Wednesday, November 13, 2002

TRADEMARKS: An electoral candidate's use of a famous trademark in a campaign commercial as part of his political message, even though intentionally imitating the mark, is core political speech that is likely protected by the First Amendment and within the noncommercial use exception of the Federal Trademark Dilution Act, the Northern District of Ohio holds. "American Family Life Insurance Co. v. Hagan". . . . Page 35 http://ippubs.bna.com/ip/BNA/ptc.nsf/is/A0A6C7B3Z8 COPYRIGHTS: A infringer's indirect profits from infringement may be recoverable under Section 504(b) of the Copyright Act even if no infringing items are sold, the District of Nevada holds. "Associated Residential Design LLC v. Molotky". . . . Page 36 http://ippubs.bna.com/ip/BNA/ptc.nsf/is/a0a6c5r0a1 11:05:25 PM    comment []

BUSH SIGNS JUSTICE BILL WITH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REFORMS President Bush signs a Justice Department authorization bill (H.R. 2215; Pub. L. No. 107-273) that contains several intellectual property reforms. The legislation expands the Patent Act's reexamination procedures, amends the Copyright Act to facilitate distant learning on the Internet, and implements U.S. accession to the recently ratified Madrid Protocol trademark treaty. . . . Page 28 http://ippubs.bna.com/ip/BNA/ptc.nsf/is/a0a6c5v8c1 11:04:16 PM    comment []

If you're a lawyer, don't say an Indiana court makes its decisions in "results-oriented" way. The Hoosier Supreme Court doesn't like it. Thanks to NYLJ "Footnote Gets an Indiana Lawyer Suspended The National Law Journal A sharply worded footnote in a legal brief has cost an Indiana attorney a one-month suspension from the practice of law. In a 3-2 decision, the Indiana Supreme Court said that Michael A. Wilkins impugned the integrity of the Indiana Court of Appeals by suggesting that one of its opinions was results-driven. The case raises questions about the free speech rights of attorneys." http://tm0.com/LAW/sbct.cgi?s=498088435&i=670267&m=1&d=3408028 11:01:29 PM    comment []

Stock Exchange Suit Over California's Arbitrator Ethics Rules Dismissed The Recorder Thanks to NYLJ A federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday threw out a suit by the securities industry against the California Judicial Council over the state's new ethical rules for arbitrators. Citing states' 11th Amendment immunity, the decision extracts the federal courts from a legal morass pitting the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers arbitration arm against the elite of the California judiciary. http://tm0.com/LAW/sbct.cgi?s=498088435&i=670267&m=1&d=3408027 11:00:57 PM    comment []

****** NATIONAL NEWS ****** GOP Targets Judicial Jam-Up The National Law Journal The change in control of the U.S. Senate promises to pop the cork on judicial nominations bottled up during the last 15 months, according to Senate staff members and experts in the judicial nominating process. President Bush could now push through strict timetables for judicial appointments and give two 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nominees who were denied floor votes, including Priscilla Owen, a new shot at the bench. http://tm0.com/LAW/sbct.cgi?s=498088435&i=670267&m=1&d=3408026 11:00:20 PM    comment []

---- Common Cause has a page where you can fax a message to your Congressional representatives. http://causenet.commoncause.org/ ---- Pick any three countries and see what they're the axis of. Great site. http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/codedoc/Levin/axis.html 10:49:12 PM    comment []

Thanks to Joho October 25 There's a thoughtful article by Renee Tawa about blogging and Journalism in the LA Times. Best of all: Not a word about "teenagers writing about what they had for breakfast." http://tinyurl.com/283e ---- 10:45:56 PM    comment []

Thnks to JOHO October 25, 2002 ---- Dan Gillmor has followed up his excellent column [1] about ten decisions that made the Internet the good thing that it is with a column on the three decisions [2] that are still to be made: Freedom to create innovate Customer choice and competition policy Security and liberty Dan's assessment of the decisions we're in the process of making in each of these areas is pretty glum. Maybe the Happy News section of this issue of JOHO will bring a smile to his pretty cheeks. [1] http://tinyurl.com/283b [2] http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4079611.htm 10:43:01 PM    comment []

Thanks to JOH October 25, 2002 ------------------------------------------- WHY GOOGLE TOTALLY SUCKS! REALLY! Gary Turner advises me that I'm no longer the 6th hit on Google if you search for "david." I've been pushed down to #25 by the new #1 (David Bowie) as well as by David Lynch, David Gray, David Brin, David Grisman, Harry and David, and other famous and deserving David's. I am crushed. Our neighbor's seven year old is currently fanning me with a peacock feather and intermittently holds a restorative mint julep to my wan lips. In months, perhaps weeks, I shall have the courage to venture out again. ---- Peter Kaminski writes to a mailing list: Today's PR trivia: Google for "al qaeda", and along with the results you get one of two ads: "Saudi Arabia offers you an opportunity to understand our fight against terrorism. www.aboutsaudiarabia.net" "Saudi Arabia revoked Osama bin Laden's citizenship in 1994 and invites you to learn more. www.aboutsaudiarabia.net" And why is it that if you google "oil", "war on terror," or "saddam," there are no ads, but Homeland Security has eight? 10:39:10 PM    comment []

Thanks to JOHO Steve Himmer has an hilarious exposition on the meta-absurd copyright infringement case involving two silent recordings. It's just too wonderful for words. Of course, if I were to remain silent about it, I could expect an angry letter from the estate of John Cage. http://www.onepotmeal.com/blog/archives/000887.html#000887 10:38:04 PM    comment []

Thanks to JOHO Peter Kaminski points us to a brilliant speech given by Thomas Macauley in 1841 to Parliament as the question of copyright was being addressed. It's 10,000 words long, but it is witty, thorough, deep and pithy. Man, that Macauley guy could really write good! http://www.baen.com/library/palaver4.htm 10:37:34 PM    comment []

Thanks to JOHO ------------------------------------------- HOPE ON THE COPYRIGHT FRONT Lawrence "My Hero" Lessig has argued the Eldred case before the Supreme Court, trying to get the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension law rescinded. It was fascinating to me that while many knowledgeable commentators thought Lessig did a fine job but lost, Lessig -- The World's Most Pessimistic Person(tm) -- thinks he may have won. The commentators focused on the Justices' probing questions. Lessig, in his weblog, focuses on what they didn't ask about because that reveals (we hope) what they accepted. http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/2002_10.shtml#000531 ---- The LA Times has run an article, by David Streitfeld, about Lessig and his crusade for reasonable copyright laws.[1] Great reading. And, as Doc Searls has pointed out [2], this is published right in the heart of the Copyright Cops, the Rustlers on the Commons, the Vandals of Fair Use, i.e., Hollywood. Among the good points: Lessig uses Walt Disney as his poster boy since Disney himself took advantage of stories that had passed into the public domain as the basis for his early cartoon successes. And, Lessig tells about Sony's lawyers informing an owner of an Aibo robotic dog that he is not permitted to reprogram it to dance to jazz. [1] http://www.latimes.com/business/custom/cotown/la-tm-copyright38sep220014 50.story [2] http://doc.weblogs.com/ 10:36:31 PM    comment []

