Citizen.wired.net

After trials, tribulations, false starts, wearing of sack cloth and much gnashing of teeth (and the blood of one dead chicken) I have successfully moved my weblog. For the past week I have been posting only at the new location. It works as expected. All is well.

New Home page.
New primary RSS.

Most of the archives will remain here in order to preserve as many links as possible, but I ran out of disk space and had to delete some of the early ones to keep the site under 40MB. All the archives are at the new site. Eventually I will come back here and put in re-direct meta-tags for both web browsers and RSS aggregators to automagically load the new location. In the meantime, if you have subscribed to a particular Category -- i.e. Patento.absurdium -- you can re-link to it via the Category links on the left.

Many thanks to:

Mark Pilgrim for design guidance and CSS creation
Erin Clerico at Weblogger.com for site hosting and comments configuration
Brent Ashley and Matt Mower for technical assistance
the entire Userland discussion group for moral support.

(drum roll please)

Now, on with the show.......................

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

P2P equal Pay2Play

5:08:12 PM

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The Danish APG got a court order to send invoices for abirtrary amounts to 'priates' based on screen shots of filenames. Interesting tactic, but not much of a burden of proof. Remember, this is the same country that ruled linking to newspapers was illegal. Not much chance these guys are going to become an economic force in the near future.

Anti-pirates hit Danish P2P users with huge bills.
The Danish Anti Pirat Gruppen (Anti Piracy Group) has issued invoices of up to $14,000 apiece to approximately 150 users of KaZaA and eDonkey for illegally downloading copyright material. [...][The Register]

'Fair Use' Irrelvant and Improper

4:59:34 PM

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So says Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Frewing in preparations for the ElcomSoft trial. Frewing is one of the multitude of unelected public servants defending society against evil-doers who would thwart our God-given right to buy copy-protected digital media.

Major test of copyright law set to start. CNET Nov 25 2002 5:39PM ET
The first big courtroom test of a U.S. law that makes it criminal to offer software for cracking digital copyright protections should finally begin next week, after visa delays for two of the case's main players. [Moreover - IP and patents news]

Monday, November 25, 2002

Ashcroft Reverses View on Privacy Now That He's the Watcher

4:53:13 PM

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It's enlightening to go back and read the statements made by Atty Gen Ashcroft in 1997 regarding the Clinton Administration's desire to increase electronic surveillance. My, how one's view changes when one is no longer the watched, but rather the watcher.

If you've never read the Cyber Security Enhancement Act of 2002, you should. How do you know when a politician is lying? When his lips are moving...

Watching Big Brother
Drudge links to articles and documents showing Ashcroft's changing view of Internet privacy. (He also links to this article about the RIAA vs. the US Navy.) Meanwhile, Newsweek follows up on Safire's great column exposing the Pentagon's Information Awareness Office. [EdCone.com]

Humans Are the Weakest Link

3:28:25 PM

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Once again, the human factor proves to be the weakest link in protecting our privacy. All the computer security in the world doesn't help when the people who are supposed to be protecting us are selling out to their own avarice and greed.

Cops Bust Massive ID Theft Ring. Federal prosecutors have arrested and charged a credit bureau helpdesk worker and two accomplices who allegedly stole more than 15,000 credit reports and sold them to other crooks for $60 a pop. Michelle Delio reports from New York.
[...] Posing as employees of those companies, the criminals would then obtain and download customer credit records, which contained sensitive information such as bank account, credit card and social security numbers.
These records were then sold to a network of criminals who would use them to drain bank accounts, open new lines of credit, order new checks and other activities.
"With a few keystrokes, these people were able to pick the pockets of millions of Americans," Comey said.[...]
[Wired News]

Thursday, November 14, 2002

Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act

3:34:07 PM

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Rep Rick Boucher is a good guy.

Slashdot | EFF Urges Support for Rep. Boucher's DMCRA.
DarkSparks writes "The EFF is urging everyone to contact their Representatives and ask them to co-sponsor Representative Rick Boucher and John Doolittle's recently introduced Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA, H.R. 5544), which would introduce labelling requirements for usage-impaired "copy-protected" compact discs, as well as make several key amendments to the DMCA, including affirming the right of scientific research into technology protection measures and affirming the right of citizens to circumvent technology measures to gain access to copyrighted works they've purchased."
[Privacy Digest]

What's Next, The Death Penalty?

3:14:55 PM

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I hate spam and nefarious computer hacks as much as anyone, but this is an egergious over-reach. A hacker's sentence should be vbased on the nature of his(her) crime and the damage caused, nothing else. This is brain-damaged stupid.

Bill could jail hackers for life.
A last-minute addition to a proposal for a Department of Homeland Security bill would punish malicious computer hackers with life in prison.

Add spammers to the list and I'll be happy...
[Leaders.net]

Baywatch Foreign Policy

10:33:31 AM

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A friend of mine recently suggested that America's best hope for supplanting terrorist Islamic regimes with democratic governments is to leverage one of our greatest cultural treasures -- Baywatch.

The idea is to purchase global rights to the entire Baywatch series, then carpet-bomb the Middle East with video cassettes, magazines, and Pamela Anderson-Lee posters boldly emblazoned with the phrase You too can have this, if you build a democracy.

I don't know, seems like a good, non-violent alternative to me.

I Just Made $2,000

9:33:51 AM

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I changed my auto insurance carrier this morning. I went with GEICO. I called the 800 number, spoke with a very pleasant, professional lady down in Macon, GA, and got new insurance. The whole process took less than 20 minutes and two phone calls. Wonderful experience.

By contrast my old carrier, Progressive, and my independent agent were of no help. Go figure.

Poindexter and Ashcroft Are Not Liars

8:08:48 AM

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Why all the hue and cry over the lying in the current Administration? It's not the lies we ought to be worried about -- it's the forthright, obvious, unrepentant Nazi-fication of the country that ought have our attention. And far too many otherwise intelligent people are being flim-flammed by the manufactured cloak of patriotism that's being laid over this pile of horse manure. (The NYTimes article requires free registration. Would that it were not so...)

William Safire's concern about the Homeland Security Act - He says, if the Act is not amended before passage, here's what will happen to you:
"Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade your receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend — all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as a virtual, centralized grand database.
[...] [Ernie the Attorney]