Mostly from Slashdot, not much this weekend out there:
show us the Code!
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/25/009222
IRS to ebay: Snitch on your customers!
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/24/2113211
Software grounds the F-22 (hope the same software isnt in the intercontinental nukes):
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/25/2038217
Creative Commons 3.0 launched:
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/02/26/1157223.shtml
Sorry, they can be grabbed at:
http://zorak.monmouth.edu/~posten/security.ppt
-----Original Message-----
Sent: 2/21/2007 2:36 PM
Subject: The Power Point Slides
Dear Prof. Posten,
I didn't see the Power Point slides on the class website.
Irony at its best!
from the ah,-irony dept
We've covered way too many bogus DMCA takedown notices, but sometimes new ones stand out for being extra special. Wendy Seltzer, a law professor who used to work for the EFF and who founded the awesome Chilling Effects clearinghouse for providing an archive of various takedown notices, has apparently received her very own first DMCA takedown notice (found via Boing Boing). Seltzer posted a snippet from the Superbowl for her students to see. Not just any snippet, mind you, but the snippet where its announced: "This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience. Any other use of this telecast or of any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent, is prohibited." She posted it as an example of a copyright holder exaggerating its rights -- as the NFL cannot ban all of the things they ban in that statement. Yes, this is getting more and more ironic. Take a moment to think this through for the layer upon layer of absurdity. A law professor puts up a short clip for educational purposes (fair use allows both short clips and educational uses of content) for the sake of showing how the NFL exaggerates its copyright control -- and the NFL responds by then sending a DMCA takedown notice to better highlight how they not only exaggerate their claims, but then misuse the law to shut down fair use as well. Somehow, though, I doubt the NFL planned to help Seltzer demonstrate how the law is abused by trying to takedown her example of how they were abusing the law (got that?). Either way, it seems that the NFL is helping prove Seltzer's point.
Forwarded reply to a previous it10250 student with answers that may be
of interest to existing students:
---
Hi Brian! Let me see if I can answer your questions as best I can. I
am no expert in Solaris, I stopped at Solaris 2.5.1 and there have been
years of improvements since then but will see what I can do.
-I had you last semester for IT and we talked about linux and Solaris 10.
-I have an HP(Compaq) R4000 laptop(AMD 64) and was thinking about
-installing the software to use as my OS. Question?
-1 Should I do this?
Well, the key questions here are CAN and SHOULD. You certainly CAN on a
machine of this calibre. Should is much more tricky. What are your
goals for doing so?
Common answers would be things like:
To avoid virusses and spam / get safer surfing
To learn more about Linux and Unix
To avoid Microsoft products
Because it is interesting/fun
Skillset for employment
Embrace Free and Open Source philosophy
If you find yourself saying 'yes' to any of the above, then yes, maybe
Solaris or Linux is a good fit for you.
-2 Can I access XP from the Solaris? Or like switch OS to OS
You sure can. In fact if you use something called a Live CD, you never
install the new OS at all, you simply boot to it from CD, do your work
in that OS and then the next time you reboot, XP is back like it never
knew it wasnt running. The downside of course is the CD is a LOT slower
than a hard disk. If you find that you like the new OS, you can install
it so that you get a Dual Boot mode, ie you can choose to run XP or the
new OS each time you reboot. You need to set a part of your hard disk
aside as a seperate partition, this is somewhat tricky but definitly
doable, especially if you follow any of the billion tutorials available
online.
The Solaris Live CD can be found here:
http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/3647306
<http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/3647306>
You can also check out Knoppix at:
http://www.knoppix.org <http://www.knoppix.org>
and Ubuntu at:
http://www.ubuntu.com <http://www.ubuntu.com>
Both are great versions of Linux that can be found either as installables or live CDs.
-3 I think I will have more security and be able to surf more effectively. True or False
Somewhat true, but you could get most of the benefits by simply ditching
IE and moving to Firefox. I'd start there and see how you like it.
