DRM's lack of transparency causes problems, however. For example, one eboook version of the US Constitution prevents the owner from printing it out. And so the analysis continues.
Excellent paper. Well worth a read for netlaw enthusiasts.
Subscribing to digital music?
If you're thinking of subscribing to a digital music download service like iTunes, this INDICARE article has the basics.
Emails and Pope JP
The Vatican are encouraging good catholics to send emails of support as part of the process of beatifying the late Pope John Paul II. Old JP would have been pleased, as it was he who brought the Net to the Vatican in 1996.
DRM supporter breaks DMCA
To copyright aficionados this will seem funny. Ernest Miller points to the tale of a drm proponent who, when fed up with Microsoft's drm, which was preventing him getting access to material he'd bought, downloaded a utility program to bypass the drm. Ooops, he broke the law, under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998. Miller's reaction?
"It appears as if Gartenberg BROKE THE LAW! If we were to ask Jack Valenti, I'm sure he would say that Gartenberg is a THIEF!
The company that made and distributes the software Gartenberg used appear to be a BUNCH OF DISGUSTING HACKER PIRATES!
Or, perhaps, this is a good case study for governments on HOW NOT TO IMPLEMENT ANTI-CIRCUMVENTION laws."
"It appears as if Gartenberg BROKE THE LAW! If we were to ask Jack Valenti, I'm sure he would say that Gartenberg is a THIEF!
The company that made and distributes the software Gartenberg used appear to be a BUNCH OF DISGUSTING HACKER PIRATES!
Or, perhaps, this is a good case study for governments on HOW NOT TO IMPLEMENT ANTI-CIRCUMVENTION laws."
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
iPods as a cocoons
Michael Froomkin has a fascinating post a couple of weeks ago on Ian Kerr's thoughts on the degree to which communications technologies can isolate as well as connect people.
Duke Law Journals Lead with Open Access to Scholarship
"Duke Law Journals Lead with Open Access to Scholarship
Duke Law School's seven student-edited journals were prominently featured in the June 6 th unveiling of the Open Access Law Program, an initiative of Creative Commons and its Science Commons Publishing Project. The announcement of the Open Access Law Program was notable not only for the encouragement and support the Program will provide for increasing free access to scholarly literature in law, but for its acknowledgment of Duke Law School's longstanding commitment to making legal scholarship freely available on the World Wide Web to international and interdisciplinary audiences, as well as to legal scholars."
Duke Law School's seven student-edited journals were prominently featured in the June 6 th unveiling of the Open Access Law Program, an initiative of Creative Commons and its Science Commons Publishing Project. The announcement of the Open Access Law Program was notable not only for the encouragement and support the Program will provide for increasing free access to scholarly literature in law, but for its acknowledgment of Duke Law School's longstanding commitment to making legal scholarship freely available on the World Wide Web to international and interdisciplinary audiences, as well as to legal scholars."
Blair plays the fear card
Thanks to Spyblog for the pointer to Andrew Gilligan's article in the Evening Standard "Revealed: how Blair is playing the fear card"
Aussie teen prosecuted for linking
The Register has a longish story on the plight of an Australian teenager who is being prosecuted for linking to a site that may have been involved in copyright infringement, something he started doing when he was 12 and updated until he was 15. Apparently his home was raided by federal police when he was 16 and he is now 18 and the case is going ahead. Alex Malik says:
"This case is significant for a number of reasons:
It is the first time that a minor has been prosecuted in Australia by the Federal Government for linking to a website alleged to be involved in copyright infringement
It is the first time that a minor in Australia has been prosecuted by the Federal Government under the “aiding and abetting” provisions of the Copyright Act
It is the first time that a minor has been subject to any kind of enforcement proceedings in Australia, in relation to internet based copyright infringement. This reminds me of the infamous US case against Brianna LaHara (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/10/riaa_keeps_12yearold_quiet/), who was only 12 when she was sued by the RIAA in the US for copyright infringement."
He also says that time shifting ie recording TV programs on a VCR for later viewing is not technically permitted under Australian copyright law. That's something I was not previously aware of.
"This case is significant for a number of reasons:
It is the first time that a minor has been prosecuted in Australia by the Federal Government for linking to a website alleged to be involved in copyright infringement
It is the first time that a minor in Australia has been prosecuted by the Federal Government under the “aiding and abetting” provisions of the Copyright Act
It is the first time that a minor has been subject to any kind of enforcement proceedings in Australia, in relation to internet based copyright infringement. This reminds me of the infamous US case against Brianna LaHara (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/10/riaa_keeps_12yearold_quiet/), who was only 12 when she was sued by the RIAA in the US for copyright infringement."
He also says that time shifting ie recording TV programs on a VCR for later viewing is not technically permitted under Australian copyright law. That's something I was not previously aware of.
Intel executive broke the law
J.D. Lasica has a story in his recently released book, Darknet, about a vice president at Intel who broke the law without realising it. Donald S. Whiteside "violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) without realizing it — by making a home movie of his son playing Pop Warner football and incorporating snippets of a Hollywood movie."
Whiteside says of his transgression:
“This is precisely the kind of exciting consumer creativity that should be enabled. I don’t claim to have all the answers. Should I have to go clear rights to use ten seconds from Rudy in my son’s video, or does it fall under fair use? Should I have to pay pennies for every second of a snippet? I don’t know. But I do know that we have to figure out a way for consumers to do something creative without breaking the law.
To me, this episode was a great way to frame the question: Should copyright law permit this or not? Should the DMCA criminalize this sort of thing? Or should the creative community, high-tech community, and lawmakers get together to try to stimulate this kind of innovative behavior?”
Good questions.
Whiteside says of his transgression:
“This is precisely the kind of exciting consumer creativity that should be enabled. I don’t claim to have all the answers. Should I have to go clear rights to use ten seconds from Rudy in my son’s video, or does it fall under fair use? Should I have to pay pennies for every second of a snippet? I don’t know. But I do know that we have to figure out a way for consumers to do something creative without breaking the law.
To me, this episode was a great way to frame the question: Should copyright law permit this or not? Should the DMCA criminalize this sort of thing? Or should the creative community, high-tech community, and lawmakers get together to try to stimulate this kind of innovative behavior?”
Good questions.
Mum stunned by BPI demand for £2500
The Independent has a report on one mother's reaction to a demand from the British Phonographic Industry that she hand over £2500 because her daughter, unbeknownst to her, had been downloading songs over the Net. She has two weeks to cough up, at which time an unpaid demand rises to £4000.
A BPI spokesman says about a third of the similar demands they have put out have been paid by parents on behalf of their children and most of the demands have been settled.
A BPI spokesman says about a third of the similar demands they have put out have been paid by parents on behalf of their children and most of the demands have been settled.
Monday, June 20, 2005
Miller in record cos and us as criminals
Ernest Miller reckons Record Companies Intend to Make Criminals of Us All.
"People want to share music with their friends and family and they see nothing wrong in doing this. In trying to characterize such sharing as criminal activity the recording industry will only be undermining support for copyright as a whole"
"People want to share music with their friends and family and they see nothing wrong in doing this. In trying to characterize such sharing as criminal activity the recording industry will only be undermining support for copyright as a whole"
P2P piracy UK going down
The FT report copyright infringement on p2p networks could be on the way down in the UK now that legal downloads are more widely available.
Stallman on EU software patents
Richard Stallman gets some space in today's Guardian to urge citizens of the EU to phone MEPs and tell them to vote against software patents. C.E. Petit is not impressed with the argument.
Kahle on bits and books
MSNBC have a nice story Turning books into bits about a journalism class at Harvard not coming up with any source material for an assignment because they used the Net not the library. Brewster Kahle's response was a shake of the head and “When we were growing up, we had great libraries. But for kids today, the Internet is their library. We are giving them an instantly accessible resource that is much worse than what we grew up with.”
Daily Law Notes
Note to self: Thanks to Cornell's InSITE for The Daily Law Notes recommendation. Very useful.
Only 21 people object to ID cards says minister
According to Spyblog,the Minister of State for Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality, Tony McNulty says only 21 people have written to the Home Office complaining about the plans for ID cards.
I suspect some of NO2ID's nearly 4000 pledge signatories may take note and act accordingly.
Right back in the early days of then Home Secretary's "entitlement card" proposals, there were efforts to present the "evidence" in a positive light and this is not going to change anytime soon. The government's original consultation on the then entitlement cards drew roughly 7000 responses of which well over 5000 were against the proposal. At the time, Mr Blunkett presented the results of the consultation as showing 2 to 1 in favour of the scheme.
How can 5000 out of 7000 against become 2 to 1 in favour? Simple sleight of hand - count the 5000 who communicated their opposition electronically as 1. Yes, that's right 5000 opponents can be written off as 1 because they used a particular form of communication and could therefore be dismissed as a single special interest group. Magically the opposition disappears from soundbite debates in the media and it appears as though most people support the scheme. Follow up with focus groups and appropriately worded surveys soliciting appropriate answers and the public support can then magically be improved to 80% in favour.
I suspect some of NO2ID's nearly 4000 pledge signatories may take note and act accordingly.
Right back in the early days of then Home Secretary's "entitlement card" proposals, there were efforts to present the "evidence" in a positive light and this is not going to change anytime soon. The government's original consultation on the then entitlement cards drew roughly 7000 responses of which well over 5000 were against the proposal. At the time, Mr Blunkett presented the results of the consultation as showing 2 to 1 in favour of the scheme.
How can 5000 out of 7000 against become 2 to 1 in favour? Simple sleight of hand - count the 5000 who communicated their opposition electronically as 1. Yes, that's right 5000 opponents can be written off as 1 because they used a particular form of communication and could therefore be dismissed as a single special interest group. Magically the opposition disappears from soundbite debates in the media and it appears as though most people support the scheme. Follow up with focus groups and appropriately worded surveys soliciting appropriate answers and the public support can then magically be improved to 80% in favour.
Friday, June 17, 2005
LSE V Clarke
William Heath labels the spat between the LSE and Charles Clarke as an official ding dong.
"However much Home Secretaries care to insult the dozens of distinguished academics behind the LSE work and the thousands of opponents of this unfortunate scheme who have tried in every manner from email to online music hall to engage with their errant paid servants on this matter, no-one in their right mind calls Howard Davies (formerly head of the FSA, Audit Commission etc) mad or an intellectual pygmy.
The Home Office needs to come clean about its costings and open up to debate with its critical friends about the aims and the correct architecture for this. We're all in this together, as we keep saying. The big momma identity backplane is going to happen, and we're going to get it right."
"However much Home Secretaries care to insult the dozens of distinguished academics behind the LSE work and the thousands of opponents of this unfortunate scheme who have tried in every manner from email to online music hall to engage with their errant paid servants on this matter, no-one in their right mind calls Howard Davies (formerly head of the FSA, Audit Commission etc) mad or an intellectual pygmy.
The Home Office needs to come clean about its costings and open up to debate with its critical friends about the aims and the correct architecture for this. We're all in this together, as we keep saying. The big momma identity backplane is going to happen, and we're going to get it right."
Copyright term extension UK
David Rowan at the Times is not keen on Culture Minister, James Purnell's plans to extend the term of copyright in the UK.
"Following a music industry campaign to extend the copyright term for sound recordings from 50 to 95 years, he has been rapping in rhythm with the EMI and BMG massive: in a risky, talent-driven business like pop, the suits, apparently, need guarantees of long-term financial returns. As he told the Institute for Public Policy Research yesterday, the record labels need copyright reforms “that will allow them to make returns on their creativity and to invest in innovation”. What he failed to explain was the damage that such a short-term corporate grab would do to the public good...
A 20-year patent limit forces other industries to innovate, so why should the innately risk-averse record labels need any more than a 50-year monopoly? If Mr Purnell truly wants to foster creativity, he ought to broaden his musical tastes."
