[COMMENT - Why Grokster and Morpheus won, and what next]
Explaination of the court case. Comparison with Napster. Future of P2P filesharing.
piece on FindLaw's Writ

[NEWS - Windows XP successor to hardwire DRM?]
New operating system from M$ will include NGSCB (Next Generation Secure Computing Base), an encryption and permission management system that seems to give content owners the ability to restrict how content is used.
story on Wired

[EVENT - notes from "The Politics of Code", Feb 2003]
I think I should admit to myself that I'm never going to write up all my notes from this... as I've been planning to do so for about 3 months now. For anybody wanting more details, MP3s and presentations from many of the sessions can be found on the event website (click "proceedings").
event website

[NOTES - from "The Politics of Code", Feb 2003]
The session that made the greatest impression was the speech "Liberty by Design: the Public Interest in Code" by Alan Davidson of The Center for Democracy and Technology. These are the notes I made on the talk.

The problem: technical standards are boring, but they can have big effects on society.

For example, Open Pluggable Edge Services (OPES). OPES will allow servers in the centre to change internet content on-route. There are many possible beneficial uses for these, such as translation, virus screening and caching. There are also more worrying possibilities: censoring by the government (without an end user being aware), monitorig use, inserting adverts. Following consultation on this standard, a rule was introduced: the public must be notified if OPES is being invoked, and at least one of the parties involved (content owner or user) must agree to its use.

There are many obstacles to getting social issues considered when standards are being developed. Some of the key ones are:
- not all decisions about them are made in the open
- lack of public awareness of what the issues are
- lack of understanding of the technologies
- lots of different bodies making decisions
- long time horizons from design to impact (2-5 years)
- inertia: once a standard is set it's very hard to change it
- standards set in one country can have global impact
But, with planning, we can lock-in the desired effects

How can we do this?
- get public and NGOs more involved in technical development
- create systematic mechanism's in technical development (e.g. a "policy impact assessment")
- more research on what the issues are and what to promote
- bridge the divide between technology and policy

Center for Democracy & Technology website
event website

[NEWS - protecting the identity of P2P users]
A free application called PeerGuardian is being used by some file traders to protect their identity. The software blocks IP addresses of known "snoops" from accessing the files being traded, so that they are unable to check if it is copyrighted material.
story on Wired

[EVENT - scrambling for safety - 14 May 2003]
An open meeting hosted by FIPR. Covering access to data under the RIPA, and plans to force telcos and ISPs to hold on to more user data.
event details
write-up on BBC
notes from the event, by Owen Blacker

[NEWS - using viruses to block filesharing]
The New York Times reports that the music inductry is looking into using viruses to attack users of file-sharing software. If it's not true, it's a great scare story.
story on New York Times (registration required)