vigilant.tv

freedom and technology

archive : 2002-04

reason: Hollywood vs. the Internet
Excerpt: Mike Godwin sums up the battle between the entertainment and technology industries over the DMCA and CBDTPA legislation. Via Instapundit . The Hollings legislation, dubbed the...

cableworld: Content's King
Excerpt: This interview with Jamie Kellner, "a launcher of broadcast networks", provides an enlightening insight into the broadcast media industry's views: that viewers are bound by contract to...

it-analysis: UK leads e-Money revolution
Excerpt: According to this report, the UK has implemented an EU directive concering the issuing of electronic money. Note that this doesn't specify protocols, or even define a type of money, like...

reuters: Study: P2P sites mushroom despite foes
Excerpt: A US report suggests peer to peer availability has increased dramatically in the last year, and warned companies they may be held liable for copyright violation by their employees. See...

haaretz: IDF admits `ugly vandalism' against Palestinian property
Excerpt: According to Haaretz Daily, the IDF has been "systematically" collecting computer hard disks from Palestinian Authority offices, in order to examine them for intelligence. There is no...

cnn: Suspicious passengers disrupt flight
Excerpt: "Five or six" airline passengers were questioned by police and FBI after sky marshals reported "suspicious behaviour": fidgeting, and paying cash. Airline officials were unable to confirm...

guardian: Britons told of fate in Saudi case
Excerpt: The Guardian has followed up its earlier report on five British men held on bombing charges by Saudi authorities, reporting that sentences have been announced but the men have not yet...

australian: Howard ponders gun reduction
Excerpt: The Australian Prime Minister has called for further restrictions on firearms, apparently in reaction to increasing handgun violence in Sydney. Shootings have increased by 400% in NSW...

afp: Liberian leader bans mass political gatherings
Excerpt: Liberian President Charles Taylor has banned all political meetings and rallies for security reasons. The government has already banned all public gatherings, after protests were held over...

aap: Hearing to be held on anti-terrorism bill
Excerpt: The Australian government is to hold further public hearings on its proposed new anti-terrorism legislation for its domestic intelligence agency ASIO . Further public hearings on...

msnbc: Saudi Arabia's illusory press freedom
Excerpt: This is nearly a week old, but worth reading. MSNBC journalist Bob Arnot describes his treatment by Saudi authorities, despite the Information Ministry's official approval and insistance...

freepress: Those who misuse law enforcement computer system won't be traceable
Excerpt: According to the Detroit Free Press, government officials have voted to remove audit records from law enforcement computers after abuse cases are investigated. Via Unknown News ....

washingtonpost: Surfing the Net and Getting Wet
Excerpt: Los Angeles County intends to use a federal grant to install surveillance cameras along 72 miles of coastline, for lifeguard and fire department monitoring. The ACLU is concerned over...

techreview: Walk This Way
Excerpt: MIT's Tech Review suggests gait recognition technology may be gaining ground. Researchers are claiming error rates of 5-10%, which is comparable to face recognition accuracy for...

salon: A law to protect spyware
Excerpt: Salon suggests Fritz Hollings ' proposed privacy bill is a ruse designed to protect spyware and other nasties. Hiding behind aggressive wording that makes it seem as if it'll...

nytimes: American Activist's Retrial Starts in Egypt
Excerpt: A new trial has begun for Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a human rights campaigner charged with defaming Egypt. 28 people including Mr Ibrahim were granted a retrial in March after pressure from...

guardian: Italian Right defends arrested police
Excerpt: Seven Italian police officers have been arrested over the alleged beating and humiliation of anti-globalistation protesters at Naples last year. Ironically, around 100 officers...

guardian: Outrage as Saudis jail bomb Britons
Excerpt: The Guardian claims two British men have been secretly sentenced by a Saudi court over a bombing campaign. A third may have been sentenced to death. Five others were released earlier...

bbc: Greek court convicts plane-spotters
Excerpt: Eight plane-spotters have been found guilty of espionage by a Greek court, and sentenced to three years prison. Six others have been found of aiding and abetting. They have been...

ap: Saudi Press Pulls Back After Government Criticism
Excerpt: The recent period of relatively free expression by Saudi newspapers, following accusations that the religious police prevented girls from fleeing a burning school, appears to have abated....

viant: The Copright Crusade
Excerpt: Consulting company Viant has published a report, intended for media companies, detailing the technical capabilities and limitations of the major peer-to-peer file sharing networks. The...

politech: German railroad threatens Indymedia over links to "Radikal" site
Excerpt: A press release from Indymedia Nederland claims the German railway operator Deutsche Bahn has threatened to sue them for linking to copies of the now-defunct extremist magazine...

oaklandpress: Living in a police state
Excerpt: A new Michigan law allows police searches to be executed without warrants or affidavits being made available. Defense lawyers and civil libertarians are outraged at the laws, which...

zdnet: RIAA wants tax dollars to combat piracy
Excerpt: The RIAA has asked the US House Appropriations Committee to use additional tax dollars to fund additional Justice Department squads for arresting copyright infringers. A statement from...

haaretz: Israel Radio defines Arabic Newspeak
Excerpt: Haaretz quotes a memo distributed to the Arabic language department of Israel Radio, which includes instructions on the language used to describe quotes from both Palestinians and the IDF....

