Movies about government surveillance

There are two good movies about hidden surveillance and privacy violations - "The Conversation" directed by Francis Coppola, and "Enemy of the State" starring Will Smith, and Gene Hackman is in both movies playing almost identical characters. The first one tells about a man whose obsession with his own privacy turns against him eventually. And the second one tells you what the government is capable of and how it can illegally spy on people for its own interests. Especially interesting when innocent people are involved.

More information about the movies:

The Conversation: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071360/
Enemy of the State: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120660/

Decision that Genes Shouldn't be Patentable in the U.S.

The new position was stated by the Department of Justice last Friday, October 19, in a case discussing two human genes commonly associated with breast and ovarian cancer. See the full story here:

U.S. Says Genes Should Not Be Eligible for Patents

The 1440 Campaign Cycle

A newscast re. the impact of social media on elections (particularly pertinent on the web these days).

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2010/10/08/politics.all.atwitter.cnn?hpt=C2

Cheers,

Kim.

some thought about ethical theories

Not sure if anyone else in this class ever wondered why we are spending so much time learning and applying ethical theories into social issues (I keep asking myself why we are doing this), so I googled and searched: "how important are the ethical theories in modern society" and found something that somehow answers part of my questions...

http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs181/Materials/02%20Ethical%20Theories.doc

This is actually the handout from a similar course offered at Stanford, the writer (probably the instructor) didn't give too much details about all the ethical theories, but it notes some problems we may consider when we apply the ethical theories (it mentions not just the for or against arguments about a theory, but also what we need to be cautious about when we apply the theories).

For example, it mentions the problems about applying utilitarianism (some points are mentioned in our textbook, but not all):

a) Actions such as deceit, murder, theft, etc. are usually morally wrong because of harmful consequences, but they can be ethically justified if it can be proven that they produce the greatest good for the greatest number. So even human and moral rights are not absolute here. If we maximize happiness for a society by enslaving a small segment of society, is this morally justified?

b) How do you define “good” and “happiness”?

c) How to avoid self-serving assumptions and prejudices in performing the cost-benefit analysis? If you do not overcome these assumptions, you end up with rationalizations of unethical or selfish behavior. The job of objectively considering all the consequences of each alternative, from the point of view of each stakeholder is very difficult.

In particular, the second and third point answer the questions I have been having. How do we define good and happiness? How do we avoid self-serving assumptions and prejudices? It seems to me our textbook author prefers less protection in IP rights, thus he uses all the examples that favour his arguments to come to a conclusion that copying software is not a bad thing. However, with a little research I also found some studies that may be used to rebut his arguments (something like the impact on sales with or without anti-piracy campaigns implemented , the impact of piracy on domestic and global economics.... ). Was there a failure to avoid self-serving assumptions or prejudices in his analysis? Was his argument a fallacy? If you do pay attention, you would notice that there is no reference at all when the author applies ethical theories to backup his arguments. It seems to me that the application of ethical theories involves more "opinion reasoning" than "evidentiary reasoning"?

Those questions have bothered me for a while, and I was wondering why or how should we evaluate the usefulness of these theories. Are they comprehensive enough for today's society? If not, are they still valuable resources to help us solve new issues? Or it's just that our approach in discussing those theories is not comprehensive enough? I guess I spot some light in the "algorithm" mentioned in the article in some extent:

And here is the "algorithm" to apply when confronted with an ethical issue (from the handout):

1. Identify and carefully define the ethical and legal issues in the case.

2. What is your first impression toward the issues, i.e., what does your moral intuition tell you?

3. Define in detail all possible courses of action.

4. Consult the appropriate codes of ethics (ACM, IEEE, corporate or organizational, etc.) for guidance.

5. Use the ethical theories (see above) to help reason about the issues.

6. What is the "best" action based on the theories and codes? If there are conflicts, which approach should take precedence under the circumstances? Why?

7. Take action.

(Yes, I think identify and define the issues is a very important step, and note that "Use the ethical theories" is only one of the 7 steps in this algorithm...)

