With all do respect, you are giving far too negative picture about the meeting. First of all they were very sincere that they didn't handle this in a best possible manner, but in the future they'll try to improve their processes. Their lawyer did first what lawyers normally do in this kind of situations and played on the safe side - he has to worry about the shareholders interest etc. He later noticed that most of CO$'s demands were actually based on trademark-violations, not copyright and based on that Google had an opportunity to restore Xenu.net. The fact that they actually did this on their own is something that we really be happy with. This kind of behaviour is anything but typical in today's corporate world.
And about the ranks, at least to me the message was clear, Google tries to write as good as possible algorithms as possible, which don't require human intervention to filter spamming etc.
The City of Helsinki made recently a study about the effects of mobile phones in hospitals. In most of cases there's no interference or only if the mobile phone is located excatly next to the instrument. After the study most of restrictions on mobile phone use have been lifted, although there's still some areas (intense care etc.) there's mobile phones are prohibited.
In Finland the goverment and some of the biggest cities like Turku are currently spending quite serious money to find out if Linux / Open Office would offer a more sensible option than the MS-products. The reason -money. The new MS-lisence scheme has really irritated the local decicion makers. It's not easy to find 30-50% more money for software licenses at the same time as unempleyment rates have started to raise again...
The added security of OSS-products is of course nice benefit, but it's not the main factor.
I was actually in that ACM workshop, in which this paper was originally published. There was some discussion, does the presentation violate DMCA,and the general conclusion was, that it doesn't. The reason is that in this case 17 U.S.C. 1201(g)'s encryption research exception clearly applies. Totally another question is, does it also protect ACM and other any other third party, which decides to publish the information. If we believe Judge Kaplan, it doesn't..
The difference between this and Felten case is, that Felten "cracked" watermark system, which isn't encryption per se. Stupid, eh?
I'm at the moment writing the founding documents for the EFF-Finland (work name, If anyone has better suggestions, that would be good). I hope that the founding meeting could be arranged as soon as possible, preferably still during this month.
At the moment in Finland there is no organization , which would defend the basic right of the users in Internet. After the new copyright directive is implemented here, the Sklyarov-case may happen here, too. The difference is that currently there's no one to organize the defence. That has to be changed while we still have some time!
If you are interested to help or join, please contact me.
Ville Oksanen
Ob-eBook:
Microsoft and AAP have teamed up to control the internet-piracy of eBooks:
Using technology developed by Microsoft to protect its own intellectual property on the Internet, the AAP has implemented an aggressive Internet surveillance program, which includes an automated, intelligent Internet search tool that searches for unauthorized distribution of eBook content 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The information and evidence gathered by this tool can form the foundation for subsequent civil and criminal enforcement.
Unfortunately the fight will go on, one very important round will be in Europe. The new copyright directive is at least as bad as DMCA. Therefore it's essential that everyone in Europe will be fighting on the national level to prevent the worst possible outcome (the problem is that unfortunately the directive doesn't give too much space for the national implementations) Still the questions like the level of copyright crimes in criminal law is up to the national states. The Sklyarov arrest should be a "good" case to use as warning example what too far reaching jurisdiction can cause.
The game has just started - stay informed and be active!
It seems that some legal firms have found a new "make money - FAST" -scheme. IMO the interesting part is to see how long it will take, until the clients will realize that they'll be paying not only the huge legal costs but also the bad publicity caused by these cases.
Wendy R. Leibowitz summerized it well in her article.
As a sidenote: Attrition.org is also under fire because of the alleged trademake violation - they are hosting some priceless-campaing parodies and the lawyers of MasterCard still haven't got anything better to do...Link
As a person who has once got an threatening email from the lawyers of this evil cult, I understand very well why/. gave up (I posted one of $cn's "secret" documents with some comments to a.r.s. but later cancelled that post). These people are ready to spend as money as needed to suppress free speech. They don't play on these matters, there's too much their money on the stake. They can ruin private person financially badly (Zenon for example) and the cost can be very high also for the companies which dear to criticize them (NY Times had to spend awful lot of money to defend itself against the clamsuit(tm))
This is the exact reason why systems like FreeNet are neened. They are the only line of defence against this misuse of intellectual property rigts. $cientology today, the goverment of China tomorrow...?
