Yearly Archives: 2003

SunnComm Sees Reason, John Halderman Safe (Till Next Time)

Posted on October 10, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

The Daily Princetonian reports that Threat of lawsuit passes for student, so John Halderman is off the hook. This is thus another case in which a sabre-rattling firm backed down in the face of an outcry. It is still an outrage, however, that these threats can be made even semi-credibly. Sooner or later there will be a case of outrage fatige, or a firm with no common sense at all, and we will have a lawsuit. It will probably lose, but do great damage to the defendant's bank balance and peace of mind in the process.

The DMCA needs to be fixed. Sounds like a job for Howard Dean's new Net Advisory Net?

Posted in Law: Copyright and DMCA | 2 Comments

Guantanamo: Our Collective Shame

Posted on October 10, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

As citizens we all bear a degree of collective responsibility for what our government does in our name. That responsibility is greater when we are or should be on notice. And thus, we are all responsible for what is happening in Guantanamo detention camps.

We are collectively responsible for what is happening in Camp Delta and Camp Iguana (the latter holds children). It is, or it should be, a matter of shame that our government chose to confine the Camp Delta prisoners in solitary, indefinitely, without news or the prospect of having their cases determined in the foreseeable future and where the policy is “We interrogate seven days a week, 24 hours a day.” (Interrogations, however, are limited [sic] “to no more than 16 straight hours” straight at one go.) There is no right to speedy trial (or other Geneva-convention-style hearing), or even to a trial. If and when trials do begin, there will be no right to to a proper attorney-client relationship even though the trials can end in the death penalty. Nor will there be a right to appeal the initial tribunal's verdict to a neutral court staffed by judges with the neutrality of perspective that comes from life tenure.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Guantanamo | 4 Comments

Simon Higgs Phones In the Latest From Phone Hell

Posted on October 10, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

The Simon Higgs saga continues. Some things are getting resolved, but bad customer 'service' seems to be eternal.

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Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology | Comments Off on Simon Higgs Phones In the Latest From Phone Hell

Cryptome: Often Heroic, but Sometimes Creepy

Posted on October 10, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Cryptome is a website run by the mysterious (in the sense that we've never actually managed to meet) John Young. It has long been a cornerstone of the movement to publish government secrets that shouldn't be secret, especially about communications interceptions and cryptography.

Cryptome has done sterling service in reprinting published works that governments tried to suppress. It's been a thorn in the side of the UK government, for example, which has tried to recall and suppress published books. Every week is a small trove of interesting documents, most from public sources but some from anonymous, that have to do with spying or national security.

That's the heroic part. Now for the slightly creepy part.

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Posted in Internet | 2 Comments

How Do I Evaluate This Warning?

Posted on October 10, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

The Register has the Director of the Program on Terrorism and Trans-National Crime at the University of Pittsburgh (connected to this?) warning 'Expect terrorist attacks on Global Financial System'. Is this more likely than other terrorist activities? As likely? Or just sufficiently bad if it happens ('A successful terrorist attack on America's financial infrastructure could bring the US and global economies to a standstill, and the real surprise is that it hasn't been attempted yet.') that we should prepare for it even on a low probability threat analysis?

I wasn't able to find a copy of the paper on the web, so I can't go to the source and form my own conclusions. The article tells me very little. As a general matter, I tend to some skepticism about warnings from anti-terrorism experts Their incentive structure is to be scary, as this maximizes the demand for experts. I imagine that in this business you don't in that business get in nearly as much trouble for false alarms as you do for being asleep at the switch.

So, how to evaluate this warning (especially as the ad that happened to be served when I was reading had this graphic)?

Posted in Politics: US | Comments Off on How Do I Evaluate This Warning?

In Solidarity With Alex Halderman

Posted on October 9, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Did you notice the item about the guy who showed you could bypass a copy protection scheme with trivial effort? Well, the makers of the system are out for blood:

In addition, SunnComm believes that Halderman has violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by disclosing unpublished MediaMax management files placed on a user's computer after user approval is granted. Once the file is found and deleted according to the instructions given in the Princeton grad student's report, the MediaMax copy management system can be bypassed resulting in the copyright protected music being converted or misappropriated for potentially unauthorized and/or illegal use. SunnComm intends to refer this possible felony to authorities having jurisdiction over these matters because: 1. The author admits that he disabled the driver in order to make an unprotected copy of the disc's contents, and 2. SunnComm believes that the author's report was “disseminated in a manner which facilitates infringement” in violation of the DMCA or other applicable law. [emphasis added]

The headline on the press release is SunnComm CEO Says Princeton Report Critical of its MediaMax CD Copy Management Technology Contains Erroneous Assumptions and Conclusions but what they are really concerned about is that he is right, not that he is wrong.

I find the idea that academics might be prosecuted under the DMCA for telling the truth to be hateful and scary.

No socially benefical outcome is prodcued by attempts to suppress the truth. And if Halderman's report wiped some value off SunnComm's stock, well odds are that's an efficient market in action as it didn't deserve to be there.

Posted in Law: Copyright and DMCA | 2 Comments