Usage Based Billing

A backwards step by the CRTC.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/10/28/crtc-usage-based-billing-internet.html

Sharing Too Much on Facebook Could Cost You

Since so many of us use facebook everyday, the information in this post can be helpful to most of us, and provides some tips on how to use facebook in a safe manner to protect your identity. Also it is relevant to the material discussed in class. Enjoy!

http://www.ctv.ca/generic/generated/static/business/article1770690.html

New FireFox extension makes logging in as others on unsecured wi-fi easy

A simple add-on for firefox just released a few days ago has already been downloaded over 200,000 times, and basically allows users to "spy on the unsecured sites you are visiting" over unsecured wireless networks...

Watch the warning video, read the article, and most importantly, password protect your wireless networks!!

http://www.kwgn.com/news/kdvr-firesheep-warning-txt-102810,0,1852323.story

Mother kills her baby over Farmville

So my group is doing our project on internet addiction, and I came upon this article while checking news this morning... The sad thing is it isn't even that surprising to our generation as this happens more often by the year...

Do you think people dieing over these games justifies the 'fun' it adds to the rest of the players who play them casually?

Here's the link: http://mashable.com/2010/10/28/farmville-murder-mother-baby/

Nader

Judge realizes: on the Internet, no one can tell you're a kid

It's amazing how many of these articles seem to pop up now that we're studying this... :)

It's interesting to see the courts change their mind like this... even if it was 'obvious' the whole time.

Here's the link: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/10/judge-realizes-on-the-internet-no-one-can-tell-youre-a-kid.ars

Nader

Russia Crack Down on Spam

Russian polices have cracked down a major source of our viagra emails with global volumes of emails significantly dropped.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/business/27spam.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Recommended Reading for Thursday / Tuesday: Info Security

1. What's your Facebook Data Worth?

An uncommonly good insight into the economic value of SNS data. Check out the link to evaluate how much your own FB page is worth.

--------------

Information Security and Privacy

2. The OWASP Top Ten [PDF] [wiki] [slides]

A nice overview of the top ten web application security risks.

We'll be covering the following topics:

3. Web Bugs a.k.a. Beacons a.k.a. Tracking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_bug

4. Clickjacking a.k.a. the transparent IFRAME trick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickjacking

5. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

I find the wikipedia article rather opaque. Samy's own story of the worm and its technical description is pretty concrete. Most students should be able to understand at least the first four steps of the exploit.

Identity thieves crafty, prolific

I found this article about identity theft in the Vancouver Sun and I thought it might be relevant given that we're about to discuss it in class.

Identity thieves crafty, prolific

What Stores Try To Cover Up

These two articles/videos on CBC show us how restaurants and big retail stores
try as hard as they could to cover up any breaches to their database at the expense
of their customer's identity. It happens more often than you might think.

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2010/whos_minding_the_store/main.html
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2007/03/net_security.html

Stuxnet mystery

A recent summary from Forbes
Tech review of Stuxnet

Political aspects:
Blaming Israel
Debunking the bunk of Stuxnet
Iranian politicians' reaction
Persian summary from Mehr News
Latest news from CNN

And the technical details:
Technical details from Symantec

What They Know: Interactive Infographic from WSJ

According to the Wall Street Journal:

Marketers are spying on Internet users -- observing and remembering people's clicks, and building and selling detailed dossiers of their activities and interests. The Wall Street Journal's What They Know series documents the new, cutting-edge uses of this Internet-tracking technology.

http://blogs.wsj.com/wtk/

Okay, but ... is the use of tracking technologies like web bugs really "spying"?

Really, Google?

When "I'm sorry" just isn't enough...?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/8083008/Google-spied-on-British-emails-and-computer-passwords.html

-kim.

Photos taken from smartphones could be GPS-tagged (privacy issues) ..

