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Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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Summary of Hawash Case
Will the RIAA Pursue Individuals?
'24' is a Documentary
US Trade Rep Creates Copyright Confusion
US Trade Rep Copyright Watch List
Open Access Education Journals
Cell Phone Life Gets Interesting
RIAA, Students Settle Piracy Suit
Big Losers File for Refunds
Sunday, May 4, 2003
Scare Tactics
Very interesting. RIAA spreads rumors of it's "malicious" programs for ruining the computers of college students. I dunno. Would they do this? Could they?They might give it a shot -- legal or no. They're practically insane over their loss of control. And they really only pay attention to the law when it works in their favor anyway. But it sure could get ugly if they start stuff like this. There's no evidence they're smart enough to pull it off, and you shouldn't get into a battle of wits when you have no ammunmition.
Mean Tech For Thwarting Music Piracy. CBS News May 3 2003 5:37PM ETSome of the world's biggest record companies, facing rampant online piracy, are quietly financing the development and testing of software that would sabotage the computers and Internet connections of people who download pirated music, according to industry executives cited by The New York Times in a story on its Web site prepared for its Sunday editions.
[...] A program the Times describes as "more malicious," dubbed "freeze," locks up a computer system for a certain duration minutes or possibly even hours risking the loss of data that was unsaved if the computer is restarted. It also displays a warning about downloading pirated music. Another program under development, called "silence," scans a computer's hard drive for pirated music files and attempts to delete them. One of the executives briefed on the silence program said to the Times that it did not work properly and was being reworked because it was deleting legitimate music files, too. [...] [Moreover - IP and patents news]
Saturday, May 3, 2003
Gay Bar
Not what you think... (Link) (requires QuickTime.)
Gay bar. I wish I had as much free time as the guys who did this. [Greg's Home Space]
Summary of Hawash Case
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has a good article on the Mike Hawash case. It's as good a summary of the case as I've seen, noting the difficulty the government faces in identifying and prosecuting domestic terrorists, as well as looking realistically at both the results and consequences of those efforts.
[...] As with the detention of Mr. Hawash, the case against the Portland Six also has drawn criticism from civil libertarians and others who feel that the government has been overly zealous. When the six were arrested in October, Attorney General John Ashcroft called the event "a defining day in America's war against terrorism," and said that "a suspected terrorist cell within our borders" had been "neutralized." Evidence that has emerged so far, however, appears to give little support to the contention that the group was a real terrorist cell. Despite months of intensive surveillance of the defendants by the FBI before their arrests, no allegation has been made that they were plotting any violent action after they returned home from China. Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said that the department views sleeper cells to be any group that "conspires to support terrorists," regardless of whether it was planning any violent action here.The criminal complaint and lengthy affidavit in the Hawash case offer little actual evidence of what Mr. Hawash's intentions were. The sole exception is a partial transcript of a conversation recorded by a confidential FBI source with one of the other defendants in the case, Jeffrey Leon Battle. In it, Mr. Battle said a "Palestinian" who was "married to a white woman ... left with us to go fight." [WSJ Online]
Terry Frazier at 11:15 AM
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Will the RIAA Pursue Individuals?
I've been thinking about this RIAA/college student settlement and just what it means for the RIAA. There are a couple of points in this Yahoo! News article worth examining.
Students Sued by Record Companies Settle Download Case. Yahoo! May 1 2003 6:24PM ETIt's clear the RIAA wasn't interested in going to court, and neither were the students. It's also clear the RIAA wasn't interested in proving, or recovering, damages:[...] Daniel Peng at Princeton University in New Jersey and Joseph Nievelt at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich., agreed to pay $15,000 to the recording companies, while Jesse Jordan and Aaron Sherman from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., agreed to pay $12,000 and $17,500, respectively. The students will make the payments on installment plans over the next several years.
The settlements resolve the first phase of what could be a risky legal gambit by the major record labels, including AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music, Sony Corp (news - web sites).'s Sony Music Entertainment, Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Group and Bertelsmann AG (news - web sites)'s BMG, to combat online music piracy, a phenomenon the labels blame for declining music sales. Recording industry executives said the lawsuits have resulted in at least 18 campus-wide file sharing networks being taken down, adding that they may ask for stiffer settlement terms in future legal actions. [...]
[...] But in suing individuals, particularly university students, analysts and attorneys believe the recording industry may risk alienating a wider swath of music fans. [...] [Moreover - Online legal issues news]
[...] Mr. Jordan added that his son's $12,000 settlement "happens to be the same amount of money that is the total of his bank account. That is money he has saved up over the course of working three years to save money for college." [...]Looking at Title 17, Sec 504 says the copyright owner can request statutory damages of between $750 to $30,000 per infringement. In cases of willful infringement the court may, at its discretion, increase statutory damages to not more than $150,000 per infringement. A kid trading tunes from just a handful of CDs could face as much $4 to $6 million in statutory damages. But there is more, if you are a willful infringer:
Title 17, Sec. 506 Criminal OffensesAmong other things, Title 18 Sec. 2319 lists prison terms of 1 to 10 years for first offenders, plus fines (additive to any damages awarded under Title 17.) The remedies in the code are clearly written to curtail large-scale criminal infringers, particularly with regard to profiteering. In fact, Sec. 2319 refers repeatedly to the infringer's profits.
