Interesting. Suggests new types of regulations, for example a future traffic stop: “I see in your school record that you got a B in Drivers Ed. That means you can't drive after 9PM until you are 21. I'm going to make you stay after school and study Algebra...”

http://www.saukvalley.com/articles/2006/12/18/news/local/341484601910276.txt

Published on: Monday, December 18, 2006

Schools, cops trade student information

BY JOSEPH BUSTOS SVN REPORTER jbustos@svnmail.com

In the past, when a child ran afoul of the law, it was assumed the case file would end up on a judge's bench, and not necessarily a school administrator's desk.

However, local police and school districts are increasingly trading information about juveniles through the use of intergovernmental agreements. [Wow! Schools are governments! Bob]

It's a move that concerns proponents of civil liberties who worry schools may become a pipeline to the juvenile system.

"Once information sharing starts, there are no breaks and the school becomes an adjunct of the police department," said Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

From the police's perspective, the agreements arm school administrators with the information to keep students safe.

"The problem we run into is we arrest students for violent (crimes), drugs or weapons and school is not getting that type of information," said Dixon Police Sgt. Troy Morse, who helped write the agreement that has been in place for seven years between his department and Dixon Public Schools. "(We) were worried of violent acts spilling over into the school and the safety of students and staff on site."

How they work

In these reciprocal agreements, police notify the school when a student is arrested off campus during free time. Likewise, if a student commits a criminal offense while on campus or at a school-sponsored activity, then the school agrees to notify police. [If a student stabs a teacher, don't they already call the police? Bob]

This might come to America, but politicians and other “not second class” citizens would be exempt.

http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-6144548.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

Judge stops Brit from selling Hotmail lists

By Tom Espiner Story last modified Mon Dec 18 11:44:15 PST 2006

Microsoft has stopped a U.K. man from selling lists of e-mail addresses that were then being used by spammers.

The technology giant took to court Paul Martin McDonald, who through his company Bizads sold e-mail addresses that were then used as spam lists. Microsoft sought and was granted a summary judgment against McDonald, arguing that his actions had caused Microsoft to suffer loss and damage to the goodwill it enjoyed as owner of the Web-based e-mail service Hotmail.

The judge agreed with Microsoft that Bizads had breached the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), a U.K. law that includes regulations designed to halt the sending of unsolicited e-mail.

"The evidence plainly established that the business of Bizads was supplying e-mail lists of persons who had not consented to receive direct marketing mail and that it had encouraged purchasers of the lists to send e-mails to those people," the judge said.

The judge ruled that Microsoft had suffered a loss as a result of the breach of the PECR and was entitled to compensation and an injunction restraining McDonald from instigating the transmission of commercial e-mails to Hotmail accounts.

... "It's interesting that Paul McDonald didn't send the spam himself; he just sold the lists," Robertson said. "But the court was able to characterize selling the lists as instigation of spam."

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/54783.html

SCO Quietly Seeks Another Review of IBM Decision

By Bob Mims The Salt Lake Tribune 12/19/06 4:00 AM PT

SCO wants U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball to take another look at his Nov. 29 decision to uphold Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells' June ruling to drop 187 of SCO's list of nearly 300 code-related allegations against IBM. Observers have said the decision left the Utah company with a near-worthless shell of a contract and copyright case.

Utah's SCO Group Latest News about SCO Group has asked a federal judge to reconsider striking most of the claims from its US$5 billion, Linux-related lawsuit against IBM.

But they don't want anyone to know why.

Keeping It Under Wraps

Attorneys for the Lindon, Utah-based software company, which claims IBM illegally leaked SCO-owned Unix programming code into the freely distributed Linux operating system, filed supporting documents for their reconsideration motion under seal last week.

"Largely, SCO wants to show some new evidence and cites some technical problems in the decision to be fixed. I can't really discuss more because [documents are under seal]," SCO attorney Brent Hatch said Thursday.

IBM, which has steadfastly declined to comment on developments in the suit, had no comment.

Both sides in the suit filed by SCO in March 2003 have filed documents under seal involving proprietary software and projects.

Not Much Left

SCO wants U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball to take another look at his Nov. 29 decision to uphold Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells' June ruling to drop 187 of SCO's list of nearly 300 code-related allegations against IBM. Observers have said the decision left the Utah company with a near-worthless shell of a contract and copyright case.

Following a six-week review of Wells' ruling, Kimball had not only upheld her decision in its entirety but chastised SCO for failure to obey repeated court orders to back up its claims.

The judge also ordered a separate but related suit involving Novell's challenge to SCO's claims of Unix ownership be tried next September, before the currently unscheduled IBM trial.

A Novell victory would likely deliver a coup de grace to SCO's suit against Big Blue, since Unix ownership is key to that action.

Have we learned nothing from DRM?

http://news.com.com/2061-12572_3-6144669.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news Reuters, Adobe, Canon to help track photo changes

December 18, 2006 5:52 PM PST

News organization Reuters is working with photo editing powerhouse Adobe and camera maker Canon so changes to digital photos can be detected, Reuters CEO Tom Glocer said on his blog last week.

Reuters, the news agency whose image was tarnished earlier this year when a freelance photographer provided doctored photos of bombing in Beirut, wants to ensure such changes can be found.

"I am pleased to announce today that we are working with Adobe and Canon to create a solution that enables photo editors to view an audit trail of changes to a digital image, which is permanently embedded in the photograph, ensuring the accuracy of the image," Glocer said in the blog posting, a transcript of a December 11 speech at the Globes Media Conference in Tel Aviv.

... It's not an academic issue for Reuters. Earlier in December, it announced a deal with Yahoo in which people who post photos to the Flickr photo-sharing site, can tag their shots and submit them to Reuters.

See! Even a big bureaucracy can learn to use technology...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/013321.html

December 18, 2006

Library of Congress Launches RSS Feeds

List of Library of Congress RSS Feeds

News - A bulletin service of the latest news from the world's preeminent reservoir of knowledge, providing resources to Congress and the American people

Upcoming Events - Listing of the dozens of free concerts, lectures, exhibitions, symposia, films and other special programs offered at the Library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

New on the Web - Updates on new collections, features, reference materials and other services available on the Library's award-winning Web site New Webcasts: The latest webcasts and podcasts of lectures and events sponsored by the Library

What's New in Science Reference - new products and services on the subject of science and technology from the Library's Science, Technology & Business Division.

