EU Initiative Funds Filters Free Speech 1/26/2001; 11:18:44 AM 'The European Union and a group of European companies and organizations have launched a new project aimed at creating Internet filtering technology tailored for users in several European countries. 'The World Wide Web Safe Surfing Project is part of a $23.4 million initiative launched by the European Union in 1999 to help users surf the Web without encountering illegal or objectionable content.

AMICI CURIE in the 2600 Linking and DeCSS case DVD & DeCSS 1/24/2001; 4:23:09 PM 'It cannot seriously be argued that any form of computer code may be regulated without reference to First Amendment doctrine. The path from idea to human language to source code to object code is a continuum. As one moves from one to the other, the levels of precision and, arguably, abstraction increase, as does the level of training necessary to discern the idea from the expression.

FTC Clears DoubleClick Privacy from Companies 1/23/2001; 4:57:59 PM 'The Federal Trade Commission told an attorney for DoubleClick (DCLK) on Monday that the commission has closed its investigation of the company's data-handling practices.... 'The FTC had been investigating whether DoubleClick's data handling constituted an "unfair or deceptive" trade practice. According to Monday's FTC letter to Christine Varney, a Washington attorney and a former Federal Trade Commissioner who represents DoubleClick, the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection staff now believes that the company "

Justices To Review Virtual Porn Ban Free Speech 1/23/2001; 4:40:36 PM 'Taking on a child pornography dispute, the Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether Congress can ban computer-altered pictures that only appear to show minors involved in sexual activity. 'The court said it will hear the government's argument that by banning sexual images that do not actually portray children, a 1996 law ``helps to stamp out the market for child pornography involving real children.

What's Wrong With Content Protection Misc. 1/22/2001; 1:20:03 PM 'There is nothing wrong with allowing people to optionally choose to buy copy-protection products that they like. 'What is wrong is when people who would like products that simply record bits, or audio, or video, without any copy protection, can't find any, because they have been driven off the market.  By restrictive laws like the Audio Home Recording Act, which killed the DAT market.

ACLU calls for public hearings on new top-level domains Misc. 1/19/2001; 9:58:58 PM 'The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several other groups championing "cyberrights" this week sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce criticizing the planned addition of seven new Internet top-level domains under a November decision by the organization that manages the domain-name system.' Observation: "Cyberrights" shouldn't be in quotes!  They're just "rights" that happen to be exercise online.

Copyright: Your Right or Theirs? DMCA 1/19/2001; 12:28:10 PM The article rehashes much of what has been said before. The news is that the EFF will be going to court on Friday. Also, for what it's worth, I don't think the co-author of the DMCA's defense of the DMCA is very compelling, because he doesn't seem to address the concerns of the opposition, he just says that they don't understand the bill or the nature of copyright, which I find highly unlikely.

The New Old Economy Technology & Sociology 1/18/2001; 11:23:25 PM A truly fascinating article on the impact of information technology on oil drilling, which is used as a prototypical example of many "Old Economy" industries being revitalized by the staggering increase of computing power and the ways in which it can be used. The Internet is big and flashy, but it tends to obscure many equally interesting effects of the machines that enhance our minds.

AltaVista to become only Net search engine Patents 1/18/2001; 8:54:18 PM 'AltaVista may have a crap search engine (did we say that?) but in these days of corporate-owned Internet that doesn't matter. It's patents and lawsuits that decide what we can get on the global "free-market". And if it's patents you want, AltaVista has got a few. Thirty-eight in fact, and more on the way. 'So what? Well, Internet World magazine has just run an interview with the chairman and CEO of AltaVista's parent company, CMGI, David Wetherell in which he said the company would be pursuing its search engine patents and we can expect lawsuits coming this quarter.

Filter THIS! Librarians to sue over new law Censorship 1/18/2001; 8:37:37 PM 'The American Library Association has decided to file a lawsuit challenging a new federal law that would require filtering in public schools and libraries.... 'In its suit, the ALA will focus on the effect the law will have on all libraries, arguing that the requirement could further widen the so-called digital divide. Critics of mandatory filtering argue that the requirement forces people who rely on public computers for Internet access to see only pre-screened content--a restriction that those with home computers don't have.