Month: March 2003
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Super-DMCA Already Law in Several States
Louis Trager at the Washington Internet Daily reports that Super-DMCA bills have already passed in several states: The low-profile lobbying effort was under way about 2 years before it burst into the open in recent days. Legislation supported by MPAA was enacted in [Delaware] and [Maryland] in 2001 and in [Illinois], [Michigan] and [Virginia] last…
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Intent and the Super-DMCAs
Most of the reponses to my super-DMCA postings have been supportive, but a few people have disagreed. Some of the disagreements say, essentially, that there is no problem, because the bills are intended as anti-piracy measures, to prevent people from using cable, phone, or wireless service without paying. (Let me put any doubts to rest…
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NYT on Concealing Origin of Communications
Thursday’s New York Times ran an article by Thomas J. Fitzgerald about how to protect your privacy on-line. Here is an excerpt: The tools and techniques that can be used to strengthen online privacy range from ways of masking your computer’s identity as you surf the Web to software for managing cookies to services that…
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Super-DMCA Page Available
I have created a page at http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/superdmca.html with information about the state Super-DMCA bills and laws. I will update the page with status information as it comes in, and later with information about efforts to help educate lawmakers about this issue.
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Super-DMCA Already Passed in Michigan
Alert reader Larry Blunk reports that the state of Michigan has already passed a set of super-DMCA laws. They will take effect on March 31. Here is the text of the three new laws: 1, 2, 3. The ban on concealing the origin or destination of communications, whose drawbacks I had pointed out previously, is…
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Intent Requirements in the State Super-DMCA Bills
Several readers point out that the state super-DMCA bills contain language requiring an “intent to harm or defraud a communications service”, and they suggest that such a requirement makes the bills less harmful than I had said yesterday. I disagree, for two reasons. First, although some of the offenses created by the bills do require…
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MPAA Lobbying for State Super-DMCA Bills
The MPAA has reportedly been lobbying in favor of the overreaching state super-DMCA bills I discussed yesterday. Apparently, the MPAA has been circulating this one-pager in support of the bills. The one-pager refers to “proposed model state legislation”, which explains the similarities between the various states’ bills. But it doesn’t say who is circulating the…
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Use a Firewall, Go to Jail
The states of Massachusetts and Texas are preparing to consider bills that apparently are intended to extend the national Digital Millennium Copyright Act. (TX bill; MA bill) The bills are obviously related to each other somehow, since they are textually similar. Here is one example of the far-reaching harmful effects of these bills. Both bills…
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Finkelstein Replies on ARDG and the Press
Seth Finkelstein replies to my previous posting on companies’ press policies by suggesting that companies are rational to keep their engineers away from the press, because of concerns about being unfairly misquoted. I can see his point, by I think hatchet-job stories are pretty rare in the respectable media, and I also think that most…
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NRC Report on Authentication Technology and Privacy
The authoritative National Research Council has issued an important new report entitled “Who Goes There?: Authentication Through the Lens of Privacy.” Like all NRC reports, this is an in-depth document reflecting the consensus of an impressive panel of experts. Often people think of authorization (that is, ensuring that only authorized people get access to a…