Fergus Cassidy

MONDAY 27 JANUARY 2003 01.30 (GMT)
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One of my favourite Irish sites at Boards.ie have added a new discussion group on Privacy and Civil Liberties. The board has been opened to facilitate the formation of a campaigning group to uphold digital and online rights.

A recent survey from the Data Commissioner's office showed that people place a high priority on privacy and that fears of invasion were on the increase.

The situation in Ireland is bordering on farcical, especially when it comes to communications over the internet. From workplace monitoring to ISP logging, it seems that once you go online your rights are thrown out the window.

A group is badly needed to inform and campaign on these issues. So if you can get involved head over to the Boards.ie group and lend your support. They're a friendly lot and you'll be made very welcome.

WEDNESDAY 22 JANUARY 2003 01.30 (GMT)
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While a lot of people are familiar with the 'Nigerian funds' email scam, a recent case in the US reveals that there are people who continue to be tempted by the lure of easy money.

According to an Associated Press report, a husband and wife were arrested last week in White Plains, New York, on fraud charges.

After handing over various 'deposits' to the couple, a businessman who responded to one of the infamous emails, was finally told to go to La Guardia airport where he handed over a final $34,000 'deposit'. He was then given a trunk full of black paper cut in the shape of currency and was told that if a chemical was added to the paper it would be revealed to be money.

MORE INFO: Associated Press

TUESDAY 14 JANUARY 2003 [23.30 GMT]
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In Ireland, the recent introduction of the requirement for all drivers to carry their driving licence when they are driving, has been viewed as the first stop on the road to identity cards for the whole population.

Rather than leave the driving licence in the car - for fear of it being stolen - many drivers will just leave it in a wallet, purse or whatever. Inevitably, many drivers will carry it on them all the time. Hey presto, a driving licence morphs into an identity card.

For a litttle flavour of the consequences of identity cards by the back door, it's worth taking a look at an upcoming court case in the United States. John Gilmore, co-founder of the online rights' organisation the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is suing attorney general John Ashcroft and various other agences.

In his submission to the District Court of California he's asking "for a declaration from the court that would overturn the unconstitutional requirement that US persons must show ID to travel throughout the US'.

He outlined further: 'Not only airplanes, but trains, buses, cruise ships, and major hotel chains are now enforcing ID requirements, largely at the behest of the Federal Government'.

Getting back to Ireland, if a sizeable section of the population (ie motorists) are obliged to carry some form of identity, is it only a matter of time before identity cards are in more widespread use?

MORE INFO: Gilmore submission

MONDAY 13 JANUARY 2003 23.45 GMT
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The renowned Mitch Kapoor is on the record as saying that "the first use for any new communications technology is sex". That was in 1992.

Ten years on, 'Kapoor's Law' still holds up. The London Guardian ran a story today which said that "Mobile phone companies are turning to soft porn in a bid to recoup the billions they have splashed out on third generation licences."

WEDNESDAY 8 JANUARY 2003 [23.45 GMT]
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Reports today on a right good screw up between European and United States copyright laws. European and Canadian laws provide copyright protection to sound recordings for 50 years only. In the US it's 95 years. This means there's no copyright infringement, in Europe or Canada, when downloading music recorded before or around the 1950s. That should give the record companies a good dose of the Blues. More on Cnet.com

WEDS 26 FEBRUARY 2003 01.45 (GMT)
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PIONEER GOES SILENT...
Nasa has announced that more than 30 years after it was launched, the Pioneer 10 spacecraft has sent its last signal to Earth. At last contact in late January, Pioneer 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth, or 82 times the nominal distance between the Sun and the Earth.

Dr Colleen Hartman, director of NASA's Solar System Exploration Division, said: "Pioneer 10 was a pioneer in the true sense of the word. After it passed Mars on its long journey into deep space, it was venturing into places where nothing built by humanity had ever gone before. It ranks among the most historic as well as the most scientifically rich exploration missions ever undertaken".