Ville Oksanen
SP4 and damn proud of it. My DeCSS archive:
DeCSS as a part of my Master Thesis
on
The DeCSS Haiku
·
· Score: 5
As a way to protest MPAA's latest action against Dr. David Touretzky, I included the source code
of Derek Fawcus's version of CSS-descrambler as an appendix of the my Master Thesis. (The title of my thesis is "Legal Protection for Computer Software" so there's really a relevance). And of course I cited Dr. David Touretzky's Gallery of CSS Descramblers few times. The printed version will be soon in the library of the faculty of law of the University of Helsinki, unfortunately only in Finnish..
Anyway DeCSS should be fully legal in Europe as long as the new copyright directive isn't in force yet (Decompliation is "fair use" and can't be denied in the license).
I have written a seminar paper about the legality of DeCSS in Finland (which btw. got the highest possible grade) so I know quite well what the situation is at least here. In EU the copyright for computer programs is harmonized so the same should apply for other EU-countries, too.
MPAA is on my behalf free to establish a precedent in Finland, there's no way they could win with current legistlation...:-)
Ville, INAL but pretty damn close My DeCSS archive:
I have had the Source in my homepage since the first court case last December. So far I haven't heard anything from MPAA or DVD CCA, they seem to do anyway some monitoring (I've seen some hits in the log).
Anyway the positive side is that in EU it should be pefectly legal to publish DeCSS. The situation may change after the new copyright directive comes in force, which will still take some time...
If you a lucky enough to live in one of the EU- countries, there's third legal option. A mirror of DeCSS. As long as new the EU copyright directive isn't in force there shouldn't be any (legal) problems.
Of course it is quite likely that MPAA & DVD CCA will still try legal harassment, for example your ISP will be most certainly receiving harassing letters from their lawyers. That's something that one should be prepared for. But, it's definately worth of the hassle.
The Register is running a short clip about the story. Also the PR department of Rambus has been active, the result can be seen here (althoug nothing very original, just typical quoted out of context defence)..
It's anyway funny to see that Micro$oft isn't the only company which is conserned about the protection of "innovation"...
I'd really love to see a press release from IBM there it states that it is commited to use its (HUGE) patent portfolio to defend Linux and its developers. This kind of support would be priceless, IPR is the sector there Open Source moment is going to have the biggest problems...
As many persons have already pointed out, there's quite rich pile of case law (M$ vs. Apple, Lotus vs. Borland etc.), which makes it clear that copyright doesn't protect UI. Of course, any single element of UI can be protected, but as far as there isn't any direct copying you are in the clear water. To rephrese this, you can't protect idea (in this case look&feel) with copyright.
What comes to user perspective, at least most of legal literature from law&economics tend to think, that the benefits from not to give protection to UI clearly overrides the negative impact in UI-investments. So, you can make money with good UI but you are not going to get a monopoly from the government to support it...
Very good news from Europe!!
On the FFII mailing list it has just been reported that the EPO Diplomatic Conference today voted unanimously to maintain the exception in Art 52.2c this time. This means that Europe will be still free of (pure) software patents.
Unfortunately the Fight isn't over yet. The next round will be in European Union. It is therefore very important and urgent, if you consider software patents to be more harmful than useful, to send your opinion by email to:
consultation@eurolinux.org
as soon as possible and, in any case, before December 15th, 2000. You can write in the official language of any member country of the European Union.
The following resolution was adapted in the Democrat Youth Community of Europe and will hopefully be adapted also in Youth of the European People's Party (they have a meeting in here Helsinki this weekend). Please feel free to use it to put pressure on your local (center-to-right) parties. The member organisations of can be found from www.demyc.org and www.yepp.org.
