Sending anything that one claims as "copyrighted" to people one doesn't know and not providing a valid return address would be sufficient grounds to argue that copyright does not apply. The recipient is denied an opportunity to return the e-mail to the sender.
If a spammer decided to try the copyright defense, it can easily be demonstrated under Australian law that they accessed someone else's computer without authorisation, which is an offence under the Crimes Act.
Oh, kinda like how phone numbers in most movies start with 555 (an invalid prefix, or at least it used to be, not sure if it still is)
Instead of using numbers above 255 for fake IP addresses, they should use numbers like 192.168.X.X, 10.X.X.X or other similar numbers assigned to local networks. The clueless won't know the difference. The clueful will appreciate the 555-like nature of the address and won't embarrass themselves for apparently laughing incongruously in a serious scene.
Suppose I have my own advertising web site, "WebBugsAreEvil.com", and your e-mail address is YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS@yourhost.com.
I place my bugs all over the internet. You visit a site with one of my bugs on it. This sends a new cookie to you. You now have a cookie from "WebBugsAreEvil.com" on your hard drive. Every time you visit another site with one of my web bugs in it, your cookie is sent to my host "WebBugsAreEvil.com" including the URL of the page that you are viewing. Thus, I build up a detailed profile of your web surfing habits.
Now suppose you place an order on one of these sites and leave your e-mail address and other personal information. The site sells your e-mail address and other personal info to "WebBugsAreEvil.com". I now have your personal information and your cookie, but the cookie ID is not yet associated with your personal information because these were collected by two different servers. I need to do one more thing to put them together.
I do a mass mail out with all the new e-mail addresses. The e-mails are HTML-enabled e-mails. Embedded at the bottom of the e-mail is this web bug:
It's a 1x1-pixel GIF that has a single clear pixel in it; this is where the euphemism "clear GIFs" comes from. You cannot see this GIF.
When you open the mail, this new web bug is sent to WebBugsAreEvil.com. Because the URL has your e-mail address in it, and it also sends your "WebBugsAreEvil.com" cookie with the HTTP GET request, I can now associate your personal details with your surfing habits.
In short, it is very easy to remove anonymity.
I don't know about you, but I find the idea of anyone having this amount of knowledge about me and my browsing habits to be uncomfortably close to Big Brother's surveillance from George Orwell's novel "1984". Is your telescreen on, Winston?
The industry uses the euphemism "clear GIFs" to describe web bugs. Search for "clear gifs" in a search engine as well as "web bugs" if you're after more information. I use TopClick because it is a privacy-respecting search engine that doesn't use cookies and I have found it to be very good.
*** NEWS FLASH ***
Congress to investigate Web Bugs. More details here at intenetnews.com. --
Web bugs are usually used in conjunction with cookies to profile your surfing habits. I find this to be a gross invasion of privacy, so I have chosen to fight back.
It's not hard to stop a site from using cookies as a tracking tool. If they cannot store a cookie on your hard drive, that cookie cannot be used to profile you.
The way to defeat this is to prohibit the web sites that use web bugs from storing cookies on your computer. A good browser will have security settings that can be customised. I place all web sites that I trust in my collection of trusted sites. These sites can store cookies on my machine. Sites that are not in my collection of trusted sites must go through the default setting where I must approve each cookie with a click before it can be stored on my hard drive. Persistently annoying sites get placed in my collection of restricted sites, which are prohibited from storing cookies. Sometimes, a trusted site that I have omitted gets added to the trusted list.
If you want to start a database of restricted domains, a good place to start is your cookie collection. You will find a lot of sites that you never visited in that list. Add anything suspicious to the restricted list before deleting the cookie.
I have only been doing this for a few weeks, so I haven't got any good results to report so far. I'm sure I'll get good results doing this, and I invite others to try it. It does involve a little work, but eventually I hope to have reasonable web-bug-free privacy online.
116A Importation, manufacture etc. of circumvention device and provision etc. of circumvention service
(1) Subject to subsections (2), (3) and (4), this section applies if:
(a) a work or other subject-matter is protected by a technological protection measure; and
(b) a person does any of the following acts without the permission of the owner or exclusive licensee of the copyright in the work or other subject-matter:
(i) makes a circumvention device capable of circumventing, or facilitating the circumvention of, the technological protection measure;
(ii) sells, lets for hire, or by way of trade offers or exposes for sale or hire or otherwise promotes, advertises or markets, such a circumvention device;
(iii) distributes such a circumvention device for the purpose of trade, or for any other purpose that will affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright;
(iv) exhibits such a circumvention device in public by way of trade;
(v) imports such a circumvention device into Australia for the purpose of:
(A) selling, letting for hire, or by way of trade offering or exposing for sale or hire or otherwise promoting, advertising or marketing, the device; or
(B) distributing the device for the purpose of trade, or for any other purpose that will affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright; or
(C) exhibiting the device in public by way of trade;
(vi) makes such a circumvention device available online to an extent that will affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright;
(vii) provides, or by way of trade promotes, advertises or markets, a circumvention service capable of circumventing, or facilitating the circumvention of, the technological protection measure; and
(c) the person knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that the device or service would be used to circumvent, or facilitate the circumvention of, the technological protection measure.
(2) This section does not apply in relation to anything lawfully done for the purposes of law enforcement or national security by or on behalf of:
(a) the Commonwealth or a State or Territory; or
(b) an authority of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory.
