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Feds Enter Blackberry Fray
Rick Zeman writes "Blackberry addicted US Feds have entered into the patent dispute between Canadian company Research in Motion and US patent-holders NTP. From the article: 'The Justice Department has filed a legal brief in a patent dispute, asking a federal court to delay any immediate shutdown of the popular wireless e-mail system to ensure that state and federal workers can continue to use their devices.' Apparently 10% of US Blackberry users are government users."
This is getting ridiculous. The only ones who are really suffering from these patent battles are end users, who in this case will find their email inaccessible if the injunction goes through. I hope the government tells 'em the patent's invalid.
that the governments broken patent system has come back to bite them. probably better they get the least desirable outcome in this case which may highlight the need for patent reform better when it's hurting them.
sometimes it seems no one gives a crap about patent reform but us nerds, but now that some patent cases are hurting the government, maybe they will begin to listen?
-- lol pwned
I searched around and could not find one. Can you suggest some blackberry hack options?
Autonomous Retard -- Is your camp safe? UnsafeCamp.com
It was my understanding that the last time I checked into the RIM v NTP dispute, the injunction exempted government Crackberry users from being shutdown. I work as a sysadmin at a large state university and all our campus and departmental PHBs have been warping their thumbs non-stop throughout the legal battle. They and I were under the impression that state and federal employees were not threatened by the suit/injunction/etc.
...
Am I wrong? Fill me in
RIM has gone over the judge's head before, appealing to congress to stop the judgement in the name of "national defense". Looks like they've gotten their wish.
The point is in the title: the US government is dependent on a foreign corporation for an essential infrastructure. That fact isn't "xenophobic", in the perjorative sense, just in the real sense of identifying the risk and threat from foreigners, which is completely established by millennia of history.
Canada is our ally, and a reasonable partner - usually more reasonable than we are. But a national security that's dependent on a foreign power is insecure. Exceptions can't be made on any basis, even including a hypothetical exclusive source for a useful technology. And Blackberry isn't the exclusive source for pushed mobile email - just the most popular, and maybe the easiest. This dimension to the conflict shows the security requirements of ensuring American tech is at the forefront. Even if just by ensuring an American company, entirely governed by the American government, has a license from the foreign supplier, and the means to produce independently if suddenly cut off. Of course, it also shows how the Feds mismanage national security, prioritizing fear and $BILLIONS in expenses, without identifying actual risks.
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make install -not war
As I always say ad nauseam. I work for the largest wirless provider in the US.
All wirless providers derive a great deal of revenue from Blackberry services. Especially bolt on blackberry data plans.
I am sure Ma Bell has got her big swinging dick out on the government on this one. You think they are going to let it disruot this chunk of their cash flow?
And what about all other providers that provide this service?
Not only the cash flow, but I cannot imagine the day this happens and my desk becomes swamped with escalations with me having to explain to Joe Jr Excutive Online MBA why he is not getting his emails on his shiny device that doubles these days as corporate dick who got the biggest electronic dick competition.
Jeez, not to mention all the soccer moms who have them. And the psuedo techis.
My life ain't looking too good if this happens. But then again I doubt it will
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
the US Department of **** would sooner have you pry their BlackBerries out of their cold dead hands than give them up. Several people (The Secretary of **** and dozens of appointees) with vast amounts of pull with the President wouldn't take kindly to their email not following them around like they're used to. I'm sure the EOP has even more influence and even more BlackBerries too.
There is a fairly long history of US dependence on Canada in national security matters. The DEW line springs to mind. Also, Northern Telecom supplied a fairly large number of military telephone switches and even some crypto gear. A fair amount of equipment used in our space program is of Canadian design. It seems to me government employees using a COTS communication device supplied by them is a much smaller risk. If the government isn't going to use things of foreign manufacture, it is likely to be much worse off considering the large amount of technological equipment that is only manufactured overseas.
