Report on the Platform for Privacy Preferences Privacy from Companies6/22/2000; 2:48:06 PM I've been examining the Platform for Privacy Preferences stuff, though I haven't had time to read through the actual standard.While P3P is powerful, it is amazingly complicated (even by computer geek standards!), which has been noted by several others I've read. I looked at AT&T's policy file, and it's huge and full of... stuff. P3P has complexity-through-too-many-options written all over it.

U.S. Antidrug Site Dealing Cookies Surveillance and Privacy from Government6/22/2000; 9:58:19 AM "The White House announced Wednesday that the Office of National Drug Control Policy's online antidrug message has been getting an assist from software cookies silently deposited in the Web browsers of those who visit the department's flashy Freevibe antidrug Web site."'"We will take all steps necessary to halt these practices now," the White House said in a statement.

Critics: P3P Debut A 'Step' Privacy from Companies6/22/2000; 8:55:02 AM "An Internet protocol designed to serve as an automatic privacy-protection agent appeared in a working software demonstration Wednesday after years of development and a near-death experience."'"If you read most (websites') privacy policies, there's nothing private about them. So now that we can encode those in a machine language, (that) hasn't fixed the privacy problem," Hill said. "All that means is bad privacy policies can now be written in a form that your computer can read.

Media Enforcer Music & MP36/22/2000; 8:36:19 AM "Media Enforcer is, at its core, a line of defense for owners of different media to put the responsibility back to the offending users. The current version supports Napster and Gnutella services, with more being added all of the time."The application will run for as long as you wish, checking all servers on all services for illegal material- giving you enough identifying information to either submit a ban on the users from the service, or to hold them responsible in a court of law if it comes to that.

Lawrence Lessig -- Round Three General IP Issues6/22/2000; 8:14:07 AM It's round three... Lawrence Lessig:It is the principles that matter: design principles, like e2e, and legal principles, like limited intellectual property rights and sensible contracting law. Eric [Raymond] agrees with these principles; his excellent criticism of patents and UCITA evinces as much. But he believes these principles follow from the embrace of laissez-faire. I don't get how the invisible hand defines principled law.

BT could face legal action over hyperlink claim Patents6/21/2000; 9:26:43 AM "Anger against BT's patent - predominantly in the US where the intellectual property specialists are currently talking to ISPs over issuing licences - has flared quicker than hooligans rioting after a game of basketball."Ironically, it's an action welcomed by some. Donavon J Pfeiffer Jr told The Register: 'As an American citizen, steeped in greed and raised on profit motive and litigation, I am hopeful that BT wins this lawsuit.

Patent Seeks to Collect on Data Patents6/21/2000; 9:07:33 AM "TeleDynamics, a small Florida company, said its newly awarded patent has major import for -- well, just about any automated service that gathers user information and passes it to someone else."The company said its patent award has "sweeping" ramifications for Internet, telephone, and wireless Web services."Question: If the patent has "sweeping ramification" for all of those things, none of which ever saw the patent TeleDynamics file and therefore came up with it independently, how can it be unobvious?

The Limits of Copyright General IP Issues 6/20/2000; 2:08:23 PM "As economists have confirmed, it is not the case that every increase in intellectual property protection always will increase innovation. Intellectual property is both an input and an output in the information economy. Raising the costs of inputs can dampen more than incent innovation. What is needed with intellectual property is balance, not extremes. Not "overly strong" intellectual property protection, but appropriately strong intellectual property protection.

E-business vs. 'none of your business' Privacy from Companies 6/20/2000; 8:07:27 AM "Should it be illegal to carry a pocket organizer across an international border, because it contains names and numbers of people who didn't give their permission? Or should companies and governments be allowed to collect all manner of information on people without their knowledge or consent, to be sold, swapped and used in any way whatsoever?" This article is a fairly good summary of the disparity between European and American "

New Censorship Icon Censorship 6/20/2000; 8:04:56 AM I want to explain the new censorship icon. It is intended as a reminder that things can always change, and that even the things that we think least likely to be censored, sometimes are. Hamlet, the Shakespeare play from which that line is taken, has been censored in the past. Who knows where things will go from here? For more information on what censoring has already occurred in relatively recent history, see the Banned Books On-Line page, where you can also download the works they mention.