(3) This section does not apply in relation to the supply of a circumvention device or a circumvention service to a person for use for a permitted purpose if:
(a) the person is a qualified person; and
(b) the person gives the supplier before, or at the time of, the supply a declaration signed by the person:
(i) stating the name and address of the person; and
(ii) stating the basis on which the person is a qualified person; and
(iii) stating the name and address of the supplier of the circumvention device or circumvention service; and
(iv) stating that the device or service is to be used only for a permitted purpose by a qualified person; and
(v) identifying the permitted purpose by reference to one or more of sections 47D, 47E, 47F, 48A, 49, 50, 51A and 183 and Part VB; and
(vi) stating that a work or other subject-matter in relation to which the person proposes to use the device or service for a permitted purpose is not readily available to the person in a form that is not protected by a technological protection measure.
(4) This section does not apply in relation to the making or importing of a circumvention device:
(a) for use only for a permitted purpose relating to a work or other subject-matter that is not readily available in a form that is not protected by a technological protection measure; or
(b) for the purpose of enabling a person to supply the device, or to supply a circumvention service, for use only for a permitted purpose.
(4A) For the purposes of paragraphs (3)(b) and (4)(a), a work or other subject-matter is taken not to be readily available if it is not available in a form that lets a person do an act relating to it that is not an infringement of copyright in it as a result of section 47D, 47E, 47F, 48A, 49, 50, 51A or 183 or Part VB.
(5) If this section applies, the owner or exclusive licensee of the copyright may bring an action against the person.
(6) In an action under subsection (5), it must be presumed that the defendant knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that the circumvention device or service to which the action relates would be used for a purpose referred to in paragraph (1)(c) unless the defendant proves otherwise.
(7) For the purposes of this section, a circumvention device or a circumvention service is taken to be used for a permitted purpose only if:
(a) the device or service is used for the purpose of doing an act comprised in the copyright in a work or other subject-matter; and
(b) the doing of the act is not an infringement of the copyright in the work or other subject-matter under section 47D, 47E, 47F, 48A, 49, 50, 51A or 183 or Part VB.
(8) In this section:
qualified person means:
(a) a person referred to in paragraph 47D(1)(a), 47E(1)(a) or 47F(1)(a); or
(b) a person who is an authorized officer for the purposes of section 48A, 49, 50 or 51A; or
(c) a person authorised in writing by the Commonwealth or a State for the purposes of section 183; or
(d) a person authorised in writing by a body administering an institution (within the meaning of Part VB) to do on behalf of the body an act that is not an infringement of copyright because of that Part.
supply means:
(a) in relation to a circumvention device--sell the device, let it for hire, distribute it or make it available online; and
(b) in relation to a circumvention service--provide the service.
(9) The defendant bears the burden of establishing the matters referred to in subsections (3), (4) and (4A).
Well. This section is pretty draconian. So the best way of getting this watered down or removed when it comes up for review is to abuse it.
Here's what can be done to abuse this.
Invent a new "standard" of "encryption". It will be purposely weak, something like UUENCODE combined with something like XOR and multiplication on 8 to 40 bits. Easy to crack in other words. Encrypt "works" with it. Distribute the "works" freely, but sell the "reader" so people have to buy the "reader" to read the "works".
If anyone cracks the "encryption", then they are in violation of Section 119A, as posted here. And they can be sued.
Yes, it has been a sad week. First, the cricket world lost "The Don", and now computer science has lost Claude E. Shannon. Both were greats in their respective fields and will be missed. --
UCITA is the reason why I now take the time to read the licence agreement carefully on all software I buy. The bit that is of particular interest is the section that specifies the jurisdiction that covers the agreement.
My caution was justified when I was reading the licence agreement for the release version of Netscape 6 for Windoze (as opposed to the preview version). The preview version was governed by the laws of California, but one could guess that trouble was brewing when the licence agreement specifically excluded California's consumer protection laws from the agreement. The full version is governed by the laws of Virginia.
Uh oh.
Virginia is a state that has passed the controversial UCITA after intense lobbying and dubious "campaign contributions" to the elected officials. And we all know the dire consequences of UCITA.
I refuse to install ANY software that's governed by the laws of a state that's passed UTICA and why I won't be doing any more business with those companies. The only thing that many of these companies care about is their bottom line. By not buying their software or returning it for a refund, I have a small adverse effect on their bottom line. If enough other people did this, then the effect on the bottom line will be noticeable. A large number of returns for refunds will also make them take notice.
If nothing else works, a bit of civil disobedience may be in order. Buy software that you know is governed by UCITA. Do what is needed to read the agreement, typically this entails opening the box and running the installation software. Don't agree with the EULA. Return the software the next day for a full refund. Go elsewhere and repeat.
Opposition to UCITA starts with YOU. Be aware of which states have UCITA or are likely to pass it soon. Read those agreements carefully, and identify which state's laws govern the agreement. If the jurisdictional state is a UCITA state, do NOT agree with the agreement and return the software promptly for a full refund.
This article on the New Scientist web site discusses marine parks to preserve fish stocks. It demonstrates how marine parks increase fish catches in areas outside the parks and advocates an increase in their number.
Fishing vessels could have this GPS chip installed in them. The chip could then shut down the fishing equipment when the vessel was within a marine park, or in an area where the vessel is not supposed to be, such as the territorial waters of another country.
Governments could make it mandatory as a condition of the fishing licence for this chip to be installed and working properly. There is the likelihood that old vessels without the chip could fish illegally. The best way of deterring and combatting this would be for such vessels to be scuttled when detected, and only catches from certified compliant vessels having access to the best fish markets.
Such measures may sound draconian, but they may ultimately be necessary. At present fish stocks the world over are being overexploited: one estimate I have heard recently puts the annual catch of the world fishing fleet at 40% more than the level needed to maintain stocks.
