Meanwhile, Truste, ePrivacy Group, Doubleclick, and MSN are getting together to develop their new "Trusted Sender" e-mail certification program which they hope will bring "consumer trust to commercial email." Under the program, companies that send out junk mail ("spam") will be able to attach "a stamp" to the mail to certify it's authenticity of the sender and the validity of the content. Hmm... a trusted spammer... isn't that an oxymoron?
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Several days ago, it was announced that Fox Broadcasting will not be picking up "Family Guy" for a fourth season. Since then an online petition has been set up. Hopefully, Fox will recognize how popular the show really is.
[Sign the petition]

Today marks day one of five of the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting. Over 1,000 of the world's most elite business leaders will meet at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City to set their global economic agenda. Their agendas have already led to "a world in which every day 19,000 children die in the developing world from undernourishment" while the world's richest 200 people have doubled their wealth during the past five years.

Protest organizations include Students for Global Justice, Another World Is Possible, Jubilee 2000 and the New York Anti-Capitalist Convergence.

Live breaking news available at nyc.indymedia.org/breaknews.php

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) today sent a letter to all 50 state Attorney Generals urging them to looking into the privacy and security risks of Microsoft's Passport service and "related 'Wallet,' 'Kids Passport,' 'Hailstorm,' and '.Net Services.'" EPICs concern is over the unfair and deceptive gathering of personal information and exposure of consumers to the release, sale, and theft of their personal information as Microsoft has done little to improve the protection of consumers' personal information or "provide a reasonable explanation of how the collected data is used or may be used in the future."

Elcomsoft yesterday filed a motion for the dismissal of the charge that the company violated the DMCA when it produced and sold its Advanced eBook Processor software. The program allows users of Adobe's eBook Reader to copy and print digital books, transfer them to other computers, and enables the blind to read e-books. Their main arguments for the dismissal are that the DMCA is too vague and too broad, it infringes on the 1st Amendment, copyright holders have too much power, and it shouldn't apply to a foreign company. ElcomSoft claims that its Advanced eBook Processor is protected by "fair use" because it affords Adobe eBook users the same rights they would have with a book -- the ability to copy or share it.
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"Dot Con" will re-air on 01.27.2002 at 11:00 PM on KCET. Check your areas local stations and show times for other showings.

The Recording Artists Coalition (RAC), the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), the AFL-CIO, the California Federation of Labor, and the Hollywood Entertainment Labor Council met in Sacramento this past Wednesday to rally legislative support for Senator Murray's Senate Bill 1246.
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There's something we can all do to stop this. Call the White House this week (TOLL FREE) at 1-888-552-9406 and tell (p)Resident Bush not to roll back the Clean Air Act.

Oh, and don't forget, Royal Crown Revue will be back in the Southern California area this weekend and next week. They'll be at The Blue Cafe in Long Beach on Saturday, January 19, and at the Derby in Hollywood on Thursday, January 24. Check them out if you get the chance.

On December 20, 2001, bill H.R. 3598 was introduced in the House of Representatives. Known also as the Universal Military Training and Service Act of 2001, it would require every male citizen or resident of the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 22 to "receive basic military training and education as a member of one of the armed forces for a period of not less than six months, but not more than one year," as established by the Secretary of Defense. With (p)Resident Bush's plan for an eternal war on terrorism, this bill, if approved, would surely reduce the time it takes for an individual to go from draftee to the battle field, as most of the basic training will have already been covered. With new soldiers readily available, will his war efforts escalate even more?
[H.R. 3598 - Universal Military Training and Service Act of 2001]

The EFF has also taken up the issue of drivers' licenses becoming "the functional equivalent" of a national ID. See the EFF's Action Alert on the issue to see what you can do to stop this from happening.

