Year: 2002
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Fritz's Hit List #13
Today on Fritz’s Hit List: Hallmark’s “Circus Mountain Railroad” Christmas ornament. (To see it, go to Hallmark’s website and search for “circus”.) This ornament plays “Jingle Bells,” apparently from a digital recording, so the ornament qualifies for regulation as a “digital media device” under the Hollings CBDTPA. If the CBDTPA passes, any newly manufactured song-playing…
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Two From Steven Levy
Two very nice articles by Steven Levy in the latest Newsweek. The first, I Was a Wi-Fi Freeloader, discusses the law and ethics of using open wireless networks. (I wrote about this topic previously.) The second, Glitterati vs. Geeks, is about the Eldred case.
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D-Day For Eldred
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court hears oral argument in Eldred v. Ashcroft, the lawsuit challenging the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, a law that added twenty years onto the life of every current and new copyright. Larry Lessig will argue for Eldred, and Ted Olson, the U.S. Solicitor General, will argue for the government. The…
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Fritz's Hit List #12
Today on Fritz’s Hit List: the Big Red Shearling Bone. This dog toy lets you record a short message to your pet, to be replayed later when you aren’t around. Because the messages are apparently stored in digital form, this device qualifies for regulation as a “digital media device” under the Hollings CBDTPA. If the…
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Discovery vs. Creation
Last week I had yet another DMCA debate, this time at the Chicago International Intellectual Property Conference. Afterward, I had an interesting conversation with Kathy Strandburg of DePaul Law School, about the different mindsets of DMCA supporters and opponents. DMCA supporters seem to think of security technology as reflecting the decisions of its creators, while…
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Fritz's Hit List #11
Today on Fritz’s Hit List: <a href="Today on Fritz's Hit List: recordable talking picture frames. These picture frames record a short message, to be replayed later on demand. Because the messages are stored in digital form, these picture frames qualify for regulation as “digital media devices” under the Hollings CBDTPA. If the CBDTPA passes, any…
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Postings Resume This Afternoon
I’m back from an interesting trip, which gave me lots of material for posting but not much time to actually post. Regular postings will resume this afternoon, including a double dose of Fritz’s Hit List.
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LawMeme's "Law School in a Nutshell"
LawMeme is running a wonderful continuing feature, written by James Grimmelmann, to teach non-lawyers, and especially techies, how to read a legal brief: Future lawyers spend three years in law school learning how to read and write legalese, but what serious geek has that kind of time to spare? This series will cover the basics…
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Garfinkel on Wireless Tags
Simson Garfinkel has an interesting short article in Technology Review about wireless tags. He advocates a sort of consumers’ bill of rights, that would protect people against being observed or tracked against their will. Wireless tags are an important and potentially scary technology. As I’ve written before, I think we need more discussion of their…
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Fritz's Hit List #10
Today on Fritz’s Hit List: the remote controlled fart machine. When a remote control is pressed, this device emits one of five prerecorded fart noises. Because these noises are stored in digital form, the device qualifies for regulation as a “digital media device” under the Hollings CBDTPA. If the CBDTPA passes, any newly manufactured fart…