COPYCENSE

"In a closely watched case involving the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a federal court has ruled that a small North Carolina company can continue selling a chip that makes it possible to use refilled toner cartridges in Lexmark printers.

"Static, which sells printer parts and other business supplies, has been defending a lawsuit brought by Lexmark, the No. 2 maker of printers in the United States. The suit claims the Smartek chip violates the DMCA, and Lexmark hopes the case will slam the brakes on the toner cartridge remanufacturing industry and compel consumers to buy its cartridges.

"The case has gotten a lot of attention because it’s one of the first to test the limits of the DMCA, which Congress enacted in 1998 to limit Internet piracy."

Declan McCullagh. Ruling on Refilled Printer Cartridges Touches DMCA. News.com. Oct. 26, 2004.

See also:
U. S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Lexmark International, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc.. (.pdf). Oct. 26, 2004.

Electronic Frontier Foundation. Lexmark v. Static Control Case Archive.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"In a barely noticed remark last week, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry said he might support defanging the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)–the unpopular law that has prompted take-to-the-street protests from the geek community.

"If Kerry is serious, that would be a remarkable metamorphosis on a law that the Senate approved without one dissenting vote. It would also be remarkable because, contrary to what Kerry and President Bush tell you, few differences exist between the two White House hopefuls on nearly any topic imaginable."

Declan McCullagh. Would President Kerry Defang the DMCA?. News.com. Oct. 25, 2004.

See also:
Dawn Kawamoto. Bush, Kerry Weigh In on Tech Issues. News.com. Oct. 21, 2004.

Declan McCullagh. Bush vs. Kerry on Tech. News.com. June 28, 2004.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"An August intrusion into a social researcher’s computer may mean that more than a million Californians need to call the credit bureaus.

"On Tuesday, the California Department of Social Services warned the providers and recipients of the state’s In Home Support Services (IHSS) that their names, addresses, telephone numbers, Social Security numbers and dates of birth may be circulating the Internet. IHSS allows individuals to get paid for providing in-home care to senior citizens.

"The warning comes after an unknown attacker slipped in through a security hole in a social researcher’s unsecured computer at the University of California, Berkeley, on Aug. 1, perhaps making off with 1.4 million database records containing personal information."

Robert Lemos. Online Attack Puts 1.4 Million Records at Risk. News.com. Oct. 20, 2004.

See also:
Reuters. Hacker Strikes University Computer System. News.com. Oct. 19, 2004.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Pay-as-you-go software might sound like a fine idea in principle, but it’s a bear to put into practice.

"That was the gist of conversation at the SoftSummit conference, as software executives discussed the promise and reality of utility computing and subscription pricing.

"Utility computing, a tech buzzword, essentially promises that a company will have to pay for only the computing resources it actually uses, dramatically cutting costs and improving efficiency."

David Becker. Pay-as-You-Go Software Licensing Going Slow. News.com. Oct. 19, 2004.

See also:
Alorie Gilbert. Is the Software License Dead?. News.com. Oct. 19, 2004.

Macrovision. SoftSummit Survey Results. Oct. 18, 2004.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Amid the recent collapse of talks over the Induce Act in Congress, record labels are closing in on deals to enable several new peer-to-peer services to emerge — with the sanction of major record labels that have so far derided P2P as a haven for piracy.

"At a panel held Wednesday by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, at least one record industry representative predicted that such sanctioned P2P services will start to proliferate in the next several months.

"According to Mitch Glazier, senior vice president of government relations and legislative counsel at the Recording Industry Association of America, the new services will be consumer-friendly and enable the portability that digital music consumers demand, all without running afoul of copyright law."

Michael Grebb. Toe-to-Toe Over Peer-to-Peer. Wired News. Oct. 21, 2004.

See also:
Federal Trade Commission. FTC to Host Two-day Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Workshop. Oct. 15, 2004.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.