Looks like KPFK are still refusing to broadcast Democracy Now! at its regular 9:00 AM time slot, when the show has the biggest listening audience. Instead, it is being aired only at 6:00 AM. This despite the Jan 7th return of Democracy Now! to the Pacifica airwaves and the Jan. 14th return to the show's home station, WBAI-New York. You can help by calling KPFK at 818-985-2711 and demanding the shows return to its 9:00 AM time slot.

The World Economic Forum (WEF), a consortium of the 1,000 most powerful corporations in the world, has moved its next annual meeting from Davos, Switzerland to New York City. The meetings will be held from Jan. 31-Feb. 4, 2002. A call for anti-capitalist convergence against the WEF has been issued by New York's Anti-Capitalist Convergence.

As we mentioned, Vivendi Universal said that all of their CDs will be copy-protected by mid-2002. To deal with the expected onslaught of complaints, Vivendi's Universal Music Group has set up a customer support site which includes tech support as well as their return policy.

It's hard to believe, but a PC must now meet a set of minimum requirements before their CDs will play on it. What should consumers do? Boycott these defective discs (copy-protected audio CDs are not audio CDs) and direct your complaints at Universal Music Group. Other suggestions include buying, opening, and returning their CDs so they'll know how many people oppose their decision to use copy-protection technologies on them.

We've also compiled a (non) exhaustive list of the labels that fall under the control of Vivendi's Universal Music Group.

Comments/complaints can be mailed to:

Universal Music Group - umg@umusic.com
Attn: Copy Protection Customer Care
2220 Colorado Avenue, 2nd Floor
Santa Monica, CA 90404

As reported by Daily Variety and then cnn.com, The X-Files will come to a close this May. The result of lowered ratings and the departure of star David Duchovny, creator Chris Carter decided to pull the plug. On a upbeat note, it's reported that Duchovny and Anderson have agreed to appear in the sequel to the X-Files movie.

The Los Angeles Times are running a nice historical piece on the EFF, detailing its early beginnings up to its current state. We're thankful that such a great organization exists, especially so during times such as these, to help fight for our rights online. If you haven't taken the time to do so yet, please make a donation to them as they need and depend on our support as much as we need theirs.
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The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators' Task Force on Identification Security have announced its recommendations for establishing a uniform driver's license/ID card and sharing the information between the states and law enforcement agencies. No specifics, however, were mentioned as to how or what technology would be used to "produce a uniform, secure, and interoperable driver’s license/ID card to uniquely identify an individual."

2600 Magazine today requested that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reverse an earlier ruling which prevents them from linking to or publishing the DeCSS program. As noted by EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn, "By permitting publication of code in an online magazine, the Second Circuit would recognize that Internet speech is fully protected by the First Amendment as established by the U.S. Supreme Court in ACLU v. Reno."

This view has already been echoed by California's Court of Appeal when it overturned the injunction imposed by a lower court in the DVDCCA v. Andrew Bunner case. In its decision, the court ruled that DeCSS is "an expressive means for the exchange of information and ideas about computer programming," and as such it is protected under the First Amendment.
[EFF press release | new 2600 appeal]

This is just another item on their long list towards implementing a National ID card. It'll be interesting to see what they propose, but all it will lead to is a false sense of security. The announcement can be seen that day through a live webcast at 10:30 AM Eastern time.

And just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, Norwegian authorities last week, under pressure from the MPAA, indicted Jon Johansen for his role in authoring DeCSS, a program which permits DVD owners to watch them on players not controlled by the entertainment industry. If convicted, he could face up to 2 years in prison, for writing a program which allows him to break into his own property. How ridiculous!
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On a positive note, U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz ruled on Friday, agreeing with opponents, that the proposed settlement by Microsoft would have been anti-competitive if allowed to go through. Motz also concluded in his 21-page ruling that Microsoft's level of funding for the schools was "insufficient."

Under the terms of Microsoft's proposal, they would have given $1 billion in money, Microsoft software, services, training, and hardware to 14,000 of the nations poorest schools. We're glad the judge was able to recognize how this proposal would have allowed Microsoft to gain market share in the education market as well as essentially guarantee that future generations grow up on and use Microsoft products.
 