***** JOHO Interval ****** ************************** October 21, 2002 ************************** Editor: David Weinberger (self@evident.com) Web Version (Color! Fonts! Links!): http://www.hyperorg.com/current/current.html ********************************* To view this issue correctly, please use a monospaced font such as Courier. ********************************* [NOTE: This is a special issue. A routinely overdue, overstuffed regular issue is in the works. Soon.] SPECIAL ISSUE NETHEADS TO FCC: FAIL FAST! A bunch of netty women and men have sent a letter to FCC Chair Michael "Son of" Powell. The basic message is: When the telecommunications industry goes bankrupt, don't try to resuscitate the corpse. Let it go. Its infrastructure and the business model based on it are obsolete. It can't be fixed. Instead, let the market bring forth a new era of innovation and connectivity, let a hundred flowers bloom, let the moon enter the house of Aquarius, etc. The alternative is that we sink billions into companies that are doing everything they can to prevent telecommunications - the whole schmear of telephones, cable, broadband and the stuff we haven't invented yet - from doing what it wants to do: go digital, go IP, go everywhere. The letter is posted at http://www.netparadox.com. The issue is important because the existing industry is going to use every weapon it can find, including the blunt instrument of "It's the only way we can defeat the terrorists" in order to maintain its grip. So, wanna help spread the word? Here's the letter: ----------- The Hon. Michael Powell Chairman Federal Communications Commission Dear Mr. Chairman: We thank you for your leadership in FCC efforts to understand the causes of the current telecom debacle, and especially for convening the FCC's October 7, 2002, Telecom Recovery En Banc hearing. We were dismayed that several of the En Banc speakers confused causes with effects. We believe that balance sheet weakness, long-haul overcapacity, and even the recent speculative bubble, are effects, not causes. If we attempt to treat the symptoms, we risk missing the causes and prolonging the agony. We hold that the primary cause of current telecom troubles is that Internet-based end-to-end data networking has subsumed (and will subsume) the value that was formerly embodied in other communications networks. This, in turn, is causing the immediate obsolescence of the vertically integrated, circuit- based telephony industry of 127 years vintage. CLEC, IXC and ILEC bonds used to purchase now-obsolete infrastructure assets have become (or inexorably are becoming) bad debt. Weak last-mile competition prevents the most powerful technological advances from reaching all but a few customers; this is the largest cause of long-haul over-capacity. One En Banc participant, NYU Professor Larry White, had views that seem consistent with ours. He recommends that we let firms that are failing fail as quickly as possible. We believe that it would be harmful if government actions prevent, delay or interrupt this evolution. It must proceed if the United States is to continue to be a leading contributor to communications progress, and if its citizens are to benefit from the technologies that are now available and the applications that they enable. The telecom debacle is not a cyclical phenomenon. The telephone network's technological base, and the business model under which this old technology thrived, are obsolete. Recovery is not an option. We can only move forward; how far and how fast will be determined by our continued freedom to innovate. Let the United States learn by not duplicating the Japanese banking experience in the telecom arena. We need to see the current situation not as a disaster, but as a natural event; part of a revolution in productivity and human benefit as big as the agricultural and industrial revolutions. Given these views, we urge the FCC to: Resist at all costs the telephone industry's calls for bailouts. The policy should be one of "fast failure." Acknowledge that non-Internet communications equipment, while not yet extinct, is economically obsolete and forbear from actions that would artificially prolong its use. Discourage attempts by incumbent telephone companies to thwart municipal, publicly-owned and other communications initiatives that don't fit the telephone company business model. Accelerate FCC exploration of innovative spectrum use and aggressively expand unlicensed spectrum allocation. Mr. Chairman, we note with gratitude your impatience with antique regulatory structures, and your attempts to embrace new technology. Also, we acknowledge the burden inherent in the FCC's duty to ensure the continuity of communications, especially basic dial-tone continuity, in the face of such changes; we are prepared to lend assistance as the FCC grapples with this issue. Notwithstanding, we urge you to continue against the inevitable onslaught of those seeking to preserve an impossible status quo. Sincerely, Izumi Aizu, Asia Network Research Jay Batson, CEO, Pingtel Robert J. Berger, President, Internet Bandwidth Development, LLC Dan Berninger, pulver.com Scott Berry, telecommunications consultant, Darien CT Michael Bialek, President, InfoComm Inc. Scott Bradner, Harvard University Richard Campbell, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Douglass Carmichael, individual, dougcarmichael.com Judi Clark, individual, ManyMedia.com Anders Comstedt, Managing Director, Stokab Gordon Cook, publisher, The Cook Report on Internet Timothy Denton, Internet attorney, tmdenton.com Greg Elin, independent software developer Tom Evslin, CEO & Chairman, ITXC David J. Farber, Moore Professor, University of Pennsylvania Bob Frankston, individual, frankston.com Dewayne Hendricks, CEO, Dandin Group Roxane Googin, editor, High Technology Observer Charles W. K. Gritton, President, Broadsword Technologies, Inc. David S. Isenberg, Principal Prosultant(sm), isen.com, LLC Johna Till Johnson, President, Nemertes Research Peter Kaminski, individual, peterkaminski.com Shumpei Kumon, Executive Director, GLOCOM Bruce Kushnick, Executive Director, New Networks Institute Andrew Maffei, individual, Falmouth MA Jerry Michalski, sociate.com David Newman, President, Network Test Inc. Matthew Oristano, former CEO, SpeedChoice, People's Choice TV Mark Petrovic, individual, Pasadena CA Jeff Pulver, founder, pulver.com Frank R. Robles, CEO, Neopolitan Networks, Inc. Charles Rybeck, Managing Director, Benchmarking Partners Paul Saffo, individual, pls@well.com Doc Searls, Senior Editor, Linux Journal Clay Shirky, telecommunications consultant, shirky.com Porter Stansberry, publisher, Agora Inc. Ted Stout, CEO and founder, The ROI Institute Brough Turner, CTO and co-founder, NMS Communications David Weinberger, JOHO editor and Cluetrain co- author Kevin Werbach, technology analyst, Supernova Group LLC Additional Signers David P. Reed Sky Dayton, founder, EarthLink, founder & CEO, Boingo Wireless Steve Stroh, Editor, Focus On Broadband Wireless Internet Access --------- Take that! 10:33:24 PM    comment []

Thanks to WriteNews WEBSITES MENTIONED IN THE WRITE NEWS(TM) THIS WEEK ( http://www.writenews.com ) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Publishing Industry Soundbytes, short industry news highlights http://www.writenews.com/2002/092702_soundbytes.htm Google News, searchable news service http://news.google.com Moreover, provider of news headlines http://www.moreover.com DayPop.com, searchable news and weblog database http://www.daypop.com Rocketinfo, searchable news database http://www.rocketnews.com NewsIndex.com, searchable news database http://www.newsindex.com Northern Light, searchable news database http://www.northernlight.com VU Games, game publisher http://www.vugames.com Marvel Enterprises, Inc., library of superheroes http://www.marvel.com TechWeb, information technology news network http://www.techweb.com NewsFactor Network, business and technology news http://www.newsfactor.com CRMDaily.com, news for buyers of CRM systems http://www.crmdaily.com The IWJ, online magazine for readers and writers http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/ TheKnot.com, a wedding media and services company http://www.theknot.com Kensington Publishing, fiction and nonfiction publisher http://www.kensingtonbooks.com iUniverse, provider of self-publishing services http://www.iuniverse.com Elizabeth George Online, mystery author website http://www.elizabethgeorgeonline.com 10:30:08 PM    comment []

Thanks to Writenews - Blogs and Libel Weblogs are popular and can certainly increase traffic to an online newspaper or magazine -- but could they also bring lawsuits? The New York Times reports that weblogs are already creating friction between journalists and the media outlets they work for. Source: New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/23/technology/23BLOG.html 10:28:54 PM    comment []

Thanks to WriteNews HIGHLIGHTS FROM PUBLISHING INDUSTRY SOUNDBYTES -------------------------------------------------------------------- - Noisebox.org ( http://www.noisebox.org ) has launched with the purpose of amplifying the voice of the non-profit community. Noisebox.org is a news wire to which non-profit groups can post news releases at no cost, and through which journalists and the public can stay informed of the tireless efforts of those serving communities worldwide. For the media professional, the news at Noisebox.org is searchable by location, date, and market sector. - MetaCrawler ( http://www.metacrawler.com ) has relaunched with an updated design. Benefits of the new design include meta-search engine homepage and web search results pages that are cleaner and easier-to-use. The new MetaCrawler returns results from leading search companies and properties, including Google, FAST, Overture, About, Ask Jeeves, FindWhat, LookSmart, Inktomi and SearchHippo. - IListenToBooks.com ( http://www.ilistentobooks.com ), sponsored by Brilliance Audio Inc., have announced its new audiobook sharing website. The site suggest audiobook readers, "have some fun and share your love of audiobooks with a stranger by leaving your audio book anywhere someone else could pick it up ... in a coffee shop, in the lunchroom at work, on an airplane, or on your commuter train." The website follows a similar theme started by BookCrossing.com ( http://www.bookcrossing.com ). Members register an audiobook at IListenToBooks.com by entering a title or ISBN number, and get a unique tracking label to printout. - Eighty-one percent of Americans feel they should write a book, according to a survey of 1,006 adult Americans commissioned by Jenkins Group, Inc. ( http://www.bookpublishing.com ), a Michigan publishing services firm, which sponsors the annual Independent Publisher Book Awards and issues the monthly online magazine Independent Publisher. 10:28:03 PM    comment []

