ISO panel reject proposed Microsoft standard

Here's the NYT report on the ISO panel rejecting Microsoft's efforts to have its open document format adopted as an international standard.

BMA call to halt e-record roll out

From William Heath: BMA call to halt e-record roll out

"An open letter to government from the doctor's association wants a stop to the roll out of summary care records until a review has taken place

The British Medical Association's (BMA) chair, Dr Hamish Meldrum, has called for a halt to further implementation of the NHS summary care record, beyond six early adopter sites, until an independent review has been completed.

In a letter to Ben Bradshaw, the minister responsible for the National Programme for IT (NPfIT), Dr Meldrum says that at a recent BMA meeting, doctors from primary and secondary care expressed their frustration with the programme and want a public enquiry to address problems."

Good for them.

Law Lord wants everyone on the DNA database

One of the Law Lords, Lord Justice Sedley, has called for everyone's DNA to be put on the national DNA database because the current collection of data is discriminatory.

"The present database in England and Wales holds details of 4m people who are guilty or cleared of a crime.

Lord Justice Sedley said this was indefensible and biased against ethnic minorities, and it would be fairer to include everyone, guilty or innocent."

This is the standard 'treat everyone the equally by treating them all badly' argument and it is disappointing to hear it from someone who should know better. The usual Schneier needles in data haystacks warnings naturally apply.

The Biometric Dilemma

From Kim Cameron:

"Vision researcher Terrence E. Boult has identified what he calls the “Biometric dilemma” - the more we use biometrics the more likely they will be compromised and hence become useless for security.

This is a hugely important observation - the necessary starting point for all thinking about biometrics. I’d even call it a law.

Terrence was responding to a piece by Sean Convery that picked up on my post about reversing biometric templates. Terrence went on to call our attention to more recent work, including some that details the reversibility of fingerprint templates."

Legal or Not, IPhone Hacks Might Spur Revolution

Jennifer Granick writing in Wired has offered her perpective on the iPhone "hacking" controversy i.e. techies breaking through the proprietary digital locks to enable iPhone owners to use their expensive gadgets with providers other than AT&T.

"The iPhone's fantastic user interface is inspiring another consumer-electronics revolution: making people care about cell-phone unlocking. After my clients' long, successful battle before the U.S. Copyright Office to exempt phone unlocking from the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, have iPhone customers won the freedom to tinker with their cool new handsets? The answer, unfortunately, is that we still don't know.

In the past week, New Jersey teenager George Hotz published instructions for unlocking the iPhone. Meanwhile an anonymous group called iPhoneSimFree plans to sell its software-only solution, and a company called UniquePhones is set to sell a remote unlocking service. These offers generated buzz from iPhone owners, who are restricted -- by technological locks built into the GSM-based handset -- to using the AT&T wireless network. On Monday, some buzz circulated from AT&T lawyers trying to shut down the distribution of unlocking software. Does AT&T have a leg to stand on?...

We won an exemption in November of 2006 that allows you to circumvent digital locks (.pdf) in order to access "computer programs in the form of firmware that enable wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telephone communication network, when circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network."

Despite this success, the exemption does not offer blanket protection for phone unlocking, though the practice might be legal for other reasons. The problem is that the exemption protects unlockers, but it doesn't apply to those entities that distribute unlocking tools or provide unlocking services to others."

Ed Felten has some thoughts on the controversy too.

"Can AT&T cook up a legal theory justifying a ban on iPhone unlocking? I’ll leave that question to the lawyers. It seems to me, though, that regardless of what the law does say, it ought to say that iPhone unlocking is fine. For starters, the law should hesitate to micromanage what people do with the devices they own. If you want to run different software on your phone, or if you want to use one cell provider rather than another, why should the government interfere?

I’ll grant that AT&T would prefer that you buy their service. Exxon would prefer that you be required to buy gasoline from them, but the government (rightly) doesn’t try to stop you from filling up elsewhere. The question is not what benefits AT&T or Exxon, but what benefits society as a whole. And the strong presumption is that letting the free market operate — letting customers decide which product to buy — is the best and most efficient policy."

