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Updates: Hartford Courant Corrects Library Bugging Story
Posted by Ernest Miller on Monday, November 11 @ 10:58:06 EST Privacy

The Hartford Courant has retracted their story alleging that the FBI installed surveillance software on public computers at the Hartford Public Library (FBI Searched Library Computer, Didn't Install Monitoring Program). The original column, now featuring a prominent link to the correction, is once again available on the Courant's website (The FBI Has Bugged Our Public Libraries). LawMeme's original report: (FBI Not Massively Violating Privacy and Free Expression Rights).

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LA Times Op-Ed On Clean Flicks
Posted by Raul Ruiz on Monday, November 11 @ 09:42:43 EST Clean Flicks

Our own Ernest Miller has published an op-ed (There Shouldn't Be a Remote Control on How We Watch DVDs) in the LA Times about the Clean Flicks controversy.

The main crux of the story deals with control. Should content creators be able to dictate how their work is privately displayed, or should their limited monopoly, i.e. copyright not extend into the realm of private viewing? Miller argues that with a book, you are able to control how you view the contents. Why should DVDs be any different? I guess one answer (that I don't agree with) is that they can be different. Try rearranging pages with your new e-book. I'm hoping that consumers don't go for these types of business models.

I think Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit puts it best when he, referring to the DGA, says "These guys don't just think they own their movies. They think they own you."

UPDATE: As the LA Times requires users to divulge personal information in exchange for access to the newspaper, LawMeme posts Mr. Miller's article below.

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Candidate for World's Worst Trademark Decisions
Posted by Ernest Miller on Monday, November 11 @ 09:18:21 EST Trademark

According to a decision of the National Arbitration Forum, and reported on Law.com, Houston business man Marcus Schatte, who has registered a trademark in the word "sex" for refrigerator magnets and certain "educational" materials, has the right to deny a Korean man from using the "sex.biz" URL under the Start-Up Trademark Opposition Policy (STOP) (Domain Name Owner Has Right to 'Sex'). Read the NAF decision (Marcus R. Schatte d/b/a Sex v. Personal). Registering a trademark for the incredibly generic term like "sex" for a line of refrigerator magnets is enough to prevent other people from using a domain name? According to the arbiter:

Although the mark SEX may be generic, complainant demonstrated to the United States Patent and Trademark Office that there is a distinctive, unique or secondary meaning to the mark and was granted full registration.

As usual, ICANNWatch has an informative post as well as informative comments (SEX.BIZ Registrant Gets Screwed by STOP). My favorite?:

When somebody yells "STOP!" and then gets sex, isn't that known as rape?

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Rolling Stones Crack Down on Cell Phone Pirates
Posted by Ernest Miller on Sunday, November 10 @ 23:00:33 EST Copyright

Security guards at Rolling Stones concerts are ordering people to hang up their cellphones and stop "violating copyright" by letting long-distance pals listen in on the show according to a posting to Undercover, a Rolling Stones fan email list (idiocy). [via Boing Boing]

Cellphone quality must have increased substantially when I wasn't looking for the Stones to be worried about this sort of piracy. Of course, you don't need copyright law in order to tell people in your venue to turn off their cell phones, but I guess it sounds more official. Perhaps it is part of Hollywood's campaign against illicit file-sharing?

I wonder if AT&T Wireless, the Official Sponsor of the Rolling Stones LICKS Tour, is aware of this?

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Partnership for a RIAA-Free America
Posted by Ernest Miller on Sunday, November 10 @ 22:16:46 EST Oddities

User Friendly, a daily cartoon strip that chronicles "the friendliest, hardest-working, and most neurotic little Internet Service Provider in the world," proposes Partnership for a RIAA-Free America.

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Little-Known Statutory Threat to Online Pornography
Posted by Ernest Miller on Sunday, November 10 @ 22:04:41 EST Free Expression

Adult Video News reports on a meeting of the Free Speech Coalition (an adult entertainment industry association) featuring two First Amendment attorneys (Free Speech Meeting Gave Good Info That Not Enough Heard). J.D. "Joe" Obenberger, of Obenberger & Assoc. (whose firm's website resides at the URL www.xxxlaw.com), and Gregory Piccionelli, Founding Senior Partner of Brull, Piccionelli, Sarno, Braun, and Vradenburgh, were the featured speakers. In addition to comparing himself to John the Baptist and decrying his hunch that the DOJ will begin indicting pornographers en masse following hostilities in Iraq, Obenberger pointed out (and Piccionelli agreed) that there is a real legal threat to those who publish sexually explicit materials on the Internet: 18 USC 2257.

18 USC 2257 is a real danger to publication on the Internet. This little known aspect of the federal anti-child pornography laws (which include 18 USC 2251-60), requires those who produce visual depictions of actual sexually explicit conduct to maintain records about the identities and ages of the performers. Those who don't are subject to 2 years in jail for a first offense. This law never made any sense, but its burdens on speech were relatively minor when pornography was generally produced for profit. Now that amateur pornography is readily distributed via the Internet, these record-keeping requirements substantially burden constitutionally-protected speech. This is a statute whose enforcement should be carefully watched. I'll be writing more about its unconstitutionality in the future.

PS I believe there is a reasonable argument as to why 18 USC 2257 violates the copyright clause. Any guesses as to why I might think that?

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OS Vulnerabilities
Posted by Paul Szynol on Saturday, November 09 @ 16:26:41 EST OpenSource

mi2g has concluded that Windows OS contains more security vulnerabilities than either Linux or Mac OS X. The report, which lives here, accounts for market share percentages.

mi2g's report also reiterates two, principal advantages of open source.

First, Windows consumers have to wait for Microsoft to release patches that address security flaws. With Linux, on the other hand, developers can take matters into their own hands, and tweak faulty code as the need arises.

Second, although "Linux source code can be easily probed and examined by hackers it is also open to the scrutiny of the rest of the world and is therefore more robust and reliable as a result".

Microsoft is not thrilled with these findings, Yahoo reports.

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Keeping Microsoft In Line
Posted by Paul Szynol on Saturday, November 09 @ 10:58:56 EST Antitrust

James Cash is a professor at HBS, and a board member of Microsoft. His latest charge in the latter capacity is to oversee Microsoft's compliance with the recently approved settlement.

The BBC report is here.

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Search Warrant Not Required
Posted by Paul Szynol on Saturday, November 09 @ 07:57:36 EST Privacy

In the name of national security, the Pentagon is assembling a computer system, known as Total Information Awareness, which will sift through people's personal data in search of terrorists--without a seach warrant.

Up for grabs are

1. email
2. credit card/banking transactions
3. travel documents
4. calling records
The NY Times reports here.

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Microsoft Collateral Estoppel Messed-Up?
Posted by Raul Ruiz on Friday, November 08 @ 23:43:21 EST Antitrust
HowardGilbert writes "On Nov. 4 J. Fredrick Motz, US District Judge in Maryland, issued an order allowing the Findings of Fact in the Federal Microsoft antitrust case to be used in certain private antitrust cases. However, the Circuit Court had ruled that "the District Judge's conduct destroyed the appearance of impartiality." They reversed the Remedy, but let the Findings of Fact stand. In the context of the full decision text, however, there was reason to expect that this would be revisited in subsequent appeals. Given the current settlement, it is not clear how this mess will eventually be cleaned up."

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