Thanks to WriteNews GOOGLE LAUNCHES NEWS SERVICE -------------------------------------------------------------------- Google, a popular online search engine, has launched a news service that selects headlines from over 4,000 sources based on computer algorithms. At the bottom of Google's news pages the following text appears: "This page was generated entirely by computer algorithms without human editors." Google says it employs no editors, managing editors, or executive editors to run the news service. The headlines and stories are selected using computer algorithms, which are based on how and where the stories appear elsewhere on the web. Google News does not contain complete articles -- just short excerpts, headlines and some news photos. When a visitor clicks on one of the news headlines provided by Google they are taken directly to the article on the website which published the news story. The homepage of Google News provides some of the day's most popular news items. Google also groups together news articles about similar topics, so readers can see what different media outlets are saying about it. Visitors can also search for a specific topic, such as "west nile virus" and bring up links to news articles about the west nile virus from hundreds of local, international and national news outlets. These articles can then be sorted by relevance or by date. Other search portals also have news services including AOL, Yahoo News, Excite News and Lycos News. Unlike Google these news services are primarily based on outsourced content and often contain full news articles, while Google just contains headline and short excerpts. Other news search services such as Moreover, outsource its news headline technology. Altavista, provides a news service which includes news headlines from Moreover. Like Moreover, outsourcing may be one way Google can use its news algorithms to bring in revenues. Other news search providers include DayPop.com, NewsIndex.com and Northern Light. VIVENDI LICENSES MARVEL SUPERHEROES FOR ONLINE GAMES -------------------------------------------------------------------- Vivendi Universal Publishing (VU Publishing) and Marvel Enterprises, Inc. have announced a 10-year worldwide licensing agreement which grants VU Publishing's Games division (VU Games) the right to develop and publish online massively multi-player (OLMMP) games based on Marvel's superheroes. The first OLMMP title under the new agreement is targeted for release in 2005. The announcement was made jointly by VU Games Chairman and CEO Ken Cron and Marvel COO Bill Jemas. The deal provides VU Games with access to the entire Marvel library of over 4,700 characters. Additionally, VU Games has obtained the rights to release titles in multiple languages across all existing and future platforms enabling OLMMP game play, including PCs and console-based systems. "We believe there are only a few franchises existing today that are compelling enough to be a leader in the massively multi-player games market and Marvel's universe of superheroes is clearly one of them," said Ken Cron, Chairman and CEO of Vivendi Universal Games. OLMMP games, which allow thousands of players to interact online simultaneously, represent a key area of growth for the multi-billion dollar video game industry. Marvel and VU Games will share in revenues generated by subscription fees, product sales and in-game advertising. "Marvel wanted to make an aggressive move to establish a strong presence in the burgeoning online gaming arena, and this relationship with VU Games puts us right on the ground floor," Marvel COO Bill Jemas said. "Marvel is perfectly suited to massively multi-player gaming as we are a `universe' unto ourselves. Our fans like to live and breathe their favorite characters and this gives them the opportunity to do that 24 hours a day if they like. Our superheroes have been extremely successful in the video game world as evidenced by the best-selling status of our Spider-Man, X-Men and Blade franchises. By every measure, this is by far the largest and best electronic game deal in the history of Marvel." This online project marks the latest partnership between Marvel and VU Games, which is also developing next generation video games inspired by The Hulk feature film. A leading publisher of PC, console and online-based interactive content, VU's portfolio of development studios includes Black Label Games, Blizzard Entertainment, NDA Productions, Sierra Entertainment and Universal Interactive. 10:26:57 PM    comment []

