Legal

The many legal issues raised as media digitises

Identity Theft May Increase With New Technology
In a damning blow to the UK government’s love affair with identity cards, a British criminologist has warned that the new technology could actually increase, rather than solve, the problem of identity theft and fraud.
Dr Emily Finch, of the University of East Anglia in England said that identity cards and chip and pin technology for credit cards were unlikely to alleviate the problem, as fraudsters react with more creative responses.
Finch said that a growing dependence on technology was leading to a breakdown in individual vigilance, which remains the best protection against fraud and identity theft.
“There is a worrying assumption that advances in technology will provide the solution to identity theft whereas it is possible that they may actually aggravate the problem,” she told the British Association science conference.
As part of her research, Finch interviewed thieves, vagabonds, fraudsters and ne’er do wells and asked about the impact new technology may have on their nefarious activities.
Not surprisingly, she learned that fraudsters were tenacious blighters, who were ready and willing to change their methods to elude new security measures.
“Studying the way that individuals disclose sensitive information would be far more valuable in preventing identity fraud than the evolution of technologically advanced but ultimately fallible measures to prevent misuse of personal information after it has been obtained,” she added.
As we reported last month, a survey by Gallup revealed that almost a fifth of US consumers admitted falling victim to identity theft, although Finch said that there were sometimes less dodgy reasons for fraud and identify theft – sometimes people just wanted to start again with a new identity.
Focusing on the UK government’s proposed ID card scheme for its citizens, Finch said that the cards could potentially increase fraudulent behaviour,
“What fraudsters know about is human nature,” said Finch. “And they adapt to things like the Internet which provides an absolutely fantastic base to access personal information.”
Despite ministers insisting that national identity cards would counter terrorism, crime and illegal immigration, critics like the civil rights group liberty say that the scheme won’t tackle identity fraud, crime or any of the high-profile problems the Government has claimed they will address.
Finch also expressed doubts about chip and pin technology (which enables consumers to purchase goods by punching in a personal number rather than using a signature), saying that criminals may switch from watching an individual punch in the code and stealing the card, and just nabbing credit card application forms and getting new cards and numbers instead.
5 September, 2005
Warner Music To Launch E-Label
Warner Music Group has announced a new digital music distribution mechanism based on downloads rather than physical media like CDs.
Labelling the new mechanism an “e-label”, Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music’s chairman and CEO, told the Progress & Freedom Foundation conference that they were “trying to experiment with a new business model” to “see where it goes.”
With music download services raking in the cash and sales of CDs slipping, Bronfman proposed that e-label artists could churn out music in clusters of three songs every few months rather than a CD every few years.
With far lower production costs, Bronfman claimed that the e-label will give recording artists a “supportive, lower-risk environment” (I think this means “less cash from the record company”) without as much pressure for huge commercial hits – something that could benefit artists with a more “selective audience”.
Interestingly, Bronfman added that artists signed to the e-label will retain copyright and ownership of their master recordings.
“An artist is not required to have enough material for an album, only just enough to excite our ears,” Bronfman said at the conference.
Warming up to the theme of the relationship between technology companies and the entertainment industry, Bronfman reminded attendees at the conference that recorded music has long been influenced by the distribution technologies available – pop songs were traditionally restricted to around 3 minutes because that’s as much music as a 45 rpm record could hold, he said.
Hastily compensating for his brief bout of nostalgia, Bronfman let the gathered suits know that he was a 21st century guy, unleashing two buzzword laden bon mots in quick succession: “Technology shapes music;” “Music drives technology adoption.”
Bronfman called on the technology industry to work on digital rights management (DRM) standards, arguing that compulsory licensing – with support from P-to-P vendors – would set a price for downloaded music while forcing music companies to make their products available online to P-to-P users.
“As a content company, we quite naturally want devices out there that permit consumers to seamlessly access our music without having to worry about the compatibility of operating systems or DRMs,” he said.
“The consumers’ digital music experience should be as seamless and rewarding as possible, but we would be hypocrites to suggest that the government should force interoperability standards on devices while at the same time insisting there is no need for compulsory licensing.”
The latest figures from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, reveal that around 180 million songs were sold online in the first half of 2005, up from 57 million in the same period last year.
Warner Music Group
23 August, 2005
.xxx domain: US Gov Tells ICANN To Wait
Back in June this year, the .xxx domain appeared to be have been cleared by ICANN (Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers), the organisation that has control of domain names with world over.