A copy of Senator Murray's bill (SB1246) has been obtained. The bill aims to balance the rights of recording artists' with recording companies by limiting their contracts to seven years, bringing them in line with movie actors and other personal contracts. Hopefully, artists will no longer be treated as slaves. This was mentioned yesterday.

Senate Bill 1246: .html version, .pdf version | History of bill | Current bill status
 

DoubleClick, the online advertising company, has closed down its ad tracking program, effective December 31, 2001. Their service allowed marketers to target their ads based on a database of over 100 million profiles, tracking online users anonymously and then serving the ads based on the users profile. Not long after being launched in 2000, the company came under fire from federal regulators and privacy advocates for compiling dossiers on consumers.

In a slick move, the U.S. government is secretly and slowly developing measures with states to develop new driver's licenses that can electronically store personal identifying information -- such as fingerprints, retinal scans, and facial scans. This would lead the way to a national identification system that would allow authorities to track citizens electronically, all without actually having to create a national ID card.

The Japanese are at it again. A Japanese whaling fleet out in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary is planning to kill 440 minke whales all in the name of science. Out of the thousands of scientists who study whales, not one believes it is necessary to kill whales in order to accurately study them. By hiding behind science, Japan is defying the worldwide ban on commercial whale hunting. In an effort to overturn the ban, they're buying votes of members on the International Whaling Commission (IWC) which originally instituted the ban. If Japan are able to buy enough votes, the IWC could lift the ban during their next meeting in May 2002. Take action by telling the prime minister of Japan to halt their whale hunting and to stop their vote-buying activities.

The second annual Future of Music Policy Summit has come to a close and great progress was made. Lawmakers who spoke at Monday's session presented an array of legislative efforts aimed at forcing music industry reform. Most notably, Virginia Congressman Rick Boucher said he would introduce a bill which would grant consumers the right to override any form of digital copy-protection technology under personal use circumstances -- such as when making a digital backup of a copy-protected music CD.

California Senator Kevin Murray announced that he has already introduced a bill in the state legislature that would limit recording artists' contracts to seven years, bringing them in line with movie actors and other personal contracts in the state. Michigan Congressman John Conyers said he supported Murray's bill and might consider introducing a similar federal version. This is all in response to complaints from Internet music companies and music artists' calling on Congress to reform the unfair practices of the five major recording companies.
 

If you haven't read this piece yet, it's a thorough investigative article. Basically, the Washington Post last year acquired documents which detailed how Monsanto Corp. knowingly polluted a small town in Alabama. For nearly 40 years, Monsanto routinely released toxic waste into the towns creek and dumped millions of pounds of the now-banned industrial coolants PCB into open landfills. The company's own tests even revealed that fish, when submerged in the creeks, "turned belly-up within 10 seconds, spurting blood and shedding skin as if dunked into boiling water." And they told no one. This is something you don't normally see or hear about, except in movies.
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The ACLU recently released a detailed report on how Tampa, Florida's facial recognition technology is a complete failure. The logs obtained by the ACLU showed how "the system never identified even a single individual contained in the department's database of photographs." The logs even show that the system made many false matches "between people photographed by police video cameras as they walked down Seventh Avenue in Tampa's Ybor City district and photographs in the department's database of criminals, sex offenders, and runaways." Read the ACLU's press release and their report.

Looks like lawmakers are beginning to take interest in the record companies efforts to protect their CDs against copying, as it may violate the law. Congressman Rick Boucher has already sent letters to RIAA executives questioning whether the anti-piracy technology being implemented on CDs might "violate the content owners' obligations" under the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) of 1992.

The law allows consumers the right to make some personal digital copies of their music. In exchange, the record companies collect royalties on each blank media sold, like CD-Rs, DATs, or minidiscs. Boucher is questioning why the companies should continue to collect such royalties if they're going to prevent consumers from makiing personal copyies or backups.