CRYPTO-GRAM October 15, 2002 by Bruce Schneier Founder and CTO Counterpane Internet Security, Inc. schneier@counterpane.com < TITLE="http://www.counterpane.com>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.counterpane.com> A free monthly newsletter providing summaries, analyses, insights, and commentaries on computer security and cryptography. Back issues are available at < TITLE="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram.html>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram.html>. To subscribe, visit < TITLE="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram.html>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram.html> or send a blank message to crypto-gram-subscribe@chaparraltree.com. Copyright (c) 2002 by Counterpane Internet Security, Inc. ** *** ***** ******* *********** ************* In this issue: National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace More on AES Cryptanalysis Crypto-Gram Reprints The Doghouse: GreatEncryption News Counterpane News One-Time Pads Comments from Readers ** *** ***** ******* *********** ************* National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace On 18 September, the White House officially released its National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. Well, it didn't really release it on that date; versions had been leaking here and there for a while. And it really isn't a national strategy; it's just a draft for comment. But still, it's something. No, it isn't. The week it was released I got all sorts of calls from reporters asking me what I thought of the report, whether the recommendations made sense, and why certain things were omitted. My primary reaction was: "Who cares? It doesn't matter what the report says." For some reason, Richard Clarke continues to believe that he can increase cybersecurity in this country by asking nicely. This government has tried this sort of thing again and again, and it never works. This National Strategy document isn't law, and it doesn't contain any mandates to government agencies. It has lots of recommendations. It has all sorts of processes. It has yet another list of suggested best practices. It's simply another document in my increasingly tall pile of recommendations to make everything better. (The Clinton Administration had theirs, the "National Plan for Information Systems Protection." And both the GAO and the OMB have published cyber-strategy documents.) But plans, no matter how detailed and how accurate they are, don't secure anything; action does. And consensus doesn't secure anything. Preliminary drafts of the plan included strong words about wireless insecurity, which were removed because the wireless industry didn't want to look bad for not doing anything about it. Preliminary drafts included a suggestion that ISPs provide all their users with personal firewalls; that was taken out because ISPs didn't want to look bad for not already doing something like that. And so on. This is what you get with a PR document. You get lots of varying input from all sorts of special interests, and you end up with a document that offends no one because it demands nothing. The worst part of it is that some of the people involved in writing the document were high-powered, sincere security practitioners. It must have been a hard wake-up call for them to learn how things work in Washington. You can tell that a lot of thought and effort went into this document, and the fact that it was gutted at the behest of special interests is shameful...but typical. So now everyone gets to feel good about doing his or her part for security, and nothing changes. Security is a commons. Like air and water and radio spectrum, any individual's use of it affects us all. The way to prevent people from abusing a commons is to regulate it. Companies didn't stop dumping toxic wastes into rivers because the government asked them nicely. Companies stopped because the government made it illegal to do so. In his essay on the topic, Marcus Ranum pointed out that consensus doesn't work in security design. Consensus security results in some good decisions, but mostly bad ones. By itself consensus isn't harmful; it is the compromises that are almost always harmful, because the more parties you have in the discussion, the more interests there are that conflict with security. Consensus doesn't work because the one crucial party in these negotiations -- the attackers -- aren't sitting around the negotiating table with everyone else. "And the hackers don't negotiate anyhow. In other words, it doesn't matter if you achieve consensus...; whether it works or not is subject to a different set of rules, ones over which your wishes exercise zero control." If the U.S. government wants something done, they should pass a law. That's what governments do. It's like pollution; don't mandate specific technologies, legislate results. Make companies liable for insecurities, and you'll be surprised how quickly things get more secure. Leave the feel-good PR activities to the various industry trade organizations; that's what they're supposed to do. The draft report: < TITLE="http://www.whitehouse.gov/pcipb/>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.whitehouse.gov/pcipb/> News articles: < TITLE="http://www.bangkokpost.com/021002_Database/02Oct2002_dbcol10.html>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.bangkokpost.com/021002_Database/02Oct2002_dbcol10.html> < TITLE="http://www.news.com.com/2102-1023-958545.html>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.news.com.com/2102-1023-958545.html> Marcus Ranum's essay: < TITLE="http://www.tisc2002.com/newsletters/414.html>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.tisc2002.com/newsletters/414.html> Other essays: < TITLE="http://www.infowarrior.org/articles/2002-11.html>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.infowarrior.org/articles/2002-11.html> < TITLE="http://online.securityfocus.com/columnists/110>" TARGET="_blank">http://online.securityfocus.com/columnists/110> < TITLE="http://online.securityfocus.com/news/677>" TARGET="_blank">http://online.securityfocus.com/news/677> < TITLE="http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2882094,00.html>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2882094,00.html> < TITLE="http://www.avolio.com/columns/21-SecuringCyberspace.HTML>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.avolio.com/columns/21-SecuringCyberspace.HTML> ** *** ***** ******* *********** ************* More on AES Cryptanalysis I can say with certainty that no one knows for certain if XLS can break Rijndael or Serpent or anything else. Actually, I can say something stronger: no one has produced an actual demonstration of XLS breaking even a simplified version of Rijndael or Serpent or anything else. This makes a lot of people skeptical. Demonstrations are important. When differential cryptanalysis finally broke the full 16-round DES, the authors did not demonstrate the attack. Even though the attack was faster than brute force, it was still too complicated to demonstrate practically. But the authors did demonstrate the attack against reduced-round variants of DES, and against other algorithms. The community believed that the attack worked because the techniques had been demonstrated multiple times and the theory behind the techniques were well understood. The XLS techniques have not been demonstrated yet. A number of respectable cryptographers, whose opinions I value highly, don't think the techniques work. Don Coppersmith has published a note on the topic. And T. Moh has a Web page about this. (To be fair, T. Moh and Nicolas Courtois have an ongoing diagreement about another crypto-related topic. But while that certainly affects the motivations, it doesn't necessarily invalidate the math.) I know that several groups are working on the techniques, and if they work one of those groups should be able to demonstrate something, on something, soon. I'll provide additional information when I learn of it. Coppersmith's comment: Sorry about the ridiculous link. The substance of the note is in the "Letters from Readers" column below, or here's a referral link. < TITLE="http://makeashorterlink.com/?K27C515E1>" TARGET="_blank">http://makeashorterlink.com/?K27C515E1> Moh's site: < TITLE="http://www.usdsi.com/aes.html>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.usdsi.com/aes.html> My essay on XLS from last month: < TITLE="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0209.html#1>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0209.html#1> ** *** ***** ******* *********** ************* Crypto-Gram Reprints Crypto-Gram is currently in its fifth year of publication. Back issues cover a variety of security-related topics, and can all be found on < TITLE="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram.html>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram.html>. These are a selection of articles that appeared in this calendar month in other years. Cyberterrorism: < TITLE="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0110.html#1>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0110.html#1> Dangers of Port 80 < TITLE="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0110.html#9>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0110.html#9> Semantic Attacks: < TITLE="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0010.html#1>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0010.html#1> NSA on Security: < TITLE="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0010.html#7>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0010.html#7> So, You Want to be a Cryptographer: Key Length and Security: < TITLE="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-9910.html#KeyLengthandSecurity>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-9910.html#KeyLengthandSecurity> Steganography: Truths and Fictions: < TITLE="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-9810.html#steganography>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-9810.html#steganography> Memo to the Amateur Cipher Designer: < TITLE="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-9810.html#cipherdesign>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-9810.html#cipherdesign> ** *** ***** ******* *********** ************* The Doghouse: GreatEncryption It's got all the snake-oil warning signs: a novel encryption algorithm that isn't discussed, an obvious ignorance of cryptography, a patent in progress, and a bogus contest. Sample sentences from the Web site: "Keys 2,000-4,000 characters long are recommended for key strength that is far greater than that of other software programs now sold." And: "Software with a key strength of 109^4000 + 109^3999 + ... 109^1." Egads. The funniest bit is when they claim that their encryption is fast, "encrypting about 5,000 plaintext characters/second on an average PC." Assume the average PC is 500 MHz; that translates to about 100,000 clock cycles per byte (ASCII character) encrypted. AES encrypts at 20 clock cycles per byte; there are stream ciphers that are over twice as fast. That means AES is 5,000 times faster than GreatEncryption. The Web site says: "Permission to export Great Encryption to the rest of the world, except for terrorist states, is being sought." If we're lucky, they'll get permission to export it ONLY to terrorist states. < TITLE="http://www.greatencryption.com/>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.greatencryption.com/> ** *** ***** ******* *********** ************* News Good article on the myth of cyberterrorism: < TITLE="http://online.securityfocus.com/columnists/111>" TARGET="_blank">http://online.securityfocus.com/columnists/111> And more silly hype: < TITLE="http://www.theregus.com/content/6/26414.html>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.theregus.com/content/6/26414.html> 64-bit key brute-forced: < TITLE="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/09/26/1449257&mode=thread&tid=93>" TARGET="_blank">http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/09/26/1449257&mode=thread&tid=93> Interesting Q&A with Whitfield Diffie, conducted by Richard Thieme: < TITLE="http://www.cisomagazine.com/2002/aug/qa.shtml>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.cisomagazine.com/2002/aug/qa.shtml> Security vs. Open Society: < TITLE="http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/19416.html>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/19416.html> Can Software be Certified? < TITLE="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2002/tc2002101_6896.htm>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2002/tc2002101_6896.htm> This is about as pathetic as you can get. The Federal Trade Commission has decided that computer security needs a mascot, kind of like Smokey the Bear. So we now have Dewey the Turtle, who's here to promote secure computing for everyone. "When you see the ping of death, duck and cover." A Russian hacker was sentenced to three years in prison here in the United States for breaking computer crime laws here. It's an interesting story. He was in Russia at the time, and broke no laws in his country. However, the U.S. prosecution broke Russian laws to collect evidence against him. The judge agreed with the FBI's assertion that Russian law didn't apply to them. Isn't international jurisprudence fun? < TITLE="http://in.tech.yahoo.com/021005/137/1w2bq.html>" TARGET="_blank">http://in.tech.yahoo.com/021005/137/1w2bq.html> Secure software: will we ever see it? Insiders are the biggest computer security threat: < TITLE="http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,105528,00.asp>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,105528,00.asp> ** *** ***** ******* *********** ************* Counterpane News It was an excellent quarter for Counterpane. Sales up 100% over last year, a bunch of new resellers, way more monitoring, that sort of thing. We'll have a press release with the details real soon now. Schneier is speaking at SMAU 2002 in Milan on 25 Oct: < TITLE="http://www.smau.it/smau2002/english/docs/flash.html>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.smau.it/smau2002/english/docs/flash.html> Schneier is speaking at the Symposium on Privacy & Security in Zurich on 30 and 31 October: < TITLE="http://www.privacy-security.ch/english/programm/default.htm>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.privacy-security.ch/english/programm/default.htm> Schneier is speaking at Comdex in Las Vegas on 18 November: < TITLE="http://www.comdex.com/fall/>" TARGET="_blank">http://www.comdex.com/fall/> ** *** ***** ******* *********** ************* One-Time Pads It's a meme that never seems to go away. Every time I write about this cryptanalytic result, or the insecurity of that system, someone starts crowing about one-time pads. "Every other cryptographic algorithm is based on some assumption, and one-time pads are the only provably secure system," they say. "They're the only safe algorithm," they say. "They're the future," they say. Well, they're wrong. And step, by step, I will explain why. (Parts of this essay are taken from my book "Secrets and Lies.") One-time pads are the simplest of all algorithms, and were invented early on in the 20th century. The basic idea is that you have a pad of paper with a bunch of randomly chosen key letters, the same size as the message, on it. You add one key letter to each plaintext letter, and never repeat the key letters. (That's the "one-time" part.) For example, assume the message is IT and the pad letters are CM. You add I (9) to C (3) to get L (12), or T (20) to M (13) to get G (7). (20 + 13 = 7 mod 26.) Then you burn the paper afterwards. The receiver reverses the process using his pad of paper, and then burns the key letters when he's done. This system works with any alphabet, including a binary one. One-time pads are the only provably secure cryptosystem. Because the key is the same size as the plaintext, every possible plaintext is equally likely. With different keys, the ciphertext DKHS could decrypt to SELL, STOP, BLUE, or WFSH. With a normal algorithm, such as DES or AES or even RSA, you can tell which key is correct because only one key can produce a reasonable plaintext. (Formally, the message size needed is called the "unicity distance." It's about 19 ASCII bytes for an English message encrypted with a cipher with a 128-bit block. With a one-time pad, the unicity distance approaches infinity and it becomes impossible to recognize plaintext. This is the security proof.) Because a one-time pad's key is the same size as the message, it's impossible to tell when you have the correct decryption. This is the only provably secure cryptosystem we know of. It's also pretty much useless. Because the key has to be as long as the message, it doesn't solve the security problem. One way to look at encryption is that it takes very long secrets -- the message -- and turns them into very short secrets: the key. With a one-time pad, you haven't shrunk the secret any. It's just as hard to courier the pad to the recipient as it is to courier the message itself. Modern cryptography encrypts large things -- Internet connections, digital audio and video, telephone conversations, etc. -- and dealing with one-time pads for those applications is just impracticable. If you think you know how to do key management, but you don't have much confidence in your ability to design good ciphers, a one-time pad might make sense. We're in precisely the opposite situation, however: we have a hard time getting the key management right (partly because most applications won't really support couriers with briefcases handcuffed to their wrists, Marines with rifles guarding the room with the encryption equipment in it, or thermite charges available for physically destroying storage media before the bad guys get past the Marines with rifles guarding the encryption equipment), but we're pretty confident in our ability to build reasonably strong algorithms. It's just not the weak point in our systems. What a one-time pad system does is take a difficult message security problem -- that's why you need encryption in the first place -- and turn it into a just-as-difficult key distribution problem. It's a "solution" that doesn't scale well, doesn't lend itself to mass-market distribution, is singularly ill-suited to computer networks, and just plain doesn't work. The exceptions to this are generally in specialized situations where simple key management is a solvable problem and the security requirement is timeshifting. In these situations, the problem isn't transporting the bits securely, but transporting the bits securely at the time the message is generated. Securing the bits beforehand is easy. And there are historical examples of one-time pads being used successfully, in specialized circumstances. Russian spies used pencil and paper one-time pads to communicate. (The NSA broke the system because the Russians reused the same one-time pads. Oops.) An early Teletype hotline between Washington and Moscow was encrypted using a one-time pad system. One-time pads were also used successfully in WWII by the English; spies in locations with radios but no other encoding equipment were given pads printed on silk, and were able to encode messages for transmission faster and more securely than by previous methods involving memorized poetry. Those examples used real one-time pads. Generally, products that claim to use a one-time pad actually don't. My guess is that the engineers quickly realize that they can't possibly implement a one-time pad, so they use the output of a stream cipher and call that a one-time-pad generator, or a virtual one-time pad, or almost a one-time pad, or some other marketing-speak. It's not a one-time pad. The security proof completely fails when you use a stream cipher. On the other hand, if you ever find a product that actually uses a one-time pad, it is almost certainly unusable and/or insecure. So, let me summarize. One-time pads are useless for all but very specialized applications, primarily historical and non-computer. And almost any system that uses a one-time pad is insecure. It will claim to use a one-time pad, but actually use a two-time pad (oops). Or it will claims to use a one-time pad, but actually use a steam cipher. Or it will use a one-time pad, but won't deal with message re-synchronization and re-transmission attacks. Or it will ignore message authentication, and be susceptible to bit-flipping attacks and the like. Or it will fall prey to keystream reuse attacks. Etc., etc., etc. One-time pads may be theoretically secure, but they are not secure in a practical sense. They replace a cryptographic problem that we know a lot about solving -- how to design secure algorithms -- with an implementation problem we have very little hope of solving. They're not the future. And you should look at anyone who says otherwise with deep and profound suspicion. ** *** ***** ******* *********** ************* Comments from Readers From: "Christian Hampson" Subject: Your name on Reveal's list Regarding the reason for the inclusion of your name and Rabbi Schneerson on the list for Reveal, the term "crypt" is considered to be an occult word. Your name is highly associated with cryptography. Also, Avi Schneier is associated with Tai Chi in New York and Arthur Schneier is part of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy. As for Schneerson, I also noticed such words as "Judeo," "Hasidi," and "Kaballah" as being occult. It appears that anything other than Civil Religion is to be considered occult, as "Allah," "Chant," "Mahayana," "Sabat," "Ritual," "Prophet," and "Resurrection" are also included on the list. Perhaps you should feel honored by your inclusion. From: Douglas Davidson Subject: Your name on Reveal's list I just wanted to point out that this might not necessarily be illegitimate. If this organization is using some form of statistical filtering (something along the lines of that described for spam filtering in <) TITLE="http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html>)" TARGET="_blank">http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html>), then it is quite possible that their word list is derived entirely automatically from the analysis of some corpus. In that case, there may not be any way for a human to explain the presence of a particular word; it is there simply because it occurs in the corpus -- not necessarily frequently, either. In Graham's case, for example, the resulting word lists were a surprise even to Graham. Unfortunately, if AntiChildPorn is using some technique of this sort, it becomes difficult to validate their filters. In the case of spam filtering, every user naturally has a sufficiently large corpus of spam and non-spam e-mail available to construct their own filters. However, not everyone has a large corpus of pornographic, racist, or similar material available. Unless AntiChildPorn makes their corpus available for examination -- which they probably are not willing to do -- it would be difficult to evaluate their techniques without assembling a large corpus yourself and seeing what their software says about it. If AntiChildPorn is doing what they say they are doing, then one might make a guess that anti-Semitic writings occasionally include the names of rabbis. If they are not doing what they say they are doing, then perhaps they have fed Phrack or something similar into the mix. Without further evidence there is no way to tell. From: "Don Coppersmith" Subject: XLS Against Rijndael Your recent "Crypto-gram" leads people to believe that Courtois and Pieprzyk's XLS work breaks Rijndael. I believe that the Courtois-Pieprzyk work is flawed. They overcount the number of linearly independent equations. The result is that they do not in fact have enough linear equations to solve the system, and the method does not break Rijndael. The details: The problem is evident in the "T' method" of section 6.3 of their IACR reprint #2002/044. They generate $ T' = t' t^{P-1} * { {S-1} choose {P-1} }$ terms that can be multiplied by x1 and still remain in their set of $T$ monomials, and then seem to claim to have that many new equations. But in fact, any of the $t' [ t^{P-1} - (t-r)^{P-1} ] * { {S-1} choose {P-1} }$ equations that come from multiplication of a basic equation by a monomial, have already been counted among their $R$ equations, and so they can't count them again. The method has some merit, and is worth investigating, but it does not break Rijndael as it stands. 10:24:55 PM    comment []

