Month: January 2003
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McGee on Magical Thinking
Jim McGee has some interesting thoughts on the problem of magical thinking, especially as manifested in policy discussions. (He also says some kind things about me. Thanks!)
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Register: Massive P2P Worm
Here’s one from the Don’t Believe Everything You Read Department. The Register credulously reports that an anonymous group called “Gobbles” was hired by the RIAA to create and release a worm that infects peer-to-peer networks. The story says that 95% of peer-to-peer connected hosts are infected, and that the worm reports back the contents of…
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RIAA, Tech Leaders Agree on Status Quo
Ted Bridis at AP reports that the RIAA and at least one big tech-industry trade group will announce today that they have reached a “landmark consensus” on lobbying strategy. Essentially, both groups agree to support the legal status quo. The tech industries will join the RIAA in lobbying against consumer fair use measures like the…
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Another DMCA Attack on Interoperation
Chamberlain Group, a maker of garage door openers, has brought a DMCA suit against Skylink Technologies. Chamberlain makes garage door openers; Skylink makes remote controls that can interoperate with Chamberlain systems, i.e., if you have a Chamberlain opener, you can operate it with a Skylink remote. Chamberlain’s complaint is short on details, but their summary…
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Kling on Free Content
Arnold Kling, over at the free website TechCentralStation, offers an odd little op-ed arguing that free content is crap. Some of it is crap; but there’s a lot of great free content out there too. The beauty of the web is that you only have to read the stuff you want to read; and most…
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Are DVDs Copy-Protected?
Maximillian Dornseif at disLEXia wonders why people refer to CSS, the encryption scheme used on DVDs, as “copy protection.” He points out, correctly, that encryption by itself cannot prevent copying, since encrypted bits can be copied just as easily as unencrypted ones. He wonders, then, how CSS can be called an anti-piracy measure. The answer…
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Google Responds to SearchKing Suit
Google has filed a response to SearchKing’s lawsuit against it. James Grimmelmann at LawMeme has the definitive analysis of this lawsuit.
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Compulsory Licenses, and the Measurement Problem
At this week’s Future of Music conference, Terry Fisher of Harvard suggested yet another variation of compulsory licensing for online music. The basic idea is to slap a tax on computers, or on Net access, or on something else you need to get music online. Then the taxpayers can listen to all of the online…
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DMCA Used to Prevent Interoperation
Declan McCullagh at CNet news.com reports on a lawsuit filed by printer manufacturer Lexmark against Static Control (SC), a maker of toner cartridges for Lexmark printers. Lexmark wants to stop SC from making toner cartridges that work in Lexmark printers. The suit makes a novel and disturbing use of the DMCA anti-circumvention law. Here are…
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Hot Legislative Action
Declan McCullagh at news.com gives a rundown of the tech-regulation bills that are likely to be on the table in the new congressional session. Many familiar bills will be back. At least one anticopying technology mandate like the Hollings CBDTPA is likely to be proposed. Changes in committee membership may make a CBDTPA-like bill more…