Новости за 13.10.2016

In a rather quick turnaround, the EFF has had its brief [PDF] it filed under seal in September unsealed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief challenges the FBI's use of gag orders with its National Security Letters -- the administrative subpoenas the FBI issues to recipients without having to run them by a judge.

The New York Times editorial board speculates on where we're going from here following President Obama's not-doing-much-until-forced-to approach to surveillance and surveillance reform. Two candidates -- neither of them improvements -- are roughly a month away from one of them taking the nation's top office. As the Times' board points out, there's not much in it for anyone hoping the incoming White House will push forward with more reform efforts or better oversight.

With wireless and fixed-line broadband growth slowing, Verizon has been steadily expanding into new growth territories to try and please insatiable investors. So far, that apparently includes buying failed 90s internet brands like Yahoo and AOL in the belief that it can somehow become a Millennial advertising juggernaut. Except that hasn't been going particularly well, as the stodgy old telco realizes that it's kind of hard to innovate when you've spent the last thirty years bumbling about as a government-pampered... Читать дальше...

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So, last year, we wrote about the ridiculous situation in which the heirs of Abbott and Costello had sued for copyright infringement over a broadway play, Hand to God. In that play, which is a dark drama, and not a comedy, about a puppeteer, there's a scene in which the puppeteer performs a bit of the famous "Who's On First?" routine with puppets. The district court wasted little time in dumping the lawsuit. As we detailed in our first post, the copyright issues here were already somewhat complex for a variety of reasons. Читать дальше...

The US Chamber of Commerce is somewhat infamous for its dishonest and misleading claims about copyright, which are often so ridiculous as to be laughable. But, even then, I wasn't expected the following:

Millions watched the presidential #debates on illegal streams. The harmful #piracy trend must end.https://t.co/uDNrHqWVms

Guess who's bringing back "broken windows" policing!

The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) is sounding the alarm over a recent deal between Netflix and iPic, in which the luxury-theater chain will screen 10 movies simultaneously with their release on the streaming service.

You would think that a theater owners' association would represent theater owners first, rather than the studios that have long battled any sort of innovation/disruption in its windowed release schedules. Читать дальше...

We've noted several times how launching cyberwar (or real war) on Russia over the recent spike in hack attacks is a notably idiotic idea. One, the United States effectively wrote the book on hacking other countries causing all manner of harm (hello, Stuxnet), making the narrative that we're somehow defending our honor from shady international operatives foundationally incorrect. And two, any hacker worth his or her salt either doesn't leave footprints advertising their presence, or may conduct false... Читать дальше...

Techdirt has been writing about the apparently unstoppable introduction of the Aadhaar identity card system in India for some time. Judging by this article on Global Voices, it seems that India's eastern neighbor, Bangladesh, has not noticed the serious problems that are emerging with the idea: On October 2, the Bangladeshi government inaugurated Smart National ID cards (NID) as part of their Digital Bangladesh initiative, aiming to distribute the cards to 100 million people in Bangladesh. As with Aadhaar... Читать дальше...

A couple of months ago, a study was released claiming to show a link between body camera use and a rise in shootings by officers. The small increase in shootings in 2015 -- an increase that wasn't shown in 2013 and 2014 -- could be nothing more than a normal deviation, but it was portrayed by the authors as something a bit more sinister.

A court order demanding the retention of digital evidence morphed into the worst-case scenario for a defendant in a Canadian "breach of confidence" lawsuit. Even though the defendant's actions were ultimately deemed lawful, the intended effect of the questioned action was undone by the judicial discussion of them.