"Following a music industry campaign to extend the copyright term for sound recordings from 50 to 95 years, he has been rapping in rhythm with the EMI and BMG massive: in a risky, talent-driven business like pop, the suits, apparently, need guarantees of long-term financial returns. As he told the Institute for Public Policy Research yesterday, the record labels need copyright reforms “that will allow them to make returns on their creativity and to invest in innovation”. What he failed to explain was the damage that such a short-term corporate grab would do to the public good...
A 20-year patent limit forces other industries to innovate, so why should the innately risk-averse record labels need any more than a 50-year monopoly? If Mr Purnell truly wants to foster creativity, he ought to broaden his musical tastes."
Thursday, June 16, 2005
LSE respond to Clarke's abuse
The LSE have responded to the Home Secretary's criticism of their report on ID cards, a report which he has admitted he has not read. I hope they don't mind if I reprint it here in full:
Response to the Home Secretary's comments on the LSE's identity cards study
Today (Thursday 16 June) on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, the Home Secretary Charles Clarke responded to recent media coverage of the LSE's assessment that the proposed Identity Card scheme will cost in the order of £300 per card. The Home Secretary said that this 'is a complete nonsense figure' and promised that the cost of the card would be much less.
The cost estimates in question were drawn from a leaked section of the LSE's Identity Project, a six-month project into national identity systems, with a specific focus on the UK Identity Card Bill. This project involves a steering group of 14 professors, and a research group of nearly 100 academics, experts, and industry representatives from around the world. The project is hosted by the Department of Information Systems at LSE. An interim report was released for review in March 2005, and is available here
The final report is due to be published next week - more details will be confirmed soon.
The draft section on costs from the LSE report did not suggest a unit cost for the ID card. Rather it predicted that the proposed identity and passport system would cost £12 - £18 billion over ten years. Some commentators have deduced a figure of £300 per card by taking the highest point of the estimate and dividing it by the UK population.
At no point has the LSE's report suggested such a figure. The project's team does, however, stand by its estimate that the scheme will cost between £12 and £18 billion. This figure takes into account public sector integration - a factor which had not been assessed by the government.
LSE staff involved in the project have attempted repeatedly throughout the six-month duration of this project to engage the Home Office, with no success until yesterday (15 June) when a Home Office official contacted the LSE research team to express an interest in principle to explore co-operation.
The project team is fully prepared to work with the Home Office on any subsequent research work on identity cards and offers up the interim report and some suggestions for an alternative model to be considered as this debate continues. These are available on the web at http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/pressAndInformationOffice/
newsAndEvents/archives/2005/ID_Card_update.htm
We believe the process adopted by the project has been fully transparent at all stages. Director Howard Davies said: "The researchers involved have offered to discuss this work with the Home Office several times. Charles Clarke may not like the conclusions, but he has no basis to question the integrity of the LSE or those conducting the research."
16 June 2005
Response to the Home Secretary's comments on the LSE's identity cards study
Today (Thursday 16 June) on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, the Home Secretary Charles Clarke responded to recent media coverage of the LSE's assessment that the proposed Identity Card scheme will cost in the order of £300 per card. The Home Secretary said that this 'is a complete nonsense figure' and promised that the cost of the card would be much less.
The cost estimates in question were drawn from a leaked section of the LSE's Identity Project, a six-month project into national identity systems, with a specific focus on the UK Identity Card Bill. This project involves a steering group of 14 professors, and a research group of nearly 100 academics, experts, and industry representatives from around the world. The project is hosted by the Department of Information Systems at LSE. An interim report was released for review in March 2005, and is available here
The final report is due to be published next week - more details will be confirmed soon.
The draft section on costs from the LSE report did not suggest a unit cost for the ID card. Rather it predicted that the proposed identity and passport system would cost £12 - £18 billion over ten years. Some commentators have deduced a figure of £300 per card by taking the highest point of the estimate and dividing it by the UK population.
At no point has the LSE's report suggested such a figure. The project's team does, however, stand by its estimate that the scheme will cost between £12 and £18 billion. This figure takes into account public sector integration - a factor which had not been assessed by the government.
LSE staff involved in the project have attempted repeatedly throughout the six-month duration of this project to engage the Home Office, with no success until yesterday (15 June) when a Home Office official contacted the LSE research team to express an interest in principle to explore co-operation.
The project team is fully prepared to work with the Home Office on any subsequent research work on identity cards and offers up the interim report and some suggestions for an alternative model to be considered as this debate continues. These are available on the web at http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/pressAndInformationOffice/
newsAndEvents/archives/2005/ID_Card_update.htm
We believe the process adopted by the project has been fully transparent at all stages. Director Howard Davies said: "The researchers involved have offered to discuss this work with the Home Office several times. Charles Clarke may not like the conclusions, but he has no basis to question the integrity of the LSE or those conducting the research."
16 June 2005
Met Commissioner questions ID cards
The Telegraph reports comment from the Metropolitan Police commissioner, Ian Blair, that ID card biometric technology must be "near perfect" if it is to be of any use to his officers. He doesn't want police officers randomly demanding to see people's papers on the street but supports the cards in principle. An unreliable ID card system will certainly cause an already over-strectched police force significant difficulties in wasted resources, chasing shadows and errors, so he's right to be concerned about the technology.
The police are amongst the key public services at the sharp end of this system and the amount of effort they will waste in processing false positives (eg innocent people with faulty or missing cards) and the grief they'll get for letting the false negatives (guilty parties with kosher cards) through their fingers is going to make their already tough jobs that much more so.
The police are amongst the key public services at the sharp end of this system and the amount of effort they will waste in processing false positives (eg innocent people with faulty or missing cards) and the grief they'll get for letting the false negatives (guilty parties with kosher cards) through their fingers is going to make their already tough jobs that much more so.
£300 ID cards
The Times are emphasising the potential cost of an ID card noted in the LSE report on ID cards and nearly 3000 have signed NO2ID Phil Booth's pledge.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Ofcom baby troubles
According to OfcomWatch, the regulator is facing a "potential legal action from a niche TV channel for allegedly failing to protect its brand-name or intellectual property rights."
The CEO of the company bringing the case said "I want Ofcom to have a policy that it will not license confusingly similar channel names and an undertaking that it will consider the intellectual property rights of similar names"
Hmmm.
The CEO of the company bringing the case said "I want Ofcom to have a policy that it will not license confusingly similar channel names and an undertaking that it will consider the intellectual property rights of similar names"
Hmmm.
Microsoft censor sensitive words
Rebecca MacKinnon has a passionate response to Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble's defence of Microsoft's filtering of politically sensitive words on MSN China.
"I lived in China for nine years straight as a journalist, and if you add up other times I've lived there it comes to nearly 12. I don't know what students and professors Scoble met with, and what context he met them in. But to state that Chinese students and professors have an "anti-free-speech stance" is the biggest pile of horseshit about China I've come across in quite some time. And believe me, there are a great many such piles out there these days."
US companies have been helping to build the great firewall of China for some years. It's good business for them. Pious public relations about defending American free speech values is just that - pious empty PR.
"I lived in China for nine years straight as a journalist, and if you add up other times I've lived there it comes to nearly 12. I don't know what students and professors Scoble met with, and what context he met them in. But to state that Chinese students and professors have an "anti-free-speech stance" is the biggest pile of horseshit about China I've come across in quite some time. And believe me, there are a great many such piles out there these days."
US companies have been helping to build the great firewall of China for some years. It's good business for them. Pious public relations about defending American free speech values is just that - pious empty PR.
THE ID card song
Gilbert and Sullivan would have liked this, the ID card song or "The very model of a modern Labour minister".
Sample lyrics:
"The world today is filled with villains stealing one's identity
And terrorists intent on acts of violent extremity
Our citizens are prisoners, our criminals at liberty
Our nation at the mercy of felonious proclivity
Our very own Home Secretary will rebuild our society
A model of sagaciousness and picture of propriety
It's patent that protection of the future of humanity
Relies on Mr Clarke to put an end to this insanity!"
Thanks to Ian Brown for the link.
Sample lyrics:
"The world today is filled with villains stealing one's identity
And terrorists intent on acts of violent extremity
Our citizens are prisoners, our criminals at liberty
Our nation at the mercy of felonious proclivity
Our very own Home Secretary will rebuild our society
A model of sagaciousness and picture of propriety
It's patent that protection of the future of humanity
Relies on Mr Clarke to put an end to this insanity!"
Thanks to Ian Brown for the link.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Over 2000 sign anti ID card pledge
Over 2000 people have signed NO2ID campaigner Phil Booth's Pedgebank pledge "I will refuse to register for an ID card and will donate £10 to a legal defence fund but only if 10,000 other people will also make this same pledge." Impressive in such a short space of time.
Getting smart about disasters
Here is a brilliant idea. Public Health Practitioner, Dr Lucas Gonzalez, in the Canary Islands has decided to use Wikipedia as a clearinghouse for pandemic flu preparedness. Thanks to Jamais Cascio for the link.
Google and Elsevier
Peter Suber is happy that Elsevier and Google are competing to offer superior indexing of open access repository content.
Tories attack on ID cards
The conservatives have decided to beat the government with the IT stick, claiming that their record on implementing IT projects is abysmal, running to an overspend of £2 billion in the last tow years alone.
"The Tories published the figures to support its latest attack on the Government's plans for a national identity card scheme, pointing to the project's recently upwardly-revised costs.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis declared, in the Conservative's own words, "war" on the Home Office's controversial IT project, confirming that the Party will oppose the Identity Cards Bill at its Second Reading in Parliament later this month...
Another case featured by the Conservatives is the 'Libra' IT modernisation of the magistrates courts - seen by many as the archetypal government IT disaster - which was initiated back in 1996 but by 2002 had more than doubled in costs."
"The Tories published the figures to support its latest attack on the Government's plans for a national identity card scheme, pointing to the project's recently upwardly-revised costs.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis declared, in the Conservative's own words, "war" on the Home Office's controversial IT project, confirming that the Party will oppose the Identity Cards Bill at its Second Reading in Parliament later this month...
Another case featured by the Conservatives is the 'Libra' IT modernisation of the magistrates courts - seen by many as the archetypal government IT disaster - which was initiated back in 1996 but by 2002 had more than doubled in costs."
Becta school challenge
Becta are inviting ICT vendors to propose projects for using technologies in innovative ways in schools. I'm not a big fan of Becta but it might be interesting to monitor this.
Monday, June 13, 2005
German lorry charging
William Heath thinks "Alistair Darling should take a long drive down the autobahn, preferably in a lorry" if he would like a demononstration on how not to do road charging.
OECD reject P2P and sales causal link
The OECD Working Party on the Information Economy have recently de-classified a report, presented in December last year, suggesting it would be very difficult to prove the music industry's claims that music sharing (or "unauthorised downloading of copyrighted content") on the Internet has caused a drop in music sales.
The full 132 pages are not for the faint-hearted but the summary between pages 8 and 14 makes interesting reading. This paints a relatively rosy picture for the future of digital music services, though points out there are significant challenges ahead for governments and industry in instigating balanced and appropriate changes in legal frameworks and in adapting and developing new business models.
The report's authors are Dr Sacha Wunsch-Vincent and Dr Graham Vickery of the OECD’s “Expert Panel on Digital Broadband Content.”
The full 132 pages are not for the faint-hearted but the summary between pages 8 and 14 makes interesting reading. This paints a relatively rosy picture for the future of digital music services, though points out there are significant challenges ahead for governments and industry in instigating balanced and appropriate changes in legal frameworks and in adapting and developing new business models.
The report's authors are Dr Sacha Wunsch-Vincent and Dr Graham Vickery of the OECD’s “Expert Panel on Digital Broadband Content.”
