The Justice Department today denied Freedom of Information Act requests to make public data on foreign lobbyists, claiming that ‘[i]mplementing such a request risks a crash that cannot be fixed and could result in a major loss of data, which would be devastating’. The requestor responded that ‘[t]his was a new one on us. We weren’t aware there were databases that could be destroyed just by copying them.
Category: Electronic Rights
Best Law Money Can Buy – Hatch/Leahy Deconstructed
Ernie rebuts Hollywood and the music industry shiller’s Hatch & Leahy’s new “Induce Act“, which criminalizes the act of inducing another to commit a copyright violation.
The EFF posts a fake complaint against Apple Computer, maker of the ipod.
Congress goes after your fair use rights
Dan Gillmor writes about the latest version of the “best law money can buy“:
I hadn’t been taking some proposed new copyright legislation very seriously, mainly because it’s logically absurd on its face. But the “Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004” (PDF) seems to be moving so quickly that we have to pay attention now.
This bill, the stated purpose of which is to criminalize actions that might “induce” copyright infringement, doesn’t just overrule the Sony Betamax case, which gave us the right to tape TV shows to watch later. It would turn people offering totally legitimate technology into criminals, if what they offered could also be used for infringing purposes.
Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch is cloaking the bill as “child protection.” It is nothing of the sort. It is a Hollywood-sponsored attack on fundamental freedom, and on innovation. (Ernie Miller deconstructs Hatch’s floor speech introducing the bill. See also Lessig’s comments.)
Certain Equations are Illegal
Cory Doctorow gave a talk this week at Microsoft. He is asking the company to go back to its roots on the issue of Digital “Rights” Management (aka Digital Restrictions Management), or DRM. He posted the talk on his website. Doctorow tried to persuade Microsoft that:
- DRM systems don’t work
- DRM systems are bad for society
- DRM systems are bad for business
- DRM systems are bad for artists
- DRM is a bad business move for msft
via Dan Gillmor
The Free & The Unfree
Wired on intellectual property holders and IP outlaws:
On the one side are the intellectual property holders, predominantly citizens of Western nations. They’re squaring off against IP outlaws, who tend to live in developing countries. The propertied class loudly asserts its ownership and control. The insurgents cry for openness and exploit technological loopholes with abandon.
More Patriot Act Abuses
It seems odd to me that the defenders of the PATRIOT act urge us to look at the details of the Act and stop viewing it as Federal law enforcement’s ticket to do essentially whatever law enforcement wants, without procedural safeguards.
When you get into the trenches and watch how they are actually using PATRIOT, however, it becomes pretty clear that law enfocement has interpreted it as their ticket to do whatever they want.
National Identity: Making Pizza Delivery More Efficient (!Not)
This email is floating around: ordering pizza in 2015. Let’s hope it never comes to this. (You should support the Electronic Frontier Foundation)
Leahy Shills for the Copyright Cartel
Dan Gillmor writes about Vermont Democrat Pat Leahy’s shilling for the copyright cartel: Copyright Cartel Buying Another Federal Anti-Infringement Law (“Piracy Act”). Evidently, Democrat Leahy needs more cash from Hollywood. The worse part of this insanity: the law would require us (via the Department of Justice) to pay for tracking file sharers and filing lawsuits….
Government Data Mining
Barry Steinhardt referenced today’s GAO Report on Government Data Mining (full report – PDF) – (Highlights PDF). Steinhardt mentions four programs of special concern:
- Verity K2 Enterprise – Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Mines data “to identify foreign terrorists or U.S. citizens connected to foreign terrorism activities.” (Page 30 of GAO report)
- Analyst Notebook I2 – Department of Homeland Security. “Correlates events and people to specific information.” (p. 44)
- PATHFINDER – DIA. “Can compare and search multiple large databases quickly” and “analyze government and private sector databases.” (p. 30)
- Case Management Data Mart – DHS. “Assists in managing law enforcement cases” Using private-sector data. (p. 44)
Disney Fights Against Free Speech
As reported by Ernie, Disney is lobbying to get indecency regulations applied to cable ? yet another example (after the Sonny Bono Act) to use law to protect itself against competition. When your movies flop, and you?ve driven away the greatest animation company in the world, I guess there?s not much strategy left.