Fair Use Bill Introduced To Change DMCA:Washington Post blogger’s note that Representatives Boucher (D-VA) and Dolittle (R-CA) today introduced the FAIR USE Act to update the DMCA to “make it easier for digital media consumers to use the content they buy.” Boucher’s statement on the bill says, “The Digital Millennium Copyright Act dramatically tilted the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the public’s right to fair use…”… Boucher has been introducing this bill for years; here are attempts from 2002 and 2003…. And reader Rolling maul writes into note Ars’s disappointment with the bill for leaving the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions intact: “Yet again, the bill does not appear to deliver on what most observers want: clear protection for making personal use copies of encrypted materials. There is no allowance for consumers to make backups of DVDs, to strip encryption from music purchased online so that it can be played anywhere, or to generally do any of the things that the DMCA has made illegal.”
Browsing Posts published in February, 2007
Apple’s iTunes DRM Dilemma:Understanding how Apple’s FairPlay DRM works helps to answer a lot of questions: why it hasn’t been replaced with an open, interoperable DRM that anyone can use, why Apple isn’t broadly licensing FairPlay, and why the company hasn’t jumped to add DRM-free content from indie artists to iTunes.
The Future of Podcasting:You will get a kick out of this.
MP3′s Loss, Open Source’s Gain:A jury’s $1.52 billion judgment against Microsoft hangs a sudden, unexpected cloud over MP3. This could be an opportunity for open-source options. By Eliot Van Buskirk and Evan Hansen.
Surveillance Cameras Get Smarter:Researchers develop cameras that size you up. Instead of being used after the fact for ID, this new breed of security cam detects suspicious behavior to help prevent crime. By the Associated Press.
Software Bug Halts F-22 Flight:”The new US stealth fighter, the F-22 Raptor, was deployed for the first time to Asia earlier this month. On Feb. 11, twelve Raptors flying from Hawaii to Japan were forced to turn back when a software glitch crashed all of the F-22s’ on-board computers as they crossed the international date line…. CNN television, however, this morning reported that every fighter completely lost all navigation and communications when they crossed the international date line. They reportedly had to turn around and follow their tankers by visual contact back to Hawaii…. The Peoples Daily of China reported on Feb. 17 that two Raptors had landed on Okinawa.
Chinese Hack Attacks on DoD Networks Coordinated:An anonymous reader writes ” The Naval Network Warfare Command says that Chinese hackers are relentlessly targeting Defense Department networks with cyber attacks. The ‘volume, proficiency and sophistication’ of the attacks supports the theory that the attacks are government supported. The motives of the attacks emanating from China include technology theft, intelligence gathering, exfiltration, research on DOD operations and the creation of dormant presences in DOD network for future action. Onlookers warn that current US defenses against these attacks are ‘dysfunctional’, and that more aggressive measures should be taken to ensure government network safety.”
AirPort Extreme: Apple Breaks 90 Mbps:My review of the new AirPort Extreme Base Station is up at Macworld: This lengthy review, aided by several colleagues at the magazine, covers a lot of the basics for home users…. I was able to see consistently high speeds in testing, in excess of 90 Mbps in a single direction over 802.11n to Ethernet (flooding packets from N to Ethernet), and about 50 Mbps when flooding from N to N via the base station…. The Extreme has a minor flaw that won’t bite many people in its ability to pass traffic at full Ethernet speeds across its WAN port when network address translation (NAT) is engaged…. I’ll be writing more soon about particular aspects of the base station, but for now, I’d like to direct you to the technical discussion about the Extreme’s use of IPv6, the next-generation Internet routing protocol that’s been “next generation” for something like eight or nine years now. IPv6 support is found throughout Mac OS X and is fully supported in the Extreme base station–so fully, Ars Technica’s Iljitsch van Beijnum reports, that by default every Mac OS X computer that connects to a new Extreme gateway will be fully reachable through tunneled IPv6 from the rest of the Internet….
Pentagon Sued Over Milblog-MonitoringThe digital rights crusaders over at the Electronic Frontier Foundation are suing the Department of Defense, “demanding expedited information on how the Army monitors soldiers’ blogs,” according to an EFF statement.
Unsecured Networks Open Doors To Crime – Anonymity allows more activity to take place:Sure, we know that we need to secure our home and business computer networks to prevent obvious computer crimes such as identity theft. But have you ever thought about the number of other crimes which can take place on unsecured networks, including public WiFi spots, because of the anonymity of using those locations for connection? The Washington Post points out that criminals can sit in public spaces and engage in such crimes as online sex solicitation of minors without much fear of being caught for their activities. Even when police become aware of such activity, they may have trouble tracking users and tracing the paths of criminals. One suggestion is for cities with public WiFi to institute filtering systems which scan who accesses the network.