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/10/15/photo.gps.privacy/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+rss/cnn_topstories+(RSS:+Top+Stories)

"MySpace moves against apps who share user data"

This caught my attention today: MySpace has started cracking down on app developers that share personal user data. This is in violation of MySpace's terms of use. I think this fits well with our current class topic of privacy and privacy invasion.

source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/10/23/myspace.leaks/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

What do you think about the new Facebook Groups?

There's a really long analysis posted here:

http://www.switched.com/2010/10/13/facebooks-new-groups-demystified-what-they-are-and-how-to-use/

But I want to know from you guys -- what do you think of the new Facebook Groups design, and how it affects online privacy?

Patenting Virtual Currency

Zynga may be trying to patent virtual currency:

“A method, comprising:receiving, at a server, a purchase order for virtual currency from a player, wherein the purchase order was made with legal currency, and wherein the virtual currency is usable within the context of a computer-implemented game;crediting an account of the player with virtual currency, wherein the virtual currency is not redeemable for legal currency;receiving a second purchase order for a virtual object within the context of the computer-implemented game from the player, wherein the second purchase order was made with virtual currency; and debiting the account of the player based on the second purchase order.”


More on:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/22/zynga-virtual-currency/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

[PIC] Legalize Happy Birthday!

Haha... this just made me laugh, thought I'd share it :)

Steganography

The link below reminded me of the letter from Arnold Schwarzenegger that was shown in class to demonstrate steganography. A computer science student wrote about the advantages of disadvantages of networks and spent  5 hours formatting his paper into the acrostic Rickroll.

http://gizmodo.com/5669317/student-hides-rick-astleys-song-in-college-paper

Have anybody recently received Facebook scam email?

Recently, I have been receiving a couple of Facebook scam emails which look like this.
Anybody encounter this in their email system?

LEGO lost its trademark for its eight-stud brick design

Even though not computer related, but it is related to trademark and the EU Court.
It seems like even trademark has no expiry date, the court can take away the trademark.

http://www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=pressdetail&contentid=218350&countrycode=2057&yearcode=&archive=false

First surgery using robots only

Surgeons in McGill University performed the first all-robot surgery. They used a robot surgeon named da Vinci and robot anesthesiologist named McSleepy. Pretty cool.

link: http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/21/first-all-robot-surgery-performed-at-mcgill-university/

Pushing the Bounds of Artistic Ownership

Lately, we've been talking a lot about ownership and rights, copyright and fair use. So it seems topical to note that English Heritage is now claiming that it owns every picture ever taken of Stonehenge. (Original takedown request) Setting aside the fact that the idea of finding and registering every Stonehenge picture taken is completely absurd, it raises interesting questions about ownership. Sure, I presume that British Heritage goes to a lot of work to handle, manage, and maintain Stonehenge. It probably costs quite a bit of money to keep those rocks standing upright. But even if we assume that Neolithic Britons decided to invent copyright law and set the length at a modest 'artist's life plus 4000 years,' it's still past that time by a good few centuries.

So can we say that British Heritage owns Stonehenge and all rights to it? They didn't really buy it. They didn't trade for it. They certainly didn't make it themselves. It's just that their distant, distant ancestors put some remarkably heavy slabs of stone in a particular place and left them there. Even if they didn't want it anymore, it's hardly as if they could just hide it in a bookshelf or stuff it in somebody's attic. But now it's there, and it's theirs, and it's popular, so they can take advantage of it. Seems a bit odd to me.

Hey Facebook, Here Are Some Other Companies You Can Bully Or Sue

Facebook decided to sue TeachBook (teachbook.com), a professional community for teachers because their name contains the word "book."

