Bruce Schneier on the DHS’s “Trusted Traveller” Program:

IF YOU FLY OUT of Logan Airport and don’t want to take off your shoes for the security screeners and get your bags opened up, pay attention. The US government is testing its “Trusted Traveler” program, and Logan is the fourth test airport. Currently, only American Airlines frequent fliers are eligible, but if all goes well the program will be opened up to more people and more airports.
Participants provide their name, address, phone number, and birth date, a set of fingerprints, and a retinal scan. That information is matched against law enforcement and intelligence databases. If the applicant is not on any terrorist watch list and is otherwise an upstanding citizen, he gets a card that allows him access to a special security lane. The lane doesn’t bypass the metal detector or X-ray machine for carry-on bags, but it bypasses more intensive secondary screening unless there’s an alarm of some kind.
Unfortunately, this program won’t make us more secure. Some terrorists will be able to get Trusted Traveler cards, and they’ll know in advance that they’ll be subjected to less stringent security.

Librarian.net:

Five Technically Legal Signs for Your Library

Larry Lessig:

One of the exciting thing about the early days of the Democratic primary was that there was at least some debate about whether the Democratic Party would continue to be led by IP extremists. Some of the worst in IP came, after all, from the Clinton administration. Reflecting on that, many were hopeful we?d see some new thinking. Many of the most passionate Deaniacs were eager to see new thinking on this issue. Senator Edwards addressed some of this on this blog.
Word now is that Bruce Lehman, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce, and Commissioner of Patents, is spreading the word that he is running IP policy on the Kerry campaign. In the scheme of extremists, few are more extreme. Of all the government ?Czars? in our form of government, he proved himself to be most to be feared.
Yet another bit of depressing news, if true, from this extraordinarily important campaign.

Speaking of IP, the Gutenberg Project is publishing Scientific American e-zines that have entered the public domain. This is a useful article, from 1891 (!) on “The Business End of American Newspapers.

Secret Hearings, trials without a defendant or defense attorneys? Right here, in the USA:

John Gilmore describes himself as “a civil libertarian millionaire eccentric.” He has recently garnered headlines because he refuses to show ID when boarding airplanes and is suing the Justice department and Southwest Airlines for not allowing him to travel in the U.S. without “showing papers.”
Some commentators, notably Hiawatha Bray at the Boston Globe don’t have much sympathy:
“The idea that we should be wasting our time arguing over whether it’s right to have to show ID before boarding a plane is too silly to deserve further discussion. I’m not trying to be rude; I just can’t take you [Todd Pinkerton] seriously, or Mr. Gilmore either.”
But Gilmore raised one deep concern in his foray against the Justice department: there appears to be a secret law that is being applied by the airlines, if not the TSA. What is the law? Who made it? How can I comply if I don’t know what it is? In a democracy that believes in the rule of law, this has got to be troubling.
t Gilmore raised one deep concern in his foray against the Justice department: there appears to be a secret law that is being applied by the airlines, if not the TSA. What is the law? Who made it? How can I comply if I don’t know what it is? In a democracy that believes in the rule of law, this has got to be troubling.
So, when the Ashcroft Justice Department demanded that the first hearing of the Gilmore case be held in secret, and that Gilmore and his attorneys be barred from it, things got even weirder, IMHO. This was beginning to sound like a proceeding from some totalitarian regime. The good news, in my opinion, is that the Court denied the DOJ motion.

– Chris Gulker
Memo to Republican Senate contender Tim Michels (running against incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold): The Patriot Act argument will not carry the day…..

Nice to see Republican Jim Sensenbrenner working hard to help our economic, education and health care concerns by carrying water for Hollywood….

