Author: Ed Felten
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Business Week: Internet is Evil
Business Week has an amazing article characterizing the Internet as a cesspool of crime and depravity. The article approvingly quotes somebody saying “[More than] 70% of all e-commerce is based on some socially unacceptable if not outright illegal activity.” To give you an idea of the tone, the main body of the article starts with…
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Who Controls Your PC?
One of the most interesting issues in technology today is the battle for control over users’ computers. Ray Ozzie offers some thoughts, and a nice tutorial.
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Misleading Term of the Week: "Broadcast Flag"
[This posting inaugurates a new feature. Each week I will dissect one widely used but misleading bit of terminology. See my previous posting on the term “piracy” for more on why terminology is important.] This week’s misleading term is “broadcast flag,” which is used by Hollywood to refer to a wide-ranging ban on video technologies…
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What's Up At CNet?
Declan McCullagh interviews Verizon lawyer Sarah Deutsch, over at CNet news.com. (Welcome back, Declan.) Verizon is taking the side of their customers, against Hollywood. But check out the headline: “Why telecoms fly the pirate flag” (on the front page) and “Why telecoms back the pirate cause” (on the article itself). The pirate flag? The pirate…
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Lessig on Software Copyright
Larry Lessig defends his view of the best copyright law for software. Lessig advocates that (1) software copyrights expire after ten years (but a new version of a program would acquire a new copyright), and (2) source code be put in escrow, to be released when the copyright expires. Whether you think the optimal term…
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Homeland Insecurity
Nice article by Charles Mann in the September 2002 issue of the The Atlantic, about Bruce Schneier and his opinions on homeland security. Bruce thinks insightfully about security, and is a great communicator as well. If you’re interested in computer security, Bruce’s CryptoGram newsletter is a must-read. Bruce says that much of the money and…
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SpamCop Responses
I received 59 responses to my SpamCop narrative. Because there are so many, I cannot respond individually to each one. Instead, I summarize below the major arguments raised by the messages. I give sample text from messages that asserted each argument, and I respond. This posting is rather long, and some readers may not be…
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SpamCop Responses
I have gotten plenty of email from SpamCop advocates in response to my previous posts. Due to a work-related deadline, it will take me several days to sort through them and post a response. I hope to have my response up here by the end of Monday.
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Have You Seen This Man?
Washington, DC police today intensified their search for missing news.com reporter and columnist Declan McCullagh, as evidence of his disappearance mounted. Police spokesman Harvey Hoax explained, “We believed initially that Declan was submitting his columns from an unknown location, but further examination of the columns revealed that they must have been written by someone else.”…
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Response to Declan's DMCA Piece
Declan McCullagh misses the boat at least twice in his August 19th column concerning the potential impact on computer science research of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [“Debunking DMCA myths,” c|net News.Com, http://news.com.com/2010-12-950229.html]. First, the DMCA has two arms: one that prohibits devices that circumvent copy protection, and one that prohibits acts of circumvention. The…