Prez’s New Top-Secret Net:The Pentagon’s IT geeks are putting together plans for a new White House “top-secret network and multimedia Crisis Management System (CMS) designed to operate in a wide range of fixed locations, on Air Force One and on a new fleet of presidential helicopters.”… The idea is to “provide the president, cabinet secretaries, and designated agency directors and their staffs with a secure, dedicated network capable of handling full motion video, voice graphics and data at 64 fixed and mobile locations.”… It will allow the top federal leaders to view and work on documents on the network’s video displays. Ten locations will be equipped with the new technology in 2008 at a cost of $12 million, according to the DISA [Defense Information Systems Agency] budget documents. DISA said it will equip two next-generation Boeing 747s that serve as Air Force One and nine new presidential helicopters with the new network and CMS.
U.S. cyber counterattack: Bomb ‘em one way or the other National Cyber Response Coordination Group establishing proper response to cyberattacks
- Rogers users say the ISP has evolved traffic shaping efforts:As more and more ISPs began to throttle customers who used Bit Torrent, a growing number of BitTorrent clients began to implement encryption to try to get around the traffic shaping. Resident users of Canadian cable broadband provider Rogers say their encrypted BitTorrent clients are no longer working. They surmise that Rogers has updated Cisco traffic-shaping hardware to perform more sophisticated deep packet inspection to again limit BitTorrent bandwidth consumption. Some users are using VPN software SecureIX to get around the new traffic shaping efforts, with mixed results. Of course, like RCN admits to doing, providers can also limit the number of overall connection BT clients can make, which also makes encryption largely useless.
Windows Vista Launch: Ok, I thought this Windows Vista Upgrade Decision Flowchart was kind of funny. (Click on the link below and then open up the PDF.) The weird thing is everyone’s been talking about LongHorn Vista for so friggin’ long, I didn’t even realize it was launching this week. It was five years in the making, so I’m sure it’s an improvement over XP, but does it really matter any more? For a slightly more serious perspective, check out John Stewart’s interview with Bill Gates from the Daily Show via YouTube or read the reviews below. BBSpot: Windows Vista Upgrade Decision Flowchart YouTube: Bill Gates on the Daily Show YouTube: Apple Ad Spoof MIT Technology Review: Uninspiring Vista WSJ: Vista: Worthy, Largely Unexciting OnDisruption: Vista Overshoots Market PC Mag: Vista: The Ho-Hum Launch, Does Vista Matter?
PanGo unveils WiFi-based active RFID tag:Filed under: WirelessAlthough PanGo isn’t the first firm on the block to kick out WiFi-enabled RFID tags, that didn’t stop the outfit from introducing its latest active unit and aiming it squarely at you (and your officemates). Sure enough, this third-generation “asset tracking tag” touts a smaller form factor, “enhanced functionality,” and extended battery life compared to ones past, but still looks to ride along with you while on employer grounds or while in the company car. The device will reportedly last “over five years” on the built-in battery, and boasts about being the “world’s first” to be compatible with the Cisco Certified Extensions (CCX) tag protocol — which is a “WiFi communication mode that enables a higher level of location accuracy for Cisco 2700 Series Location Appliance customers and the ability for the tag to provide enhanced telemetry reporting.” Most frightening, however, is how close these voyeuristic liaisons are to shipping, and since your boss can place a batch order by the end of the month, you should probably keep a close on anyone trying to slip you something in your coat pocket while ’round the water cooler.[Via DailyWireless] Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsBOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-timeOffice Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
MySQL Administration:Introducing MySQL Administrator, a graphical user interface database administration tool from MySQL AB, the makers of MySQL.
What happens in the Mac OS X boot process:Nice write up about what happens when you boot your Mac.“Long gone are the days of OS 9, watching our Macs boot up with a series of extensions and control panels that we could always identify. Today with the Unix underpinnings of OS X, many users are entirely unaware of what is going on behind the scenes. So what exactly happens during the Mac OS X boot process? A segment at KernelThread carefully lists the sequence of events, from start to finish. It is fairly thorough and worth a read.
iPass Adds Satellite, 3G Services, Vista Support:A small spate of announcements from remote access firm iPass: The company resells access to 75,000 hotspots worldwide and countless dial-up lines, and has added EVDO Rev…. While they don’t identify which EVDO provider is which, it’s easy to guess that iPass is offering service from both Verizon and Sprint, since there are two networks they offer and two providers of such in the U.S. They call them Network A and Network B, and require separate subscriptions for each network…. Various companies resell terminals and access, but iPass will have the clearest and most transparent model for a company that may deploy a few terminals and have various employees using the network…. (Recall that OnAir and Aeromobile are planning to launch in-flight data services using BGAN eventually–in-flight cell may launch any day now on limited airlines in Europe and Asia–but you can see that the per MB cost on a corporate level makes it impossible for unlimited in-flight satellite-based Internet use…. iPass sells mostly to the corporate market where rather than have each roaming employee set up their own accounts with recurring fees, iPass can meter access or provide negotiated monthly rates across an entire organization….
Infocus: Wireless Forensics: Tapping the Air – Part One: Wireless Forensics: Tapping the Air – Part One
Debugging WiFi: By Jeff Root
