I see Governor Howard Dean, who is running for president in the US has put together a "dream team" to advise him on information policy. Good for him. Mind you I could see him getting on the wrong side of the media moguls, the entertainment industry, the publishing industry and the telecommunications industry if he decides to actually take the advice of these folks, who include Hal Abelson, Larry Lessig, Laura Breeden, Bob Lucky, Dewayne Hendricks, Joi Ito, David Reed, Richard Rowe, David Weinberger. That could be fun!
Given the serious committment of the members of the group to end to end architecture and open networks, the relentless commercial drive to lock up the choke points of our communication infrastructures may well start to to hit some speed bumps! But then, I don't suppose there is a particularly high probably that the governor will get elected?
Friday, October 17, 2003
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Salon have another worrying article by Farhad Manjoo on the current problems with electronic voting.
" Over the past several years, as computer
scientists began expressing concerns about the security of touch-
screen electronic voting machines, elections officials across the
nation have reassured the public with a simple answer: Testing...
But Jeremiah Akin, a 28-year-old computer programmer who
recently observed one of these tests in Riverside County, Calif.,
says that what he saw did nothing to mitigate his concerns about
electronic voting -- indeed, the whole thing made him more worried
than ever."
" Over the past several years, as computer
scientists began expressing concerns about the security of touch-
screen electronic voting machines, elections officials across the
nation have reassured the public with a simple answer: Testing...
But Jeremiah Akin, a 28-year-old computer programmer who
recently observed one of these tests in Riverside County, Calif.,
says that what he saw did nothing to mitigate his concerns about
electronic voting -- indeed, the whole thing made him more worried
than ever."
Ernest Miller from Yale has a new blog called 'The Importance of'. From the biography,
"Ernest Miller - Just some guy who likes to think about the intersection of law and technology.
If you're curious about "The Importance Of" - please see any bibliography of Oscar Wilde."
Now Ernest Miller is more than 'just some guy' who likes to think about law and technology. He's one of the smartest people in the field. So this is another blog that gets added to my list of links.
And from Ernest, I learn that one of the cases that got me really interested in cyberlaw, the Dan Bernstein v DOJ cryptography export case, has finally come to an end. It has been dismissed by the judge due to a DOJ promise not to pursue cryptography researchers. Ernest says:
"The case has gone through many permutations and
procedural twists. It has certainly resulted in changes to government regulations such that encryption software is much less
tightly controlled than it once was. More importantly, the case has been one of the main sources for several once novel legal
arguments, particularly those establishing that computer code is speech protected by the First Amendment."
SunnComm's CEO Peter Jacobs has been complaining about his lot and his complaints have been dissected over at Greplaw and by Derek. I understand why Mr Jacobs is angry - I probably would be too if I was CEO of a company that had $10 million wiped off its share price overnight. But it is usually a good idea, when you find yourself in a hole, to stop digging.
"Ernest Miller - Just some guy who likes to think about the intersection of law and technology.
If you're curious about "The Importance Of" - please see any bibliography of Oscar Wilde."
Now Ernest Miller is more than 'just some guy' who likes to think about law and technology. He's one of the smartest people in the field. So this is another blog that gets added to my list of links.
And from Ernest, I learn that one of the cases that got me really interested in cyberlaw, the Dan Bernstein v DOJ cryptography export case, has finally come to an end. It has been dismissed by the judge due to a DOJ promise not to pursue cryptography researchers. Ernest says:
"The case has gone through many permutations and
procedural twists. It has certainly resulted in changes to government regulations such that encryption software is much less
tightly controlled than it once was. More importantly, the case has been one of the main sources for several once novel legal
arguments, particularly those establishing that computer code is speech protected by the First Amendment."
SunnComm's CEO Peter Jacobs has been complaining about his lot and his complaints have been dissected over at Greplaw and by Derek. I understand why Mr Jacobs is angry - I probably would be too if I was CEO of a company that had $10 million wiped off its share price overnight. But it is usually a good idea, when you find yourself in a hole, to stop digging.
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Terrific article by Megan Gray - Confessions of a Copyright Enforcer - which throws a sharp light on the DMCA subpoena process.
