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freedom and technology

archive : 2003-10

LOC says censorware blacklists exempt from DMCA
Excerpt: The US Library of Congress has issued a ruling exempting certain types of reverse engineering from DMCA anti-circumvention provisions. Amongst other things, the ruling allows for the cracking and...

Censorship and surveillance by protest groups
Excerpt: Evan Coyne Maloney at Brain Terminal describes surveillance and censorship by pro-Palestinian protesters at a "solidarity conference" at Rutgers university. [ed: our Crack Team of Reporters has...

EU unveils smart card health ID plan
Excerpt: The UK Telegraph reports on a new EU plan for a Union-wide health ID card, which will include biometric data. Critics say it's a step towards consolidating passports, drivers licenses, bank...

MPAA: free equals theft. Children: regulatory arbitrage rulez.
Excerpt: Wired has an update on the MPAA's propaganda efforts against copyright infringement. A new lesson plan teaches children that media which hasn't been paid for is stolen - which must be news to...

US judge orders reporters to reveal sources
Excerpt: A US Federal Judge has ordered a number of journalists to reveal their sources, in a followup to the Wen Ho Lee espionage case. U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson late last week...

Bernstein encryption case dismissed
Excerpt: A US court has dismissed Daniel Bernstein's appeal against ITAR export restrictions of encryption software. Bernstein had been in a good position to win the case on first amendment grounds, until...

NSW MP uses 'get out of search warrant free' card
Excerpt: AAP says the ICAC seized computers belonging to NSW upper house MP, as part of a corruption investigation, but has been prevented from viewing the contents due to parliamentary privilege. For the...

China tries democracy activist over internet articles
Excerpt: The Chinese government has tried yet another a democracy activist on subversion charges, for publishing letters and articles on the internet. He Depu's trial in Beijing No. 1 Intermediate...

P2P, WOT and identity-based security
Excerpt:Cringely has an op-ed piece on identity, in which he proposes a social web-of-trust as a solution to spam and various other everyday security issues. A good idea, though nothing new. More...

Padilla appeal recap
Excerpt: The Village Voice has a followup on the progress of Jose Padilla 's appeal, which is due to be heard next month. "There is no constitutionally approved definition of who is an 'enemy...

Turkish journalists counter censorship
Excerpt: The Guardian reports on the BIA , a network of Turkish journalists seeking to counter government censorship by publishing their own work. [ed: they have English articles on the site, but it's...

ASIS agents allowed guns again
Excerpt: The Australian government is considering reversing a 20 year old decision prohibiting agents of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service - the country's CIA or MI6 equivalent - from carrying...

US using military drones, tactics on Mexican border
Excerpt: Reuters says US customs is testing military tactics and equipment, including unmanned aerial drones used in Afghanistan, for use along the Mexican border. "The UAVs, which have played an...

Accused hacker claims joe-job
Excerpt: A UK teenager facing charges of hacking a US network says he's the victim of a joe-job. It's surprising this defense isn't used more often - in effect, it takes all the hyperbole and technical...

SunComm drops DMCA threat against Princeton student
Excerpt: SunComm has backed down on earlier threats to sue a Princeton student for publishing a research paper exposing flaws in their CD copy protection product. Peter Jacobs, the chief executive...

State Dept lists web sites as banned terrorist groups
Excerpt: Reuters says the US State Department has started adding web sites to its list of terrorist groups. This makes it illegal to provide "support" to those sites, but probably not to view them. The...

Review panel finds bias in ABC war reports
Excerpt: An independent review panel says the ABC, Australia's government-funded broadcaster, breached directives requiring objective news reporting by allowing reporters to editorialize during coverage of...

SunComm to sue student over CD copying paper
Excerpt:DRM developer SunComm has threatened to sue Princeton student John A Halderman for publishing a research paper that describes flaws in SunComm's latest CD copy protection system. Halderman, a...

'Spackers' offer untraceable hosting to spammers
Excerpt: Wired says spammers are increasingly relying on hacked systems, both to deliver spam and to host "untraceable" web sites. The strategy appears to be a direct response to standard anti-spam...

Why is the FBI using Patriot Act against journalists?
Excerpt: A week old but still important: this lengthy SecurityFocus piece by Mark Rasch examines the FBI's use of obscure Patriot Act provisions to demand journalists' notes, apparently in violation of...