ap: Appeals court panel upholds Oregon's law banning live sex shows
Excerpt: An Oregon appeals court has upheld a law prohibiting live sex shows, ruling that such shows are an exception to free speech rights. The midlevel appeals court said the constitutional...

washingtonpost: Pakistan Ruler Vows 'Islamic Democracy'
Excerpt: Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf has promised to promote "Islamic democracy" if referendum voters elect to keep him in power for five more years. His plan presumably includes...

independent: Radio 1 tightens controls after early-morning outburst from Ali G provokes censure
Excerpt: Britain's broadcasting watchdog has censured BBC Radio 1 after it aired an Ali G interview. Note that the report condemns not just the use of offensive language, but the "lack of editorial...

bbc: E-mail 'hoaxers' cleared of forgery
Excerpt: Three British men have been found not guilty of forgery after sending hoax emails to a business rival, Andrew Hall, who later killed his daughter. Jeremy Aston and Raymond Ball, from...

zdnet: Is your ID card smart enough?
Excerpt: As governments develop plans for more secure ID cards, the smart card vendors are releasing new products aimed towards the national ID market. SchlumbergerSema, a Schlumberger business...

bbc: Zimbabwe activist freed
Excerpt: Zimbabwean pro-democracy campaigner Lovemore Madhuku has been released from jail after conspiracy charges were thrown out by the court. He had been accused of conspiracy to commit...

bbc: Paedophile net raids across UK
Excerpt: UK police have raided 75 homes in an internet child pornography investigation. The investigation seems to have focused on chat rooms. See also Operation Candyman , in which 89 were...

yahoo: Pennsylvania Attorney General Fisher to Enforce New Law Aimed at Fighting Child Pornography on the Internet
Excerpt: Pennsylvania's new child pornography law , under which an ISP can be held accountable for material accessed by its customers, has gone into effect. The state Attorney General's web site...

cnn: Norwegian jailed for Web racism
Excerpt: A Norwegian man has been jailed for publishing racist material on his US-hosted web site for the far-right group Vigrid . (That page is in Norwegian, but the whois entry indicates the...

mpaa: A Clear Present and Future Danger
Excerpt: A press release from MPAA CEO Jack Valenti details his testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, on the evils of digital copying. It's interesting to note that Valenti uses a...

techtv: A Most Deadly Game
Excerpt: Tech TV is advertising a feature on it's "CyberCrime" show about Jim Bell's Assassination Politics . The feature is subtitled "..an exercise in free speech or a manifesto for murder?"....

nytimes: Labor Sues Over Campaign Finance Law
Excerpt: The AFL-CIO union has filed a lawsuit against the new US law limiting campaign finance and advertising, saying it violates their right to free speech. The suit, filed in Federal...

salon: Musician to Napster judge: Let my music go
Excerpt: Musician Joseph Byrd has written to Judge Patel, the US federal judge overseeing the Napster case, saying his music might as well be distributed free of charge on the file sharing...

zdnet: Net radio picks up support in Congress
Excerpt: A lobby group representing internet radio "webcasters" has asked that the royalty rates set by the CARP ruling be lowered. Although small Webcasters said they want to pay royalties...

newsbytes: Firm Sues Movie Studios To Defend DVD-Copying Software
Excerpt: 321 Studios , a small US marketing company, is suing nine movie studios in an attempt to prove its DVD copying software - which it says is intended for making personal backups - is legal....

jpost: Witness to Jenin justice
Excerpt: The Jerusalem Post reports on the assasination of a Palestinian man suspected of collaborating with the Israeli army. Camp residents spotted me running towards the shots with my...

washingtonpost: Ridge Pushes Fast-Track 'Trusted Fliers' Screening
Excerpt: US Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge is pushing the trusted traveller idea, despite serious doubts about its effectiveness. The Air Transport Association has agreed to accept the...

afp: Jailed pro-democracy leader denied bail in Zimbabwe
Excerpt: Zimbabwean pro-democracy leader Lovemore Madhuku has been arrested for organising an anti-government protest, along with five other members of the NCA . Five other activists from the...

australianit: Spying deal between police, ISPs
Excerpt: According to The Australian, law enforcement agencies are developing agreements with ISPs for wiretapping and access to customer data. Investigations by The Australian IT have revealed...

salon: Digging for computer dirt
Excerpt: An interesting piece of information in this Salon piece on forensic data recovery: even secure data wiping software can't hide the time at which it was erased. The article also mentions...

dailytelegraph: Random Knife Searches
Excerpt: New South Wales police have submitted a request to the state government asking for the power to randomly search people "on a mass scale" for the possession of knives. Police already have...

wired: A Bad Year for Privacy
Excerpt: Declan McCullagh sums up the mood of the CFP conference. Another panel pitted a Justice Department attorney, Chris Painter, against activists and a representative of UUNet, the...

reuters: Privacy tools find a new home
Excerpt: Reuters reports on Martus , a suite of crypto and anonymizing tools (currently vapourware) intended for use by human rights groups. Meanwhile, a group of technologists in the United...