However, installing this sort of technology in consumer electronics to serve no higher purpose than protecting the profits of the manufacturers will ultimately result in lower profits for the manufacturers. Not all manufacturers will opt to licence this technology, and they could gain market share because of it. There are also countries in the world with a good manufacturing base who would not allow this technology to be employed. Globalisation and free trade could also see such technology being made illegal, so expect a lot of bribes^H^H^H^H^H^H^H lobbying by major corporations to ensure that such technology is legal.
We seem to be rapidly moving towards a corporate-run police state, with all the dire consequences that such a state will bring. A worst-case scenario would see the majority of the Western world's population enslaved by profiteering corporations within 50 years. (You Must Spend All Your Income To Make The Corporation Richer. This Is Where You Will Go Today. You May Not Do Anything That May Compromise Corporate Profit. Work Shall Make You Free.) The sooner the general public is made aware of all this restrictive technology, the better off we will be in the future.
Finally, I have a short reading list that you may find useful.
George Orwell, "1984".
Ray Bradbury, "Fahrenheit 451".
Anyone in their right mind will not connect to a high-speed Internet link without a firewall of some kind. Suppose I have a simple setup where my dedicated firewall box connects to the cable modem, and my single PC is connected to the firewall. Am I in violation of their TOS?
IANAL, but I remember an interesting legal case posted to Slashdot some time ago that could be a precedent for this.
Years ago, telephone companies used to do the same thing with phone lines. People were not permitted to connect more than one phone to their phone line. The phone company was meant to do that. The phone company wanted to maintain their service monopoly, so people had to pay the phone company to install extra phones.
Someone, I think it was a farmer in the USA who was a member of a ham radio club, connected a second phone to their phone line. The phone company didn't like this, so the phone company sued.
The phone company lost the case! The farmer enlisted the support of the ham radio club, and was able to fund a good legal defense.
As a result of this legal case, the way telephony is delivered has changed radically. Now, when people get a phone connected, the phone company maintains the phone line only up to the first socket in the home. The customer maintains all the phone lines after that point. The customer can still hire the phone company if they want extra cables installed.
Sound familiar? It should, it's exactly the same as the current controversy with multiple PC's on one link. This suggests that it is possible to beat this restriction by suing the provider under the right circumstances and citing this case (if you can find it) as a precedent. What are the "right circumstances"? That depends on the fine print in your contract, but if yours does not currently have this provision, and your provider tries to introduce it as an amendment to the terms and conditions of service, you could sue them to prevent them amending the TOS.
You're sixteen, huh? Bad luck. You get to vote at 18, but chances are you'll have to wait until you're 22 or so before you vote at your first state election, because the next state election is due in SA in the next 12 to 15 months, and you may not be of voting age then.
I think this law will make it onto the Dumb Laws website, http://www.dumblaws.com/. In fact, if I was you, I would send an e-mail and nominate this law as soon as it's passed.
You trust too much: what gurantees that your goverment will not allow it in the future if there is not a legal frame that specificaly stops the goverment to meddle with the minds of the people?
Simple. Any government that went too far would lose the next election, very likely the election after that, and would lose control in the Senate as well. The threat of such voter backlash is what keeps our governments in line. This can become the case in S.A., because an election is due there sometime in the next 12 to 15 months.
Conservative politicians are very nervous here in Australia right now. Last weekend, there was a state election in Queensland. The conservatives were hammered so badly that between them, the two major conservative parties in Queensland look like taking only a dozen seats between them in an 89-seat parliament, with minor parties and independents taking about another 10 seats.
It's worth pointing out that SA has a conservative Government at the moment.
...and they lost most of their gun rights too a couple years ago...Amazing how those tend to come one right after the other.
The US still has the right to bear arms. And what's happened there? "Lobbyists" from major corporations and other well-financed organisations providing bribes thinly disguised as "campaign contributions" to get some laws passed and other laws defeated. What do Americans have as a result? The Digital Millenium Copyright Act. UCITA. Communications Decency Act (which got defeated). Anti-spam bills being rejected in committee. Schools and libraries that receive federal funding being required to install censorware or forfeit their funding.
Not to mention Florida's farcical election result. That made American democracy a worldwide laughingstock because the US lacks a uniform national organisation to administer national elections in a consistent manner.
So it's clear that the availability of guns has nothing to do with the quality of legislation that's passed or the quality of government. How are they to help? Are we going to see thousands of rednecks with guns storming Congress and forcing Congressmen to pass or defeat laws at gunpoint?
One thing that many Americans don't understand is that the Port Arthur massacre of 1995 and the Hoddle Street and Queen Street massacres of 1987 are not normal events here in Australia. As a result, the community would rather see tighter and more uniform gun laws than run the risk of more such events. You can still get guns in Australia if you have the appropriate licence. Because you don't need an AK-47 to shoot rabbits and other vermin, you can't buy an AK-47 over the counter anymore. After all, you can't eat a pink mist.
Students here in Australia go to school without being required to pass through metal detectors. I can walk down to the local shops after dark without fear. Our leaders do not need elaborate security precautions before appearing in public. These are some of the reasons why American visitors to the Olympics were correctly advised that Australia was a safer country to visit than the US.
Music recording companies the world over are operating under the false premise that they have a right to remain in business using the same business models for no better reason than they were in business today. Companies are a convenient vehicle employed by people to produce goods and services. As such, they have no inherent right to remain in existence if there is no longer a market for their goods and services. Smart companies like IBM adapt to change and remain in business. Music companies are feeling the squeeze now, and must eventually embrace new technology to remain in business in the future. Oil companies will face a similar shift in the future when the oil runs out.