Does this mean Facebook will also sue: travelbook, hotelbook, ebook, doctorsbook, racebook, tastebook etc...? :)

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/26/facebook-placebook-teachbook/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Techcrunch+(TechCrunch)

"Google accidentally mapped much more than addresses, says privacy boss"

Apparently Google's street view caused some privacy concerns and even broke Canadian privacy laws by collecting personal information from wireless networks. They collected info like emails, usernames, and passwords.....awkward


http://www.thestar.com/business/article/877850--google-accidentally-mapped-much-more-than-addresses-says-privacy-boss

Entrepreneur Takes On Apple And Wins $625 Million Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/entrepreneur-takes-on-apple-and-wins-625mm-2010-10#ixzz12

Biggest patent win ever? That is quite a huge sum of money... even for Apple. It's quite mind-boggling how even with Apple's legal team they could lose so big. I guess patents do work :)

http://www.businessinsider.com/entrepreneur-takes-on-apple-and-wins-625mm-2010-10

Nader

Google, Facebook To Microsoft’s Paul Allen: Your Argument Is Invalid!

This is related to Vince's previous post on this blog entitled "Against the Necessity of Software Patents"

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/27/paul-allen-google-faceboo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29



""Patent #682 “Alerting Users to Items of Current Interest.

“Defendant Facebook has infringed and continues to infringe one or more claims of the ’682 patent. Facebook is liable for infringing the ’682 patent under 35 U.S.C. § 271 by making and using websites and associated hardware and software to provide alerts that information is of current interest to a user as claimed in the patent.”

“Defendant Google has infringed and continues to infringe one or more claims of the ’682 patent. Google is liable for infringing the ’682 patent under 35 U.S.C. § 271 by making and using websites and associated hardware and software to provide alerts that information is of current interest to a user as claimed in the patent.”"

HyperMac stops selling magsafe connectors

HyperMac infringed the patent on the magsafe connector and Apple requires them to stop selling the cables before any negotiations can occur.

via

Court says University sanction over Facebook postings violated Charter

Canadian court in Alberta ruled against U of Calgary for violating its students freedom of expression when it sanctioned the students for posting critical comments about a professor on Facebook. One of the issues here is whether the the Charter of rights applies to universities (as this is a constitutional right and only applies to government but not private entities). The court ruled that the university is not a Charter free zone and further decided that the students' Charter rights were infringed.

The link to the news: http://brianbowman.ca/2010/10/15/court-says-university-sanction-over-facebook-postings-violates-charter/

In particular, at paragraph 82 of the judgment, the court comments about the value of the critical comments made by the students:

"I cannot accept that expression in the form of criticism of one's profession must be restricted in order to accomplish the objective of maintaining an appropriate learning environments. I do not regard this particular kind of expression as being of little value. Students should not be prevented from expressing critical opinions regarding the subject matter or quality of the teaching they are receiving. As an educational institution, the University should expect and encourage frank and critical discussion regarding the teaching ability of professors amongst students, even in instances where the comments exchanged are unfavourable...[omitted]"

Here is a copy of the judgment:

http://btdbowman.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/reasons-for-judgment2.pdf

Basically, the Judge treated Facebook Wall as a forum for discussion, thus, a place for expressing ideas. The Judge also mentioned that to object the critics the professor should bring a civil action (if she considers the comments as defamation), not just have the school sanctioned the students for making negative comments.

Map of Online Communities - updated 2010!

I remember seeing something like this map a long time ago, and I just stumbled upon this brand new updated version from summer 2010! Enjoy. This map is based on activity levels, as supposed to number of users, (which would probably explain why Farmville is so friggin huge, it's probably used for hours on end by many people, while twitter is only accessed maybe 3 times a day for an average user? Same with 4chan's prominence among forums, maybe it's the type of thing people spend long hours on? internet addiction?) You also have to wonder about possible bias towards North American / English language activities (although there is China's "QQ" messenger, and "Euro Gulf")

My Highlights:

• Shaq in the Twitter territory
• "Former site of adult services" in Craigslist territory (crater)
• Myspace's huge importance for bands, music videos' prominence on Youtube
• "Web 3.0 (under construction)"
• "Sea of Protocol Confusion"
• Sarah Palin USA's proximity to Russia
• "Catbus Route" on the 4chan island
• Bieber Bay!

Amazing.

