On Privacy, One Size Doesn't Fit All Privacy from Companies 10/26/2000; 1:52:36 PM 'Lately, a majority of the members of the Federal Trade Commission want to set a uniform code of conduct on Internet privacy. That's a bad idea, and the White House and Congress have quite properly put it on hold. Right now, the FTC's function is to make sure that when a site publishes a privacy policy, it lives up to it.

Region Blocking as Forced Contracts General IP Issues 10/26/2000; 1:49:51 PM 'Region blocking ties the consumer into this contract, without the consumer having any say in whether or not they accept the contract. Region blocking prevents me from having 'enjoyment' of my legal purchase if I happen to move to a different country - without me having a chance to say 'actually, I don't want to buy into this contract.

Classical Fuzzy Thinking: Censorware Personal Commentary 10/25/2000; 10:40:35 PM Just a general thought as I read the Salon article Don't let McCain censor the Net: People want censorware that will perfectly screen out what they don't want to see, or don't want their children to see.  Most of the comments against using this censorware has focused on the fact that none of it is ready for prime time. I think the fact that it will never be ready for prime time is getting lost in the noise.

Net Privacy Bill Called 'Trojan Horse' Privacy from Companies 10/25/2000; 2:30:51 PM 'In May, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) proposed a law to sharply limit the sale of the identifying numbers, which often serve as hooks for electronic dossiers about the whereabouts, credit histories and lifestyles of millions of Americans. 'Then the information industry got involved. Now privacy advocates say Gregg's modified measure, part of an appropriations bill set to pass in the final days of Congress, is a "

Study Suggest Net Does Not Create Isolation Technology & Sociology 10/25/2000; 2:27:03 PM 'Nearly two-thirds of all Americans have ventured online, and the majority of them deny the Internet creates social isolation, according to a study released Wednesday by the University of California in Los Angeles.... 'But the Internet has only been a popular communication tool for the past five years, cautions UCLA researcher Jeffrey Cole. Cole, the lead researcher of ''Surveying the Digital Future,'' believes the Web will have profound long-term effects that most users can't yet detect.

'Hacking' To Be Declared Illegal Programmer's Rights 10/25/2000; 9:19:54 AM This is slashdot article about the international cybercrime treaty, as mentioned before here.  I'm posting this because I think it's a good bet there will be some insightful comments posted there. Browse with "Highest Scores First". Whatever else you can say about the theory, I think it's quite clear that some bureaucrats who got delusions of grandeur into their heads, started writing legislation, and just ignored all technical input they receieved because they thought they knew better.

Abandoned Intellectual Property General IP Issues 10/24/2000; 9:58:08 PM 'Most states have laws governing what is to be done with property that has been abandoned. In one state the amount of time before something is considered abandoned ranges from a mere 2 years up to 15 years. After that maximum -- depending on the type of property -- the property can be put up for auction, absorbed by the holder of the property, or possibly revert to the state, again depending on the property in question.

'Works for Hire' on Firing Line Music & MP3 10/24/2000; 12:49:46 PM 'MP3.com's legal challenge of the validity of music copyrights, which is forcing a U.S. district court to focus on ownership of music, could have serious implications for the music industry. 'On Nov. 2, lawyers representing MP3.com in the damages portion of its lawsuit will argue that the Universal Music Group incorrectly classified its 4,700 copyrights as "works for hire.

Fast.weblogs.com Personal Notes 10/24/2000; 10:01:09 AM I don't think I've seen this announced publicly, but there is a weblogs.com site that is just a fast mirror of the main weblogs.com site. In my experience, it comes up significantly faster in IE too, though it says it's meant to be a "netscape 4" friendly version. At any rate, a lot of people already know about it and maybe I missed the scripting news announcement, but its there and you might want to try it.

Study of Average Error Rates for Censorware Programs Free Speech 10/23/2000; 5:45:21 PM 'Using "zone files" from Network Solutions (which list all .com domains in existence), we obtained a list of the first 1,000 active .com domains on the Internet as of June 14, 2000. We tested this list of 1,000 domains using five popular blocking programs: Cyber Patrol, SurfWatch, Bess, AOL Parental Controls, and SafeServer, to see how many sites each program blocked as "