Thursday, September 04, 2003

Microsoft releases Windows Rights Management client. Microsoft this week made available the first product in its digital rights management strategy that was announced back in February. [InfoWorld: Top News] 9:06:49 PM    comment []

The End of Chocolate (as a Chocolatier Knows It). The European Union has ruled that chocolate can contain some vegetable fats, and the French just can't swallow that. By John Tagliabue. [New York Times: Business] 9:04:52 PM    comment []

More from Andrew: The American Prospect's weblog TAPPED has, among other great entries, one pointing out that while Bustamente has been associated with a radical, potentially-seperatist Hispanic group, Tom DeLay and George W. Bush haven't disavowed the 2000 Texas Republican Party platform, which calls for revoking the 16th Amendment, quitting the UN, taking back the Panama Canal to, among other reasons, "prevent the establishment of Chinese missile bases in Panama", the abolition of the Departments of Commerce, Labor, Education, HHS, HUD, and Energy, and other far-right nuttiness. That's a little bit more directly distasteful than anything even vaguelly connected to Bustamante, if you ask me. Oh, some other fun stuff from that platform - opposition to electronic eavesdropping by the government, a call to stop gathering personal information on American citizens, and a call for a repeal of the Federal War Powers Act, because a "perpetual state of national emergency allows unrestricted growth of government". Ironic, innit? 7:45:40 PM    comment []

Oh, great. eEye Digital Security reports on a Microsoft WordPerfect Document Converter Buffer Overflow. The Microsoft Word "WordPerfect" document converter included in Microsoft Word has a buffer overflow bug. If the WordPerfect document converter is installed (by default it is in Office 2000) and a malicious .doc file is opened, there exists the ability for an attacker to execute arbitrary code. This buffer overflow bug can also happen within Internet Explorer, because Microsoft Word is executed automatically as a helper-application when a .doc file is received. This buffer overflow overwrites the return address in the stack area. We confirmed that arbitrary code can be executed by using this buffer overflow bug. Microsoft was notified on May 6, 2003, and has released a patch for this vulnerability. The patch is available at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-036.asp I await the arrival in my comments of another "You always blame Microsoft" rant. 3:24:32 PM    comment []

French court says anti-copy music CDs are faulty: consumer body (AFP) A French court has ruled that music compact discs which include functions to prevent copying amount to faulty goods and that buyers must be reimbursed, the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir said. The court made its decision on Tuesday on the basis of a CD produced by EMI France of a song by the French singer Alain Suchon entitled, ironically given the judgement, "J'veux du live" (I want it live). French court orders EMI to refund buyer (Sydney Morning-Herald). EMI was given the option of providing the woman a copy which would play in her car equipment. The court order applies to all those who have bought discs which they find themselves unable to play, the report said. However, the court did not ban EMI from selling the copy- protected discs. It said that EMI should not sell defective discs. The woman was supported by the French consumer rights body, UFC, which plans to lodge an appeal against the court decision not to ban copy protection. The UFC has two other cases pending - one against Warner Music France over a a copy- protected Phil Collins music disc and the other against Universal Pictures Video over the copy protection on a DVD of Mulholland Drive, the report said. 12:24:03 PM    comment []

Sunbear's Reasons to Vote George Bush Out of Office. 11:24:02 AM    comment []

Four from BNA Internet Law News: APPELLATE COURT BLOCKS FCC MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES A U.S. federal court of appeal has issued an order blocking the FCC from imposing new media ownership rules that would allow large media companies to dramatically increase the size of their holdings. The decision apparently came as surprise to both the FCC and to the plaintiffs who brought the action as a longshot attempt to stop the implementation of the rules which had been scheduled to take effect today. Petition at http://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/staymotion/Petition.htm Order at http://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/staymotion/e59o090303.pdf Coverage at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/business/media/04FCC.html THAI WEBMASTER COMPLAINS OVER CENSORSHIP OF SITE A Thai webmaster whose site featured pictures of Thai police in tight uniforms has complained over police efforts to block access to his site. The man says that he was not informed that his site would be added to a list of censored sites and that it was unfair to block the full site rather than the offending content. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/04/1062548933223.html ITUNES DOWNLOADER PUTS SONG FOR SALE ON EBAY In a move that could spark a novel legal test of Internet music resale rights, George Hotelling of Michigan has put a digital song he purchased online at Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store up for auction on eBay. Hotelling said he is using the attempted sale to probe some difficult consumer issues stemming from commercial online music services, in particular, technology known as digital rights management that is used to prevent unauthorized copying. With the auction set to end Sept. 9, the price on the song, which he bought for 99 cents, had gone up to $100,100 as of Thursday morning. Coverage at http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5071108.html THE ONION'S TAKE ON DOMAIN NAME DISPUTE RESOLUTION The Onion provides a terrific parody article on domain name dispute resolution which hits very close to home in light of recent cases. http://www.theonion.com/current_news1.html 11:23:55 AM    comment []

26,000-Hit Wonder Keeps It Hopping. An East Village bar contains a jukebox with the biggest selection of songs in the world. How? The music is encoded as MP3's. By Johanna Jainchill. [New York Times: Technology] 7:17:18 AM    comment []

OJR interviews on the 10th anniversary of the Web. [Scripting News] 7:15:27 AM    comment []

The No-Frills Middle Class. Necessities, not luxuries, are driving Americans into debt, a new book says. By Jeff Madrick. [New York Times: Business] 7:13:46 AM    comment []

R.I.P., Donald Davidson. 7:10:48 AM    comment []

Court Blocks FCC Media Regs. U.S. federal court judges grant a stay order that prevents the new Federal Communications Commission media ownership rules from taking effect. The ruling marks the latest skirmish in the battle over media market reforms. [Wired News] 7:07:27 AM    comment []