Piracy: looking at IP in other ways

three articles in a week to remind us that we have to rethink IP because of the new technologies, the same way printing forced us to rethink IP. Interestingly enough, Sage publishers are conducting a survey online about open access journals: whether people are in favour of it and on which terms (free of charge or pay to publish type of model)

"EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Admits That 'Piracy' Has Created The Market That Legislators Did Not", TechDirt, 11 May 2010

Swedish Police Say Anti-Piracy Law Has Harmed Ability To Catch Criminals (TechDirt, 18 May 2010)

"Does Intellectual Property Go Against Traditional Views Of Knowledge In India?", TechDirt, 14 May 2010

Circulation of information and saving of

The Economist On Why Copyright Needs To Return To Its Roots (TechDirt, 20 April 2010). The argument is that the Statute of Queen Anne granted copyrights for only 14 or 21 or 28 years maximum. It was not during the artist/writer's lifetime. Well, I would like to introduce a nuance here: the life expectation of people was probably at the time around 40 years old. If one writes the book in their twenties and one adds 14 years, that is roughly 34 minimum, so prettry much the author's lifetime. What is true though, is that the limited period made it impossible to transfer the copyrights to the descendents/heirs.
for life expectancy: http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/abstract/population/vital/c_heights1.html which cites a book

Related to this is the post on TechDirt. The clip is cleverly made, but I am still not convince completely by it. No one has ever been able to copy what one wants without 1) acknowledging the author..., 2) in some cases (commercial use mostly), ask permission from the author. So yes copying can be theft, but not always. "Copying Is Not Theft" (techDirt, 15 April 2010)
Incidentally, acknowledging an author was not an inherent practice to writers. It started when the library of Alexandria opened and started to collect 'books'. They needed to reference the books and started to enquire about their authors... In parallel, in order to get all the books of the world at the time, the scribs did not hesitate to copy the books without permission and then they would reference them.
See also: "Content Creation Is An Evolutionary Process" (TechDirt, 22 February 2010) and the more recent post: "Innovation By Imitation: Study Shows That Success Comes From Imitation" (TechDirt, 22 April 2010)
and the very interesting comment/analysis of another's post: "Understanding What's Scarce And What's Not..." TechDirt, 09 February 2010

The Library of Congress seems to want to save all Twitter feeds on the grounds that ordinary people participate, giving historians a unique insight into day-to-day moods and understanding of issues. Not bad, but I wonder to which extent: it violates privacy, it is that useful for historians. Library Of Congress To Store Your Inane Twitter Chatter For All Eternity (TechDirt, 16 April 2010)

Virtual worlds and theft

Apparently, somebody has been arrested for theft for hacking into accounts, use avatars and steal the virtual possessions. "Real-world arrest for man who stole RuneScape virtual characters" (Times, 30 November 2009)
For disapproval, "If You Gain Unauthorized Access To A Character In A Virtual World, Is It Theft?" (TechDirt, 01 December 2009)
Contra: "Is virtual boom our industrial revolution?" (TheGuardian, 10 September 2009)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/sep/09/victor-keegan-virtual-world-revolution

Facebook again: bad and good uses

Yes, Bad People Use Facebook Too (TechDirt, 17 november 2009)

Three Economic Nobel Laureates In A Row Recognizing Power Of Infinite Goods | Techdirt

Three Economic Nobel Laureates In A Row Recognizing Power Of Infinite Goods | Techdirt: "Three Economic Nobel Laureates In A Row Recognizing Power Of Infinite Goods"

Diversity of access to computers/information

URL website based to distribute malware:
Trojan swipes money from your banking site (ZDNet.co.uk, 30 september 2009)

with a similar method:
Facebook closes fake profiles spreading malware (ZDnet.co.uk, 2 oct 2009)
Fake Outlook Web Access update sets malware trap (ZDnet.co.uk, 16 October 2009)

Un botnet s'attaque aux résultats de recherche des moteurs (JDN, 05 October 2009) with a botnet allowing fraud/spread of malware resulting from clicks on results from search engines, the click redirecting towards a website. See its English version, Botnet click fraud hits a high (ZDnet.co.uk, 23 October 2009)

Access/use of webmail accounts
Phishing attack hits thousands of Hotmail accounts (ZDnet.co.uk, 06 october 2009)
and a resurgence of the 419 scams! Washington Post Says Economy Is Bad... No, Good... No, Bad For Nigerian 419 Scammers (TechDirt, 10 August 2009)

Hacked web mail accounts used to send spam (ZDnet.co.uk, 09 October 2009)

hacking in the US

Three indicted in largest-ever US hacking prosecution (ZDnet.co.uk, 18 August 2009)

with one of them pleading guilty to ID theft

Hacker pleads guilty to ID thefts worth millions (ZDnet.co.uk, 2009)

Report on privacy in social networking

The national privacy watchdogs (often administrative authorities) produced a report on privacy and social networking. They are particularly concerned about the level of disclosure and the lack of prior consent of all parties involved, whether what is disclosed are pictures, details of life in writing or videos. They recommend that whoever posts information, notably pictures, obtains prior consent of people involved or face exclusion from the social network.
Given that the basis of those networks is to share information, often without consent, the recommendation would be a blow to those technologies. I personally think it is not the way forward; rather, we should differentiate between those participating in the network and those not participating. Those in, by the fact of subscribing, should have a opt-out; those not in should have an opt-in.
More sensible is the recommendation that social networks warn clearly and extensively at the level of disclosure faced by their users and how that information could be used against them or their family and friends.

