The Healthiest Addiction
Personal Commentary
10/31/2000; 3:34:41 PM

I've been reading Expanded Universe by Robert Heinlein, notable mostly for the commentary he includes between the stories that talk about when and why they were written.  I was reading a passage that has lept out at me before, but this time I wanted to take the time to share it. He's talking about a time early in his career. I'm chopping a lot out to conform with fair use, please read the book (on page 92) to see the full quote.

Government Property
Patents
10/31/2000; 2:41:56 PM 'Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington devoted the Oct. 14 Republican radio address to a question that has been strangely absent from the current presidential campaign – how best to keep innovation alive in the technology sector. Most of the senator's address was devoted to defending his home-state innovator, Microsoft (MSFT) . But in the course of his defense of the software giant, Gorton articulated a principle that is far more fundamental – and absolutely correct.

Are you paranoid enough?
Surveillance and Privacy from Government
10/31/2000; 1:20:32 PM

'This brings me to the whole point of this: you are not being paranoid enough.  The FBI managed to get a search warrant based on logs from a firewall, that showed my IP only connecting, not even logging in, hours after news of the cracking had appeared on news sites.  If they can get a search warrant this easily, your data is not safe, sitting on your hard drive.  For the past two months I've been living in this dorm, I locked my doors, securified my boxes, and backed up my essential things.  I never even imagined the federal government would just let themselves in and take it.'

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.'