shouting loudly

Have you heard of Cyber Monday? It’s like Black Friday, only for online shopping, and on Monday. Also, it was created out of thin air by some industry group with surprisingly effective PR. Slacktivist has a good writeup (and makes sure to address the insidiousness of online marketers cutting in on the time that decent, [...]

Good (if not great) piece arguing that the Department of Justice should prosecute–or publicly decide not to prosecute–Sony over the rootkit scandal.

In its efforts to bust the grad student employees’ union strike, NYU has resorted to unannounced internet eavesdropping. Hundreds of faculty back the strike, and the same folks (not to mention the graduate teaching assistants) are hopping mad over this latest dirty trick.
Props to Siva for his signature.

Click here to learn about one man’s problems hacking Apple’s DRM. All he wanted was a good night’s sleep.

After taking a huge beating in the public’s eye for selling CDs that install spyware on users’ computers, Sony has halted production of the CDs.
Of course, they still haven’t released the full list of affected CDs or told the public how to uninstall the junk. At least one trojan has already been identified as taking [...]

The Washington Post reports:
Congress’s top Republican leaders yesterday demanded an immediate joint House and Senate investigation into the disclosure of classified information to The Washington Post that detailed a web of secret prisons being used to house and interrogate terrorism suspects.
Notice that there’s no suggestion of investigation of the actual secret prisons right there. The [...]

Lawrence Lessig on a recent debate: should the UN control the Internet?

The Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal has agreed to publish a paper I wrote with Oscar Gandy.
The paper, Catch 1201: A Legislative History and Content Analysis of the DMCA Exemption Proceedings, argues that the triennial rulemaking to determine exemptions to the ban against hacking technological protection measures is an ineffectual excuse for a “failsafe”.
The [...]

Some players of the multiplayer online game World of Warcraft have figured out how to use Sony’s CD copy protection software to elude cheater-detection software (which is another controversy altogether, as the game publisher’s efforts to keep the game cheater-free involve some invasion of privacy).
I figured this was worth posting, but don’t let it distract [...]

Check out this EFF Action Alert. NOW. The RIAA and MPAA are trying to radically cripple your right to record anything without their permission.
Read more about it here. Then, contact your congresspersons.