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Friday, August 16, 2002 |
(More
grocery lists)
4:02:25 PM 
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Cool! A Rebirth for Ricochet: One year after Metricom pulled the plug on its pioneering Ricochet network, the new owners of the high-speed wireless Internet service are putting it back in business. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
3:49:24 PM
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Rip, Mix, Burn:
The Politics of Peer to Peer and Copyright Law, by Kathy Bowrey and
Matthew Rimmer, in First Monday.
Abstract
Whereas Lessig's recent work engages with questions of
culture and
creativity in society, this paper looks at the role of culture and
creativity in the law. The paper evaluates the Napster, DeCSS, Felten
and Sklyarov litigation in terms of the new social, legal, economic
and cultural relations being produced. This involves a deep
discussion of law's economic relations, and the implications of this
for litigation strategy. The paper concludes with a critique of
recent attempts to define copyright law in terms of first amendment
rights and communicative freedom.
Contents
- The Story So Far
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A Different Kind of Politics
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Part One - Peer To Peer: The Napster Experience
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Part Two - The DMCA Litigation: DeCSS and Beyond
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Part Three - Dmitry, the Con and the Constitution
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Part Four - Some Questions about Law, Politics, and the Politics Of Law
10:01:30 AM
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5 from BNA's Internet Law News
(Compiled by Professor Michael Geist, BNA Consulting Editor.)
RUSSIA FILES HACKING CHARGES AGAINST FBI AGENT
Russia's counterintelligence service yesterday filed
criminal hacking charges against an FBI agent. The service
says that the FBI agent lured two Russian hackers to the
U.S. and then illegally seized evidence against them by
downloading data from their computers back in Russia. The
FBI had previoiusly been lauded for its ruse that led to the
arrest of the two hackers.
http://msnbc.com/news/563379.asp
VIETNAM CONSIDERING TIGHTER CONTROLS ON INTERNET ACCESS
An official with Vietnam's Ministry of Culture and
Information says that the country is considering a series of
new controls on Internet access. Possibilities include
holding cybercafe owners responsible for patrons who access
anti-government sites and using Vietnam's single Internet
gateway to block all anti-government sites.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020816/1/31obo.html
LA REPORTER FIRED AFTER POSTING NEGATIVE EMAIL
A Los Angeles reporter has been fired after he posted a
negative email on his home page about a sister station. His
station manager said the comments were inappropriate and he
was fired after five years on the job.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-et-lowry16aug16.story
USERS UPSET BY QUIET TALK CITY
Many former Talk City customers are upset that the company
did not give them notice of its impending closure. Talk
City closed its site last week after filing for Chapter 7
bankruptcy several days earlier. Many customers, not
knowing of the closure, failed to make backup copies of
their sites that were hosted by Talk City.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-950060.html
MICROSOFT'S CANADIAN GRANT CAUSES STIR
The Microsoft Canada Academic Innovation Alliance was
formally launched Wednesday, with a $2.3 million grant to
University of Waterloo, but the first grant awarded from the
fund caused an uproar after one of the recipients agreed to
require students to take a course in a Microsoft's C#
programming language as part of the deal. The Alliance has
established a $10 million fund to support technology
research and development at Canadian universities.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-949945.html
10:01:28 AM
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[From Declan McCullagh's politech list]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 15, 2002
Contact: Julie Williams
703-326-9880, x111; 703-402-6715 cell
STATEMENT OF THE INTERNET SOCIETY ON DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT
Washington, D.C. - The Internet Society strongly opposes attempts to impose
governmental technology mandates that are designed to protect only the
economic interests of certain owners of intellectual property over the
economic interests of much larger portions of society. The current debate
in many countries of the world regarding digital rights management (DRM) has
illustrated the inevitable conclusion of technology mandates in law: a world
where all digital media technology is either forbidden or compulsory. The
effect of these mandates is to grant veto power over new technologies to
special interest groups who have continually opposed innovation.
There are many policy reasons that can be advanced to oppose government
intervention in technology. Society at large has a powerful economic
interest in promoting research resulting in the creation of new products and
services as well as new jobs. Many of the legislative proposals currently
under consideration would shackle technology and the research needed to
support it, solely for the benefit of one small group. From the standpoint
of sound public policy, intellectual property rights must be respected but
must also be kept in balance with other rights and interests. In particular,
copyright law is a kind of "bargain" between rights owners and consumers.
Copyright, except in rare instances, is not perpetual, and there are a wide
range of fair use exceptions to copyright that limit its restraints. Without
these limits, copyright would soon become an oppressive burden on creativity
and freedom of expression. The Internet Society acknowledges these policy
considerations, but also believes that there are other even more persuasive
arguments, based on sound engineering and technological principles, that
show the folly of government mandated technology.
Technology mandates are inherently anti-innovative. The entire concept of a
mandate is that it freezes a particular technology at a point in time, and
inhibits research and development on new and better technology.
Technological standards are desirable and even necessary for widespread
implementation of new technology, but all standards sooner or later must
give way to new standards. This process should not be impeded by legislation
that effectively prohibits research and development.
A classic illustration of the dangers of DRM legislation may be found in
legislation enacted by many countries as part of their treaty obligations
under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) copyright
treaties. [For more, see the story, STATEMENT OF THE INTERNET SOCIETY ON DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT on this site.]
[Looks like mail-to-weblog is working. Yea!]
9:01:19 AM
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SCAM o RAMA presents The LADS From LAGOS, a Web site documenting the Nigerian E-mail Scam or Advance Fee Fraud.
Setting aside the writer's attempt to rob you and (going through the mental contortions necessary to take the letter at face value) to steal from his own country, the letters are funny. Read them out loud at parties and see. The 100+ letters below introduce the literary genre of the Lads from Lagos in a chronological way. Updates (above) focus on variety.
6:43:29 AM
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Ah, the August doldrums . . .
6:39:21 AM
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