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IP: Barbara Simons on (1) Copyright wars (2) Surveillance (4/10 UMBC)
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 08 Apr 2002 18:45:04 -0400
------ Forwarded Message From: tim finin <finin () cs umbc edu> Organization: HTTP://UMBC.EDU/ Date: Mon, 08 Apr 2002 18:28:47 -0400 To: farber () cis upenn edu Subject: Barbara Simons on (1) Copyright wars (2) Surveillance (4/10 UMBC) IPers in the Baltimore-DC area might be interested in these two talks by Barbara Simons (Stanford University, ACM) on Wednesday, April 10, which are part of the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) lecture series. For more information contact the host, Dr. Marie desJardins, mailto:mariedj () cs umbc edu, for directions see http://www.umbc.edu/aboutumbc/directions.html. Dr. Barbara Simons Stanford University THE COPYRIGHT WARS: COMPUTER SCIENTISTS ON THE FRONT LINES 1:00pm, Room 210-I, Engineering and Computer Science University of Maryland Baltimore County During the past year we have seen a Princeton computer science professor (Felten) threatened and a Russian computer scientist (Sklyarov) arrested because of research they and their colleagues had done to break copyright protection schemes. The legislation behind these actions is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA criminalizes technologies and technological devices that can be used to circumvent "a technological measure that effectively controls access to a [copyrighted] work." The law does not address issues such as the robustness of a technological measure. The publication of an analysis of flaws in a very weak and poorly designed technology that is supposed to control access to a copyrighted work could be considered a violation of the DMCA. Worse yet, the intent to circumvent copyright is not a requirement for being found in violation of the law. In other words, someone who has made no illegal copies of a copyrighted work and who intends for his or her work to be used only to better understand some aspect of science could be charged under the DMCA. I will discuss the DMCA and three legal cases: Felten, Sklyarov, and the 2600/DVD case, which is the first conviction under the DMCA. If there is time, I will also discuss two legislative proposals that are likely to come up in the next session of Congress: the database bill and a proposal to require hardware and software implementation of copyright protection mechanisms. SURVEILLANCE -- PAST AND PRESENT 4:00pm, Skylight Room, 3rd floor University Commons University of Maryland Baltimore County The recently passed USA-PATRIOT Act significantly increases the capability of law enforcement to monitor communications within the United States. According to President Bush, the PATRIOT Act "will help law enforcement to identify, to dismantle, to disrupt and to punish terrorists before they strike." He went on to say that "This new law that I sign today will allow surveillance of all communications used by terrorists, including e-mails, the Internet and cell phones." Civil libertarians and privacy advocates are concerned that the surveillance will not be limited to terrorists. In addition to allowing detention of non-U.S. citizens for seven days (and sometimes longer) without being charged with commission of a crime, the law as applied to citizens and non-citizens alike: o expands the ability of law enforcement to conduct electronic surveillance; o reduces privacy protections accorded to university students under the Family Education and Privacy Rights Act (FERPA); o allows government monitoring (without judicial authorization) of communications of "computer trespassers," even in some circumstances where the affected user has permission to use the computer system; o authorizes searches without notification to targeted individual so long as law enforcement has "reasonable cause to believe" that providing notice "may" ... "seriously jeopardize an investigation," in effect allowing police break-ins to private homes and offices. In addition to reviewing some of the provisions of the PATRIOT Act, I shall discuss some historical examples of inappropriate monitoring by federal and state officials. -- Barbara Simons was President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) from July 1998 until June 2000. She founded and co-chairs ACM's US Public Policy Committee (USACM). She is on the Board of Directors of the U.C. Berkeley Engineering Fund, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, as well as the Advisory Board of Zeroknowledge. Simons earned her Ph.D. in computer science from U.C. Berkeley, worked at IBM Research for many years, holds several patents, and has authored numerous technical papers. She is currently a consulting professor at Stanford University. Simons is a Fellow of ACM and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She received the Alumnus of the Year Award from the Berkeley Computer Science Department, the Norbert Wiener Award from CPSR, the Outstanding Contribution Award from ACM, and the Pioneer Award from EFF. She was selected by c|net as one of its 26 Internet "Visionaries" and by Open Computing as one of the "Top 100 Women in Computing." Science Magazine featured her in a special edition on women in science. Simons served on the President's Export Council's Subcommittee on Encryption and on the Information Technology Sector of the President's Council on the Year 2000 Conversion. She has testified before both the U.S. and the California legislatures and at government-sponsored hearings. She was runner-up in the first election for the North America seat on the ICANN Board. ------ End of Forwarded Message For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- IP: Barbara Simons on (1) Copyright wars (2) Surveillance (4/10 UMBC) Dave Farber (Apr 08)