New US Internet Censorship bill

This article is even more relevant to our fellow American 430'ers - but can touch us all as we all use youtube and similar services on a regular basis.. This bill could effectively overturn the recent supreme court decision that prevented Viacom from removing clips of their shows from youtube.com...

"Stop the Internet Blacklist

By David Segal and Aaron Swartz

When it really matters to them, Congressmembers can come together -- with a panache and wry wit you didn't know they had. As banned books week gets underway, and President Obama admonishes oppressive regimes for their censorship of the Internet, a group of powerful Senators -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- have signed onto a bill that would vastly expand the government's power to censor the Internet.

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) was introduced just one week ago, but it's greased and ready to move, with a hearing in front of the Judiciary Committee this Thursday. If people don't speak out, US citizens could soon find themselves joining Iranians and Chinese in being blocked from accessing broad chunks of the public Internet.

COICA creates two blacklists of Internet domain names. Courts could add sites to the first list; the Attorney General would have control over the second. Internet service providers and others (everyone from Comcast to PayPal to Google AdSense) would be required to block any domains on the first list. They would also receive immunity (and presumably the good favor of the government) if they block domains on the second list.

The lists are for sites "dedicated to infringing activity," but that's defined very broadly -- any domain name where counterfeit goods or copyrighted material are "central to the activity of the Internet site" could be blocked.

One example of what this means in practice: sites like YouTube could be censored in the US. Copyright holders like Viacom often argue copyrighted material is central to the activity of YouTube, but under current US law, YouTube is perfectly legal as long as they take down copyrighted material when they're informed about it -- which is why Viacom lost to YouTube in court.

But if COICA passes, Viacom wouldn't even need to prove YouTube is doing anything illegal to get it shut down -- as long as they can persuade the courts that enough other people are using it for copyright infringement, the whole site could be censored.

Perhaps even more disturbing: Even if Viacom couldn't get a court to compel censorship of a YouTube or a similar site, the DOJ could put it on the second blacklist and encourage ISPs to block it even without a court order. (ISPs have ample reason to abide the will of the powerful DOJ, even if the law doesn't formally require them to do so.)"

Read the full article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-segal/stop-the-internet-blackli_b_739836.html

Martha Rans from Creative Commons Canada on campus

For those who are interested, Martha Rans from Creative Commons Canada will be on campus for Open Access Week on Ocober 21st. She will be taking about the effect of the new copyright bill (C-32) on education: http://oaweek.scholcomm.ubc.ca/open-access-week-2010/#THURSDAYVAN

Rollover image on your website? That will be $80,000 (please)

Does this count as patent trolling? Wowza...

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/10/patent-troll-takes-over-the-web-can-it-be-stopped.ars

Nader

Against the Necessity of Software Patents

"Patents make a lot of sense in many industries; they are needed to protect the designs of industrial equipment, pharmaceutical formulations, biotechnology products and methods, biomedical devices, consumer products (toothpaste, shampoo, contact lenses, etc.), advanced materials & composites, and of course, widgets (lighting fixtures & elements, batteries, toys, tools, etc.). But in software these are just nuclear weapons in an arms race. They don’t foster innovation, they inhibit it. That’s because things change rapidly in this industry...."

Continue on:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/07/why-we-need-to-abolish-software-patents/

About the recent controversy of Icefrog (the creator of DOTA game in Warcraft 3) joining the Valve team to create the new DOTA 2 game.

http://icefrogtruth.blogspot.com/

I found this really similar to the Facebook controversy:
"We found out that not only did he lie about DOTA, but he lied about his involvement with both Riot Games and S2 Games. As I said at the start of this blog, you can go to www.dota-allstars.com to brush up on that history. This is the equivalent of the CEO of McDonald's (DOTA) looking for a job at Burger King (Riot Games), then working for Fatburger (S2 Games), then quitting and going to work for Wendy's (Valve) but outright lying to Wendy's of his involvement with ANY previous employer, despite the fact that he had contributed to a significant chunk of development with each company. In the corporate world, this would be the equivalent of stealing trade secrets. But instead, this is the game development business, and the rules are not so established."