What a concept!

http://techdirt.com/articles/20061218/154932.shtml

UK Rejects Software Patents That Don't Actually Describe Process

from the a-decent-test dept

One of the reasons that defenders of the current patent system often give for the importance of keeping the system, is the idea that it benefits society by revealing ideas that otherwise would be kept secret. That is, indeed, one of the benefits... if those ideas wouldn't have come out otherwise and if the publication of the patent actually revealed anything about the invention in question. All too often we've seen that this second part is missing. Patents describe something extremely broad and general, so as to reveal as little as possible, but make sure as much as possible infringes on it. It seems like it would be a reasonable "test" of the validity of a patent to see if someone could use just the patent itself to replicate the invention in question. It seems like some judges in the UK agree. The Court of Appeals in England has ruled against two software patents, specifically noting that someone who knows the basic subject area should be able to replicate what's described in the patent with just the patent alone -- and these patents fail that test. In fact, the ruling said: "that the patent was missing vital details, contained wrong equations, demanded a higher level of expertise than allowed and that it relied on material external to the patent." In other words, the patent itself did not actually explain the invention it was trying to cover, but rather hinted at what it might be. With the huge awards for patent infringement going around, an increasing number of patents seem to be written the same way -- so it would be nice to see more examinations of patents that look at this particular factor and whether or not the patent actually does try to explain the invention for others to use, or simply word it broadly enough to catch random infringers.

Does not sound like it to me!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2511248,00.html

Patients can keep their details secret after computer U-turn

David Rose The Times December 19, 2006

# 'Distress' can veto electronic data

# Campaigners say pledge is a joke

The Government has agreed to let patients keep details of their medical records private after they are uploaded electronically on to a new NHS database. [How would that work? Bob]

In a policy U-turn, Lord Warner, a health minister, said that he had accepted the recommendations of a task force on the electronic patient records system. The Government is to stick to its plan that patients will have to opt out of the NHS Care Records Service — but there will now be the chance for patients to view their record and amend details online before information is uploaded for sharing. They will also be able to consent [“consent” implies “opt in”, “dissent” would be the term for “opt out” Bob] to how their information is shared with professionals across the NHS in England.

But campaigners and privacy experts dismissed the promise of an opt-out to the national system as a joke.

Doctors across England will be able to access data on people’s medication, allergies and adverse drug reactions. The electronic holding of more sensitive data, such as HIV status, is still under consideration.

Ministers had argued that compulsory e-records were necessary because the paper-based system was putting patients at risk. But Harry Cayton, the patients’ ombudsman, argued that changes required “public support and clinical confidence”.

... Patients can also object before their information is even put on to computers by arguing that an electronic record would cause them “significant mental distress”: the Government is legally required not to store them if this is the case.

... Helen Wilkinson, of the Big Opt Out campaign group, said: “So long as ministers continue to demand that all GP records will be kept at hosting centres under government control, the opt-out is a joke.”

Of course, here in the US of A, we take privacy seriously (25% of the time.)

http://govhealthit.com/article97136-12-18-06-Web

Most privacy complaints are not investigated

By Heather Hayes Published on Dec. 18, 2006

The Department of Health and Human Services investigated less than 25 percent of 22,964 privacy complaints submitted to HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) from April 2003 through September 2006, according to a new report on medial privacy.

... Dennis Melamed, editor and publisher of the report, said the report raises more questions than it answers. The raw statistics cannot explain why OCR investigated so few complaints, he added.

... “Our experience has been that complaints are being dismissed without any real investigation and very few of them are sent to the Department of Justice for enforcement,” Peel said.

Yeah, but except for those credit card numbers, they are sooo boring!

http://greatreporter.com/mambo/content/view/1349/2/

Hackers ‘can eavesdrop on 70% of web calls’

Written by Presswire.com Sunday, 17 December 2006

PhoneBusinesses and call centres are rendering customers’ private details a free-for-all by failing to secure their VoIP networks against ‘wiretapping’ hackers…

Scanit (www.scanit.net), a top security company that audits major IT systems, says as many as 7 out of every 10 calls being made over the internet is potentially open to hackers.

Proof that even Law School Professors get it right on occasion. (Good on ya' John! ) Perhaps you should host a seminar titled “How to turn Identity Theft into a Class Action Bonanza!” and charge attendees 2% of future awards...

http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=standards_legal_issues&articleId=275774&taxonomyId=146&intsrc=kc_feat

What’s Keeping the Tort Lawyers at Bay

Mark Willoughby

December 18, 2006 (Computerworld) Ever since security breaches became a regular happening, pundits have been saying liability lawsuits are sure to follow. Information security breaches have been dubbed “the next asbestos” because of the potential for courts to force companies to pay billions of dollars in damages to thousands of victims.

But it probably will be many years before large numbers of victims of information leaks collect a dime. There are a couple of reasons why the deluge of security lawsuits hasn’t materialized, according to John Soma, a professor at the University of Denver College of Law and the executive director of its Privacy Foundation.

For starters, there isn’t a legally recognized foundation for launching lawsuits over data breaches. The mere occurrence of a security breach is insufficient justification for filing a lawsuit, Soma says. Lawsuits charging negligence must show that accepted standards of performance weren’t met. [see below Bob] But today’s standards of security performance are either immature or untested in court.

Actual damages are the second criteria for a lawsuit. Asbestos victims were exposed to a hazardous substance and exhibit symptoms of deadly diseases directly linked to that exposure. So far, there haven’t been thousands of security breach victims who can demonstrate that they have actually suffered significant damages, although the potential for that to happen certainly exists. [Perhaps I'll document what expenses I incurred when the VA notified me I was “at risk.” Bob]

It isn’t even easy to file a lawsuit saying regulations were violated, because today’s security regulations are purposely nebulous. [Translation: Written by lawyers, for lawyers. Bob] The lack of concrete details in federal security regulations, such as the rules under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, make a poor target for the tort bar.

Dan Langin, an information security lawyer in Overland Park, Kan., says the legal system is “at the stage where the compliance picture is being sorted out.” For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s guidance on internal controls required by Sarbanes-Oxley is nowhere near as specific as the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations on asbestos exposure. [Of course, Asbestos exposure has been a regulatory target since the 1950s... Bob]

HIPAA and Gramm-Leach-Bliley have vague security guidelines, too. And the security frameworks often used to comply with federal guidelines, ISO 17799 and the Control Objectives for IT and Related Technology (Cobit) from the IT Governance Institute haven’t been sanctioned by court decisions. Any lawsuits seeking to establish a precedent that makes these security frameworks a standard have probably been settled out of court to preempt that from happening.

