Tuesday, August 19, 2003

Privacy advocates call for RFID regulation "How would you like it if, for instance, one day you realized your underwear was reporting on your whereabouts?" Callfornia state Senator Debra Bowen asked.

The Sad Tale of a Security Whistleblower by Mark Rasch at SecurityFocus. Rasch is the former head of the Department of Justice's computer crime division.
For folks interested in pursuing the kind of material I cover in this blog in a bit more detail, there are lots of universities who provide their internet law syllabus on the web. Jessica Litman is currently updating her links to these courses.

Monday, August 18, 2003

Here's a neat twist in the copyright wars - Grokster has reported the record industry to the Office for Fair Trading in the UK for restraint of trade!

From Lisa Rein's fair and balanced radar, I learn that (and it's difficult to believe this but) Howard Berman, when talking about his latest proposal to criminalise peer to peer file sharing, actually said, on CNN, "The penalty would range from...eh up to eh five years in jail. Notice, no death penalty but eh it i..it's part of our effort to send a message that that which is already illegal and that which is criminal should be avoided..." I had to play it repeatedly to have it sink in. "...no death penalty..."? People in California elected congressman Berman. If you're interested in Californian politics, or even if you're just interested in the entertainment business, Lisa has another link to a political analyst with a funny take on the story of Arnold Swarzenegger running for governor.

There's an interesting apparent throwaway line in the Sunday Times article about Peter Gabriel's song downloading joint venture with Microsoft. A spokeswoman for the British Phonographic Industry says there are no plans to sue UK file sharers: 'It's not a hearts-and-minds winner,' she says, 'It's a PR nightmare.'