UK tries to link virus authors with terrorism
Excerpt: Reuters says UK investigators are trying to find a link between computer viruses and terrorism or organized crime. The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, or NHTCU, has started working with...

RIAA anti-p2p arguments misleading
Excerpt: A TownHall.com opinion piece rebuts several of the RIAA's arguments against file sharing. However, the [RIAA] blames a one-third decline in music sales over the last three years on...

Fear the DMCA, not the RIAA
Excerpt: This Washington Post opinion piece (from last weekend) argues that public anger against the RIAA over its anti-technology fight is distracting from the real problem: the DMCA. All this isn't to...

FBI bug found in Philadelphia Mayor's office
Excerpt: The FBI has acknowledged responsibility for a listening device that was found in the Philadelphia Mayor's office. They're not saying why. Three federal law enforcement officials, speaking on...

UN police arrest union protester in East Timor
Excerpt: AAP is reporting an Australian union official has been arrested by UN police after protesting at an East Timor airport. Union officials say the reason for his arrest is unclear, since the protest...

FBI journalist subpoena warnings broke procedures
Excerpt: The DoJ says the FBI broke its own procedures in threatening to issue subpoenas for journalists' notes on Adrian Lamo , according to AP. The FBI had issued orders, under a Patriot Act provision...

Shift key is a DMCA circumvention device?
Excerpt: Via Slashdot , a report by a Princeton computer science student says Suncomm's new MediaMax CD copy protection system can be bypassed by holding down the Shift key while loading the CD. The...

Argentina police records show scope of surveillance
Excerpt: AP says newly discovered records show widespread surveillance of students, unions and dissidents by Argentine police between 1976 and 1983. Files compiled by Buenos Aires police between 1957...

Janet Reno funded Hamas
Excerpt: When is it considered acceptable to fund Hamas? When you're the Attorney General, apparently. AP says Janet Reno approved a sting operationg to deliver cash to terrorist groups - an act that...

More reasons to encrypt: Enron employee email database online
Excerpt: More reasons to encrypt your email: The US FEC has posted an online database containing 2 years of Enron emails, including employees' personal mail. One of the included emails - which has since...

China jails CDC official for leaking documents
Excerpt: AFP says the Chinese government has sentenced a CDC official to 10 years in prison for leaking information about the coverup of the Henan AIDS epidemic. Ma Shiwen, deputy director of the Henan...

UK calls for global anti-spam laws
Excerpt: Reuters reports on calls from UK lawmakers to coordinate anti-spam laws worldwide. Such a move would do little other than make them uniformly ineffective. [ed: see here for some other reasons...

HR groups say anti-terror fight used for political purposes
Excerpt: Human rights group ALTSEAN says SE Asian nations are hiding political repression under the guise of anti-terrorism, particularly in Burma/Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia. "ASEAN governments...

More on compulsory licensing problems
Excerpt: Miriam Rainsford at OpenP2P details the problems with compulsory licensing schemes as a method of compensating artists for copying. She gives broader coverage of some issues we've mentioned here...

Charter Comms files RIAA countersuit
Excerpt: The St Louis Post says Charter Communications has filed a lawsuit to block the RIAA from issuing subpoenas for subscriber identities. Charter's PR paints it as a valiant attempt to protect their...

Syria bars journalists from bomb site
Excerpt: AP says Syrian security forces are refusing to let independent journalists view the site bombed in an Israeli air strike on Sunday. State run newspapers appear to have no shortage of coverage....

EFF 5 year DMCA summary
Excerpt: The EFF has posted a summary of 5 years of the DMCA's chilling effects. In practice, the anti-circumvention provisions have been used to stifle a wide array of legitimate activities, rather...

EFA lists problems in Australian anti-spam bill
Excerpt: Electronic Frontiers Australia has an analysis of the forthcoming Australian anti-spam legislation. Not only does the bill exempt certain senders from prosecution (including the government, of...

Vic police target 11yo girls with metal detectors
Excerpt: More on the new powers granted to Victorian police, which allow the use of metal detectors to search people for weapons: Police Minister Andre Haermeyer says they girls aged 11 to 13 are amongst...

