The Man Who Debunks Virus Myths
Misc.

'Rob Rosenberger is determined to shine the bright light of sarcasm into every dark corner of the computer security industry. His website, Vmyths, focuses on presenting the facts -- as Rosenberger sees them -- about computer viruses, dispelling any media-fueled hysteria about computer security and disputing the smallest shred of misinformation from the security industry itself.'

'Rosenberger carefully reviews the press coverage of every virus alert and rips into reporters who mindlessly repeat whatever "facts" they may have been fed by their sources.'

Custom Weblog Post
Personal Notes

The Custom Weblog Post tool allows the user to create (sub-)templates that have more structure then RU's default flat text box. It ships with a template that matches the behavior of Manila's News Items, using the RU 'blogs categories as the choosable categories. Thus, for people who are used to posting with Manila's News Items, this provides a nice migration path to the RU 'blog.

Ars Technica: Intellectual Property and the Good Society
General IP Issues
[Some people have a hard time committing to an opinion on current IP law.] 'There's a reason why so many of us are caught in the middle. It's because the morally absolute language of rights leaves us too little wiggle room for holding a useful dialogue about the ways a fair intellectual property system should look and function. What I intend to do in the following editorial is argue for a new type of discussion, one focused more on larger systems and structures than on the rights of the individual actors governed by those structures. To that end, I'll describe the way that the existing intellectual property structures are developing, and I'll then talk about how we can visualize some alternatives to them.'

Lawmakers prepare digital music bill
Music & MP3
'Long live Napster. Or its idea, anyway. Two Capitol Hill lawmakers are getting ready to introduce legislation that would loosen copyright laws to help legitimate, Internet-based music services get up and running without the threat of being shut down by the courts for infringement.'

I could have sworn that somebody had already introduced this bill (or a similar bill). In fact I wrote about it, but now I can't find it. At any rate, if this could pass (ha ha!), it would certainly crack open the debate, which (at least in Congress) has been so blatently corporate that you'd think that even Congresscritters would start to get queasy.

FBI Bugging Case Goes to Court
Surveillance and Privacy from Government
'The legal limits for these new investigative tools will get a test Monday when a federal court in New Jersey examines a mob case in which agents, without a wiretap order, recorded a suspect's computer keystrokes....

'Armed only with a search warrant, the FBI broke into Scarfo's business and put either a program on his computer or an electronic bug in his keyboard -- officials will not say which -- and recorded everything typed by the son of the jailed former boss of a Philadelphia mob.'

Techs Must Report Child Pornography

Misc.
For South Carolina" 'Tucked into a new law on education standards for day care workers is a requirement that private technicians tell police if they find child pornography when servicing computers.'

*blink* *blink* On the one hand, these people shouldn't be required to perform in a law enforcement capacity. On the other, giving computer folks a little law enforcement capability could be very interesting... *extremely evil chuckle*

The Great CNET Spam-off
Spam & E-mail
'CNET contributor Matt Lake opened 12 free e-mail accounts (and monitored some older ones) and dedicated each to one typical online activity. He even opened accounts at each e-mail provider and left them untouched just to examine the myth that just having an e-mail account can generate spam. Next, he joined up at sites that require you to register an e-mail address, posted messages on message boards around the Web, registered domain names, and visited chat rooms. In each case, over a few months, he checked to see which activities attracted the most unsolicited e-mail to an account, then tried to figure out how to remove the spam. Finally, he categorized those behaviors in terms of high, medium, and low risk, and the results were somewhat surprising.'

Taming the Wild, Wild Web

Misc.

'"We don't have any control over the Internet," said Michels, president and chief executive of Maryland-based CSP Inc., which helps big clients protect priceless corporate data in the event of an earthquake, computer network outage or other disaster. "If something goes down, you don't even know who's accountable. The Internet is, like, 'Who ya gonna call?' "

'That's an example of how the Internet's leading virtue, its unruliness, is increasingly getting cursed by business executives and economists as its worst flaw. After years of fruitless efforts to make money selling goods and services over the Web, many entrepreneurs and other businesspeople are starting to blame the system's fundamental design for their failures.'

Still in DMCA Prison
DMCA

From Slashdot:

Let's go over the Sklyarov situation. Sklyarov is still in jail. In fact, he's still in Las Vegas, where he is being held without even a bail hearing, much less bail. The excuse given for not having a bail hearing when he was arrested on July 16 was that he was being immediately transferred to San Jose and would get a hearing there. Anyway, a recap of the protests: San Jose, more San Jose, New York, Seattle, Chicago writeup and Chicago pictures, Moscow writeup and Moscow photo and news coverage: New York Times, Business2.com. Wired has Washington's viewpoint - Representative Coble says "there have been very few complaints from intellectual property holders". Well, duh. Linuxplanet has an opinion piece exploring the Digital Millennium Rape Act. Finally EFF has written a letter to U.S. Attorney Mueller, asking for the U.S. to drop the charges against Sklyarov. It seems pretty doubtful that he will, since he won't want to be seen as soft on crime during his Senate confirmation hearings.

The Copyright Cops Go Too Far
DMCA
7/24/2001; 11:40:29 PM 'It's also difficult to understand how the prosecution of Skylarov will help Adobe -- not to mention the rest of us -- which is supposed to be the justification for criminal laws. So far, the arrest has done little more than galvanize anti-DMCA activists and create a barrage of negative publicity for Adobe, which I'm willing to bet has not translated into an increase in the already pathetic sales of eBooks. As for the underlying problem of copyright protection on the Internet, it's still an open issue, but bringing out the police is not the solution to our problems. If nothing else, the arrest underscores the fact that the DMCA is a law that needs rethinking, and soon.'