NO2ID pledge
The NO2ID campaign national coordinator, Phil Booth, has made a pledge to "refuse to register for an ID card and donate £10 to a legal defence fund but only if 10,000 other people will also make this same pledge."
Sounds reasonable.
Sounds reasonable.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Acacia UK
It seems as though we have a UK case with parallels to the Acacia legal shenanigans going on here on our own doorstep. A UK judge has ruled that digital photo companies, Corbis and Getty Images did not infringe a patent for selling digital media online.
Acacia are the company that started out successfully suing porn companies for infringing their streaming technologies patents. They then moved on to target the education sector a little over a month ago decided to go after big guns Intel and Texas Instruments, for infringing a computer architecture patent they've been awarded.
Acacia are the company that started out successfully suing porn companies for infringing their streaming technologies patents. They then moved on to target the education sector a little over a month ago decided to go after big guns Intel and Texas Instruments, for infringing a computer architecture patent they've been awarded.
Kill data retention
From eGov monitor, "The European Parliament has called on the Council of Ministers to abandon proposed legislation forcing ISPs to collect and retain information on their customers"
This doesn't, of course, mean that the Council of Minister will pay any attention to the the call.
This doesn't, of course, mean that the Council of Minister will pay any attention to the the call.
Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films
There has been significant angst in copyfighting circles about a US court of appeal panel decision in the case of Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films. They decided that sampling three notes constituted copyright infringement. Respected intellectual property practioner and scholar, William Patry, is damning in his analysis of the decision.
"The original panel opinion, as well as Friday's, are controversial, for at least two reasons. First, the panel adopts a different approach to infringement of a musical composition embodied in a phonorecord than for infringement of the sound recording embodied in that same phonorecord; second, the difference lies in the lack of any requirement of even a de mininis taking for sound recordings. (While finding that a sampling of three notes was infringement, the court demurred on whether sampling of one note would be. I fail to see any basis in the court's reasoning for excusing the taking of one note when three is infringement)...
It is true, as the court stated that a bright line test, one which says "Get a license or do not sample" provides "ease of enforcement." But that is equally true of all other subject matter: you want to parody a work, get a license; you want to write a book review, get a license; you want to quote three words from a poem in a movie, get a license.
The court believed that samplers don't take accidentally, but that is true of all my examples, and the more than de minimis copying requirement for substantial similarity has never been based on unconsicious copying. Nor is there anything special about copying by sampling versus copying by incorporating three notes from a musical composition into another musical composition or into a phonorecord. The court also believed that even three sampled notes have value. Ditto other copying, but whether the portion copied has value has never been the test for infringement (although it is relevant at the much later fair use stage).
Bridgeport is policy making wrapped up in a truncated view of law and economics, shorn of analysis of all the public interest factors and harm to derivative creators that nuanced exponents, such as Judge Posner, engage in."
"The original panel opinion, as well as Friday's, are controversial, for at least two reasons. First, the panel adopts a different approach to infringement of a musical composition embodied in a phonorecord than for infringement of the sound recording embodied in that same phonorecord; second, the difference lies in the lack of any requirement of even a de mininis taking for sound recordings. (While finding that a sampling of three notes was infringement, the court demurred on whether sampling of one note would be. I fail to see any basis in the court's reasoning for excusing the taking of one note when three is infringement)...
It is true, as the court stated that a bright line test, one which says "Get a license or do not sample" provides "ease of enforcement." But that is equally true of all other subject matter: you want to parody a work, get a license; you want to write a book review, get a license; you want to quote three words from a poem in a movie, get a license.
The court believed that samplers don't take accidentally, but that is true of all my examples, and the more than de minimis copying requirement for substantial similarity has never been based on unconsicious copying. Nor is there anything special about copying by sampling versus copying by incorporating three notes from a musical composition into another musical composition or into a phonorecord. The court also believed that even three sampled notes have value. Ditto other copying, but whether the portion copied has value has never been the test for infringement (although it is relevant at the much later fair use stage).
Bridgeport is policy making wrapped up in a truncated view of law and economics, shorn of analysis of all the public interest factors and harm to derivative creators that nuanced exponents, such as Judge Posner, engage in."
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Biometrics
William Heath has been thinking about ID cards again, in the light of what a couple of his friends have been saying about biometrics and voice verification technologies.
Nothing to hide
David Matheson at "On the identity trail" does a nice job of dissecting the "nothing to hide" argument frequently trotted out by supporters of ID cards. Extract:
"Due to ignorance about the nature or consequences of protecting one's privacy -- e.g. a failure to understand how important privacy, and hence its protection, is for securing such goods as friendship, intimacy, autonomy, political excellence, etc. -- one can in fact have a reason to protect one's privacy despite having no desire to protect if. If one's ignorance were removed, one would have the desire, given that one desires these other goods; and that suffices to give one a reason for protecting one's privacy in the absence of any actual desire to do so."
"Due to ignorance about the nature or consequences of protecting one's privacy -- e.g. a failure to understand how important privacy, and hence its protection, is for securing such goods as friendship, intimacy, autonomy, political excellence, etc. -- one can in fact have a reason to protect one's privacy despite having no desire to protect if. If one's ignorance were removed, one would have the desire, given that one desires these other goods; and that suffices to give one a reason for protecting one's privacy in the absence of any actual desire to do so."
Drunk drivers let off due to trade secret
Here's a strange twist in the IP/trade secrets story. Drunk drivers in Florida have been getting let off in their hundreds because the manufacturers of the breathalyzers refuse to disclose how the machines work.
"Seminole judges have been following the lead of county Judge Donald Marblestone, who in January ruled that although the information may be a trade secret and controlled by a private contractor, defendants are entitled to it.
``Florida cannot contract away the statutory rights of its citizens,'' the judge wrote."
What puzzles me is why the company is insisting that some basic chemistry is a trade secret. The operation of standard breathalyzers is well documented. When a drink driving suspect breathes into the device the breath passes through a mixture of chemicals and water. Sulphuric acid removes any alcohol from the breath sample. This then reacts with potassium dichromate producing a colour change. The colour is compared with a 'control' sample containing no alcohol and the meter produces a reading. Check out howstuffworks if you're interested in the details.
It is unfortunate when drink drivers get off on a technicality but even though the judges will be much maligned over their decisions, this is yet another side effect of overreaching claims on the part of intellectual property or, in this case trade secrets owners.
"Seminole judges have been following the lead of county Judge Donald Marblestone, who in January ruled that although the information may be a trade secret and controlled by a private contractor, defendants are entitled to it.
``Florida cannot contract away the statutory rights of its citizens,'' the judge wrote."
What puzzles me is why the company is insisting that some basic chemistry is a trade secret. The operation of standard breathalyzers is well documented. When a drink driving suspect breathes into the device the breath passes through a mixture of chemicals and water. Sulphuric acid removes any alcohol from the breath sample. This then reacts with potassium dichromate producing a colour change. The colour is compared with a 'control' sample containing no alcohol and the meter produces a reading. Check out howstuffworks if you're interested in the details.
It is unfortunate when drink drivers get off on a technicality but even though the judges will be much maligned over their decisions, this is yet another side effect of overreaching claims on the part of intellectual property or, in this case trade secrets owners.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Open Access Law Project
The Open Access Law Program has been launched by the Science Commons folks. Good for them.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Inspiration
Scott Adams on inspirational posters.
"The point of that poster is that your spirit should soar like an eagle while you continue to do mundane work"
"The point of that poster is that your spirit should soar like an eagle while you continue to do mundane work"
The murder of persuasion
Matt Miller at the NYT thinks the art of persuasion is dead. He's probably right but a little too gentle on the killers - the media and politicians - of whose actions he describes as "more manslaughter than murder."
LSE ID card report
The mainstream press are catching up with the LSE's excellent report on national identity cards. This Telegraph report chooses to focus on the the LSE's just published proposed alternative ID cards, which would limit the amount of information collected by government and cost significantly less than the government's ridiculous unworkable scheme.
Friday, May 27, 2005
Magnatune re-mix contest
Magnatune are holding a creative commons re-mix contest. Manatune is essentially a creative commons label, applying the notion of shareware to the music business and John Buckman, Magnatune founder, tells an interesting story about why he created the company.
It's only through organisations like Magnatune, commercial and otherwise, that the real value and limitations of creative commons licences will become apparent.
It's only through organisations like Magnatune, commercial and otherwise, that the real value and limitations of creative commons licences will become apparent.
UK ID scehme again
"UK ID scheme rides again, as biggest ID fraud of them all" says John Lettice. Agreed.
Hyperion records lose copyright case
Hyperion records have lost a rather bizarre copyright case in the court of appeal in the UK. A Dr Sawkins claimed copyright in his creation of scores in the musical works of Michel-Richard de Lalande, music in the public domain. He even agreed in court that his rendition of the music was not original - he didn't claim to have composed anything but did make "a grand total of 3,000 editorial interventions in the 4 pieces" according to the court.
"The judgment means that almost every edition of an out of copyright work will in fact have its own musical copyright because the law will regard it as ‘original’. This will affect classical record companies and performers of classical music as they will have to seek (and pay for) a licence before performing or recording music from an edition."
So a small record label is facing serious financial problems for infringing copyright in an out-of-copyright work because somebody who created a performing edition of that work was able to claim a copyright in it. Excuse me whilst I go and recite the entire works of Shakespeare, with 3000 personal edits by the sweat of my brow to "improve" them, into an audio tape and set up business suing Shakespeare "pirates"...
I guess I'm being a little unfair. From the court's decision (paras 12 and 13:
"The scores produced by Dr Sawkins were used by the orchestral and vocal performers at Hyperion's recording sessions. The recording of the combination of sounds produced by the ensemble's use of the scores of the performing editions is embodied in the CD. It was accepted that none of the original Lalande music could have been performed by the Ex Cathedra ensemble using only the extant earlier Lalande scores.
Hyperion's principal point is quite simply that the recordings on the CD were of performances of the music composed by Lalande. They were not recordings of music composed by Dr Sawkins. That is the basis of Hyperion's denial of any legal obligation to pay royalties to him for using the non-copyright music of a composer, who died nearly 280 years ago."
So the facts of the case make the line greyer than I painted and the court did, after all, side with Dr Sawkins. I was under the impression that "the sweat of the brow" was insufficient to secure copyright in a work. However, the amount of effort Dr Sawkins put into creating his performance editions of this music was considered to be sufficient in this case to satisfy the test of originality. In Lord Justice Jacob's words (starting at para 84):
" one is bound to have to consider whether what Dr Sawkins did involved enough to confer originality – did it go beyond mere servile copying? Patten J held that it did. He applied this test:
"The question to ask in any case where the material produced is based on an existing score is whether the new work is sufficiently original in terms of the skill and labour used to produce it (para.58)"
That seems to me to be exactly right. Of course the test involves a question of degree – mere photocopying or merely changing the key would not be enough. But a high degree of skill and labour was involved. This must be considered as a whole – it would not be right to look at each contribution and say "that is not enough" and conclude that the same goes for the whole. Dr Sawkins started by choosing which original manuscript(s) to use (actually he used mainly 2 out of 4, using one to correct ambiguities in the other), he checked every note and supplied 27 "corrections" (i.e. his personal evaluation as to what note Lalande really intended), supplied many suggestions for the figured bass, and put the whole into modern notation. This was not mere servile copying. It had the practical value (unchallenged) of making the work playable. He re-created Lalande's work using a considerable amount of personal judgment. His re-creative work was such as to create something really new using his own original (not merely copied) work."
It's a tough case and having read the full judgement I now have some sympathy with both parties but I'm not really any clearer on where the originality line should come.
"The judgment means that almost every edition of an out of copyright work will in fact have its own musical copyright because the law will regard it as ‘original’. This will affect classical record companies and performers of classical music as they will have to seek (and pay for) a licence before performing or recording music from an edition."