-4. Do you like it?
For work, absolutely. For home, no I wouldnt use it as my only OS. I'm
too much of a gamer and games and Linux arent really on the same sheet.
Even Mac OSX is kind of lame as far as gaming goes.
-5. Any thing I should consider or Know about installation?
Back up everything =) And dont get discouraged if things dont go right
the first time. Unix is a lot different and it takes a bit of getting
used to, but there are many advantages in a lot of areas.
-Thanks Professor Posten, I hope you don't mind questions from time to
time.
-Brian
My pleasure! Some other great places to get you started:
http://www.pjls16812.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/knowing-knoppix/index.html
<http://www.pjls16812.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/knowing-knoppix/index.html>
http://www.justlinux.com/ <http://www.justlinux.com/>
http://www.linuxnewbieguide.org/ <http://www.linuxnewbieguide.org/>
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=8
<http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=8>
http://thelinuxnewbie.blogspot.com/
<http://thelinuxnewbie.blogspot.com/>
May I forward your question and my answer to my blog and current class?
The blog is at:
http://infotechbuzz.blogspot.com <http://infotechbuzz.blogspot.com>
Forwarded reply to a previous it10250 student with answers that may be of interest to existing students:
---
Hi Brian! Let me see if I can answer your questions as best I can. I am no expert in Solaris, I stopped at Solaris 2.5.1 and there have been years of improvements since then but will see what I can do.
-I had you last semester for IT and we talked about linux and Solaris 10.
-I have an HP(Compaq) R4000 laptop(AMD 64) and was thinking about
-installing the software to use as my OS. Question?
-1 Should I do this?
Well, the key questions here are CAN and SHOULD. You certainly CAN on a
machine of this calibre. Should is much more tricky. What are your
goals for doing so?
Common answers would be things like:
To avoid virusses and spam / get safer surfing
To learn more about Linux and Unix
To avoid Microsoft products
Because it is interesting/fun
Skillset for employment
Embrace Free and Open Source philosophy
If you find yourself saying 'yes' to any of the above, then yes, maybe
Solaris or Linux is a good fit for you.
-2 Can I access XP from the Solaris? Or like switch OS to OS
You sure can. In fact if you use something called a Live CD, you never
install the new OS at all, you simply boot to it from CD, do your work
in that OS and then the next time you reboot, XP is back like it never
knew it wasnt running. The downside of course is the CD is a LOT slower
than a hard disk. If you find that you like the new OS, you can install
it so that you get a Dual Boot mode, ie you can choose to run XP or the
new OS each time you reboot. You need to set a part of your hard disk
aside as a seperate partition, this is somewhat tricky but definitly
doable, especially if you follow any of the billion tutorials available
online.
The Solaris Live CD can be found here:
http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/3647306
<http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/3647306>
You can also check out Knoppix at:
http://www.knoppix.org <http://www.knoppix.org>
and Ubuntu at:
http://www.ubuntu.com <http://www.ubuntu.com>
Both are great versions of Linux that can be found either as installables or live CDs.
-3 I think I will have more security and be able to surf more effectively. True or False
Somewhat true, but you could get most of the benefits by simply ditching
IE and moving to Firefox. I'd start there and see how you like it.
-4. Do you like it?
For work, absolutely. For home, no I wouldnt use it as my only OS. I'm
too much of a gamer and games and Linux arent really on the same sheet.
Even Mac OSX is kind of lame as far as gaming goes.
-5. Any thing I should consider or Know about installation?
Back up everything =) And dont get discouraged if things dont go right
the first time. Unix is a lot different and it takes a bit of getting
used to, but there are many advantages in a lot of areas.
-Thanks Professor Posten, I hope you don't mind questions from time to time.
