Month: October 2002
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Fritz's Hit List #29
Today on Fritz’s Hit List: logic analyzers. These devices, which are standard equipment in electronics laboratories, record electrical signals in digital form, so they qualify for regulation as “digital media devices” under the Hollings CBDTPA. If the CBDTPA passes, any newly manufactured logic analyzers will have to incorporate government-approved copy restriction technology. Fight piracy –…
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Microsoft Decisions Tomorrow
Judge Kollar-Kotelly has announced that she will release her decisions in the Microsoft antitrust case tomorrow at 4:30 Eastern time.
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Intentia vs. Reuters: A (Slightly) Contrarian View
The recent dispute between Intentia and Reuters has gotten lots of online attention, most of it scornful of Intentia’s position. I think Intentia is wrong, but it’s a closer call than most online commentators seem to think. Here’s the factual background, as far as I can tell: Intentia, a Swedish company, prepared their earnings report,…
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Fritz's Real Hit List
Seth Finkelstein suggests that I should reexamine my “Fritz’s Hit List” feature in light of the “leeway” concept. Seth says, in effect, that it is possible, or at least it might be possible, to redefine the scope of the Hollings CBDTPA so that it covers “what 99.9% of the population uses for business or entertainment,”…
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Fritz's Hit List #28
Today on Fritz’s Hit List: cockpit voice recorders. These devices, which are part of an airplane’s “black box,” record the sounds audible in an plane’s cockpit, for forensic use in case of an accident. Newer recorders use digital storage, so they qualify for regulation as “digital media devices” under the Hollings CBDTPA. If the CBDTPA…
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Microsoft Decision Upcoming?
We’re still waiting for Judge Kollar-Kotelly to rule on the two outstanding issues in the Microsoft antitrust case: whether to approve the settlement between Microsoft, the DOJ, and the settling states; and what remedy to give the non-settling states. She is expected to rule simultaneously on both issues, and the ruling could come at any…
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How Much Progress?
Dan Gillmor quotes Ray Kurzweil as saying that: The rate of change … is accelerating exponentially. We are “doubling the paradigm shift rate” on a constant basis. This century will be the equivalent to 20,000 years of progress at today’s rate, and people don’t appreciate the implications of this. I have to admit that this…
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Too Stupid to Look the Other Way
David Weinberger explains the value of “leeway,” or small decisions not to enforce the rules in cases where enforcement wouldn’t be reasonable. Imagine that your mother were visiting your apartment, and she got sick, so you let her stay overnight because she wan’t well enough to travel home. If this happened, no reasonable landlord would…
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Wiley's Super-Worm
Brandon Wiley writes about the possibility of a “super-worm” that would use sophisticated methods to infect a large fraction of Internet hosts, and to maintain and evolve the infection over time. This is scary stuff. I have two comments to add. First, the worst case is probably even worse than Wiley suggests. His paper may…
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Wishful Thinking
In recent debates about copyright and technology, pro-regulation people have started using an interesting rhetorical tactic. Rather than trying to rebut challenges to the workability of their proposed solutions, they talk instead about how intensely they want their proposals to be workable. For example, my Fritz’s Hit List series points out a serious flaw in…