Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Crime-Facilitating Speech. Interesting law-review article on crime-facilitating speech. [Schneier on Security] 10:21:06 PM    comment []

Times-Picayune weblog Pulitzer update. When I made the statement that the Times-Picayune Breaking news weblog deserves a Pulitzer, I really meant it, but didn't think it was possible. Jeff Jarvis has used his mighty blog and now, his Media Guardian column to second my nomination. And now, Mark Glaser at OJR, has checked in with the Pulitzer folks to see if it's possible. And apparently, it is, if the Pulitzer Board wants to make one-time exceptions to the rule. Mark observes, "If ever there was a case for an exception to the rules, this would be it." Mark's story also provides some great background on the work of the NOLA.com efforts, which continue to be extraordinary. [rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog] 10:19:33 PM    comment []

Kids: Understand the USPTO's reality distortion field (Wendy Seltzer). Robyn alerts me to the USPTO's kids' pages, where they've posted a colorful -- but sharply slanted -- "Put a stop to piracy" campaign. We thought it needed a bit of annotation to help kids understand (red from the USPTO page, black mine): CAN YOU TELL WHAT'S WRONG? ... You hook up a VCR to your DVD player and make copies of your movie collections as gifts for your pals. Sorry. You try to hook the two together but Macrovision prevents you from getting a clear picture, even when the movies you want to copy are no longer in print or you're trying to extract scenes to add to commentaries. You probably won't be able to find a macrovision-less VCR, because Macrovision has been suing their makers for patent infringement. You capture pictures from TV shows and post them on your website along with soundbytes that make you laugh. Great, you've got a pre-broadcast-flag TV setup that lets you make fair use of media. Hold onto it, because if Hollywood and the FCC have their way, you'll be technologically prevented from grabbing these captures in the future. A "soundbyte" sounds ok, just remember that a sound-gigabyte probably exceeds fair use. You buy a fake pair of designer shoes from a street vendor - they look like the real thing and cost only a few dollars. Cool, so long as they weren't made by sweatshop labor and you weren't deceived into thinking you'd bought real designer merchandise. You've just saved yourself a bundle and helped the free market. Fashion designs aren't copyrightable, and trademark protects only against consumer confusion. Can you spot others? Remember, kids, "these laws and regulations as well as the application process can be very complicated." [Copyfight] 10:17:43 PM    comment []

Podcasting a story of tech survival. The ultimate DIY IT story, and our first IT Garage podcast gives some background for IT Garage's first podcast, produced by IT Conversations. It's Surviving Katrina with DirectNIC, a talk with 'Sig' Solares, whose crew kept DirectNIC going thoughout Hurricane Katrina and its horrendous aftermath — deep in the heart of New Orleans, where approximately nothing else was working. Big thanks to Doug Kaye and IT Conversations for stepping up, recording and producing the 'cast. Looking forward to more in the series this one inaugurates. And thanks as well to Michael Barnett and his blog Interdictor, which provided a lifeline of news, tech support and much more, through the whole prolonged event. [The Doc Searls Weblog] 10:12:44 PM    comment []

Venezuelan ambassador offers trade options here. Free trade between Venezuela and the United States and oil exports were the hot topics of discussion when the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States spoke in the Winifred Moore Auditorium Sept. 9. SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO: PRESIDENT OF INDONESIA VISITS WEBSTER. Despite morning classes being canceled Sept. 12, the Webster University campus was active all morning as people filed through the security and into the Loretto-Hilton Center for a visit from Indonesian President and Webster alumnus Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. [The Journal] 10:12:32 PM    comment []

From BNA News: LAWMAKER CALLS FOR MUSIC COPYRIGHT REFORM Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, said at the Future of Music Policy Summit in Washington that legal music-download services will not be able to compete fully with their free counterparts until copyright law changes. He said the remedy lies in a congressional rewrite of portions of copyright law that govern licensing and royalty fees and make it cumbersome for legal download services to add material to their inventories. 11:51:56 AM    comment []

No Heat Doesn't Mean No Sweat. One cook finds that a raw-food diet can still be quite a challenge. By JULIE POWELL. [NYT > Dining and Wine] 7:33:11 AM    comment []