See the summary on Euractiv
http://www.euractiv.com/fr/societe-information/vie-prive-rseaux-sociaux-online-loupe-ue/article-183506

For the report itself, Article 29 Data Protection Working Party

It is worth comparing with the 2007 report from ENISA, the rather silent EU agency on cyber issues, Enisa Position Paper EU agency for network and information security suggests updating legislation to face new social networking-related risks (25 October 2007)

Twitter; ID fraud

The story runs as follow. Account was opened in Twitter under La Russa; it was a fake account. Some claimed that under threat of lawsuit, Twitter (the company) closed the account and donated money to charity. Twitter denied the story.
Two things spring to mind. Is the fake account doing any harm, for example by impersonating a real life person so well one could not easily guess what was true and false? if so, civil law at least applies and Twitter can delete the account. However, there should be court proceedings rather than threats and bullying.
"La Russa & The AP Claims Twitter Settled Lawsuit... Twitter Sets The Record Straight
"French Law has actually taking the step of making it an offence, with a maximum of one year emprisonment, following a few MPs whose name have been 'abused'. "Loppsi : 1 an de prison pour la fraude à l'identité sur Internet" (Numerama, 27 May 2009)

Then, this affair/case seems a matter of education of people and companies on the internet.

"Lifelock Found To Be Illegally Placing Fraud Alerts On Credit Profiles" (TechDirt)

"So-Called 'Friendly Fraud' On The Rise" (TechDirt 27 May 2009)

Theft/acces to confidential data

BT researchers bought on e-bay 300 hard drives and checked their data content. The results are surprising and scary: 34% of the drives contain data easily identifiable to real persons or companies, some contained high security data such as log in of the French ambassador in Germany or information about US firms making missiles.
I can't believe people are silly enough to sell on e-bay disks that have not been reformated with complete erasure of data, especially in high-risk domains.

"Des disques durs d'occasion très bavards sur eBay" (JDN, 13 May 2009)

And it is no better when data is not even encrypted like the Royal Air Force's data!
Vols de données dans l'armée de l'air britannique (JDN, 28 May 2009)

"Hacked ATMs let criminals steal cash, PINs" (ZDnet.co.uk, 5 June 2009)

criminal law - some patterns of theft disappear

Self-explanatory - US based (FBI) "Car Stereo Theft Doesn't Pay What It Used To" (TechDirt, 27 March 2009)

Social-networking and rise of crime

Not a surprise really as people on those sites simply do not understand that they scream to the world private information they would not allow their enemy to hold. Criminal law can help, as the case about spam illustrates, but surely education is a better tool and should be a better way to spend the taxpayer's money.
"Facebook Wins Nearly $1 Billion From Spammer Who Will Never Pay Up" (TechDirt, 25 November 2008)

"Social-networking sites concern cyber-security experts" (CCRN, 30 December 2008)

Avatar, copyrights and money

Not at first sight a criminal law problem but nonetheless related. To ask for copyrights for art copied to create an avatar; what about the reverse?

Artist Demands $500 From Guy For Using His Image As An Avatar (November 2008)

Second Life - Real economy on virtual property?

Second Life hit by the financial crisis? yes, well possible because the so-called virtual currency of LInden Dollars has nothing virtual but it's name as long as you can exchange it against US Dollars. Now that's interesting because what about Second Life regulated by the FSA or the European agency that may be created? and what about bankruptcy laws???
On Second Thought, Maybe Second Life Does Need A Bailout, (30th October 2008 - Tech Dirt)

Virtual worlds - real law

Just the beginning of the problems with virtual worlds: why applying real laws and which laws? Tax and laws linked with money, it's easy: those virtual worlds produce real economics, so no point in hiding being the notion of "virtual" world. Next is what about criminal law and criminal procedure? China Sends Tax Collectors Into Online Worlds (3 November 2008)

Theft and security measures - analogies with the past

I like this post for this is where I start my seminar on theft in cyberspace: the analogy with the security measures of the past. "Gartner: Authentication systems are 'fatally flawed' "http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/articles/0,1000001991,39486978,00.htm?r=1 (12 september 2008)
By the way, the clarity with which Gartner describes the system of authentication is chilling and I still can't understand why it's there and has not been replaced by something better.

Tangible/intangible? digital goods' nature at stake

Given that the debate in criminal law always turns towards the tangible/intangible nature of what is stolen, deceived..., this proposal from a Californian politician is quite interesting, although at first sight it does not concern criminal law, but simply tax law.

"California Lawmaker Wants To Change Law To Tax iTunes; Pretending Infinite Goods Are Tangible" (9 April 2008) http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080408/152311789.shtml

ownership - ISPs

I do not know to which extent the following article could influence cybercrime, but at least the thought is there. The title on TechDirt is intriguing: "Ownership Doesn't Always Mean Control" (21st March 2008) because common assumption is to associate ownership with complete control on what is owned. What it means for ISPs is unclear: on the one hand, they do have control; on the other hand, they don't control everything...

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080305/052101445.shtml

Fraud and identity theft

Stealing identities of persons who are unlikely to notice anything is not new. Dead people are an obvious target; but children or babies are also unvoluntarily good candidates. The article is US based, but I can't help making the link with the theft of the CD-Roms from the HM Customs and Excise at the end of last year 2007, where social security numbers of children were involved I reckon... "Stealing credit from a baby" (12 march 2008) http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080312/023601513.shtml

Theft and corporations

Nothing new really; corporate espionage is thriving and can be done in many ways: hacking, developing spywares, phishing with e-mail appearing genuine, and other legal (although ethical problematic) methods like Google hacking, i.e. using Google search features to obtain maximum information.
The interest of the article really lies in those factual descriptions of the different methods used. "Corporate espionage: Not if, but when" (12 March 2008)
http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/articles/features/0,1000002000,39365959,00.htm