Monday, November 20, 2006
NATO expert on Cyberterror
Ian Brown has been taking notes at a NATO-Russia round-table on cyberterror a couple of weeks ago. Essential reading.
National Academy for Parenting Practitioners
The government are now going to set up a National Academy for Parenting Practitioners.
Meanwhile the childminder is wondering about the government's committment to their every child matters agenda and a group of youngsters are dneied permission to enter the Lowry exhibition in Salford.
The UK has gone barking mad when it comes to dealing with children. Given that kids are growing up in a society that treats them either as total pariahs or innocent victims who need protection at all costs, it is remarkable that we have such a largely well adjusted young populace.
Thanks to ARCH for the links.
Meanwhile the childminder is wondering about the government's committment to their every child matters agenda and a group of youngsters are dneied permission to enter the Lowry exhibition in Salford.
The UK has gone barking mad when it comes to dealing with children. Given that kids are growing up in a society that treats them either as total pariahs or innocent victims who need protection at all costs, it is remarkable that we have such a largely well adjusted young populace.
Thanks to ARCH for the links.
UK copyright term extension proposals
James Boyle has a wonderful article in the FT on the music industry proposals to extend the term of copyright for sound recordings in the UK.
"The whole idea is very stupid. But if this is the stupid idea we wish to pursue, then simply increase the income tax proportionately and distribute the benefits to those record companies and musicians whose music is still commercially available after 50 years. Require them to put the money into developing new artists – something the current proposal does not. Let all the other recordings pass into the public domain.
Of course, no government commission would consider such an idea for a moment. Tax the public to give a monopoly windfall to those who already hit the jackpot, because they claim their industry cannot survive without retrospectively changing the terms of its deals? It is laughable. Indeed it is. Yet it is a better, saner proposal than the one before us. Which tells us something about the current state of copyright policy."
"The whole idea is very stupid. But if this is the stupid idea we wish to pursue, then simply increase the income tax proportionately and distribute the benefits to those record companies and musicians whose music is still commercially available after 50 years. Require them to put the money into developing new artists – something the current proposal does not. Let all the other recordings pass into the public domain.
Of course, no government commission would consider such an idea for a moment. Tax the public to give a monopoly windfall to those who already hit the jackpot, because they claim their industry cannot survive without retrospectively changing the terms of its deals? It is laughable. Indeed it is. Yet it is a better, saner proposal than the one before us. Which tells us something about the current state of copyright policy."
Universal sue MySpace
Universal has sued MySpace over postings of copyrighted music videos. The complaint is available at Findlaw, though not in a particularly user friendly format.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Fingerprint required for car hire at Stansted
The BBC are reporting that car hire firms at Stansted now require a fingerprint from every customer, allegedly for security reasons.
"If you want to hire a car at Stansted Airport, you now need to give a fingerprint.
The scheme being tested by Essex police and car hire firms, is not voluntary. Every car rental customer must take part.
These are stored by the hire firms - and will be handed over to the police if the car is stolen or used for another crime"
A CID spokesman said criminal gangs had been targetting car hire firms at the airport and that:
"It's not intrusive really. It's different - and people need to adjust to it. It's not Big Brother, it's about protecting people's identities. The police will never see these thumbprints unless a crime is committed."
His statement is understandable coming from a police officer with a serious car theft problem on his beat but it is flawed from a security perspective. The 'treat everybody as if they are a criminal because a small percentage of people engage in criminal activity' approach is not sustainable from a security or a societal perspective. The activity is intrusive; people do not need to adjust to it and can choose not to hire cars at Stansted; it will not protect people's identities and in fact exposes them to identity theft by car hire company insiders or those who gain access to their databases; and as for the police only seeing the thumprints once a crime is committed, well the security damage is already done as far as the individual is conerned long before any crime has been committed. Will it stop criminal gangs targetting the car hire firms? I doubt it but they may adjust their modus operandi in future, which I guess, from the police officer's perspective is a partially successful outcome i.e. the disruption of the criminal activity.
"If you want to hire a car at Stansted Airport, you now need to give a fingerprint.
The scheme being tested by Essex police and car hire firms, is not voluntary. Every car rental customer must take part.
These are stored by the hire firms - and will be handed over to the police if the car is stolen or used for another crime"
A CID spokesman said criminal gangs had been targetting car hire firms at the airport and that:
"It's not intrusive really. It's different - and people need to adjust to it. It's not Big Brother, it's about protecting people's identities. The police will never see these thumbprints unless a crime is committed."
