   July 2004 ArchiveJuly 27, 2004Open Source to Germany: Danke!
A German court recently reaffirmed the validity of the Gnu Public License.
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Posted at 01:55 AM by Ren Bucholz | Permalink | Other Links:
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Politics as Usual in South Korea
And by that we mean taking students to court for creating provocative political parodies that could impact public opinion.
Microsoft Wants to See Your ID
If you're sending mail to people using any of their services, that is. Its new anti-spam tools will require senders to verify their mail servers when trying to contact accounts maintained by Hotmail, MSN, or Microsoft.
July 26, 2004RIAA Busts Record Store for Selling Mix CDs
The owners of Berry's Music, an indie record store in Indianapolis, recently settled a recording industry lawsuit that forced them to close their doors. Their crime? Selling DJ mix CDs.
Libraries Invest in the Future of Surveillance
Salon explores the benefits and risks of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in library books.
July 23, 2004Another Study Says P2P Doesn't Hurt Record Industry
Meanwhile, the record labels fume and insist that they do have clothes.
Induce Act Blasted in Congressional Hearings
Tech industry reps made it clear that the Induce Act is a bad idea, but the bill's authors maintain that something is going to pass this year. Click here to tell Congress what you think.
SCO Gets Whupped in DaimlerChrysler Suit
DaimlerChrysler was targeted in SCO's anti-linux campaign, but a judge recently agreed with the car company and threw out most of SCO's case.
Data Company Compromised Again
An Arkansas man was recently indicted for breaking into the servers of Axciom - the world's largest repository of consumer data.
Study Says People Care More About Airline Security than Personal Privacy
The real question is why we're led to believe that the two are mutually exclusive.
July 19, 2004Washington Post Calls for PATRIOT Review
This op-ed considers a recent DoJ report and concludes that the PATRIOT Act demands careful, thorough review before any discussion of expansion can take place.
Silicon Valley Wakes Up, Smells Induce Act
The San Jose Merc - Silicon Valley's paper of record - runs an op-ed on the negative impact that the Induce Act could have on tech companies.
E-Voting Victory in Ohio
The final three Ohio counties considering the purchase of e-voting machines will stick to paper this November. Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell ordered the counties not to buy the machines in light of security concerns highlighted in yet another troubling study.
The Vast Open Source Conspiracy
Electronic voting machine vendors think that their critics are driven by a religious devotion to free software.
France Eases Ability to Take Down Infringers
The new rules require a judge to review the takedown request, which is a higher standard than record labels must meet in the U.S.
Microsoft Wins $4 Million from Spammer
A judge ordered the California man to pay $4 million after using the names of Microsoft products in his salty, canned email messages.
Big Industry Groups Criticize the Induce Act
Groups like the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) are speaking out against Orrin's latest Hatchet job.
July 18, 2004Pumping Up the Digital Volume
Neat article on the UK's digital radio market and the products that will let listeners copy/pause/replay anything they can tune. These are exactly the kinds of devices that would be affected by the digital radio broadcast flag currently being considered by the FCC. [Click here for some PDF'd background]
July 15, 2004CAPPS II Cancelled
Gargantuan news. From USA Today: Asked Wednesday whether the program could be considered dead, Ridge jokingly gestured as if he were driving a stake through its heart and said, "Yes."
Understanding the Media Monopoly
This is a great introduction to the FCC's controversial media ownership rules (or lack thereof). Required reading.
July 14, 2004Big Content/Big Tech Form New DRM Consortium
The new conglomeration will focus on finding ways to jam Hollywood-friendly restrictions into home networks.
NH Stays Chat Tax After Public Outcry
Democracy in action.
DoJ Provides Partial List of PATRIOT Uses
The Department of Justice provided a list of 35 incidents where it used the Act, but it's far from a full accounting of PATRIOT's impact.
Breaking Down Councilman
Orin Kerr has a wonderful post on why the decision is such bad news for privacy.
July 13, 2004Bionic Mexican Politicos Vow to Fight Crime
We're totally serious. Mexico's attorney general says that a microchip implanted in his arm - and the arms of other staffers - gives him access to a futuristic crime database and allow him to be located if kidnapped.
"American Retailers Walk into a Bar..."
... A bar code, that is. That's bad, but if you forgive us we'll tell you about this NY Times story and the coming abandonment of America's Universal Product Code in favor of the European Article Numbering Code.
Canadian P2P Redux
The RIAA's Canadian analog - CRIA - appealed a recent ruling that essentially legalized P2P in America's Hat [Ed. Note: We kid because we love].