Now Michael D. Gallagher from the US Department of Commerce (DoC) has now written to ICANN asking them to delay the ICANN Board of Directors wait for a week in what was to be a rubber-stamping of the final approval. Involvement of the US government with ICANN at this level is without precedence.
Gallagher sights nearly 6,000 letters and email from ‘concerned families’ that have been received to the DoC. In a country of over 296m people (assuming only US citizens have written in), 2.027e-5 is beyond a rounding error. It’s the rounding error of a rounding error.
We all know how easy it is to send an email – it takes seconds. And as the BBC found out when they received a flood of over 20,000 emails objecting to the showing of “Jerry Springer The Opera”. It’s no concern that very many of these mails were identical – as ‘the faithful’ from various religious groups were rounded up to form a virtual lynching posse.
The Bush administration doesn’t appear to have taken in to account any of this, and all of a sudden are interested in the views of the people. Wouldn’t it have been great if they’d listened to the view of the people before invading Iraq.
Gallagher’s letter draws to a close with, “Given the extent of the negative reaction, I request that the Board will provide process and adequate additional time for these concerns to be voiced and addresses before any additional action takes place on this issue.”
The Bush administration say that they have a concerns that the .xxx domains become a virtual red-light district, reserved exclusively for pornography.
Which way do you want it? Protecting those who don’t want to view porn, or not?
Porn on the Internet is a fact, and will not go away – just as porn in print will not vanish.
Surely it’s better to know where the porn is, rather than those not looking for it stumbling across it by accident.
Others see the creation of a separate TLD for ‘objectionable’ material as a step towards censorship of the Internet. Their concern is who becomes the arbiter of what is and isn’t ‘objectionable’, would a pencil drawing of nude be lumped in with hardcore porn, or would a slightly racy story be forced into the same category.
Is it just us, or do you feel that the steadily increasing involvement of Governments in areas which they really shouldn’t been getting involved with is a concern?
ICANN
17 August, 2005
Apple Cock-Up May Earn Microsoft $10 Per iPod
Apple may be forced to shell out royalties to Microsoft for every single iPod it sells after it emerged that Microsoft was first to file a crucial patent on technology used in its iPod.
With Apple selling more than 18 million iPods in the past year alone, the total bill could result in hundreds of millions of dollars pouring into Bill Gates’ coffers.
Someone at Apple must have royally cocked up because although the iPod was introduced in November 2001, they didn’t get around to filing a provisional patent application until July 2002, with a full application only being submitted in October that year.
In the meantime, Microsoft submitted an application in May 2002 to patent some key elements of music players, including song menu software, letting them claim ownership to some of the iPod technology.
The US Patent and Trademark Office rejected Apple’s application in July, saying some ideas were similar to an earlier application filed by John Platt, a Microsoft employee.
The application doesn’t identify the iPod by name (usual for such petitions), describing a “portable, pocket-sized multimedia asset player” capable of managing MP3 music files including “a song title, a song artist, a song album, a song length”
The dispute could lead to Apple having to pay a licence fee for the technology of up to $10 a machine
Microsoft, has magnanimously offered to licence the technology to Apple if awarded the patent with Microsoft intellectual property licensing and business development director David Kaefer smirking, “Our policy is to allow others to licence our patents so they can use our innovative methods in their products.”
Apple representatives have stated they will appeal the decision, a process that could drag on for up to 18 months.
iPod patent rejection shocks Apple
16 August, 2005
AOL Gives Away Spammer’s Bounty
AOL is giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars of gold, cash and goods seized from a spammer as a warning to anyone thinking of “making a living sending spam to AOL members”.
In a story sure to win the hearts of anyone who faces a daily deluge of spam, AOL will be dishing out nearly US$100,000 (£56,000, €80,550) worth of gold bars and cash along with a fully loaded Hummer H2 – all the former property of an email marketer.
The US internet giants scooped the bounty as part of a settlement against a New Hampshire resident in a lawsuit filed under the Can-Spam Act.
AOL sued the (then) 20 year old spammer in March 2004 after several months of investigation, accusing the spammer of making a career of mass mailing millions of messages offering “ephedra, male enhancement pills and other dubious products”.
The company said it managed to close down the dastardly spammer’s 40-computer enterprise thanks to help from its members, who enthusiastically clicked a “report spam button” to register their complaints.
The controversial Can-Spam Act provides Internet service providers with enough legal resources to get medieval on the outboxes of unsolicited e-mailers.
