Quick News Links for Week Ending 1/27/2008
27 January, 2008 (16:54) | Links | By: cmdln
- RIAA hacked off of the web
Not surprising, given how clueless they are, otherwise. The lesson is that you should at least secure your site if you espouse an unpopular position.
- Licensing computer use like driving
This is an unpalatable, unpopular idea that could theoretical work but the genie is out of the bottle. Typical users will not accept limitations after having unlimited systems, regardless of the benefit.
- Dutch transport card hacked, repeatedly
A 2B USD investment and both versions of the cards are trivially hackable. One doesn’t even use cryptography, the other poorly.
- SCOTUS allows EULA on seed packets
A nine year old case that was finally settled, on appeal, in favor of maximal control via the shrink wrap license on a seed packet. It is still unclear on how use of a naturally derived product can conditioned like this.
- MD scraps Diebold systems
Getting rid of Diebold is wise, but ultimately this is not progress. Problems of accessibility still remain and optical scan systems are not provably much more secure.
- Standards vs. innovation
A thoughtful analysis with more then an “it depends” answer. Actually contemplates some of the factors where one may be preferable to the other.
- Copyright term extension, filtering in EU fails
This is not the first time extensions have been shot down. O’Brien at EFF attributes the win to citizen action.
- Amazon appeared to be using “proprietary” ID3 tags but isn’t
Turns out to be a file permission problem that looked like bad ID3 tags, fostered by a poor initial customer service response. The follow up was heartening, getting the the real issue within a single day.
- Blanket licenses as a solution to copyright reform
Compulsory licenses as an idea not surprisingly came from industry in this panel at CES. Gigi Sohn of Public Knowledge also shared their six point reform plan.
- EU official says IP address is personal data
Privacy commissioners are arguing that the link between an address and a single user is too strong to ignore. Mostly the issue is with search engines who value those addresses for more accurate advertising statistics and preventing click fraud.
- QT updgrade interferes with self produce video
The DRM claim does not appear to hold water. This actually seems to have been a 3rd party compatibility problem. The linked forum thread has many suggestions to try.
- More on AT&T filtering
AT&T wants its safe harbor and clearly is trying to position this as a move that would not jeopardize that. I think that is intellectually dishonest.
- JavaFX to interop with Adobe technology
It sounds like a good plan, and a smart move by Sun to capitalize on Adobe’s momentum. But it remains to be seen in practical terms as JavaFX is as of yet incomplete.
- SF film exploration of the effect of tech on immigration, socioeconomic divide
This looks well worth watching and much more thought provoking than other efforts in the genre that tend towards often unrealistic ideals.
- MPAA admits to inaccuracy in report
This isn’t surprising but the question is how this will affect the discourse on public policy around file sharing, copyright and piracy.
- Yahoo may offer a DRM-free music service
To be fair, Yahoo experimented with MP3 sales, first, even if that experiment was limited to a poor selection. This is a nice follow up to Ian Rogers comments about DRM not being in consumer interest, too. The competition to Amazon and iTunes could spur some interesting innovation, too.
- Japanese twist copyright law to nap virus writer
There is apparently no law against writing virii in Japan. The use of copyrighted video by the author as bait gave law enforcers a reasonable excuse to go after him on infringement.
- Boucher to replace Berman
There is no guarantee this will happen but it would be a huge step towards restoring sanity in IP policy.
- Getting to the root of the claims of Ford owning fan images’ copyrights
This seems to have been a miscommunication fostered by an earlier, unrelated incident involving Ford and CafePress. I’d say the climate of permission by default for works also has something to do with it.
- Clever group activism against illegal wiretaps, domestic spying
Its painless, I contributed, and the terms of submitting a photo are non-exclusive.
- Warner tests DMCA safe harbor
I think this has the potential to go in either direction, improving or worsening the terms of safe harbor. Much will depend on how receptive the judge and/or jury are to EFF’s and the defendant’s interpretation.
- Developer trying to revoke GPL, though it doesn’t allow doing so
No mention as to why and despite claims that GPL is non-revocable, it does raise interesting questions about the core rights under copyright. GPL is a condition upon, it does not remove ownership of the work.
- P2P with legitimately licensed major label music
The works still have DRM, so this is more about distribution than control. There is less of a story here than the headlines are implying.
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