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Bertelsmann, Napster to Develop Music Service
Music & MP3
10/31/2000; 12:48:57 PM

'Entertainment giant Bertelsmann AG (BTGGga.D) and controversial song-swap company Napster (news - web sites) Inc. said on Tuesday they formed an alliance to develop a new secure file-sharing music service.'

Also see an e-mail posted onto the Napster Weblog from the Bertelsmann Chairman:

'We have entered into a strategic alliance with the Internet-based music exchange Napster. Under the terms of the deal, Bertelsmann will support Napster financially in the establishment of a legal business model. In return, we will receive an option for the acquisition of a stake in Napster.'

Intel Moving to Block IA-64 Cloning via Patents Patents10/30/2000; 1:03:03 PM ...'Rather than submit garden-variety claims to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Intel is trying to patent the functions carried out by specific instructions.'This is great for my essay; I've been writing about how software patents should be banned for trying to patent speech... now here's a company trying the root concepts of a language. (Technically, they aren't trying to patent the "words" of the language, but they are trying to patent the concepts the words convey, or in CPUs, the actions the words cause to happen.) Perhaps Paramount (the owners of Star Trek) should patent some Klingon... there's some unique concepts in that language (like exactly what "honor" is).Update: Apparently, this is common and has been for decades. It still shares one of the same basic problems as software patents... how many ways are there to quickly load data off of the main bus, for instance? Not really that many.Also see this slashdot comment.

Librarians Slam Digital Copyright Ruling
DMCA
10/30/2000; 12:56:59 PM 'But Librarian of Congress James Billington said in a prepared statement that he wanted to stress the importance of preserving the fair-use principle in the digital age. 'Billington also said that the ruling specifically addresses access, not use of the content itself. "Our primary responsibility was to assess whether current technologies that control access to copyrighted works are diminishing the ability of individuals to use works in a lawful, noninfringing way."' Bull. Access control and fair use are in stark, complete opposition. Pick one or the other. Here's the problem. Copyright has traditionally granted seven rights (see question 2.1): reproduction, adaptation, distribution, performance, display, attribution, and integrity. It has also recognized the right to fair use, which is relatively complicated to fully spell out. The DMCA essentially adds "the right to control access" to the list of copyrights, and it should not stun anyone that it is fundamentally impossible to balance hundreds of years of well-formed tradition (and case law!) with this totally new 'right'. These new "rights to control access" are like foriegn bodies obstructing the airway. It was a real coup of the big companies to get this put in.

Are You at War With Your Customers? Misc.10/30/2000; 12:45:31 PM This is a fairly standard "The Internet is empowering your customers to talk to each other, so you'd better start shaping up if you want to keep them" article, but there's a wonderful image in the story:'The trouble is, marketers can get away with [abusing the customers] only if their customers are isolated, unconnected, and have no voice. Online, millions of customers are just beginning to clear their throats for the first time. They're discovering that they do have a voice and that they are connected and can aggregate their opinions with millions of others.'That's a great image; millions of people around the world waking from their collective marketing-induced stupor, clearing their throats, and saying "Ahem..."

Net privacy measure faces veto
Privacy from Companies
10/29/2000; 3:03:57 PM 'A budget provision banning the Internet sale of Social Security numbers has so many loopholes that President Clinton has promised to veto it, critics of the proposal say.'

But what about the next President?

UK Snooping Bill could be ruled illegal
Country Watch: Britain
10/28/2000; 2:22:55 PM

'The European Commission is investigating the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill under four separate counts of possible illegality under EU law.'

EFF Statement Before Congress on Carnivore
Surveillance and Privacy from Government
10/28/2000; 2:00:02 PM

'The use of pen registers as applied to traditional land-line telephone systems is fundamentally different than information that is collected using pen registers on the Internet. Allowing a system such as Carnivore to be used unchecked by law enforcement exacerbates the problem of over collection of data and has the potential to harm our open society.'

Users look to FTC for help on reining in UCITA
UCITA
10/27/2000; 3:07:09 PM

'An unnamed software vendor that [Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey] is currently negotiating with over a licensing deal is adamantly insisting that a version of the law enacted in Maryland at the start of this month be applied to the contract. Arne Larsen, information systems director at the 5,000-employee insurer, said the vendor is an anomaly among the many he deals with on software licensing. But that's of little comfort to him, he added.

'THE COPYRIGHT OFFICE, part of the Library of Congress, decided to allow only two narrow exemptions to a new federal law that makes it illegal for Web users to hack through the barriers that copyright holders erect around books, films, music and other content released online. The decision will be in effect for three years...

'The two exemptions the copyright office did allow are both minor in scope. The first exemption involves software that blocks children and others from finding obscene or other controversial material on the Web. Buried in the software typically is a list of the Web sites being filtered. Those lists are often encrypted to keep people from seeing them. But the copyright office said it should be legal for users to access such lists, in part so people can criticize and debate them. The other exemption involves giving people the right to bypass malfunctioning security features of software and other copyrighted goods they have purchased.'

CyberDemocracy: Internet and the Public Sphere
Technology & Sociology
10/27/2000; 10:55:27 AM 'If the technological structure of the Internet institutes costless reproduction, instantaneous dissemination and radical decentralization, what might be its effects upon the society, the culture and the political institutions?

'There can be only one answer to this question and that is that it is the wrong question. Technologically determined effects derive from a broad set of assumptions in which what is technological is a configuration of materials that effect other materials and the relation between the technology and human beings is external, that is, where human beings are understood to manipulate the materials for ends that they impose upon the technology from a preconstituted position of subjectivity. But what the Internet technology imposes is a dematerialization of communication and in many of its aspects a transformation of the subject position of the individual who engages within it. The Internet resists the basic conditions for asking the question of the effects of technology.'