Under the Act, courts have the power to seize any property that a convicted spammer has obtained using money made through the offence, as well as grabbing computer equipment, software and technology used for illicit purposes.
AOL members and non-members living in the mainland US can sign up online for a chance at winning the goods until the 19 August, with the lucky winner announced shortly after.
“But this isn’t just a ‘thank you’ to members,” the company said in a statement. “It also serves as a message to anyone thinking of making a living sending spam to AOL members: AOL will find you and sue you.”
Thanks to its aggressive mo’fo’ antispam filters, AOL has claimed that spam on their servers has fallen by more than 85 percent since its peak in late 2003.
AOL hasn’t finished with the New Hampshire mob yet though, with one of the spammer’s co-conspirators – believed to have a cool US$500,000 (£277,450, €404,750) stashed away – declared the “next stop on our spammer treasure map,” according to company spokesman, Nicholas Graham.
The US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria has also issued a US$13m (£7.21m, €10.46m) judgment against other members of the New Hampshire resident’s gang.
AOL plans to donate the “high-end” computer equipment seized from the New Hampshire spammer to public schools near its headquarters in Northern Virginia.
It’s been a bad time for spammers recently, with Microsoft reaching a US$7m (£3.88m, €5.64m) settlement with former “spam king” Scott Richter, with the US$1m (£0.55m, €0.80m) of the payout being earmarked for community centres in New York and US$5m (£2.77m, €4.03m) being invested in efforts to fight Internet crime.
AOL Spam FAQ
AOL Spam Decisions and Litigation
11 August, 2005
Oz Gov Give Away Data; DRM Chips On Motherboards; Apple’s Mighty Mouse – Teenage Tech News Review
Australian Government Sells Servers Containing Confidential Information
Let’s start this week’s news with some nice, old-fashioned, technological paranoia: As a teenager, you start to realise that giving everyone your mobile number, letting people know where you live and freely handing out your email address can be a bad thing. Imagine my surprise then when I found out that the Australian government had sold 18 of its servers at a government auction, all carrying confidential information, without erasing any data from them. “Who did they sell these to?” I hear you ask … Well no, it’s not some big company, it’s an individual called Geoffrey Huntley, who has his own blog and who promptly wrote about the issue of these servers having confidential information on them at sale. Using a basic knowledge of AIX, the operating system these servers were running, it was then possible to access all the information on every server, including financial information and emails sent and received.
This sort of occurrence does make me think that it is unsafe to give anyone information, unless I know it is safe with them, as it could all too easily fall into the wrong hands. More must be done to safeguard people’s information in this age of hacking and phishing, where anything not bolted down to the virtual ground is electronically stolen by people who wish to use this information for profit.
The Australian government, it seems, has tried to hush the issue up, as the Web page that originally documented the sale of confidential information carrying servers has now been erased from Geoffrey Huntley’s blog, although it is still available, as above, from a mirroring service.
DRM on motherboards
As well as compromising people’s privacy, technology can also restrict people’s freedom: Everyone’s known it’s been coming for a long while, but DRM (Digital Right’s Management) chips have started to be incorporated into motherboards. Although at present these are only present in Apple’s new Intel developer machines, Windows looks set to follow suit in its next release and require these chips to be implemented. What these sort of chips do, is to enable applications to make sure that a file or program will only work on the computer which has the right DRM chip. If this sounds similar to the current ways of protecting intellectual property with serial numbers, then think again: These serial numbers will be built-in to computer’s mother boards, meaning that they cannot be changed. For me, this is quite a serious blow, as I like to have the freedom to choose what sort of media I want to play, and from where I get it. This sort of inflexible and likely uncircumventible control could also allow computer manufacturers to enforce people to use a certain OS or certain software. With Microsoft’s clout and their habit of making sure that manufacturers of computers are tied into an agreement of bundling Windows with their computers, they might also enforce them to bundle chips with their motherboards that make them only boot Windows. These upcoming technologies will doubtlessly hurt consumers, but it remains to be seen how restrictive they will be.