Greets
Ville
Resolution on Computer Software Patents
Unanimously adopted by the 85th Demyc Executive Committee in Cyprus
1) Noting that European Patent Office is planning to remove computer programs from the list of the things which can not be patented of in its next conference in end of November
2) Further noting the still existing great amount of unsolved problems in software patents like:
* Abstract-logical nature of software, which is in conflict with the patent system's requirement for concreteness and physical substance
* Inefficient long period of protection (20 years)
* The lack of IT-expertise among the patent inspectors which would lead too wide patent claims to be accepted as has happened in the United States
* The problem of anti-competitiveness; US software patents, if easily transferable to EU, could substantially narrow competition in the European Union, give dominant position to US corporations and have negative influence among European IT start-ups
* The negative effect of patents to the Interoperability of computer programs
3) Taking into consideration the strong opposition among small and medium size companies towards software patents in Europe
4) Having in mind the enormous economic importance of computer software industry and its need for effective protection for its investments
5) DEMYC calls upon European political parties and the European Commission (DG XV) to take immediate actions to delay all development on software patents until the problems are correctly addressed
6) DEMYC further calls for taking actions to strengthen the European software industry by improving the regulatory framework on combating software piracy
We are at the moment making an active campaing against SW-patents in Finland and from the experiences we have had, following conclusion can be made:
A) Political parties (expecially MPs) don't know anything about the topic. On the other hand it's quite easy to explain them why SW-patents are bad for Europe. After that it's possible to ask them to take actions in this matter
B) Civil servants are the persons who normally make the decisions in this field. They are normally very strongly in favor of widening patent system (more money to their budjec sector)
C) Media doesn't understand the question, but if right "hitwords" are used, it's actually quite easy to get them write about the topic. An "objective" article is always better than an opinion letter.
The most important thing anyway is that DO SOMETHING. Write. Call to a MP or parlamentary groups' secreteriats. Offer a bier to a journalist. After the European Patent Organisation makes its decision in the end of November, it's too late! We need just 5 European countries to oppose the chance in EPO in order to prevent it. And if EPC isn't changed, EU commission won't most likely try to harmonize the law..
Greets
Ville Oksanen
PS. If anyone from Finland wants to know what can/should be done here (Finland haven't decided yet what's its offical position), please contact me! (v%oksanen.net)
Well, it seems that some people will never learn one of the most basic rules of the net: more you fight, more mirrors will pop up. $cientology was the first organisation to have this experience, I guess their "secrets" documents are the most widely spread religious documents in the net (I guess somebody should submit these cuecat-documents to the Swedish parlament:-)... Anyone who has followed how the community works here should have learned the lesson up till now so it's a bit strange that it still happens. Anyway, feel free to visit also my mirror, the address is the same as below...
Unfortunately it's very likely that European Patent Convention will be changed THIS Noverber in EPO conference in Munich, unless projects like Euro-linux petition succeed (not too big chance). Anyway anyone from Europe should act in this matter NOW, in 2 months it will be too late! If we can get 1/4 of the members (5 countries) of EPO to oppose the change, they'll never come into force..
At least in Finland that won't happen soon. And if someone writes a program which main purpose is playing DVDs (instead of just opening the encryption) it will remain legal forever (eg. even after EU will have its own version of DMCA). DeCSS isn't that important after all, the information about the CSS is.
My DeCSS-mirror: http://www.oksanen.net/ville/this_is/under/Finnish /jurisdiction/otherstuff.htm
They are very real. They aren't still gods. For example, DeCSS is and will be legal in Finland. You can download it from my homepage and I won't take it down unless a court forces me to do it (which won't happen) or my ISP terminates my contract (in which case I will sue 'em and most likely win..). (I happen to have written a seminar paper (sorry, only in Finnish) about the topic as part of my studies (and got the highest possible grade - the professor agreed 100% with my conclusions:-)
It's funny to notice, that the MPAA is doing exactly tha same things as the cult of $cientology did few years ago. At that time $cn was trying to keep their "sacred" scriptures secret (because nobody would pay 'em $$$ if they would have a chance to read those document BEFORE paying). The result was - a'hem - opposite:-)
Unfortunaly few inviduals got quite badly financially harmed during that time (it's not a good idea to try to fight against an army of lawyer without education even if the case seems to simple) so if you want to join the fight, it might be a good idea to check out what went wrong..
Anyway, let's start a bet how long it will take before those CSS-documents can be found from Swedish parliament:-) (In Sweden the government HAS to keep ALL documents open to public).
WWW.XENU.ORG - Read how the cult of $cientology was beaten in the same kind of game!