Apple Gets Patent on Pinch-to-Zoom

The patent for pinch and zoom on multi-touch displays is finally granted to Apple.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/13/apple-awarded-limited-patent-on-pinch-to-zoom/

Quote:

Patent #7,812,826 was first applied for on December 29, 2006, and over the course of the patent process the claims have been significantly narrowed to cover a very specific set of actions:

1. A multitouch display detects at least two contacts.
2. Those contacts perform a first gesture.
3. That gesture adjusts an image in some way: magnification, orientation and rotation are specifically claimed, but the patent is broad enough to cover virtually any adjustment.
4. The first set of contacts is broken.
5. A second set of contacts is detected.
6. The second contacts perform another gesture within a pre-determined period of time.
7. The gesture continues to adjust the image in the same way.

Microsoft patents the "search engine"

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/search-engine-seo-bing,11462.html#xtor=RSS-181

"Microsoft has received a patent that covers a search engine platform that is based on a "bag-of-words" and "essential pages" ranking system to make searches more efficient."

I'm no expert, but this sounds pretty similar (although not identical) to another very popular search engine.

What hasn't Apple patented? :P

http://gizmodo.com/5662615/apple-will-help-your-mom-stop-you-from-sexting

Very interesting patent (bringing in a couple of topics we've talked about). I wonder how their algorithm actually catches it, and whether it can stop photos as well.

*edit* Only text is covered in the patent. Reading comprehension fail =(

Ethical reasoning at work.

Anti-censorship Hidden truths A new way of beating the web’s censors

I found this article while going through some articles on The Economist. It's funny how the only way I understood what they were talking about and the reason it popped out at me is because of this class :)

It's crazy how people go through such measures just to get messages out...

http://www.economist.com/node/17243251

Nader

Apple trademarks "There's an app for that."

So Apple has just received a trademark on the sentence "There's an app for that."

Original Article

I'm posting it because I've been thinking a lot recently about companies that spend a lot of energy getting their product name (or slogan) to become part of the English language and then turn around and say, "You're infringing on our copyright when you say that."

Is Xerox really unhappy that people use xerox as a verb? Is Kleenex really unhappy that people say, "Can you hand me a kleenex?" Would they really want to give up all that name recognition and free advertising? Or do they just have to pretend they're unhappy so that they can prove in court that they are defending the trademark?

I think there is a lot of evidence to support the notion that companies want their trademarks to become part of how people speak:

• Those print ads admonishing people not to use Xerox as a verb or whatever... Do they run them in Newsweek or Rolling Stone or other popular magazines? I've never seen them there. I've only ever seen them in trade journals with relatively small readerships. And I've certainly never seen Xerox run a TV ad about not using their name in vain. If they really wanted to get the message across, why not use the most effective form of advertising?

• Also, those ads only ever appear after the trademark has been fully established in the language (and is therefore unlikely to fade away). Yes, the modern BandAid commercial sings about "BandAid Brand," but if you go find the original commercial that aired for years, you'll hear it sung, "I am stuck on BandAid, cause BandAid's stuck on me." They spent years running this ad, got a nation of children singing it on playgrounds, and then changed the lyrics and started lecturing people about how they were using their name wrong.

• Finally, if companies don't want their product names to be used as common nouns, how do we explain: "Hi, I'm a Mac"? Shouldn't that be "Hi, I'm a Mac brand computer. Or are they going to wait until they've successfully got the entire population using Mac as a noun and then say we're infringing on their intellectual property?

Is it ethical to try to influence the way people talk and think, and then turn around and prohibit it? If it's not outright unethical, it feels at least hypocritical and duplicitous.