paknews: Musharraf rules out ban on political parties
Excerpt: Pakistan's President General Musharraf has promised not to ban political parties, but warned that any action against him would be "most unfortunate". Meanwhile, Pakistani police have spent...

bbc: Plane-spotters arrive to 'clear names'
Excerpt: The 12 British plane spotters who were last year charged with espionage and later released on bail have returned to Greece to face trial. The group was originally charged with...

zdnet: Senator Hollings unveils Net privacy bill
Excerpt: Fritz Hollings, the US Senator behind the CBDTPA copy protection act, has introduced a privacy bill. The EFF appears to support the proposal. Hollings' bill would require companies...

bbc: Japan sets sights on online child porn
Excerpt: The Japanese government is planning to tighten its child pornography laws in order to include internet distribution, which is currently legal. Although it is illegal to sell or...

zdnet: Is free speech invading our privacy?
Excerpt: ZDNet reports on the CFP conference, unwittingly making a strong argument for anonymity and pseudonymity. The two sides in the debate over availability of public-records databases...

cnn: Keeping e-mail encryption alive
Excerpt: CNN follows up PGP's commercial demise with a look at the poor user acceptance of email encryption. Network Associates, which bought PGP from Zimmermann's PGP Inc. in 1997, sought a...

nytimes: Italian Leader Warns Critics on TV to Toe the Line
Excerpt: Just days after the government gained control of five of Italy's six TV networks, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has accused two journalists of the "criminal use" of television. The...

nytimes: U.S. Weighing New Doctrine for Tribunals
Excerpt: Faced with insufficient evidence to charge most of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, the US is considering changing its tribunal rules to make membership in al Qaeda a crime. The rule...

independent: Robot cameras 'will predict crimes before they happen'
Excerpt: A PR piece from the Independent advertises some new software supposedly able to detect criminal behaviour in CCTV images. The article mentions that the software has been tested at London's...

guardian: Inside the web of thieves
Excerpt: A PR piece from The Guardian for NetPD , a company that investigates file sharing networks on behalf of copyright holders. NetPD gained some attention last November after it began...

bbc: Paedophile threat 'overestimated'
Excerpt: An Oxford University study suggests the rate of re-offending amongst convicted sex offenders is significantly lower than previously thought. Despite the findings, published in the...

afp: Pakistani police break up anti-referendum demonstration
Excerpt: Pakistani police have arrested demonstrators and baton-charged journalists at a protest against General Musharraf's attempt to extend his presidency. Qazi Hussain Ahmad was placed...

a-g: Baise Moi - request to review classification
Excerpt: Australian Attorney-General Daryl Williams has requested the French film Baise Moi be reviewed once more by the censorship board, as he feels the existing warnings about sex and sexual...

reuters: Ashcroft, Ellison Win 'Big Brother' Privacy Awards
Excerpt: Privacy International has presented its annual US Big Brother awards in San Fransisco. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison received individual awards, with most of...

nytimes: As Tax Havens Go, It's Not Easy Being Liechtenstein
Excerpt: Despite radical changes to its privacy laws in response to OECD pressure, Liechtenstein is still included on the latest tax haven blacklist. Liechtenstein hoped to escape, too, in part...

nytimes: Officials Are Told to Keep Detainee Information Secret
Excerpt: The INS has issued orders to US government officials not to release the names of immigrants detained after September 11. The directive follows several recent lawsuits by media and civil...

bbc: South-East Asia's terror clampdown
Excerpt: Amnesty International has criticized recent arrests in Malaysia, which they say have resulted in people being detained without evidence, charge or trial. Via Serial Deviant . Many...

statenislandadvance: Artist's lawyer calls stunt freedom of speech
Excerpt: A New York man has been charged with disorderly conduct after beheading an effigy of Lynn Stewart, the lawyer charged earlier this month with passing messages to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman....

bbc: South-East Asia's terror clampdown
Excerpt: Amnesty International has criticized recent arrests in Malaysia, which they say have resulted in people being detained without evidence, charge or trial. Via Serial Deviant . Many...

statenislandadvance: Artist's lawyer calls stunt freedom of speech
Excerpt: A New York man has been charged with disorderly conduct after beheading an effigy of Lynn Stewart, the lawyer charged earlier this month with passing messages to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman....

newsbytes: More States Loosening Wiretap Restrictions - Study
Excerpt: A report from The Constitution Project suggests almost half the US states are enacting new wiretapping legislation following the September 11 terrorist attacks. Via Privacy Digest ....

ojr: Censorship Wins Out
Excerpt: From Online Journalism Review, a roundup of the reality of internet censorship around the world. Via Cowlix . Another particularly harsh example is Burma. A. Lin Neumann, Asia...

wired: Deep Linking Returns to Surface
Excerpt: The Danish Newspaper Publishers' Association wants to ban people from linking to their members' stories. A court ruling in Demnark could apply to the rest of the EU. The decision will...

globeandmail: Key case restores copyright balance
Excerpt: A Canadian Supreme Court decision may have implications for digital copyright holders. Writing for the majority of the Court, Justice Ian Binnie stated that "the proper balance among...

seattletimes: Feds might use Microsoft product for online ID
Excerpt: The US government is reportedly considering using Microsoft's Passport service to authenticate users of some government web sites. On Sept. 30, the government plans to begin testing...