Please just remember, that all material you send to them can and WILL be used against us - if possible! During the $cientology wars the $cn-lawyers have used many time for their benefit Usenet flame-messages with rather vulgar language which looked very bad in courtroom... Scn court file archive "$cn vs. Net" How to support the fight V, just my 2 euro-cents.. .signature not found
Microsoft can't live without court system.. There's no patents, copyrights or trade secrets without govermental intervention. Therefore you may stick your FUD UYA.
Anyway most likely in the long run M$ shareholders will be the biggest winners because after the (likely) breakup baby-M$es will be more competive and truly innovative...
Slashdot Mirror
I was there, too.
With all do respect, you are giving far too negative picture about the meeting. First of all they were very sincere that they didn't handle this in a best possible manner, but in the future they'll try to improve their processes. Their lawyer did first what lawyers normally do in this kind of situations and played on the safe side - he has to worry about the shareholders interest etc. He later noticed that most of CO$'s demands were actually based on trademark-violations, not copyright and based on that Google had an opportunity to restore Xenu.net. The fact that they actually did this on their own is something that we really be happy with. This kind of behaviour is anything but typical in today's corporate world.
And about the ranks, at least to me the message was clear, Google tries to write as good as possible algorithms as possible, which don't require human intervention to filter spamming etc.
V.
Well,
The City of Helsinki made recently a study about the effects of mobile phones in hospitals. In most of cases there's no interference or only if the mobile phone is located excatly next to the instrument. After the study most of restrictions on mobile phone use have been lifted, although there's still some areas (intense care etc.) there's mobile phones are prohibited.
Well,
In Finland the goverment and some of the biggest cities like Turku are currently spending quite serious money to find out if Linux / Open Office would offer a more sensible option than the MS-products. The reason -money. The new MS-lisence scheme has really irritated the local decicion makers. It's not easy to find 30-50% more money for software licenses at the same time as unempleyment rates have started to raise again...
The added security of OSS-products is of course nice benefit, but it's not the main factor.
v.
The difference between this and Felten case is, that Felten "cracked" watermark system, which isn't encryption per se. Stupid, eh?
V.
Any Finns out there?
a sp
I'm at the moment writing the founding documents for the EFF-Finland (work name, If anyone has better suggestions, that would be good). I hope that the founding meeting could be arranged as soon as possible, preferably still during this month.
At the moment in Finland there is no organization , which would defend the basic right of the users in Internet. After the new copyright directive is implemented here, the Sklyarov-case may happen here, too. The difference is that currently there's no one to organize the defence. That has to be changed while we still have some time!
If you are interested to help or join, please contact me.
Ville Oksanen
Ob-eBook:
Microsoft and AAP have teamed up to control the internet-piracy of eBooks:
http://www.microsoft.com/ebooks/das/antipiracy.
Using technology developed by Microsoft to protect its own intellectual property on the Internet, the AAP has implemented an aggressive Internet surveillance program, which includes an automated, intelligent Internet search tool that searches for unauthorized distribution of eBook content 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The information and evidence gathered by this tool can form the foundation for subsequent civil and criminal enforcement.
A battle is won :-)
Unfortunately the fight will go on, one very important round will be in Europe. The new copyright directive is at least as bad as DMCA. Therefore it's essential that everyone in Europe will be fighting on the national level to prevent the worst possible outcome (the problem is that unfortunately the directive doesn't give too much space for the national implementations) Still the questions like the level of copyright crimes in criminal law is up to the national states. The Sklyarov arrest should be a "good" case to use as warning example what too far reaching jurisdiction can cause.
The game has just started - stay informed and be active!
V.
My DeCSS archive:
Oh well.
It seems that some legal firms have found a new "make money - FAST" -scheme. IMO the interesting part is to see how long it will take, until the clients will realize that they'll be paying not only the huge legal costs but also the bad publicity caused by these cases.
Wendy R. Leibowitz summerized it well in her article.
As a sidenote: Attrition.org is also under fire because of the alleged trademake violation - they are hosting some priceless-campaing parodies and the lawyers of MasterCard still haven't got anything better to do...Link
Ville
My DeCSS archive:
As a person who has once got an threatening email from the lawyers of this evil cult, I understand very well why /. gave up (I posted one of $cn's "secret" documents with some comments to a.r.s. but later cancelled that post). These people are ready to spend as money as needed to suppress free speech. They don't play on these matters, there's too much their money on the stake. They can ruin private person financially badly (Zenon for example) and the cost can be very high also for the companies which dear to criticize them (NY Times had to spend awful lot of money to defend itself against the clamsuit(tm))
This is the exact reason why systems like FreeNet are neened. They are the only line of defence against this misuse of intellectual property rigts. $cientology today, the goverment of China tomorrow...?