A smart music company will adapt by starting its own fee-based MP3 web site, and providing fee-based access to low-cost recording facilities similar to what a dedicated home user can now have with a PC, good recording equipment and mixing software. This would also give garage bands a low-cost method of producing and distributing their music.
What's that falling out of the sky? -- Generic dinosaur, 65 million B.C. --
If we must have a tax on equipment, taxing blank CD-ROMS has flaws. If the CD did not burn properly and becomes a coaster, is the user guaranteed to receive a refund of the tax in some manner?
The real problems are not home users copying a CD for their own use. It's not someone copying a CD for a few friends. The real problem is professionals using CD pressing machinery to turn out thousands or millions of CD's. So if we must have a tax, place it on all CD pressing equipment, and the CD blanks (not to be confused here with blank CD/RW disks).
It is interesting how the word "piracy" is increasingly being used to describe the dissemination of any information (software, music, etc) without the owner's permission. If that's the case, then surely every company in existence that sells its mailing list without seeking approval from everyone on it is indulging in data piracy.
According to the article, the mining company will install airconditioning to make the caves more tolerable to tourists. One thing they must consider when choosing airconditioning is the effect of a steady stream of tourists through an enclosed space. Humans continuously give off a steady stream of water vapour, carbon dioxide and other metabolic wastes, and this may have an adverse effect on the stability of the crystals. The airconditioning must not only lower the temperature of the cave, but must also remove these metabolic wastes, particularly the water vapour.
There are ancient Egyptian sites that have been closed to tourists because the water vapour from the tourists was dissolving the relics, which had been preserved because of the dryness of the site.
I hope the mining company carefully monitors the effect of the airconditioning and tourists on the caves and crystals. They may need to shut down or limit the tourist access if tourism is having an adverse effect on the crystals or cave system.
Moon: Soviet probes were the first to hit the moon in the late fifties or early sixties. The first probe to hit the moon was simply to prove that the Soviets could hit the Moon. The British tracked this probe from Jodrell Bank and confirmed the hit.
Mars: IIRC, The Russians were the first to land on Mars and send back an image, although the probe didn't work for long enough to send back a full picture. The American Viking probe touched down in 1976, sent back good images and conducted experiments to find life on Mars.
Venus: The Russians landed a series of Venera probes on Venus in the 1970's. Magellan entered the atmosphere of Venus at the conclusion of its mission.
Jupiter: The Galileo spacecraft sent a probe into the atmosphere of Jupiter in 1995. The Galileo spacecraft itself is scheduled to enter the atmosphere of Jupiter at the conclusion of its mission, so as to avoid any chance of impacting with Europa and contaminating this potentially life-bearing world with microbes from Earth.
Eros: NEAR-Shoemaker landed on Eros in February, 2001.
Mercury: The only probe to have visited Mercury was a Mariner Venus-Mercury flyby in 1973. No spacecraft are known to have landed on Mercury.
The next celestial body to have a spacecraft land on it will be Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, when the Huygens probe from the Cassini spacecraft arrives in 2004.
I think the way to do this would be to mount giant rockets on the asteroid, and fire them as needed to change its orbit. Only a small deviation would be needed to have a large effect later. The obvious problem would be refuelling the asteroid's rockets, but if we could find a way to do this, then it would be technically possible. With our current state of technology, this project would be hideously expensive, but if the future of the Earth was at stake, then this would not be an obstacle.
If asteroids were to be used in this manner, then the best time to zoom them past the Earth would be when the Earth is at aphelion, the furthest point in its orbit around the Sun. This has the effect of increasing the perihelion distance, thus making the orbit more circular. Scheduling the asteroid flybys for perihelion is less effective, because the Earth will not incease its perihelion distance, and the orbit will become more elliptical. This is obviously less desirable.
Another way of controlling the climate would be to reduce the mass of the Sun. This is obviously more difficult, but if possible would probably involve using extraordinarily powerful electromagnets to pull matter out of the Sun.
If the Sun is going to increase in luminosity by 10% over the next billion years, then on average the Earth will need to increase the radius of its orbit by about 7 meters a year on average to maintain the same climate. ((sqrt (1.1) - 1) * 149,600,000 km / 10e9). Perhaps we should get started right away, given our current peril of global warming from greenhouse gases.
Yes we do, but since it's the middle of the afternoon here in Australia, I won't be sleeping for some time:)
It's good to read about all the new features of KDE. I use Gnome myself, but this variety of desktops under Linux is what sets us free from the predatory clutches of monopolistic corporations. With Windows, it's any desktop you like, as long as it's Microsoft's bland offering.
The Slashdot Effect: No matter what time of the day a link gets posted on Slashdot, expect the site to get hosed immediately because Slashdotters are all over the world, just waiting for the call to swamp innocent servers to oblivion....
I also still play Master of Magic on occasion. You've just got to love a game that allows so many interesting combinations. Flying, invisible, spell-locked warships are a particularly deadly combination, because they're almost unstoppable.
There is a petition for a Master of Magic sequel here. This game is just crying out for a sequel. I would absolutely love to see what a Flame Strike would look like with today's graphics capabilities.
Slashdot Mirror
Sending anything that one claims as "copyrighted" to people one doesn't know and not providing a valid return address would be sufficient grounds to argue that copyright does not apply. The recipient is denied an opportunity to return the e-mail to the sender.
If a spammer decided to try the copyright defense, it can easily be demonstrated under Australian law that they accessed someone else's computer without authorisation, which is an offence under the Crimes Act.
--
You are correct.
Another way would be to put a web bug in the e-mail that the site uses to confirm the order.