RIAA trying to cause a class action suit against p2p networks?
Excerpt: Reuters has an interesting quote from US Sentator Orrin Hatch, who says it's possible that the users of file sharing applications could launch a class action lawsuit against ISPs or p2p network...

Saudi rulers ban National Geographic
Excerpt: AP says the Saudi government has banned the latest issue of National Geographic magazine , apparently because it features a cover article on the kingdom. Via The Agonist . Editors of...

Venezuelan govt shuts down TV station, seizes equipment
Excerpt: AP says the Venezuelan government has shut down a private television station, cutting cables and seizing equipment. Authorities with the state telecommunications committee, Conatel, took...

Petition asks Cuban government for human rights
Excerpt: AP says a Cuban activist has again delivered a petition to the government, asking for human rights such as free speech and freedom of assembly. Previous petitions have been ignored. It was the...

MS Windows email exploit leads to Half Life 2 source code leak?
Excerpt: A Windows email virus or trojan horse appears to have led to the leak of a portion of the Half Life 2 source code, according to this BBC report. It's been clear for some time that the damage from...

FAA to require video cameras in commercial airliners?
Excerpt: Wired says the US Federal Aviation Administration is considering requiring video cameras in the cockpit and cabin of commercial flights. The cameras, which have already been tested, broadcast...

Passenger profiling analysis
Excerpt: The LA Times has a lengthy article about the accuracy of passenger profiling systems like CAPPS and CAPPS II. It suggests the systems can easily be defeated. Even if that's incorrect, the false...

US DNA law overturned
Excerpt: A US appeals court has overturned as unconstitutional a federal law requiring convicted criminals to provide DNA samples for an FBI database. It's not clear what will happen to the FBI's existing...

Peruvian govt surveillance network corrupted
Excerpt: Reuters says electronic surveillance is commonplace in Peru, with ex-government equipment and networks now used for blackmail and political purposes. A similar problem was recently reported in...

Australian police crack encryption password
Excerpt: The Age says Victorian police were able to successfully launch a brute-force attack against a password used to encrypt a defendant's child pornography collection. The encryption system isn't...

Microsoft sued over software liability
Excerpt: Reuters reports on a class-action lawsuit that seeks to hold Microsoft accountable for security vulnerabilities in its software. The anti-Microsoft crowd will be cheering them on; but don't...

Interpol head says anti-terror laws abused, unchecked
Excerpt: The head of Interpol says law enforcement officials have abused anti-terrorism to harass innocent citizens, according to Reuters. Ronald K. Noble, secretary general of the 181-nation police...

Russia uses media laws to hinder election coverage
Excerpt: The Russian Press Ministry is using new media laws to prevent coverage of the forthcoming elections, according to this Guardian report. Two magazines have already been warned not to continue...

Everyone is a journalist
Excerpt: Glenn Reynolds makes a familiar but important point about journalism, anonymous sources and free speech rights: we are all journalists. The reason given is twofold: (1) Reporters have a First...

Zimbabwe paper loses claim
Excerpt: Reuters says the Zimbabwe High Court has refused to return seized equipment to the Daily News . The reasons are unclear, since the decision was made in secret. Wednesday, ANZ lawyer Gugulethu...

UK ISPA wants to ban rumors
Excerpt: CNN says UK ISPs want the government to prohibit the posting of "rumors" on web chat boards. British newspapers printed allegations from a 17-year-old girl that she was raped by a number of...

13 journalists receive Lamo notes demands
Excerpt: AP says 13 reporters have received FBI letters warning them to prepare to hand over their notes about Adrian Lamo . A Sept. 19 letter from the FBI directs Associated Press reporter Ted Bridis...

Interview with Al Arabiya founder
Excerpt: The Washington Times has an interview with Walid al-Ibrahim, the operator of the Arabic satellite news channel Al Arabiya. Alongside Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya was expelled by the Iraqi Governing...

Vic police get new search powers, handheld metal detectors
Excerpt: AP says Victorian police have new powers allowing them to use handheld metal detectors to search people for knives. [Police Minister Andre Haermeyer] said the new laws, which come into effect...

DoJ targets journalists with subpoenas, Patriot Act
Excerpt: AP says journalists are preparing to challenge DoJ subpoenas seeking information about the White House staffer who leaked a CIA agent's identity. Subpoenas could be challenged on the basis of...

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