There have been some significant, well-publicized regulatory actions taken against companies that exposed confidential information. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission charged that lax security at BJ’s Wholesale Club led to the fraudulent use of credit card information. A settlement requires BJ’s to implement an IT security program that will be audited over the next 20 years. Plus, the company is embroiled in lawsuits seeking damages totaling millions of dollars.

In January, the FTC fined ChoicePoint $10 million in civil penalties and $5 million to cover the damages to individuals arising from ChoicePoint selling sensitive consumer information to criminals. ChoicePoint, too, was hit by lawsuits.

But those cases are exceptions. One challenge for the tort bar is that the actual damages for victims of security breaches are varied. To join a class- action suit, everyone must suffer similarly. So unless identity thieves replicate scams resulting in damages of approximately similar amounts, it isn’t clear how security breaches can become class- action suits like the big-ticket shareholder lawsuits alleging securities fraud.

The wild card for information security lawsuits is the possibility that criminals are sitting on thousands of stolen identities, waiting for credit-monitoring defenses to lapse so they can pounce and maximize the potential gain from their scams. This scenario could lead to class-action suits if the damages suffered can be shown to be similar.

There’s another way that data leaks could turn into class-action lawsuits: if we recognize the economic value of privacy and the costs of losing that privacy. Risk management techniques can easily be used to calculate the cost that victims incur to repair privacy breaches, such as the costs of monitoring credit, closing accounts and opening new ones. With those metrics, class-action lawyers could fulfill the requirement to show similar damages on a large scale.

Perhaps the biggest reason we haven’t seen a flood of lawsuits is that organizations are raising the bar by implementing stronger security that a jury would find adequate. “Most companies have commercially reasonable security in place. They’ve effectively inoculated themselves from liability lawsuits,” says technology lawyer Mark Grossman.

If misfortune does strike, and you discover a breach despite your best efforts to keep systems secure, Congress is considering preemptive actions to stymie the tort bar. Legislators have introduced bills that would, if passed, give a federal exemption from liability lawsuits to companies that voluntarily disclose the security breach and cooperate with investigators.

A counterpoint to the previous article...

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/54759.html

PCI, HIPAA, SOX: Is Compliance the Tail Wagging the Dog?

By Amichai Shulman www.EcommerceTimes.com Part of the ECT News Network 12/18/06 4:00 AM PT

With the convergence in security and compliance, businesses will evolve their IT infrastructure to include new technologies, such as the database gateways, in order to achieve the level of data security required. Smart businesses will use this new technology to their competitive advantage. [Another reason not to be sued for inadequate security... Bob]

As the sensitive financial and identity data in corporate databases becomes increasingly valuable on the black market, mandates such as PCI, SOX and HIPAA are requiring businesses to protect, track, and control all access to and usage of sensitive information. This is forcing an evolutionary shift in security from protecting against data theft to ensuring comprehensive control over all data access and usage.

To meet the wide array of regulatory requirements, security and compliance teams within organizations must work together. [...and document shortcomings... Bob]

Narrowing the Gap

PCI, SOX, HIPAA, and other mandates are narrowing the gap between security and compliance. The PCI Data Security Standard 1.1 released in September 2006 requires businesses to implement specific tools to protect and control sensitive data. Compliance is becoming less a matter of passive auditing and reporting, and more an exercise in data security.

....Well, Okay, maybe not HIPAA...

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/12/25/gvsb1225.htm

Court: Patients can't file federal privacy suits against doctors

Physicians still can get sued in state court. The plaintiff attorney says that's not enough.

By Amy Lynn Sorrel, AMNews staff. Dec. 25, 2006.

The first federal appeals court decision to affirm that patients cannot sue under HIPAA offers some relief for physicians. But with patients still able to bring privacy claims in state court, the ruling does little to alleviate doctors' concerns about the possibility of lawsuits for confidentiality breaches.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in November concluded that, because Congress delegated HIPAA enforcement to the Dept. of Health and Human Services, lawmakers did not intend to create a private right for individuals to sue for privacy violations.

The patient in the case at hand sued her doctor, alleging that he broke federal privacy law when he disclosed her medical information in a deposition without her consent.

"HIPAA has no express provision creating a private cause of action," the opinion states. "Instead, it focuses on regulating persons that have access to individually identifiable medical information and who conduct certain electronic health care transactions."

The ruling was the first by a federal appeals court. It upheld similar decisions by nine lower courts, judges said. They noted, however, that the patient was free to pursue her claim in state court.

"It's a good thing for physicians whenever they can be assured that the courts are going to interpret federal law consistently," said Lee A. Spangler, assistant general counsel to the Texas Medical Assn. Texas falls within the 5th Circuit's jurisdiction. But the ruling does not mean that doctors are in the clear, Spangler said.

[...]Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.

Of course, failure to protect personal data is...

http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=87d775a2-0abe-421a-0168-86a35594279b&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf

Credit records found in trash

posted by: Jeffrey Wolf Web Producer written by: Paula Woodward 9Wants to Know Investigative Reporter and John Fosholt Producer/Photographer Created: 12/15/2006 1:39 PM MST - Updated: 12/17/2006 11:36 PM MST

ARAPAHOE COUNTY - Two viewers called 9NEWS after finding hundreds of sensitive financial documents dumped un-shredded in two dumpsters in the Denver area.

A woman who works at a shopping mall in Arapahoe County and wanted to remain anonymous told our investigative team that she was curious about a huge stack of files she saw in a dumpster in the parking lot.

She opened a few files and discovered they were filled with complete 16-digit credit card numbers and expiration dates, along with customer names, addresses, phone numbers and signatures.

... The files belonged to Calico Corners, a fabric and upholstery shop at 9611 E. County Line Road.

... The Colorado Consumer Protection Act requires businesses to "develop a policy for the destruction or proper disposal of paper documents containing personal information."

... A "human error" apparently was also the reason that hundreds of mortgage application records were left un-shredded in a dumpster on east Evans Avenue. A 9NEWS viewer saw the records and discovered they contained names, bank account records, and IRS tax documents. The files belonged to Southern Mortgage Corporation of Greenwood Village.

Manager Ed Summerhill said they were dead files that had been stored in a warehouse on Evans.