Ville Oksanen
SP4 and damn proud of it.
My DeCSS archive:
of Derek Fawcus's version of CSS-descrambler as an appendix of the my Master Thesis. (The title of my thesis is "Legal Protection for Computer Software" so there's really a relevance). And of course I cited Dr. David Touretzky's Gallery of CSS Descramblers few times. The printed version will be soon in the library of the faculty of law of the University of Helsinki, unfortunately only in Finnish..
Anyway DeCSS should be fully legal in Europe as long as the new copyright directive isn't in force yet (Decompliation is "fair use" and can't be denied in the license).
Ville Oksanen
My DeCSS archive:
MPAA is on my behalf free to establish a precedent in Finland, there's no way they could win with current legistlation...
Ville, INAL but pretty damn close
My DeCSS archive:
Anyway the positive side is that in EU it should be pefectly legal to publish DeCSS. The situation may change after the new copyright directive comes in force, which will still take some time...
Ville
My DeCSS archive:
If you a lucky enough to live in one of the EU- countries, there's third legal option. A mirror of DeCSS. As long as new the EU copyright directive isn't in force there shouldn't be any (legal) problems.
Of course it is quite likely that MPAA & DVD CCA will still try legal harassment, for example your ISP will be most certainly receiving harassing letters from their lawyers. That's something that one should be prepared for. But, it's definately worth of the hassle.
Ville
My DeCSS archive:
The Register is running a short
clip about the story. Also the PR department of Rambus has been active, the result can be seen
here (althoug nothing very original, just typical quoted out of context defence)..
It's anyway funny to see that Micro$oft isn't the only company which is conserned about the protection of "innovation"...
My DeCSS archive:
I'd really love to see a press release from IBM there it states that it is commited to use its (HUGE) patent portfolio to defend Linux and its developers. This kind of support would be priceless, IPR is the sector there Open Source moment is going to have the biggest problems...
Ville Oksanen
My DeCSS archive:
As many persons have already pointed out, there's quite rich pile of case law (M$ vs. Apple, Lotus vs. Borland etc.), which makes it clear that copyright doesn't protect UI. Of course, any single element of UI can be protected, but as far as there isn't any direct copying you are in the clear water. To rephrese this, you can't protect idea (in this case look&feel) with copyright.
What comes to user perspective, at least most of legal literature from law&economics tend to think, that the benefits from not to give protection to UI clearly overrides the negative impact in UI-investments. So, you can make money with good UI but you are not going to get a monopoly from the government to support it...
Ville
My DeCSS archive:
On the FFII mailing list it has just been reported that the EPO Diplomatic Conference today voted unanimously to maintain the exception in Art 52.2c this time. This means that Europe will be still free of (pure) software patents.
Unfortunately the Fight isn't over yet. The next round will be in European Union. It is therefore very important and urgent, if you consider software patents to be more harmful than useful, to send your opinion by email to:
consultation@eurolinux.org
as soon as possible and, in any case, before December 15th, 2000. You can write in the official language of any member country of the European Union.
Ville
My DeCSS archive:
The following resolution was adapted in the Democrat Youth Community of Europe and will hopefully be adapted also in Youth of the European People's Party (they have a meeting in here Helsinki this weekend). Please feel free to use it to put pressure on your local (center-to-right) parties. The member organisations of can be found from www.demyc.org and www.yepp.org.