-Brian
My pleasure! Some other great places to get you started:
http://www.pjls16812.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/knowing-knoppix/index.html
<http://www.pjls16812.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/knowing-knoppix/index.html>
http://www.justlinux.com/ <http://www.justlinux.com/>
http://www.linuxnewbieguide.org/ <http://www.linuxnewbieguide.org/>
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/forumdisplay.php?s=
<http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=8>
&forumid=8
http://thelinuxnewbie.blogspot.com/
<http://thelinuxnewbie.blogspot.com/>
May I forward your question and my answer to my blog and current class?
The blog is at:
http://infotechbuzz.blogspot.com <http://infotechbuzz.blogspot.com>
http://www.vanityfair.com/ontheweb/features/2007/03/piratebay200703?currentPage=1
Surprisingly detailed look at the Pirate Bay and its users.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17050732/
Bottom line is that the total costs were less than half the cost of a superbowl commercial, but probably not the smartest thing to do. And it didn’t help ratings anyway.
What does this have to do with computers? Viral Marketing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing
The top half of the article also clearly lays down just what the national debt means to us in relative terms. Have to admit this is something I never knew that much about but was kinda worried it would be a bigger problem in the future, but knowing that compared to our actual GDP it’s not as bad as it was 50 years ago is actually a bit of a relief, but still needs to be managed better.
A good update to what Google's up to in books.
Also check out Ted Nelson's Xanadu project which preceded the Web by decades at www.xanadu.net
-----Original Message-----
Begin forwarded message:
From: Ted Nelson <tandm@xanadu.net>
Date: February 12, 2007 12:52:36 AM EST
To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Cc: Ted Nelson <tandm@xanadu.net>
Subject: recorrected :xu: EXcellent article on Google's scanning
strategy
Reply-To: tandm@xanadu.net
Hi Dave--
Everybody wonders what Google is going to do next.
Here's a great piece called "Google's Moon Shot"--
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070205fa_fact_toobin
printable at
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/070205fa_fact_toobin
Thiis excellent piece (from the Feb 12 New Yorker) describes the
current strange situation-- all the major American publishers are
suing Google for scanning their books without permission;
Google is expected to PAY THEM OFF, which it can easily afford,
gaining the keys to the kingdom.
How to deliver final information to users-- this is where I think
the Xanadu Project, with its design for parallel media views
and recomposition, is still highly relevant.
CheersT
--
Theodor Holm Nelson
Visiting Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute
Visiting Professor, University of Southampton
Founder, Project Xanadu
-------------------------------------------
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http://www.informationweek.com/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197004939&pgno=1&queryText=
In this class we will distinguish between the terms hacker and cracker, this story uses the term Hacker incorrectly technically but in the way that the general public would expect. This is a really good and detailed look at how the 'scene' works. It's BIG business these days. If you find it interesting, make sure you read the sidebar too.
http://www.wisebread.com/the-greatest-story-ever-sold-is-a-fantasy-covered-in-blood
Semi off topic, but one mission I'm on is to get more people to question the worth of diamonds. If you do the research and still feel that spending your hard earned dollars on them is worth it, more power to you, but most people I know simply listen to the marketing hype and are trained to spend ridiculous sums simply to show off. There are plenty of other truly valuable gems and metals out there that don't have a mysterious global monopoly artificially inflating the costs.
Tip of the Hat to Fake Steve Jobs (http://fakesteve.blogspot.com):
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0226/050.html?partner=yahoomag
"A vista slightly more inspiring than the one over the town dump."
"... a fading theme park with a few new rides, lots of patched-up old ones and bored kids in desperate need of adult supervision running things."
"Should you upgrade your current machine? Are you nuts?"
"... utterly unimaginative, internally discordant and woefully out of tune."
OUCH
From Bloomberg via the IP list.