Mighty Mouse: Apple’s Multi-Button Mouse
In other news: After years of Apple thinking themselves obviously superior by having just the one mouse button, and after years of jokes about how Mac users are inferior because they can’t use more than the one button, Apple has gone back and decided to bring out a mouse with not one, not two, but three buttons, as well as a four way scroll wheel. They have called their mouse, quite simply, Mighty Mouse. What’s so special about this though, and what sets it apart from the hordes of multi-button, Mac-compatible mice out there on the market? The answer is, the mouse has no physical buttons at all! The mouse incorporates iPod-esque touch sensitive technology to make the mouse appear button-less, but still work just fine. Very nice. An earlier argument of many Mac-users was that having just one button on a mouse made computing more accessible to beginners and so called technology-virgins, and I can agree with that statement: Teaching my Mum to use a PC is still a work in progress, and she still asks which button to click. Teaching her to use a Mac, on the other hand, was simply a matter of telling her how to turn the machine on, and what her login password was. Anyway, the new mouse from Apple, having no physical buttons, is programmable to have either one, two or three buttons, meaning that users can specify, on a user-specific basis, which features of the mouse they would like to have, and which ones they would like to leave well alone. What this means, is that You, your Gran, and your Mum can all use the same computer with the same mouse, but still all have as many buttons as suits them and their computing abilities. The mouse should also work just fine with a Windows computer, although from personal experience, trying to use Windows with one mouse button is a bad experience!
9 August, 2005
Identity Theft Hits One In Five Americans
Almost a fifth of US consumers have admitted falling victim to identity theft, with younger adults at greatest risk, according to new figures.
The Experian-Gallup Personal Credit Index revealed that the young ‘uns were the most gullible, with twenty-five per cent of American consumers under the age of 30 admitting to having their financial information stolen.
This compared to about 18 per cent in the middle-aged group and just 11 per cent amongst the wise old silver surfers aged 65 and older.
Of course, this imbalance could just be reflecting younger consumers’ greater interaction with sites that require financial information to be input (e.g. e-bay, PayPal, iTunes, online merchandise etc).
“The public’s perception about how many consumers have suffered identity theft appears fairly accurate, according to the poll, with the median projected percentage at 15 per cent, not very far off from the 18 per cent measured in the poll,” observed Ed Ojdana, group president at Experian Interactive.
“This makes it all the more concerning that so few consumers are being proactive in protecting their information,” he finger-wagged.
Experian-Gallup found that around two-thirds of consumers who have yet to experience identity theft felt that it was unlikely to happen to them, with only six per cent taking the precaution of purchasing some form of identity theft protection.
An even smaller percentage – four per cent – had purchased identity theft insurance but then not bothered to check their bank to see whether anyone had been dipping into their hard earned savings.
Despite so few punters taking preventive action to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft, 62 per cent expressed concern that their financial information could be stolen online.
It wasn’t just online banking that got the punters fretting, with more than half worrying that their personal information could be stolen in the post (55 per cent) or at a shop (53 per cent) or while they’re filling their faces at a restaurant (47 per cent).
However, it’s worth bearing in mind that the company who commissioned the survey, Experian, are in the business of – would you believe it?! – selling protection against identity fraud.
Pinch of salt, anyone?
Experian
Preventing Identity Theft – a guide
5 August, 2005
Music File Sharers Spend The Most
Illegal music downloaders shell out more for legitimate music downloads than goody two-shoes music fans.
The results of the ‘2005 Speakerbox’ study by market researchers The Leading Question revealed that music fans who download music illegally via file-sharing networks also fork out four-and-a-half times more on legitimate music downloads than average fans.
The survey asked 600 British PC and mobile-owning British music fans about their downloading activities and discovered that music pirates spend substantially more on legally downloadable music through sites like Apple’s iTunes Music Store or Napster
According to the report, pirates who regularly download or share unlicensed music spend an average of £5.52 (~US$9.63, ~€7.99) per month on legal digital music, while average music fans only spend £1.27 (~US$2.21, ~€1.84) on digital tracks.
How much both groups spend on CDs wasn’t specified.
“Music fans who break piracy laws are highly valuable customers,” said Paul Brindley, director of The Leading Question.
“Legal actions are making something of an impact but unlicensed file sharing will never be eradicated. The smart response is to capitalise on the power of the p2p networks themselves to entice consumers into more attractive legal alternatives,” he added.
The research also revealed that illegal downloaders were mustard keen to try emerging music services, with 60% wanting to get their hands on a MP3-enabled phone, compared to just 29% of other music fans.
“There’s a myth that all illegal downloaders are mercenaries hell-bent on breaking the law in pursuit of free music,” Brindley continued. “In reality, they are often hardcore fans who are extremely enthusiastic about adopting paid-for services as long as they are suitably compelling.”
The survey highlighted that phones still have some way to go before they can compete with dedicated MP3 players as de-facto music playing devices.
