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 Tuesday, December 3, 2002
More on the France-Yahoo case....A U.S. court is w .... More on the France-Yahoo case....A U.S. court is worried by Yahoo's attempt to avoid jurisdiction in the French case against it for violating French law on hate-speech. Until now, U.S. courts have said that France cannot limit the free-speech rights of Americans. But now Judge Warren Ferguson, of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, is thinking, "All the French court's saying is, 'Whatever you do, don't impact France.' See? That's called homeland security."
I'm sorry to say that I predicted that U.S. courts would make this turn. From FOSN for 11/16/01: "U.S. courts don't want France limiting the speech of Americans. But IP-tracking software gives us a way to avoid that result; and when that result can be avoided, U.S. courts might well recognize the sovereign right of France to control what French citizens can do in France, and ask Americans to respect that sovereign right."
From FOSN for 2/14/02: We should worry about countries in which "deference to the sovereignty of other nations is a stronger policy than the freedom to put content on the internet that might offend others." Also see FOSN for 11/9/01, 1/23/02.
Why does this matter for FOS? If France can block Yahoo auctions from selling offensive artifacts to French citizens, then China can block U.S. history journals from distributing histories of the Tienanman Square massacre to Chinese citizens, and the latest country seized by fundamentalists could block U.S. science journals from defending Darwinism. [FOS News]
Requiring the vendors in one country to keep track of all the requirements for Internet content for every other country sounds pretty harsh. Of course, if we force them to do this for other countries, it would follow that the US could also force vendors to prevent content being sent to Americans as well as French. 11:43:28 PM 
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Woman uses baby's stomach to start car. A woman whose baby swallowed the transponder of a car key managed to start the car by holding him close to the steering wheel, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.
Amanda Webster's one-year-old son Oscar swallowed the pill-sized security device while fiddling with the keys.
Ms Webster, who was out shopping in west London could not start her car and called the Royal Automobile Club.
Keith Scott, the patrol man who went out to help her noticed that part of the key was missing and cottoned on to the possibility that the baby had swallowed the transponder.
Scott then suggested that Ms Webster hold Oscar as close to the steering column as possible and try to start the car with the key.
The vehicle responded and when the transponder made its appearance again, having made the route that Nature devised, it was none the worse for wear. [Smart Mobs]
A tale for our time. Sometimes humans come up with such novel ways to get around security. 11:26:53 PM
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The problem with such an approach is that terrorists are not easily defined. Sure, al-queda is easy today but the danger is that the definition will shift when they are gone. Saying that it is okay to go after EU countries if they harbor what WE decide are terrorists makes my blood run cold. Our courts have already said that foreign nationals held by the US do not enjoy the same civil rights we do. And even citizens can be sent away without benefit of counsel if people in the government decide they should be. This is only 1 year into this. What will it be like after 2,5, 10? I would be willing to bet that if you described some of the activities of American Patriots leading up to the Revolutionary War to people today, they would be labeled as terrorists. If we reintroduce McCarthyism and its list of undesirables, it will be a long time before we get out from under. We will succeed when we mobilize the billions of people who want to be more like us rather radicalizing them by accusing anyone who disagrees with us of being soft on terrorism. There were terrorists in the early 1900s. They were called anarchists. They were responsible for the death of a president and for the start of WWI. This coincided with a large degree of powerlessness felt by the underclass and a feeling of fear in the ruling class. It took another 30-40 years before these things had been worked out, following 2 World Wars and a worldwide depression. The rise of terrorists today fits a similar pattern (i.e.rapidly changing social structures brings out fear in those with little to lose and in those with much to lose) and the response of the powerful may prolong this transition period. I sure hope not. 2:22:43 PM
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Howard Gleckman Fears the Destabilization of U.S. Government Finances. Business Week's Howard Gleckman fears the consequences of Bush administration tax policy: more tax cuts for the rich, lower investment in the United States, slower economic growth, and a government unable to perform vital missions: BW Online | December 3, 2002 | The Tax-Cut Recipe for Ruin: ...The White House argues that locking those tax cuts in beyond 2010 -- when they're now due to expire -- will provide an immediate boost to growth. That claim is just silly. No... [Semi-Daily Journal]
But that is the goal of the republican party, isn't it? Not destabilization of government finances but shrinking the government. But how will they pay for all the anti-terrorism departments that they want. It would have been nice to have some hope that the federal debt would be paid off but I do not see that ever happening now. 2:13:10 PM
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The Catalan Oath of Allegiance. We, who are as good as you, swear to you, who are no better than us, to accept you as our king and sovereign lord, provided you observe all our liberties and laws--but if not, not.... [Semi-Daily Journal]
How would this sound if repeated by school children every morning? 2:09:34 PM
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NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RACINE RAVE PROSECUTION, which I wrote about earlier here, here, and here. The first scheduled day of hearings in th... [InstaPundit.Com]
I wrote about the Houston incident earlier but it is interesting that the police chief is facing aggravated perjury charges and the city is awash in lawsuits. I love the Senior Prosecutor who stated that 'But no one was beaten, shot or clubbed.' Oh good. Just trample heir civil rights.
