Slashdot Mirror

An anonymous reader writes "Google's new Google Print service (that lets you see scanned pages from printed books) has a pile of advanced browser-disabling DRM in it ('Pages displaying your content have print, cut, copy, and save functionality disabled in order to protect your content.'). This works with JavaScript turned off, even in Free Software browsers. Seth Schoen has posted preliminary notes on some breaks to the DRM (beyond just automating a screenshotting process), including a proposal for a circumventing proxy that would fetch Google Print pages and strip out the DRM. A full exploration of the html obfuscation and DRM employed by Google would be very interesting; certainly the ability for a remote attacker to disable critical browser features like save, right-click, copy and cut against the user's wishes is a major security vulnerability in Moz/Firefox and should be fixed ASAP."

Seth Schoen writes "Caltech and Loyola Law School students will argue Friday over a scenario in which a student creates a distributed computing application to crack DRM systems, leading to DMCA criminal prosecution of everyone involved. Those in the Los Angeles area might enjoy attending the 5th annual "At the Crossroads" mock trial (free, Friday May 21 at Caltech in Pasadena). The case will have many realistic touches. A real Federal judge will hear it; the prosecution will be advised by L.A. Federal prosecutors and the defense by an EFF attorney. Expert testimony for the prosecution will be given by MPAA's Brad Hunt and for the defense by EFF's Seth Schoen."

TrinSF writes "The anonymous author of the DeCSS Haiku has written an article revealing his identity and explaining some of the background. The haiku has been featured in the Gallery of CSS Descramblers and attained some notoriety when it was published in 2001. I'm glad to have played a small role in the article; my comment on /. is included in the text." Apologies to Seth for dropping a "c" from his surname.

Seth Schoen writes "EFF has just released our analysis of Trusted Computing. We find that the technology could benefit computer security, but must be fixed to ensure that the computer owner is always in control. We also propose a specific way of fixing it. There's coverage of our position at news.com. More articles should be up in the near future at the new EFF Trusted Computing page. Thanks to all the people who helped us understand this technology!"

Seth Schoen writes "A group of ReplayTV 4000 users, led by Craigslist creator Craig Newmark, today sued a group of entertainment companies to establish that plaintiffs' use of the ReplayTV (including skipping commercials) is not illegal. The defendants are the same entertainment companies which have sued ReplayTV. Here the end users of the product are getting involved to defend the legitimacy of their activity in the face of allegations that skipping commercials is "theft". The plaintiffs are represented by Ira Rothken and EFF. The case is Newmark v. Turner, in the Central District of California (at Los Angeles). (Some people are calling it Craig v. Hollywood.)"

Seth Schoen writes "'I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.' Jack Valenti said this in 1982 in testimony to the House of Representatives on why the VCR should be illegal. He also called the VCR an "avalanche" and a "tidal wave", and said it would make the film industry "bleed and bleed and hemorrhage". This speech is an important part of history, yet until today it had never been published on-line in its entirety. Valenti's testimony was published today by Cryptome. It's essential background reading if you want to see just how little the MPAA's arguments have changed in two decades." Compare to the Analog Hole document and they're virtually identical (except Valenti was playing on anti-Japanese sentiment then, and today it's anti-pirate sentiment). Of course, the MPAA was unsuccessful in plugging the "VCR Hole" - insufficient lobbying and clueful judges stopped them. The MPAA successfully adapted to the changing times and today sells about 70 million cassettes for rentals and 600 million cassettes for home viewing every year (both numbers are on the decline due to the rise of DVD).

Seth Schoen writes: "Sing along, kids! EFF is debuting the EFF Action Center with a song produced by EFF and friends -- the Tinsel Town Club Song (a parody of the "Mickey Mouse Club Song"). "Tinseltown Club" makes fun of Disney for its support of legislation which takes away your rights. There's also an MP3 version (with better sound quality) for those who can't see the Flash animation, and we expect to make several other formats available soon. To help save bandwidth, we are encouraging listeners to share the song on peer-to-peer networks." Update: Seth has written in with some mirrors you can try, I've posted his note in the story.. Seth says:

"Please try P2P networks first, before going to an HTTP site! The song and animation are definitely out there on the P2P networks by now.

For those who have BitTorrent, use http://bittorrent.theory.org:8080/20020528_eff_tinseltown_club.mp3

For those who use http, get The MP3 from here.

Please go easy on action.eff.org (where the Flash animation is posted) and please do set up and publicize your own mirrors.

• Seth"

Seth Schoen writes "The EFF has started a weblog about the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG), called "Consensus At Lawyerpoint". This is the EFF's first-ever blog, the brainchild of new EFF staffer Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing blogging fame. Consensus At Lawyerpoint covers the efforts of Hollywood -- with the complicity of consumer electronics and computer companies -- to impose a new government mandate for copy controls in digital TV devices. This mandate would outlaw tuner cards for digital HDTV, unless they included DRM (and prevented the end-user from getting a cleartext recording). PVRs and VCRs might be allowed, but only if all their outputs were encrypted. Since all TV broadcasting in the U.S. is supposed to be digital by 2006, this could have an enormous effect on technology and on the competition for video standards in the marketplace. We hope that the blog format will help us get the word out and let interested people see what this group is up to." Interesting for a couple of reasons, both the subject matter (the beloved SSSCA/CBDTPA) and the method.

