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. We have about 450 files, with 450 descriptions of methods -- you know, our testing managing committee started working on this Wednesday morning, and it's simply impossible to say whether this is true or this is false. Nobody knows! And when I say nobody, I mean nobody, because it's 450 music files that have yet to be tested.'''

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. 'Should the Patent Office decide in OpenTV's favor, Amazon could be forced to either pay licensing fees for one-click shopping or abandon it altogether. Ironically, that's the same position Amazon has been trying to put Barnesandnoble.com into for the past year.'Could you ask for any better proof that patents have become too broad? What could these two systems, Amazon's and OpenTV's, possibly have in common, except a vague resemblence (and I do mean vague) in functionality?This is fortuitous timing for me... I was just writing this section of the essay.

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?...

Spam blacklist battle goes to court
Spam & E-Mail
10/12/2000; 3:54:23 PM

'In a case with a host of free speech and e-commerce-related legal implications, a San Jose judge today is scheduled to consider arguments in a lawsuit involving the conduct of Mail Abuse Prevention System, or MAPS, a widely used Peninsula company set up to help companies screen junk e-mail.

'Under attack from companies that have wound up on its so-called ``Blackhole List'' of junk e-mailers, MAPS filed suit this spring seeking a definitive ruling from a California court that its practices do not violate any laws. The target of the suit was Black Ice Software, a New Hampshire maker of software tool kits that had threatened legal action over being placed on the Blackhole List....

SDMI cracked! Maybe!
Music & MP3
10/12/2000; 3:19:31 PM

'Watch out -- recording industry executives are about to start running for cover. All of the Secure Digital Music Initiative's watermarks -- its much ballyhooed music protection scheme -- have been broken. A spokesperson for SDMI has denied the reports, but according to three off-the-record sources, the results of the Hack SDMI contest are in and not one single watermark resisted attack.'

Full Disclosure
Administrative
10/11/2000; 2:43:08 PM

I've wanted to have the ability to look into the web server log for this site for a while but haven't been able to, because that info is not available through EditThisPage.com. Several people around ETP.com have been using SiteTracker, but I do not want to farm this out to a third party.

Thus, I've tacked something on the end of my pages that will ask for an image from another web site I have possession of and the ability to read the logs of.

When to Make the Link
Free Speech
10/11/2000; 2:27:37 PM

'It's an illustration of potential pitfalls as news organizations direct readers into cyberspace. And it raises the question: If these news organizations have an obligation to stand behind the content of their stories, should they also be responsible for the material on the sites to which they send their readers?'

Well, that depends. When the news announces that there will be a Klu Klux Klan rally at the capitol steps tommorow at 5:30 p.m., are they somehow magically responsible for the rally? Should we prosecute the news outlets under hate crime laws?