February 2006 Archive
February 24, 2006
3G Phone Makers Called 'Bunch of Big Girls' for Caving to Hollywood
Audience member points out to mobile phone manufacturers that their markets dwarf the industry telling them how to cripple their devices.
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Posted at 09:32 AM by Danny O'Brien |
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International IP
The Ballad of Jack Valenti
A detailed, if not entirely flattering portrayal, by RetroCrush.
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Posted at 09:32 AM by Danny O'Brien |
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Bad Laws
Trademark not so Sweet for "Sweet Peas"
Companies and websites using the term "sweet pea" are being threatened with trademark violation suits by a Florida clothing firm.
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Posted at 09:32 AM by Danny O'Brien |
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Free Speech
California Tying Education Tech Grants to Copyright Education
Surely, the bill includes requirements to teach the flexibility of fair use, and the differences with tangible property, and the state monopoly that makes up "intellectual property." No?
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Posted at 09:32 AM by Danny O'Brien |
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Copyright
February 21, 2006
Your Friendly Local Censor
Local Homeland Security officers shake-down librarian Net users for what they're browsing.
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Posted at 11:51 AM by Danny O'Brien |
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Free Speech
Lawsuit Filed Against Verizon for NSA Wiretaps
The wiretap lawsuits widen.
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Posted at 11:51 AM by Danny O'Brien |
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Surveillance
Text Messages, the Net, and Chinese Freedoms
The Washington Post runs a series on the Great Firewall of China.
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Posted at 11:51 AM by Danny O'Brien |
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Surveillance
Tollbooths on the Internet Highway
The New York Times states its position on network neutrality.
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Posted at 11:51 AM by Danny O'Brien |
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Infrastructure
February 17, 2006
Google Desktop Banned in Universities, Hospitals
Data stored at Google for any length of time is "too long", says administrators.
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Posted at 07:46 AM by Danny O'Brien |
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Privacy
Curse of the Rootkit
Andrew Lack, CEO of Sony BMG is ousted. Bad publicity over their DRM is cited as one of the reasons.
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Posted at 07:46 AM by Danny O'Brien |
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DRM
Don't Want iPods, Happy to Take Hollywood's Dollar
Senators are refusing IPac's free culture iPods -- even though they take far more money from the entertainment industry without a qualm.
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Posted at 07:46 AM by Danny O'Brien |
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Free Culture
Department of Home Directory Security
Homeland Security officials told Sony in "forceful terms" that rootkits weren't helping the fight to secure America's PCs.
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Posted at 07:46 AM by Danny O'Brien |
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DRM
Human Rights Protesters, Business Groups Like EFF's Code of Conduct for China
Do we need government intervention, or might Internet companies be able to save themselves?
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Posted at 07:46 AM by Danny O'Brien |
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Free Speech
February 16, 2006
Patriot Search
A search engine that lets you report yourself to the authorities -- before someone else does.
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Posted at 03:19 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Privacy
Chinese Government Removes Over 2,000 Websites
"Unhealthy" domestic sites closed down because "they had too much sex, violence or politics."
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Posted at 03:19 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Free Speech
Why Google Took the Wrong Course Over China
EFF's Brad Templeton on making a statement by your absence.
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Posted at 03:19 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Surveillance
Anonymizer Offering Free Software to Chinese Citizens
Maybe Google and co. could expand their downloadable software collections?
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Posted at 03:19 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Privacy
Rootkits Hidden on German DVDs by Hollywood
The clumsy, frustrating, innovation-impeding DRM on DVDs just got a bit more malicious.
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Posted at 03:19 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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DRM
If I Had a Root Server
Fascinating thought experiment on the threats to privacy and security posed by DNS root server ownership, by former ICANN board member Karl Auerbach.
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Posted at 03:19 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Infrastructure
Headlines Copyrightable? Get a Clue
Agence France Presse's attempts to assert copyright in their news stories' titles get shrift shorter than the headlines. News courtesy of William Patry.
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Posted at 03:19 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Copyright
February 08, 2006
CAFTA (and Anti-Circumvention for Central America) in Trouble
Close Costa Rica elections are putting a wobble into the Central American Free Trade Agreement - one of many FTAs that export the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA abroad.
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Posted at 12:01 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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International IP
Australia's IP Calendar
Kim Weatherall lists the reforms to copyright and trademark law lined up for Australia in the next few weeks. No Aussie DMCA -- although that's to come, unfortunately.
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Posted at 12:01 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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International IP
Good Fences Make Bad Broadband
Public Knowledge has a look at the issue of network neutrality in this white paper.
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Posted at 12:00 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Infrastructure
February 07, 2006
The Right Kind of Policy Laundering
Michael Geist notes that governments all over the world are rebelling against copyright expansionists.
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Posted at 06:43 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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International IP
"This is Great! We Must Ban it at Once!"
A conflicted broadcaster raves about SlingBox's place-shifting facility, before declaring that it should be stopped.
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Posted at 06:43 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Copyright
Senate Hearings Into NSA Wiretap Program - the Transcripts
That's the public transcripts, rather than monitored transcripts of the phone calls the senators made beforehand....
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Posted at 06:43 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Surveillance
When Librarians Protect Terrorists
A disturbingly misdirected attack on a librarian defending his clients' communications, from the Boston Globe.
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Posted at 06:43 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Free Speech
P2P 2 RMS
Stallman talks about his opinions on file-sharing.
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Posted at 06:43 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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P2P
Lambda Legal Warns Blizzard Over Gay Rules
Gay legal group sends letter noting that World of Warcraft's bizarre anti-harassment rules against openly gay clans could be illegal.
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Posted at 06:43 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Free Speech
Anti-Spammers Say No to Goodmail Paymail
"An e-mail charge will destroy the spirit of the Internet", says Richard Cox of Spamhaus.
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Posted at 06:43 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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SPAM
February 02, 2006
Pow! Smash! Fair use as Affirmative Defense!
Duke professor James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins write a comic book for filmmakers explaining copyright issues.
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Posted at 04:06 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Copyright
Eavesdropping 101: What Can The NSA Do?
The ACLU watches the watchers.
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Posted at 04:06 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Surveillance
PATRIOT Postponed
The PATRIOT Act gets another five week extension. It appears the urgent expansion of police powers can wait after all.
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Posted at 04:06 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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USA PATRIOT
Human Rights, the Internet, and Congress
Harvard's John Palfrey, among others, briefs the Human Rights Caucus.
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Posted at 04:05 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Free Speech
February 01, 2006
Somebody Thinking of the Orphans
The Copyright Office releases their report on how to deal with copyrighted works when the rightsholder is unknown. Executive summary: if you try hard enough to find them, you won't get sued too badly.
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Posted at 05:27 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Copyright
RFID Passport Data Intercepted and Cracked
No need to check the secret key encoded in print; perfectly cloneable too.
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Posted at 05:27 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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RFID
Judge, Jury, and Self-Publicist
WIPO boasts about how many cybersquatting cases it decides in favor of big business.
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Posted at 05:27 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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International IP
Privatizing Transport Security
The Preferred Traveler program, allowing people to bypass standard air flight security checks, will be privately run. Should do a good job of maximizing the number of unknown, but paying customers past federal security.
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Posted at 05:27 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Bad Laws
FCC says AT&T, Alltel apparently violated privacy requirement
Not a great week for AT&T's privacy record.
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Posted at 05:27 PM by Danny O'Brien |
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Privacy