With Gonzales gone is it time to probe the war on terror policies

Edward Lazarus thinks that, now that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned, it is time for the US to have a wide public debate about the Bush administration's policies relating to the 'war on terror'.

"It's been inevitable for quite a while, and now it has finally happened: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has abandoned his bedraggled rear-guard action and resigned his post. It is not hard to sum up Gonzales's legacy at the Department of Justice: He leaves behind a shattered agency - a corps of loyal career public servants who were forced to choose between opting out of their life's work, and watching helplessly as Gonzales (and other top officials) consistently chose loyalty to the President and partisan advantage over professionalism and even-handed enforcement of the law...

Now that Gonzales has joined the merry ranks of Bushies abruptly deciding to attend more closely to family concerns... There are three obvious items on the agenda: the pending investigations, the goal of re-invigorating DOJ, and the debate over the questionable legal theories underlying the Bush Administration's approach to the war on terror (policies that DOJ, under both Ashcroft and Gonzales, rationalized and implemented). All of these issues are important, but none, in my view, is as important at this particular moment than the last."

Polaris sues Amazon, Google and others

From the NYT:

"Maybe they haven’t sued the whole Internet, just a good chunk of it. Polaris IP, a patent firm, has filed a patent infringement suit against Google, Yahoo, Amazon.com, A9.com, Borders, AOL and IAC/InterActiveCorp, which owns Ask.com.

Polaris is the owner of United States Patent No. 6,411,947, for an “Automatic Message Interpretation and Routing System.” It is not entirely clear what the patent covers or how Google, Yahoo, et. al. infringed on it. "

Microsoft, Yahoo! deal with Chinese

Microsoft and Yahoo have signed a deal with the Chinese government to encourage "the big name web players to record the identities of bloggers and censor content. So says Reporters Without Borders, an organization that fights for journalistic rights across the globe."

Dan Rather on evoting

Dan Rather recently broadcast a programme on evoting. Worth watching - a nice accessible introduction to the problems with electronic voting. He opens with the Sarsota county debacle in Florida in 2006, the results of which are still being challenged by the losing candidate, Christine Jennings.

Convicted Bittorrent admin must use Windows

A linux user convicted and jailed for criminal copyright offences via BitTorrent is, following his release from jail, obliged to install Windows so that the probation department can monitor his computer use. The probation depatment's monitoring software is incompatible with linux. Thanks to Becky Hogge at ORG for the pointer.

SCO case finally at an end?

From Groklaw:

"Court Rules: Novell owns the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights! Novell has right to waive!
Hot off the presses: Judge Dale Kimball has issued a 102-page ruling [PDF] on the numerous summary judgment motions in SCO v. Novell. Here it is as text. Here is what matters most:

[T]he court concludes that Novell is the owner of the UNIX and UnixWare Copyrights.

That's Aaaaall, Folks! The court also ruled that "SCO is obligated to recognize Novell's waiver of SCO's claims against IBM and Sequent". That's the ball game. There are a couple of loose ends, but the big picture is, SCO lost. Oh, and it owes Novell a lot of money from the Microsoft and Sun licenses.

If anyone can please put this into text for us, that'd be simply great. [We have it done.] There is a filing in IBM also, and here's the docket entry:

08/10/2007 1077 - NOTICE OF DECISION AND REQUEST FOR STATUS UPDATE. Signed by Judge Dale A. Kimball on 8-10-07. (sih) (Entered: 08/10/2007)

Judge Kimball asks the parties, in view of the ruling in Novell, which "significantly impacts the claims and counterclaims asserted" in IBM, to prepare by August 31 "a statement of its view of the status of this case and, more specifically, the effect of the SCO v. Novell decision on each of the pending motions."

All right, all you Doubting Thomases. I double dog dare you to complain about the US court system now. I told you if you would just be patient, I had confidence in the system's ability to sort this out in the end.