Norman Koren Photography http://www.normankoren.com/ Lovers of great outdoor and slice-of-life photography will undoubtedly enjoy browsing the collection of photos available here, although that's not what initially grabbed my attention. Norman Koren has compiled a great collection of tutorials, offering an outstanding collection of tips to help budding shutterbugs through the process of getting great digital shots. Concepts are explained in a way that anyone could feel comfortable with, taking some of the mystery out of everything that happens once you are ready to move beyond the automatic settings that are your camera's default. What to do with your photos, after you've taken them, including scanning of 35mm stuff, printing, and some editing tricks, is also covered in enough detail to make the novice feel like they've progressed into the realm of being a better photographer. 10:23:30 PM    comment []

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,599446,00.asp 10:20:39 PM    comment []

http://www.infotoday.com/online/sep02/OnTheNet.htm 10:19:08 PM    comment []

------ Forwarded Message From: Dave Wolkowitz Date: Wed, 09 Oct 2002 12:07:29 -0700 (PDT) To: dave@farber.net Subject: The Other IP Dave, I recently attended the 2002 Chicago International Intellectual Property Conference. The conference had top-tier legal experts discussing such issues as DMCA and WIPO, as well as industry experts such as SONICblue CTO Andrew Wolfe speaking about his company's recent legal battles. I wanted to share a couple interesting ideas with you: There was an interesting talk by Judge James Holderman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. In his view, there is a grave need for a patent court at the trial level because generalist judges are not prepared to handle patent law for numerous reasons. Additionally, Professor Julie Cohen of Georgetown University Law Center had some interesting ideas about protecting individuals' privacy by allowing them to bring trespass action against corporate computer "hackers" seeking to "protect" their copyrighted works by accessing individuals? in-home computers via P2P networks. I wrote a two-part article about the conference. I hope your readers find it interesting. Part One: (http://www.eprairie.com/news/viewnews.asp?newsletterID=4179) Part Two: (http://www.eprairie.com/news/viewnews.asp?newsletterID=4180) Regards, Dave Wolkowitz MarketSting dave@marketsting.net 10:05:00 PM    comment []