100% Increase in Number of Files Downloaded Over P2P
Two new studies suggest that file sharing is booming, despite a yearlong campaign of lawsuits and congressional saber-rattling.
Tithing Lines, Taxing Chat
New Hampshire may tax a range of Internet services from chat rooms to voice-over-IP telephony. About that "live free" stuff...
The Evils of... Used Books?
Publishers are scared that easy-to-find offerings from used-book vendors will sink the industry.
Coverage of E-Voting Day of ActionGov't Says Elections Will Be Held On Time
After a week of speculation about potential delays, the nation's top election official assured the public that the November elections will be held as scheduled.
Another Dispatch from the Copyright Wars
Dan Gillmor's Sunday column looks at recent developments - good and bad - in the legislative battles over copyright reform.
July 09, 2004Plot Hole Discovered in Hollywood's Story on Piracy and Profits
A new study from Tinseltown says that movie piracy is on the rise. But last week they also announced that the industry is healthier - and more profitable - than ever before.
Ask Not for Whom These Copyright Bills Toll, 'Cuz They Toll for You
PC World examines this year's crop of copyright bills and finds that business interests are trouncing the public's rights. What was that about a balance?
Who's Really Looking Out for Artists Online?
P2P companies are developing ways to pay artists - without the support of record labels.
House Fails to Limit PATRIOT Powers
The latest attempt to reform the USA PATRIOT Act - this time regarding government access to library records and reading habits - was foiled after a round of voting chicanery.
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Posted at 08:56 PM by Ren Bucholz | Permalink | Other Links:
Free Speech
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July 07, 2004Aussie Faces Extradition for Copyright Infringement
This is the first that we've heard about extradition for copyright offenses, but it probably won't be the last.
EU Software Patents Under Seige
Several countries are now stepping forward with concerns about the proposed law, and we couldn't be happier.
CA E-Voting Machine Ban Upheld
A federal judge recently ruled to uphold California's ban on e-voting machines that do not meet the state's security standards.
Hollywood Rolls Out New Piracy-Resistant Screeners
Will it work? We think this quote from Academy President Frank Pierson might turn out to be accidentally prescient: "It certainly looked foolproof to us."
VoIP Running the Regulatory Gauntlet
The budding Internet telephony industry is under a number of government microscopes. Declan McCullagh wonders if it will survive the scrutiny.
U.N. Targets the "Disease" of Spam
Underneath the icky mixed metaphors, they're basically saying that unsolicited commercial email is bad, and that the U.N. is on the case.
Squatters Leave Kerry-Edwards Campaign Homeless on the Web
Domain name speculators have snapped up the most obvious choices for the Democratic ticket's web presence.
Leaky California Email System Sends Employee Data to... Sweden?
The strange story of a Swedish company that's been randomly receiving sensitive emails - employee salary data and financial info, for instance - from a California county for two years.
Middle School to Use Biometric Roll-Call
A Florida middle school is planning to implement biometric hand-scanners to take attendance and monitor who gets on and off the school bus.
More on the Law v. Email Privacy
Wired on the Councilman case, Gmail, and email privacy.
The Law v. Email Privacy
The New York Times weighs in on recent court ruling demonstrating the vulnerability of email privacy.
July 05, 2004KaZaA's Aussie Trial Gets a Date
But what about the evidence that the record companies seized in SWAT-style raids? The answer to that question is still up in the air.
China to Filter Billions of Text Messages
Chinese citizens use "texting" to spread forbidden information on issues like SARS and democracy, so the government is setting up a system to sanitize billions of messages every day.
Holland Rejects Software Patents
The Dutch Parliament recently voted to pull its support for the EU Directive on Software Patents.
Bidding Record Labels Goodbye
Some artists are doing it right now, and their Internet-enabled approach to selling records could be the harbinger of many good things to come.
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Posted at 09:17 AM by Ren Bucholz | Permalink | Other Links:
Copyright
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EFF Patent Busting in the NY Times
Today's New York Times has a short profile of our new patent busting project.
July 03, 2004Notes from California E-Voting Hearing
While Judge Cooper issued a heartening tentative ruling earlier this week in a California e-voting case, the official hearing was held on Friday. Kim Alexander has the scoop.
Cautious Optimism in CA E-Voting Case
A federal judge recently refused to lift -- for now -- California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's order for additional security on e-voting machines. The order was issued after a year of hearings and major scandals involving voting machine vendors.
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