   October 2004 ArchiveOctober 27, 2004The Argument for Auditable E-voting
EFF Pioneer Award winner Avi Rubin with a lucid essay on why it's critically important that electronic voting machines have voter-verfied paper audit trails.
October 26, 2004Singapore to Start Jailing, Fining Copyright Infringers
And when it does, that bastion of liberalism could finally pull even with the US in terms of copyright extremism.
Obscure Holiday Film to Be Released on Self-Destructing DVDs
Wow. I don't know if I've ever wanted to buy anything *less.*
Companies Join Forces to Stop EU Software Patents
This group, composed primarily of open-source businesses, may be the first coalition of companies in Europe to oppose software patents as a rule.
How Nastygrams Chill Speech
The Free Expression Policy Project has a report on how cease & desist letters cause people to self-censor.
Music Sales, File Sharing on the Rise
The Register puts it best: "Music Sales Rise Despite RIAA's Best Efforts."
What's in Echelon's Gadget Bag?
This article examines the technology behind Echelon, the world's largest surveillance project.
MPAA Head Throws Lavish Party in France
The French public, which pays a blank audio, video, and CD tax, picked up the €300,000 tab.
More on FL E-voting
This editorial ponders the question of whether e-voting will make Florida the next Florida.
MIT's LAMP Relights
This project is smart and novel, but it had to be dumbed down before copyright lawyers would leave it alone. Check out this post from Ed Felten on LAMP and "regulatory arbitrage."
John Kerry -- DMCA Reformer?
Declan McCullagh wonders whether a future President Kerry would defang extremist copyright law.
FL Judge Cuts Paper Trail Suit
The court squashed Rep. Robert Wexler's bid to get the state to provide paper trails for electronic voting machines.
The Engadget Interview: Wendy Seltzer
EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer sat down with the fine folks at Engadget for this interview. They actually conducted the interview over email, but we're pretty sure that both parties were sitting down.
The Skinny on Indymedia's Server Seizure
Team EFF has assembled the authoritative account of how Indymedia servers in England were seized - and returned - following an international bricolage of secret legal maneuvers.
Fair Use Goes on the Offensive
Our own Fred von Lohmann on how judo-minded attorneys can turn baseless copyright claims into a fair use smackdown.
October 21, 2004Israel Creates Licensing System for Private Copies
The country will amend its copyright law to allow citizens to make personal use copies of CDs, so long as the reproductions use licensed media.
Free Culture Goes Dutch
Dutch Parliamentarians want to put images from publicly owned broadcasters into the public domain.
October 20, 2004Florida E-voting Has Rocky Start
Unsurprisingly, the state's new voting system had a range of problems when early voting opened this week.
ASCAP Approves Web Radio Licenses
The country's largest licensing agency has approved a $1.7 billion deal that allows radio stations to rebroadcast content over the Net.
EU Pushes Semi-Permanent Records
A new draft anti-terrorism plan requires data about telephone calls and emails to be retained for at least 12 months. You know, "just in case."
Playing Politics with PATRIOT
News.com on how election-year pressures are stamping out debate on PATRIOT expansion bills.
October 19, 2004Chinese Company Trademarks "Happy Birthday"
"With increasingly fierce competition in the world toy market, the company realized the importance of branding." Whatever.
New Passports Will Broadcast Personal Data
The next generation of US passports will have embedded RFIDs, and new reports suggest that the information the chips broadcast won't be encrypted. That means anyone with an RFID reader will be able to passively scan you, pulling the most intimate personal data right out of your pocket. Unbelievable.
The Logic of E-voting Security
Ed Felten with a clear, accessible post on one kind of problem with Diebold's voting machine security.
Online Chat with Verizon's Counsel
The Washington Post hosts a chat with Sarah Deutsch, the rock star attorney who helped Verizon protect its customers' privacy from Big Content.
Indian Gov't Minister Advocates Balanced IP
He noted that "the main issue remains how to balance the interest of creator in the society and that of the need of the society at large in an optimum way in this digital environment."
"VoterGate" Hits the Internet Archive
The documentary on e-voting is available for free from the Internet archive.
New Scholarship Shows P2P Isn't Declining
According to the authors, P2P network traffic has not declined at all over the past three years - and that's not even taking into account the amount of encrypted traffic.
PopSci on E-voting
EFF's own Annalee Newitz with a feature on the problems with today's voting machines and how they should be addressed.
