Add this to the ridiculousness permitted by the DMCA.
Security warning draws DMCA threat
By Declan McCullagh
WASHINGTON–Hewlett Packard has found a new club to use to pound researchers who unearth flaws in the company’s software: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Invoking both the controversial 1998 DMCA and computer crime laws, HP has threatened to sue a team of researchers who publicized a vulnerability in the company’s Tru64 Unix operating system.
…Now you don’t. I agree with the creators of this software. Thomas Jefferson said it well. (Paraphrased) Those who would give up freedom for security deserve neither.
Hackers Tackle Censorship With New Tool
By Kim Zetter
Camera/Shy encrypts messages into images, intended for political dissidents but useful for any secrets.
The steganography tool, to be released on Saturday at the H2K2 hacker convention in New York City, will let users hide encrypted text within any gif image placed on a Web page. But critics say the tool can also be used by criminals and terrorists to disguise communication or plans for illegal activity.
Flaws in U.S. Air War Left Hundreds of Civilians Dead
The American air campaign in Afghanistan, based on a high-tech, out-of-harm’s-way strategy, has produced a pattern of mistakes that have killed hundreds of Afghan civilians. On-site reviews of 11 locations where airstrikes killed as many as 400 civilians suggest that American commanders have sometimes relied on mistaken information from local Afghans. Also, the Americans’ preference for airstrikes instead of riskier ground operations has cut off a way of checking the accuracy of the intelligence. The reviews, over a six-month period, found that the Pentagon’s use of overwhelming force meant that even when truly military targets were located, civilians were sometimes killed. The 11 sites visited accounted for many of the principal places where Afghans and human rights groups claim that civilians have been killed.
On personal and religious grounds, I do not support homosexual marriage, but I do not believe secular nations should legislate against them. Besides, it solves a lot of same-sex benefits problems.
Court ruling favors gay marriage
Tom Musbach
Canada took a major step toward legally recognizing same-sex marriage on Friday when an Ontario court ruled that to do otherwise is unconstitutional.
A three-judge panel of the Ontario Superior Court decided that granting marriage licenses only to heterosexual couples violates Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
According to the Associated Press, the court also ordered the federal Parliament to officially redefine “marriage” within the next two years. Current federal law defines marriage as “a union between one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.”
I, for one, whole-heartedly support the cigarette tax. I consider it a tax on stupidity. Anybody stupid enough to risk cancer, emphesema, and other nastiness and rude enough to expose others to it, deserves to pay and arm and a leg for their death-sticks. (NOTE: My grandfather died after a decade of misery that resulted directly from 50+ years of smoking. Depsite this, his sons still smoke.) If nicotine really is as addictive as smokers will say when confronted about their stupid habit (and I suspect it is), then it should be a controlled substance.
States Brace for Cigarette Backlash
By DAVID CRARY
"As state after deficit-ridden state ratchets up cigarette taxes, authorities are bracing for some unwelcome consequences in the form of more aggressive smuggling and bolder use of the Internet as a tax-evading tobacco shop."
"Never before have so many states — 17 this year alone — approved cigarette-tax hikes in such a short time. Anti-smoking advocates call it a win-win situation, enabling states to reduce smoking and budget deficits simultaneously."