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From: Filter Editor [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 13 February 2004 17:42
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The Filter, No. 6.4
No. 6.4 <--The Filter--> 2.13.04
Your regular dose of public-interest Internet news and commentary
from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at
H a r v a r d L a w S c h o o l
CONTENTS: HIGHLIGHTS:
[1] In the News: Round 'Em Up
[2] Case in Point: Is That Your Code?
[3] Berkman News: Welcome Jed Purdy!
[4] Conference Watch
[5] Bookmarks: Global Perspectives
[6] Quotables: Shake Your 8-Ball
[7] Talk Back
[8] Subscription Info
[9] About us
[10] Not a Copyright
-----------------------------------------
[1] IN THE NEWS
================
* Still Awaiting the Documents
SCO failed to meet its January 12 deadline for providing documentation
about its intellectual property claims against IBM. This event could
have shed light on the pieces of Linux code SCO claims to own. SCO
has held the media spotlight in recent weeks because of the MyDoom
virus which disabled its webpage through a distributed denial of
service attack.
<http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/09/1076175080452.html>
<http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,62128,00.html>
The CEO of SCO, Darl McBride appeared at an event at Harvard Law
School earlier this month. Read a Berkman Center Briefing about
McBride's talk and his adamant opponents.
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/briefings/sco>
Other helpful resources in the SCO v. IBM case:
<http://sco.iwethey.org/>
<http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=legal-docs>
<http://linuxworld.com/story/34007.htm>
<http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/sco-statement.html>
* International Spam Law Roundup
Anti-spam laws, and plans to create such laws, are popping up around
the world. The reasoning and results may differ, but the general
sentiment is plain and simple: Spam's gotta go. Did Bill Gates really
say spam would no longer be a problem in just two years? Hope springs
eternal...
<http://tinyurl.com/2yg3u> [siliconvalley.com]
<http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39118686,00.htm>
<http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040201/80/ekwp4.html>
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107576151542918439,00.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/2ce6z> [parl.gc.ca]
But there's good reason to believe that the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and
other legal solutions are unlikely get the job done alone.
<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2004/02/09#a542>
* P2P Back In Court
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently heard arguments from the
entertainment industry aimed at overturning a lower court's ruling on
P2P networks, specifically Grokster. According to the district court
opinion handed down last winter, designers and distributors of
decentralized P2P networks (Grokster and StreamCast, here) are not
liable for contributory or vicarious infringement of copyright by
filesharers using their software.
<http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/7870984.htm>
<http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/20040203_eff_pr.php>
* RFID: Product Security or Spy Chip?
Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags could begin to replace
barcodes on products, a move that could have a tremendous impact on
retail security, product inventory, and the way people shop. Some
European retailers have already begun to require that their inventory
carry RFID tags, which have a wide range of applications. Most
controversially, the tags can be implanted under the skin to keep
track of pets and -- perhaps someday -- people.
RFID in retail:
<http://news.com.com/2100-1008-5139627.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/2mf67> [eff.org]
RFID in pets:
<http://www.cio.com/archive/092203/zittrain.html>
* Electronic Voting Woes
As the U.S. presidential elections draw near, concerns about the
integrity of electronic voting machines are becoming increasingly
urgent.
<http://news.com.com/2100-1029-5144903.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/34yko> [salon.com]
The lesson of Diebold:
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/briefings/dvb>
<http://tinyurl.com/2q3z3> [eff.org]
[2] CASE IN POINT
=================
CASE IN POINT 1.3
The Case in Point is Caldera (SCO) v. IBM, also called the case
against open-source.
We began this thread by analyzing SCO's strategy in bringing this case
under trade secret and breach-of-contract claims rather than copyright
infringement. The trade secret claims were dropped last week. Since
SCO was a Linux distributor, it had been accused itself of
contributing to exposing the allegedly secret materials.
See The Age, at
<http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/09/1076175080452.html>.
SCO's CEO announced at last week's Harvard Journal of Law & Technology
forum that SCO will shortly file infringement actions against
individual Linux end users. For a discussion of the allegedly
infringing ABI Code, see:
Sorenson, et. Al., GROKLAW TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT THE ABI FILES at
<http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20040130235310123>.
TwikiWeThey, SCOvsIBMTheBSDFiles at
<http://twiki.iwethey.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SCOvsIBMTheBSDFiles>.
SCO's copyright interest remains clouded and no infringement claims
have yet been filed against IBM, despite earlier announcements. SCO
acquired its UNIX rights from Novell in 1995. Copyrights were
exempted from the initial transfer, but allegedly included in a
subsequent amendment to the transfer. IBM claims that it has a
permanent license under any SCO rights by virtue of a later Amendment
X. At the JOLT forum, McBride asserted that Novell's copyright
interest was merely contingent on the occurrence of specific
conditions but that these conditions have never occurred.
