Someone will have to explain this to me. Obviously the Court didn't think a “secret law” was a major issue... Right? Or will they keep their opinion secret too?
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8MH7S1O0.htm
Supreme Court won't KO airport ID policy
WASHINGTON
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to federal airport regulations requiring passengers to show identification before they board planes.
The justices, without comment, let stand an appeals court ruling against Libertarian activist and millionaire John Gilmore. Gilmore wanted the court to force the federal government to disclose the policy [Perhaps it's not a law? Bob] that requires passengers to produce identification.
Unless the regulations are made public, air travelers have no way to determine if the regulations call for impermissible searches, Gilmore said in court papers. The Justice Department has said that demanding ID protects passengers' safety.
The case is Gilmore v. Gonzales, 06-211.
Perhaps laptops are not the best place for sensitive data?
Towers Perrin Laptops, Client Data Stolen
By Theo Francis
Five laptops containing data about tens of thousands of retirement-plan participants at multiple companies were reported stolen by benefits consulting giant Towers Perrin last month, the latest in a string of thefts across industries raising concerns about privacy and identity theft.
Towers Perrin reported the laptops missing on Dec. 7, and New York City police made an arrest on Dec. 28, but the computers haven't been recovered, people familiar with the matter said. A criminal complaint filed in New York suggests the laptops were stolen from a locked room in the building housing Towers Perrin's Manhattan office on Nov. 27.
See what happens when Privacy is low on your list of concerns?
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2007/jan/08/010804681.html
Kan. AG Worried About Abortion Case File
By JOHN HANNA ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Kansas' new attorney general said Monday he's concerned that patient records his predecessor gathered in a failed attempt to prosecute a nationally known abortion doctor may have been copied and are not secure.
... "Are we now going to see the contents of our medical records show up on anti-abortion Web sites and in anti-abortion literature?" Monnat said.
But Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, said she fears privacy is an excuse to keep evidence against Tiller from ever reaching court. "His claim that there is some security issue with the evidence is ridiculous," she said.
This makes sense, doesn't it?
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1167991329046
2nd Circuit: Privilege Applies to Public Officials' E-Mails if Primary Goal Is Legal Advice
By Mark Hamblett New York Law Journal 01-08-2007
Communications involving Erie County, Pa., officials and an assistant county attorney about a suit over the county's strip-search policy are privileged unless otherwise waived, according to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In a holding of first impression that could significantly expand the attorney-client privilege of public officials, the circuit ruled that a broad array of discussions about political and policy matters can be shielded as long as the "predominant purpose" of the communications is legal advice.
Since the overall purpose of 10 e-mails between an assistant county attorney and Erie County officials was to provide legal advice, the circuit said in In re: The County of Erie, 06-2459-op, the communications came under the privilege.
... The magistrate judge said the e-mails -- which concerned the law on detainee strip searches, the county's policy on searches, recommended alternative policies and monitored policy changes -- went "beyond rendering 'legal analysis'" by proposing changes that made the existing policy constitutional and entered the "realm of policy making and administration."
Oh, it had a password. Oh, goodie...
http://www.wndu.com/news/headlines/5123266.html
Notre Dame Security Breach
Reporter: Stephanie Stang Email Address: sstang@wndu.com
Notre Dame employees recently received a letter in the mail that some of their personal information may have gotten into the wrong hands.
A University Director's laptop was stolen before Christmas. On January 2nd university employees received the letter notifying them of the crime. They were told they may want to monitor activities on personal accounts because the computer was storing Social Security numbers and salary information.
... In Notre Dame's case the letter points out that the laptop was stolen and was password protected.
Will this cross the pond?
http://www.allmediascotland.com/spike/719/08012007/newspapers_the_new_privacy_trap
Newspapers: The New Privacy Trap
08/01/2007
Privacy will replace libel as newspapers' main legal problem this year. Last year's defamation actions by Elton John, Paul McKenna and Tommy Sheridan pale into insignificance beside the impact of a Court of Appeal ruling just before Christmas.
A biography of Canadian singer, Loreena McKennitt, amounted to a breach of confidence because it was written by a friend who had been admitted to the singer's confidence and should therefore have respected it. The ruling was the "death of kiss and tell", declared the front page of the other day’s Press Gazette.
In Glasgow, a few days before, a Press Complaints Commission seminar for senior news editors and journalists was intended to remind them how its Code of Practice relates to privacy.