Thanks to Red Rock Eater News: Here are some more URL's. Thanks to everyone who contributed. RRE home page: http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/rre.html IDEO's redesign of a hospital in the October issue of Metropolis should be required reading in design programs of every sort. Iraq Analysts Discount Attack By Iraq (as in the Reagan years, the CIA is being pressured to give the right answers) http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63775-2002Oct9?language=printer http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2Dna%2Dcia11oct11004439§ion=%2Fnews%2Fprintedition%2Fasection http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,807286,00.html http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.hts/nation/1607676 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/10/politics/10INTE.html?pagewanted=print http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/4234259.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp critique of the Bush National Security Strategy and Cincinnati speech http://www.opendemocracy.net/forum/document_details.asp?CatID=98&DocID=1867 protests at Bush's war speech in Cincinnati http://www.citybeat.com/2002-10-10/news.shtml DefenseWatch issue on Iraq http://www.sftt.org/dw10022002.html US Has a Plan to Occupy Iraq, Officials Report http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/11/international/11PREX.html?pagewanted=print Congress Must Resist the Rush to War (we're proving again that war is the enemy of law) http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/10/opinion/10BYRD.html?pagewanted=print left-wing answers to questions about Afghanistan and Iraq http://www.zmag.org/45qairaq.htm reports from peace activists inside Iraq http://www.iraqjournal.org/ US Forces Ill-Equipped for Chemical and Biological Warfare http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/article.asp?id=46 http://www.sftt.org/dw10022002.html#5 South Africa Denies Iraqi Arms Deal Claims http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.jsp?o=10272 assorted sources on Iraq war issues http://lii.org/search?query=(Iraq+not+Babylonia);searchtype=subject article on Saddam's "palaces" http://www.msnbc.com/news/817665.asp Bush Studied Israel's 1967 Preemptive Strike http://www.msnbc.com/news/819372.asp Operation Endless Deployment http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20021021&s=hartung the ancient bond between war and mindlessless (projection: make no sense by pretending that opponents make no sense) http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh101002.shtml "you're un-American! you hate America! you're with us or with the terrorists!" (oh, *that* new tone) http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2002/10/tapped-s-10-07.html#550pmblitzer http://www.spinsanity.org/post.html?2002_10_06_archive.html#85541371 Democrats paying for their incoherence and collapse on the war (my view is that the Democrats and their supporters need to grow more pundits) http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A6721-2002Oct10?language=printer war indictment of the head of a Muslim charity http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/usarnaout10902ind.pdf recently declassified information about US chemical weapons tests http://www.deploymentlink.osd.mil/current_issues/shad/shad_intro.shtml http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021009/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/chemical_weapons_tests_9 Mass Graves Found in Northern Afghanistan http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.jsp?a=13&o=10278 FBI Memo Details Pre-9/11 Sloppiness (might be a temporary link) http://www.austin360.com/aas/news/ap/ap_story.html/Washington/AP.V3389.AP-Attacks-FBI-Err.html article about DNA analysis of remains from the World Trade Center http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2Dsci%2Dremains9oct09004433§ion=%2Fnews%2Fprintedition%2Fasection Fighting Terrorism With Democracy http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20021021&s=rorty Navy Center for Contemporary Conflict http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/index.asp civil liberties and security third circuit says no first amendment right of access to deportation hearings http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/ashnjmg10802opn.pdf http://www.law.com/jsp/printerfriendly.jsp?c=LawArticle&t=PrinterFriendlyArticle&cid=1032128705832 http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/4238161.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp more on the ID card disaster in Pakistan http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/10/international/10STAN.html?pagewanted=print summary of hacktivism projects http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/10/technology/circuits/10hack.html?pagewanted=print "biometrics proves more difficult than feds anticipated" http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/1007/cov-bio-10-07-02.asp what happened when part of the UUNet backbone failed last week http://www.businessweek.com/print/technology/content/oct2002/tc2002108_4317.htm Satellite Systems Hackable: GAO Study (does someone have a URL for this?) http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/27508.html Aviation Accident Information Dating Back to 1962 Now Available Online http://www.ntsb.gov/Pressrel/2002/021009.htm conspiracy theory about Republicans and voting machines (I don't find the site credible, but they explain where to look for evidence) http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0210/S00044.htm http://www.talion.com/election-machines.html Lobbyist Made Money From Florida Voting Machine Sales http://www.sptimes.com/2002/10/06/news_pf/State/Lobbyist_made_money_f.shtml corruption Bush accused of colluding with Harvard to hide problems at Harken http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~skomarov/harvardwatch/ http://www.thedailyenron.com/documents/20021009083424-82854.asp http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/11/opinion/11KRUG.html?pagewanted=print http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/282/business/Harvard_role_in_Harken_called_deeperP.shtml http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5-442115,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,808933,00.html Documents Raise Questions About White's Senate Testimony on Energy Trades http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/print_release.cfm?ID=1229 Enron Owes $6 Million in Taxes http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.hts/metropolitan/1611416 Enron Bondholders to Get $8 Million http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=509&u=/ap/20021010/ap_on_bi_ge/enron_sec_1&printer=1 Alabama retirement fund going after Enron's bankers http://www.law.com/jsp/printerfriendly.jsp?c=LawArticle&t=PrinterFriendlyArticle&cid=1032128681489 SEC watering down the Sarbanes-Oxley rules for corporate lawyers http://www.law.com/jsp/printerfriendly.jsp?c=LawArticle&t=PrinterFriendlyArticle&cid=1032128710966 intellectual property Microsoft Nixes TV Copy Protection http://news.com.com/2102-1040-961376.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/27531.html more on copyright extensions http://www.law.com/jsp/printerfriendly.jsp?c=LawArticle&t=PrinterFriendlyArticle&cid=1032128711781 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3508-2002Oct9?language=printer http://chronicle.com/free/2002/10/2002101001t.htm hardware that deactivates unless you register software upgrades http://staging.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/02/10/07/021007opgripe.xml?Template=/storypages/printfriendly.html everything else details on the human versus machine chess match in Bahrain (it's a fair fight this time, and we're winning) http://www.brainsinbahrain.com/ http://www.chessbase.com/ http://www.chessbase.com/shop/index.asp?cat=Fritz+Programs http://62.73.175.4/dynamic/articles/108193978.html http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=34499&Sn=BNEW The Problem of Slow Productivity Growth in Europe (they accept the late-1990's productivity growth claims in the US as real) http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/archives/000949.html jargon watch: study how hard they stretch to insinuate wrongdoing (contortionists often develop serious joint problems as they grow older) http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/10/politics/10GIFT.html?pagewanted=print A Concise Model of the University (ultra nerdly satire) http://pfaff.tcc.virginia.edu/home/MT/archives/000014.html#000014 Java site for building animated, uh, well, just try it http://www.sodaplay.com/constructor/index.htm Rumble of a Coming Ice Age http://www.nationalpost.com/components/printstory/printstory.asp?id=b7052ccd-012b-43b6-965d-817642a34738 end 10:03:32 PM    comment []

Friends of Sklyarov and 2600 take note. The Copyright Office, which administers parts of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, is taking comments on the "anti- circumvention" provision of the Act, the one which tripped up Sklyarov and 2600, and which has given a lot of other people a lot of trouble. The Copyright Office would like comments submitted electronically, as it explains, in intricate (http://www.copyright.gov/1201/fr2002-4.pdf) detail. EFF will be coordinating the effort to respond. Don Weightman ........................... Donald Weightman 202.544.1458 10:01:03 PM    comment []

-----Original Message----- From: Andrew Schaaf [mailto:andrew@qwerpoiu.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 10:35 PM To: nhumphreys@akingump.com Subject: Eben Moglen's speech -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Noel, The links to Eben Moglen's speech "Freedom and the Future of the Net: Why We Win" can be found at http://www.eskimo.com/~lo/linux/index.html#moglen Andrew Schaaf http://qwerpoiu.com 9:59:34 PM    comment []

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/1,3973,643563,00.asp 9:57:52 PM    comment []