E-voting Suit in New Jersey
A coalition of NJ citizens and election officials wants the state to abandon e-voting before the upcoming election.
October 15, 2004Indymedia Protests Seizure of Servers
Indymedia, a group of independent, progressive online journalists, has launched a campaign to protest the government seizure of two servers hosting several of its websites. The two servers have been returned, but no one will say what happened. Now Indymedia is seeking signatures from people and organizations who condemn the action as a violation of the First Amendment. Here's where you can sign their petition.
October 13, 2004Supremes Decline to Hear Appeal in RIAA v. Verizon
Meaning that music companies will have to continue to obey laws that protect the privacy of Internet users.
DoJ Report Endorses PDEA, Induce Act
Meaning that you, the taxpayer, would get to fund the entertainment industry's misguided war on filesharing while innovators pack up shop and head overseas.
Employers Monitor "Cyberslacking"
This article looks at the emergence of employers who spy on workers to keep them from - heaven forbid - using eBay on company time.
P2P Lawsuits Hit Europe
The recording industry is takes its sue-the-fans act on a world tour.
BusinessWeek on Copyright v. Innovation
Heather Green on the chilling effects of copyright maximalism and abuse.
October 12, 2004Diebold Cuts Financial Forecast
The company is learning the hard way that fixing a machine *after* you sell it is more expensive than doing it right the first time.
eDonkey Beats KaZaA
eDonkey is now the world's most popular file-sharing application, besting KaZaA in the latest ratings from BayTSP. John Borland suggests that the company may have been too busy fighting off lawsuits to improve its technology.
JibJab Releases Another Animation
This time with fewer copyright lawyers.
Hollywood Pushes Supreme Court to Consider P2P
One day after failing to push the Induce Act past the goal line, Hollywood predictably tried for an end-run around Congress by filing a petition for cert in the Grokster case. Here's the bizarre twist: its legal team includes both Kenneth Starr (President Clinton's prosecutor during his impeachment scandal) and David Kendall (Clinton's personal lawyer during said scandal).
Gov't Funds Chat Room Surveillance
The serious implications for privacy aside, we've seen some chat rooms in our day, and we're pretty sure that these findings will be *hilarious.*
"No-Fly List" Has "No Rules, Procedures"
According to CNN.com, "The 'no-fly' watch list -- billed as a post-9/11 weapon in the United States' war on terror -- lacks guidance on adding and deleting names and a method of consolidating more than a dozen lists maintained by various government agencies."
More Mainstream Coverage for "Some Rights Reserved"
Creative Commons is all over the place!
October 05, 2004Newsweek Covers Creative Commons
A big story on a great organization.
UCLA on Technical Responses to P2P
This article looks at Audible Magic and the school's own home-brew tools for frustrating P2P on campus.
Diebold Loses Copyright Case
The decision in the Diebold Memos case came down last week, and EFF's clients were victorious.
China to Promote "Healthy" Computer Games
They're not talking about LAN-parties that serve only wheat grass and tofu, mind you. The Chinese government plans to rate games on "pornography, violence, horror, social morality and cultural implications."
That Sounds Awesome
Pardon us, but we're in full geek-out mode over the setup that Robert Cringely describes in his latest column: a whole block running VoIP, Internet, and MythTV off the servers in one guy's basement. Plus, it's all legal in Canada!
Stanford Cracks Down on P2P
Students who share copyrighted files can lose their SUNet ID, making them a digital persona non grata on campus.
Kodak Wants to Knock Sun's Lights Out
A US district court agreed with Kodak's claim that Sun Microsystems' Java programming language infringes on the company's rights, and next week Kodak will ask the judge for over $1 billion in damages.
Canada Examines Cultural Deficit with US
Michael Geist argues that the deficit is best addressed by following the copyright policy example set by the UK, not its southern neighbor.
Cybersecurity Czar Resigns, Citing Frustration
Amit Yoran reportedly told friends that the government isn't doing enough to address computer security vulnerabilities.
Uncle Sam Gives Free $50 Bills to Designers
Downloadable ones, since the real deal can't be scanned, manipulated, or printed on/in popular equipment and software.
Sony Pulls Hobbled CDs from Market
Is it because they don't work and consumers hate them? Of course not! According to Sony, the company has decided to stop making hobbled CDs because "its message against illegally copying CDs...has widely sunk in."
Will RIAA Go Fishing for Grouper?
Grouper is a "small-world" file-sharing application that allows users to share with 30 friends, and its founders say that it's legal.
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