Rager Parloff offered his usual sympathetic thoughts to the concerns of the entertainment industry over file sharing recently in Fortune Magazine. The article does a nice job of explaining the relationships between FasTrack, Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, Gnutella, Sharman Networks and Streamcast. Morpheus, for example, decided to move to Gnutella after a dispute with Kazaa got them locked out of the FasTrack network.
Amy Harmon at The New York Times has done a nice piece on the pricing of music downloads, What Price Music? She quotes Doug Morris, chairman of Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company:
"This is much bigger than the CD. The CD and the LP and the cassette were all packaged goods. This is about
being able to find all the world's music in one store — a Professor Longhair record, a Benny Goodman record. Where are you
going to find that in a record store now?"
Looks like at least one of the labels is finally getting its act together. It's impossible to say what the long term effect on the music business will be but Morris thinks there will be an increase in overall sales. Nice to see some optimism from such a source.
The NYT also did a nice profile a few days ago of the guys that created Kazaa and their latest adventures with VoIP service Skype. Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis see VoIP having a seismic affect on traditional telephone companies. The article suggests MCI in the US are planning a complete switch to VoIP by 2005. Interesting.
Back to the music business and specifically the RIAA's targetting of file sharers, the EFF seem to have found someone else who has been falsely accused:
"The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier
Foundation on Monday asked lawyers for three
record labels to drop their suit against 35-year-old
Web site designer Ross Plank, asserting that he is the
second target of 261 high-profile suits who is the
victim of mistaken identity. "
"This is much bigger than the CD. The CD and the LP and the cassette were all packaged goods. This is about
being able to find all the world's music in one store — a Professor Longhair record, a Benny Goodman record. Where are you
going to find that in a record store now?"
Looks like at least one of the labels is finally getting its act together. It's impossible to say what the long term effect on the music business will be but Morris thinks there will be an increase in overall sales. Nice to see some optimism from such a source.
The NYT also did a nice profile a few days ago of the guys that created Kazaa and their latest adventures with VoIP service Skype. Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis see VoIP having a seismic affect on traditional telephone companies. The article suggests MCI in the US are planning a complete switch to VoIP by 2005. Interesting.
Back to the music business and specifically the RIAA's targetting of file sharers, the EFF seem to have found someone else who has been falsely accused:
"The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier
Foundation on Monday asked lawyers for three
record labels to drop their suit against 35-year-old
Web site designer Ross Plank, asserting that he is the
second target of 261 high-profile suits who is the
victim of mistaken identity. "
Sunday, October 12, 2003
An FCC Commissioner who gets it, according to Larry Lessig. This paper from Michael Copps is spot on and not the kind of insight you come to expect from officialdom. Good for you Mr Copps.
Friday, October 10, 2003
It seems that SunnComm have decided not to sue Alex Haderman after all.
"SunnComm president and CEO Peter Jacobs said he changed his mind.
Jacobs said in an interview late last night that a successful lawsuit would do
little to reverse the damage done by the paper Halderman published Monday
about his research, and any suit would likely hurt the research community by
making computer scientists think twice about researching copy-protection
technology.
"I don't want to be the guy that creates any kind of chilling effect on
research," Jacobs said."
"SunnComm president and CEO Peter Jacobs said he changed his mind.
Jacobs said in an interview late last night that a successful lawsuit would do
little to reverse the damage done by the paper Halderman published Monday
about his research, and any suit would likely hurt the research community by
making computer scientists think twice about researching copy-protection
technology.
"I don't want to be the guy that creates any kind of chilling effect on
research," Jacobs said."
AT LUNCHTIME TODAY, I moderated a panel discussion on digital downloading and music,
featuring a bunch of musicians, songwriters, and industry people from Nashville. Here's the
scary bit: one of the industry guys said that their big legislative priority is to try to create a
regime where you have to register with a unique, verifiable ID to access the Internet.
No doubt the next step would be to take away that ID as punishment for "misconduct" on the
Internet. Shades of Vernor Vinge's True Names.
posted at 04:12 PM by Glenn Reynolds
featuring a bunch of musicians, songwriters, and industry people from Nashville. Here's the
scary bit: one of the industry guys said that their big legislative priority is to try to create a
regime where you have to register with a unique, verifiable ID to access the Internet.