--
Oh, kinda like how phone numbers in most movies start with 555 (an invalid prefix, or at least it used to be, not sure if it still is)
Instead of using numbers above 255 for fake IP addresses, they should use numbers like 192.168.X.X, 10.X.X.X or other similar numbers assigned to local networks. The clueless won't know the difference. The clueful will appreciate the 555-like nature of the address and won't embarrass themselves for apparently laughing incongruously in a serious scene.
--
Suppose I have my own advertising web site, "WebBugsAreEvil.com", and your e-mail address is YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS@yourhost.com.
? email_ID=YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS@yourhost.com & sequence=1928d4ae1228">
I place my bugs all over the internet. You visit a site with one of my bugs on it. This sends a new cookie to you. You now have a cookie from "WebBugsAreEvil.com" on your hard drive. Every time you visit another site with one of my web bugs in it, your cookie is sent to my host "WebBugsAreEvil.com" including the URL of the page that you are viewing. Thus, I build up a detailed profile of your web surfing habits.
Now suppose you place an order on one of these sites and leave your e-mail address and other personal information. The site sells your e-mail address and other personal info to "WebBugsAreEvil.com". I now have your personal information and your cookie, but the cookie ID is not yet associated with your personal information because these were collected by two different servers. I need to do one more thing to put them together.
I do a mass mail out with all the new e-mail addresses. The e-mails are HTML-enabled e-mails. Embedded at the bottom of the e-mail is this web bug:
<IMG WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1 border=0 SRC="http://track.WebBugsAreEvil.com/cgi.bin/ping
It's a 1x1-pixel GIF that has a single clear pixel in it; this is where the euphemism "clear GIFs" comes from. You cannot see this GIF.
When you open the mail, this new web bug is sent to WebBugsAreEvil.com. Because the URL has your e-mail address in it, and it also sends your "WebBugsAreEvil.com" cookie with the HTTP GET request, I can now associate your personal details with your surfing habits.
In short, it is very easy to remove anonymity.
I don't know about you, but I find the idea of anyone having this amount of knowledge about me and my browsing habits to be uncomfortably close to Big Brother's surveillance from George Orwell's novel "1984". Is your telescreen on, Winston?
--
Hey Lenny! Great anti-spam page. Spammers are up to $4.50 on goto.com! Slashdotters, start clicking the link below to make spammers pay. Click this link to make spammers spend money!
Obligatory on-topic message:
Visit Junkbusters and view information on Web Bugs.
The industry uses the euphemism "clear GIFs" to describe web bugs. Search for "clear gifs" in a search engine as well as "web bugs" if you're after more information. I use TopClick because it is a privacy-respecting search engine that doesn't use cookies and I have found it to be very good.
*** NEWS FLASH ***
Congress to investigate Web Bugs. More details here at intenetnews.com.
--
Web bugs are usually used in conjunction with cookies to profile your surfing habits. I find this to be a gross invasion of privacy, so I have chosen to fight back.
It's not hard to stop a site from using cookies as a tracking tool. If they cannot store a cookie on your hard drive, that cookie cannot be used to profile you.
The way to defeat this is to prohibit the web sites that use web bugs from storing cookies on your computer. A good browser will have security settings that can be customised. I place all web sites that I trust in my collection of trusted sites. These sites can store cookies on my machine. Sites that are not in my collection of trusted sites must go through the default setting where I must approve each cookie with a click before it can be stored on my hard drive. Persistently annoying sites get placed in my collection of restricted sites, which are prohibited from storing cookies. Sometimes, a trusted site that I have omitted gets added to the trusted list.
If you want to start a database of restricted domains, a good place to start is your cookie collection. You will find a lot of sites that you never visited in that list. Add anything suspicious to the restricted list before deleting the cookie.
I have only been doing this for a few weeks, so I haven't got any good results to report so far. I'm sure I'll get good results doing this, and I invite others to try it. It does involve a little work, but eventually I hope to have reasonable web-bug-free privacy online.
--
Military intelligence.
Microsoft Works.
Windows security.
--
116A Importation, manufacture etc. of circumvention device and provision etc. of circumvention service
(1) Subject to subsections (2), (3) and (4), this section applies if:
(a) a work or other subject-matter is protected by a technological protection measure; and
(b) a person does any of the following acts without the permission of the owner or exclusive licensee of the copyright in the work or other subject-matter:
(i) makes a circumvention device capable of circumventing, or facilitating the circumvention of, the technological protection measure;
(ii) sells, lets for hire, or by way of trade offers or exposes for sale or hire or otherwise promotes, advertises or markets, such a circumvention device;
(iii) distributes such a circumvention device for the purpose of trade, or for any other purpose that will affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright;
(iv) exhibits such a circumvention device in public by way of trade;
(v) imports such a circumvention device into Australia for the purpose of:
(A) selling, letting for hire, or by way of trade offering or exposing for sale or hire or otherwise promoting, advertising or marketing, the device; or
(B) distributing the device for the purpose of trade, or for any other purpose that will affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright; or
(C) exhibiting the device in public by way of trade;
(vi) makes such a circumvention device available online to an extent that will affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright;
(vii) provides, or by way of trade promotes, advertises or markets, a circumvention service capable of circumventing, or facilitating the circumvention of, the technological protection measure; and
(c) the person knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that the device or service would be used to circumvent, or facilitate the circumvention of, the technological protection measure.
(2) This section does not apply in relation to anything lawfully done for the purposes of law enforcement or national security by or on behalf of:
(a) the Commonwealth or a State or Territory; or
(b) an authority of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory.
