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EFF and Stanford Law School to the rescue against DirecTV »

Jun 16, 2004 - 03:03 UTC »

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Dan Gillmor
DirecTV Reins in the Legal Attack Dogs
In one of the uglier "intellectual property" abuses, DirecTV has been suing people for possession of tools it claims can be used to get TV shows without paying for them. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society have challenged the satellite TV company on this conduct, and on Monday DirecTV agreed to modify its approach, according to this press release, which says in part:
The company will no longer pursue people solely for purchasing smart card readers, writers, general-purpose programmers, and general-purpose emulators. It will maintain this policy into the forseeable future and file lawsuits only against people it suspects of actually pirating its satellite signal. DirecTV will, however, continue to investigate purchasers of devices that are often primarily designed for satellite signal interception, nicknamed “bootloaders” and “unloopers.”
DirecTV also agreed to change its pre-lawsuit demand letters to explain in detail how innocent recipients can get DirecTV to drop their cases. The company also promised that it will investigate every substantive claim of innocence it receives. If purchasers provide sufficient evidence demonstrating that they did not use their devices for signal theft, DirecTV will dismiss their cases. EFF and CIS will monitor reports of this process to confirm that innocent device purchasers are having their cases dismissed.
Perhaps DirecTV saw some writing on the wall. On Tuesday, a federal appeals court has ruled that the company can't sue solely because someone possesses such equipment.

These are the kinds of stories that make me sometimes wish I lived in America. Good job EFF and Stanford Law School.

Cracking Iranian codes »

Joichi Ito

Jun 15, 2004 - 22:48 UTC »

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Bruce Schneier has written an interesting article discussing the accusation of Ahmed Chalabi of informing Iran that the US had broken its codes and when Iran knew that the NSA was cracking their codes. He digs into the history of Crypto AG, the NSA and Iran. He links to an article about Hans Buehler, the Crypto AG salesman who was arrested by Iran in 1992 on suspicion that Crypto AG had installed back doors in its encryption machines. There is no conclusion, but this story reminds me of Crytonomicon and the interesting world of information, misinformation and spying.

My new Nokia 7610 »

Joichi Ito

Jun 15, 2004 - 15:49 UTC »

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Got a new Nokia 7610. Short review on my stuff blog.

Talk at Nokia Connection 2004 »

Joichi Ito

Jun 14, 2004 - 20:24 UTC »

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Nokia asked me to be a guest speaker at their annual press event, Nokia Connection 2004. I was the only outside speaker and they told me I could say what I wanted. What a treat. ;-)

A summary of my presentation:

sharing++ open++ customer_oriented++ user_empowering++ blogs ++

DRM-- "pipes"-- "terminal devices"-- traditional_marketing--

Rebecca blogging about Japan on WEF blog »

Joichi Ito

Jun 14, 2004 - 05:25 UTC »

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Rebecca is blogging from about the Japan sessions at the World Economic Forum meeting going on right now in Seoul. The theme seems to be about recovery. This year at Davos, I was in the audience and Rebecca was moderating a similar panel. Unfortunately, I'm not there this time to heckle. ;-)

Rebecca blogs:

World Economic Forum Blog
... However he [Takenaka] also said that further agressive reforms are necessary if Japan is to pull itself fully and completely out of its decade-long economic slump. He said that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is fully committed to such aggressive reform.

[...]

Takenaka concludes: "There is no excuse to postpone the reform, or to stop the reform at this moment." He says the greatest fundamental danger to economic expansion is a "kind of complacency." People who say that further reforms are unnecessary because the economy has improved are "totally wrong." Japan, he says, now has an opportunity to create a "virtuous cycle" of reform and growth.

[...]

At the Annual Meeting in Davos this past January, I moderated a panel titled Making Japan's Recovery Last . Panelists were generally optimistic that the recovery could be sustained, as long as the government continued with structural reforms. However some members of the audience including venture capitalist and WEF GLT Joi Ito expressed concern that the economic upturn would be used as an excuse not to forge ahead with tough reforms. It appears that Takenaka is determined not to let that happen. He says he has the Prime Minister's support. But what about the rest of the Japanese bureaucracy?