So a small record label is facing serious financial problems for infringing copyright in an out-of-copyright work because somebody who created a performing edition of that work was able to claim a copyright in it. Excuse me whilst I go and recite the entire works of Shakespeare, with 3000 personal edits by the sweat of my brow to "improve" them, into an audio tape and set up business suing Shakespeare "pirates"...
I guess I'm being a little unfair. From the court's decision (paras 12 and 13:
"The scores produced by Dr Sawkins were used by the orchestral and vocal performers at Hyperion's recording sessions. The recording of the combination of sounds produced by the ensemble's use of the scores of the performing editions is embodied in the CD. It was accepted that none of the original Lalande music could have been performed by the Ex Cathedra ensemble using only the extant earlier Lalande scores.
Hyperion's principal point is quite simply that the recordings on the CD were of performances of the music composed by Lalande. They were not recordings of music composed by Dr Sawkins. That is the basis of Hyperion's denial of any legal obligation to pay royalties to him for using the non-copyright music of a composer, who died nearly 280 years ago."
So the facts of the case make the line greyer than I painted and the court did, after all, side with Dr Sawkins. I was under the impression that "the sweat of the brow" was insufficient to secure copyright in a work. However, the amount of effort Dr Sawkins put into creating his performance editions of this music was considered to be sufficient in this case to satisfy the test of originality. In Lord Justice Jacob's words (starting at para 84):
" one is bound to have to consider whether what Dr Sawkins did involved enough to confer originality – did it go beyond mere servile copying? Patten J held that it did. He applied this test:
"The question to ask in any case where the material produced is based on an existing score is whether the new work is sufficiently original in terms of the skill and labour used to produce it (para.58)"
That seems to me to be exactly right. Of course the test involves a question of degree – mere photocopying or merely changing the key would not be enough. But a high degree of skill and labour was involved. This must be considered as a whole – it would not be right to look at each contribution and say "that is not enough" and conclude that the same goes for the whole. Dr Sawkins started by choosing which original manuscript(s) to use (actually he used mainly 2 out of 4, using one to correct ambiguities in the other), he checked every note and supplied 27 "corrections" (i.e. his personal evaluation as to what note Lalande really intended), supplied many suggestions for the figured bass, and put the whole into modern notation. This was not mere servile copying. It had the practical value (unchallenged) of making the work playable. He re-created Lalande's work using a considerable amount of personal judgment. His re-creative work was such as to create something really new using his own original (not merely copied) work."
It's a tough case and having read the full judgement I now have some sympathy with both parties but I'm not really any clearer on where the originality line should come.
Felten's Land without music
A gaming copany were considering including virtual instruments in one of their games, so game characters could play music. Apparently the lawyers advised against it. Ed Felten:
"The plan was that players would get virtual instruments and make music, for all of the reasons people make music in the real world.
But management nixed the idea, on advice from lawyers, because of concerns about copyright infringement. The problem was that players might use their virtual instruments to play copyrighted songs, and the game company might be sued for contributory or vicarious copyright infringement, for failing to prevent this."
"The plan was that players would get virtual instruments and make music, for all of the reasons people make music in the real world.
But management nixed the idea, on advice from lawyers, because of concerns about copyright infringement. The problem was that players might use their virtual instruments to play copyrighted songs, and the game company might be sued for contributory or vicarious copyright infringement, for failing to prevent this."
Thursday, May 26, 2005
ID cards bill
For the legal eagles amongst you, the text of the UK goverment's proposed ID card bill is available online.
ID card trials show technology is unreliable
The ID card trials, allegedly with 10000 volunteers, have demonstrated that the technology is unreliable. Ministers are unconcerned about this, however, because the trials were apparently about finding out about people's attitudes towards the scheme.
These are the trials which were supposed to be comprehensive, which would last 6 months and not be compromised but early problems with the technology delayed the start date for three months; then the government refused to push back the end date, then they could not get enough volunteers...
Now they don't care if the technology is useless. It's ok to spend billions on it as long as they can kid people into feeling "comfortable" about it.
I must be living in a parallel universe, where the consultants' (Atos Origin) report is all very upbeat (well that's what the government paid them for), whilst providing damning evidence which in a world grounded in reality would commit the scheme to oblivion.
These are the trials which were supposed to be comprehensive, which would last 6 months and not be compromised but early problems with the technology delayed the start date for three months; then the government refused to push back the end date, then they could not get enough volunteers...
Now they don't care if the technology is useless. It's ok to spend billions on it as long as they can kid people into feeling "comfortable" about it.
I must be living in a parallel universe, where the consultants' (Atos Origin) report is all very upbeat (well that's what the government paid them for), whilst providing damning evidence which in a world grounded in reality would commit the scheme to oblivion.
Operation D-elite
The Department of Justice, the FBI and Customs & Immigration have taken down a series of BitTorrent sites in the US in "Operation D-Elite."
Blogbook has the story.
"The government strike, known as Operation D-Elite, was executed in California, Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. Unlike Operation Gridlock, "a similar takedown" of P2P users in August 2004, D-Elite targeted administrators and suppliers of protected content to the Elite Torrent network.
The DOJ press release makes special reference to the fact that Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith "was available for downloading on the network six hours before it was shown in theatres. In the next 24 hours, it was downloaded more than 10,000 times." It concludes by noting that "the Motion Picture Association of America provided valuable assistance to the investigation." Presumably, Operation D-Elite may have been triggered by the recent pilfering of Star Wars III, a film that has earned $108.4M in its first week, according to the Variety Box Office Top 10."
Blogbook has the story.
"The government strike, known as Operation D-Elite, was executed in California, Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. Unlike Operation Gridlock, "a similar takedown" of P2P users in August 2004, D-Elite targeted administrators and suppliers of protected content to the Elite Torrent network.
The DOJ press release makes special reference to the fact that Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith "was available for downloading on the network six hours before it was shown in theatres. In the next 24 hours, it was downloaded more than 10,000 times." It concludes by noting that "the Motion Picture Association of America provided valuable assistance to the investigation." Presumably, Operation D-Elite may have been triggered by the recent pilfering of Star Wars III, a film that has earned $108.4M in its first week, according to the Variety Box Office Top 10."
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
AAUP Google and copyright
The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) have said that Google's move to digitise complete versions of public domain works and snippets of other books, in 5 major academic libraries, risks "systematic infringement of copyright on a massive scale." Other publishers are also concerned though many seem to be talking to Google about it.
Canadian Privacy Commissioner watches flow to US
The Canadian Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, has decided to audit the flow of personal data into the US arising out of the so-called war on terror. That will ruffle a few feathers.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Minister guarantees NHS computer security
The Times has a reassuring story, NHS database security assured.
"PATIENTS who have their personal medical details stored on the NHS’s new £6 billion computer system are guaranteed data security when the project goes live next year, the Government pledged yesterday."
That makes me feel a whole lot better. A government which has demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of both information technology and information systems now believes it can gaurantee data security in a flawed computer system. That will be quite something, if they can manage it, especially since clause 60 of the Health and Social Care Act of 2001 gives ministers the power to collect medical records from any source and do basically anything they like with the information. So Lord Warner, Minister of State for NHS Delivery, who trotted out the guarantees, is not only magically securing the holes in the system but presumably vouching for the integrity of all future Secretaries of State?
"PATIENTS who have their personal medical details stored on the NHS’s new £6 billion computer system are guaranteed data security when the project goes live next year, the Government pledged yesterday."
That makes me feel a whole lot better. A government which has demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of both information technology and information systems now believes it can gaurantee data security in a flawed computer system. That will be quite something, if they can manage it, especially since clause 60 of the Health and Social Care Act of 2001 gives ministers the power to collect medical records from any source and do basically anything they like with the information. So Lord Warner, Minister of State for NHS Delivery, who trotted out the guarantees, is not only magically securing the holes in the system but presumably vouching for the integrity of all future Secretaries of State?
Monday, May 23, 2005
The world is flat
Doc Searls seems to think Tom Friedman demonstrates a pretty decent undertanding of the free software and open source phenomena, for a journalist, in his recent book, "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century". Doc would know.
Morgan Freeman on piracy
According to Public Knowledge, oscar winner Morgan Freeman is doesn't agree with the movie industry's approach to new technology. Interesting. I'd like to hear more of that.
LSE identity project folk seek comments
The LSE identity project folks who issued their terrific interim report on ID cards, are looking for comments.
Take the pledge
"I will refuse to register for an ID card but only if 3,000,000 people will sign up." So says Stef at PledgeBank. Thanks to William Heath for the link.
Read the Bills Act
Spy Blog thinks we should have a "read the bills act" which would mean that members of parliament
"must sign a sworn affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that he or she has attentively either personally read, or heard read, the complete bill to be voted on."
What a good idea!
The response to the sensible MP's complaint that they couldn't possibly read all that lot would be - don't pass so many new laws, then. New Labour invented something like 661 new criminal offences in their first six years in office. Are there really more than a hundred new crimes created every year that are not caught under the current vast umbrella of criminal justice legislation?
"must sign a sworn affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that he or she has attentively either personally read, or heard read, the complete bill to be voted on."
What a good idea!
The response to the sensible MP's complaint that they couldn't possibly read all that lot would be - don't pass so many new laws, then. New Labour invented something like 661 new criminal offences in their first six years in office. Are there really more than a hundred new crimes created every year that are not caught under the current vast umbrella of criminal justice legislation?
Friday, May 20, 2005
Better than CSS but next gen dvd drm won't stop p2p
Ed Felten explains why the next generation of "AACS" copy protection devices for DVDs will not stop filesharing.
My Open University colleagues will be amused at the name of this stronger (compared to the lousy CSS system) drm, since our computing services department is called AACS. They'll have to get themselves a new name.
My Open University colleagues will be amused at the name of this stronger (compared to the lousy CSS system) drm, since our computing services department is called AACS. They'll have to get themselves a new name.
Store wars
If you are a Star Wars fan with an interest in the environment, then Store Wars is compulsory viewing. Terrific stuff.
Spanish law prof sacked for talking about P2P
If this is true, it is appalling. Cory writes:
"I just got an email from my friend Jorge Cortell, a copyfighter and academic in Spain, whom I met at the Creative Commons España launch this year.
Jorge teaches "Intellectual Property" in the Masters program at the Polytechnic University of Valencia UPV. He proposed to give a talk on the benefits of P2P and talk about the law relating to P2P and copyright in Spain. He proposed to demo what sort of legal uses one could make of copyrighted works from P2P networks, and informed the Spanish collecting society, the national police and the attorney general to let them know what he was up to.
They responded by leaning on the Dean, who cancelled Jorge's venue. Jorge booked another venue, and the Dean cancelled it. So Jorge moved his talk to the cafeteria, and delivered a five hour session to a packed house.
On May 4, the Dean ordered the director of Jorge's program to demand his resignation, which he tendered. The Vice-Dean then added insult to injury by issuing a statement saying that Jorge had never taught at the university (!), in a surreal, Stalinist purge (Jorge has taught at the University for five years).
This is a shameful act of censorship and a betrayal of the principles of academic freedom. It's a national shame that Spain's powerful collecting societies can simply order the termination of any university professor who teaches things that displease them. Link."
"I just got an email from my friend Jorge Cortell, a copyfighter and academic in Spain, whom I met at the Creative Commons España launch this year.
Jorge teaches "Intellectual Property" in the Masters program at the Polytechnic University of Valencia UPV. He proposed to give a talk on the benefits of P2P and talk about the law relating to P2P and copyright in Spain. He proposed to demo what sort of legal uses one could make of copyrighted works from P2P networks, and informed the Spanish collecting society, the national police and the attorney general to let them know what he was up to.
