Category: Uncategorized
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Velvet Revolver Album Not DRMed in Japan
I wrote recently about the Velvet Revolver album that is “protected” by SunnComm ‘s ineffectual CD anti-copying technology. The technology was doomed to fail – and has in fact failed – to keep the music off the popular P2P filesharing systems. It turns out that things are even weirder than I had thought: the very…
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Computer Ate My Vote Day
Tomorrow, July 13, is “Computer Ate My Vote Day”. Rallies will be held in many states across the U.S, to ask state officials to use safe and reliable voting technologies. I’ll be speaking at the New Jersey rally, at noon on the steps of the State House in Trenton.
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Security Theater
Lots of people are telling airport-security stories these days. Thus far I have refrained from doing so, even though I travel a lot, because I think the TSA security screeners generally do a good job. But last week I saw something so dumb that I just have to share it. I’m in the security-checkpoint line…
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WSJ Political Diary on INDUCE Act
Yesterday’s “Political Diary” at the Wall Street Journal’s online OpinionJournal had a nice little piece on Sen. Hatch’s IICA (a.k.a. INDUCE Act). (Access to subscribers only, unfortunately.) The piece, written by David Robinson, notes that Sen. Hatch, who had previously urged vigorous action against music downloaders, even suggesting “destroying their machines,” has now changed his…
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Fancy DRM For Academy Screeners?
Movie studios are considering an elaborate DRM scheme to limit copying of promotional “screener” videos distributed to Academy Award voters, according to an AP story by Gary Gentile. The article’s description of the scheme is a bit confusing, but I think I can reconstruct how it works. The studios would distribute a special new DVD…
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Monoculture Debate: Geer vs. Charney
Yesterday the USENIX Conference featured a debate between Dan Geer and Scott Charney about whether operating-system monoculture is a threat to computer security. (Dan Geer is a prominent security expert who co-wrote last year’s CCIA report on the monoculture program, and was famously fired by @Stake for doing so. Scott Charney was previously a cybercrime…
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USENIX Panel
Today I’ll be speaking on a panel at the USENIX Conference in Boston, on “The Politicization of [Computer] Security.” The panel is 10:30-noon, Eastern time. The other panelists are Jeff Grove (ACM), Gary McGraw (Cigital), and Avi Rubin (Johns Hopkins). If you’re attending the panel, feel free to provide real-time narration/feedback/discussion in the comments section…
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Victims of Spam Filtering
Eric Rescorla wrote recently about three people who must have lots of trouble getting their email through spam filters: Jose Viagra, Julia Cialis, and Josh Ambien. I feel especially sorry for poor Jose, who through no fault of his own must get nothing but smirks whenever he says his name. Anyway, this reminded me of…
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"Tech" Lobbyists Slow to Respond to Dangerous Bills
Dan Gillmor, among others, bemoans the lack of effective lobbying by technology companies. Exhibit A is their weak and disorganized response to various bills, such as the Hatch INDUCE/IICA Act, that would give the movie and music industries veto power over the development of new technology. It’s true that large tech companies have been slow…
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Minimum Age for Pro Basketball?
Yesterday was the NBA draft. In the first round, eight high school seniors were taken, and only five college seniors. (The rest were overseas players and college underclassmen.) The very first pick was a high school senior, chosen over a very accomplished college player. You have to be 16 to drive. You have to be…