His statement is understandable coming from a police officer with a serious car theft problem on his beat but it is flawed from a security perspective. The 'treat everybody as if they are a criminal because a small percentage of people engage in criminal activity' approach is not sustainable from a security or a societal perspective. The activity is intrusive; people do not need to adjust to it and can choose not to hire cars at Stansted; it will not protect people's identities and in fact exposes them to identity theft by car hire company insiders or those who gain access to their databases; and as for the police only seeing the thumprints once a crime is committed, well the security damage is already done as far as the individual is conerned long before any crime has been committed. Will it stop criminal gangs targetting the car hire firms? I doubt it but they may adjust their modus operandi in future, which I guess, from the police officer's perspective is a partially successful outcome i.e. the disruption of the criminal activity.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Back to the Future: sealed and delivered
I finally completed the book and delivered it to the publishers, Springer-Verlag London Ltd., yesterday. It was good to meet the folks I had been corresponding with via email. They seem very tuned in to issues of open access, visibility and the value of the long tail. I was also pleased to hear that they will be making one or two chapters of the book openly available online once it gets published.
Executive Editor, Beverley Ford and Sales Director, David Anderson even treated me to lunch, which was very decent. David suggested we change the title from 'Back to the Future: Digital Decision Making' to 'Digital Decision Making: Back to the Future', which I had no objections to, though I'd still be interested in the opinions of readers of this blog on the change.
Whilst I was being wined and dined, Jo Cooling and Helen Desmond were dissecting my printed manuscript and we had a meeting about it after lunch. They seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the final result and did a great job of making a new author feel he might have produced something worthwhile.
Beverley was interested in what my next book might be which I guess is a good sign and she asked me how I felt now the first one was completed. I told her I'd let her know today. I'm not sure it has even sunk in yet, though. Which reminds me - I have a leak in the kitchen that I've been promising to fix for the past ten days and I no longer have the excuse that I have a book to finish, so I'd better get on with it.
Executive Editor, Beverley Ford and Sales Director, David Anderson even treated me to lunch, which was very decent. David suggested we change the title from 'Back to the Future: Digital Decision Making' to 'Digital Decision Making: Back to the Future', which I had no objections to, though I'd still be interested in the opinions of readers of this blog on the change.
Whilst I was being wined and dined, Jo Cooling and Helen Desmond were dissecting my printed manuscript and we had a meeting about it after lunch. They seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the final result and did a great job of making a new author feel he might have produced something worthwhile.
Beverley was interested in what my next book might be which I guess is a good sign and she asked me how I felt now the first one was completed. I told her I'd let her know today. I'm not sure it has even sunk in yet, though. Which reminds me - I have a leak in the kitchen that I've been promising to fix for the past ten days and I no longer have the excuse that I have a book to finish, so I'd better get on with it.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
ID card mystery-benefits approach by Home Office
William Heath finds the latest assertion by the Home Office on ID cards "beyond parody." This week I'm finishing off a book, one of the main messages of which is that before you build a big complex information system, you need to know what it is for. The virtual reality world surrounding the government on this scheme goes way beyond anything that the most imaginative gaming programmer has ever produced.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Chefs want in on the IP protetectionist game
Ed Foster at the Infoworld gripeline has beenpondering a Recipe for Intellectual Property Madness. It seems that chefs now want a slice of the intellectual property protectionist cake.
Thanks to James Love for the link.
Thanks to James Love for the link.
Friday, October 13, 2006
House of Lords ruling in Jameel defamation case
The House of Lords have issued a ruling in the Jameel v Wall Street Journal Net defamation case. I don't have the time to analyse it at the moment but it is being reported as a relaxation of the strict libel code in the UK.
Update: the decision is also available at BAILLI.
Update: the decision is also available at BAILLI.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Copyright and the environment
Michael Geist has been musing on the parallels between copyright and environmental politics. He must have been reading James Boyle's work recently, particularly the wonderful Shamans, Software and Spleens.
A central theme of my book, Back to the Future: Digital Decision Making, which is due with the publishers at the end of this month, is the parallels between environmental decision making and decision making surrounding the creation, deployment and regulation of complex information systems. It's nearly done and I'm looking forward to handing it over but there is still a fair bit of formatting, indexing etc. still to do, so I'd better get back to it!