(3) This section does not apply in relation to the supply of a circumvention device or a circumvention service to a person for use for a permitted purpose if:
(a) the person is a qualified person; and
(b) the person gives the supplier before, or at the time of, the supply a declaration signed by the person:
(i) stating the name and address of the person; and
(ii) stating the basis on which the person is a qualified person; and
(iii) stating the name and address of the supplier of the circumvention device or circumvention service; and
(iv) stating that the device or service is to be used only for a permitted purpose by a qualified person; and
(v) identifying the permitted purpose by reference to one or more of sections 47D, 47E, 47F, 48A, 49, 50, 51A and 183 and Part VB; and
(vi) stating that a work or other subject-matter in relation to which the person proposes to use the device or service for a permitted purpose is not readily available to the person in a form that is not protected by a technological protection measure.
(4) This section does not apply in relation to the making or importing of a circumvention device:
(a) for use only for a permitted purpose relating to a work or other subject-matter that is not readily available in a form that is not protected by a technological protection measure; or
(b) for the purpose of enabling a person to supply the device, or to supply a circumvention service, for use only for a permitted purpose.
(4A) For the purposes of paragraphs (3)(b) and (4)(a), a work or other subject-matter is taken not to be readily available if it is not available in a form that lets a person do an act relating to it that is not an infringement of copyright in it as a result of section 47D, 47E, 47F, 48A, 49, 50, 51A or 183 or Part VB.
(5) If this section applies, the owner or exclusive licensee of the copyright may bring an action against the person.
(6) In an action under subsection (5), it must be presumed that the defendant knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that the circumvention device or service to which the action relates would be used for a purpose referred to in paragraph (1)(c) unless the defendant proves otherwise.
(7) For the purposes of this section, a circumvention device or a circumvention service is taken to be used for a permitted purpose only if:
(a) the device or service is used for the purpose of doing an act comprised in the copyright in a work or other subject-matter; and
(b) the doing of the act is not an infringement of the copyright in the work or other subject-matter under section 47D, 47E, 47F, 48A, 49, 50, 51A or 183 or Part VB.
(8) In this section:
qualified person means:
(a) a person referred to in paragraph 47D(1)(a), 47E(1)(a) or 47F(1)(a); or
(b) a person who is an authorized officer for the purposes of section 48A, 49, 50 or 51A; or
(c) a person authorised in writing by the Commonwealth or a State for the purposes of section 183; or
(d) a person authorised in writing by a body administering an institution (within the meaning of Part VB) to do on behalf of the body an act that is not an infringement of copyright because of that Part.
supply means:
(a) in relation to a circumvention device--sell the device, let it for hire, distribute it or make it available online; and
(b) in relation to a circumvention service--provide the service.
(9) The defendant bears the burden of establishing the matters referred to in subsections (3), (4) and (4A).
Well. This section is pretty draconian. So the best way of getting this watered down or removed when it comes up for review is to abuse it.
Here's what can be done to abuse this.
Invent a new "standard" of "encryption". It will be purposely weak, something like UUENCODE combined with something like XOR and multiplication on 8 to 40 bits. Easy to crack in other words. Encrypt "works" with it. Distribute the "works" freely, but sell the "reader" so people have to buy the "reader" to read the "works".
If anyone cracks the "encryption", then they are in violation of Section 119A, as posted here. And they can be sued.
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Yes, it has been a sad week. First, the cricket world lost "The Don", and now computer science has lost Claude E. Shannon. Both were greats in their respective fields and will be missed.
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UCITA is the reason why I now take the time to read the licence agreement carefully on all software I buy. The bit that is of particular interest is the section that specifies the jurisdiction that covers the agreement.
My caution was justified when I was reading the licence agreement for the release version of Netscape 6 for Windoze (as opposed to the preview version). The preview version was governed by the laws of California, but one could guess that trouble was brewing when the licence agreement specifically excluded California's consumer protection laws from the agreement. The full version is governed by the laws of Virginia.
Uh oh.
Virginia is a state that has passed the controversial UCITA after intense lobbying and dubious "campaign contributions" to the elected officials. And we all know the dire consequences of UCITA.
I refuse to install ANY software that's governed by the laws of a state that's passed UTICA and why I won't be doing any more business with those companies. The only thing that many of these companies care about is their bottom line. By not buying their software or returning it for a refund, I have a small adverse effect on their bottom line. If enough other people did this, then the effect on the bottom line will be noticeable. A large number of returns for refunds will also make them take notice.
If nothing else works, a bit of civil disobedience may be in order. Buy software that you know is governed by UCITA. Do what is needed to read the agreement, typically this entails opening the box and running the installation software. Don't agree with the EULA. Return the software the next day for a full refund. Go elsewhere and repeat.
Opposition to UCITA starts with YOU. Be aware of which states have UCITA or are likely to pass it soon. Read those agreements carefully, and identify which state's laws govern the agreement. If the jurisdictional state is a UCITA state, do NOT agree with the agreement and return the software promptly for a full refund.
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This article on the New Scientist web site discusses marine parks to preserve fish stocks. It demonstrates how marine parks increase fish catches in areas outside the parks and advocates an increase in their number.
Fishing vessels could have this GPS chip installed in them. The chip could then shut down the fishing equipment when the vessel was within a marine park, or in an area where the vessel is not supposed to be, such as the territorial waters of another country.
Governments could make it mandatory as a condition of the fishing licence for this chip to be installed and working properly. There is the likelihood that old vessels without the chip could fish illegally. The best way of deterring and combatting this would be for such vessels to be scuttled when detected, and only catches from certified compliant vessels having access to the best fish markets.