He said he was stunned to learn they had been discarded by another tenant, apparently as the result of workmen taking the wrong file boxes. [Were the boxes marked “Property of ...” and “Do not Destroy/Dispose” Bob]

... Arapahoe County Sheriff's Investigator Todd Marner said records like those are invaluable to identity thieves.

"It's a huge problem in Colorado," he told our I-Team. "We have the fifth-highest rate of ID theft in the nation."

...all too common an occurrence.

http://www.duncanbanner.com/local/local_story_351145532.html

Identity theft prevented -this time

By Barbara Jernigan Published: December 17, 2006 02:55 pm

Searching through a dumpster for some cardboard boxes, a local woman found more than she was looking for last week: boxes full of discarded employee records that included names, birth dates and Social Security numbers.

Luckily, when notified, the business that had tossed out the records quickly retrieved them to prepare for their proper disposal.

... Oklahoma state law recognizes identity theft as a felony offense, punishable by up to two years in prison and/or a fine of up to $100,000 plus restitution. However, there is no state law prohibiting a business from throwing out personal information intact.

Fortunately, governments are using all their wisdom (and tons of our money) to guarantee our security!

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/17/227247&from=rss

E-Passport Cloned In Five Minutes

Posted by kdawson on Sunday December 17, @08:50PM from the if-more-proof-were-needed dept.

Last month a panel of EU experts warned that the e-Passport's security is "poorly conceived", and in fact a week later a British newspaper demonstrated a crack. Now another researcher has shown how to clone a European e-Passport in under 5 minutes. A UK Home Office spokesman dismissed it all, saying "It is hard to see why anyone would want to access the information on the chip." [Idiot! Bob]

This could be interesting in a lot of contexts... (I could see using this to “encourage” (force) my students to research selected topics for my next book...)

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/54756.html

Will Scholarpedia Pass or Fail?

Information World Review 12/17/06 4:00 AM PT

Unlike Wikipedia, each article in Scholarpedia has an expert editor attached to it as a "curator," who approves all changes and ensures the article is an approved version. And it is not as elitist as Citizendium. Anyone can suggest changes to an article, and there's an anonymous forum for initial peer review.

Have we reached another milestone in the evolution of academic publishing? Scholarpedia is the first "free peer-reviewed encyclopedia," a kind of morphing of open access (OA) publishing with wiki technology.

Initial reaction may be, not another Wikipedia wannabe!, especially as the ink is barely dry on Larry Sanger's Citizendium manifesto, which he describes as a "progressive fork" of Wikipedia. Scholarpedia could be very different, however.

Looks Familiar

Although suffering from a few gremlins when the blogosphere took a look, Scholarpedia could disrupt publishing models.

For a start, it takes the headache out of setting up and maintaining an online publishing operation for scholars inclined to develop their own OA journal.

Eugene Izhikevich, editor-in-chief of Scholarpedia, points out that it uses the same MediaWiki technology engine as Wikipedia, the phenomena created by Jimmy Wales.

Unlike Wikipedia, each article in Scholarpedia has an expert editor attached to it as a "curator," who approves all changes and ensures the article is an approved version. In addition, it is not as elitist as Citizendium.

Avoiding Mistakes

Anyone can suggest changes to an article, and there's an anonymous forum for initial peer review. Scholarpedia appears far more inclusive than Citizendium and less obsessed with creating something worthy of "intellectuals."

With concerns continuing to mount about errors in Wikipedia (many put there for malicious reasons) and even hackers using it to hide malware, then something more managed and controlled like Scholarpedia may well be an answer to freely available scholarship online.

Scholarpedia has also narrowed its initial ambitions by restricting itself to three disciplines: computational neuroscience, dynamical systems, and computational intelligence. Izhikevich describes them as "seeds" that could branch out into related disciplines.

Scholarpedia may be the second-generation wiki that makes the grade.

Gee, maybe we shouldn't leave our computers turned on 24/7... And keeping a fire extinguisher handy might be a good idea, too. This may be the next class action...

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/18/HNnecdesktopscatchfire_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/18/HNnecdesktopscatchfire_1.html

NEC desktops have caught fire in Japan

NEC is offering to replace faulty power units that caused two desktops to catch fire

By Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service December 18, 2006

Two NEC desktop computers in Japan have caught fire since late last year and NEC is now offering to replace faulty power units at the root of the problem, the electronics giant said on Monday.

The first Valuestar computer caught fire in October 2005 and the second in November this year, said Akiko Shikimori, an NEC spokeswoman. The culprit is a component within the power unit inside the computer. The component and the power unit are not manufactured by NEC but she could not reveal which company makes them.

The power unit overheats and if the customer continues to use the desktop it can cause a fire, she said.

Very interesting. I wonder how this will impact them? Something to follow!

http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003637.shtml

GateHouse removes the gate on 96 newspapers

The best news is the stuff that just happens. Here’s an example: As reported by Lisa Williams on Jay Rosen’s site, GateHouse Media, a conglomerate “that owns 75 daily and 231 weekly newspapers” has rolled over 96 of its newspaper sites to a Creative Commons license.

posted by [ Lessig ] on [ Dec 18 06 at 12:58 AM ]

Not that it was a rough neighborhood, but we used to get these in High School...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/013318.html

December 15, 2006

Pentagon Releases New Counterinsurgency Field Manual

Press release: "The Army and Marine Corps announce the release of the Counterinsurgency Field Manual...the new manual pursues a general approach to counterinsurgency, not one aimed specifically at any of the ongoing operations."

• From the Forward: "It has been 20 years since the Army published a field manual devoted exclusively to counterinsurgency operations. For the Marine Corps it has been 25 years. With our Soldiers and Marines fighting insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is essential that we give them a manual that provides principles and guidelines for counterinsurgency operations. Such guidance must be grounded in historical studies. However, it also must be informed by contemporary experiences."

• U.S. military's new 282-page (PDF) Field Manual 3-24, Counterinsurgency, December 2006

• See also Military Review, Counterinsurgency, Special Edition (PDF), October 2006. Accomapnies the new Counterinsurgencey Manual

Well, so much for the Democrats protecting our rights...

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18510

Pelosi Targets Grassroots Freedom of Speech

by Amanda B. Carpenter Posted Dec 18, 2006

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) has pledged to take up a lobbying reform proposal that would impose new regulations on speech by grassroots organizations, while providing a loophole in the rules for large corporations and labor unions.