SOURCE Nasa

SUNDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2003 02.45 GMT
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PRIVACY...
Steve Alexander of the Star Tribune reports that Minnesota's attempt to bring in an internet privacy law from March 1 is running into opposition, mainly from national ISPs. The pioneering new law allows individuals to request details on what personal information is kept about them by ISPs, including details of web sites visited. Full article is here

TUESDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2003 01.45 GMT
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LEST WE FORGET...
The quote below from Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichsmarshall and Luftwaffe-Chief, is currently doing the rounds through email and sig files. It does not appear in transcripts of the Nuremberg trials, but it was made to Gustave Gilbert, a German-speaking intelligence officer and psychologist who was granted access to prisoners. Gilbert kept a journal of his observations which were later published in his book Nuremberg Diary [Gilbert GM, New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1947 pp. 278-279]. This excerpt was part of a conversation with Goering held on 18 April 1946.

We got around to the subject of war again and I [Gilbert] said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.

"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood.

"But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.

There is one difference, I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

LINK: Snopes Urban Legends

SUNDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2003 01.45 GMT
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When non-military aircraft are used to transport military personnel, the safety of civilian travellers could be compromised

THE United States of America has started to call up civilian aircraft to transport military personnel to the Gulf region. As from last Monday, the Pentagon said that 11 US airlines had been called up under Stage 1 of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF).

According to the US Department of Defence (DoD) this mobilisation will make available 47 passenger aircraft and 31 cargo planes for military use. The passenger aircraft belong to some of the biggest names in US aviation including American Airlines, Delta and Continental.

Aircraft used in the continuing mobilisation will not carry any military markings and will be indistinguishable from civilian planes. This could pose an increasing security risk to all US transatlantic aircraft - civilian and military.

CRAF was set up in 1951 and is an agreement between the US Department of Defence and the airline companies, who contractually pledge to move passengers and cargo when the DoD's airlift requirements exceeds the capability of US military aircraft.

The last mobilisation was for Operation Desert Shield/Storm in 1990/1991. Military analysts have estimated that CRAF contributes about 50% of the US Transportation Command airlift capability.

According to the US Air Mobility Command, there are three stages of mobilisation of civilian aircraft: Stage 1 is for minor regional crises; Stage 2 (used in 1990) would be used for a major theatre war and State 3 (never used) for periods of national mobilisation. This last stage allows for the call-up of up to 400 civilian aircraft.

General Tony Robertson of Air Mobility Command told Air Force Print News that during Operation Desert Storm "we activated 117 aircraft from CRAF which flew 20% of the total strategic airlift missions. The cost was $1.3bn versus maintaining a military fleet at a cost of $4-5bn".

Although the scheme is a voluntary one, the US government has offered incentives to airlines to ensure their cooperation in the event of a call-up. Those incentives include peace time airlift business for airlines that pledge to make planes available for CRAF.

For the fiscal year 2003, the guaranteed portion of the DoD contract is $394m. It is estimated that the DoD will also award over $224m in additional business that is not guaranteed. Since September 11, and the severe travel downturn, there have been no shortage of airlines willing to pledge for those contracts.

To join CRAF, carriers must maintain minimum long-range international fleet commitment levels (30% for passenger and 15% for cargo). Aircraft must be US registered, capable of overwater operations and must have at least 3,500 nautical mile range.

Carriers must also commit and maintain at least four complete cockpit crews for each aircraft. Flight attendants must also be provided. As of last month, 33 carriers and 927 aircraft had enrolled in the scheme. Airlines are also compensated on a passenger-per-mile basis.


SOURCES: US DoD press release (10 February). Current fact sheet on the Civil Reserve Air Fleet from the US Air Force. More on CRAF from the Illinois Business Journal

SATURDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2003 20.30 GMT
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PRINT AND WEB...
One of the differences between online and offline publishing is with archiving and permanent records. A story appearing in an offline publication cannot be changed, but not so on the web.

The only thing a newspaper, or any print publication, can do if a mistake is made in a story, is to issue a correction or apology at a later date. But the original story will remain in national archives, libraries etc indefinitely.