See video archive of McBride's comments at Harvard Law School on Feb.
2 at <http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/p.cgi/speakers.html>.
SCO's copyrights are the subject of litigation filed in August by
Linux distributor Red Hat. See that complaint at
<http://lwn.net/images/ns/rh-complaint.pdf>.
In the last Filter report, we asked your opinion of McBride's claim
that the GPL is unconstitutional. Reader Pamela G. summed up with,
"You may do with your copyright as you wish even, perish the thought,
not charge anyone for the use of it. No one is forced to do so."
See Filter reader discussion at
<http://h2o.law.harvard.edu/ViewProject.do?projectID=166>.
The next question is: What steps could an open-source programming
community take to verify the legal rights of its contributors to
freely and legitimately offer code to the project? Would a formal
permissions process interfere with the culture and enthusiasm of the
contributors?
If you want to join in, and we hope that you will, please go to
<http://h2o.law.harvard.edu/register.do> and register for the project
"SCO-IBM." Case in Point is an ongoing series of discussions targeting
particular legal issues raised as an actual case proceeds. For current
summaries of the case and an archive of documents, see
Groklaw, Legal Docs, SCO v. IBM, at
<http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=legal-docs>
TwikiWeThey, SCO v. IBM, at
<http://sco.iwethey.org/>.
[3] BERKMAN NEWS
================
* New Fellow Jedediah Purdy Joins Berkman Center
The Berkman Center is delighted to welcome Jedediah Purdy as a
research fellow for the spring semester. Jed, an author, attorney and
scholar, focuses his research on property regimes' role in shaping
social and political life.
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/jedediah_purdy>
* Listen In -- AudioBerkman on MP3 Players
The iPod might slip easily into your pocket, but this device and other
gadgets like it are shaking the foundations of the digital media
debate. A new audio documentary from AudioBerkman, "The Gadget
Factor," takes a closer look at the portable MP3 player. We talk to
business analysts, lawyers, and RIAA President Cary Sherman. (Running
time: 12 minutes)
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/audio/gadget>
* Berkman In The News
In case you missed them in their original publications, below is a
sampling of links to articles from around the globe featuring the
Berkman Center and its faculty, staff and fellows.
<http://www.timesoftibet.com/artman/publish/article_928.shtml>
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/35260.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/29mul> [nytimes.com]
<http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/7910913.htm>
[4] CONFERENCE WATCH
====================
February:
* February 18-20, 2004, Washington, DC--2004 Privacy and Data Security
Summit
<http://www.privacyassociation.com/>
* February 26-27, 2004, Geneva--Workshop on Internet Governance
<http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/forum/intgov04/index.html>
March:
* March 12-16, 2004, Austin, TX--South by Southwest Interactive
Festival
<http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/>
* March 26-28, 2004, New Haven, CT--Digital Cops in a Virtual
Environment (Yale Information Society Project)
<http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/digital_cops.htm>
May:
* May 10-14, 2004, Barcelona--INET/IGC 2004 Strengthening the Net:
Building an Open and Trusted Internet
<http://www.isoc.org/inet04/>
* May 13-15, 2004, Cambridge, MA--Internet Law Program (Registration
Open!)
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ilaw>
* May 26-27, 2004, Zaporozhye, Ukraine--The Second Cybercrime
Conference 2004
<http://www.crime-research.org/conferenc.html>
July:
* July 14-31, 2004, Oxford, UK--Oxford Internet Institute Summer
Programme (Applications Now Being Accepted)
<http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/teaching/?rq=sdp2004>
[5] BOOKMARKS
==============
* Burn Berne: Why the Leading International Copyright Convention Must
Be Repealed, by Alan Story
<http://tinyurl.com/39h5z> [law.uh.edu]
* Digital Media Trends in Asia Pacific, by Renny Hwang
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/media/asiapacific>
* The Technorati-Sphere
<http://acepilots.com/mt/mt-static/technos.html>
* The Farewell Dossier, by William Safire
<http://nytimes.com/2004/02/02/opinion/02SAFI.html>
[6] QUOTABLES
==============
"Google is not a mysterious Oracle of Truth but a numerical scheme for
aggregating the preferences expressed by web authors." - Ed Felten, on
what we all know but hate to acknowledge
<http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000509.html>
"Please contact your local FBI office." - Darl McBride of SCO, on how
to deal with nasty hax0rs
<http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0401/30/lol.01.html>
[7] TALK BACK
================
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[9] ABOUT US
=============
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Who we are:
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filter/about.html>
[10] NOT A COPYRIGHT
=====================
A publication of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard
Law School <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu> You may--and please
do--forward or copy this newsletter to friends and colleagues.
This work is hereby released into the Public Domain. To view a copy of
the public domain dedication, visit
<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/> or send a letter
to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California
94305, USA.
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