Only 8% of punters surveyed were planning to buy a music playing mobile phone in the next 12 months, compared to 33% ready to rip out the readies for an iPod or dedicated MP3 player during the same period.
Respondents cited built-in cameras, organiser functions and video cameras above music players in their preferences for mobile phone features.
Punters expressed concern about the low battery life of music playing phones, with some fearful of losing their music collection if they lost their phone.
With many consumers getting their phones for nowt through contract deals – and often replacing them regularly – the survey concluded that most punters have a low “emotional attachment” to their phones.
Despite this, 38% of those surveyed liked the idea of downloading full-length tracks direct to their mobiles, with the figure rising to over 50% for punters already downloading tracks to their computers.
Mobile phone manufacturers trying to tempt new users with bigger onboard memory will note that only 4% of the survey respondents wanted more than 1,000 songs worth of music to take with them on holiday.
Online file sharers ‘buy more music’ [Guardian]
The Leading Edge
27 July, 2005
White PSP: Microsoft Patent Emoticons: Google Rule – News Catch-Up
Microsoft Wants To Own Emoticons
Microsoft has filed an application with the US Patent & Trademark Office to safeguard its rights on “methods and devices for creating and transferring custom emoticons.”
In case you’ve been living under a rock, emoticons are representations of faces made up by keyboard characters and originally all looked like this :) and :-/.
Nowadays, many mobile phones and computers automatically replace the text characters with an appropriate custom image when it spots emoticons in text messages and emails.
It’s far from clear what makes Microsoft think they should own Emoticons – there again, it’s never held them back before.
Microsoft’s patent application
Microsoft emoticons
Sony Whips Out A White PSP
Sony has confirmed that it will be launching a groovy white version of its PSP, but – surprise, surprise – only in Japan.
Sony has a long history of serving up different coloured units in different territories, with the PS2 being released in Aqua, White, Yellow and Silver in the past.
The company has also announced a firmware update (in Japan, natch) so that users can surf the Internet directly from the console.
Some techie users have already been enjoying Web access on their PSPs after a hack was discovered that took advantage of a hole in the operating system used by certain games.
There’s no date set for a US and European patch, although Japanese firmware updates traditionally precede roll-outs in other markets. Sony White PSP
Google Grabs 47% Of All Searches Online
Nielsen//NetRatings “MegaView Search” report has ranked Google as the Big Cheese of search engines, registering 47% of all searches conducted online.
Lagging some way behind was Yahoo! at 22%, with MSN limping into third place at 12% and AOL Search only managing a comparatively feeble 5% of all searches.
Image searching grew hugely in popularity across all the search engines, with MSN seeing the largest increase in its image searches with a massive 90% surge. AOL’s image search zipped up 74%, Yahoo!’s soared 55%, and Google’s jumped by a rather modest 12%. Nielsen//NetRatings
25 July, 2005
UK Wi-Fi Freeloader Fined £500
A British court has fined a man £500 ($870, €720) for using a residential wireless broadband connection without permission.
In what is believed to be the first conviction of its kind in the UK, a jury at Isleworth, Middlesex court found Gregory Straszkiewicz, 24, guilty of dishonestly obtaining an electronic communications service and possessing equipment for fraudulent use of a communications service.
The case was brought under the Communications Act 2003 with the Crown Prosecution Service saying he was guilty of ‘piggybacking’ a household wireless network.
Police officers nabbed Straszkiewicz after he was spotted by locals wandering around a residential area looking for “free” net connections.
He was reported to have attempted this several times before the Old Bill invited him for a date in the cells.
In addition to the fine, Straszkiewicz was also sentenced to a 12 months conditional discharge and had his laptop confiscated.
We have to say this seems a little harsh as there appears to be no evidence that there was any hostile motive behind his actions.
Earlier this month, we reported on a Florida man being arrested for a similar offence.
It remains unclear whether mobile Wi-Fi users accidentally connecting to another party’s unsecured, unencrypted connection would risk prosecution.
The fact that many cafes and bars now offer free Wi-Fi Web access surely make it difficult to enforce this law, although there’s clearly a different case to answer when individuals are persistently wandering around residential streets with their laptops flipped open.
As ever, the solution is simple, and that’s for people running Wi-Fi connections to use the encryption tools provided.
And if you don’t know how to do that, here’s a tutorial: Wireless Home Networking, Part III – Wi-Fi Security
25 July, 2005