CITP Blog - Formerly Freedom to Tinker

Tag: Other Blogs

  • Cloud(s), Hype, and Freedom

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    Richard Stallman’s recent description of ‘the cloud’ as ‘hype’ and a ‘trap’ seems to have stirred up a lot of commentary, but not a lot of clear discussion of the problems Stallman raised. This isn’t surprising- the term ‘the cloud’ has always been vague. (It was hard to resist saying ‘cloudy.’ 😉 When people say…

  • More on Berman-Coble's Peer-to-Peer Definition

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    In a previous posting, I remarked on the overbreadth of the Berman-Coble bill’s definition of “peer to peer file trading network”. The definition has another interesting quirk, which looks to me like an error by the bill’s drafters. Here is the definition: ‘peer to peer file trading network’ means two or more computers which are…

  • Dornseif: Technological Definitions in the Law

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    Maximillian Dornseif offers some comments following up on my previous posts about Source vs. Object Code, and definitions in the Berman-Coble bill. A brief excerpt: The court system and legal doctrine is built all arround definitions. While defining things like cruelty, carelessness and such stuff is a well understood problem for lawmakers and courts, technical…

  • The Other Digital Divide

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    Long and well-written articleby Drew Clark and Bara Vaida in the National Journal’s Tech Daily, about the history of the current Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley battle over copy protection. If you’re still coming up to speed on this issue, the article is a great scene-setter. Even if you know the issue well, you still might…

  • "Peer to Peer" in the Berman-Coble Bill

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    Yesterday’s defense of the Berman-Coble bill resurrected the argument that the bill only hurts the bad guys, because it authorizes hacking only of peer to peer file trading networks. And we all know that “Decentralized P2P networks were designed specifically (and ingeniously) to thwart suits for copyright infringement by ensuring there is no central service…

  • What's That "Followups" Link?

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    You may have noticed the small “Followups” link at the bottom of recent entries in this blog. That’s a feature called TrackBack. (The link previously said “TrackBack” but I’ve changed it to “Followups” since that seems a more intuitive name.) Kieran Healy offers a nice explanation of the TrackBack feature. If you’re a reader, the…

  • More on China's Blocking of Google

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    Several readers responded to my previous entry on China’s censoring of Google. Jeremy Leader pointed out that Google offers a cached copy of any page on the Web. Google’s cache would allow easy access to any blocked page, so any effective blocker must block Google. Seth Finkelstein points to his previous discussion of overblocking due…

  • Preliminary Injunction Against Aimster

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    A Federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction against the Aimster file sharing service. The judge found it likely that Aimster will ultimately (after all the evidence is heard) be found liable for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement. Based on a quick reading, it looks like this is based on Aimster’s involvement in promoting the…