(a) Criminal Infringement.-Any person who infringes a copyright willfully either-shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, United States Code.
- for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, or
- by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000,
So what we have here is a game of legal chicken. The criminal code views copyright infringement as a criminal endeavor of significant proportions. Its remedies never anticipated the occurrence of common, everyday file trading among lowly students with no profit motive or criminal intent. But if the RIAA ever gets a kid in court it is not clear just how it will play out. There is a risk of having the hammer fall on some hapless student and putting a very human face on the whole situation.
It's one thing to go after some high profile file trading company in Antigua, or a couple of venture capitalists that can afford really good lawyers and big settlements. It's entirely another to be seen winning million dollar awards and locking up college kids for doing something most people aren't even sure is wrong. There is simply no public perception that file trading justifies the kind of remedies in the code, especially when there is no profit motive.
I think this is why the RIAA has been so slow in going after individuals and why they are focused on getting lots of PR and then settling for small amounts. There is risk of a serious public backlash if they push too hard. It wouldn't take but one outrageous court case to bring home the ludicrous nature of current copyright law to the parents of every college student in America. Next thing you know, some politician is grandstanding on the idea of legalizing file trading, and the RIAA is in deep shit.
Given their pathetic track record at PR this could certainly happen. In the end it could well be the human face they create that ultimately leads to changes in the copyright code that so desperately want to maintain.
Terry Frazier at 12:35 AM
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Friday, May 2, 2003
'24' is a Documentary
I've quoted this post in its entirety from Privacy Digest, but you really ought to go read the full article in the New York Times.According to the article, the Bush administration is now attempting to deploy the US Military and the CIA on American soil. The language authorizing this groundbreaking expansion of powers was attached, unannounced, to a broader intelligence bill now before Congress. The provision was apparently added by Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kansas and chairman of the intelligence committee, at the request of the Bush Administration.
I never, ever thought I would look back on the Clinton Administration with longing...
New York Times - free registration required Broad Domestic Role Asked for C.I.A. and the Pentagon.The Bush administration and leading Senate Republicans sought today to give the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon far-reaching new powers to demand personal and financial records on people in the United States as part of foreign intelligence and terrorism operations, officials said.
The proposal, which was beaten back, would have given the C.I.A. and the military the authority to issue administrative subpoenas -- known as "national security letters" -- requiring Internet providers, credit card companies, libraries and a range of other organizations to produce materials like phone records, bank transactions and e-mail logs. That authority now rests largely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the subpoenas do not require court approval.
The surprise proposal was tucked into a broader intelligence authorization bill now pending before Congress. It set off fierce debate today in a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee, officials said. Democrats on the panel said they were stunned by the proposal because it appeared to expand significantly the role of the C.I.A. and the Pentagon in conducting domestic operations, despite a long history of tight restrictions, officials said.
After raising objections, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and other Democrats succeeded in getting the provision pulled from the authorization bill, at least temporarily, Congressional officials said.
In a closed vote, the committee passed the bill unanimously without the proposal. But Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is chairman of the intelligence committee, indicated to panel members that he wanted to hold further hearings on the idea, officials said.
There was some disagreement over exactly how the provision originated. Several Senate aides active in the debate said that Senator Roberts had included it in the authorization bill. But a senior Congressional official said the Bush administration had initiated the proposal and that Senator Roberts had not objected.
A C.I.A. official said the provision had come from the Bush administration, after the White House's Office of Management and Budget signed off on it.
The official said that Congressional leaders had asked the Bush administration whether there were any additional powers needed to help combat terrorism. The administration responded with the proposal to give the C.I.A. and military the power to use the national security letters, the official said. Another Congressional official said the move came at the urging of the C.I.A. The White House had no comment last night.
[ ... ]
They said that while the F.B.I. was subject to guidelines controlling what agents are allowed to do in the course of an investigation, the C.I.A. and the military appeared to have much freer reign. The F.B.I. also faces additional scrutiny if it tries to use such records in court, but officials said the proposal could give the C.I.A. and the military the power to gather such material without ever being subject to judicial oversight.
Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the proposal "dangerous and un-American."
Mr. Edgar said that "even in the most frigid periods of the Cold War, we never gave the C.I.A. such sweeping and secret policing powers over American citizens."
[ ... ]
New figures released today also showed that the Justice Department is relying with increasing frequency on secret warrants that allow the officials to go to a secret court to get approval for surveillance and bugging warrants in terrorism and espionage investigations without notifying the target.