`The notion that music does not deserve the same
protections as software, television, films, video games, or other
intellectual property, simply because there is an unprotected
legacy product available in the physical world is completely
without logic or merit,' Bronfman said
Well, that's the point ain't it? Let's get to the heart of the matter. It's not that DRM doesn't work, it's that COPY PROTECTION of any kind doesn't work. Never has. Never will. Never ever ever. Despite the fact that it's the legitimate users who pay the price of inconvenience for the locks that dont keep the bad guys out anyway. Regardless of whether a type of media has a legacy format that is unprotected (and to be fair TV, books, magazines and most movies (think VHS) are completely unprotected too, just that CDs have a DIGITAL version that is unprotected) or not, they ALL should be unemcumbered by DRM or copy protection of any kind.
GO AFTER THE PIRATE DUPLICATORS don't bother the end users. Now, that becomes more complicated in the bittorrent world where every consumer of pirated media becomes a defacto producer as well, but these need to be taken care of by LEGAL remedies, not technical ones. Witness what GooTube is doing under the 'safe harbor' provisions for video and every media type could be doing the same.
-----Original Message-----
Begin forwarded message:
Warner Music Chief Says Apple's Online Music Plea Lacks Logic
2007-02-08 13:40 (New York)
By Connie Guglielmo and Don Jeffrey
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Warner Music Group Corp., the world's
fourth-largest record company, said a plea by Apple Inc. Chief
Executive Officer Steve Jobs to let songs be sold on the Web
without copy protection software lacks ``logic or merit.''
Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman said Jobs's proposal that
companies drop digital rights management coding on songs sold
online would leave music vulnerable to piracy. He disputed Jobs's
claim that so-called DRM software prevents consumers from playing
music purchased from rival services on different devices.
``We advocate the continued use of DRM in the protection of
our and our artists' intellectual property,'' Bronfman said on a
conference call with analysts today. ``The issue is obscured by
asserting that DRM and interoperability is the same thing. They
are not. To suggest that they cannot co-exist is simply
incorrect.''
Warner Music, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music
Entertainment and EMI Group Plc required Apple to add rights
management software as a condition of selling their music on
iTunes, the most popular legal site for music downloads, Jobs
said in a letter posted on Apple's Web site two days ago.
Without the program, iTunes users could play songs purchased
online on a range of digital devices, rather than just on Apple's
best-selling iPod player, Jobs said.
Shares of Warner Music fell $1.20 to $20.31 at 1:37 p.m. in
New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Apple's shares rose 9
cents to $86.24 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.
No Doubt
Bronfman's comments come a day after the Recording Industry
Association of America said Jobs should instead open Apple's
FairPlay rights management software to rival online sites.
``We all want to see this marketplace work and for fans to
enjoy the music they have lawfully bought on various devices or
services,'' Mitch Bainwol, chairman and CEO of the Washington-
based trade group, which represents the U.S. recording industry,
said in an e-mailed statement last night. ``We have no doubt that
a technology company as sophisticated and smart as Apple could
work with the music community to make that happen.''
While Cupertino, California-based Apple could license
FairPlay to its competitors for a small fee, Jobs wrote that
distribution of the software might lead to leaks about how it
works, thereby rendering the copy-protection technique useless.
Warner Music, Universal Music, Sony BMG and EMI together
control rights to more than 70 percent of the world's music,
according to Jobs.
The four should drop the rights management requirement on
online music, which accounts for about 10 percent of global music
sales, since they don't require similar copy protection on music
sold on compact discs, he said.
``The notion that music does not deserve the same
protections as software, television, films, video games, or other
intellectual property, simply because there is an unprotected
legacy product available in the physical world is completely
without logic or merit,'' Bronfman said.
EMI said it recognizes that interoperability among music
players and services is becoming an issue for music buyers and
the company is working with partners to find a solution.