-------- Original Message -------- Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 11:33:58 -0400 From: Vin > http://newsvac.newsforge.com/newsvac/02/10/23/1247236.shtml?tid=4 Washington State Congressman attempts to outlaw GPL Wednesday October 23, 2002 - [ 12:47 PM GMT ] Topic - Government An anonymous reader writes: "Leaders of the New Democrat Coalition attempt to outlaw GPL. A call to sign off on explicit rejection of "licenses that would prevent or discourage commercial adoption of promising cyber security technologies developed through federal R & D." has been issued by Adam Smith, Congressman for the Ninth District in the State of Washington. It's already signed off on by Rep. Tom Davis(R-Va), Chairman of Government Reform Subcomittee on Technology, and Rep. Jim Turner (D-TX) Ranking Member of the same committee, with the backing of Rep. Jim Davis (D-FL), and Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI). It's a note to fellow New Democrats under the guise of protecting commercial interest's right to make money from the fruits of federal R & D, and to sign off on an attached letter to Richard A. Clarke, Chair of the President's Critical Infrastructure. They are attempting to convince Clarke, Chair of the President's that licensing terms such as "those in the GNU or GPL" are restrictive, preclude innovation, improvement, adoption and establishment of commercial IP rights. Let's take a look at the highlights: 1) They use the Internet, by virtue of TCP/IP, as "proof" of their thesis. 2) They state that you cannot improve OR adopt OR commercialize GPL software. 3) They state that you cannot integrate GPL'd software with proprietery software. 4) They say you should keep publicly funded code away from the public sector, so that proprietary interests can make money from the work. 5) They equate a lack of understanding of the GPL with valid reasoning against it. In essence, that non-proprietary interests should not be allowed to use, adopt, improve, or make money from the work. That taxpayers should pay for it twice. And that nobody should be able to stop commercial entities from taking publicly funded code, they will then close off. Write or fax each of the Congressmen mentioned as supporting this, and let them know they have been given bad information and that categorically anti-opensource and anti-GPL stance will be reflected at voting time: Rep. Jim Davis 424 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone: (202) 225-3376 Fax: (202) 225-5652 Webmail: http://www.house.gov/jimdavis/message.html Rep. Tom Davis 306 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515-4611 Phone: (202) 225-1492 Fax: (202) 225-3071 Rep. Ron Kind 1713 Longworth HOB Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone: 202.225.5506 Fax: 202.225.5739 Rep. Adam Smith 116 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone: 202-225-8901 Fax: 202-225-5893 E-Mail: http://www.house.gov/adamsmith/contact/contact.htm l Rep. Jim Turner 208 Cannon HOB Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-2401 Fax: (202) 225-5955 For those without e-mail listed, email them at: http://www.house.gov/writerep/ Here's the note to the New Democrats from Smith, Kind and J. Davis: Support Innovation in Cybersecurity -- Sign The Attached Dear Colleague Deadline: Friday, October 18th Dear New Democrat Colleague: Attached is a letter that is being sent to Dick Clarke, the Chair of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board. As he shapes the "National Strategy"on cybersecurity, it is important to affirm that government R&D should be made available under intellectual property licenses that allow for further development and commercialization of that work. Licenses such as the General Public License (GPL) are problematic and threaten to undermine innovation and security. I urge you to sign this letter. As you know, the basis of the Internet - the TCP/IP protocol - is a result of federal R&D efforts at DARPA. The advancement and commercialization of this research provided significant economic growth as well as gains in productivity and efficiency. Public-private partnerships have been hallmarks of technological innovation and government has played a positive role in fostering innovation by allowing the private sector to develop commercial products from the results of publicly funded research. As such it is important that the National Strategy reject any licenses that would prevent or discourage commercial adoption of promising cybersecurity technologies developed through federal R&D. The terms of restrictive license's - such as those in the GNU or GPL - prevent companies from adopting, improving, commercializing and deriving profits from the software by precluding companies from establishing commercial IP rights in any subsequent code. Thus, if government R&D creates a security innovation under a restrictive license, a commercial vendor will not integrate that code into its software. So long as government research is not released under licensing terms that restrict commercialization, publicly funded research provides an important resource for the software industry. New Democrats have long supported public-private partnerships -- it's important that any licenses do not compromise a company's intellectual property rights in their own technology. I encourage you to sign the attached letter to Mr. Clarke. If you have any questions, please contact Mike Mullen (Rep. Jim Turner; 5-2401) or John Mulligan (Rep. Adam Smith; 5-8901). Thank you. Sincerely, Adam Smith Member of Congress Ron Kind Member of Congress Jim Davis Member of Congress Text of attached letter to Mr. Clarke Congress of the United States Washington DC 20515 October 8, 2002 Honorable Richard A. Clarke Chair, President's Critical Infrastructure Board The White House Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. Clarke: We are writing to submit our views on the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace that you circulated for comment on September 18, 2002. We believe the National Strategy should explicitly recognize that overall cyber security will improve if federally funded research and development is made available to Americans under intellectual property licenses that allow for further development and commercialization of that work product. This is a long-standing federal principle that should be explicitly stated in the National Strategy. The leading example of this principle is DARPA's research in the 1970s that resulted in TCP/IP - the key set of communications standards that form the technical basis of today's Internet. These communications standards were made available under licensing terms allowing their integration into commercial software, which in turn enabled a wide range of companies to develop innovative communication and networkingservices. Taxpayers are still realizing a tremendous return on that federal investment through Internet driven productivity gains, economic growth, job creation, and individual empowerment that could not have been predicted by the federal, academic and private sector researchers who developed TCP/IP. However, none of these returns would have been possible unless the research was made available under licensing terms that allowed the private sector to commercialize TCP/IP. Nor would the government and industry have enjoyed the fruits of this economic activity-- fruits that have funded additional research and development-- unless it had been made available for commercialization. It would be very unfortunate - indeed, counterproductive and contrary to the public-private partnership that is at the core of the national cyber security strategy - if companies were reluctant to adopt promising security technologies produced by federal research for fear that doing so may compromise their intellectual property rights in their own technology. For these reasons, it is essential that the National Strategy affirm federal tradition by explicitly rejecting licenses that would prevent or discourage commercial adoption of promising cyber security technologies developed through federal R&D. We commend your hard work on an issue of pressing importance, appreciate the opportunity to participate in this process, and trust you'll consider our views when you issue the final version of your report. Sincerely, (signed) Tom Davis (signed) Jim Turner Ranking Member, Reform Subcommittee on Technology NOTE: Their letter is addressed to Mr. Clarke who has *not* expressed support of this initiative." 9:54:56 PM    comment []

SuSE opens Linux desktop for Windows Would a transition to open-source desktops be more acceptable if your users could continue to run Microsoft Office? SuSE is betting on it. Taking aim at small to medium-sized enterprises, the Linux distributor is readying SuSE Linux Office Desktop, which will package SuSE Linux 8.1 with software that allows the distribution to process Office files and run other Windows applications. http://cl.com.com/Click?q=8d-nbL1Q7nhvy_eOTzBbYeWXxQqLMPR Special Report: The perfect Linux desktop http://cl.com.com/Click?q=a2-6-M7QXZeFg5AbpO1qV69DQKagonR 9:48:05 PM    comment []

http://ippubs.bna.com/ip/BNA/ccw.nsf/is/a0a6b7a1r8 9:47:02 PM    comment []

-----Original Message----- From: Jay Sulzberger [mailto:jays@panix.com] Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2002 3:01 PM To: nylug-talk@nylug.org Cc: Jay Sulzberger Subject: [nylug-talk] Economics of publishing: Brewster Kahle's machine http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2002/10/18/bookmobile oo--JS. 9:46:05 PM    comment []

Thanks to Gnome: OmniOutliner v2.1 [2.1MB] OSX 10.1 $30 http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/ Back when I was required to outline projects for English class, as part of the grading process, I failed to see the point of outlining, completing the project first, and then creating an outline to fit the project. Out in the working world, after being required to write a few applications, I came to the realization that outlines have a distinct purpose, which has saved me hours of potentially wasted time; I only wish I would have discovered OmniOutliner sooner. While it's possible to use a text editor for outlining, this application is too versatile to ignore. While you can use it with plain black text, plenty of configurable options like fonts, numbering, background colors, and checkboxes (which make good to-do lists, in addition to being useful for tracking outlined progress). Checkboxes are also intelligent, so that if all sub-level checkboxes are checked, the top-level checkbox becomes checked as well. Multiple columns are available, for descriptive information next to your outlines. Files may be saved either as OmniOutliner files, or exported as HTML, Rich Text or Plain Text, making it easy to share your outlines or to-do lists. Whether you've got a bunch of tasks to keep track of, or a big project with many layers of information; OmniOutliner will make sure you stay on track. 9:43:53 PM    comment []