But we must say thank you to Novell and especially to its legal team, Morrison & Foerster, for the incredible work they have done. I know it's not technically over and there will be more to slog through, but they won what matters most, and it's been a plum pleasin' pleasure watching you work. The entire FOSS community thanks you for your skill and all the hard work and thanks go to Novell for being willing to see this through."

Freeman Dyson's Heretical Toughts on Global Warming

Freeman Dyson's Heretical Toughts on Global Warming

"My first heresy says that all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated. Here I am opposing the holy brotherhood of climate model experts and the crowd of deluded citizens who believe the numbers predicted by the computer models. Of course, they say, I have no degree in meteorology and I am therefore not qualified to speak. But I have studied the climate models and I know what they can do. The models solve the equations of fluid dynamics, and they do a very good job of describing the fluid motions of the atmosphere and the oceans. They do a very poor job of describing the clouds, the dust, the chemistry and the biology of fields and farms and forests. They do not begin to describe the real world that we live in. The real world is muddy and messy and full of things that we do not yet understand. It is much easier for a scientist to sit in an air-conditioned building and run computer models, than to put on winter clothes and measure what is really happening outside in the swamps and the clouds. That is why the climate model experts end up believing their own models."

He's questioning the use and abuse and belief in models not global warming per se.

"In the modern world, science and society often interact in a perverse way. We live in a technological society, and technology causes political problems. The politicians and the public expect science to provide answers to the problems. Scientific experts are paid and encouraged to provide answers. The public does not have much use for a scientist who says, “Sorry, but we don’t know”. The public prefers to listen to scientists who give confident answers to questions and make confident predictions of what will happen as a result of human activities. So it happens that the experts who talk publicly about politically contentious questions tend to speak more clearly than they think. They make confident predictions about the future, and end up believing their own predictions. Their predictions become dogmas which they do not question. The public is led to believe that the fashionable scientific dogmas are true, and it may sometimes happen that they are wrong. That is why heretics who question the dogmas are needed..."

Science and Technology Committee - Fifth Report

House of Commons Science and Technology - Fifth Report

"The Internet is a powerful force for good: within 20 years it has expanded from almost nothing to a key component of critical national infrastructure and a driver of innovation and economic growth. It facilitates the spread of information, news and culture. It underpins communications and social networks across the world. A return to a world without the Internet is now hardly conceivable.

But the Internet is now increasingly the playground of criminals. Where a decade ago the public perception of the e-criminal was of a lonely hacker searching for attention, today's "bad guys" belong to organised crime groups, are highly skilful, specialised, and focused on profit. They want to stay invisible, and so far they have largely succeeded. While the incidence and cost of e-crime are known to be huge, no accurate data exist.

Underpinning the success of the Internet is the confidence of hundreds of millions of individual users across the globe. But there is a growing perception, fuelled by media reports, that the Internet is insecure and unsafe. When this is set against the rate of change and innovation, and the difficulty of keeping pace with the latest technology, the risk to public confidence is clear.

The Government have insisted in evidence to this inquiry that the responsibility for personal Internet security ultimately rests with the individual. This is no longer realistic, and compounds the perception that the Internet is a lawless "wild west". It is clear to us that many organisations with a stake in the Internet could do more to promote personal Internet security: the manufacturers of hardware and software; retailers; Internet Service Providers; businesses, such as banks, that operate online; the police and the criminal justice system.

We believe as a general principle that well-targeted incentives are more likely to yield results in such a dynamic industry than formal regulation. However, if incentives are to be effective, they may in some cases need to be backed up by the possibility of direct regulation. Also, there are some areas, such as policing, where direct Government action is needed. So Government leadership across the board is required. Our recommendations urge the Government, through a flexible mix of incentives, regulation, and direct investment, to galvanise the key stakeholders.

The threat to the Internet is clear, but it is still manageable. Now is the time to act, both domestically, and internationally, through the European Union and through international organisations and partnerships."

