June 4, 2002

Protective Custody Yasser Arafat won't follow a "court" order to release Ahmed Sa'adat, the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of six Palestinian terrorists being held in Jericho under U.S. and British supervision as part of the agreement that ended the siege on Arafat's Ramallah compound. Arafat doesn't say he's concerned about keeping his end of the bargain; rather, he says the release order "cannot be implemented under these circumstances because of Israeli threats." The Israelis have said they'll bring Sa'adat to justice if the Palestinians don't. We suppose this is an improvement. As we noted back in February, Arafat used to release terrorists from jail to protect them from the Israelis.  [ OpinionJournal.com ] 2:39:04 PM

Draconian DMCA Using the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), a Web site that took exception to a parody of it's content was able to effectively shut down a small ISP that hosted the offending site.  "Under the DMCA they must act precipitously and with no care for First Amendment rights or whether the charge is right or wrong." [ Ed Foster The Gripe Line ] 9:32:34 AM

AOpen's new vacuum tube-equipped motherboard.  No, really this computer motherboard has a vacuum tube on it for the audio. [ Tech-Report.com ] 8:53:11 AM

MIT grad student shows how to read Xbox security key. He did it legally too, apparently. Isn't that clever? [The Register] "hey! I'm finally done with my PhD thesis on supercomputer architecture...I can finally spend some more time playing with the Xbox" 8:38:00 AM

For a few hours on a sweaty afternoon, Arabs and Jews in this town had something of a rare encounter, gathering in a restaurant Friday to watch the opening match of the World Cup soccer tournament on a big screen TV.  [ Beliefnet ] 7:58:26 AM

The White House has given lawmakers investigating the collapse of bankrupt energy giant Enron access to thousands of pages of secret documents.  But the White House is refusing to hand the documents over physically until an agreement is made to restrict their release to the public.  [ BBC ] We know the White House had been informed of Enron's desire for government intervention.  The company was a major donor to President George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, and was one of a small group of energy companies thought to have been behind much of the administration's energy policy.  7:32:22 AM

ReplayTV Won't Quit, Won't Quit. Fresh from a victory in court, Sonicblue unveils a new version of its digital recording system. The move looks like a battle cry in its fight with the entertainment industry. By Brad King. [Wired News] Todays posting seem to be taking a legal theme.  Not sure why.  This is not about the digital recording systems, and thier potential to change the way we watch TV.  This is about innovation, and how an industry with a vested interest can spend millions to try and stop it.  This is probably why we don't have a car that goes 100 miles on a gallon of gas. 6:50:53 AM

Nissan vs. Nissan. Is a North Carolina businessman a cybersquatter unfairly pirating the car maker's brand name, or something even worse: A spammer of journalists? [Salon.com] Uzi Nissan is an Israeli immigrant to the United States who has been doing business in North Carolina under his own name for 20 years. He registered nissan.com back in 1994, as a home page for his company Nissan Computer Co., which he founded in 1991. 6:43:02 AM

Judge eases restrictions on shoe bomb suspect [CNN - LAW]  It is not a really major new freedom, Richard Reid's attorneys can now share their conversations with Reid with others involved in his defense.  Authorities are concerned that Reid's communications "could be used to facilitate terrorist acts" against the United States.  He might give out what he has learned NOT to do.  "Bring a lighter, forget the matches." 6:37:29 AM