Nuclear preemption. From the American Conservative's Deep Background (Philip Geraldi, former CIA officer): In Washington it is hardly a secret that the same people in and around the administration who brought you Iraq are preparing to do the same for Iran. The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections. Ah, humans.  Such a noble species. Indeed, deep background isn't needed to see the mushroom cloud on the wall: WASHINGTON - Amid increasing tension between the United States and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program, and growing concern about overstretched US ground forces, the George W Bush administration is moving steadily toward adopting the preemptive use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states as an integral part of its global military strategy. According to a March document by the Joint Chiefs of Staff that was recently posted to the Pentagon's website, Washington will not necessarily wait for potential adversaries to use what it calls "weapons of mass destruction" before resorting to a nuclear strike against them. The document, entitled "Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations", has yet to be approved by Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, according to an account published in Sunday's Washington Post. However, it is largely consistent with the administration's 2002 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which was widely assailed by arms control advocates for lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons by the US. "What we see as significant is that they are considering using nuclear weapons against non-nuclear powers in preemptive first strikes," Ivan Oelrich, of the Federation for American Scientists (FAS), said about the NPR and the new doctrine. The doctrine would also appear to contradict the administration's oft-stated claim that it is significantly reducing the role of nuclear weapons in its global military strategy. "The new doctrine reaffirms an aggressive nuclear posture of modernized nuclear weapons maintained on high alert," Hans Kristensen, of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), wrote last week in Arms Control Today magazine. "The new doctrine's approach grants regional nuclear-strike planning an increasingly expeditionary aura that threatens to make nuclear weapons just another tool in the toolbox. "The result is nuclear preemption, which the new doctrine enshrines into official US joint nuclear doctrine for the first time, where the objective no longer is deterrence through threatened retaliation but battlefield destruction of targets." Confirmation: the spin has already begun. [Leiter Reports: Guest Bloggers Benjamin Hellie and Jessica Wilson, Sept. 12-16] 7:32:42 AM    comment []

Google Gets All Neener-Neener-Neener On Microsoft. Google has an entry in their blog discussing the fact that Dr. Kai-Fu Lee can get working for them despite some legal action from Microsoft. I'm surprised about two things: first that Google's 'blog is staying so busy, and second that they're willing to publicly discuss employee litigation in it. Not something you usually see big corporations falling all over themselves to discuss. I suspect their willingess to talk about employee issues does have some limits though (>cough cough MARK JEN cough<) Anyway, Google's 'blog entry is at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/judge-clears-way-for-dr-lee.html . Needless to say Microsoft has their own viewpoint on this which you can catch at The Washington Post. "Tom Burt, Microsoft's deputy general counsel for litigation, said the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant had succeeded in severely restricting Lee's activities and use of corporate secrets. He said Google was paying Lee $10 million to head its China operations even though he could actually do very little of substance in light of the ruling." I wonder if they'll really keep hashing this out publicly? Weird. [ResearchBuzz] 7:29:49 AM    comment []

New Approach From Gap to Cut Down on Clicks. Gap Inc. recently shut down its Web sites while it worked on the "too many clicks" problem. By BOB TEDESCHI. [NYT > Technology] 7:29:16 AM    comment []

Open Internet, We Hardly Knew Ye. The online response to Hurricane Katrina demonstrates the power of a fast and flexible web. So why are judges and lawmakers strangling the internet in red tape? Commentary by Jennifer Granick. [Wired News] 7:26:16 AM    comment []

Three from BNA News: SINGAPORE CHARGES TWO BLOGGERS WITH SEDITION Two Singaporean bloggers have been charged with sedition for posting racist comments online. This is the first time bloggers are being charged in Singapore and it is sending shockwaves through the local blogging community. Lawyers say the last time the sedition act was invoked in Singapore was at least 10 years ago. MISTAKEN CHILD-PORN RAID LEADS TO LAWSUIT A Kansas couple is suing their ISP, Cox Communications, after police showed up at their Wichita home accusing them of child pornography. The police apparently had the wrong house, based on mistaken information from the ISP. The suit is for invasion of privacy, breach of contract, defamation of character, and "outrageous conduct." NOVELL SAYS VISTA WILL DRIVE USERS TO LINUX Novell CEO Jack Messman says that the cost of migrating from Windows XP to Windows Vista will encourage more companies to seriously consider moving to desktop Linux. Messman added that moving to desktop Linux has functionality benefits as well as cost benefits. He claimed that the fact that Novell's desktop Linux offering has less functionality than Microsoft Office is actually a positive rather than a negative thing. 6:51:09 AM    comment []