A central theme of my book, Back to the Future: Digital Decision Making, which is due with the publishers at the end of this month, is the parallels between environmental decision making and decision making surrounding the creation, deployment and regulation of complex information systems. It's nearly done and I'm looking forward to handing it over but there is still a fair bit of formatting, indexing etc. still to do, so I'd better get back to it!
Friday, October 06, 2006
Book sales boost from Google book search
Reuters are reporting that book sales have received a boost from Google's book search project.
Google to Subpoena Yahoo, Microsoft on Book Scanning
From Bloomberg Google to Subpoena Yahoo, Microsoft on Book Scanning In its dispute with publishers Google is looking for information from Yahoo and Microsoft to help fight the case.
Chitty Chitty sue sue
Part of chapter 2 of my book covers some copyright disputes over children's literature and I often look out for any news of these kinds of cases. The latest in a long line of cases has just been heard in the US in a dispute over the rights to the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film. The judge has said the issues are substantive and told the two sides to prepare for trial. It will be an interesting one to watch.
Incidentally if you do have children I highly recommend Ian Flemming's original book, which is significantly different to the film.
Update: By coincidence the trustees of the Great Ormond Street Hospital have just launched the official sequel to Peter Pan, Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean. The Peter Pan copyright disputes, such as that surrounding Emily Somma's unauthorised sequel, After the Rain, have been amongst the most interesting.
Incidentally if you do have children I highly recommend Ian Flemming's original book, which is significantly different to the film.
Update: By coincidence the trustees of the Great Ormond Street Hospital have just launched the official sequel to Peter Pan, Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean. The Peter Pan copyright disputes, such as that surrounding Emily Somma's unauthorised sequel, After the Rain, have been amongst the most interesting.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Who wrote that song
Interesting essay by lawyer, Pete Gutmann, Who Really Wrote that Song? (A tale of copyrights and Wrongs) about the legal dispute between Chuck Berry and Johnnie Johnson.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Unlawful play
From the excellent folks at ARCH:
"Liberal England quotes Professor Armstrong on the need to get children more active, rather than restricting their food intake.
We're looking at police retention of children's DNA at the moment, and came across a story about 3 children arrested for criminal damage when they were trying to build a treehouse. In the summer, there was another one about children in trouble for making the pavement messy when they played hopscotch. We've mentioned the York 'Nipper' database before - amongst other things it collects details of children's 'inconsiderate' behaviour such as 'playing ball games in the street'. There's plenty more stories, but you get the picture.
Maybe it's not children's behaviour that needs to change."
"Liberal England quotes Professor Armstrong on the need to get children more active, rather than restricting their food intake.
We're looking at police retention of children's DNA at the moment, and came across a story about 3 children arrested for criminal damage when they were trying to build a treehouse. In the summer, there was another one about children in trouble for making the pavement messy when they played hopscotch. We've mentioned the York 'Nipper' database before - amongst other things it collects details of children's 'inconsiderate' behaviour such as 'playing ball games in the street'. There's plenty more stories, but you get the picture.
Maybe it's not children's behaviour that needs to change."
House vote to expand electronic spying
Anne Broache at CNet reports that the House of Representatives have voted to expand electronic sureveillance without a warrant. President Bush will be pleased.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Text of the Law Profs' Letter v Torture Bill
Michael Froomkin has posted the text of an open letter against the impending Bush-McCain Torture Bill. Recommended reading, as is the Lord Chancellor's suggestions that the US and the UK may be diverging in their approach to torture and the war on terror. Lord Falcolner has launched a campaign to defend the Human Rights Act against critics.
PNR data, the EU, the US and the Beeb
I was surprised one evening last week when I saw the top story on the BBC Ten O'Clock news was the negotiations between the US and EU over the technical difficulties - the slight matter of the European Court of Justice declaring the activity illegal, following a challenge by the EU parliament - the EU now have with airlines handing over passenger details to the US security services.
They got all the details wrong, misunderstood what the whole thing was about and painted it as a 'complete breakdown' between the EU and the US. But that the Beeb's TV news had it billed as a top story, which is fairly unusual for one of such technical and legal complexity, was almost enough to forgive the errors. The Register has a short piece on the story today.
They got all the details wrong, misunderstood what the whole thing was about and painted it as a 'complete breakdown' between the EU and the US. But that the Beeb's TV news had it billed as a top story, which is fairly unusual for one of such technical and legal complexity, was almost enough to forgive the errors. The Register has a short piece on the story today.
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