cnet: Privacy fears move closer to reality
Excerpt: CNet reports on the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in San Fransisco. The conference, normally a forum for digerati to pose a series of frightening "what if" scenarios, has...

wired: Group: Free Vietnam's Web Critics
Excerpt: Wired reports on the detention of three Vietnamese "dissidents", arrested for publishing pro-democracy articles on the web. The Paris-based group said the latest detainee, Son Hong...

wired: Carnivore's New Leash on Life?
Excerpt: A US Graduate student from Dartmouth College has proposed what sounds like a key-escrow system as a solution to network snooping systems like Carnivore. The source code is available here...

guardian: Berlusconi tightens stranglehold on Italian networks
Excerpt: The Italian government has gained control of all but one of Italy's major television networks, according to The Guardian. The other is apparently controlled by the opposition. The Prime...

bbc: Paper's 'contempt' ended footballers' trial
Excerpt: The publishers of Britain's Sunday Mirror newspaper may face fines over contempt of court charges after they published an interview, during an assault trial, with the victim's father....

linuxjournal: Scientology Lawyer Promises to Continue "Appropriate Action"
Excerpt: A lawyer representing the Church of Scientology responds to Linux Journals questions over their DMCA action against Google, in the light of Google's new policy of publishing DMCA...

computerworld: German railway operator to sue Google over sabotage links
Excerpt: Germany's national railway operator Deutsche Bahn AG plans to sue Google for not removing links to instructions, published by the magazine Radikal, on how to sabotage railway transport....

washingtonpost: Media's Role in Crisis Becomes the Big Story in Venezuela
Excerpt: The Washington Post reports on recent censorship in Venezuela. The media have been highly critical of Chavez's populist programs, friendships with Cuba, Iraq and Libya, and autocratic...

independent: 'Licensing' of students planned in Export Bill
Excerpt: The Independent claims to have obtained documentation showing that the British government plans to extend restrictions on exporting information to students, requiring foreign students to...

theage: Technology aims to stop CD copies
Excerpt: Australian major label music distributors plan to trial CD copy protection on local releases, giving listeners yet another reason not to buy Celine Dion albums. Sony tested this "copy...

dailytelegraph: Four clicks and your gun
Excerpt: Sydney's Daily Telegraph has given the front page of today's edition entirely to this article, in which three journalists discover US online gun stores don't follow Australia's extremely...

wiesenthal: Palestinian demo girl with mock explosives shocks Germans - probe
Excerpt: Photographs of a young girl strapped with mock explosives at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin have sparked an investigation by German authorities. The man pictured carrying the...

cnn: Photographer, ex-deputy coroner sentenced in morgue photos case
Excerpt: A photographer and a former deputy coroner have been sentenced to prison for taking pictures of corpses posed with props. The judge described the incident as an "invasion of privacy",...

bbc: MoD withdraws 'bomb-making guide'
Excerpt: Britain's Ministry of Defence has removed a document from the Public Record Office, after complaints yesterday that declassified atomic bomb plans were available. The withdrawl comes...

bbc: US court quashes child porn law
Excerpt: The US Supreme Court has reportedly overturned a federal law which banned virtual or "morphed" child pornography. Politech has some further details , including a note that suggests the...

reuters: Strait-laced Singapore plans review of censorship laws
Excerpt: Singapore plans to review its censorship rules, with the government ackowledging that Singaporeans have become "better educated and more discerning" since the last review 10 years ago. Via...

eprint: Cryptanalysis of Block Ciphers with Overdefined Systems of Equations
Excerpt: A paper by Nicolas Courtois and Josef Pieprzyk proposes a new cryptanalysis of a class of ciphers which includes Serpent and Rijndael (AES). The results, while interesting, don't appear to...

salon: In defense of copyright
Excerpt: Salon interviews Morton David Goldberg, an IP lawyer who had petitioned the American Bar Association to file a brief defending the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act against Eric Eldred's...

bbc: Bloody Sunday films 'not biased'
Excerpt: Britain's TV watchdog, the Independent Television Commission, has cleared two documentaries after accusations of bias by viewers. It's not clear what punishment would have been handed out...

bbc: Zimbabwe journalist arrested
Excerpt: The editor of The Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent newspaper, has been charged over an article alleging government manipulation of last month's election results. Geoff Nyarota...

theage: UK reveals atomic bomb guide
Excerpt: Declassified plans and documents from Britain's atomic weapons program are available in the Public Record Office, prompting calls for the documents to be reclassified and removed. The US...

newsbytes: Google Provides Scientology Warnings To Free Speech Site
Excerpt: Google has begun providing copies of DMCA infringement notices to chillingeffects.org. The notice that led to the removal last month of anti-Scientology pages is available here ....

nytimes: Silicon Valley's Spy Game
Excerpt: The NY Times reports on the technology industry's rush to sell intelligence tools to anti-terrorism agencies. Lawrence Lessig, who teaches law at Stanford and is the nation's leading...

newhouse: In the Name of Homeland Security, Telecom Firms Are Deluged With Subpoenas
Excerpt: According to Newhouse News, US law enforcement agencies are making very heavy use of their new powers to order ISPs and phone companies to hand over customer information. Behind the...