No doubt the next step would be to take away that ID as punishment for "misconduct" on the
Internet. Shades of Vernor Vinge's True Names.
posted at 04:12 PM by Glenn Reynolds
Alex Halderman, a Princeton student, who discovered that holding down the shift key while loading a CD into a computer, allows you to beat the latest copy protection technology, is about to get sued by the company that produced the technology. I'm with Ernest Miller on this one. I can't see them going ahead with it. It's a pretty lousy PR exercise - a student points out your security is not very good and you react how? By improving the security? No, of course not! You must sue the student, or preferably have the authorities go after him with criminal charges. We're not in the real world, we're in DMCA-land. We'll have our very own version, EUCD-land, in the UK by the end of the month.
Thursday, October 09, 2003
Eolas have filed for an injunction to stop Microsoft distributing their IE browser, in the wake of their recent $520 million patent infringement victory against the software giant.
The UK has passed legislation to implement the EU Copyright directive. The actual legislation is largely unchanged from the original draft regulations that were subject to such a long period of consultation. There now appears to be an exception for researchers. Section 296ZA2 states:
"This section does not apply where a person, for the purposes
of research into cryptography, does anything which circumvents effective
technological measures unless in so doing, or in issuing information
derived from that research, he affects prejudicially the rights of the
copyright owner."
It remains to be seen what "affects prejudicially the rights of the copyright owner" actually means in practice. The DMCA also has an exception for security researchers. Ben Edelman at Harvard wants to get access to a lists of websites blocked by certain commercially available filter software programmes, in order to test their effectiveness.
As a researcher, the DMCA provides an exception which allows him to bypass the digital locks which keep those lists secret. At the same time, however, it makes it illegal for him to build the tool that would enable him to bypass those digital locks. I wonder if Section 296ZA(2) will have a similar effect?
Silicon.com are reporting on a way of beating the latest CD copy protection technology. I wonder how such a report is affected by the implemention of the copyright directive now?
"This section does not apply where a person, for the purposes
of research into cryptography, does anything which circumvents effective
technological measures unless in so doing, or in issuing information
derived from that research, he affects prejudicially the rights of the
copyright owner."
It remains to be seen what "affects prejudicially the rights of the copyright owner" actually means in practice. The DMCA also has an exception for security researchers. Ben Edelman at Harvard wants to get access to a lists of websites blocked by certain commercially available filter software programmes, in order to test their effectiveness.
As a researcher, the DMCA provides an exception which allows him to bypass the digital locks which keep those lists secret. At the same time, however, it makes it illegal for him to build the tool that would enable him to bypass those digital locks. I wonder if Section 296ZA(2) will have a similar effect?
Silicon.com are reporting on a way of beating the latest CD copy protection technology. I wonder how such a report is affected by the implemention of the copyright directive now?
Thursday, October 02, 2003
Nesson Fisher and Zittrain in conversation. Great stuff.
Derek Slater is on form too quizing Prof Nesson's ideas for getting us all out of the P2P cul-de-sac. I need to spend more time on this!
Derek Slater is on form too quizing Prof Nesson's ideas for getting us all out of the P2P cul-de-sac. I need to spend more time on this!
The Times is reporting that Tony Blair has become a convert to David Blunkett's grand plan on national identity cards. Another step in his New Labour leadership style demo. No doubt he wants to be seen to be tough on Labour, tough on the causes of Labour.
Anita Ramasastry has done a typically incisive analysis of the privacy issues related to the recent JetBlue case and the US government's proposals on the CAPPS11. The 1974 Privacy Act in the US only relates to databases compiled by the government and does not cover government's access to private sector databases.
"Soon, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) - which was
involved in the JetBlue data transfer - will begin to implement CAPPS II.
CAPPS II will attempt to update and revamp the existing federal no-fly
list program by employing the same kind of private sector data that
JetBlue provided to Torch Concepts.
Disturbingly, however, CAPPS II currently lacks meaningful privacy and
due process safeguards. Thus, not only should the Privacy Act be
amended, but so should the CAPPS II proposal.
Otherwise, consumers may find that data that they have provided to
companies in the private sector is now being used to target them for the
same scrutiny would-be terrorists receive. "
The defense contractor that analysed the data on 5 million JetBlue passengers, had been contracted by the army "to determine how information from public and private records
might be analyzed to help defend military bases from attack by terrorists
and other adversaries."