Reading about the Racine Rave citations reads a little like the views of people about that evil roak and roll music. Section 66-347 of the Racine Municiple Code prohibits persons from knowingly patronizing any building or room which is used for the purpose of selling or using illegal narcotics - such a building is called a "disorderly house." I guess there aren't any rock concerts in Racine. This was a dance where people were searched before entering to prevent drug use, where the organizers were trying to just dance, and over 400 were cited for simply attending. But it will be a big headache for the city of Racine. I do love the idea that by so many of them declaring themselves 'Not Guilty' that the court system will be swamped. Instead of getting almost $500,000 in fines, the city may have to hire a special prosecutor. A very nice bottom-up approach to injustice. Of course, you can be sure that this will go on their permanent record (see Tom Tomorrow's cartoon from salon) 1:49:06 PM
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"At Justice, Freedom Not to Release Information" [Daypop Top 40]
Well, isn't it nice to ignore a law you don't like. But with the passage of the Homeland Security Act, all Justice has to do is claim that they can't release that info because it is vital to the anti-terrorism activities, even if THERE ARE NO activities. What a way to cover up your ineptness. Coupled with the fact that for the first time Justice is officially hiring career lawyers who pass ideological muster rather than getting the brightest ones, Justice may be on its way to entering Orwellian Newspeak. 1:17:18 PM
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"Maureen Dowd" [Daypop Top 40]
This looks like another whitewash, which is what almost ALL government commisions are. The Challenger explosion was one such and was only saved by the brilliance of Richard Feynman. I am sure the conclusions of this will be that no one could have done anything and that we need to trust that the CIA and FBI are doing everything possible. What happened to the days when someone's head would roll? Weren't those in charge of protecting Pearl Harbor cashiered because of it? Kissiinger will be sure to protect the government's interest. Maybe they will have to classify it in order to protect our counter-terrorism efforts. Man, I hate being so skeptical. 1:13:40 PM
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I have been waiting for this since I read about Carver Mead's work. I took classes from Carver when I was at CalTech and he is one of the brightest men I have ever met. The photodetectors used in the Foveon chips measure the light frequency by the depth they penetrate. So,each photodetector can register all 3 colors, rather than having 3 detectors per color. This means that a 3.3 megapixel element can register as much detail as a 10 megapixel digital camera seen today. And the CMOS technology should eventually generate cheaper chips. I might not buy a first generation device but this one is awfully tempting. It will be techgnology like this that bring high level digital cameras to the masses, or at least to the serious hobbyists. 12:45:38 PM
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Visiting Bismarck, Explorers Revise Its Story. New evidence, detailed in interviews, videotapes and photographs, suggests the story of how the world's most feared warship went down is wrong. By William J. Broad. [New York Times: Science]
Contraversy between the British and everyone else about the real cause of the Bismarck's sinking. All the data indicate that, while the ship took on some major damage by the British attacks, the proximate cause of the ship going down was its scuttling by its German crew. The British victory should not be thought less of simply because the Germans delivered the coup de grace. What was important was that it went down. 12:41:13 PM
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Wired News: All Eyes on ElcomSoft Trial. Observers say the case could set significant legal precedent in interpreting the reach of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a law drafted to protect intellectual property owners that has drawn criticism for stifling the public's ability to freely use copyrighted materials they purchase. [Tomalak's Realm]
The DMCA made it a crime to create software that would allow encrypted material to be read, even if it is encrypted material that you already own. This is an abuse of fair use and even first sale but will really have an impact on researchers. In order to test security procedures, someone has to break the code. To be validated, this work needs to be done by an unbiased person. Yet the DMCA would hold that person up to federal charges if they did that work, even if they found a huge security hole. Just one of the many problems with this legislation which serves to demonstrate that corporations have been running the government for the last 10 years at least. 12:32:47 PM
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This is like the old days when anything could be classified as 'Top Secret.' It will be interesting how many companies take the path of reporting problems or criminal activity CII. WHat oversight is there? Can a entity just self-evaluate it things as secret without anyone vetting it? What I worry about with all this is not some vicious government conspiracy. The worst things are done by immoral, unethical individuals. Only a few people at Enron were criminals but they brought down the whole company. Could they have found some way to hide their criminal behavior if the Homeland Security Act had been available?Who knows because the Freedom of Information Act has now been essentially gutted. 12:02:54 PM
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