Such measures may sound draconian, but they may ultimately be necessary. At present fish stocks the world over are being overexploited: one estimate I have heard recently puts the annual catch of the world fishing fleet at 40% more than the level needed to maintain stocks.
However, installing this sort of technology in consumer electronics to serve no higher purpose than protecting the profits of the manufacturers will ultimately result in lower profits for the manufacturers. Not all manufacturers will opt to licence this technology, and they could gain market share because of it. There are also countries in the world with a good manufacturing base who would not allow this technology to be employed. Globalisation and free trade could also see such technology being made illegal, so expect a lot of bribes^H^H^H^H^H^H^H lobbying by major corporations to ensure that such technology is legal.
We seem to be rapidly moving towards a corporate-run police state, with all the dire consequences that such a state will bring. A worst-case scenario would see the majority of the Western world's population enslaved by profiteering corporations within 50 years. (You Must Spend All Your Income To Make The Corporation Richer. This Is Where You Will Go Today. You May Not Do Anything That May Compromise Corporate Profit. Work Shall Make You Free.) The sooner the general public is made aware of all this restrictive technology, the better off we will be in the future.
Finally, I have a short reading list that you may find useful.
George Orwell, "1984".
Ray Bradbury, "Fahrenheit 451".
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Anyone in their right mind will not connect to a high-speed Internet link without a firewall of some kind. Suppose I have a simple setup where my dedicated firewall box connects to the cable modem, and my single PC is connected to the firewall. Am I in violation of their TOS?
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IANAL, but I remember an interesting legal case posted to Slashdot some time ago that could be a precedent for this.
Years ago, telephone companies used to do the same thing with phone lines. People were not permitted to connect more than one phone to their phone line. The phone company was meant to do that. The phone company wanted to maintain their service monopoly, so people had to pay the phone company to install extra phones.
Someone, I think it was a farmer in the USA who was a member of a ham radio club, connected a second phone to their phone line. The phone company didn't like this, so the phone company sued.
The phone company lost the case! The farmer enlisted the support of the ham radio club, and was able to fund a good legal defense.
As a result of this legal case, the way telephony is delivered has changed radically. Now, when people get a phone connected, the phone company maintains the phone line only up to the first socket in the home. The customer maintains all the phone lines after that point. The customer can still hire the phone company if they want extra cables installed.
Sound familiar? It should, it's exactly the same as the current controversy with multiple PC's on one link. This suggests that it is possible to beat this restriction by suing the provider under the right circumstances and citing this case (if you can find it) as a precedent. What are the "right circumstances"? That depends on the fine print in your contract, but if yours does not currently have this provision, and your provider tries to introduce it as an amendment to the terms and conditions of service, you could sue them to prevent them amending the TOS.
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You're sixteen, huh? Bad luck. You get to vote at 18, but chances are you'll have to wait until you're 22 or so before you vote at your first state election, because the next state election is due in SA in the next 12 to 15 months, and you may not be of voting age then.
I think this law will make it onto the Dumb Laws website, http://www.dumblaws.com/. In fact, if I was you, I would send an e-mail and nominate this law as soon as it's passed.
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You trust too much: what gurantees that your goverment will not allow it in the future if there is not a legal frame that specificaly stops the goverment to meddle with the minds of the people?
Simple. Any government that went too far would lose the next election, very likely the election after that, and would lose control in the Senate as well. The threat of such voter backlash is what keeps our governments in line. This can become the case in S.A., because an election is due there sometime in the next 12 to 15 months.
Conservative politicians are very nervous here in Australia right now. Last weekend, there was a state election in Queensland. The conservatives were hammered so badly that between them, the two major conservative parties in Queensland look like taking only a dozen seats between them in an 89-seat parliament, with minor parties and independents taking about another 10 seats.
It's worth pointing out that SA has a conservative Government at the moment.
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...and they lost most of their gun rights too a couple years ago...Amazing how those tend to come one right after the other.
The US still has the right to bear arms. And what's happened there? "Lobbyists" from major corporations and other well-financed organisations providing bribes thinly disguised as "campaign contributions" to get some laws passed and other laws defeated. What do Americans have as a result? The Digital Millenium Copyright Act. UCITA. Communications Decency Act (which got defeated). Anti-spam bills being rejected in committee. Schools and libraries that receive federal funding being required to install censorware or forfeit their funding.
Not to mention Florida's farcical election result. That made American democracy a worldwide laughingstock because the US lacks a uniform national organisation to administer national elections in a consistent manner.
So it's clear that the availability of guns has nothing to do with the quality of legislation that's passed or the quality of government. How are they to help? Are we going to see thousands of rednecks with guns storming Congress and forcing Congressmen to pass or defeat laws at gunpoint?
One thing that many Americans don't understand is that the Port Arthur massacre of 1995 and the Hoddle Street and Queen Street massacres of 1987 are not normal events here in Australia. As a result, the community would rather see tighter and more uniform gun laws than run the risk of more such events. You can still get guns in Australia if you have the appropriate licence. Because you don't need an AK-47 to shoot rabbits and other vermin, you can't buy an AK-47 over the counter anymore. After all, you can't eat a pink mist.
Students here in Australia go to school without being required to pass through metal detectors. I can walk down to the local shops after dark without fear. Our leaders do not need elaborate security precautions before appearing in public. These are some of the reasons why American visitors to the Olympics were correctly advised that Australia was a safer country to visit than the US.
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So if your body was freely given to you by God, does that mean the Church can sue for proprty theft instead?