nandotimes: Companies may now monitor employees' instant messages
Excerpt: Nando Times reports companies are beginning to monitor their employees' use of instant messaging software. The article mentions Communicator Hub , a private IM service some corporations...

cnet: Anti-copying firm eases CD controls
Excerpt: SunnComm has offered a compromise on its CD copy protection software, providing a new feature that allows listeners to email self-destructing copies of songs to friends. Emailed copies...

reuters: FTC re-examines video game ratings
Excerpt: The FTC is in the process of writing a new report on the sale of "mature" video games to minors, in response to queries from the US congress. [Interactive Digital Software Association...

washingtonpost: Too Many Unresolved Questions On ID Cards, Study Panel Says
Excerpt: A committee from the US National Academy of Sciences has raised "serious concerns" about the viability of a national identification system, including doubts as to whether an ID card could...

independent: The bloody evidence of the tragedy that is Jenin
Excerpt: Israel's media blackout appears to have spawned allegations of a massacre and subsequent coverup in Jenin. Estimates at the number of dead vary widely , and the lack of media access...

nytimes: China Evades U.N. Criticism of Rights Abuses
Excerpt: The UN has failed to issue a criticism of China's human rights record, despite evidence rights violations are increasing, because no member nations were willing to sponsor a resolution....

washingtonpost: Military Courts Get New Powers
Excerpt: The US government has issued new procedures and sentencing rules for military courts-martial. The new rules allow gag orders, and include adultery amongst the list of offences. The...

cnn: Pakistani police beat reporters at Musharraf rally
Excerpt: According to CNN, at least 22 journalists were beaten by Pakistani police at a weekend rally for President Pervez Musharraf. Unrest began when Khalid Maqbool, the governor of Punjab...

independent: British Jews demand tougher line on race-hate crimes after attacks
Excerpt: An Oxford University lecturer may face charges under Britain's new anti-terrorism act for comments he made in an interview with an Egyptian newspaper comparing Israeli settlers with Nazis....

politech: FBI, DEA classified databases now open to local cops
Excerpt: US Attorney General Ashcroft has announced a new cooperation initiative which will open formerly classified FBI databases to local police departments. Just two days ago the FBI was...

ft: Murdoch company 'leaked rival's TV codes'
Excerpt: A security consultant has made fresh allegations against NDS that the software company, owned by Rupert Murdoch, helped crack the smart cards used to decrypt satellite broadcasts by...

zdnet: Tech standard secures Web services
Excerpt: IBM, Microsoft and Verisign plan to release a new standard for web services security. The specification will reportedly use the recently announced standards for XML encryption and...

wired: Software Writers Patently Enraged
Excerpt: Software developers and cryptographers have announced they will fight the encryption patent awarded last year to Maz Technologies. The US patent has been described as broad enough to...

theregister: Europe elbows Internet content 'blocking'
Excerpt: The EU Parliament has voted against forcing internet blocking on ISPs. The decision comes just days after authorities in Dusseldorf unveiled a plan to order internet providers to block...

latimes: Military Draft in Germany Upheld by Highest Court
Excerpt: The German Constitutional Court has ruled that military conscription is legal and does not violate citizens' rights. The Constitutional Court also rejected claims that the draft...

latimes: Ohio Ban on Concealed Guns Voided
Excerpt: A state appeals court has overturned an Ohio ban on carrying concealed firearms. Just six states, all in the Midwest, block citizens from walking or driving the streets with loaded...

washingtonpost: Nine Die in Venezuala Protest
Excerpt: Five Venezualan television stations were shut down prior to a demonstration at the presidential palace that left nine dead and 88 wounded. Chavez angrily accused the news media of...

afp: Lebanese newspaper owner risks jail over pro-Israel ad
Excerpt: The owner of a Lebanese newspaper may face 15 years jail for allowing a pro-Israeli advertisement to be published. See also this earlier report from Wednesday. Jamil Mroueh owns...

ap: Man Faces Prison for Video Monitor
Excerpt: A Swedish man faces prison on charges of breaking surveillance laws after setting a video camera to watch the street in front of his apartment. Zmejkoski has admitted he mounted the...

loompanics: Fake ID After 9/11
Excerpt: John Q. Newman follows the changes in application procedures for various ID cards after September 11. Via End the War on Freedom . One proposal being considered is to make the...

guardian: Full text of Nik Gowing's al-Jazeera feature
Excerpt: Nik Gowing examines the Pengagon's claim that Al-Jazeera's Kabul offices were a valid military target when they were bombed last year. Via The War In Context . In a recent...

reuters: Net users out to sink anti-piracy bill
Excerpt: Fritz Hollings' CBDTPA bill has drawn a huge number of complaints. A grass-roots group called DigitalConsumer.org, which did not exist a month ago, claims to have signed up 24,000...

zdnet: Kazaa may contain a 'New' surprise
Excerpt: Kazaa offers its users yet another reason to avoid its software; this time a hidden feature designed to redirect DNS lookups to an affiliate service. The software in question is...

siliconvalley: Andreessen: Copy protection efforts are doomed
Excerpt: Marc Andreessen has delivered a keynote speech warning the broadcasting industry their efforts to implement copy protection are destined to fail. "If a computer can see it, display it...