They responded by leaning on the Dean, who cancelled Jorge's venue. Jorge booked another venue, and the Dean cancelled it. So Jorge moved his talk to the cafeteria, and delivered a five hour session to a packed house.
On May 4, the Dean ordered the director of Jorge's program to demand his resignation, which he tendered. The Vice-Dean then added insult to injury by issuing a statement saying that Jorge had never taught at the university (!), in a surreal, Stalinist purge (Jorge has taught at the University for five years).
This is a shameful act of censorship and a betrayal of the principles of academic freedom. It's a national shame that Spain's powerful collecting societies can simply order the termination of any university professor who teaches things that displease them. Link."
NO2ID petition
I've just heard from Phil Booth of the NO2ID campaign that they are pushing to get thousands to sign their petition against the national identity card legislation.
If I may be permitted to adapt some of the campaign's slogans to repeat my oft repeated mantra on this:
1. The proposed ID card scheme will not stop terrorists
2. The proposed ID card scheme will not eliminate benefit fraud
3. The proposed ID card scheme will not improve social cohesion
4. The proposed ID card scheme will not solve the challenges of immigration
5. The proposed ID card scheme will mean a massive govenment database which a huge amount of personal information on everyone, which tens/hundreds of thousands of people will have access to in the course of their jobs; a decentralised network of (unreliable biometric) hi-tech registration centres; remote, robust (ha ha), hand-held, networked, (unreliable biometric) hi-tech ID card verification devices for every police officer, doctor's surgery, benefit clerks etc, etc.; robust (unreliable biometric) hi-tech cards for everyone.
6. The proposed ID card scheme will create lots of extra problems - remember it is not how security works that matters but how it fails; how it fails naturally (through errors and unreliable technology) and how it can be made to fail by insiders or outsiders with malicious intent.
7. The proposed ID card scheme will cost £billions
8. The proposed ID card schme is not worth it
9. The money would be better spent on more well trained police, intelligence, customs and immigration staff.
If you would like an in depth understanding of the issues before making up your mind on it, read the London School of Economics recent interim report, "The Identity Project - An assessment of the UK Identity Cards Bill & its implications.
If I may be permitted to adapt some of the campaign's slogans to repeat my oft repeated mantra on this:
1. The proposed ID card scheme will not stop terrorists
2. The proposed ID card scheme will not eliminate benefit fraud
3. The proposed ID card scheme will not improve social cohesion
4. The proposed ID card scheme will not solve the challenges of immigration
5. The proposed ID card scheme will mean a massive govenment database which a huge amount of personal information on everyone, which tens/hundreds of thousands of people will have access to in the course of their jobs; a decentralised network of (unreliable biometric) hi-tech registration centres; remote, robust (ha ha), hand-held, networked, (unreliable biometric) hi-tech ID card verification devices for every police officer, doctor's surgery, benefit clerks etc, etc.; robust (unreliable biometric) hi-tech cards for everyone.
6. The proposed ID card scheme will create lots of extra problems - remember it is not how security works that matters but how it fails; how it fails naturally (through errors and unreliable technology) and how it can be made to fail by insiders or outsiders with malicious intent.
7. The proposed ID card scheme will cost £billions
8. The proposed ID card schme is not worth it
9. The money would be better spent on more well trained police, intelligence, customs and immigration staff.
If you would like an in depth understanding of the issues before making up your mind on it, read the London School of Economics recent interim report, "The Identity Project - An assessment of the UK Identity Cards Bill & its implications.
Law, the Internet and Society going offline pro tem
My Open University 'Law, the Internet and Society' course, recently released under a creative commons license, is going offline temporarily. If you click on the course link above you'll get the full explanation. We're hoping to be back up again soon but in the meantime please bear with us and apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Welcome trust mandate open access
The Welcome Trust have announced today that
"From 1st October 2005, all papers from new research projects must be deposited in PubMed Central or UK PubMed Central – once it has been formed - within 6 months of publication.
The move comes as part of a drive from the UK’s biggest medical research charity to push forward open access publication of scientific literature, making findings freely available to those who want to see them."
Excellent news.
"From 1st October 2005, all papers from new research projects must be deposited in PubMed Central or UK PubMed Central – once it has been formed - within 6 months of publication.
The move comes as part of a drive from the UK’s biggest medical research charity to push forward open access publication of scientific literature, making findings freely available to those who want to see them."
Excellent news.
Quotes of the day
"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."
"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
Both of these are attributed to Mark Twain. Actually, for "member of Congress" you could substitute whoever suits you or even just a suit.
"The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it."
Chinese Proverb.
"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
Both of these are attributed to Mark Twain. Actually, for "member of Congress" you could substitute whoever suits you or even just a suit.
"The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it."
Chinese Proverb.
Feynman judging books
Richard Feynman's description of his involvement in California's Curriculum Commission is a damning indictment of the way school text books were chosen at the time.
Gatto's 6 lesson school teacher
John Taylor Gatto's "The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher" is highly recommended.
"Teaching means many different things, but six lessons are common to schoolteaching from Harlem to Hollywood. You pay for these lessons in more ways than you can imagine, so you might as well know what they are:
The first lesson I teach is: "Stay in the class where you belong." I don't know who decides that my kids belong there but that's not my business. The children are numbered so that if any get away they can be returned to the right class. Over the years the variety of ways children are numbered has increased dramatically, until it is hard to see the human being under the burden of the numbers each carries. Numbering children is a big and very profitable business, though what the business is designed to accomplish is elusive..."
"Teaching means many different things, but six lessons are common to schoolteaching from Harlem to Hollywood. You pay for these lessons in more ways than you can imagine, so you might as well know what they are:
The first lesson I teach is: "Stay in the class where you belong." I don't know who decides that my kids belong there but that's not my business. The children are numbered so that if any get away they can be returned to the right class. Over the years the variety of ways children are numbered has increased dramatically, until it is hard to see the human being under the burden of the numbers each carries. Numbering children is a big and very profitable business, though what the business is designed to accomplish is elusive..."
Top 10 things the UN does well
Democracy Arsenal have a list of the top ten things they believe the UN does well.
This is the first time I've come across this blog (thanks to Owen Barder for the link) and I have to admit it only caught my eye because my team are playing in the cup final in a couple of days.
This is the first time I've come across this blog (thanks to Owen Barder for the link) and I have to admit it only caught my eye because my team are playing in the cup final in a couple of days.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Wired on BBC
Cory is praising the BBC in the latest Wired.
"America's entertainment industry is committing slow, spectacular suicide, while one of Europe's biggest broadcasters -- the BBC -- is rushing headlong to the future, embracing innovation rather than fighting it.
Unlike Hollywood, the BBC is eager and willing to work with a burgeoning group of content providers whose interests are aligned with its own: its audience.
The BBC's news website is the first commercial news-gathering organization in the Western world to solicit and give prominence to photographs and reporting provided by its visitors...
Stef Magdalinski, a hacker-agitator-entrepreneur, responded with a guerrilla project called Wikiproxy, which rips all the news stories coming off the BBC news wire and mixes them by linking every proper noun to its corresponding Wikipedia entry. Of course, this burns to a crisp the old BBC policy against linking to external sites.
Rather than sue, the BBC created BBC Backstage, a service for remixing the Beeb that launched last week.
With Backstage, BBC's online department takes all the goop in its content-management system -- sports scores and TV listings, breaking news and editorials, conferences and weather -- and exposes it as a set of standard programming interfaces. Anyone who can hack a little Perl or Python can mix these into any kind of service they can imagine.
The crowning glory of the Beeb's openness is the Creative Archive. "
"America's entertainment industry is committing slow, spectacular suicide, while one of Europe's biggest broadcasters -- the BBC -- is rushing headlong to the future, embracing innovation rather than fighting it.
Unlike Hollywood, the BBC is eager and willing to work with a burgeoning group of content providers whose interests are aligned with its own: its audience.
The BBC's news website is the first commercial news-gathering organization in the Western world to solicit and give prominence to photographs and reporting provided by its visitors...
Stef Magdalinski, a hacker-agitator-entrepreneur, responded with a guerrilla project called Wikiproxy, which rips all the news stories coming off the BBC news wire and mixes them by linking every proper noun to its corresponding Wikipedia entry. Of course, this burns to a crisp the old BBC policy against linking to external sites.
Rather than sue, the BBC created BBC Backstage, a service for remixing the Beeb that launched last week.
With Backstage, BBC's online department takes all the goop in its content-management system -- sports scores and TV listings, breaking news and editorials, conferences and weather -- and exposes it as a set of standard programming interfaces. Anyone who can hack a little Perl or Python can mix these into any kind of service they can imagine.
The crowning glory of the Beeb's openness is the Creative Archive. "
$5 a month for music to kill the RIAA?
Barry Ritholz and Mark Cuban reckon the RIAA lawsuits against individuals are on the way out.
"Yahoo’s Music Unlimited Service sets the new marketvalue for all the music you can download in a month…5 bucks.
The RIAA can no longer claim that students who are downloading music are costing them thousands of dollars each. They can’t claim much of anything actually. In essence, Yahoo just turned possession of a controlled music substance into a misdemeanor. Payable by a $5 per month fine."
"Yahoo’s Music Unlimited Service sets the new marketvalue for all the music you can download in a month…5 bucks.
The RIAA can no longer claim that students who are downloading music are costing them thousands of dollars each. They can’t claim much of anything actually. In essence, Yahoo just turned possession of a controlled music substance into a misdemeanor. Payable by a $5 per month fine."
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Everything bad is good for you
Cory is enthusiastically recommending Steven Johnson's new book, Everything Bad is Good for You: How today's popular culture is actually making us smarter.
"the beneficial elements of videogames and TV arise not from their subject matter, but from their format, which require that players and viewers winkle out complex storylines and puzzles, getting a "cognitive workout" that teaches the same kind of skills that math problems and chess games impart. As Johnson points out, no one evaluates the benefit of chess based on its storyline or monotonically militaristic subject matter."
This is not a new thesis, of course, and many educators have been aware of the potential of new technologies in education for years.
"the beneficial elements of videogames and TV arise not from their subject matter, but from their format, which require that players and viewers winkle out complex storylines and puzzles, getting a "cognitive workout" that teaches the same kind of skills that math problems and chess games impart. As Johnson points out, no one evaluates the benefit of chess based on its storyline or monotonically militaristic subject matter."
This is not a new thesis, of course, and many educators have been aware of the potential of new technologies in education for years.
Disappearing civil liberties mug
This is funny - a disappearing civil liberties mug.
"The Disappearing Civil Liberties Mug is covered with the complete text of The Bill of Rights. But when you pour in hot liquids, the Rights that are infringed by Ashcroft's Patriot Act vanish before your very eyes!"
Fits with my mood today and some somewhat sad, comical and surreal politics I've been dealing with.
"The Disappearing Civil Liberties Mug is covered with the complete text of The Bill of Rights. But when you pour in hot liquids, the Rights that are infringed by Ashcroft's Patriot Act vanish before your very eyes!"
Fits with my mood today and some somewhat sad, comical and surreal politics I've been dealing with.
Amazon and self publishing
Interesting essay on Kuro5hin.
"Amazon's recent purchase of two companies (Booksurge and Mobipocket) hints at a future business strategy geared not only to the long tail concept but also self-publishing in general."
"Amazon's recent purchase of two companies (Booksurge and Mobipocket) hints at a future business strategy geared not only to the long tail concept but also self-publishing in general."
Monday, May 16, 2005
Technology Review on IP
Identity blog
William Heath on Kim Cameron's recent comments about the UK ID card and the LSE's report on the issue.
"The LSE (London School of Economics) has released The Identity Project - An assessment of the UK Identity Cards Bill & its implications. (Interim Report). Ideal Government says:
It demolishes both the government’s published aims and their proposals.