Free is good!

http://www.oculture.com/weblog/2006/12/whats_the_most_.html

December 18, 2006

The Hottest Course on iTunes (and the Future of Digital Education)

What's the most popular podcast in the Higher Education section of iTunes? Ahead of all the podcasts from Princeton, and all of those from Yale, and ahead of the Understanding Computers course from Harvard, and even the pyschology course from UC Berkeley, is an unexpected podcast called Twelve Byzantine Rulers: The History of the Byzantine Empire. The course, which focuses on the Greek-speaking Roman Empire of the Middle Ages, is taught by Lars Brownworth, who teaches high school at The Stony Brook School on Long Island, New York. And it gets rave reviews. "I'm disappointed because I don't think I'll ever find a podcast that I enjoy as much as this one." "This podcast has quickly become a hit with me and all of my friends, even those who don't like history so much." You get the gist.

The success of this course makes us think that companies that sell digital lectures for a fee might not be long for this world. Take The Teaching Company for example. They're in the business of selling polished, lecture-based courses, which can often be very well done. And, yes, they offer too a course on the Byzantine Empire that retails in audio download form for $129. So what will the savvy consumer do? Download Brownworth's course for free? Or pay $129? This is not a knock on what The Teaching Company is doing. I like their product and can appreciate their need to sell products to recoup their costs. But you can't compete with free. With so many university courses now taping their courses and putting them on iTunes (see our University Podcast list), you have to wonder whether The Teaching Company is just another once viable business model that is being steadily commoditzed by the Internet.

Resources:

12 Byzantine Rulers Web Site

12 Byzantine Rulers Course Feed

A very minor breach, but indications of poor security management...

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17599558&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=21849&rfi=6

Hackers get into Wickliffe computer

By: Mark Tuscano MTuscano@News-Herald.com 12/16/2006

Wickliffe Mayor Thomas W. Ruffner announced Friday that hackers had breached security in one of the city's three computer servers, which held personal information on some city employees.

The breach was discovered by Building Commissioner Ray Sack, [A “Building Commissioner” is probably not responsible for computer security, so we can assume that the breach was “fairly obvious?” Bob] who brought it to the attention of Ruffner and city police.

Detective Sgt. Joe Matteo said a malicious virus had gotten through at least two layers of security and into the system, where information on 125 city employees was stored.

No information on city residents was stored in the server or compromised, Ruffner said. Those affected included service department and part-time personnel whose names and Social Security numbers were in the system.

Employees affected by the breach will be notified today in a letter from the mayor advising them of potential problems involving identity or credit theft, although no reports of either had been reported as of Friday.

The city has since replaced the affected server and six associated computer stations. [“replaced” not “repaired?” -- sounds like a way to upgrade old systems without a budget increase... Bob] Police Chief James Fox and the detective's bureau conducted a forensic analysis of the infected system, but attacks of this type are often generated from locations in Europe or Asia, so the sources are difficult to impossible to prosecute, Fox said.

The city spent about $25,000 replacing the server hardware and software, Ruffner said.

The systems that were replaced were at least 3 years old, but the city's other two servers are newer. The upgraded system will now use the same operating system as the other two and virus protection in each has been updated. [Indicates that it was not current before... Bob]

Matteo said the virus got through the affected system by first preventing an upgrade to the system's virus protection program, leaving it vulnerable to the malicious software. His bureau was notified of the breach Oct. 25 and immediately initiated an investigation.

"Windows-based systems are almost daily issued a patch to prevent new bugs from hackers," he said.

"If they can get into the Pentagon, they can get into anything."

In his letter to employees, Ruffner said the breach was intentionally introduced into the system and warned of a potential problem involving identity theft.

Counter-hacking? What would you call this?

http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061217/NEWS/612170335/1001/NEWS

No one gains from hiding gun files from public

... Under the guise of protecting the privacy of those granted government sanction to carry a hangun, a bill closing public access to concealed weapons permits won overwhelming approval this year in the Legislature. The law, effective July 1, drew hardly a whimper of protest from any quarter.

Just because something's popular doesn't make it right. And the Argus Leader did what any decent newspaper would do: In the months before the law went into effect, we deployed staffers to the office of Secretary of State Chris Nelson, the repository of more than 41,000 active weapons permits, to rescue that information from permanent seal.

Access to that vast amount of formerly public information has allowed us to draw certain conclusions - not just the fact that we obtain permits at a higher rate than any other state, but where, in our own state, it is the highest.

It also enabled us to build a database of all permit holders - searchable by name, community and county - that we have placed on our Web site for all to see. It will remain there - a direct rejoinder to a Legislature and governor all too eager to deny you and me access to information.

... Some folks complained loudly in the past when, as a matter of routine, this newspaper published the names of those granted permits in Minnehaha County - and likely they will complain loudly now, arguing that it is none of our business whether they have a license to carry a gun.

Some will invoke the Second Amendment, which only protects their right to have guns.

Others will argue a vague right to privacy, as if possession of a government-granted gun permit fell into the same realm as what they do in the bedroom.

... We endanger our own liberty when we choose to be selective about what government-held information is open to the public. And that risk is particularly high here in South Dakota, which has perpetrated some of the most restrictive public access laws in the nation.

Includes (some) details of another “ready, fire, aim” IT project failure...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/013310.html

December 15, 2006

GAO Assesses FinCEN and IRS Effectiveness At Ensuring Bank Secrecy Act Compliance

Bank Secrecy Act: FinCEN and IRS Need to Improve and Better Coordinate Compliance and Data Management Efforts, Full text GAO-07-212, and Highlights, December 15, 2006: "...FinCEN and IRS lack a documented and coordinated strategy with time frames, priorities, and resource needs for improving NBFI compliance with BSA requirements."

This would have been unthinkable when I was there... However that was 35 years ago, and things change...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/12/15/japan.pacifist.rollback.ap/index.html

Japan rolls back pacifist pillars

POSTED: 11:21 a.m. EST, December 16, 2006

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japan's conservative government chipped away at two pillars of the country's postwar pacifism, requiring schools to teach patriotism and upgrading the Defense Agency to a full ministry for the first time since World War II.

The measures, enacted Friday in a vote by Parliament's upper house, form key elements of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to bolster Japan's international military role, build up national pride and distance the country from its post-1945 war guilt.

... The upgrading of the Defense Agency under the Cabinet Office to a full ministry passed Parliament without significant opposition, propelled by deep concern in Japan over North Korean missile and nuclear weapons development.