nytimes: Virginia G.O.P. Director Accused of Wiretapping
Excerpt: A Virginia Republican party official faces wiretapping charges after listening in on a conference call between Democratic party members. The indictment stems from two incidents in...

independent: Police seek CCTV vans to combat street crime
Excerpt: The British Home Office is considering the use of roving police vans fitted with closed-circuit TV cameras. The proposal comes despite recent reports that CCTV is ineffective as a crime...

ananova: UK citizens' fingerprints and iris scans to go on database
Excerpt: UK Passport and Drivers License administrators are considering merging their identification databases and issuing cards with biometric data. In early February the Home Secretary David...

guardian: Sesame Street legal: Furore over Bert and Ernie gay flick
Excerpt: Lawyers representing the US television show Sesame Street have threatened legal action over a short film which parodies the characters Bert and Ernie as gay lovers. The film is likely to...

bbc: US firm offers stars DNA copyright
Excerpt: A San Fransisco firm wants to help people copyright their DNA. The article fails to mention that copyright can only be claimed on original works of authoriship , and not discoveries - a...

theage: New code to stop zoom-zoom ads in their tracks
Excerpt: Australian automotive advertisers will have to comply with a new code prohibiting commercials that "glorify speed" or promote "aggressive driving". Melbourne's Formula 1 Grand Prix is...

latimes: FBI Criticized on Data Access
Excerpt: The FBI is facing criticism for dropping restrictions on internal access to previosly classified information, including wiretap and other surveillance records, following the September 11...

nytimes: Secret List of Potential Suitors for Global Crossing Exposed
Excerpt: The names of 50 companies that had expressed a confidential interest in purchasing Global Crossing have accidentally been leaked, after a lawyer included the full list of addresses in a...

faz: Filtering Nazis: Dusseldorf Seeks to Block Sites
Excerpt: German authorities are attempting to force ISPs to block access to offshore web sites that publish "Nazi pages". Officials don't say whether this would include extremist sites such as the...

washingtonpost: US Loses Edge on Spy Satellites
Excerpt: The US government is concerned that commercially available reconnaissance satellites are now able to provide useful military intelligence. Perhaps a half-dozen countries as well as...

haaretz: IDF's silence spawns rumors on Web
Excerpt: Ha'aretz Daily suggests the IDF's news blackout has backfired, leading to rumours and unsubstantiated reports spreading quickly through the web and online discussion forums. The IDF...

latimes: Court Upholds Anonymity for Book Buyers
Excerpt: Further analysis on yesterday's ruling that the Tattered Cover, a Colorado bookstore, is not required to hand over its sales records to police. Since the ruling relies in large part...

afp: Lebanese ministry calls for action against US paper
Excerpt: Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi has called for legal action against a US newspaper after it published a pro-Israeli advertisement in its Beirut edition. The Prosecutor-General...

australian: Journalists held in West Bank
Excerpt: Journalists in Ramallah have been confined to their hotels, after another series of clashes with Israeli soldiers. Journalists from the Associated Press news agency, who also ventured...

nytimes: ID Cards for `Trusted Travelers' Run Into Some Thorny Questions
Excerpt: The NY Times raises doubts over plans to allow "trusted" passengers to avoid airport screening by presenting secure identification. "What makes a trusted traveler?" asked Richard P....

wired: Cyanide Anarchist a Hacker, Too?
Excerpt: The FBI has reportedly interrogated the attendees of the Chicago 2600 gathering, seeking information about Joseph Konopka, who was recently charged with illegally possessing cyanide....

wired: Just How Trusty Is Truste?
Excerpt: Truste finally realises that they lack the reputation necessary to provide a stamp of privacy approval, largely due to their own mismanagement. Rather than revoking seals left and...

nytimes: 4 Accused of Passing Messages for Egyptian Terror Group
Excerpt: A lawyer and a translator are among four people charged with passing messages to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who is serving a sentence for terrorist consipiracies. Mr Rahman is prohibited...

eetimes: Encryption scales to fit smaller RF ID tags
Excerpt: EE Times reports on a new public-key crypto algorithm from NTRU , which it claims is much faster than RSA on low-end embedded systems. Via Hack the Planet . Rather than encode...

thestar: Singapore lawmakers speak out against self-censorship
Excerpt: The Malaysian Star reports on moves by Singapore's parliament to free up political debate and dissent amongst its members. The mention of "self-censorship" seems misleading, given the use...

aap: Rip sexist billboards down: report
Excerpt: Recommendations released to the Victorian Government by the Women's Affairs Minister include restrictions on billboard advertising to prohibit sexist language and provocative images of...

haaretz: Beyond the hills of darkness
Excerpt: Ha'aretz Daily reports on the lack of war coverage by Israeli reporters after the IDF media blackout . Via The War in Context . Yehezkeli has a bellyful of complaints against the...

zdnet: Can Bertelsmann's copy lock stop leaks?
Excerpt: BMG plans to install copy-protection measures on promotional CDs it releases to radio stations and journalists in an effort to prevent unreleased albums making their way onto file sharing...

cnet: Financial firms turn on secure IM
Excerpt: The developer of a "secure" instant messaging service, Communicator Hub , says major companies are signing on because the encrypted service meets their security requirements....