Beyond that, Canada is probably the lowest risk non US supplier one can imagine. They are independent, and there are occasional squabbles, usually over arcane trade issues, but they are so like us and so tied to us economically and culturally it is hard to imagine a major meltdown that would be a serious impediment to US national security. On the other hand, the last time we did get into a shooting war with them, they came down and burned the White House.
You're talking about mutual interdependence. The DEW line offered no better alternative, and was a mutual compact. It is, in fact, also backed up by other border defenses. US security is increased by the Canadian DEW, but is not reduced to zero (or lower) by hypothetical Canadian subversion.
;).
The other examples you mention are more serious. And do present national security risks, some severe. Especially as so much essential materiel is now produced by Communist mafia China, America's natural enemy (even if it's the natural ally of some of our richest Americans). The risk from Canada is not a priority, because Canada's threat is mitigated by their natural comity with America (and any other neighbor - they're nice), and their total dependence on trade with us. But security is a process, and threats are degrees of risk. The US national security would be higher if the government relied more on American tech, or at least reduced dependence risks from foreign tech with "failover" strategies of reverse engineering and cloning, with rapid domestic redeployment. We spend many $BILLIONS each year on strategic preparedness that usually doesn't otherwise improve our economy. If we spent some of that on domestic engineering and production, designed for rapid scalability, that risk mitigation would also build our economic strength and global competitiveness. As we've seen in eras where we're relatively at peace, national economic security is the fundamental basis for national military security.
FWIW, if Canada turns of Blackberry, we should finally reclaim "Occupied Northern Maine". C'est la guerre
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make install -not war
Yet another example of how the rules are different for the ruling class. How many times have we seen this type of thing? Of course none can top the Social Security hypocrisy (federal workers do not have to participate - they have their own retirement plan that, guess what, allows them to invest in the *dangerous* stock market) as we in the unwashed masses are taken for the big ride.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
The U.S. government will have no incentive to fix the horribly broken patent regime until it repeatedly experiences the same harm that the rest of us have to endure. I find it unjust that the goverment can sometimes exempt itself from patent action when the rest of us don't have that option.
It should be pointed out that one of the reasons Canada was so concerned about the Patriot Act, is that the Canadian Government contracts out so many of it's sensitive databases to the American Companies, and they are stored in the USA. Of course with the Patriot Act, the current administration can order all this information be clandestinely turned over to them (go to prison it you mention you've given it too them). You can be sure Bush and Co. have already ordered it turned over to them, compromising all such Canadian data -- and I sincerely doubt (being Canada) it was worth *anything* intelligence wise. Certainly nothing worth pissing off our most reliable source of 'foreign' oil and resources, and our closest and probably most important ally (since Canada is also our most militarily ineffectual ally, the degree to which they support us in other ways tends to be overlooked. Fortunately for us, this relationship is doubly important to Canada, since the whole Canadian economy would fall to ruin without the USA). It also destroyed the chances of American companies getting these lucrative contracts with the Canadian Government (and companies) in the future.
Ironically Canada has no equivalent of the Patriot Act, and our data is probably much safer from prying eyes in Canada than in the USA.
But a national security that's dependent on a foreign power is insecure.
Agreed. No more Windows, no more Oracle,
Not the same at all. Windows and Oracle can't be "turned off" in a time of war. Blackberry's system's can. Further, with MS and Oracle being U.S. companies, the risk is also not comparable. By your logic, we shouldn't depend on Lockheed and Boeing for building the jets and missiles to defend our country.
I like OSS as much as the next guy, but you shouldn't be modded "Insightful" simply because you bash corporate software if your point isn't.
If someone is in the market for Enterprise wireless email, if you ask me, GoodLink is a better choice. People I know who have used both prefer the way GoodLink looks and works. It appears very similar to Outlook on your handheld and it synchs with your email server. When you delete an email on your handheld, it's gone from your mailbox and vice-versa. The part I like best is that if a handheld is lost or stolen or someone quits or gets fired, I can, with just a couple of mouse clicks (confirmation), do a hard reset on any handheld set to access our email system. No, I don't work for Good and I don't get anything for saying this. I'm just happy with their setup.
But why is the rum gone?