One of the reasons for the PCC's existence was to avoid a privacy law. The press had been warned - by then Home Secretary, David Mellor - that it was "drinking in the last-chance saloon".
The irony is that its code was intended to have no legal effect. Yet, failing to follow the Code of Practice has a legal impact. For where a person's privacy is invaded, the courts will protect it unless the invasion can be justified by the public interest.
The Code of Practice says: "The public interest includes, but is not confined to (i) Detecting or exposing crime or serious impropriety, (ii) Protecting public health and safety, (iii) Preventing the public from being misled by an action or statement of an individual or organisation." It adds that "there is a public interest in freedom of expression itself".
The Brits take Privacy seriously. (The Brits take away your privacy, seriously!) Wouldn't it be fun to slap up a few hundred of these posters around town?
http://digg.com/politics/You_are_being_watched_2
You are being watched!
An actual British government poster outside a London Metro station. And you thought talk of a police state was just fearmongering!
http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/signs/pods/watchful_eyes.jpg
Pass to your Security Manager...
http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1885?ref=rss
Wireless Forensics: Tapping the Air - Part Two
Raul Siles, GSE 2007-01-08
Introduction
In part one of this series, we discussed the technical challenges for wireless traffic acquisition and provided design requirements and best practices for wireless forensics tools. In this second article, we take it a step further and focus on the technical challenges for wireless traffic analysis. Additionally, advanced anti-forensic techniques that could thwart a forensic investigation are analyzed. Finally, apart from the technical details, as a forensic write-up, the article covers some legal aspects about wireless forensics for both the U.S. and Europe.
Here is where virtual law starts to go wild west...
http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003673.shtml
SecondLife by the numbers
I’ve been a long time supporter of SecondLife. Yesterday, they made me proud. SecondLife announced it will GPL its client software. And it committed itself to freeing the back-end as well.
How significant is SecondLife? Here’s a really interesting empirical study by Tristan Louis about SecondLife activity.
posted by [ Lessig ] on [ Jan 8 07 at 10:57 PM ]
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/05/1625208&from=rss
MIT Offering Free Copyright Course Online
Posted by Zonk on Friday January 05, @11:42AM from the more-you-know dept. The Courts Education Patents
IANAL writes "MIT is offering Introduction to Copyright Law as a free online course. Interested Slashdotters might find it a good way to challenge their firmly held misconceptions about copyright law as it concerns fair use, Napster, Grokster, the GPL, and P2P filesharing, among other things. There's also an article about the course over on Groklaw."
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/013501.html
January 08, 2007
Pew Survey: Social Networking Websites and Teens
Press release: "More than half (55%) of all of online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites, according to a new national survey of teenagers conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project."
Social Networking Websites and Teens, January 7, 2007 (10 pages, PDF)
Do you still think in terms of paper books?
http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-6148342.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news
Self-publishing made easy online
By Elinor Mills Story last modified Tue Jan 09 04:00:03 PST 2007
Photographer Holly Kreuter self-published her book on the annual countercultural arts festival Burning Man in 2002.
She spent $14,000 of her own money and went $60,000 in debt, had to do her own distribution, and still stores boxes of Drama in the Desert: The Sights and Sounds of Burning Man in her friend's basement. (This reporter was a volunteer editor on the project.)
Today, she could create the book herself online, order as few as one copy of the 144-page hardbound book for $39.95 or get a volume discount, and sell her book for whatever price she wants without having to do any shipping or handling, all through Blurb.com.
With Blurb, anyone with access to a computer can make a book and get it professionally printed. The company offers free downloadable software, called BookSmart, which enables people without design experience to easily lay out the pages, choose background colors and fonts and edit photos. The design templates were created by book design experts.
The company is scheduled to announce Tuesday at Macworld the ability for customers to set their own price for their books and sell them through the Blurb bookstore. Blurb handles all shipping and sales transactions and each month sends all profits on the book to the creator. In traditional publishing, writers receive only a fraction of the profit.
Blurb prices range from $18.95 for a 40-page, full-color paperback and $29.95 for the same hardcover version, to $69.95 for a 440-page, full-color paperback and $79.95 for the same in hardcover. Volume discounts are available for orders of 25 and up, with custom quotes for a print order of 400 or higher. Shipping and handling charges are separate.
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