Kevin & Kell - August 21, 2000 Humor/Amusing 8/21/2000; 8:24:48 AM This an awesome cartoon; don't read the whole archives unless you have hours to spare. Today's fits into Privacy from Companies quite well.

The Heavenly Jukebox Music & MP3 8/18/2000; 2:46:53 PM 'Rampant music piracy may hurt musicians less than they fear. The real threat -- to listeners and, conceivably, democracy itself -- is the music industry's reaction to it ' Long and well worth reading. As linked... everywhere else

Digital Copyright Act comes back to haunt consumers DMCA 8/18/2000; 10:16:05 AM 'Kaplan's ruling in the New York case was sweeping and deeply troubling for anyone who cares about fair use and, ultimately, the First Amendment. He likened software code to a disease, implying that the people who used it were acting like agents of germ warfare. He seemed to acknowledge the radically anti-free speech nature of his banning of hyperlinks in this matter, but then went ahead and did it anyway.

Judge Kaplan's MPAA vs. DeCSS Decision DVD & DeCSS8/17/2000; 2:36:40 PM Judge Kaplan has ruled in favor of the MPAA in the DeCSS case. This is not a surprise, and opens the door for the inevitable appeal and show-down in a higher court.The high-rated Slashdot comments seem fairly insightful. I agree with many of them; the judge seems to have ruled completely within the bound of the DMCA, and basically dodged the issue of whether the DMCA is constitutional.

Outline Browser Fun Stuff! 8/17/2000; 1:07:19 PM If you have IE5+ and Javascript active, you can use the Outline Browser I whipped together last night. It allows you to view and even browse file conforming to Dave Winer's outline XMLization.

Bangkok Post Aug 17, 2000 - Armed roboguard world's first Misc.8/17/2000; 12:50:55 PM 'The world's first armed robot security guard that can open fire on intruders while controlled through the Internet was unveiled in Bangkok yesterday.''"The robot is equipped with a camera and sensors that track movement and heat. It is armed with a pistol that can be programmed to shoot automatically or wait for a fire order delivered with a password from anywhere through the Internet,"

Appeals Decision in USTA vs. FCC (CALEA) Surveillance and Privacy from Government 8/16/2000; 1:20:03 PM 'Electronic Privacy Information Center announces the DC Circuit Decision in USTA v. FCC (CALEA). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has ruled that law enforcement agencies must meet the highest legal standard before using new surveillance capabilities. The court decision came in a legal challenge filed by EPIC, other privacy groups and the telecommunications industry to invalidate technical surveillance standards issued by the Federal Communications Commission last year.

Napster’s backers under attack Programmer's Rights8/15/2000; 3:48:15 PM 'THE legal juggernaut set in motion by the recording industry to rid itself of Napster is threatening to take with it more than just the upstart firm whose software enables music fans to share each other’s CD collections free on the Internet. If, as seems likely following a hostile ruling a fortnight ago, Napster is fined for music piracy, the way could be open for action against both its investors and the developers of any software that might be used to undermine copyright.

Toysrus.com stops using Coremetrics Privacy from Companies 8/15/2000; 9:46:42 AM '"For a short period of time, we had a trial arrangement with a service called Coremetrics to assist us in evaluating information about how visitors use our site," Toysrus.com's policy read. "This trial arrangement is no longer in effect."' I think I understand thier point of view (if they are telling the truth)... "It was only a trial, why should we notify customers of something temporary that we may not even go with?

Writers sue Web publishers, demanding back royalties General IP Issues8/15/2000; 9:39:26 AM 'Database operators frequently pay publishers for access to articles and books and charge customers to download them from thousands of publications, but they typically pay the writers nothing. That violates U.S. copyright law, according to the San Francisco suit, because the authors contend that they never signed their rights away and still own their work.'...'The difference between Napster and the database defendants involves more pronounced financial considerations.