Category: Electronic Rights

Microsoft’s Puzzling Array of Linux Attack Money

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Doc Searls Points to Tom Adelstein‘s fascinating blog on Microsoft’s money and influence in Washington (the article also mentions some subtle reporting changes at the Washington Post):

What we did not discuss on Monday, however, was the possibility that the committee could remain deadlocked for other reasons. Such reasons could involve additional payments which Preston Gates may have some difficulty explaining. Should the ethics committee meet, some democrats could face similar problems for Tom DeLay. According to the the Washington Post, other names are beginning to surface, including both House and Senate members. Names discussed in the article include Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.) and Harry M. Reid (Nev.), Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.), Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.), Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.).

While you might find the Washington Post’s work admirable, there are some subtle changes in their reporting that grabbed my attention. For example, a switch has occurred in naming Jack Abramoff’s employer. In our previous discussion, we referenced a washington Post story that said that Abramoff worked for Preston Gates. Even the Seattle Times wrote an article focused on Preston Gates’ potential problems. For example, in a discussion of one of the firm’s clients the article states:

Madison Should be Out Front on this…..

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David Isenberg on Lafayette, Louisiana’s 7/16/2005 referendum to fund a municipal fiber network:

Following the Brand X decision, the future of U.S. networks weighs more heavily on municipal network initiatives.

As Lafayette, Louisiana’s muni FTTH proposal approaches it’s July 16th referendum on the necessary $125 million bond issue, the following organizations have stepped up to support the plan, including,
The Realtors Association of Acadiana
Downtown Development Authority
Downtown Lafayette Unlimited
The Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce
Lafayette Economic Development Authority
Rebuild Lafayette North Committee
Acadiana Home Builders Association
parish executive committees of both Democratic and Republican parties,
The Louisiana Municipal Association
and several others

Ten Years of Chilled Innovation

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Robert Hof interviews Larry Lessig on the US Supreme Court’s Grokster decision:

Q: What do you think of the decision?
A: This is a pretty significant defeat here. Certainly the result is better than what the MGM companies wanted — because they wanted the Sony case modified — and [Justice David Souter, who wrote the decision, isn’t] modifying Sony. But still, this intent standard…will invite all sorts of strategic behavior that will dramatically increase the cost of innovating around these technologies.

Q: How so?
A: Imagine that you’re a company with a copyright and you see a company coming out with a technology you don’t like because it’s challenging your business model. We’ve seen lots of these — for example, ReplayTV, or the VCR. Obviously, if the technology is illegal, you can just get it stopped.

But a second way to stop the innovation is just to litigate. Look what happened to ReplayTV: It spent years and millions of dollar litigating to defend its right to have the ReplayTV technology as it was. Essentially, it had to fold the company because the legal standard then was so uncertain that you had to get to trial before you could resolve the case.

Seagate’s Full Disc Encryption

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Bruce Schneier:

“Seagate has introduced a hard drive with full-disk encryption.

The 2.5-inch drive offers full encryption of all data directly on the drive through a software key that resides on a portion of the disk nobody but the user can access. Every piece of data that crosses the interface encrypted without any intervention by the user, said Brian Dexheimer, executive vice president for global sales and marketing at the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based company.

Unauthorized Access to IRS Records

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This problem will likely get worse, particularly with the recently passed gift to data thieves – the national ID act (Both Wisconsin Senators, Kohl & Feingold supported the National ID Act!). Caroline Drees has more:

The Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether unauthorized people gained access to sensitive taxpayer and bank account information but has not yet exposed any privacy breaches, an official said on Friday.

The U.S. tax agency — whose databases include suspicious activity reports from banks about possible terrorist or criminal transactions — launched the probe after the Government Accountability Office said in April that the IRS “routinely permitted excessive access” to the computer files.

The GAO team was able to tap into the data without authorization, and gleaned information such as bank account holders’ names, social security numbers, transaction values, and any suspected terrorist activity. It said the data was at serious risk of disclosure, modification or destruction.

Feinstein’s Double Talk on the Broadcast Flag

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California Senator Diane Feinstein responds to her constituents opposition to the broadcast flag, with a rather large amount of Orwellian talk. Cory Doctorow says that “Practically every sentence in this letter is a lie”:

Thank you for writing to me about the digital broadcast flag. I appreciate hearing from you.
I feel strongly that we must prevent the theft of copyrighted works, and that includes digital television (DTV) programming. As we move forward in the digital age, it is increasingly easy for unauthorized copies of copyrighted works to be made and illegally distributed. Over-the-air digital content is the easiest to pirate.
As we contemplate the use of new technologies to protect copyrighted works, we must pay careful attention to ensure that a balance is struck between competitive protections and individual consumer interests. It is important to allow for the continued fair use of copyrighted material, even while we seek to stop unauthorized reproductions from being illegally distributed outside the home and over the Internet.

I continue to find it amazing that our elected representatives spend so much time on this, given Hollywood’s outsize influence relative to their economic size (The tech & consumer electronic industry dwarf Hollywood).

Broadcast Flag Not in Federal Legislation

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Dan Gillmor:

Good news for Silicon Valley and consumers: The infamous “Broadcast Flag” — digital restrictions on playback of broadcast video — is still dead, it seems, at least for the moment.
When it looked several days ago as though Hollywood would try to sneak the flag into a big appropriations bill, several alert organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge rallied citizens to the cause — to tell senators that they shouldn’t do this. Apparently, they didn’t slip this into the bill, and that’s cause for celebration.

Evidently, quite a few people contacted their Senators on this matter, which is wonderful. This is a great example of the last minute special interest schemes that go on all the time.

Frankston on Bank of America’s Security Practices

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Bob Frankston:

Even more so because of a letter I received after sending an online Query to CallVantage using another unique address and I quickly got an unrelated letter from a third party site that seemed fraudulent. I reported it to the third party’s ISV and got a response saying they were shut down but know no more than that.
I view these as very serious breaches because they indicate attacks at the vital points in the system.

TSA Collects Airline Passenger Data Despite Pledge

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AP:

A federal agency collected extensive personal information about airline passengers although Congress told it not to and it said it wouldn’t, according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
A Transportation Security Administration contractor used three data brokers to collect detailed information about U.S. citizens who flew on commercial airlines in June 2004 in order to test a terrorist screening program called Secure Flight, according to documents that will be published in the Federal Register this week.
The TSA had ordered the airlines to turn over data on those passengers, called passenger name records, in November.

The EFF’s Lee Tien has more.