Tag: Technology and Freedom
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What is Spyware?
Recently the Anti-Spyware Coalition released a document defining spyware and related terms. This is an impressive-sounding group, convened by CDT and including companies like HP, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Here is their central definition: Spyware and Other Potentially Unwanted Technologies Technologies implemented in ways that impair users’ control over: Material changes that affect their user experience,…
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HD-DVD Requires Digital Imprimatur
Last week I wrote about the antitrust issues raised by the use of encryption to “protect” content. Here’s a concrete example. HD-DVD, one of the two candidates for the next-gen DVD format, uses a “content protection” technology called AACS. And AACS, it turns out, requires a digital imprimatur on any content before it can be…
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RIAA Saber-Rattling against Antispoofing Technologies?
The RIAA has fired a shot across the bow of P2P companies whose products incorporate anti-spoofing technologies, according to a story (subscribers only) in Friday’s National Journal Tech Daily, by Sarah Lai Stirland. The statement came at a Washington panel on the implications of the Grokster decision. “There’s definitely a lot of spoofing going on…
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Posner and Becker, Law and Economics
Richard Posner and Gary Becker turn their bloggic attention to the Grokster decision this week. Posner returns to the argument of his Aimster opinion. Becker is more cautious. After reiterating the economic arguments for and against indirect liability, Posner concludes: There is a possible middle way that should be considered, and that is to provide…
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GAO Data: Porn Rare on P2P; Filters Ineffective
P2P nets have fewer pornographic images than the Web, and P2P porn filters are ineffective, according to data in a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Mind you, the report’s summary text says pretty much the opposite, but where I come from, data gets more credibility than spin. The data can be…
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Regulation by Software
The always interesting James Grimmelmann has a new paper, Regulation by Software (.pdf), on how software relates to law. He starts by dissecting Lessig’s “code is law” argument. Lessig argues that code is a form of “architecture” – part of the environment in which we live. And we know that the shape of our living…
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DRM and 'casual piracy'
Some background on a major transformation taking place in the music industry, even as most mainstream media organizations print not a word about it: Reuters article, May 31: Sony BMG tests technology to limit CD burning. As part of its mounting U.S. rollout of content-enhanced and copy-protected CDs, Sony BMG Music Entertainment is testing technology…
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A 'Darknet' backgrounder
OK, time to dive in here from my hotel room. A little while ago I posted a guest entry on the Berkman blog that offers a few details about how Darknet and Ourmedia came to be. It’s hard to summarize a book’s major themes in a paragraph or two, but the basic thrust is: -…
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A Land Without Music
Here’s a story I heard recently from an anonymous source. Based on the source’s identity and some of the details of the story, I believe it to be true. I have omitted some details here, to protect the source. A well-known company, running a massive multi-player virtual world, was considering adding a new space to…
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Why I Can't Tinker with my Household Cleaner
John Mark Ockerbloom emailed an interesting story about Federal regulation of tinkering with household chemicals, which I quote here with permission: I just washed our kitchen floor tonight. And (I admit guiltily)I haven’t done it in a while– usually I “let” my wife do it. So I look at the small print on the label…