Defame Game Serious in Canada
Country Watch: Canada
9/14/2000; 3:14:06 PM 'Canadian e-mailers can no longer hide behind a cloak of anonymity if reasonable grounds exist to show they've distributed defamatory statements over the Internet.'

Napster Goes on the Offensive Music & MP39/14/2000; 2:59:35 PM 'In what could be a last great act of defiance, Napster lawyers filed their final written brief before the copyright infringement case goes to trial. 'The brief accuses the recording industry of withholding licensing, and disputes claims that the company's file-trading application violates copyright law.'Here's the brief.

Update or the Lack Thereof Personal Notes9/12/2000; 10:53:23 AM My grandfather is in the hospital for a quadruple bypass surgery and a valve replacement. Updates may be sporadic or slow the next few days if it doesn't go well. Please bear with me.

Selling Yourself Bit by Bit Privacy from Companies9/12/2000; 10:27:54 AM 'Right at this moment, some marketing fat cat is selling your demographic data -- maybe your shoe size, your favorite color, or how you like your eggs cooked -- and you're not seeing a penny of the profits. 'But according to Jeff Oriecuia, a spokesman for a new company called Zimtu, you may soon be able to get some of that green.'Unfortunately, I can't say I have much faith in the company's marketing scheme, which is to create Yet Another Instant Messenger and use the registered users as a base to grow. Since they want their own registered users base, it probably goes without saying it won't interoperate with anything else. I'm not sure it will be compelling enough for Joe Public to switch.The site is four pages away from being non-existent, don't bother visiting.I hope this succeeds, despite my skepticism on their marketing and their lack of web page. If people gain the perception that their personal data has value, they'll start to scream loudly at those companies extracting it and not paying them for it. If Zimtu succeeds, half the privacy war against companies is over, because suddenly the public will have a clear understanding of the value of their $tati$tics.Please support it.

Congress Next in Copyright Tiffs
General IP Issues
9/12/2000; 10:17:17 AM '"When the outcome of the Napster case comes out, the losing side is going to be all over Capitol Hill next session and there will be your legislative battle," said Robert Kruger, vice president of enforcement at the Business Software Association.'

iRights isn't going out of business anytime soon, it looks like. I've guestimated my commitment to this site at 4-5 years before things settle down enough that there's no general need to cover then anymore.

IE feature can track Web surfers without warning Privacy from Companies9/11/2000; 5:49:04 PM 'Microsoft today said it is investigating a possible privacy loophole in its Internet Explorer browser that could thwart efforts by people who want to surf the Web anonymously. The feature in IE 5 and above, referred to by Microsoft as "persistence," is designed to let Web pages remember information, such as search queries, entered by visitors.'There are other good reasons to turn this feature off. You should not leave importent passwords on your computer if possible; since the feature is either "off" or "on", you can't seperate the importent passwords from the unimportent ones. (And I have some importent ones. The iRights password is kinda dear to me, for instance ).This is yet-another technology with unanticipated side effects. Paul, if you're looking, these last few snafus with Microsoft (macro viruses being the big one) have definately convinced me that capabilities-based security is indeed the way to go

Copyright and Copying Wrongs: A Web Re-balancing Act
Music & MP3
9/11/2000; 4:53:35 PM 'There is a large legal irony here. MP3.com may be thoroughly punished (the company is appealing the ruling), even though it has tried to ensure that people pay for copies of the music they want to listen to, said Pamela Samuelson, co-director of the University of California's Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. By contrast, Napster, another high-profile Internet music company being sued by the major record labels, has so far eluded any legal sanction for its activities, even though it exists to give people free access to the same music.'

What a crazy world.

Poland Ready to Clear Electronic Signatures General IP Issues9/8/2000; 7:09:57 PM 'Polish financial institutions joined forces to enable local Internet users to use electronic signatures in e-commerce and e-banking after the appropriate law is approved later this year, the central bank said on Thursday.'Regretfully, the article does not make clear if these are electronic or digital signitures. Explanation from the Glossary.

C-SPAN 2 RIght Now
Personal Notes
9/8/2000; 6:58:16 PM C-SPAN 2 right now is discussing "Privacy Act & the Presidency" right now, at 8:05 p.m. EST.

Don't know if it's necessarily all that interesting overall, but technically Carnivore belongs to the President, so some issues I cover on this site might be covered.

RealNetworks, Streambox Settle Copyright Case
General IP Issues
9/8/2000; 2:48:14 PM 'Streaming-media software company RealNetworks (RNWK) ended one of the first tests of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act on Friday with an out-of court settlement with Streambox, a software rival it had accused of copyright infringement.

'RealNetworks' federal suit, filed Dec. 22 in Federal District Court for the Western District of Washington, accused Streambox of violating the DMCA with its Streambox Ripper and Streambox VCR products. The Ripper converts RealAudio files, which can be copy-protected by their owners, into MP3, WAV or Windows Media files, which lack similar copy protection. Streambox VCR can play and record video streams in the RealPlayer G2 format, also sidestepping copy protection.'