Technology Blog

Approved by the FCC. That’s nice, I guess, though a bit weird. Is anyone seriously talking about providing this in the market?

source: Broadband over power lines?

Together with Professor Pamela Samuelson from Berkeley and some colleagues from Germany and the U.K., I am currently co-organizing a large conference on digital rights management, alternative compensation systems, and trusted computing. The bi-lingual conference will be held in Berlin, Germany, on January 13 & 14, 2005. We have quite a number of speakers from outside Germany, including Pam Samuelson, Hal Varian (UC Berkeley), Ross Anderson (Cambridge University), Barb Fox (Microsoft), Bill Way (RealNetworks), Bernt Hugenholtz (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Lee Bygrave (University of Oslo), Leonardo Chiariglione (Digital Media Project/MPEG), Fred von Lohmann (EFF), Deirdre Mulligan (UC Berkeley), and Terry Fisher (Harvard University). For the trusted computing panel, we have speakers such as Graeme Proudler (Chair, Technical Committee, TCG), Thomas Rosteck (Infineon), Ahmad-Rez-Sadeghi (University of Bochum) and Seth Schoen (EFF). More information (including registration information) may be found over here.

source: DRM Conference in Berlin next January

Today Professor Mark Lemley spoke at the law school on the current state of patent law for the field of biotechnology. It was the first chance I’ve gotten to hear him speak since he arrived from Boalt Hall this year, and he is a pretty engaging and thought-provoking speaker.

Basically, his talk centered on the proposition that patent law is “technology specific” — that despite the fact that a U.S. patent grant is a “one size fits all” solution, the rules of the patent game differ tremendously whether you are applying for a software patent or a biotechnology patent, because of the body of common law judicial decisions validating or invalidating patents in a given field. Lemley thinks that in general, this technology-specific approach is a decently responsive way to tailor the patent process to the ideal conditions each field needs to incentivize innovation, and to adapt to technology that often changes too quickly for legislation to be relevant. However, he also thinks that in the field of biotechnology, the rules laid down by the courts are not optimal, which has led to something he calls the “Biotech Uncertainty Principle.”

If you’re interested, the ideas laid out in his talk can be found in several law review articles that he’s co-written with Dan Burk. See: Is Patent Law Technology-Specific?, 17 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 1155 (2002); Policy Levers in Patent Law, 89 Virginia Law Review 1575 (2003); and Biotechnology’s Uncertainty Principle, in 50 Advances in Genetics: Perspectives on Properties of the Human Genome Project 305 (2003).

source: biotech and patent law

[story.news.yahoo.com]

TROY, N.Y. - Amid the torrent of jabber in Internet chat rooms -
flirting by QTpie and BoogieBoy, arguments about politics and horror
flicks - are terrorists plotting their next move?

The government certainly isn’t discounting the possibility. It’s
taking the idea seriously enough to fund a yearlong study on chat room
surveillance under an anti-terrorism program

…

Uh huh? Yeah, sure, I see it now:

#hack>
1 4M a Ph3D! I AM L337! 1 Am UB3R! 1 0WNZ)RS U! W00T!

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source: U.S. Funds Chat-Room Surveillance Study

eek! [www.techworld.com]

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source: Microsoft server crash nearly causes 800-plane pile-up

Amplifying Steve: Bruce Schneier just wrote a good op-ed in the International Herald Tribune on RFID.

source: Schneier on RFID

The Virginia legislature heard testimony today about the wisdom of implanting RFID chips in their state driver’s licenses. No state currently uses RFID chips in driver’s licenses, but once past that obvious target, resistance to the technology would likely diminish significantly. Because the RFID tags would essentially broadcast personal information to anyone nearby with a reader, the ACLU is actively involved in dissuading Virginia from this plan. But given the strong RFID push from the Bush administration, immediate testing of RFID tags in a limited fashion, such as in one state’s driver’s licenses, could provide much-needed empirical evidence of privacy infringement. Such a scenario could stave off more aggressive RFID plans such as a federal mandate for RFID-enabled driver’s licenses nationwide, RFID-enabled passports, or other types of ID cards such as those envisioned for federal employees. Just as long as the pilot test is not in my state.

source: RFID in our wallets

I can’t vouch for this, but the folks at Boalt are pointing out that in last night’s debate Dick Cheney pointed viewers to FactCheck.com. He probably meant FactCheck.org; FactCheck.com is currently redirected to GeorgeSoros.com, and the top of the page reads “Why We Must Not Re-Elect President Bush.” Oops!

We’ll probably get another ICANN hearing out of this …

source: FactCheck.what?

from [www.livejournal.com]

[news.bbc.co.uk]

Game show
traps ‘wanted’ guests

A number of people wanted by police were duped into appearing on a
fake TV game show, only to find themselves trapped by detectives.