The contractor synthesised the JetBlue data with data bought from a large aggregating company and created a set of profiles:
(1) Young Middle Income Home Owners with Short
Length-of-Residence; (2) Older Upper Income Home Owners with
Longer Length-of-Residence; and (3) travellers with "anomalous
records."
As Prof Ramasastry says, "The third category, by definition, might potentially include renters,
students with both home and school addresses, older persons who have
moved recently, and persons with low incomes. Of course, such persons
are in some senses the norm in America. Yet the program may have
deemed them "anomalous" - and, thus a risk from a security standpoint. "
The other problem comes when there are errors in the data or it gets misused by the various actors (or their employees) engaged in the processing or transfer of the data.
The guy that is trying to sell his electronic voting machines to Ohio state, told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed
to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." If you read in a novel you wouldn't believe it. Not, of course, suggesting that we should believe everything we read on the Net. Although, Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc., has been reported as having said similar things in the past.
"Soon, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) - which was
involved in the JetBlue data transfer - will begin to implement CAPPS II.
CAPPS II will attempt to update and revamp the existing federal no-fly
list program by employing the same kind of private sector data that
JetBlue provided to Torch Concepts.
Disturbingly, however, CAPPS II currently lacks meaningful privacy and
due process safeguards. Thus, not only should the Privacy Act be
amended, but so should the CAPPS II proposal.
Otherwise, consumers may find that data that they have provided to
companies in the private sector is now being used to target them for the
same scrutiny would-be terrorists receive. "
The defense contractor that analysed the data on 5 million JetBlue passengers, had been contracted by the army "to determine how information from public and private records
might be analyzed to help defend military bases from attack by terrorists
and other adversaries."
The contractor synthesised the JetBlue data with data bought from a large aggregating company and created a set of profiles:
(1) Young Middle Income Home Owners with Short
Length-of-Residence; (2) Older Upper Income Home Owners with
Longer Length-of-Residence; and (3) travellers with "anomalous
records."
As Prof Ramasastry says, "The third category, by definition, might potentially include renters,
students with both home and school addresses, older persons who have
moved recently, and persons with low incomes. Of course, such persons
are in some senses the norm in America. Yet the program may have
deemed them "anomalous" - and, thus a risk from a security standpoint. "
The other problem comes when there are errors in the data or it gets misused by the various actors (or their employees) engaged in the processing or transfer of the data.
The guy that is trying to sell his electronic voting machines to Ohio state, told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed
to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." If you read in a novel you wouldn't believe it. Not, of course, suggesting that we should believe everything we read on the Net. Although, Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc., has been reported as having said similar things in the past.
Monday, September 29, 2003
I've just lost a large post on electronic voting machines when IE Explorer crashed and I don't have the time to re-generate it, so I'll just point to this flash animation and a Salon article on alleged irregularities on the development of standards on same.
Insightful essay by science fiction writer Orson Scott Card on the problems the music industry is having with MP3s. He has a solution to the copyright term debate too,
"Twenty years after the author's
death or the author's hundredth birthday,
whichever comes last -- that's a workable
standard to provide for the author and his
or her immediate heirs. It comes to an end,
and the work enters the public domain as it
should.
And let's eliminate this nonsense about
corporate authorship. If a corporation
claims to be the "author" for copyright
purposes, then the whole life of the
copyright should be twenty years, period.
They make most of their money in twenty
years, except on a handful of works that
enter the public consciousness...
If you changed the law that way, suddenly
"work for hire" contracts would disappear,
and the real creators would be treated
with more respect by the big companies --
because they'd much rather have a fair
contract with an author whose copyright
will last many decades than to have
outright "authorship" of a twenty-year
copyright."
"Twenty years after the author's
death or the author's hundredth birthday,
whichever comes last -- that's a workable
standard to provide for the author and his
or her immediate heirs. It comes to an end,
and the work enters the public domain as it
should.
And let's eliminate this nonsense about
corporate authorship. If a corporation
claims to be the "author" for copyright
purposes, then the whole life of the
copyright should be twenty years, period.
They make most of their money in twenty
years, except on a handful of works that
enter the public consciousness...
If you changed the law that way, suddenly
"work for hire" contracts would disappear,
and the real creators would be treated
with more respect by the big companies --
because they'd much rather have a fair
contract with an author whose copyright
will last many decades than to have
outright "authorship" of a twenty-year
copyright."
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