Greets
Ville
Resolution on Computer Software Patents
Unanimously adopted by the 85th Demyc Executive Committee in Cyprus
1) Noting that European Patent Office is planning to remove computer programs from the list of the things which can not be patented of in its next conference in end of November
2) Further noting the still existing great amount of unsolved problems in software patents like:
* Abstract-logical nature of software, which is in conflict with the patent system's requirement for concreteness and physical substance
* Inefficient long period of protection (20 years)
* The lack of IT-expertise among the patent inspectors which would lead too wide patent claims to be accepted as has happened in the United States
* The problem of anti-competitiveness; US software patents, if easily transferable to EU, could substantially narrow competition in the European Union, give dominant position to US corporations and have negative influence among European IT start-ups
* The negative effect of patents to the Interoperability of computer programs
3) Taking into consideration the strong opposition among small and medium size companies towards software patents in Europe
4) Having in mind the enormous economic importance of computer software industry and its need for effective protection for its investments
5) DEMYC calls upon European political parties and the European Commission (DG XV) to take immediate actions to delay all development on software patents until the problems are correctly addressed
6) DEMYC further calls for taking actions to strengthen the European software industry by improving the regulatory framework on combating software piracy
My DeCSS archive:
We are at the moment making an active campaing against SW-patents in Finland and from the experiences we have had, following conclusion can be made:
A) Political parties (expecially MPs) don't know anything about the topic. On the other hand it's quite easy to explain them why SW-patents are bad for Europe. After that it's possible to ask them to take actions in this matter
B) Civil servants are the persons who normally make the decisions in this field. They are normally very strongly in favor of widening patent system (more money to their budjec sector)
C) Media doesn't understand the question, but if right "hitwords" are used, it's actually quite easy to get them write about the topic. An "objective" article is always better than an opinion letter.
The most important thing anyway is that DO SOMETHING. Write. Call to a MP or parlamentary groups' secreteriats. Offer a bier to a journalist. After the European Patent Organisation makes its decision in the end of November, it's too late! We need just 5 European countries to oppose the chance in EPO in order to prevent it. And if EPC isn't changed, EU commission won't most likely try to harmonize the law..
Greets
Ville Oksanen
PS. If anyone from Finland wants to know what can/should be done here (Finland haven't decided yet what's its offical position), please contact me! (v%oksanen.net)
My DeCSS archive:
Well, it seems that some people will never learn one of the most basic rules of the net: more you fight, more mirrors will pop up. $cientology was the first organisation to have this experience, I guess their "secrets" documents are the most widely spread religious documents in the net (I guess somebody should submit these cuecat-documents to the Swedish parlament :-)... Anyone who has followed how the community works here should have learned the lesson up till now so it's a bit strange that it still happens.
Anyway, feel free to visit also my mirror, the address is the same as below...
Ville
My DeCSS archive:
Unfortunately it's very likely that European Patent Convention will be changed THIS Noverber in EPO conference in Munich, unless projects like Euro-linux petition succeed (not too big chance). Anyway anyone from Europe should act in this matter NOW, in 2 months it will be too late! If we can get 1/4 of the members (5 countries) of EPO to oppose the change, they'll never come into force..
Ville Oksanen
My DeCSS archive:
Well,
h /jurisdiction/otherstuff.htm
At least in Finland that won't happen soon. And if someone writes a program which main purpose is playing DVDs (instead of just opening the encryption) it will remain legal forever (eg. even after EU will have its own version of DMCA). DeCSS isn't that important after all, the information about the CSS is.
My DeCSS-mirror: http://www.oksanen.net/ville/this_is/under/Finnis
.signature not found
Ville Oksanen
Partner
Turré Legal Consulting
.signature not found
Unfortunaly few inviduals got quite badly financially harmed during that time (it's not a good idea to try to fight against an army of lawyer without education even if the case seems to simple) so if you want to join the fight, it might be a good idea to check out what went wrong..
Anyway, let's start a bet how long it will take before those CSS-documents can be found from Swedish parliament
WWW.XENU.ORG - Read how the cult of $cientology was beaten in the same kind of game!
V.
.signature not found
Please just remember, that all material you send to them can and WILL be used against us - if possible! During the $cientology wars the $cn-lawyers have used many time for their benefit Usenet flame-messages with rather vulgar language which looked very bad in courtroom...
Scn court file archive
"$cn vs. Net"
How to support the fight
V, just my 2 euro-cents..
.signature not found
Microsoft can't live without court system.. There's no patents, copyrights or trade secrets without govermental intervention. Therefore you may stick your FUD UYA.
Anyway most likely in the long run M$ shareholders will be the biggest winners because after the (likely) breakup baby-M$es will be more competive and truly innovative...
V.
.signature not found