Kids under 2 have an online presence

They say that 82% of children (aged 2 years or younger) in 10 western countries have an online presence. The problem is, "disclosing a lot of personal info, such as birth dates, middle names and mothers' maiden names -- which can be carelessly inserted into photo captions -- can aid identity thieves."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/10/07/baby.pictures/index.html

using gps to spy on a student

Interesting read! A student from California found a GPS tracker on his car, which he says belongs to the FBI. His friend posted the photos on reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/dmh5s/does_this_mean_the_fbi_is_after_us/) and the student was approached by FBI agents who wanted the tracker back.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/gaming.gadgets/10/08/fbi.tracks.student.wired/index.html

Meizu M8 ceases production amid pressure from Apple and intellectual property office

Just thought I'd share this relevant tidbit-makes me wonder why it took Apple so long to put the pressure on Meizu.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/09/meizu-m8-ceases-production-amid-pressure-from-apple-and-intellec/

Copyright Laws: Sesame Street version of the Old Spice commercial

A friend of mine passed this clip on to me tonight, and I thought I'd share it with everyone, as it's relevant to our discussions on copyright laws (and it's pretty funny).  The video, titled "Smell like a Monster" by Sesame Street is a spoof off of the popular Old Spice commercial. 

As mentioned in class, a copyright protects the author's exclusive rights to publish, distribute, and adaptation.  So do spoofs like this Sesame Street adaptation require permission from the original author?

Articles about Intellectual Property

This course isn't intended to make you a legal expert, but you should know how computing technology, like software, has affected the public debate about what is patentable.

And so today in class we'll cover some brief stories about some things you might not have known are patentable.

• Like a sealed crustless sandwich

• Or a "Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion" (who's the inventor?)

Which brings us to the probably the most famous and controversial example of a patent related to software:

• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' one-click purchase patent

Which has been in the news lately:

• "Amazon.com's 1-Click patent confirmed following re-exam"
• "Amazon One-Click Patent Slides Through Reexamination"

Which brings us to the topic of whether you can patent an abstract process, like a business process or software algorithm at all. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a much-anticipated decision on this topic:

• in re Bilski
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation's opinion
• The Free Software Foundation's opinion

Keep in mind that both the EFF and the FSF are lobbies organized to oppose software patents. Can you find any opinions on the other side? What about Canada?

Required Reading for Tuesday: EU-Canada Intellectual Property Negotiations

For next Tuesday, please read the following Slashdot thread and the two articles (from Michael Geist's blog) linked from the summary.

In the Slashdot thread, there are a lot of off-topic remarks. You can use the "Threshold" control to view remarks that readers have moderated up; a setting of 3 is recommended. Still, you'll find a lot of off-topic ranting, which is common in any real-life discussion. There are some good remarks starting about 2/3rds of the way down ("Policy laundering" and its replies).

As you read Michael Geist's blog posts linked from the summary ("EU Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement, leaked online" and "updated copy of the draft chapter") keep in mind that they are geared toward people who know intellectual property law and treaties. Nevertheless, try to understand how your rights might be affected. The goals of this reading are to familiarize you with: how IP issues are negotiated between countries, the current status in Canada, Michael Geist's blog, and the realities (good and bad) of online discussions.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/03/30/0241257/EU-Demands-Canada-Gut-Its-Copyright-and-Patent-Laws

Your comments on this post are most welcome. :)

Facebook Lets Users Download Their Data

This is some exciting news. As some of you might already know, Google will be launching their own Facebook competitor relatively soon. It will be interesting with this announcement if Google will use this feature to seamlessly allow Facebook users to easily migrate over to their service.

I'm surprised Facebook allowed such a move.