... The education measure, the first change to Japan's main education law since 1947, calls on schools to "to cultivate an attitude that respects tradition and culture, that loves the nation and home country."

Want to be President? Run on the single issue: Eliminate the personal Income Tax!

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1215/p09s01-coop.html

from the December 15, 2006 edition

Want to reduce poverty? Lower those tax rates.

Building a strong economy - and helping the poor - means keeping taxes and government spending low.

By Matthew Ladner PHOENIX

When the US government ended "welfare as we know it" in 1996, it handed responsibility for reform to the states. In so doing, it also created a real-world test of two competing economic strategies used to fight poverty. The results are in and the lessons are clear: Low tax rates lift up the lives of America's poor.

Many people argue that government can reduce poverty by "redistributing" wealth through progressive taxation - imposing higher tax rates on higher income brackets - and through more government spending.

Most economists, however, say the best way to reduce poverty is through stronger economic growth. Growth means more jobs, a surefire antipoverty plan. Building a strong economy means keeping taxes and government spending low.

A study published last month by the Goldwater Institute, "How to Win the War on Poverty: An Analysis of State Poverty Trends," tests these different theories by examining state poverty rates from 1990 to 2000.

Nationwide, states took great strides in reducing both general and childhood poverty. Poverty fell by 5.3 percent and childhood poverty by 9.4 percent. Some states, however, reduced poverty much more than others, while some states suffered large increases.

Take Colorado. It reduced its childhood poverty rate by almost 27 percent. Meanwhile, Rhode Island's childhood poverty rate increased by almost the same amount. What accounts for those differences?

The future? (Perhaps we could pick politicians the same way? Style over substance is commonplace in that field.)

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116622598096351967-k_HlYG74PMJitQnQ6vBq3iSkImY_20061223.html?mod=blogs

Auditions Come to YouTube

By KATE GOODLOE December 16, 2006; Page P3

In recent weeks, more than 100 different versions of the same video have shown up on the Web site YouTube. Each features a different woman talking to someone off camera, repeating the same lines of dialogue, though with different inflections and gestures. The women are all auditioning for the part of Bonni on "The Interior," a Web-based miniseries about a young couple traveling as missionaries to the Amazon jungle.

Typically, a casting call invites actors to submit a headshot and in some cases, a video showcasing their abilities. Some production companies and casting agents now are requesting that people post their auditions in far more open online forums, such as YouTube or MySpace. In doing so, they're hoping to gauge actors' potential popularity by monitoring the reactions of average Internet users.

It's the latest twist on an entertainment trend that's taken off in the past two years -- unknown, often amateur performers who are discovered by the music, television or film industries after capturing an audience online. Now, rather than scouring sites like YouTube for fresh talent, some companies are experimenting with a more direct approach.

Teenagers have begun posting audition tapes on YouTube and MySpace for a series called "The New 22," which its creator, production company Evolution Entertainment describes as a younger version of "The View." The casting call was placed through koldCast.com, a new site launched by Irvine, Calif., product-placement company EMmerzion Worldwide to let actors post online auditions. In exchange, the company gets dibs on selling product placements in movies and TV shows that use actors found through the service.

Jessie Bronfman, a 25-year-old Woodmere, N.Y., resident who wants to be a TV host, has applied online for a video-jockey position and is hoping to score a role in "The New 22." She spends at least an hour a day searching for new online auditions [News to me! Bob] through Craigslist, YouTube and Google, then cultivates her online network of friends who vote for her in video contests and help her get higher "hit counts" for audition videos.

Dreamscape Films, an independent production company, is asking those auditioning for "The Interior" to download a script page from its Web site and upload an audition video to YouTube. So far, 250 people have submitted auditions for the show's four main roles.

Rebecca Morris, a 29-year-old actress and nanny in Asheville, N.C., says the online auditions make it easier for actors outside New York and Los Angeles to audition for national casting calls [That's obvious, isn't it? Bob] without driving hours to stand in line for a tryout. Ms. Morris's online audition for the role of Bonni in "The Interior" is six minutes and 41 seconds long and features her running through a forest and talking with another actor on a stoop. (Many auditions are shot against blank backdrops.) Although she won't know until next year whether she landed a part, Ms. Morris says she has already heard from a few people she has worked with who were impressed with the video and want to stay in touch.

Geert Heetebrij, co-creator of the show, says at first he and his co-creator intended to judge the clips in part by the number of hits they got on YouTube and the number of stars viewers gave them. After seeing those numbers fluctuate, he now says he suspects actors are pumping up their own hit counts and giving bad reviews to others. So he'll focus more on comments from viewers instead of the other metrics.

Ahna Tessler, 30, a New York actress and comedian who submitted an audition, says she's noticed online competition among the actors. "You can see there are all these people out to sabotage each other," she says. "It's pretty nasty."

Very slick! Take the time to look at this!

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/16/183251&from=rss

ILM Showcases "Dead Man's Chest" Effects Work

Posted by kdawson on Saturday December 16, @02:53PM from the playing-with-the-fishies dept. Graphics Movies Entertainment

bonniegrrl writes "The work of ILM folks (including VFX supervisor John Knoll) is being showcased in a site just launched to explore the mind-blowing visual effects of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (heavy Flash). Interactive clips at the site allow you to peel back layers of animation to see what ILM had to start with before transforming actors wearing tracking markers into astonishingly real characters. Test your effects awareness by making the call: what's real and what's ILM, rotate turntable models of the animated characters, and download some goodies." The submitter also claims that there are a few Easter Eggs of footage in there somewhere.

Clearly it can happen anywhere at anytime...

http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2006/437.html

CU-Boulder Reports Security Breach In College Of Arts And Sciences Advising Computer

Dec. 15, 2006

University of Colorado at Boulder officials today announced that a server in the campus's Academic Advising Center was the subject of a computer attack.

CU-Boulder officials said they had begun the process of notifying 17,500 individuals that their personal information - including names and Social Security numbers - might have been exposed in the attack. CU-Boulder officials are continuing to determine the extent of information exposed.

Employees with CU-Boulder's Information Technology Services office discovered the attack on Dec. 8 and, following CU guidelines, began an investigation to determine how the system compromise occurred.

"The hacker apparently entered the server through a Web page," [The University apparently saw no reason not to connect the web page to this highly sensitive information... Bob] said Todd Gleeson, dean of CU-Boulder's College of Arts and Sciences, which houses the Academic Advising Center. "The information exposed contained the names and Social Security numbers of students who attended CU-Boulder orientation sessions from 2002 to 2004. We do not presently have any evidence that the data were actually accessed or used, and we are notifying the students affected."