Larry is the general counsel & fromer executive director of the Open Source Initiative. The licenses address what Larry sees as legal shortcomings to the BSD/MIT and GPL licenses respectively. They're currently up for consideration before the OSI. Among the interesting features is the patent defense proposed, an implementation of ESR's "poison pill" of several years ago. ----- Forwarded message from "Lawrence E. Rosen" ----- From: "Lawrence E. Rosen" Subject: Approval Requested for AFL 1.2 and OSL 1.1 To: Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 11:39:19 -0800 Mailing-List: contact license-discuss-help@opensource.org; run by ezmlm Organization: ROSENLAW.COM LLP X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-78.7 required=5.0 tests=AWL,NOSPAM_INC,SPAM_PHRASE_00_01 version=2.42 X-Spam-Level: The draft versions of the AFL and OSL are now stable. They have been discussed on license-discuss for quite a while now. I believe I have incorporated all concensus changes that were requested. Will the OSI board approve them? Latest versions of the licenses are at: OSL 1.1: http://www.rosenlaw.com/osl1.1.html The comparison of OSL 1.1 to OSL 1.0 is at http://www.rosenlaw.com/OSL1.1.redline.pdf AFL 1.2: http://www.rosenlaw.com/afl1.2.html The comparison of AFL 1.2 to AFL 1.1 is at http://www.rosenlaw.com/AFL1.2.redline.pdf Upon approval of the new versions I will withdraw the original versions. /Larry Rosen 9:41:16 PM    comment []

* New KDnuggets Search Engine: How to best use it KDnuggets has recently switched to a new and much better search engine from Fluid Dynamics. The new search engine ... http://www.kdnuggets.com/news/2002/n21/4i.html --- 9:39:46 PM    comment []

--- * 1880 Census goes online USA Today (Oct 23, 2002) reports that USA Census from 1880 is on-line. Volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is renowned for its genealogical research facilities, spent 17 years ... http://www.kdnuggets.com/news/2002/n21/6i.html - 9:39:25 PM    comment []

~~ Software: * BayesiaLab: a powerful laboratory for mining your data with Bayesian Networks Bayesia, a company created by researchers specialized in Bayesian Networks and Machine Learning, launches BayesiaLab, a powerful laboratory for mining your data with Bayesian Networks. ... http://www.kdnuggets.com/news/2002/n21/14i.html --- 9:38:19 PM    comment []

Date: Mon, 04 Nov 2002 10:48:56 -0500 From: "ALAWASH E-MAIL" ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 11, Number 87 November 4, 2002 In This Issue: Major Copyright Bill Affecting Distance Education Becomes Law On November 2nd, 2002, the "Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act" (the TEACH Act), part of the larger Justice Reauthorization legislation (H.R. 2215), was signed into law by President Bush. TEACH redefines the terms and conditions on which accredited, nonprofit educational institutions throughout the U.S. may use copyright protected materials in distance education-including on websites and by other digital means-without permission from the copyright owner and without payment of royalties. TEACH establishes new opportunities for educators to use copyrighted works without permission and without payment of royalties, but those opportunities are subject to new limits and conditions. The American Library Association joined with numerous other associations and groups representing educators, librarians, and academic administrators to negotiate the language of the TEACH Act and to vigorously support its passage. The process of drafting the TEACH Act necessarily reflected the views of diverse interests, and some terms we would like to have seen in the law met with strong opposition from copyright owners concerned about protecting their creations and preventing widespread threats to their markets. On the other hand, the ALA and many other library and education groups were successful in adding many provisions in the bill that can significantly enhance distance education. To put the complexity of the issue in perspective, we need to grasp not only the growth of distance education, but also the magnitude of the copyright concerns at stake. Many materials that educators use in the classroom and in distance education are protected by copyright law. Copyright protection applies to most text, videos, music, images, motion pictures, and computer software; protection usually applies even if the work lacks a copyright notice and is not registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Unless the work is in the public domain, or you have permission from the copyright owner, or you are acting within fair use or one of the specific, statutory exceptions, your copying, digitizing, uploading, transmitting, and many other uses of materials for distance education may constitute infringement. Previous law did include such a statutory exception for the benefit of distance education, but it was enacted in 1976 and has failed to meet modern needs. That statute (Section 110(2) of the Copyright Act) generally encompassed closed-circuit television transmissions, and it could not foster robust and innovative and digital educational programs that might reach students at home, at work, or at any other location. The TEACH Act repeals that statute and replaces it with a more complex, but more beneficial, revision of Section 110(2) and related provisions. Among the benefits of the TEACH Act for distance education are an expansion of the scope of materials that may be used in distance education; the ability to deliver content to students outside the classroom; the opportunity to retain archival copies of course materials on servers; and the authority to convert some works from analog to digital formats. On the other hand, the TEACH Act conditions those benefits on compliance with numerous restrictions and limitations. Among them are the need to adopt and disseminate copyright policies and information resources; implementation of technological restrictions on access and copying; adherence to limits on the quantity of certain works that may be digitized and included in distance education; and use of copyrighted materials in the context of "mediated instructional activities" akin in some respects to the conduct of a traditional course. Therefore, to secure full benefits of the law, educators and their colleges, universities, schools, and other qualified institutions will need to take deliberate and careful steps. Full implementation will likely involve participation by policymaking authorities, technology officials, and instructional faculty. Librarians will invariably be closely involved as they make their collections and other resources available to students at remote locations. Moreover, you will most assuredly need to consult legal counsel at your institution to be certain you are properly implementing the new law's provisions. To help with this effort throughout the country, the American Library Association is launching an initiative to provide guidance and to help interested persons so that they may better understand the new law and implement its requirements. Please watch for developments at this dedicated website: http://www.ala.org/washoff/teach.html. We have posted and will continue to update summaries and explanations of the law, together with guidance and other information to help the community enjoy the advantages of the new law and to strengthen innovative educational programs through the sharing of important information resources. Moreover, we will take this opportunity for a fresh examination of the more general law of "fair use" as applied to distance education. Fair use was, and remains, a vital alternative whenever a more specific statute-such as Section 110(2) of the Copyright Act-fails to meet your needs. However, fair use also has limits. In the meantime, you can find a great deal of information about fair use on numerous websites, and in many books, including some copyright publications available from the ALA at http://alastore.ala.org. We welcome your comments and observations at any time about this project. For more information, contact Carrie Russell, Copyright Specialist at ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy, crussell@alawash.org or (800) 941-8478. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo <[your_firstname]> <[your_lastname]> to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Camille Bowman, Mary Costabile, Don Essex, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell, Claudette Tennant. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy. 9:34:25 PM    comment []

Exploring the Contours of the Federal Mail and Wire Fraud Statutes New York Law Journal The federal mail fraud and wire fraud statutes are the subject of an almost perpetual tug of war between prosecutors seeking to broaden the type of conduct that can be prosecuted within the statutes' extremely elastic boundaries and defense attorneys striving to protect their clients from an over-zealous or, at least overly creative, prosecution. http://tm0.com/LAW/sbct.cgi?s=498088435&i=666476&m=1&d=3356892 9:33:10 PM    comment []

KILLER DOWNLOADS: Still using index cards to organize your research? Your computer can do a lot better. Jason's got three downloads that help collate your notes and sources and arrange them in an orderly fashion. Read More: http://cl.com.com/Click?q=75-whwtIKUlzFA5r2OSj2eWwvgpp5ZR 9:30:52 PM    comment []

AOL Must Reveal Subscriber's Identity The National Law Journal In a case against America Online in which an electronics company alleged that an AOL subscriber was libeling it, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that AOL must reveal the member's identity. Siding with the electronics company's claim that the posting violated the law even if it wasn't defamatory, the court concluded that a speaker who uses nondefamatory words in a scheme to enrich himself at the expense of another does not enjoy First Amendment protection. http://tm0.com/LAW/sbct.cgi?s=498088435&i=669743&m=1&d=3399295 9:29:27 PM    comment []

2nd Circuit Revives Attempt to End Marvel Comic Copyright New York Law Journal The creator of Captain America can invoke the termination provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. Deciding a case of first impression, the court found that the comic creator's settlement with Marvel Characters Inc., in which he acknowledged he devised the character Captain America while working for hire, doesn't prevent him from terminating the company's copyright under the act. http://tm0.com/LAW/sbct.cgi?s=498088435&i=669743&m=1&d=3399287 9:28:18 PM    comment []

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