-------------------------------------------
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Check this out, this is the kind of library that audio and photo nuts just go crazy over. I can definitly see some of these clips making their way into next year's crop of music:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec06/sounds.libe.public.mc.html
Russians start to pull their pirated software and install LINUX rather than face going to siberian gulags! BRILLIANT.
http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/02/05/234178
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37460
http://www.digg.com/linux_unix/Russian_schools_abandon_Windows_after_piracy_scare
Dvorak on DRM:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid=%7B775E7E37%2D8A51%2D438B%2DAAD8%2DD1B0B7FCADC5%7D&dist=rss
And comes up with the ultimate blog post venn diagram.
http://valleywag.com/tech/awaken-the-giant-within/howto-achieve-blog-nirvana-234738.php
Very funny but pretty true on a primal level.
Check out all the commentary here:
http://www.techmeme.com/070206/p67#a070206p67
Some of the best responses:
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2007/02/drm/index.php
http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/06/a-letter-from-steve-jobs-on-drm-lets-get-rid-of-it/
http://thomashawk.com/2007/02/marketing-genius-of-steve-jobs.html
Here's the question that I havent seen anyone asking: WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER MEDIA formats? TV. MOVIES. BOOKS. Video games.
Music is the low hanging fruit here. It's not even the most potentially profitable. It's Apple's bread and butter of course, but they sell all of the other stuff too. Hmmmmm....
Apple drops the hammer on DRM????
"Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven't worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. "
Wow, this is BIG news for the net.
-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave@farber.net]
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 9:48 AM
To: ip@v2.listbox.com
Subject: [IP] Internet groups agree on principles to deal with censorship (FT)
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Kobrin, Steve" <kobrins@wharton.upenn.edu>
Date: January 19, 2007 8:53:07 AM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Internet groups agree on principles to deal with censorship
(FT)
Financial Times Internet groups respond to China critics
By Jonathan Birchall in New York and Richard Waters in San Francisco
Published: January 18 2007 20:00 | Last updated: January 18 2007 20:00
Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Vodafone have announced an agreement
with human rights groups, internet freedom activists and others to
establish a set of principles covering how they deal with censorship
and other restrictions that could harm human rights in China and
elsewhere.
The move comes in the wake of public criticism of big US online
companies last year over their activities in China. It echoes other
voluntary "multi-stakeholder" initiatives that have emerged in recent
years in response to public protest, covering issues such as the use
of local security forces by oil and mining companies, and conditions
in the clothing and footwear supply chains.
The four companies have agreed to work with non-governmental
organisations to "seek solutions to the free expression and privacy
challenges faced by technology and communications companies doing
business internationally", according to a statement on Thursday.
A senior executive at one of the companies warned that a voluntary
code of practice was unlikely to have much practical effect.
"The fantasy is, we're all going to say we're going to stop
censorship," the executive said. "The issue is not whether we're
doing this in good faith, the question is, what's the leverage?"
However, an official at one of the human rights groups involved said
that by adopting a common front and making issues such as censorship
a subject of their broader negotiations with foreign governments, the
companies might succeed in rolling back some censorship of their web
search engines.
The response of the US companies involved also comes against the
background of an effort to promote online freedom regulations in
Congress. Chris Smith, a Democratic member of the House of
Representatives, held hearings in Washington on such freedom issues
last year.
This month he reintroduced his Global Online Freedom Act, which would
set minimum standards for internet companies, including that search
engines should not be located in "internet restricting" countries and
that search engines cannot alter or filter the results of their
searches at the behest of governments.
The initiative follows criticism of Google over its decision last
year to set up a separate Chinese-language search engine that
censored results for sensitive topics such as human rights and Tibet.
Yahoo has also been criticised by human rights groups including
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch over its decision to
hand over e-mail account data to the Chinese government that has led
to the imprisonment of "cyber dissidents".
Microsoft has also faced criticism over censoring social sites in China.
Cisco, which joined Google, Yahoo and Microsoft before Congress last
year over its record in China, has not joined the initiative.
Vodafone, the European telecommunications company, is actively
involved in a range of corporate social responsibility issues, and
has not faced criticism over internet freedom issues.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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