sfgate: Copyright's Next Chapter
Excerpt: The SF Gate gives a historical perspective on the proposed CBDTPA copy protection law, and characterises the debate as a fight between Hollywood and the technology industry. Sen....

latimes: Journalists Are Kept at Bay by Israeli Bullets
Excerpt: Reporters sans Frontieres claims the ban on journalists reporting from Ramallah and other war zones is not intended to protect their safety, but to prevent coverage of military...

ap: Court strikes bookstore sales record search
Excerpt: The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled the Tattered Cover bookstore is not required to provide its sales records to police. The bookstore had appealed a ruling by a Denver court that the...

guardian: 'Bomb plot' Britons to be spared death by the Saudi sword
Excerpt: Saudi authorities have dropped terrorism charges against five British men, who say they were tortured into confessing to planting bombs. They now face relatively minor charges of smuggling...

australian: Israel raids TV newsrooms
Excerpt: Israeli soldiers have raided the offices of two Arab television stations in Ramallah. Last week the Israeli army denied accusations from residents of Ramallah that they seized control of...

australianit: Corporate spying grows
Excerpt: A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey suggests industrial espionage is on the rise, and recommends the use of encryption in order to protect commercial secrets. "If a customer list is...

nylawjournal: Pro-Bin Laden Speech Leads to Disorderly Conduct Charge
Excerpt: The NY Law Journal reports on William Harvey, charged with disorderly conduct after delivering an anti-American speech near the ruins of the World Trade Center, while displaying an image of...

reuters: Judges scan through porn filter holes
Excerpt: Judges in the CIPA trial appear skeptical towards internet filtering products. "We're stuck right in the heart of the First Amendment when we're talking about libraries," observed...

cnet: IBM beefs up digital rights software
Excerpt: IBM has released a new version of its "Electronic Media Management" DRM software. Interestingly, this new version seems to be targetted at a more realistic goal than copy protection of...

latimes: Crackdown on Terror Funding Is Questioned
Excerpt: Some US authorities are concerned over efforts to freeze the assets of groups suspected of funding terrorists. At least one group is suing the government after their assets were seized...

independent: Zimbabwe protests stifled by riot police
Excerpt: As expected , a weekend protest in Zimbabwe, by groups demanding constitutional changes and a new presidential election, was dispersed by riot police. At least one journalist was...

idg: Survey: SSL encryption weaker in Europe
Excerpt: The latest Netcraft SSL survey suggests laws governing the export and use of cryptography have resulted in a significant number of sites using inadequate key lengths for SSL...

nytimes: Latin America's Muzzled Press
Excerpt: The NY Times reports on intimidation and censorship of journalists in South America. Via Privacy Digest . The nature of the threat facing the media varies by country, but some...

nist: FIPS 198 HMAC standard
Excerpt: NIST has formally announced the approval of FIPS 198, the Keyed Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC) standard. This standard describes a keyed-hash message authentication code...

washingtontimes: Firms eye anti-terror profiling
Excerpt: Major US financial and credit card firms have met to discuss using their databases and customer profiles to report possible terrorist activity. It's not clear from the article what the...

zdnet: How to: Uninstall Brilliant software
Excerpt: CNet explains how to remove the stealth software hidden inside Kazaa's file sharing application. 1. In the Windows Control Panel, select an option called "Add/Remove Programs." One...

zdnet: Terrorized by file swappers
Excerpt: John Borland interviews MPAA CEO Jack Valenti over Senator Hollings' CBDTPA bill. [Valenti:] I issued a statement in support of it. But we want to narrow the focus of the bill as...

salon: Free speech and the Internet; a fish story
Excerpt: Salon details a free speech lawsuit with a twist - this time the plaintiff is also suing the fund set up to help pay legal expenses for the defense. "I've been an attorney for over 20...

cnet: Is your e-mail watching you?
Excerpt: A mostly clueless piece from CNet on spam tactics, riddled with technical errors, but true enough in its conclusions. The rise of e-mail tracking runs parallel to the adoption of "rich...

wired: Falwell Preaches Against Parody
Excerpt: The Reverend Jerry Falwell has lodged a WIPO complaint about two parody web sites, jerryfalwell.com and jerryfallwell.com . In October, Falwell's lawyer, John Midlen, sent Cohn a...

latimes: Judge Rejects Closure of Terrorism Hearings
Excerpt: A US federal judge has for the first time ruled against the government's policy of secret trials for immigration and terrorism hearings. Last month a county superior court judge ruled the...

latimes: FBI Security Reform Sees More Use of Polygraphs
Excerpt: The FBI looks set to increase its scrutiny of employees even further, expanding the use of polygraph tests and computer auditing, as it prepares for the release of a report on the Hanssen...

cnn: Zimbabwe groups to defy police ban
Excerpt: Zimbabwean civic group NCA plans to proceed with a weekend protest despite yesterday's warning by police. "We are going ahead with the planned march which is guaranteed under...

bbc: Pop stars protest piracy in Taiwan
Excerpt: The Taiwan branch of the IFPI has organised a protest over music copying, attended by pop stars from Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong. See also this Reuters article . The Taiwan...