Hampshire Police sent hoax letters to the homes of fine-dodgers and
others wanted on court warrants, offering them the chance to win big
cash prizes.

Twenty contestants were invited to Portsmouth Guildhall on Sunday to
take part in the Great Big Giveaway Show. But instead of leaving as
millionaires, 17 of them ended up under arrest. They were wanted for
outstanding fines, traffic offences, common assault, criminal damage,
drink-driving, drugs and bail offences.

The whole event, recorded for Channel Five, is to be broadcast later
this year.

…

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source: social engineering as deployed by the police

Last week, Margaret Jane Radin, Stanford law prof on loan to Michigan (and 1L Contracts prof to yours truly), came by to talk about not one but two new papers, Regulation by Contract, Regulation by Machine and Regime Change in Intellectual Property: Superseding the Law of the State with the “Law” of the Firm. Both are interesting, levying some heavy-duty economic analysis at an emerging problem that goes beyond the Internet per se. As society continues to emphasize intellectual property as much or more than real property and license agreements become de rigeur, we are starting to see the flexibility of both contract law and copyright become more and more brittle. Many license agreements “plug up” the holes (such as fair use, in copyright, or unconscionability in contract) that have historically been left as escape valves.

Moreover, the advent of DRM technology (or, as Prof. Radin puts it, TPM (Technological Protection Measures) makes it possible for licensors to implement in silicon what they might not be able to implement in law. This has implications not only for public policy, but for the rule of law itself — yet few people outside of academia seem really concerned.

Anyway, if you want a flavor of our discussion, look inside.

source: Class notes - Margaret Jane Radin: Regulation by Contract, Regulation by Machine

I can’t help but find it wÿkked awesome that some hackers have managed to successfully install Mac OS X on the Xbox (screenie). Sure, the Xbox was heavily modded, and we’ve had Linux installs running on Xboxen for quite some time, but this feels different. (Via Gizmodo)

source: Mac OS Xbox

Ballmer, a MS exec, calls all iPod users thieves.

I prefer the term “pirate”, thank you very much.

source: Too good to not link to

The men and women at SpaceShipOne did it! [Reuters, baby] They won the $10M X-Prize and now they fate of commercial space flight is looking much better.

Check out this link for continuing coverage of this awesome event. Now I know what the previous generation felt when the man walked on the moon.

Oh yeah, some mountain in Washington state is trying to explode. Crazy mountains.

source: HUZZAH!

The N.Y. Times reports today that the FCC has imposed a moratorium on E-rate, the federal program subsidizing internet access at public schools and libraries. The FCC, it seems, was so concerned about fraud and waste it cut off the program without notice two months ago. It will remain off indefinitely while the FCC ponders new rules. In the meantime, schools and libraries have been left in the lurch. With the money (temporarily) gone, it remains unclear whether they still will have to comply with the onerous filtering requirements attached to E-rate funding under the Childrens Internet Protection Act.

source: FCC Freezes Internet Subsidy for Public Schools and Libraries

Just free-thinking here, off of Dana’s post … but what does the interface of the Linux-formatted Mini look like? Is it replacing the Mini’s OS with an open-source one, or is it only changing the file system used for storing files? Does it use that clever spin-the-wheel and push-the-button menu system?

It’s an interesting question of whether Apple could achieve copyright or patent protection for the interface on the Mini. Regarding copyright: is the Mini’s interface covered under merger, as the windowed OS was held to be in Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., 35 F.3d 1435 (9th Cir.) (casenote at 1 Rich. J. L. & Tech. 5 (1995))? Is there really effectively just one way to interface with an iPod? It could be, considering its extremely-stylized configuration. Of course, there are likely design patents at issue here, which gtkpod may infringe.

Not that any of this is easy to enforce against an open-source community, but I’m sure someone at Apple legal is thinking about this.

source: More on Linux and iPod

As I type, my iPod, in Linux, is having songs transferred onto it. Dana, you ask, what on earth did you do to get your iPod to work under Linux? Well, I answer, it was a long process, involving a trip to Fry’s, two kernel recompiles, and a whole lot of TV watching to calm my nerves.

Basically, the iPod mini needs to be formatted. Once that happens, you can hook it up to the firewire port on your Linux box and it’ll detect it as a new drive. From there, you run the lifesaving program, gtkpod, and you’re jacked up and good to go. For those of you who had NO idea what the hell I was just talking about, the moral of the story is, although Apple says that you can only use the iPod mini on commercial, closed-source operating systems, Linux and the open-source community gives Apple the middle finger and finds a way around it. Almost puts in a tear in your eye.

PSA TO SLS PEOPLE: Go to the meeting this Wednesday at 4 to learn more about some of the cool projects CIS has going on.

source: Victory is Mine - iPod day four