   Bad Laws ArchiveJune 19, 2006Tech vs. Telcos in Washington
The challenges of Silicon Valley companies battling entrenched telco lobbyists in D.C.
Broadcast Flag and Network Neutrality in the Stevens Bill
Regulation: bad for telcos, but okay for consumer technology?
June 07, 2006Death by DMCA
Wendy Seltzer, Fred von Lohmann spell out the gizmos that died.
May 31, 2006RIAA Honchos Interviewed
Feel good about prosecuting grandmothers, optimistic about making radio receivers illegal.
May 29, 2006Senate Bill Attacks Digital Devices, VoIPMay 15, 2006Senate Judiciary Panel Wants a Hook Into Telecomms Reform Bill
That means committee fights in both House of Reps and Senate.
May 09, 2006Twelve in Congress Likely To Forge Telecom Bill
Commerce committee congressman Upton blurts that broadcast flag/net neutrality bill will be decided in secret conference; judiciary committee chairman begins to muscle in.
May 01, 2006Public Citizen Sounds Alarm on Trademark Bill
Good summary of the ongoing problems with the Trademark Dilution Bill.
DMCA: What Is it Good for?
Bill Patry points out that if the DMCA was supposed to create a rich digital market for works, it seems to have failed.
April 27, 2006German Moderators Liable for Forum Commenters
Judge suggests you pre-mod comments or shut down site.
April 19, 2006Au Revoir, YouTube; Auf Wiedersehen Vlogs
The effect of proposed EU broadcasting regulations, if extended to the Net.
April 04, 2006Who's in Control?
Mark Fleischmann, author of Practical Home Theater, gives a stirring call to arms over control of your media.
March 22, 2006The Night John Lennon Died
Ren Bucholz spots an historic tape-recording that the audio flag would have forbidden.
March 10, 2006How to Put Your DVDs on Your iPod
Wired magazine bravely tells you how to circumvent a technological protection measure.
Broadcast Flag -- Not This Year?
The chair of the House Commerce Committee says he doesn't expect a flag law to appear in 2006.
February 24, 2006The Ballad of Jack Valenti
A detailed, if not entirely flattering portrayal, by RetroCrush.
February 01, 2006Privatizing 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.
January 27, 2006Stereophile for Fair Use
The influential hi-fi magazine gapes open-mouthed at the broadcast flag legislation.
Video iPod Revolutionaries
Think your video iPod is hard to fill? Blame the DMCA. Declan shows the growing movement to reform it.
January 20, 2006Senator Stevens Threatens Net Sites With Mandated Ratings System
Unless--somehow--the entire Internet decides to introduce its own rating system.
January 18, 2006The Professional Device Hole
Ed Felten begins a series examining the proposed Analog Hole legislation.
January 11, 2006Senate Judiciary Committee to Fix All Known Tech Problems This Quarter
David Isenberg lists the Committee's packed agenda, with links to webcasts.
January 06, 2006Berlind, Neuros Fight Against Analog Hole Plugging
The ZDNet editor and CEO of consumer tech company point out how any new legislation would kill tech innovation and raise prices.
Senator Conyers Defends the Analog Hole Legislation
Prominently buried in comment #95 of his blog entry. Apparently, it's "just the beginning of the debate."
December 19, 2005Ars Technica on the Analog Hole Legislation
"This is bad legislation for everyone except Hollywood and its lackeys."
December 01, 2005Pay the Price for Saluting the Broadcast Flag
In the run-up to the 2006 elections, IPac is looking to fund the opponents of politicians who support the MPAA's TV crippling technology.
November 30, 2005Senate Sets Ambitious Tech Schedule
Looks like next year will be the Year of Rushed Internet Regulation.
November 29, 2005Fixing the Cybercrime Treaty
Declan on the single amendment that would fix the cybercrime treaty currently before the Senate.
November 11, 2005"Foul language" coming to Congress
The National Journal's Drew Clark weighs in on the analog hole.
Canada's CALEA
The Lawful Access Bill, which will compel ISPs and phone companies to add wiretap capability, will be introduced next week.
October 12, 2005Fined for Typing Two URLs
Daniel Cuthbert, a British security consultant, is found guilty of computer misuse for checking that a site wasn't phishing.