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Music recording companies the world over are operating under the false premise that they have a right to remain in business using the same business models for no better reason than they were in business today. Companies are a convenient vehicle employed by people to produce goods and services. As such, they have no inherent right to remain in existence if there is no longer a market for their goods and services. Smart companies like IBM adapt to change and remain in business. Music companies are feeling the squeeze now, and must eventually embrace new technology to remain in business in the future. Oil companies will face a similar shift in the future when the oil runs out.
A smart music company will adapt by starting its own fee-based MP3 web site, and providing fee-based access to low-cost recording facilities similar to what a dedicated home user can now have with a PC, good recording equipment and mixing software. This would also give garage bands a low-cost method of producing and distributing their music.
What's that falling out of the sky? -- Generic dinosaur, 65 million B.C.
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If we must have a tax on equipment, taxing blank CD-ROMS has flaws. If the CD did not burn properly and becomes a coaster, is the user guaranteed to receive a refund of the tax in some manner?
The real problems are not home users copying a CD for their own use. It's not someone copying a CD for a few friends. The real problem is professionals using CD pressing machinery to turn out thousands or millions of CD's. So if we must have a tax, place it on all CD pressing equipment, and the CD blanks (not to be confused here with blank CD/RW disks).
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I find it interesting that The Age web site shows on its front page news for today both an article about the Napster decision and another article that reveals that CD sales in Australia increased despite Net piracy.
It is interesting how the word "piracy" is increasingly being used to describe the dissemination of any information (software, music, etc) without the owner's permission. If that's the case, then surely every company in existence that sells its mailing list without seeking approval from everyone on it is indulging in data piracy.
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According to the article, the mining company will install airconditioning to make the caves more tolerable to tourists. One thing they must consider when choosing airconditioning is the effect of a steady stream of tourists through an enclosed space. Humans continuously give off a steady stream of water vapour, carbon dioxide and other metabolic wastes, and this may have an adverse effect on the stability of the crystals. The airconditioning must not only lower the temperature of the cave, but must also remove these metabolic wastes, particularly the water vapour.
There are ancient Egyptian sites that have been closed to tourists because the water vapour from the tourists was dissolving the relics, which had been preserved because of the dryness of the site.
I hope the mining company carefully monitors the effect of the airconditioning and tourists on the caves and crystals. They may need to shut down or limit the tourist access if tourism is having an adverse effect on the crystals or cave system.
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Moon: Soviet probes were the first to hit the moon in the late fifties or early sixties. The first probe to hit the moon was simply to prove that the Soviets could hit the Moon. The British tracked this probe from Jodrell Bank and confirmed the hit.
Mars: IIRC, The Russians were the first to land on Mars and send back an image, although the probe didn't work for long enough to send back a full picture. The American Viking probe touched down in 1976, sent back good images and conducted experiments to find life on Mars.
Venus: The Russians landed a series of Venera probes on Venus in the 1970's. Magellan entered the atmosphere of Venus at the conclusion of its mission.
Jupiter: The Galileo spacecraft sent a probe into the atmosphere of Jupiter in 1995. The Galileo spacecraft itself is scheduled to enter the atmosphere of Jupiter at the conclusion of its mission, so as to avoid any chance of impacting with Europa and contaminating this potentially life-bearing world with microbes from Earth.
Eros: NEAR-Shoemaker landed on Eros in February, 2001.
Mercury: The only probe to have visited Mercury was a Mariner Venus-Mercury flyby in 1973. No spacecraft are known to have landed on Mercury.
The next celestial body to have a spacecraft land on it will be Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, when the Huygens probe from the Cassini spacecraft arrives in 2004.
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I think the way to do this would be to mount giant rockets on the asteroid, and fire them as needed to change its orbit. Only a small deviation would be needed to have a large effect later. The obvious problem would be refuelling the asteroid's rockets, but if we could find a way to do this, then it would be technically possible. With our current state of technology, this project would be hideously expensive, but if the future of the Earth was at stake, then this would not be an obstacle.
If asteroids were to be used in this manner, then the best time to zoom them past the Earth would be when the Earth is at aphelion, the furthest point in its orbit around the Sun. This has the effect of increasing the perihelion distance, thus making the orbit more circular. Scheduling the asteroid flybys for perihelion is less effective, because the Earth will not incease its perihelion distance, and the orbit will become more elliptical. This is obviously less desirable.
Another way of controlling the climate would be to reduce the mass of the Sun. This is obviously more difficult, but if possible would probably involve using extraordinarily powerful electromagnets to pull matter out of the Sun.
If the Sun is going to increase in luminosity by 10% over the next billion years, then on average the Earth will need to increase the radius of its orbit by about 7 meters a year on average to maintain the same climate. ((sqrt (1.1) - 1) * 149,600,000 km / 10e9). Perhaps we should get started right away, given our current peril of global warming from greenhouse gases.
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Yes we do, but since it's the middle of the afternoon here in Australia, I won't be sleeping for some time :)
It's good to read about all the new features of KDE. I use Gnome myself, but this variety of desktops under Linux is what sets us free from the predatory clutches of monopolistic corporations. With Windows, it's any desktop you like, as long as it's Microsoft's bland offering.
The Slashdot Effect: No matter what time of the day a link gets posted on Slashdot, expect the site to get hosed immediately because Slashdotters are all over the world, just waiting for the call to swamp innocent servers to oblivion....
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I also still play Master of Magic on occasion. You've just got to love a game that allows so many interesting combinations. Flying, invisible, spell-locked warships are a particularly deadly combination, because they're almost unstoppable.
There is a petition for a Master of Magic sequel here. This game is just crying out for a sequel. I would absolutely love to see what a Flame Strike would look like with today's graphics capabilities.
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