US bids to ban spam Spam & E-Mail6/15/2000; 8:43:56 AM "If passed, the bill would require each spam to have a genuine and valid reply, instead of the usual gutless anonymous rubbish currently invading inboxes. It would also require that all junk email be labelled as spam so that Net users would know exactly what they were dealing with beforehand."Cross your fingers.I think this is the ideal solution. *Banning* spam probably is a violation of First Amendment rights.

Another day, another DoubleClick privacy PR disaster Privacy from Companies 6/15/2000; 8:39:29 AM "DoubleClick has been caught mucking around with personal privacy - again. The world's biggest online ad sales house has been caught gleaning email addresses and other personal information from Web site customers - without the knowledge of Web sites."

So, where's all the free music? Music & MP36/15/2000; 8:16:00 AM Linux demonstrates that software can exist where there is little or no money. Is there an equivalent demonstration for music? Actually, yes.Almost everybody has heard of "MP3" by now, but few have heard of a family of formats that pre-date MP3 by at least fifteen years: MOD files. Visit the Mod Archive to get an idea for what free music can be.

The Underground Grammarian Personal Commentary 6/15/2000; 7:56:27 AM I run a program on my linux system called "fortune" whenever I log on which produces a pithy saying of some sort every time I start up a terminal. (Fortune also lives on the web; reload to see others.) I saw something from the Underground Grammarian, did a quick web search, and lo, there was a collection of nearly all of them on the web.

Software that can spy on you Privacy from Companies6/15/2000; 7:47:23 AM "A growing number of companies clearly think that it's acceptable to build covert monitoring systems into their programs. Proposed legislation specifically allows software vendors to exercise "self-help" in enforcing their copyrights -- actions that could include disabling your computer if they think you have violated the terms of your license agreement. Meanwhile, the ubiquitous Internet connectivity afforded by cable modems and DSL will make it harder and harder for us to know when these sorts of programs are active.

Michigan Warns Sites on Privacy Privacy from Companies 6/14/2000; 8:07:06 PM "The state of Michigan doesn't think it needs to wait for laws governing online privacy before taking legal action against websites. . . The state attorney general's office is using a decades-old consumer-protection law to make a piecemeal but pointed campaign against what it sees as ubiquitous privacy violations online." Go Michigan! (That's the only time you'll hear me say that.

The latest in anti-piracy efforts: keystroke recognition Music & MP36/13/2000; 10:40:02 AM ''Start-up Musicrypt.com and Net Nanny Software, best known for its Web filtering programs, said they are joining forces to create software that can identify individual music listeners by the way they tap out letters on computer keyboards. This information would be used to protect songs against unauthorized distribution and use.''The article points out that people don't like this sort of restraining technology (why should they?

RIAA asks judge to pull all major-label songs off Napster Music & MP36/13/2000; 9:45:51 AM "The Recording Industry Association of America fired its latest legal salvo against music swapping firm Napster late today, asking a judge to block all major-label content from being traded through the service." "For the first time, the industry is providing hard statistics on how much material on Napster it believes is breaking copyright law."Napster replies "

FTC, Online Ad Firms Haggle Over Privacy Privacy from Companies 6/13/2000; 7:09:22 AM "In the wake of last month's Federal Trade Commission recommendation that Congress pass basic online privacy laws, a group of Internet ad-server companies is continuing to hold secret talks with the FTC and the Commerce Department about a set of self-imposed privacy standards for the online-advertising industry in lieu of new privacy legislation." Unfortunately, the ad-server companies cannot be trusted.

The consensus machine Technology & Sociology 6/12/2000; 1:02:39 PM "In fact, cyberspace is highly organised and even regulated, and not just for technical standards. What is unique about the Internet is not that it is ungoverned; it is that its regulation has emerged from the bottom up and not the top down."