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.

Copyright office backs 'right' to limit content access
DMCA
10/27/2000; 2:21:49 PM

'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.'

OpenPatents.org
Patents
10/27/2000; 9:19:58 AM

'The basic idea behind OpenPatents.org is to change the rules of the patent game such that it is to the advantage of participants to help solve the problems of software patents.

'The Open Patent License is in effect a mutual nonagression pact...'

The idea was tossed about earlier, but it seems OpenPatents.org is trying to actually do it.

Carnivore Demo Report
Surveillance and Privacy from Government
10/26/2000; 2:07:27 PM Unknown authenticity; it's from an anonymous remailer. It gives some more details about the capabilities of Carnivore, which are somewhat greater then the press has been thinking, if this report is true.  It can reconstruct a net activity trail, not just intercept e-mail.

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. Otherwise, the FTC takes legal action. But a site need not have a privacy policy at all, under current law.

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. Offer me another one.''

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 "Trojan horse" that does more harm than good, because loopholes allow giant data brokers, banks, marketers and even private detectives to exchange or sell the numbers among themselves.'

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.'