CITP Blog - Formerly Freedom to Tinker

Month: March 2003

  • Too Late

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    Julian Bigelow, who was chief engineer on the IAS computer (the architectural forerunner of today’s machines) died about three weeks ago at the age of 89. Today I learned where he had lived. For the last seven years I sat at the breakfast table each morning and looked out at the red house behind mine.…

  • Grimmelmann on the Berkeley DRM Conference

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    James Grimmelmann at LawMeme offers a typically insightful and entertaining summary of the recent Berkeley DRM Conference. Here’s my favorite part: And thus, the sixty-four dollar question: Is any of this [DRM technology] really going to work? The question tends to come up about once per panel; most of the panelists do their best to…

  • Reader Replies on Congestion and the Commons

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    Thanks to all of the readers who responded to my query about why the Internet’s congestion control mechanisms aren’t destroyed by selfish noncompliance. Due to the volume of responses, I can’t do all of you credit here, but I’ll do my best to summarize. Jordan Lampe, Grant Henninger, and David Spalding point out that “Internet…

  • Congestion Control and the Tragedy of the Commons

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    I have been puzzling lately over why the Internet’s congestion control mechanisms work. They are a brilliant bit of engineering, but they fail utterly to account for the incentives of the Internet’s users. By any rational analysis, they ought to fail spectacularly, causing the Net to grind to a halt. And yet, for some unfathomable…

  • Standards vs. Regulation

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    The broadcast flag “debate” never ceases to amaze me. It’s a debate about technology, but in forum after forum the participants are all lawyers. And it takes place in a weird reality distortion field where certain technological non sequiturs pass for unchallenged truth. One of these is that the broadcast flag is a technical “standard.”…

  • Keeping Honest People Honest

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    At today’s House committee hearing on the broadcast flag, Fritz Attaway of the MPAA used a popular (and revealing) argument: the purpose of the broadcast flag is “to keep honest people honest.” This phrase is one of my pet peeves, since it reflects sloppy thinking about security. The first problem with “keeping honest people honest”…

  • Lexmark Opinion Available

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    The Court’s opinion in the Lexmark case is now available. Here’s a summary. (Caveat: I’m inferring some of the technical details, since all I have is the Court’s summary of what the expert witnesses said; but I’m fairly confident that my inferences are correct.) Toner cartridges for certain Lexmark printers contain small computer programs that…

  • Static Control Countersues Lexmark

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    Static Control, a maker of replacement toner cartridge supplies for Lexmark-brand printers, has added antitrust claims to a lawsuit against Lexmark, reports an AP story by Paul Nowell. Lexmark had sued Static Control for copyright infringement and DMCA violations, after Static Control sold chips that allow non-Lexmark toner cartridges to work in Lexmark printers. Recently…

  • Broadcast Flag Blues

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    The FCC recently accepted reply comments on its broadcast flag proposal. I submitted a written comment, pointing out that some technical claims made by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) in their comments were spectacularly wrong. [Background: The FCC, which regulates television broadcasting, asked for public comments on whether to issue “broadcast flag” regulations.…