ID card contracts put out to tender

ID card contracts put out to tender

Competition is good for search privacy

A CDT report says competition is good for search privacy.

Change To EU Enforcement Directive Could Criminalise Parallel Imports

From IPWatch: Change To EU Enforcement Directive Could Criminalise Parallel Imports

"The European Parliament has voted against criminalising parallel imports of goods in the proposed European Union directive on criminal measures aimed at ensuring the enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRED2). Yet these re-imports of products marketed by rights holders in other countries may be criminalised if Parliament does not change a “cleaned-up” draft text of the directive that has quietly emerged, sources say."

I was grumbling recently about the EU situation in comparison to the Canadian Supreme court decision in the parallel chocolate imports case. IPWatch make the point much more pointedly in this piece. (Sadly the full article is only available to subscribers)

French police arrest teenager over Potter translation

In a reprise of similar stories related to earlier books in the series and ranging from Caracus to Berlin it appears that a French teenager has been translating the latest Harry Potter book and posting his efforts on the web before the official French translation of the book is released on 26 October. He's been arrested for his efforts. A little harsh don't you think?

The ghosts in the voting machines

Bill Thompson on evoting:

" When I started work as a professional programmer, writing in the C programming language, I sometimes wrote very bad code. It worked, but it wasn't what you'd call industrial strength, largely because it didn't do nearly enough checking.

As a result my programs would crash if you gave them unexpected input by typing a word into a field where a number was required, or because they failed to check whether a variable had been properly initialised before doing a calculation.

Fortunately I had talented and patient colleagues who showed me the difference between student programming and serious coding and understood that validating data, checking variables and handling all possible error conditions is not just a useful extra but at least as important as the part of the program that does the actual work.

The lesson has stayed with me, even though I now write little production code and only occasionally mess around with other people's programs.

Sadly, it seems that the developers behind three of the most widely-used electronic voting systems in current use in the United States have never grasped this important principle.

Following concerns about the accuracy of the electronic voting systems used in last year's the California state legislature commissioned computer science and cryptography experts at the University of California to review the main players and ensure that 'California voters are being asked to cast their ballots on machines that are secure, accurate, reliable, and accessible'.

Anyone looking for reassurance will have had their hopes dashed, as the recently published report into e-voting systems from Diebold, Hart InterCivic and Sequoia found massive security holes in the source code which, combined with poor physical security and badly-designed procedures, make it impossible to rely on them to record votes accurately...

Such problems are not confined to the United States, of course, though the campaign for more openness about the technology used in electronic voting seems to have made more progress there than elsewhere.

Here in the UK the Open Rights Group, resolute campaigners for civil liberties in the digital world, sent observers to several of the e-voting pilot projects in the May 2007 English and Scottish elections.

They had to fight through a bureaucracy which seemed to see openness as a dangerous aberration, where 'observers were frequently subject to seemingly arbitrary and changeable decisions via unclear lines of authority', but the final report makes chilling reading."

Security excuse bingo

Matt Blaze, not surprisingly has been following the California evoting review and has come up with a game called security excuse bingo to help read the press releases from the vendors affected.

"To help vendors focus on their obligations here, Jutta Degener and I present Security Problem Excuse Bingo. Usual bingo rules apply, with vendor press releases, news interviews, and legal notices used as source material. Cards can be generated and downloaded from www.crypto.com/bingo/pr

Because we follow all industry standard practices, you can rest assured that there are no bugs in this software. We take security very seriously."

Excellent.

JK Rowling loses court fight to ban publication of son's picture

JK Rowling has lost a court case which she pursued in an effort to ban the publication of a photograph of her and her son.

""I have considerable sympathy for the claimant's parents and anyone else who wishes to shield their children from intrusive media attention," Paten said.

But he said the law does not allow them to "carve out a press-free zone for their children concerning absolutely everything they choose to do."

The judge granted Rowling and Murray the right to appeal and continued a temporary ban on publication of the picture in the meantime."