reuters: Judge: U.S. has jurisdiction in DMCA case
Excerpt: A US federal judge has refused to dismiss copyright violation charges against Elcomsoft, saying the court has jurisdiction even though the actions took place outside the US, where they are...

advertiser: Copying CDs as easy ABCD
Excerpt: An Australian company is installing CD duplicating machines in Adelaide convenience stores. The machines include "software to circumvent anti-copying measures", which would appear to be...

nytimes: Private Armenian TV Station Loses License
Excerpt: A private Armenian television station has lost its broadcasting license under a new press law. The private station, called A1+, lost its frequency as a result of a new press law that...

reuters: Zimbabwe police to ban protest
Excerpt: Zimbabwean police look set to ban a protest by the NCA, an umbrella organisation including church, student and human rights groups, because of their "political agenda". [Police...

guardian: Keep out, Israel warns US broadcasters
Excerpt: Israel has threatened legal action against news organisations that continue to broadcast from Ramallah in violation of military censorship rules. Two Abu Dhabi journalists have had their...

editorandpublisher: Most Far-Reaching Gag Order In 1st Amend. History?
Excerpt: An opinion piece on new US laws which allow the FBI to seize sales lists from bookstores, and prohibit anyone from disclosing anything about the search, even to their lawyers. Via Cowlix...

politech: The "hidden" privacy issue in Internet radio fees
Excerpt: According to Politech , the CARP ruling includes yet another reason for US internet radio stations to move offshore: it requires stations to hand over detailed logs, including IP...

latimes: Detainee Is Bin Laden Aide; 'He Knows Where People Are'
Excerpt: According to this LA Time sreport, the Saudi man suspected of being one of Osama Bin Laden's "top deputies" has been arrested and detained without charge, and faces interrogation by US...

Spiders, Bots and Scripts
Excerpt: zem.squidly.org is currently being overrun by various unidentifiable spiders, bots and scripts, some of which are hitting the weblog page several times a minute. This is significantly...

cnn: U.S. to issue more secure passports
Excerpt: The US State Department has unveiled a new "secure" passport that includes some biometric data and other unspecified security measures. The article fails to mention that while the new...

guardian: Workers gagged by Chinese censorship
Excerpt: The Guardian reports on the censorship of news reporting within China. It is also an image which is not remotely likely to be seen in any Chinese newspaper or on any Chinese television...

independent: A new right to privacy?
Excerpt: Analysis from the UK Independent on the likely effects of the High Court ruling in Naomi Campbell's privacy case . But the Campbell case also holds real dangers for investigative...

bbc: Man held over 'terrorist documents'
Excerpt: British police have arrested a man for possessing documents "likely to be of use" to terrorists. It's unclear as to whether the Sunday newspaper falls into that category. The arrest...

theage: Police can't stop photos of boys on gay websites
Excerpt: Following yesterday's investigation of a gay web site which featured images of young lifesavers, the Victorian police have confirmed there was nothing illegal about the site. The Premier...

afp: Porn upsets Palestinians
Excerpt: Residents of Ramallah have accused Israeli soldiers of taking control of three Palestinian television stations and replacing news broadcasts with pornography and programs in Hebrew. The...

cnet: Stealth P2P network hides inside Kazaa
Excerpt: Kazaa gives its users yet another privacy concern, on top of the existing spyware and adware issues: a second p2p network hidden within the Kazaa software, designed to host commercial...

aap: Govt to look at gay website
Excerpt: The Victorian Premier has raised concerns over a web site which features "unauthorised" images of young lifesavers. Note that the law does not require published pictures to be authorised...

washingtonpost: Israeli Troops Kick CBS Out
Excerpt: A US television crew has been expelled from Ramallah by Israeli soldiers, following yesterday's order closing the area to journalists. The Foreign Press Association in Israel...

bbc: Setback for 'US Taleban' defence
Excerpt: Lawyers defending John Walker Lindh have been refused access to witnesses and documents detailing Lindh's confession, which they say may have been made under questionable conditions. The...

nytimes: In Mexico, Pirated Music Outsells the Legal Kind
Excerpt: According to the NY Times, pirated CDs outsell official releases in Mexico. It's not clear where those figures come from. Record companies are blaming insufficient law enforcement for...

nytimes: A Breach Prompts Israel to Bar Foreign Media From Ramallah
Excerpt: The Israeli government has threatened to fine or close down news organisations that report on military operations or hire Palestinians. The government is frustrated at foreign news...

bbc: Zimbabwe releases journalist
Excerpt: A journalist for the UK Daily Telegraph has been released by Zimbabwe's High Court after spending 5 days in jail over accusations of violating media laws . Ms Thornycroft, 57, was...

bbc: Paxman returns Enigma machine
Excerpt: The Enigma machine stolen from Bletchley Park two years ago has finally been officially returned. The World War II encoding machine has not been on display at the historic...

newsbytes: Senior Activist Jailed For Web Rant
Excerpt: A retired journalism professor has been jailed for contempt of court until he removes content from his web site - but has no internet access from jail. Lawyers suggest the contempt charge...

nytimes: Dutch Court Clears Web Music Swapping
Excerpt: A Dutch appeals court has ruled the software company KaZaA is not liable for copyright infringement by users of its network, in a case initiated by the music rights organisation Buma...

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