CITP Blog - Formerly Freedom to Tinker

Month: February 2003

  • Too. Much. Snow.

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    This is one of the heaviest snows in recent memory here in Princeton. At least two feet have fallen at my house, and it’s still coming down hard. Up and down the street everybody is out shoveling. Nobody is going anywhere today; the traffic cameras on ever-busy Route One show nothing but snowplows.

  • Biology Journals to Withhold Research

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    Sunday’s Washington Post published an AP article by Joseph B. Verrengia, detailing plans by journal editors to “Excise Material That Could Be Used by Militants to Help Make Biological Weapons.” Many prominent journals will participate, including “Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet. “…

  • Voting: Is Low-Tech the Way to Go?

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    Karl-Friedrich Lenz, in reply to my previous e-voting posting, sings the praises of old-fashioned paper ballots, citing a Glenn Reynolds column. I agree with Lenz and Reynolds about the virtues of simple paper ballots that ask the voter to draw an X in the box next to their candidate’s name. Paper ballots are easy for…

  • IEEE Wants DMCA "Clarified"

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    Several writers on Slashdot and in blogland have applauded IEEE’s new position on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. (IEEE is a professional society for electrical engineers.) It’s good to see that IEEE is finally waking up to this issue. Other professional societies, including ACM and CRA, have been on top of it for a long…

  • Computer Scientists' Campaign for Trustworthy E-Voting

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    Many computer scientists (including me) have endorsed a statement opposing the use of electronic voting machines that don’t provide a voter-verifiable audit trail. What this means is that the voter should get some concrete indication, other than just a message on a computer screen, that his or her vote has been recorded correctly. There are…

  • Comments on the Proposed Encryption Penalties

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    A new anti-terrorism bill criminalizes some uses of encryption: Sec. 2801. Unlawful use of encryption (a) Any person who, during the commission of a felony under Federal law, knowingly and willfully encrypts any incriminating communication or information relating to that felony – (1) in the case of a first offense under this section, shall be…

  • CCIA Files Antitrust Complaint against Microsoft

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    The Computer and Communications Industry Association, a trade group, has filed a lengthy antitrust complaint against Microsoft with European authorities. The complaint centers on allegedly anticompetitive aspects of Windows XP. Here is an AP story; here is CCIA’s summary of the complaint. According to CCIA, they are accusing Microsoft of: Bundling multiple Microsoft products with…

  • Terrorist Website Hoaxer Responds

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    Brian McWilliams, who perpetrated the terrorist website hoax I wrote about yesterday, has now posted his response, including a quasi-apology. [Link credit: Politech]

  • Static Control Files for DMCA Exemption

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    I wrote previously about the lawsuit filed by printer maker Lexmark against Static Control, a maker of toner cartridge remanufacturing parts. Lexmark claims that Static Control is violating the DMCA by making toner cartridges that do what is necessary to work in Lexmark printers. The Copyright Office has allowed Static Control to file a late…

  • Terrorist Website Hoax

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    This one leaves me speechless. According to a fascinating story over at ComputerWorld, tech journalist Brian McWilliams has admitted to running a hoax website that claimed to be the site of a scary real-world terrorist group. He even arranged to have the fake site “defaced” by (fictitious) anti-terrorist hackers, and he created a hoax message…