I hope Takenaka is right. I'm still quite concerned that economic recovery will cause people to be complacent about reform, but as Rebecca points out, the drivers for the current recovery might be different from the past. I suppose that if Takenaka and Koizumi continue to focus on this aggressive reform at home, we might have a chance.

See you later Sweden »

Joichi Ito

Jun 13, 2004 - 21:33 UTC »

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Thanks Maja, Per and Max for your incredible hospitality. Totally amazing visit with the perfect balance of chilling, business and touring around Stockholm and the archipelago.

It was also nice meeting Ludovic, Erik, Dimo, Jon, Kim, David, and Roine at the meetup today. (Did I miss anyone?) Thanks for the overview of the Swedish Net community. Look forward to seeing more blogs from Sweden soon!

At the airport on my way back to Helsinki now...

Congratulations Alan! »

Joichi Ito

Jun 13, 2004 - 00:55 UTC »

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Congratulations to Alan Kay for being awarded the 2004 Kyoto Prize in addition to the ACM Turing Prize and the NAE Draper Prize earlier. He's really "cleaning up" this year. This is cool. He deserves it.

Hope this helps the Squeak project too!

more info on the Kyoto Prize

EFF Patent Busting Project »

Joichi Ito

Jun 12, 2004 - 18:43 UTC »

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Help EFF stamp out stupid patents! Know of any stupid patents being used to hurt the little guys? Send them to the EFF. What a great project.

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Enter the Patent Busting Contest!

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Patent Busting Project is here to protect you from dangerously bad patents. And you can help us pick which patents we're going to bust first!

We're currently seeking nominations for ten patents that deserve to be revoked because they are invalid. Sadly, we don't have the resources to challenge every stupid patent out there. In order to qualify for our ten most-wanted list, a patent must be software or Internet-related and there must be a good reason to suspect that the patent claims are invalid. We're especially interested in patents that target tools of free expression, such as streaming media, blogging tools, and voice over IP (VoIP) technology. Most importantly, the patent-holder must be aggressively enforcing its patent and suing (or threatening to sue) alleged infringers. We're particularly interested in cases where the patent-holder is trying to force small businesses, individuals, nonprofits, and consumers to pay licensing fees. Deadline to enter is June 23.

On June 30, the Patent Busting Project's team of tough lawyers and brainy geeks will announce the contest winners – or losers, depending on how you look at it. And that's when the real fight for great justice begins. We'll be needing your help to research prior art for each patent and offer your technical expertise or historical knowledge. Using a legal process called "reexamination," the Patent Busting Project will ultimately go to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and attempt to take those bad patents off the books.

via Boing Boing

Suit Filed to Unlock Mobile Phones »

Joichi Ito

Jun 12, 2004 - 17:45 UTC »

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Dan Gillmor blogs about a suit filed by a consumer group against mobile phone carriers which "lock" phones. The argument by the mobile carriers is that they subsidize part of the cost of the phone and therefore have the right to now allow customers to use the phone with other carriers. Dan makes some good arguments about why this may be a red herring. It will be interesting to see how this suit turns out.

In the mean time, a quick Google search will provide links to lots of people offering services and information about unlocking phones.

From a Japanese perspective, I'm quite envious that at least you're using open standards and have the option of unlocking phones. We can't even imagine using our current Docomo phones on any other network.

24 Hour Dotcom »

Joichi Ito

Jun 12, 2004 - 16:52 UTC »

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24 Hour Dotcom
Creating a Dotcom in 24 Hours
Right now we are at the Wizards of OS conference in Berlin to make a performance art/business project. The mission is to create a dotcom business from scratch in 24 hours. That means designing and programming a complete and useful web application, recruiting people, doing marketing, creating investment programs and much more. After 24 hours, the complete business will be sold on an eBay auction, and everyone involved will be rich!

Funny real-time project going on right now. ;-)

Joi Ito's Web

Joi Ito's conversation with the living web.

EFF and Stanford Law School to the rescue against DirecTV »

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Cracking Iranian codes »

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My new Nokia 7610 »

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Talk at Nokia Connection 2004 »

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Rebecca blogging about Japan on WEF blog »

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See you later Sweden »

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Congratulations Alan! »

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EFF Patent Busting Project »

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Suit Filed to Unlock Mobile Phones »

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24 Hour Dotcom »

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