In 2005, CU-Boulder ceased using Social Security numbers as administrative identifiers for faculty, staff, students and administrators. [“Screw everyone else!” Bob]

... Students who wish to know more about how to deal with identity theft can visit a special CU Web site at www.colorado.edu/its/security/awareness/privacy/identitytheft.pdf.

“Hey! You can't treat us like common citizens!” (I wonder what they are investigating, since they seem to know who sent the “racy e-mail.”) Any implications for “electronic discovery?”

http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-26/1166220599148850.xml&storylist=alabamanews

Morgan County officials balk at e-mail probe of hard drives

12/15/2006, 4:55 p.m. ET The Associated Press

DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — Morgan County's revenue commissioner locked her computer's hard drive in a vault and the sheriff denied access to his as some officials took issue with an e-mail investigation begun after a racy e-mail was forwarded to the mayor.

Revenue Commissioner Amanda Scott said personal information such as credit card numbers are on taxpayer records stored on hard drives.

County Commission Chairman pro tem Stacy George told The Decatur Daily in a story Friday that Sheriff Greg Bartlett had given different reasons for denying access. George said it changed from protecting homeland security information to protecting National Crime Information Center data.

George said the county's Emergency Management Agency director, Eddie Hicks, has homeland security information but did not buck the investigation.

"It looks suspicious when Mr. Hicks, who has all kinds of security information, is not worried about compromising information and the sheriff is," George said. [“If you're innocent, you have nothing to worry about!” Bob]

The commission called for an investigation after a racy e-mail was sent by the county's ex-human resources director, Jack Underwood, to Chairman John Glasscock, who forwarded it to Mayor Don Kyle. An attempt to exclude elected officials, department heads and political appointees from the probe was rejected by the commission.

Letters to George from various other officials and lawyers slowed the progress of a computer specialist hired by the commission to match the information on hard drives to information on the main server, which will show if erasures have occurred.

Probate Judge Bobby Day's attorney delivered a letter to George stating that Day did not mind the expert looking at e-mails on the main server but not on the probate office's hard drives. Day said certain records, such as adoptions, are not public.

Board of Registrars chairman Adonis Bailey sent George a letter stating the expert could look at information from that office on the server but not hard drives because she must protect voters' personal information, such as Social Security numbers.

Scott, who didn't send a letter, said she didn't mind the computer specialist looking at her hard drive in her office but she didn't want it copied and removed from the courthouse.

When Hannah and others went to get Bartlett's hard drive at the new jail complex, deputy Roger Smallwood told him that the sheriff would not release the hard drive.

"I am going to do whatever it takes to get Ms. Scott's hard drive and the sheriff's," George said.

Other articles add lots of spice, but no real understanding to this story...

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/061216/scott.shtml

E-mail scandal: Scott changes locks on office

By Sheryl Marsh smarsh@decaturdaily· 340-2437

Stupid programmer tricks... Policy should ensure that terminated employees can't access your computer system – or this could happen to you!

http://techdirt.com/articles/20061215/075239.shtml

Tip: When Leaving Your Job At An ISP, Don't Cancel All Its Customer Accounts

from the just-a-suggestion dept

It's no surprise that people who are leaving their jobs (especially to go work for a competitor) may have a certain dislike for their ex-employer -- but it's still amazing that people don't realize that attacking them isn't a particularly good idea. A former employee of a wireless ISP in Utah apparently logged back into the computers of his former employer (shame on them for leaving access open to the guy) and cutting off customer accounts by reprogramming customer access points. There are plenty of cases detailing similar attacks on former employers -- but it's amazing that these people don't expect to get caught. In this latest case, not only was the guy caught, he's now been sentenced to two years in jail. Still, there are some oddities here. Apparently after the guy turned off service for these customers, it took up to three weeks to reprovision some of them. That seems like an excessively long time -- though, if the company left their computer network open to a former employee who left on bad terms, perhaps they weren't the most technically savvy ISP out there.

Even in the virtual world, it's “Location, location, location!”

http://techdirt.com/articles/20061215/080551.shtml

Distance Does Matter On The Internet, Sometimes

from the speed-of-light-not-fast-enough dept

Along with many other physical constraints, the internet can make distance or location irrelevant. Things like telecommuting mean that companies don't necessarily have to go where their employees are, though change in this regard has been somewhat slow. It's true in the financial industry, as New York is slowly losing its role as the only place for a financial company to locate. The CEO of online broker Ameritrade once colorfully noted that his company could be located in Zimbabwe, and it wouldn't matter (it happens to be located in Omaha). But there are some financial companies, whose businesses are also completely electronic, that are finding a need to be close to the financial centers. Traders and funds, whose strategy it is take advantage of small arbitrage opportunities only available for an instant, have found that the milliseconds difference in trade execution time can make a big difference in terms of the effectiveness of their strategy. In fact, one building in New York that houses the main computer system for electronic trading is home to 40 companies that trade using this strategy. So while the internet can eliminate many physical constraints, the physical constraints on the internet itself can have a big impact for some lines of business.

If your strap breaks, resulting in the Wii destroying your new 60 inch plasma TV, you can get a new $3 strap absolutely free! (Think your homeowners policy covers it?)

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/15/HNwiistraps_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/15/HNwiistraps_1.html

Nintendo to replace 3.2 million Wii straps

Nintendo made the move before any regulatory agency could step in

By Ben Ames, IDG News Service December 15, 2006

In an effort to duck criticism that its remote controllers can fly across the room when wrist straps break, Nintendo Co. Ltd. is offering free replacements for that part of its new Wii video gaming console.

Carefully avoiding the term "recall," Nintendo made the move before any regulatory agency could step in. The replacement could affect up to 3.2 million straps, according to the Associated Press. Nintendo did not return calls for comment.

Questions: What happens when they lose the data? Will the data be available to your heirs when you die?

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2073628,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

Berkeley Data Systems Unveils Unlimited Online Storage

By Chris Preimesberger December 15, 2006

Online data storage provider Berkeley Data Systems on Dec. 14 introduced Mozy Unlimited Backup, a new service that individuals can use to back up an unlimited amount of digital files—documents, photos, video —to a secure, multi-petabyte outside server.