Should such repeated high profile failures raise questions about the future of the Home Office: Has the current Home Office itself become a major threat to the UK?
I know everyone is busy, but really, take a look at this thoughtful report.
It is a breakthrough piece of work in exploring, in a holistic and all-sided way, the relation between social issues and technologies of identity. I suspect that government technology leaders and policy makers around the globe will pay increasingly more attention to the thinking it represents - if they want to avoid the missteps against which it is a reaction. The report includes a discussion of identity initiatives in France, giving the impression that the French have already transcended many of the problems not addressed in the British Government's proposals."
He's right - it's well worth taking the time to read the LSE report in full.
"The LSE (London School of Economics) has released The Identity Project - An assessment of the UK Identity Cards Bill & its implications. (Interim Report). Ideal Government says:
It demolishes both the government’s published aims and their proposals.
Should such repeated high profile failures raise questions about the future of the Home Office: Has the current Home Office itself become a major threat to the UK?
I know everyone is busy, but really, take a look at this thoughtful report.
It is a breakthrough piece of work in exploring, in a holistic and all-sided way, the relation between social issues and technologies of identity. I suspect that government technology leaders and policy makers around the globe will pay increasingly more attention to the thinking it represents - if they want to avoid the missteps against which it is a reaction. The report includes a discussion of identity initiatives in France, giving the impression that the French have already transcended many of the problems not addressed in the British Government's proposals."
He's right - it's well worth taking the time to read the LSE report in full.
$100 laptops
According to the Industry Standard, MIT's Negroponte expects $100 laptops next year
"The machine won't be available in shops. The company, which has the working title of The $100 Laptop Co., plans to sell laptops in-bulk, directly to government ministries and isn't looking to make a profit. About half the price of a current laptop computer is accounted for by marketing, sales, distribution channels and profit, so removing those aspects will provide big cost savings, Negroponte said.
The remaining half of the laptop's cost is accounted for by the parts and manufacturing, and Negroponte is planning savings there too. Roughly two thirds of this cost is the display panel and associated backlight, but Negroponte's version of the machine will use a projection display system that costs a total of about $30, he said.
"The rest of the cost is there to support an absolutely obese, overweight and unreliable operating system. If you get rid of that and start with a thin, tiny operating system you can do an awful lot," Negroponte said.
The laptop will run Linux"
Sounds like he and John should get together. This and Ndiyo are all about breaking down the barriers to access to the digital communications revolution.
"The machine won't be available in shops. The company, which has the working title of The $100 Laptop Co., plans to sell laptops in-bulk, directly to government ministries and isn't looking to make a profit. About half the price of a current laptop computer is accounted for by marketing, sales, distribution channels and profit, so removing those aspects will provide big cost savings, Negroponte said.
The remaining half of the laptop's cost is accounted for by the parts and manufacturing, and Negroponte is planning savings there too. Roughly two thirds of this cost is the display panel and associated backlight, but Negroponte's version of the machine will use a projection display system that costs a total of about $30, he said.
"The rest of the cost is there to support an absolutely obese, overweight and unreliable operating system. If you get rid of that and start with a thin, tiny operating system you can do an awful lot," Negroponte said.
The laptop will run Linux"
Sounds like he and John should get together. This and Ndiyo are all about breaking down the barriers to access to the digital communications revolution.
Office of Public Sector Information
The UK government now has an "Office of Public Sector Information". Infolaw reports it thus:
"HMSO replaced/rebadged/subsumed by OPSI?
"With the implementation of the EU Directive on the re-use of Public Sector Information in 2005 it was decided that there was a need for a dedicated body to be the principal focal point for advising on and regulating the operation of public sector information re-use. The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) has been established for that purpose. It will be at the heart of information policy, setting standards, providing a practical framework of best practice for opening up and encouraging the use of public sector information.
OPSI is part of the Cabinet Office reporting structure and provides a wide range of services to the public, information industry, government and the wider public sector relating to finding, using, sharing and trading information"
"HMSO replaced/rebadged/subsumed by OPSI?
"With the implementation of the EU Directive on the re-use of Public Sector Information in 2005 it was decided that there was a need for a dedicated body to be the principal focal point for advising on and regulating the operation of public sector information re-use. The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) has been established for that purpose. It will be at the heart of information policy, setting standards, providing a practical framework of best practice for opening up and encouraging the use of public sector information.
OPSI is part of the Cabinet Office reporting structure and provides a wide range of services to the public, information industry, government and the wider public sector relating to finding, using, sharing and trading information"
Friday, May 13, 2005
JISC and BALII Open law
JISC and BALII are launcing an Open Law project. I hope they don't mind me including their press release of 5th of May in its entirety here but this is excellent news for academia.
"JISC and BAILII agreement will make legal resources openly available to all
5th May, 2005. A major new agreement will digitise thousands of core legal judgments and law reports and for the first time make these freely and openly available electronically. JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) and BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute) today announced the Open Law project which has the potential to transform the delivery of legal teaching and public access to legal materials in the UK.
Access to case reports and legislation are central to the teaching of law and the development of legal skills. Open Law will therefore focus on the core needs of staff and students on law courses at all levels. It will include around 200 of the most cited judgments in each of the core areas of the law course syllabus. Other non-core areas will also be covered, so that staff and students dealing with legal issues on non-law courses such as accounting and business, environmental management, planning and social work, will also benefit. The digitisation of these judgments and other reports means that the project will digitise a total over 40,000 pages.
The heavy use of standard legal resources in both print and online form, the restriction of certain materials to reference libraries and their cost have meant that the availability of key materials has always been a challenge for law departments across the country. JISC’s and BAILII’s commitment to open access principles in this project will mean that the general public will also be able to access the most important legal materials for free.
The 36 month project will also work closely with the legal profession, law schools, librarians, and special interest groups such as the Committee of Heads of Law Schools, the Society of Legal Scholars and the Association of Law Teachers to identify these judgment and reports as well shaping the future development of this resource.
Lorraine Estelle, JISC Collections Manager, who negotiated the agreement, called it “the most important development for the provision of online resources in the area of law.” She continued: “The involvement of the key players in legal education and the legal profession will ensure we have a resource that will be tied closely to the needs of our students and the needs of the profession as a whole.”
Professor Philip Leith, a Trustee of BAILII and Professor of Law at Queen's University Belfast, said: "BAILII has developed vigorously in its first five years, providing a system which uses advanced hyperlinking techniques to make access to law easier and more coherent for students. It is usually the speediest publisher of judgments. This JISC-supported next stage is essential to broaden and deepen our collection. We want BAILII to be the first port of call for those in education. We want to provide a real 'National law library'. JISC's support for this Open Law project is a significant step, affecting all who teach and learn in law."
Professor Alan Peterson, President of the Society of Legal Scholars and Professor of Law at the University of Strathclyde, welcomed the announcement, saying: "The project will provide funding for a much needed expansion of a database which is already extensively used by students, researchers and academics at all stages and levels. The more it is possible to digitise the primary resources required for legal education, the more effectively we can introduce innovative teaching strategies as well as carrying out cross-jurisdictional research with much greater ease."
Michael Jefferson, past Chair of the Association of Law Teachers, Senior Lecturer and Director of Teaching for the Department of Law at the University of Sheffield, said: “BAILII has provided a means of access not only to legal materials that are available in many libraries but also to materials which are either not available anywhere else or are available only in selected libraries not easily accessible to all UK staff and students. The extension to the collections on BAILII will further enhance the provision of in particular case law.”
Michael Jefferson continued: “This enhancement is of particular importance to the Association of Law Teachers, some of whose members are in schools and Further Education Colleges where access to legal information is at best problematical. Some members also teach on part-time and distance-learning degrees and again the extension of BAILII's database will significantly improve access to material for students on these courses. The Association of Law Teachers is for these reasons particularly grateful to staff at BAILII and to JISC for this extension to its coverage.”
Paul Darling QC, Chairman of TECBAR, a specialist bar association for barristers, said: "This is an exciting development. BAILII is an invaluable legal research tool fully supported by the practising Bar. The sponsoring of the Open Law project by JISC is very welcome indeed."
Susan Doe, Chair of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians, pledged the support of academic law librarians: "We welcome the Open Law project as an expanded BAILII will enable the creation of direct links to materials in electronic reading lists and course materials, making it easier for students to access cases and legislation. BAILLI's structure means that it should be fully searchable by the portal software that is being introduced by university libraries to provide a seamless interface to all resources, regardless of the format."
For further information:
Philip Pothen (JISC) on 07887 564 006 or p.pothen@jisc.ac.uk
Philip Leith (BAILII) on 028 9097 3867 or p.leith@qub.ac.uk"
"JISC and BAILII agreement will make legal resources openly available to all
5th May, 2005. A major new agreement will digitise thousands of core legal judgments and law reports and for the first time make these freely and openly available electronically. JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) and BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute) today announced the Open Law project which has the potential to transform the delivery of legal teaching and public access to legal materials in the UK.
Access to case reports and legislation are central to the teaching of law and the development of legal skills. Open Law will therefore focus on the core needs of staff and students on law courses at all levels. It will include around 200 of the most cited judgments in each of the core areas of the law course syllabus. Other non-core areas will also be covered, so that staff and students dealing with legal issues on non-law courses such as accounting and business, environmental management, planning and social work, will also benefit. The digitisation of these judgments and other reports means that the project will digitise a total over 40,000 pages.
The heavy use of standard legal resources in both print and online form, the restriction of certain materials to reference libraries and their cost have meant that the availability of key materials has always been a challenge for law departments across the country. JISC’s and BAILII’s commitment to open access principles in this project will mean that the general public will also be able to access the most important legal materials for free.
The 36 month project will also work closely with the legal profession, law schools, librarians, and special interest groups such as the Committee of Heads of Law Schools, the Society of Legal Scholars and the Association of Law Teachers to identify these judgment and reports as well shaping the future development of this resource.
Lorraine Estelle, JISC Collections Manager, who negotiated the agreement, called it “the most important development for the provision of online resources in the area of law.” She continued: “The involvement of the key players in legal education and the legal profession will ensure we have a resource that will be tied closely to the needs of our students and the needs of the profession as a whole.”
Professor Philip Leith, a Trustee of BAILII and Professor of Law at Queen's University Belfast, said: "BAILII has developed vigorously in its first five years, providing a system which uses advanced hyperlinking techniques to make access to law easier and more coherent for students. It is usually the speediest publisher of judgments. This JISC-supported next stage is essential to broaden and deepen our collection. We want BAILII to be the first port of call for those in education. We want to provide a real 'National law library'. JISC's support for this Open Law project is a significant step, affecting all who teach and learn in law."
Professor Alan Peterson, President of the Society of Legal Scholars and Professor of Law at the University of Strathclyde, welcomed the announcement, saying: "The project will provide funding for a much needed expansion of a database which is already extensively used by students, researchers and academics at all stages and levels. The more it is possible to digitise the primary resources required for legal education, the more effectively we can introduce innovative teaching strategies as well as carrying out cross-jurisdictional research with much greater ease."
Michael Jefferson, past Chair of the Association of Law Teachers, Senior Lecturer and Director of Teaching for the Department of Law at the University of Sheffield, said: “BAILII has provided a means of access not only to legal materials that are available in many libraries but also to materials which are either not available anywhere else or are available only in selected libraries not easily accessible to all UK staff and students. The extension to the collections on BAILII will further enhance the provision of in particular case law.”
Michael Jefferson continued: “This enhancement is of particular importance to the Association of Law Teachers, some of whose members are in schools and Further Education Colleges where access to legal information is at best problematical. Some members also teach on part-time and distance-learning degrees and again the extension of BAILII's database will significantly improve access to material for students on these courses. The Association of Law Teachers is for these reasons particularly grateful to staff at BAILII and to JISC for this extension to its coverage.”