September 12, 2005EU ID Card Protesters Arrested Before They Even Protest
Presumably their faces didn't match the ones on the giant demonstration cards they had brought.
August 30, 2005New Trademark Law: Where's the Beef?
Paul Levy of Public Citizen takes a close look at the fair-use failings of the Trademark Dilution Revision Act.
August 25, 2005The Rise of CALEA
MIT Tech Review looks at the trouble with trying to tap the distributed Net.
Michael Geist - Canada's Big Brother Plan to Reshape the InternetAugust 19, 2005Umm - Is She a Munition, Too?
ACM comments on the refusal to allow the researcher who broke SHA-1 into the US.
Fasten Your SeatbeltsAugust 17, 2005Two Turntables, a Microphone - Oh, and an IP Attorney on Retainer
Glenn Reynolds on the poor fit between current copyright law and podcasters.
August 12, 2005Four Amendments and a Funeral
Rolling Stone Magazine's depressing fly-on-the-wall investigation into how Congress "works."
Furniture Causes FedEx Fits
FedEx thinks the DMCA applies to showing how to re-use their cardboard boxes.
August 08, 2005PATRIOT Civil Liberties Panel Being Held at Undisclosed Location
...at undisclosed future time. The Washington Post investigates the $1.5 million dollar disappearance.
August 02, 2005Smuggling the DMCA into CAFTA
Declan McCullagh with a pithy piece showing how free trade agreements can be used to spread bad law around the world.
Copycrime
The European Parliament is considering criminal prosecution for copyright infringement. Is it Europe's shift for crazy laws this week?
July 11, 2005I Only Inhaled Finecubancigar.zip
You can browse, but it's illegal to download files from certain Cuban travel agencies, the feds announce.
July 05, 2005Forget Patenting Software, Someone Should Patent Indomitability
The amazing EU anti-software patent effort enters its last 24 hours, with EU officials talking about the software patent proposal being "in trouble."
June 22, 2005Gilbert, Sullivan, and ID Cards
A fine musical "tribute" to the plans to introduce ID cards in the UK (Flash).
May 24, 2005Millions of Readers and Countless Scoops Isn't Good Enough
Massachusetts considers a shield law for reporters - but restricts it to old media journalists. (Via Ernest Miller.)
May 10, 2005REAL ID Passes
Proponents tacked the REAL ID Act onto an Iraq military spending bill, guaranteeing passage. Now the US has a federal standard for identity cards - the de facto national ID system Americans have always rejected.
Schneier on REAL ID
Bruce Schneier points out the fallacies and perils of the REAL ID Act.
May 08, 2005Identity Crisis
You have less than forty-eight hours to contact your senator, and tell them to stop the National ID card plan that was slipped into Tuesday's $82 billion military spending bill. The UnRealID emergency site lets you read about the dangers, view others' mail to their senators, and fax your own representative.
April 28, 2005Breaking the Stupidity Pact
Prof. James Boyle with a splendidly clear column on the evidence-free zone in which we create intellectual property policy.
Bridging the Other Digital Divide
Michael Geist on the recent WIPO meetings and the differing ways IP policy affects developed and developing nations.
When the Crypto Walls Fall
The Jericho Forum, a European security consortium, is pushing for the repeal
of remaining laws forbidding the use of encryption. Its members include
Shell, Boeing, and Cable & Wireless.
Dmitry Karma?
Nikon encrypts part of its cameras' lossless raw output format. The encryption
is pretty simple (it was cracked within a few days by Linux developer Dave
Coffin), but it has Adobe developers breaking a sweat about violating the DMCA
if they reverse-engineer it for Photoshop.
March 24, 2005Canada Gears Up for Copyright Reform
Although the proposed legislation has been framed as "Canada's DMCA," Michael Geist suggests that it may be more balanced than expected: "The devil will be in the details but this represents a major shift away from the embarrassingly one-sided Canadian Heritage Standing Committee recommendations issued last May."
January 11, 2005Big Software Urges Congress to Regulate ISPs
Citing piracy, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has asked Congress to amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to force Internet service providers to play the heavy for copyright holders.
December 10, 2004George Tenet Calls for Restricted Net Access
"Access to networks like the World Wide Web might need to be
limited to those who can show they take security seriously,
he [Tenet] said." Wow.