The company offers the first 2GB of storage for no fee, and the unlimited backup—which includes an unlimited number of restores—costs $4.95 per month. Users may select month-to-month or annual payment plans.

Berkeley DS, based in American Fork, Utah, is making the unlimited storage offer available for individual users only at this time. The company expects to release a business version of the service in January.

"Since announcing our beta in April, we've grown to more than 100,000 users," said Berkeley DS founder and CEO Josh Coates.

... Mozy ("The name doesn't really mean anything, we just liked it," Coates said) now also offers consumers the option to order a copy of their data on DVD, shipped next-day air via FedEx.

Other features include private key encryption, custom backup scheduling, continuous backup options, bandwidth throttling, block level incremental backups, 30-day file version archives, support for files larger than 2GB, single-instance storage and automatic Microsoft Outlook file detection and backup.

Two-year-old Berkeley Data Systems has conducted more than 2.5 million backups in the past month alone. Currently, it has more than 450 million files stored in its high security center.

To sign up for the free 2GB storage, go here.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/013299.html

December 15, 2006

Nearly Half of our Lives Spent with TV, Radio, Internet, Newspapers

Press release: Nearly Half of our Lives Spent with TV, Radio, Internet, Newspapers, According to Census Bureau Publication, December 15, 2006.

• "Adults and teens will spend nearly five months (3,518 hours) next year watching television, surfing the Internet, reading daily newspapers and listening to personal music devices. That’s only one of thousands of nuggets of information on Americana and the world in the U.S. Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007, released today."

Online and Buy-the-Book

"-- Among adults, 97 million Internet users sought news online in 2005, 92 million purchased a product and 91 million made a travel reservation. About 16 million used a social or professional networking site and 13 million created a blog. (Table 1139)
-- U.S. consumers are projected to spend $55.5 billion to purchase 3.17 billion books in 2007. (Tables 1118, 1119)"

Vive le frogs!

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/15/2234216&from=rss

HP's Windows Bundle Trouble

Posted by Zonk on Friday December 15, @07:21PM from the i'm-sorry-please-enter-your-option-again dept. HP The Courts Windows

narramissic writes "A French consumer group has filed 3 lawsuits against HP, saying the company's practice of selling consumer PCs with Windows pre-installed violates a French law that 'prohibits linking the functionality of a product to another product' — not to mention that consumers wind up paying for an unwanted OS. For its part, HP contends that it is not in violation of the law because the OS is integral to the PC. 'The PC without an OS is not a product because it doesn't work,' said Alain Spitzmuller, legal affairs director for HP France. 'We believe the market is for products that work.'"

Some people know how to corner a market, others how to corner a competitor...

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/15/2055259&from=rss

Novell/Microsoft Deal Punishment for SCO?

Posted by Zonk on Friday December 15, @04:56PM from the stranger-things-have-happened dept.

An anonymous reader tipped us off to an article on the Information World site looking at the Novell/Microsoft deal from a new angle. Article author Tom Yager is of the opinion that the deal is Microsoft's punishment for throwing in with SCO. The very public announcement was made, in his opinion, as a stopgap measure against a future lawsuit on Novell's part.

From the article: "Novell has exhibited the patience and cunning of a trap door spider. It waited for SCO to taunt from too short a distance. Then Novell would spring, feed a little (saving plenty for later), inject some stupidity serum, and let SCO stride off still cocksure enough to make another run at the nest. That cycle is bleeding SCO, which was the last to notice its own terminal anemia. When it became clear that SCO wouldn't prevail, Microsoft expected only to face close partner IBM. Microsoft did not brace for Novell, an adversary with a decades-long score to settle with Redmond. Through discovery, Microsoft's correspondence with SCO is, or soon will be in, Novell's hands, and it's a safe bet that it will contain more than demand for a license fee and a copy of a certified check."

It is obvious, but no one would believe it until Harvard studied it.

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5567.html

The Business of Free Software: Enterprise Incentives, Investment, and Motivation in the Open Source Community

Authors: Marco Iansiti and Gregory L. Richards Published: November 2006

Executive Summary:

IBM has contributed more than $1 billion to the development and promotion of the Linux operating system, and other vendors such as Sun are ramping up open source software efforts and investment. Why do information technology vendors that have traditionally sold proprietary software invest millions of dollars in OSS? Where have they chosen to invest, and what are the characteristics of the OSS projects to which they contribute? This study grouped OSS projects into clusters and identified IT vendors' motives in each cluster. Key concepts include:

* Cluster 1, the "money-driven cluster," consisted of projects that have received almost all of vendor investments. The eighteen projects in this cluster have received over $2 billion in investment.

* Cluster 2, the "community-driven cluster," has a large number of projects that have received almost no vendor investment. IT vendors have generally ignored projects in this cluster and appear to have no coordinated strategy for dealing with them.

* Examining the impact of projects in both clusters shows that vendors have not invested uniformly in high-impact OSS projects. Instead, vendors invest in projects that can serve to draw revenues to their own (largely proprietary) core business.

-.. .- -- -. // / .- -. --- - .... . .-. / ... -.- .. .-.. .-.. / --- -... ... --- .-.. . - . -.. //

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/16/0915202&from=rss

FCC Drops Morse Code Requirement

Posted by Zonk on Saturday December 16, @05:18AM from the end-of-an-era dept.

leighklotz writes to mention a story discussing what some might consider a historic event. The FCC has dropped the Morse Testing requirement for amateur radio certifications. The public announcement was made on Friday. Ham radio operators will no longer have to study Morse, in a move patterned after other western nations. Says leighklotz: "The U.S. joins Canada and other countries in eliminating the morse code testing requirement, after being authorized to do so on July 5, 2003, when the World Radio Telecommunications Conference 2003 in Geneva adopted changes to the ITU Radio Regulations."

He said it, I didn't.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1165705809111&call_pageid=968867495754

A generation is all they need

One day we will all happily be implanted with microchips, and our every move will be monitored. The technology exists; the only barrier is society's resistance to the loss of privacy

Dec. 10, 2006. 08:46 AM KEVIN HAGGERTY SPECIAL TO THE STAR

http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/82481

Know-how 15.12.2006 14:46 Jürgen Schmidt

The hole trick

How Skype & Co. get round firewalls

Peer-to-peer software applications are a network administrator's nightmare. In order to be able to exchange packets with their counterpart as directly as possible they use subtle tricks to punch holes in firewalls, which shouldn't actually be letting in packets from the outside world.