On the web, once a mistake is discovered it can be rectified and updated instantly. There's also a way of making sure no pages are ever archived and so there would be no record of the mistake.

But once a story is printed it's out there and can't ever be changed, and I find that kind of pressure keeps me on my toes. Well most of the thyme.

ON MESSAGE...
After a bomb went off in a shopping mall in Finland last October, there was much public debate on the existence of bomb-related discussion groups on the internet, and on the possible role these might have played in the actions of the young man responsible.

Responding to that debate, the Finnish parliament looked to pass legislation providing much stronger powers to regulate content on the net, including making site owners responsible for content on their sites.

This would have had serious consequences for message boards in particular, as board site owers would have to monitor every single posting. Opponents of such legislation said that message boards would close or move outside of Finland.

However, a working party set up to examine the situation recently found in favour of continued self-regulation. According to Helsingin Sanomat, a Finnish national daily newspaper, the working party report advised "that anonymity of expression and movement around the net should be preserved".

MONDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2003 01.30 GMT
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HEAVY LIFTING...
In a Reuters report last Saturday, the British government acknowledged that large sections of its most recent report on Iraq, praised by US Secretary of State Colin Powell as "a fine paper" in his speech to the United Nations on Wednesday, had been lifted from magazines and academic journals.

Plagiarism seems to be becoming a bigger issue on the net these days. I noticed a robot in my site logs yesterday from TurnItIn.com, which describes itself as "the world's leading plagiarism prevention system, serving nearly 5 million students and educators worldwide".

Students of the world - watch out!

THIS WEEK'S SUNDAY TRIBUNE COLUMN...
... a proposed Irish data retention bill will have serious consequences for personal privacy.


SATURDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2003 21.30 GMT
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FAIR WELL?...
"What is fair use? Fair use is not a law. There's nothing in law."
- Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, interviewed in the current edition of the Harvard Political Review

GOLIATH WARNS ABOUT DAVID (AGAIN)...
IN a recent quarterly report filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Microsoft has once again reiterated the threat the company sees from open source software.

In the report to the SEC, Microsoft said that "the popularisation of the open source movement continues to pose a significant challenge to the company's business model... including recent efforts by proponents of the open source model to convince governments worldwide to mandate the use of open source software in their purchase and deployment of software products.

"To the extent the open source model gains increasing market acceptance, sales of the company's products may decline, the company may have to reduce the prices it charges for its products, and revenues and operating margins may consequently decline."

SOURCES:
ITWorld.com and InternetNews.com



TUESDAY 4 FEBRUARY 2003 [01.30 GMT]

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DOMAIN NAME...
JOHN PERRY BARLOW: "It occurred to me recently that I'd been a member of every counterculture that had been available throughout my conscious life.

"I started out as a teenage beatnik and then became a hippie and then became a cyberpunk. And now I'm still a member of the counterculture, but I don't know what to call that.

"And I'd been inclined to think that that was a good thing, because once the counterculture in America gets a name then the media can coopt it, and the advertising industry can turn it into a marketing foil.

"But you know, right now I'm not sure that it is a good thing, because we don't have any flag to rally around. Without a name there may be no coherent movement." In a recent and revealing interview with Tim Dickinson of MotherJones.com


SATURDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2003 [23.30 GMT]

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SPOOK YOURSELF...
"Scary. And beautiful. Magnificent, in fact. What we are seeing today on the web - discounting the plethora of corporate spew - is the emergence of ourselves as human beings discovering what it means to be human.

"If you're not doing that, do it. Spook yourself. If you're already spooked, don't quit now. We've only begun to scratch the surface. Why is the net getting so much pushback from the top-down hierarchies of power that freak if they can't control everything?

"Because it's working, that's why. We're giving ourselves permission to be outlaws." From Chris Locke's blog Ad Hominem

ON AOL/TIME WARNER...
"Convergence just might end up being the most expensive word in history." David Geffen, music producer

"What AOL understood was how to keep an online service alive for a few more years by leveraging the very platform that was sure to make the service obsolete." From Doc Searl's blog