Monday, June 20, 2005

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Four from BNA News: CANADIAN PAY RADIO DECISION A NEW ERA IN CANCON REQUIREMENTS My regular Law Bytes columns looks at last week's Canadian decision to license three pay radio networks. The column argues that the Canadian regulator made the best of a bad hand and delivered a policy approach that prioritizes Canadian artists by adapting Canadian content requirements to emerging new technologies. The column applauds the CRTC's decision to avoid the temptation of picking winners and its rejection of the music industry's demand for anti-copying technologies. Pay radio decision at http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/NEWS/RELEASES/2005/r050616.htm Freely available hyperlinked version at http://www.michaelgeist.ca/resc/html_bkup/june202005.html Toronto Star (reg required) version at http://geistpayradiodecision.notlong.com/ U.S. SUPREME CT. GROKSTER DECISION MAY COME TODAY Perhaps as soon as today, the US Supreme Court will issue its decision in the Grokster casek one of the most closely watched legal battles of the year. http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5752012.html http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/20/business/20link.html EU LAWMAKERS POISED TO VOTE ON PATENT BILL As EU lawmakers head for a showdown over new rules on patenting inventions, a key vote this week reflects a lack of consensus. Member states and the European Parliament are looking at a bill on patenting inventions that use software. The bill's sponsor, French socialist Michel Rocard, has pleased people who want minimal patenting, but liberal and center right parties want a broader scope. A source in the center-right EPP party bloc, which is the largest grouping on the legal affairs committee, said Friday that Rocard‚s version of the legislation is "still largely unacceptable." http://news.com.com/2100-1014_3-5751555.html PRIVACY CONCERNS WITH GOOGLE LIBRARY SEARCH A contract between Google and the University of Michigan released publicly on Friday contains no provisions for protecting the privacy of people who will eventually be able to search the school's vast library collection over the Internet. A Google spokesman said that Google Print does not require users to share any personally identifiable information. http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5752085.html 9:30:52 AM    comment []

hoder: Things are really getting nasty here. After Karrubi's unbelievably blunt letter to the Supreme Leader, everything is suddenly changing. All non-fundamentalists are rallying behind Rafsanjani. Many are talking about a possible coup by Sepah and Basij after Friday's second round results. It's also rumoured ( now confirmed ) that Eqbal and Aftab, pro-reform newspapers, were seizes in the printing house last night after they published full text of the letter. Karrubi for the first time has publically challenged the Supreme Leader and has accused his son of paving the way for an unexpectedly high vote for Ahmadinejad. As for my own self, I've been advised to stay in Tehran for a couple of more days. But I have to attend a conference in London on Wednesday and if I can't get there by then, it'll be a huge risk staying in Iran. Stay tuned. 8:30:51 AM    comment []

Microsoft clones BitTorrent, by Matt Whipp, PC Pro (UK). Software giant Microsoft is developing an alternative to BitTorrent, the high-speed p2p software driving the sharing of video through broadband connections. The twist is that with the Microsoft version, code-named Avalanche, downloading will not be possible without a 'publisher's certificate'. In other words, it will have built in DRM technology. Trials next year, it says. The description of the technique for speeding transfers doesn't immediately impress me as likely to succeed. Maybe we'll get some independent, head-to-head trial data when testing begins. And maybe I'll get my jet pack. 6:47:04 AM    comment []

Botnet Hunters Search for 'Command and Control' Servers, by Ryan Naraine, eWeek. Convinced that the recent upswing in virus and Trojan attacks is directly linked to the creation of botnets for nefarious purposes, a group of high-profile security researchers is fighting back, vigilante-style. . . . "The idea is to share information and figure out where the botnets are getting their instructions from. Once we can identify the command-and-control server, we can act quickly to get it disabled. Once the head goes, that botnet is largely useless," said Roger Thompson, director of malicious content research at Computer Associates International Inc. Thompson, a veteran anti-virus researcher closely involved in the effort, said the group includes more than 100 computer experts (unofficially) representing anti-virus vendors, ISPs, educational institutions and dynamic DNS providers internationally. . . . Using data from IP flows passing through routers and reverse-engineering tools to peek under the hood of new Trojans, Thompson said the researchers are able to figure out how the botnet owner sends instructions to the compromised machines. "Once we get our hands on the Trojan or we get one of our own machines compromised, we can easily observe what it's doing and which server it is talking to," he said. "We started off trying to pinpoint the individual drones and getting those shut off, but that approach hasn't worked. As soon as you clean one up, it is replaced by another 20 or 100. We had to shift the focus toward the command-and-control." . . . Thor Larholm, senior security researcher at PivX Solutions LLC, said Vaughn's data is a good indication of the scale of the botnet problem. Larholm, who also participates in the vigilante initiative, said the detection of new infections and C&Cs are leading to "active cooperation" between researchers and ISPs. "A key part is to work with the ISPs to shut down Internet access to these compromised machines. A lot of the problem-solving lies in hands of ISPs, and sometimes they can be slow-moving." 5:46:55 AM    comment []