LinkBack Computer is Broken LinkBack10/17/2000; 9:43:38 AM The computer the linkback program was running on has had a hard drive failure. The system will be down indefinately, I don't really have the money to replace the drive.My apologies to everybody who was using it.The good news is that I've backed the database up and haven't lost anything. That computer's been giving me trouble for a while. It's been making odd beeping noises.

New Story: What is iRights? Administrative 10/16/2000; 5:54:08 PM As a result of looking at why people are coming here, I see the need for a What is iRights page?  If you are also on editthispage.com or weblogs.com, and your site is large enough and interesting enough that it might attract search engine hits, I'd recommend doing something similar for your site. I'll let you know if people actually visit it after search requests or not

Congress weighing Internet filtering for schools, libraries Free Speech 10/16/2000; 2:12:31 PM 'Four Republicans are promoting legislation that would force schools and libraries to use Internet filtering software or lose federal dollars intended to help buy Web access. The effort is alienating civil liberties groups, conservatives and industry executives....' 'Introduced in the Senate by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa., the plan is attached to an appropriations bill that could get a final vote this week.

New radio software: the legal Napster? Music & MP3 10/16/2000; 9:21:10 AM 'Some new fancy software from SongCatcher.com may mean you'll never have to pay for your favourite songs again. And the good thing is that it's perfectly legal.... 'Tracks are recognised by referring to a station's playlist and using some digital sound recognition software. From that point you'll have a list of artists' tracks and song titles which can be jiggled around as you fancy.

SDMI Not Hacked! Maybe! Music & MP3 10/16/2000; 9:11:37 AM '''When a publication makes such a completely wrong, unfounded, anonymous slander, I think it deserves a very strong answer,'' Chariglione told Inside, referring to a report appearing on Salon.com Thursday citing anonymous sources that claimed each of the six technologies offered up for hacking by the SDMI had been compromised. ''It's simply not true, because we, ourselves, don't have that information.

Author of Napster's Congressional Testimony Music & MP3 10/15/2000; 12:51:46 PM The testimony is apparently at the above link; I can't seem to access it, so no comments.

Answers from Carnivore Reviewer Henry H. Perrit, Jr. Surveillance and Privacy from Government 10/13/2000; 4:38:46 PM One of the people who will be reviewing Carnivore has replied to questions in a Slashdot interview, which, as you may expect, boils down to a defense of the review. Unfortunately, most of the questions are redundant. The one technical question was not answered in a way that would inspire confidence in me or this slashdot poster.

Amazon Tastes Its Own Patent-Pending Medicine Patents10/13/2000; 4:14:03 PM 'In late September OpenTV applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to broaden the scope of a patent originally awarded to the company in 1998 so it includes "one-click" shopping. This tool lets repeat customers make purchases without having to re-enter address and credit card information each time. Amazon first made one-click shopping available on its site in September 1997 and was awarded the patent for it in September 1999.

Senate Passes Net Liquor Ban Misc. 10/13/2000; 9:59:48 AM 'The U.S. Senate voted 95-0 on Wednesday to slap strict rules on Internet purchases of intoxicating beverages by prohibiting wineries, breweries or virtually anyone else from selling and shipping alcohol directly to consumers.' Interesting because it's a case of a Internet jurisdiction issue being settled, which there haven't been too many of. Amusing: 'The restriction was included in an unrelated bill dealing with trafficking in sex slaves.

Copyrights Rule General IP Issues 10/12/2000; 3:58:48 PM 'As the copyright wars rage on in courts across the country – the deCSS case in New York, MP3.com (MPPP) and Napster in California, Cyberpatrol in Massachusetts – some people are beginning to ask a very interesting question: Why do the courts treat laws that regulate copyright so differently from laws that regulate pornography? Or to put it another way, why is it so easy to invoke the power of the state to protect Hollywood, yet so difficult to wield the power of the state to protect kids?