Thwarted by the courts, copyright holders and their lobby groups, notably the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA), have been forced to file “John Doe” suits against infringers. But HR.4077 brings the full power of the state to their aid:
The FBI will be required to serve as propaganda ministry, or in the words of the bill, “develop a program based on providing of information and notice to deter members of the public from committing acts of copyright infringement through the Internet,” and enforcer.
The Feds must “facilitate the sharing among law enforcement agencies, Internet service providers, and copyright owners of information concerning acts of copyright infringement described in paragraph”.
The chairman of the House Committee which nodded through the measure, Rep James Sensenbrenner (R.-Wis), was paid $18,000 by the Recording Industry Ass. of America to make a trip to Taiwan and Thailand in January 2003, a breach of the House ethics rules, say critics. [WaPo | Reg] Sensenbrenner said it was a “fact-finding mission”, even though his schedule was arranged by the State Department.
But the distinction between State and corporate interests are now so close as to be indistinguishable.

This is all about killing our fair use rights AND trying to make the internet a one way pipe (ala cable tv). How this benefits Wisconsin residents is beyond me. Let Sensenbrenner know your thoughts on how his time is spent working hard for Wisconsin. More from the EFF.

Dan Gillmor:

In one of the most dishonestly named bills of all time, the House recently passed the “Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2004“. The legislation would, in fact, open the floodgates for these intrusions into our lives.
The bill, S 2603, would allow anyone who’s done any kind of business with you during the last seven years — seven years! — to send you faxes without getting your permission first. You would have to opt out each time.
The FCC’s latest regulations, which proposed to tighten the current rules against junk faxes, were too much for corporate America and its marketing wizards who continue to invade every corner of our lives. Their power with Congress is far greater than yours, so far.
At least they could tell the truth, naming S 2603 the “Junk Fax Enabling Act.”

Contact Tammy Baldwin and urge her to repeal this absurdity.

Jacqueline Seibel:

Suspicious that his detectives were not hard at work solving the latest crimes in Muskego, Police Chief John Johnson spied on his own investigators using high-tech surveillance equipment usually used to keep tabs on drug dealers and gangbangers.
Secretly placing a global positioning system tracker in a squad car shared by the department’s two detectives, police supervisors learned that the pair were driving to a tanning salon, shopping at the Geoffrey Beene Outlet Store in Kenosha County and running personal errands while on duty, according to reports released Tuesday.

This is not a new story, there have been previous examples of GPS (Global Positioning System) used to track rental car users among others.

Ed Treleven unfortunately passes along some Hollywood Kool Aid regarding file sharing in this article.
I don’t see any mention of our “fair use” rights in Treleven’s article. It’s clearly not right to copy thousands of copyright protected music files (read Janis Ian’s take and Courtney Love Does the Math for a counter argument), however, file sharing has many legitimate uses, significantly reducing the distribution costs of public domain and permissively shared art and speech, as well as reducing the centralized control of that distribution,” Judge Sidney R. Thomas in the recent Grokster case.
What’s next, no photos at the National Constitution Center due to “copyright”?
Actually, it’s worse than that. Democratic Senator Pat Leahy and Republic Orrin Hatch are carrying water for Hollywood by pushing the Induce Act.

Copyright Act (S.2560, Induce Act) would make it a crime to aid, abet, or induce copyright infringement. He want us all to think that the Induce Act is no big deal and that it only targets “the bad guys” while leaving “the good guys” alone. He says that it doesn’t change the law; it just clarifies it.
He’s wrong.
Right now, under the Supreme Court’s ruling in Sony v. Universal (the Betamax VCR case), devices like the iPod and CD burners are 100% legal — not because they aren’t sometimes used for infringement, but because they also have legitimate uses. The Court in Sony called these “substantial non-infringing uses.” This has been the rule in the technology sector for the last 20 years. Billions of dollars and thousands of jobs have depended on it. Industries have blossomed under it. But the Induce Act would end that era of innovation. Don’t let this happen on your watch – tell your Senators to fight the Induce Act!

Senator Herb Kohl sits on the Judiciary Committee, which held hearings on the Induce Act July 22, 2002.
I’ve not seen Kohl take a position on this, so I emailed his office on August 3 and received a reply on 8/30/2004. Contact Senator Kohl and tell him to vote against this Hollywood give away.