Paul Darling QC, Chairman of TECBAR, a specialist bar association for barristers, said: "This is an exciting development. BAILII is an invaluable legal research tool fully supported by the practising Bar. The sponsoring of the Open Law project by JISC is very welcome indeed."
Susan Doe, Chair of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians, pledged the support of academic law librarians: "We welcome the Open Law project as an expanded BAILII will enable the creation of direct links to materials in electronic reading lists and course materials, making it easier for students to access cases and legislation. BAILLI's structure means that it should be fully searchable by the portal software that is being introduced by university libraries to provide a seamless interface to all resources, regardless of the format."
For further information:
Philip Pothen (JISC) on 07887 564 006 or p.pothen@jisc.ac.uk
Philip Leith (BAILII) on 028 9097 3867 or p.leith@qub.ac.uk"
Germans look to open access
Peter Suber tells of "a proposal by Gerd Hansen of the Max Planck Institute that researchers with publicly-funded research grants should retain the right to self-archive any resulting journal articles within six months of publication."
Shifted librarian on why drm sucks
Jenny Levine bought and downloaded a film from MovieLink. She got 30 days from the downloading date to watch it and once she started watching had to finish within 24 hours. The service seems to have corrupted her laptop and she didn't get to see the movie.
Another classic demonstration of why drm will ultimately fail.
Another classic demonstration of why drm will ultimately fail.
Improving and extending the use of ICT to make the most of Europe’s cultural and audiovisual heritage
Here's the official line from the EU Commission on the 6 EU leaders call to digitise European culture in response to the Google initiative to digitise 5 major academic libraries.
"The European Commission today announced that it is to boost its policy of preserving and exploiting Europe's written and audiovisual heritage. At a time when the internet and the digital technologies available on many technical platforms are an everyday part of the life of European citizens, tapping the potential of our written text, image and sound archives is of major importance in economic terms as much as in cultural terms. The Commission plans to issue a communication by July outlining the stakes involved and identifying the obstacles to using written and audiovisual archives in the European Union. The communication will be accompanied by a proposal for a Recommendation aimed at enlisting all the public players concerned and facilitating public-private partnerships in the task of digitising our heritage."
"The European Commission today announced that it is to boost its policy of preserving and exploiting Europe's written and audiovisual heritage. At a time when the internet and the digital technologies available on many technical platforms are an everyday part of the life of European citizens, tapping the potential of our written text, image and sound archives is of major importance in economic terms as much as in cultural terms. The Commission plans to issue a communication by July outlining the stakes involved and identifying the obstacles to using written and audiovisual archives in the European Union. The communication will be accompanied by a proposal for a Recommendation aimed at enlisting all the public players concerned and facilitating public-private partnerships in the task of digitising our heritage."
As predicted braodcast flag rises again
As predicted, when the Appeal court killed the broadcast flag it's being resurrected in Hollwood's latest efforts to bring a bill before Congress. Cory is scathing.
"Well, they've barely finished hosing the blood off the tile after our total creaming of Hollywood's would-be device-czars in the Broadcast Flag victory (where we got a judge to tell Hollywood that they shouldn't have a veto over new digital television technologies), but it's already back.
Here's the shockingly broad and badly conceived bill that Hollywood is shopping on the Hill, trying to find a Congresscritter so fantastically, suicidally stupid that s/he will actually set out to break America's televisions."
"Well, they've barely finished hosing the blood off the tile after our total creaming of Hollywood's would-be device-czars in the Broadcast Flag victory (where we got a judge to tell Hollywood that they shouldn't have a veto over new digital television technologies), but it's already back.
Here's the shockingly broad and badly conceived bill that Hollywood is shopping on the Hill, trying to find a Congresscritter so fantastically, suicidally stupid that s/he will actually set out to break America's televisions."
Dutch open access initiative
More good news from Holland, where, according to the Register, Dutch academics have launched an open access research website, where 47000 research documents are freely accessible.
LSE Interim Report on UK ID card scheme
The LSE have published their interim report on the UK government's proposals for a national ID card. The summary of conclusions reads:
"The Report concludes that the establishment of a secure national identity system has the potential to create significant, though limited, benefits for society. However, the proposals currently being considered by parliament are neither safe nor appropriate. There was an overwhelming view expressed by the stakehodlers involved in this Report that the proposals are too complex, technically unsafe, overly prescriptive and lack a foundation of public trust and confidence. The current proposals miss key opportunities to establish a secure, trusted and cost-effective identity system and the Report therefore considers alternative models for an identity card scheme that may achieve the goals of the legislation more effectively. The concept of a national identity system is supportable, but the current proposals are not feasible.
Many of the public interest objectives of the Bill would be more effectively achieved by other means. For example, preventing identity theft may be better addressed by giveing individuals more control over the disclosure of their own personal information, while prevention of terrorism may be more effectively managed through strenghtened border patrols and increased presence at borders, or allocating adequate resources for conventional police intelligence work.
The technology envisaged for this scheme is, to a large extent, untested and unreliable. No scheme on this scale has been undertaken anywhere in the world. Smaller and less ambitious schemes have encountered substantial technological and operational problems that are likely to be amplified in a large scale, national system. The use of biometrics gives rise to particular concern because this technology has never been used at such a scale.
Any system that supports critical security funnctions must be robust and resilient to malicious attacks. Because of its size and complexity, the identity system would require security measures at a scale that will result in substantially higher implementation and operational costs than has been estimated. The proposed use of the system for a variety of purposes, and access to it from a large number of private and public sector organisations will require unprecendented attention to security.
All identity systems carry consequestial dangers as well as potential benefits. Depending on the model used, identity systems may create a range of new and unforeseen problems. These include the failure of systems, unforeseen financial costs, increased security threats and unacceptable imposition on citizens. The success of a national identity system depends on a sensitive, cautious and cooperative approach involving all key stakeholder groups including an independent and rolling risk assessment and a regular review of management practices. We are not confident that these conditions have been satisfied in the development of the Identity Cards Bill. The risk of failure in the current proposals is therefore magnified to the point where the scheme should be regarded as a potential danger to the public interest and to the legal right of individuals."
Let me just repeat that last bit, "The risk of failure in the current proposals is therefore magnified to the point where the scheme should be regarded as a potential danger to the public interest and to the legal right of individuals."
"The Report concludes that the establishment of a secure national identity system has the potential to create significant, though limited, benefits for society. However, the proposals currently being considered by parliament are neither safe nor appropriate. There was an overwhelming view expressed by the stakehodlers involved in this Report that the proposals are too complex, technically unsafe, overly prescriptive and lack a foundation of public trust and confidence. The current proposals miss key opportunities to establish a secure, trusted and cost-effective identity system and the Report therefore considers alternative models for an identity card scheme that may achieve the goals of the legislation more effectively. The concept of a national identity system is supportable, but the current proposals are not feasible.
Many of the public interest objectives of the Bill would be more effectively achieved by other means. For example, preventing identity theft may be better addressed by giveing individuals more control over the disclosure of their own personal information, while prevention of terrorism may be more effectively managed through strenghtened border patrols and increased presence at borders, or allocating adequate resources for conventional police intelligence work.
The technology envisaged for this scheme is, to a large extent, untested and unreliable. No scheme on this scale has been undertaken anywhere in the world. Smaller and less ambitious schemes have encountered substantial technological and operational problems that are likely to be amplified in a large scale, national system. The use of biometrics gives rise to particular concern because this technology has never been used at such a scale.
Any system that supports critical security funnctions must be robust and resilient to malicious attacks. Because of its size and complexity, the identity system would require security measures at a scale that will result in substantially higher implementation and operational costs than has been estimated. The proposed use of the system for a variety of purposes, and access to it from a large number of private and public sector organisations will require unprecendented attention to security.
All identity systems carry consequestial dangers as well as potential benefits. Depending on the model used, identity systems may create a range of new and unforeseen problems. These include the failure of systems, unforeseen financial costs, increased security threats and unacceptable imposition on citizens. The success of a national identity system depends on a sensitive, cautious and cooperative approach involving all key stakeholder groups including an independent and rolling risk assessment and a regular review of management practices. We are not confident that these conditions have been satisfied in the development of the Identity Cards Bill. The risk of failure in the current proposals is therefore magnified to the point where the scheme should be regarded as a potential danger to the public interest and to the legal right of individuals."
Let me just repeat that last bit, "The risk of failure in the current proposals is therefore magnified to the point where the scheme should be regarded as a potential danger to the public interest and to the legal right of individuals."
BBC backstage
This is quite something.
"Anyway, backstage.bbc.co.uk isn’t just a result of the unique way the BBC is funded. That it fulfils a requirement of the BBC charter is wholly incidental.3 Although, it’s pretty damn useful too, to be blunt. No. It’s actually a symbol of something much much bigger: it’s laying down the gauntlet for the rest of the world. It highlights the point that on the internet, hiding your content is suicide. It says that you can either open up, and we can all flourish together; or you can remain closed, and die alone."
A major copyright holder is not only giving their material away but providing a tool for others to re-use that material creatively. I wonder how many BBC suits were asked for permission to create and release backstage.
"backstage.bbc.co.uk is the BBC's new developer network, providing content feeds for anyone to build with. Alternatively, share your ideas on new ways to use BBC content. This is your BBC. We want to help you play."
Terrific stuff.
"Anyway, backstage.bbc.co.uk isn’t just a result of the unique way the BBC is funded. That it fulfils a requirement of the BBC charter is wholly incidental.3 Although, it’s pretty damn useful too, to be blunt. No. It’s actually a symbol of something much much bigger: it’s laying down the gauntlet for the rest of the world. It highlights the point that on the internet, hiding your content is suicide. It says that you can either open up, and we can all flourish together; or you can remain closed, and die alone."
A major copyright holder is not only giving their material away but providing a tool for others to re-use that material creatively. I wonder how many BBC suits were asked for permission to create and release backstage.
"backstage.bbc.co.uk is the BBC's new developer network, providing content feeds for anyone to build with. Alternatively, share your ideas on new ways to use BBC content. This is your BBC. We want to help you play."
Terrific stuff.
Dutch ISPs sue BREIN
Five Dutch ISPs are suing the Protection Rights Entertainment Industry Netherlands (BREIN), as a pre-emptive strike because BREIN are intending to sue the ISPs to get them to identify suspected file sharers.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Real ID battle begins
The battle over the passage of the Real ID Act has begun, according to Wired.
"The National Governors Association is threatening lawsuits to fight the legislation. And some states are threatening to ignore the legislation because they say it will cost up to $700 million for states to comply and will place a heavy burden on Department of Motor Vehicles workers."
And a raft of civil liberties groups are also mobilizing against the legislation.
"The National Governors Association is threatening lawsuits to fight the legislation. And some states are threatening to ignore the legislation because they say it will cost up to $700 million for states to comply and will place a heavy burden on Department of Motor Vehicles workers."
And a raft of civil liberties groups are also mobilizing against the legislation.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
T-Online AG sued over data storage
A German ISP, T-Online, have been sued over their data storage practices.
This comes not long after it emerged that the EU Commission's data retention proposals have been declared, by the Commission's lawyers, to be at least partly illegal.
This comes not long after it emerged that the EU Commission's data retention proposals have been declared, by the Commission's lawyers, to be at least partly illegal.
Senate pass Real ID Act
The US Senate has passed the Real ID Act without any dissenting voices. Sponsor, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, said
"The Real ID is vital to preventing foreign terrorists from hiding in plain sight while conducting their operations and planning attacks. By targeting terrorist travel, the Real ID will assist in our war-on-terror efforts to disrupt terrorist operations and help secure our borders."
