I agree, and it needs to be consistent within applications as well. One of my major gripes in Linux is cut and paste - you can cut and paste text and so forth within an application, but not between apps reliably. That sort of thing frustrates me (which is why I now use and love BeOS.)
I see a lot of arguments that I do or don't agree with - how to implement this is a main one. But I don't see how being able to trace you with a warrant is going to stop anyone from talking on a newsgroup about their problems.
But the main issue to me is the attempt to deal with people abusing the net to stalk and harass other people. Right now they can do it anonymously, and do anything they want without being traced. This springs to mind because of a news report I saw on this, where one man was even trying to get pedophiles to call this lady's very young daughter. It seems to me that THAT is the issue the government is trying to address; and it does need addressing. When your replies don't acknowledge the need to handle the abuse of anonymity, they won't be listened to, so consider what you would do if that happened to you.
Looking at the ruling, I was struck that the judge still believed DeCSS was just a tool for copying DVDs, and not playing them. However, when I read the "defendants" section, I found out why. The defendants were carefully chosen I think - for example, one of them had a web site called dvd-copy.com. The site seems to have a lot of information on trading DVDs on the internet and how to use DeCSS to copy your DVD to a CD-R. The judge isn't going to look at that and believe the defendant saying that this tool isn't for copying. It would seem obvious that this defendant WAS pushing illegal copying of DVDs. And therefore, while there may be a legal use of DeCSS, a nice picture of illegal use is being presented to the judge.
I've been assigned a few user names and passwords, and invariably I forget them. So when I'm given one, I either treat this as a one-time transaction and get a new username and password if I use the service again, or I have to write them down, which I hate to do. So I'd have to strongly say I don't like that.
The other point in this comment is one I like - I'd be more worried about an attack on the machine holding this information that would result in everyone's info getting released than with an attack on one individuals correspondence. Where I live, a medical organization lost a tape backup with AIDS patients' info on it - and it ended up getting out. (I'm probably garbling the details, but you get the idea. Fortunately, the person who got the tape didn't try to do anything with the information, just turned it in and let a few newspapers know what happened.)
All the security in the world won't help if there is just one nimrod in your otherwise good sysadmin group.
Evan Reynolds evan@evan.org
Hackers and remotely disabling software
on
UCITA is passed
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· Score: 1
With all the security concerns already out there, doesn't adding a new way to just magically disable your software seem like a recipe for disaster? How long before hackers start doing it to companies? Or a virus that disables your software starts going around?
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Evan Reynolds evanthx@hotmail.com
But the main issue to me is the attempt to deal with people abusing the net to stalk and harass other people. Right now they can do it anonymously, and do anything they want without being traced. This springs to mind because of a news report I saw on this, where one man was even trying to get pedophiles to call this lady's very young daughter. It seems to me that THAT is the issue the government is trying to address; and it does need addressing. When your replies don't acknowledge the need to handle the abuse of anonymity, they won't be listened to, so consider what you would do if that happened to you.
Evan Reynolds evan@evan.org
Evan Reynolds evan@evan.org
The other point in this comment is one I like - I'd be more worried about an attack on the machine holding this information that would result in everyone's info getting released than with an attack on one individuals correspondence. Where I live, a medical organization lost a tape backup with AIDS patients' info on it - and it ended up getting out. (I'm probably garbling the details, but you get the idea. Fortunately, the person who got the tape didn't try to do anything with the information, just turned it in and let a few newspapers know what happened.)
All the security in the world won't help if there is just one nimrod in your otherwise good sysadmin group.
Evan Reynolds evan@evan.org
Evan Reynolds evan@evan.org