[Privacy Digest]
Terry Frazier at 11:28 PM
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US Trade Rep Creates Copyright Confusion
ZDNet's Charles Cooper discusses the USTR flap noted Wednesday.U.S. may add to copyright confusion. ZDNet May 2 2003 7:58AM ET [Moreover - IP and patents news]
Terry Frazier at 12:30 PM
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US Trade Rep Copyright Watch List
More on info on the USTR's program of creating a worldwide oligopoly for the US Copyright Cabal.
Text: U.S. Releases Special 301 Report on Intellectual Property. Washington File May 2 2003 0:17AM ET[...] USTR placed 36 trading partners on the watch list for IPR violations: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovak Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
Another 11 trading partners, including the European Union (EU), were placed on the priority watch list, which entails a greater level of scrutiny. The 11 trading partners are Argentina, the Bahamas, Brazil, EU, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, and Taiwan. [...] [Moreover - IP and patents news]
Terry Frazier at 12:25 PM
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Open Access Education Journals
From the folks at open-education.org comes this pointer to a lengthy list of fully accessible ejournals in education.
Open e-journals in Education. The AERA SIG Communication of Research hosts a list of more than 130 full access e-journals in the field of education:
http://aera-cr.ed.asu.edu/ejournals/index.html
"To the best of our ability to discern, we have included only links to electronic journals that are scholarly, peer-reviewed, full text and accessible without cost. We have excluded professional magazines that are largely not refereed, and commercial journals that may only allow access to a very limited number of articles as an enticement to buy. By restricting membership in this way on the list that follows, we hope to do what little we can to promote free access world wide to scholarship in education.
The AERA SIG Communication of Research supports the Budapest Open Access Initiative and urges ejournals to support the initiative." [open-education.org]
Terry Frazier at 10:09 AM
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Cell Phone Life Gets Interesting
Cell life is about to get interesting. If Mobile Number Portability (MNP) goes into effect in November you can expect chaos while everyone scrambles for a better deal. This Wired article suggest much of the negotiating can start already. Now where'd I put that Sprint customer discipline number...
Let's Make a Cell-Phone Deal. Facing an increasingly competitive market and legislation that will let customers keep their phone numbers even when they switch carriers, cell-phone companies are upping the ante in their bid to attract and retain customers. By Elisa Batista.[...] "After some mild haggling with a low-level rep who wasn't going to budge -- he insisted that he couldn't give me a plan other than those offered to new subscribers -- I asked to speak to a supervisor, who immediately offered me 500 anytime minutes, unlimited night and weekend calling, free long distance and $100 toward a new phone, all for $35 a month. [...] [Wired News]
Terry Frazier at 9:40 AM
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RIAA, Students Settle Piracy Suit
Interesting note in this Wired article regarding the RIAA suit against four college students. All four settled for relatively small amounts -- small, given the millions and millions of dollars RIAA claimed to be losing from their efforts.While the settlement amounts are not insignificant for a college student, it's less than the cost of a top-line Hyundai. Can such a settlement set a precedent for realistic values in future file trading suits?
This seems an interesting balance the RIAA is trying to strike between public hysteria to drive new laws but more restrained actions against actors in their prime target market.
How, exactly, do you treat the vast majority of your customers as criminals while still trying to market to them? Interesting dilemma...
School Blocks Out File-Trading. Amid growing pressure from the Recording Association of America to stamp out illegal file-trading on university campuses, a New Jersey school takes matters into its own hands. By Katie Dean.[...] On Thursday, all four students named in the complaints -- Aaron Sherman and Jesse Jordan of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Daniel Peng of Princeton and Joe Nievelt of Michigan Technological University -- settled with the music trade group for between $12,000 and $17,500 apiece. [...] [Wired News]
Big Losers File for Refunds
Enron, MCI, Qwest, HealthSouth and others are filing, or planning to file, for tax refunds on the billions of income they falsely claimed during their creative-GAAP period. Maybe all that new money can help some of their starving lawyers.
After Inflating Their Income, Companies Want IRS RefundsBy REBECCA BLUMENSTEIN, DENNIS K. BERMAN and EVAN PEREZ
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNALA parade of big companies is under investigation for inflating their earnings during the stock-market boom of the 1990s. Now some of them see an unusual silver lining: They want back the taxes they overpaid along the way.
In the latest wrinkle in the unfolding series of corporate scandals, MCI and Enron Corp. are in the process of collecting or filing for tax refunds or credits from the Internal Revenue Service because of tax payments on billions of dollars they falsely claimed to have earned. Qwest Communications International Inc., which plans to restate $2.2 billion in revenue, also is likely to seek a refund. Embattled HealthSouth Corp., accused of overstating its earnings by more than $2 billion, said that it hasn't made a final decision to file for a refund but is considering it. [...] [Wall Street Journal Online (subscription required)]
Terry Frazier at 9:15 AM
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