Do You Even Know Who's Watching? Privacy from Companies 1/11/2001; 11:48:41 AM 'A Virtual Privacy Center, established in Germany as an outgrowth of a state privacy office, could be in the vanguard of an international effort to promote and protect privacy on the Internet. 'Marit Koehntopp, head of the state-run Independent Center for Privacy Protection in Kiel, Germany, said she hopes to attract participation from around the world on behalf of the common cause of educating citizens about their rights to control access to information about themselves.

Argentina's Anti-Corruption Net Misc. 1/11/2001; 10:20:20 AM 'In a move to reduce corruption by functionaries in faraway places, Argentina mandated its provincial governments to publish all official transactions on the Internet. 'Under the new law, Argentina's 23 provinces must report their budget, contract and payroll information on the Net every month for public review....' 'But let's say that a Net-savvy Juan Citizen does find something fishy on a government website?

Fear of a Web planet Free Speech 1/11/2001; 10:14:27 AM 'I say "perceived anarchy" and "apparent absence" because in truth, though the Internet is more decentralized and anarchic than any preceding medium with similar mass availability, it is not nearly as "out of control" as its more wild-eyed prophets have envisioned, or as its more paranoid critics, à la Carr, have insisted. The Internet is the creation of human beings and -- it's almost too obvious to point out, isn't it?

VeriSign in struggle with China over registration of Web add Country Watch: China1/9/2001; 2:41:03 PM 'The issue: Who has the right to register Chinese-language Internet addresses?'In November, VeriSign announced it would begin accepting Web addresses written in Chinese as well as Japanese and Korean.'The China Internet Network Information Center, the government agency that oversees the registry in China, quickly responded by unveiling a competing system. Officials quoted in state-run media called the system China's sole legal cyber-registry.

Coalition makes concession on anti-piracy technology Misc.1/9/2001; 2:36:30 PM 'After an outcry from privacy advocates, a group of leading computer hardware makers has agreed to give consumers the right to turn off a controversial new copy-protection feature on computer hard drives.'The technology, developed by an IBM-lead consortium called 4C, would prevent consumers from making copies of music or movies without the permission of the record label or studio that holds the rights.

Supreme Court Lets Stand Computer Anti-porn Law Free Speech1/9/2001; 12:30:28 PM 'The U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) rejected on Monday a free-speech challenge by six university professors to a Virginia law that bars public employees from using state computers to access sexually explicit material on the Internet....''The professors argued the law violated the constitutional First Amendment-based academic freedom rights of university scholars and the rights of other public employees engaged in legitimate, work-related, intellectual inquiry.

Pirates Beware: We're Watching General IP Issues 1/3/2001; 9:31:53 PM 'Content companies are slowly coming to realize that digital rights management solutions can't stop the file-trading frenzy that has gripped the Internet. 'So while continuing to work with encryption companies like Liquid Audio and Supertracks to come up with a solution that will protect their content, music and movie companies are doing what they can. New monitoring applications allow them to attack piracy not at the user level, but by going directly to the service provider.

Yahoo To Reject Hate Items, Charge For Auctions Free Speech 1/3/2001; 5:14:57 PM 'Human rights activists on Wednesday hailed a decision by Yahoo to stamp out online auctions of Nazi artifacts following a lengthy legal battle. 'Yahoo Inc. (stock: YHOO) on Tuesday announced two big changes to its auction service: a first-ever listing fee and a much tougher policy against the sale of hate material. 'After vigorously defending a policy under which it allowed the sale of Nazi memorabilia deemed to have some historic value, Yahoo will now ban more of these items, and will add a monitoring program that automatically screens new listings for offensive content and will kick back potentially banned material for closer review.

The Last Great LinkBack Feature: Implemented! LinkBack 1/3/2001; 12:45:04 AM I've finally implemented the Last Great LinkBack Feature: The Top (N) List of 'Logs. (N is currently set to 5, I hope to move it up to 10 later.)  The 5 weblogs with the most current links to them are now displayed on both the main weblog page, and iRights. Unlike many "Top N" lists of 'logs floating around, automatically generated or otherwise, anybody can be on the top of this list.

Happy New Millenium! Personal Notes 12/31/2000; 9:52:22 PM Happy New Millenium from iRights!  May it be a great one for humanity! (FYI, I'm of the "party every chance you get!" "The Real New Millenium" and "Three Zeros" are both great reasons to party!)