September 30, 2004The Senate's Taste for RIAA Kool-Aid
There's so much bad press about the Induce Act that we can't keep up, yet Hatch & Co. remain stubborn.
More Induce Act in the NewsSeptember 29, 2004Induce Act Still Gag-Inducing
The latest version of this nasty bill is no easier to swallow than the first. Wired News explains why.
September 23, 2004Enormous Group of Technology Heavy-Hitters Oppose Induce
The list includes Intel, Google, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo, EarthLink, Verizon, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE-USA), and Radio Shack. Still think it's just about file sharing, Senator Hatch?
Inducing America to Give Up Innovation
Guy Kewney, a UK journalist, hopes that if the misguided Induce Act becomes law, the bone-deep chill will remain within US borders - leaving companies in the rest of the world free to out-innovate us.
September 08, 2004Save Betamax by Calling Out the Induce Act
The folks at Downhill Battle want you to call Congress on the harm the Induce Act would cause to innovation, and they've made it easy with SaveBetamax.org.
Gag-Happy Government Wants ACLU to Shut Up
The USA PATRIOT Act allows the government to issue "National Security Letters," which carry a gag-order for the recipient that prevents the disclosure that one has been received. But the DoJ has interpreted this to mean that the ACLU, in its work to examine how the letters are being (ab)used, can't publicly quote from published Supreme Court opinions or refer even vaguely to the circumstances of its case.
September 07, 2004Congress Set to Vote on Spyware, P2P Bills
The Piracy Deterrence and Education Act (PDEA) cleared another hurdle on Capitol Hill. Tell your representatives to fight it by clicking here.
August 24, 2004DoJ Official Pans PIRATE Act
The act aims to enlist federal prosecutors in the fight against file sharing, and it was passed by the Senate earlier this year.
August 06, 2004Universities Give the Induce Act a Failing Grade
Several coalitions of universities recently sent Senator Hatch a letter that is critical of the Induce Act.
July 23, 2004Induce 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.
July 19, 2004Silicon 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.
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 13, 2004Another 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, 2004Ask 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?
June 29, 2004An "Obsessive" Reply to the Induce Act
Don't worry - it only looks crazy. Ernest Miller has produced an exceedingly detailed rebuttal to some of the nonsense spouted by Senator Hatch in a preemptive defense of the Induce Act.
June 24, 2004Fighting Internet Filtering in PA
The Center for Democracy and Technology is taking a stand against a Pennsylvania law that requires ISP to use flawed filtering technology.
More Reasons to Oppose the Induce Act
Julian Portillo's take on the Induce Act is spot-on, and he's only 17.
June 15, 2004Roasting the WIPO Broadcast Treaty
The Guardian looks at WIPO's proposed broadcasting treaty, arguing that it reads like a "wish-list of everything a failing industry could want to protect it from the future." Spot-on.
June 07, 2004EU Tries to Put Kibosh on Digital Counterfeiting
A new regulation would force makers of image-editing software to recognize and reject attempts to manipulate currency.
Banning Subway Photography to Fight Terrorism?
When you take photos on the train you commute with Bin Laden.
Amateur Videos Targeted by Chinese Government
The Chinese government is cracking down on amateur videos exploring the country's social problems by banning their broadcast or distribution on the Internet.
May 31, 2004Ireland Considers Emergency Copyright Bill
To fend off the litigious grandson of James Joyce. To complicate matters, the fight is over work that was snatched from the public domain by retroactive copyright-term extension.
May 26, 2004Record Companies Use Pirate Act to Pillage by Proxy
The Pirate Act is another piece of legislation that asks the government to fight the recording industry's misguided war on file sharing while forcing you to foot the bill.
May 25, 2004Northern Flights: Alaskans Fight CAPPS II
Four Alaskans are challenging the controversial data-mining program in federal court.
May 22, 2004Italy Jacks Up Criminal Penalties for P2P
The new law could slap a 3-year jail term on individuals who either upload or download copyrighted material.
"True Names" Bill Rolls Through CA Senate
The bill requires the attachment of valid email addresses to copyrighted works distributed online.
May 20, 2004Common Sense Spotted in UK Discussion of National IDs
Forgery, biometrics and the problems with both in this article from the Register.
May 04, 2004Congress To Review Bumper Crop of IP Laws
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