Two Contrasting Stories Misc.5/2/2000; 5:00:37 PM Feb 2, 2000: Today, two contrasting stories:In the this corner, on the "You can't regulate the internet, it's too big and international" team, we have Down Under Smut Goes Up Over, wherein an Australian site ordered to remove certain content by the Australian government simply relocates to the United States and server Australia from there. "Technically, they have complied with the take-down notice we issued," ABA special projects manager Stephen Nugent said.And in the other corner, for the "Internet regulation simply awaits the development of the appropriate technology" team, RealNetworks Helps Pay Piper. RealNetworks will integrate AudioSoft's copyright management technology that tracks the webcasters' Internet streams into its popular RealSystem G2 platform. This site will be covering moot issues if technology like the Real Networks tracker is accepted... and moving over seas won't work for everybody...

Obtaining a Web Page
Essays
5/2/2000; 4:54:56 PM Feb 2, 2000: I've completed the work on Obtaining A Web Page. It is an information piece meant for those who don't fully understand what happens when retrieving a web page, to give them a high-level overview. It will be vital to understand some of the other conflicts I'm hoping to highlight.

URL
Glossary
5/2/2000; 4:45:27 PM Most people think of 'web address' when they hear URL, and for the most part, that's good enough. But a deeper understanding of what it is can be helpful.

Web Bugs FAQ
Privacy from Companies
5/2/2000; 4:43:48 PM Feb 1, 2000: Richard M. Smith is giving the name 'web bugs' to image tags that track your web usage on sites that use them. He has a FAQ the topic, and guess what? The recent Doubleclick tracking fiasco only tells half the story. It's worse then you think; some sites that aren't affilited with DoubleClick are helping them track you anyhow! (This was actually news to me; check it out even if you've been following DoubleClick in the news.)

What few excuses they have fabricated ("We're doing it so you don't see the same ad too often...") are totally invalidated in light of this information. I recommend that you look at junkbusters.org and look in to the proxy server they offer...

Why We Must Fight UCITA
UCITA
5/2/2000; 4:42:22 PM Feb 1, 2000: Richard Stallman wrote an article for Linux Today called "Why We Must Fight UCITA". UCITA hasn't come up since I started this site, but it is one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation I know of, where corporations are attempting protect their "right" to milk us of our money with bug-ridden programs, and leave us no way to defend ourselves against it. I'd love to know if there's some good summary of UCITA I could point to.

"UCITA is a proposed law, designed by the proprietary software developers, who are now asking all 50 states of the US to adopt it. If UCITA is adopted, it will threaten the free software community(1) with disaster." Forget free software, it threatens the consumers (for the same reasons it threatens free software)!

Copyright Control Services General IP Issues5/2/2000; 4:40:19 PM Jan. 31, 2000: Common misconception: The Internet is such a large place that no copyright laws can ever be enforced. This company demonstrates why that is . If pirates can find you, so can an intelligent company.People like Katz contribute to this misconception: Witness his proud story today: "This week, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) joined China and the music industry, all simultaneously making doomed efforts to stick their fingers in the digital dike. The Net has destroyed the very idea of censorship, but it looks like there are going to be some casualties before that reality sets in." Somebody hasn't been reading his news.Because many of us think in the back of our head that nobody can exert that much control, we are not preparing ourselves for the day when people can. Consumer's rights are being stripped right and left, and hardly anybody even notices. It's a pity.

What is a Web Page Discussion
Personal Commentary
5/2/2000; 4:34:30 PM I'd like to open a topic for Discussion: What is a web page? Is it what the user sees? Is it what's on the server? Is it what is sent over the network? All three of these are quite different, if you think about it, esp. in the case of dynamic content. What's protected under the law, and what isn't, if either? I'm planning on posting my call on the issue soon, but I'd like to collect comments.

Money is Property, Not Speech
Political Speech
5/2/2000; 4:28:53 PM Jan 27, 2000: Money is property, not speech, says Supreme Court: This matters to us, as one of the things the Internet does is create questions about what speech is. I think we need to take a somewhat narrow view, otherwise things like will be accepted as 'free speech'. More on that sometime this week.

The full findings of the court are online at http://caselaw.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&navby=case&vol=000&invol=98-963 . (Aside: Why don't online news sources like Salon provide a link to the decision? It doesn't even take any additional screen space!) I have posted a summary of the findings of interest into a discussion group message. Please feel free to comment on the case.

Comic about CBS
Humor/Amusing
5/2/2000; 4:27:23 PM Jan 27, 2000: A fun comic about CBS's recent of Times Square, replacing NBC's logo with their own.