Koozie Notes

Trial Transcripts: Capitol Records vs. Thomas [RIAA]

As posted on Slashdot,  the court transcript of Capitol Records vs. Thomas is now available to peruse online.

Transcript, October 2, 2007, pp. 1-278
Transcript, October 3, 2007, pp. 280-543
Transcript, October 4, 2007, pp. 544-643

--Chris

Texas Requires Computer Repair Shops and Techs to obtain PI License

The Institute for Justice has filed a lawsuit on behalf of computer repair shops who are being told they must have a Private Investigator License to preform certain types of computer repair.  Others are covering this story as well.

•     Lawsuit says every repair technician in Texas must have private investigator's license

•     Licenses are obtained with criminal justice degree or 3 year apprenticeship

•     Violators can face up to a 4K fine and 1 year in jail

Slashdot has some good discussion on the issue, and cite the actual content of the Texas Law.  I'm sure we will here more of this in the future.

-Chris

*UPDATE* 10 JUL 2008

Slashdot has a new post with updates on this issue. 

But rooting around in the guts of a computer to discover the cause of a malware infection is different from rooting around in the guts of a computer to discover infidelity.  However, instead of making the criteria of “investigation” the purpose and use to which the information could be put, the law makes the criteria the way that the information is stored – “computer-based data not available to the public.”  The end result is that the net was cast too widely.

-Chris

Groklaw Covers Sony's Root Kit

Looks like pj devoted a new 'SONY' section of her web site, groklaw, to cover the legal proceedings generated from Sony's decision to include DRM/Root Kit software on their audio CD's.

Mark Russinovich over at SysInternals wrote a piece covering the geeky technical details.

Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte covered this material in episode 12 of their podcast, "Security Now."  Review the transcript for details.

-Chris

Laws and IT

Network World posted a short article titled, "Under the Gun: Compliance with new security and privacy regulations falls squarely on IT departments." They also posted a synopsis on 6 laws and their effects on IT.

-Chris

3 Federal Laws and IT

Just finished reading a long article by Sean Doherty titled, "Feds Reach Out and Touch IT." [ PDF ]

Sean covers all the Federal Regulations like HIPAA, GLBA, and Sarbanes-Oxley. This is the best article I've read that explains how these different laws interact with your IT department.

-Chris

RMS on SCO

RMS speaks on the SCO vs IBM debate.

I love the last line, Our community cannot be defeated by this.

-Chris

Reporting Security Breaches

Starting in July, the state of California will require businesses to notify customers of any security breaches. Ouch, this is going to hurt.

The law states the breach data must contain last name and first initial or last name and first name in combination with one of the three items listed below:

1. SSN
2. California Driver License of ID card number
3. Credit Card number and associated pass codes

I still remember the case involving a college student who pulled valid SSNs off the University of Texas web site. He captured valid SSNs by trying every possible SSN combination (brute force).

-Chris

Lessig Request


From: Lawrence Lessig <lessig@pobox.com>
To: a7 <lessig@pobox.com>
Subject: <no subject>
Date: 03 Jun 2003 08:38:51 -0700

Hello person-whose-email-address-is-in-my-addressbook:

It is my birthday and I have a favor to ask.

If you are permitted -- by law or conscience -- to sign a petition, I'd be
grateful if you would look at:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/eldred/petition.html

This cause has taken 4 years of my life. I would be extremely happy if you
could consider signing it to help us push it along a bit more. If you're a
supporter, I'd be even more grateful if you could pester others to sign as
well. And if you're not, or can't, or don't know who I am, then sorry for
the intrusion.


Posted at 10:02 AM in Law | Permalink | Comments (0)