Sadly he is completely wrong. Someone really should give these people introductory security lessons or at the very least introduce them to people who do know about security like Bruce Schneier.
It is a little unfair to say there were no dissenting voices in the Senate because one Democrat did speak against it but ended up voting in favour of of it because it was attached to a spending package on Iraq, Afghanistan and the tsunami.
You can expect the Real ID Act to be formally challenged before George W. Bush's signature is dry on it.
"The Real ID is vital to preventing foreign terrorists from hiding in plain sight while conducting their operations and planning attacks. By targeting terrorist travel, the Real ID will assist in our war-on-terror efforts to disrupt terrorist operations and help secure our borders."
Sadly he is completely wrong. Someone really should give these people introductory security lessons or at the very least introduce them to people who do know about security like Bruce Schneier.
It is a little unfair to say there were no dissenting voices in the Senate because one Democrat did speak against it but ended up voting in favour of of it because it was attached to a spending package on Iraq, Afghanistan and the tsunami.
You can expect the Real ID Act to be formally challenged before George W. Bush's signature is dry on it.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Brits sued over BitTorrent
The Register has a story about two British men getting a "summons to appear before the US District Court of New Jersey, where MPAA members Paramount, Warner, Universal and 20th Century Fox are attempting to identify and therefore sue individuals they alleged shared their film and TV content without authorisation." The studios have offered to settle for a generous $7million.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Felton's view from DMP world
Ed Felton has a wonderful post on his blog about the "View from DMP World", DMP being the Digital Media Project.
"The "6th General Assembly of the Digital Media Project" recently released a set of documents "providing an Interoperable DRM Platform". I've written before about the self-contradictory nature of their goal (A Perfectly Compatible Form of Incompatibility). Now we get to see how they plan to achieve the goal. And I have to say, the documents are a real piece of work. I could blog for a month just dissecting them; but I won't subject you to that. Instead, just a small sample or two.
The documents describe a world unlike the one we actually live in. They do this, mostly, by redefining words that we all understand, creating improved versions that are distinguished typographically by capitalization. (There is a whole document devoted to definitions.) When you enter DMP-World, you give up your rights; they are replaced by Rights. And unlike ordinary rights, which you may possess simply by virtue of being a human being, Rights have to be Granted to you, and they can be Withdrawn by a Creator. In DMP-World, you can't buy devices; all you can get are Devices. You don't whistle a tune; you execute Functions on Governed Content. The goal of all of this is to achieve Trust: "a state where Users, Devices, or Content Data enable Users to execute Functions on Governed Content"."
It must be bad if it gets someone as calm and rational as Ed Felton so worked up.
"The "6th General Assembly of the Digital Media Project" recently released a set of documents "providing an Interoperable DRM Platform". I've written before about the self-contradictory nature of their goal (A Perfectly Compatible Form of Incompatibility). Now we get to see how they plan to achieve the goal. And I have to say, the documents are a real piece of work. I could blog for a month just dissecting them; but I won't subject you to that. Instead, just a small sample or two.
The documents describe a world unlike the one we actually live in. They do this, mostly, by redefining words that we all understand, creating improved versions that are distinguished typographically by capitalization. (There is a whole document devoted to definitions.) When you enter DMP-World, you give up your rights; they are replaced by Rights. And unlike ordinary rights, which you may possess simply by virtue of being a human being, Rights have to be Granted to you, and they can be Withdrawn by a Creator. In DMP-World, you can't buy devices; all you can get are Devices. You don't whistle a tune; you execute Functions on Governed Content. The goal of all of this is to achieve Trust: "a state where Users, Devices, or Content Data enable Users to execute Functions on Governed Content"."
It must be bad if it gets someone as calm and rational as Ed Felton so worked up.
In business
BBC radio 4 had a nice introductory discussion on broadcasting via the Internet last night, which covered a range of issues from satellite digital radio through to podcasting. Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/inbusiness/ram/inbusiness_current.ram
Thanks to Chris Bird for the link.
Thanks to Chris Bird for the link.
Geist on US IP bully
Michael Geist is calling for the creation of an "IP Bullied List" to counteract the US's bullying tactics in linking international trade to intellectual property policies.
"After years of calling on Canada to implement the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Internet treaties, the U.S.’s true interests have been revealed. Implementing the treaties is now not good enough. Rather, the U.S. wants us to implement its version of the treaties, which extend well beyond international requirements.
Even more troubling is the way U.S. pressure against Canada has become part of a much larger global campaign to leverage its economic power by tying trade agreements with greater intellectual property protection. This was not always the case – when Canada negotiated the free trade agreement with the United States in the 1980s, intellectual property issues constituted only a small part of the agreement. Similar U.S. agreements with Israel as well as the subsequent North American Free Trade Agreement also referred to intellectual property but did not make it a focal point.
Today the U.S. is negotiating trade agreements with dozens of countries. The intellectual property provisions within those agreements are sometimes at least 40 pages in length, specifying international intellectual property agreements that must be implemented and including specific provisions to govern domain name disputes, patent protection, and copyright law. The copyright provisions inevitably go beyond even those found in the U.S., since they include requirements for an extension of the term of copyright, new protections for TPMs, and ISP liability requirements. They do not, however, feature any balancing provisions for user interests."
"After years of calling on Canada to implement the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Internet treaties, the U.S.’s true interests have been revealed. Implementing the treaties is now not good enough. Rather, the U.S. wants us to implement its version of the treaties, which extend well beyond international requirements.
Even more troubling is the way U.S. pressure against Canada has become part of a much larger global campaign to leverage its economic power by tying trade agreements with greater intellectual property protection. This was not always the case – when Canada negotiated the free trade agreement with the United States in the 1980s, intellectual property issues constituted only a small part of the agreement. Similar U.S. agreements with Israel as well as the subsequent North American Free Trade Agreement also referred to intellectual property but did not make it a focal point.
Today the U.S. is negotiating trade agreements with dozens of countries. The intellectual property provisions within those agreements are sometimes at least 40 pages in length, specifying international intellectual property agreements that must be implemented and including specific provisions to govern domain name disputes, patent protection, and copyright law. The copyright provisions inevitably go beyond even those found in the U.S., since they include requirements for an extension of the term of copyright, new protections for TPMs, and ISP liability requirements. They do not, however, feature any balancing provisions for user interests."
Teens and the web CFP
There was a great session at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Seattle last week with group of teenagers. Wired has an edited transcript of the discussion. Teenagers are a much maligned group. We should give kids the credit for being the smart sensible people that most of them are.
Thanks for the link Ley!
Thanks for the link Ley!
FCC exceeded authority with broadcast flag
A US court of appeal has put a dent in the FCC's madating of the broadcast flag.
The full decision is available online. The conclusion is pretty scathing about the FCC acting outside their authority:
"The FCC argues that the Commission has “discretion” to exercise “broad authority” over equipment used in connection with radio and wire transmissions, “when the need arises, even if it has not previously regulated in a particular area.” FCC Br.
at 17. This is an extraordinary proposition. “The [Commission’s] position in this case amounts to the bare suggestion that it possesses plenary authority to act within a given area simply because Congress has endowed it with some authority to act in that area. We categorically reject that suggestion. Agencies owe their capacity to act to the delegation of authority” from Congress. See Ry. Labor Executives’ Ass’n,
29 F.3d at 670. The FCC, like other federal agencies, “literally has no power to act . . . unless and until Congress confers power upon it.” La. Pub. Serv. Comm’n v. FCC, 476 U.S. 355, 374 (1986). In this case, all relevant materials concerning the FCC’s
jurisdiction – including the words of the Communications Act of 1934, its legislative history, subsequent legislation, relevant case law, and Commission practice – confirm that the FCC has no authority to regulate consumer electronic devices that can be
used for receipt of wire or radio communication when those devices are not engaged in the process of radio or wire transmission.
Because the Commission exceeded the scope of its delegated authority, we grant the petition for review, and reverse and vacate the Flag Order insofar as it requires demodulator products manufactured on or after July 1, 2005 to recognize and give effect to the broadcast flag.
So ordered."
That's what I'd call a pretty conclusive victory for the Amercian Library Association (ALA) and others who brought the case.
The film, broadcasting and cable industry lobbyists will now be relishing a further lucrative opportunity to convince US lawmakers to introduce the flag via a different route.
Declan also has the story.
Update (Thanks to Michael Geist for the links): The NYT also have a couple of readable stories on the issue and ask whether the broadcasters threat to pull HDTV broadcasts will now be followed through.
"In 2002, Mel Karmazin, then president of Viacom, threatened to withdraw high-definition versions of programming from the airwaves if the flag technology was not adopted, a threat echoed by other broadcasters and movie studios.
"Now we will see if threats to pull broadcasts from CBS and others are real or not," said Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and HDNet, an all-HDTV channel available through cable and satellite, and an opponent of the broadcast flag.
Those measures are unlikely to be taken any time soon. First, advocates of the flag technology will try to circumvent the court's ruling through Congressional legislation. And despite the industry's alarm bells, Internet video piracy still is very much a nascent issue. At today's transmission speeds, it would take about 24 hours to send a one-hour show broadcast in HDTV over the Internet."
The full decision is available online. The conclusion is pretty scathing about the FCC acting outside their authority:
"The FCC argues that the Commission has “discretion” to exercise “broad authority” over equipment used in connection with radio and wire transmissions, “when the need arises, even if it has not previously regulated in a particular area.” FCC Br.
at 17. This is an extraordinary proposition. “The [Commission’s] position in this case amounts to the bare suggestion that it possesses plenary authority to act within a given area simply because Congress has endowed it with some authority to act in that area. We categorically reject that suggestion. Agencies owe their capacity to act to the delegation of authority” from Congress. See Ry. Labor Executives’ Ass’n,
29 F.3d at 670. The FCC, like other federal agencies, “literally has no power to act . . . unless and until Congress confers power upon it.” La. Pub. Serv. Comm’n v. FCC, 476 U.S. 355, 374 (1986). In this case, all relevant materials concerning the FCC’s
jurisdiction – including the words of the Communications Act of 1934, its legislative history, subsequent legislation, relevant case law, and Commission practice – confirm that the FCC has no authority to regulate consumer electronic devices that can be
used for receipt of wire or radio communication when those devices are not engaged in the process of radio or wire transmission.
Because the Commission exceeded the scope of its delegated authority, we grant the petition for review, and reverse and vacate the Flag Order insofar as it requires demodulator products manufactured on or after July 1, 2005 to recognize and give effect to the broadcast flag.
So ordered."
That's what I'd call a pretty conclusive victory for the Amercian Library Association (ALA) and others who brought the case.
The film, broadcasting and cable industry lobbyists will now be relishing a further lucrative opportunity to convince US lawmakers to introduce the flag via a different route.
Declan also has the story.
Update (Thanks to Michael Geist for the links): The NYT also have a couple of readable stories on the issue and ask whether the broadcasters threat to pull HDTV broadcasts will now be followed through.
"In 2002, Mel Karmazin, then president of Viacom, threatened to withdraw high-definition versions of programming from the airwaves if the flag technology was not adopted, a threat echoed by other broadcasters and movie studios.
"Now we will see if threats to pull broadcasts from CBS and others are real or not," said Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and HDNet, an all-HDTV channel available through cable and satellite, and an opponent of the broadcast flag.
Those measures are unlikely to be taken any time soon. First, advocates of the flag technology will try to circumvent the court's ruling through Congressional legislation. And despite the industry's alarm bells, Internet video piracy still is very much a nascent issue. At today's transmission speeds, it would take about 24 hours to send a one-hour show broadcast in HDTV over the Internet."
Real ID act slipped through
The republicans have been taking some lessons from Bertie and the boys and have slipped the Real ID Act through the house with a massive majority and no debate, on the back of a tsunami aid package. Only one Democrat appears to be making a fuss about it.
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