Seth Schoen writes "As seen last month, Chip Rosenthal (whom many people know for Reply-to Munging Considered Harmful, among other projects) was threatened with the loss of his domain name unicom.com. He's now won in court and will get to keep the domain, at least for the time being."

Seth Schoen writes: "EFF has been following the work of the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (which was featured in a CNet article linked from slashdot on Thursday) since it was founded in November. Co-incidentally, we today released an EFF overview of this work which contains some of our criticism of these efforts to control the ability of future consumer devices to record digital HDTV broadcasts."

liquide writes "The DMCA affects every American, indeed, every human on the planet. The problem is that the average person doesn't realize this. EFF wants the input of our supporters to come up with slogans that will raise the mainstream consciousness to the destructive effects of the DMCA and inspire us all to continue the fight for free expression. Put on your thinking caps, summon the creative muse and submit ideas for slogans and 'soundbytes' to help us fight the DMCA. If your idea is chosen, you will win your choice of vintage EFF T-shirts. Send your entry to slogan@eff.org. Thanks for your help." And Seth Schoen writes: "The EFF, Linux Journal, and Free Dmitry activists are pleased to present a combination going-away and birthday party for Dmitry Sklyarov. (According to Reuters, today is Dmitry's 27th birthday.) The party is Wednesday evening in San Francisco. (LJ article, Craigslist post.)"

Seth Schoen writes: "Dmitry Sklyarov's arraignment has been rescheduled to Thursday, August 30. It's at the same location where it was originally supposed to take place this past Thursday. The arraignment is scheduled for 9:30am PT, Thursday, August 30. The hearing will be held with US Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg presiding, in courtroom 4, 5th floor of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Branch, 280 South 1st Street, in San Jose, California." Schoen continues: "This week is also LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco. Since many Sklyarov supporters are Linux users, there should be a lot of activity around the conference. Two events have been scheduled this week in San Francisco to take advantage of LinuxWorld:

Free Dmitry party and fundraiser, Wednesday, August 29, 7:30p to midnight, 201 Ritch Street, 2nd floor. (This is walking distance from Moscone Center, where LinuxWorld is being held.)

This party will feature speeches by Lawrence Lessig and Richard Stallman.

Free Dmitry protest march, Thursday, August 30 (same day as the arraignment), leaving Moscone Center at 11:30a, parade through the city to the Burton Federal Building in Civic Center.

Five other events that same day have so far been reported to the freesklyarov.org calendar: Boston, MA; Moscow, Russia; London, UK; Los Angeles, CA; Black Rock City, NV (at the Burning Man festival)."

Seth Schoen writes: "On Thursday, in San Jose, CA, free speech supporters can enjoy a double-header in Federal and State courts. At 9:30 in the morning, Dmitry Sklyarov is expected to be arraigned before a U.S. Magistrate Judge, and there will be a preliminary hearing in U.S. v. Sklyarov. sf.freesklyarov.org has details on the time and location. Thursday afternoon, about a mile away, a California appellate court will hear arguments in DVD Copy Control Assn. v. Andrew Bunner -- Bunner has appealed the trial court's preliminary injunction against him. He's asked the appellate court to overturn the injunction, which forbids him to post DeCSS code pending a trial. (This is the "California trade secret" DVD/DeCSS case, separate from the New York DMCA case.)" Update: 08/21 09:27 PM EDT by michael : According to the EFF, the Sklyarov hearing has been postponed until next week.

"Sklyarov is represented by Joseph Burton; Bunner is represented by the First Amendment Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF Sklyarov/Bunner media release has time and location information for this hearing, too. Both hearings will be open to the public; please dress nicely if you attend. You can probably attend both, because the Sklyarov hearing should be over before the Bunner hearing starts. The Federal court (N.Dist.Cal.), for the Sklyarov case, is on the 5th floor, 280 South 1st Street; the State appellate court (6th App. Dist. Ct.), for the DVD CCA case, is at 333 West Santa Clara Street, Suite 1060."

Interestingly enough, the Washington Post ran an editorial knocking (if not actually blasting) the DMCA, with Sklyarov the example of what's wrong with the thing. Jerry Pournelle's column in Byte takes a slightly different tack, but raises the same troubling questions. (Thanks to fredistheking and SgtChairebourne for the links.)

nickm writes "Seth David Schoen of CalLUG fame has written an essay entitled The APSL and Export Controls. This goes beyond patent craziness and nit-picking about legal details but rather shows a direct violation of the OSD in that the APSL adds a bit of US law to the license (adding additional burdens for those outside the US). "