Category: Uncategorized
-
A View from DMP World
The “6th General Assembly of the Digital Media Project” recently released a set of documents “providing an Interoperable DRM Platform”. I’ve written before about the self-contradictory nature of their goal (A Perfectly Compatible Form of Incompatibility). Now we get to see how they plan to achieve the goal. And I have to say, the documents…
-
Fear-to-Peer, Art and Science at Princeton
“Fear-to-Peer at Princeton: A Debate about Filesharing on Campus” will be held Friday, May 6, at 3:30 P.M., in Friend Center 101 on the Princeton campus. (directions) Dean Garfield, VP and Director of Legal Affairs at the MPAA, will square off against Wendy Seltzer, an intellectual property attorney with the EFF. I’ll be the moderator.…
-
Frist Filibuster
Last night about 9:30 I was walking across campus, and I came across the Frist filibuster, an event that had until then existed only in the media for me, even though it has been going on for nearly a week, no more than 500 yards from my office. The filibuster is a clever bit of…
-
Mobile Network Providers Flirt with (Self-)Regulation
Mobile phone networks in the U.S. are developing a rating and filtering system to apply to content on their networks, according to a Reuters story by Antony Bruno. The Federal Communications Commission oversees the distribution of wireless spectrum to U.S. operators, and wireless carriers do not want the [FCC’s] indecency campaign against radio, TV and…
-
New ClipBlog Site
My clipblog has moved to DashLog, a new clipblogging site. My clipblog gives quick pointers to interesting sites or pages, with only minimal commentary. It’s designed as a complement to this blog. New addresses for my clipblog: HTML: http://www.dashlog.com/logs/tinker RSS: http://www.dashlog.com/dash/feed.php?log=tinker
-
U.S. Considering Wireless Passport Protection
The U.S. government is “taking a very serious look” at improving privacy protection for the new wireless-readable passports, according to an official quoted in a great article by Kim Zetter at Wired News. Many people, including me, have worried about the privacy implications of having passports that are readable at a distance. The previously proposed…
-
Recommended Reading
Following the lead of other bloggers, I’ll be writing occasionally to recommend books or articles that I found interesting. Today, I’m recommending two books that could hardly be more different in topic and tone. The 9/11 Commission Report This book was a real surprise. I started reading from a sense of obligation, but I was…
-
Berkeley to victims of personal data theft: "Our bad"
Last week I and 98,000 other lucky individuals received the following letter: University of California, Berkeley Graduate Division Berkeley, California 94720-5900 Dear John Alexander Halderman: I am writing to advise you that a computer in the Graduate Division at UC Berkeley was stolen by an as-yet unidentified individual on March 11, 2005. The computer contained…
-
Why Does Anybody Believe Viralg?
A story is circulating about a Finnish company called Viralg, which claims to have a product that “blocks out all illegal swapping of your data”. There is also a press release from Viralg. This shows all the signs of being a scam or hoax. The company’s website offers virtually nothing beyond claims to be able…
-
Next-Gen DVD Encryption: Better, but Won't Stop Filesharing
Last week, specifications were released for AACS, an encryption-based system that may be used on next-generation DVDs. You may recall that CSS, which is currently used on DVDs, is badly misdesigned, to the point that I sometimes use it in teaching as an example of how not to use crypto. It’s still a mystery how…