CNet has an article online about a meeting of bulk mailers and email abuse advocates with the FTC to discuss anti-spam techniques. The article spends most of its time (and apparently the discussion spent much of its time) discussing the legal basis for blacklists (lists of IP addresses on the …

A good article in Forbes this week summarizes the current state of Hollywood's war against your privacy in the state and local jurisdictions. For those who have not read previous articles on this subject, the industry associations are trying to tighten the DMCA provisions by removing the loophole procedure that …

The Boston Globe has an interesting, and slightly paranoid articleabout the possibility of using high-tech brain scanners to detect "evil thoughts".

An article in Wired details that "Mike" Hawash (previously mentioned on this site in another article) has finally been charged by the government. I never had an opinion on his guilt or innocence, just on the issue of detention without information or charges, and because of that I'm even more …

Here are some recent updates on the "progress" of MPAA-sponsored Super-DMCA legislation. Once again, the librarians are at the fore on opposing this legislation.

An article on CNet describes an odd executive order signed at the end of March that makes it possible to reclassify secrets that had previously been released to the public. In particular, critical infrastructure may be covered by this, including technology like the Internet.

An article on The Register provides information about the 19 -year-old now being charged with Economic Espionage for giving away DirecTV secrets for financial gain of third parties.

An article on SlashDot details the conundrum for one provider of free material who sees the DMCA as his only choice in stopping the misuse of his material.

CNet reports that federal court Judge Stephen Wilson has handed down a decision that correctly points out that the responsibility for using a file sharing service illegally lies with the user, not with the file sharing service. "Defendants distribute and support software, the users of which can and do choose …

According to an article in the Washington Post, Verizon has failed to receive a stay against a previous ruling that will require them to hand over the names of a couple of P2P file sharing users in the next 14 days. The only hope for the preservation of the right …

OK, call me a bit paranoid and overly dramatic, but the idea of suggesting that "all shall be enrolled" this close to Easter is just a bit amusing for my tastes. Good thing it wasn't Christmas. An article in Wired about comments made by British scientist Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys …

One futurist thinks it may well be if we don't all act together to prevent it. An article from Wired details some of the concerns about how the current political process is on the road to turning "users back in to consumers" and what that will mean to the end …

Another dark day in what is becoming a dark year for privacy advocates. An article on CNet reports that the US Government has once again sided with the Recording Industry Association of America in yet another example of dissolving rights to privacy in this country. At issue is the appeal …

The US Federal Trade Commission has begun the process of going after a porn spammer who has amassed about 50,000 complaints (while apparently making about $1M in commissions) by sending spam with misleading subject lines. This is the latest in a series of spam-related actions taken by the FTC …

The Washington Post reports in this article that the new Department of Homeland Security has announced their choice for Privacy Czar as Nuala O'Connor Kelly, former Double-Click Privacy Officer.

Titled "Cisco Support for Lawful Intercept In IP Networks", the IETF draft describes a mechanism to provide for "Lawful Intercept" (read wiretapping) in VoIP networks. Although it is supposed to only be used where authorized by legal authorities in a jurisdiction, significant questions arise on the internet where phone calls …

An article in The Register is reporting that a graduate student at the University of Michigan is moving his dissertation work offshore to servers outside of United States and to prevent access to the information from users coming from the United States, due to threats that his work may be …

Finnish cellular telephone manufacturer Nokia is planning on releasing a camera in the US this summer that will send its output directly to cellular telephones. Using the GSM (Global System for Mobile) system, the camera will respond to text messages by sending camera pictures to the sender's phone. An article …

An article in EETimes discusses comments made by Whitfield Diffe and Ronald Rivest about Microsoft's Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (formerly Palladium). They raise concerns about what this kind of "security" will mean in terms of computer and software ownership and other important issues. Diffe, in particular commented that this approach …

A great article from MacObserver tells the tale of Alan Ralsky, a purveyor of not-so-fine Spam who received a real-world dose of his own medicine. It appears that after a recent article about Alan, people started signing him up for physical junk mail and the post office has been delivering …