Source: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Facebook-Lets-Users-Download-Their-Data-Why-Its-a-Big-Deal-5302

Mark Zuckerberg's infamous FaceMash.com for sale

FaceMash.com, the Facebook prototype Mark Zuckerberg built in his Harvard dorm room one October night in 2003, is now up for auction on Flippa -- or at least the URL is.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/10/06/facemash.mashable/

CNN confronts Michigan Assistant Attorney General on cyberbullying

This ran a few days ago on CNN, and given the topic of cyberbullying I figured this was pertinent. Anderson Cooper on CNN recently spoke to the Assistant Attorney General of Michigan, who has been running a blog defaming the Student Body President of the University of Michigan. Near the end of the view, Cooper begins comparing the actions of the AAG with a pamphlet on cyberbullying published in Michigan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwObjKZg9Jw

Mike Cox, the Michigan Attorney General, was also interviewed by Cooper, who initially defended Shirvell in the following statement: "Here in America, we have this thing called the First Amendment, which allows people to express what they think and engage in political and social speech." Since the story ran, Shirvell has taken a leave of absence from his position and Chris Armstrong has filed a restraining order against Shirvell, who is now banned from the University of Michigan campus.

Efficacy of Twitter and Facebook in Activism

Malcom Gladwell puts forth a pretty convincing argument for the types of activities social change requires, and why social networking technologies such as Twitter and Facebook won't be enough, in his article, "Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted," for the New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all

Gladwell outlines a few case studies throughout history that illustrate great advances for social justice. Common to these cases is severe self-sacrifice, and the reliance on friends and relatives close enough to a cause to truly sympathize with it, and contribute much time and energy to it.

In contrast, he argues that the strength of social networking such as twitter is a reliance on many weak ties. This often can increase visibility of a problem, but may not result in the localized pressure and self sacrifice by individuals to effect change.

Microsoft files patent infringement action against Motorola

I was reading the chapters on intellectual property and I thought this was an appropriate story to share.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/oct10/10-01statement.mspx

The mobile market wars are intensifying with Microsoft's newly released Windows Phone 7 handsets. I suspect there will be many more obscure patent cases in the future.

Fight P2P Surveillance with Anonymity and Encryption

An increase in BitTorrent anonymity services was recorded in the UK as governments and industries begin to battle file sharing via BitTorrent by monitoring BitTorrent traffic.
BTGuard, an anonymizer, actually makes a business of providing anonymity to BitTorrent users.

For more details, please visit this website

Apple Challenges Jury Verdict Of Up To $625.5 Million!

I come across this when I am reading the assigned chapters.
Pretty interesting.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-04/apple-challenges-625-5-million-mirror-worlds-patent-verdict.html

Scribd added Facebook "Instant Personalization"

Over the weekend, I have received following tweet from Wired megazine:

@wired: Scribd added Facebook "Instant Personalization" this week. It's a privacy nightmare, says @pgcat http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/scribd-facebook-instant-personalization/

To summarize, Scribd have added a feature that add you and all your facebook friends as participants without your consent.

You are allowed to opt out, but the default is opting in.

And of course, there is not a clear, intuitive, easy-to-find way of opting out (apparently, there is an opt out banner up at the top).

So, what do you think about companies doing these default opt-in additional features?

This cannot be stopped legally, since there is a way to opt out.

However, this can be annoying and dangerous if more companies start doing so.

Event: Businesses, Privacy Policies and Ethics

We spend a lot of time discussing what the users do in class or how it affects the users but we don't really see too much of how businesses tackle the issues of privacy policies and ethics. I'm not sure how many entrepreneurs we have here but for those who are looking to take what we have learned/know and apply it, or for those who are just curious about the flip side - how businesses should tackle privacy policies and ethics should take a look at this upcoming event discussing these issues.

http://smcyvr.com/2010/09/smcyvr-october-event-online-privacy-policy-and-ethics-with-christopher-parsons/

Freedom of Speech and Video Games

I just came across an interesting freedom of speech issue relating to video games. EA's latest shooter, Medal of Honor, is based on US forces fighting in Afghanistan. The multiplayer portion of the game allows players to play as the Taliban. This has of course caused some to get upset and the game to be blocked from sales on most US military bases worldwide. Up till now EA had defended its position but in the end EA has decided self-censor itself and rename the Taliban as "opposing forces" in multiplayer play.

http://kotaku.com/5653154/medal-of-honor-maker-defends-taliban-renaming-addresses-free-speech-concerns