MPAA v. 2600 - Brief of Amici Curiae in Support of Appellants and Reversal of the Judgment Below
SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT

It cannot seriously be argued that any form of computer code may be regulated without reference to First Amendment doctrine. The path from idea to human language to source code to object code is a continuum. As one moves from one to the other, the levels of precision and, arguably, abstraction increase, as does the level of training necessary to discern the idea from the expression. Not everyone can understand each of these forms. Only English speakers will understand English formulations. Principally those familiar with the particular programming language will understand the source code expression. And only a relatively small number of skilled programmers and computer scientists will understand the machine readable object code. But each form expresses the same idea, albeit in different ways.
http://cryptome.org/mpaa-v-2600-bac.htm

Does an Anti-Piracy Plan Quash the First Amendment?
The fair use doctrine under copyright law permits uncompensated use of copyrighted works in some circumstances, such as in teaching, research and news gathering. Thanks to fair use, a reporter can quote portions of a newsworthy letter in an article and a scholar can use parts of a poem in a dissertation.

But there's a related question that has never been settled by the courts: Does fair use, which has its roots in the First Amendment, entitle the scholar, reporter or others to gain access to the copyrighted work in the first place -- -- especially when the material is guarded by a technological device designed to prevent digital piracy?
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/27/technology/27CYBERLAW.html?pagewanted=all

When Online Hearsay Intrudes on Real Life
"It's becoming harder and harder to draw a distinction between the real world and the virtual world," said Lauren Weinstein, creator of an online discussion group called the Privacy Forum. "They've become so intertwined now that most of the same problems and risks that we associate with the real world are coming from the virtual side — and a whole lot of them that nobody thought of."
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/technology/22GOOG.html?pagewanted=all

News: Security expert: 'We are losing the battle'
"The future of Internet security is not very good," Schneier said. "New methods are being invented, new tricks, and every year it gets worse. We are not breaking even. We are losing the battle."

The reason not to panic, Schneier says, is that we have to accept the poor state of security and work to mitigate the risk of attacks rather than try to prevent attacks altogether -- an impossible task.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2705973,00.html

DMNews.com | News | Article
Six months after Direct Marketing Association president/CEO H. Robert Wientzen announced a multimillion-dollar privacy consumer education campaign, the effort has yet to see daylight.
http://dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=14558

DSL Modem Flaw Could Jeopardize Network Security - CERT
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/164401.html

FSB: Bush to Small Biz: Share the Load
In the 2002 budget that President George W. Bush formally submitted to Congress on April 9, the SBA's funding was slashed by $360.5 million to $539 million. He plans to achieve some of that savings via an old Clinton-administration cost-cutting theme: cutting subsidies for 7(a) guaranteed loans and having lenders and loan recipients make up the difference by paying higher fees.

The President's plan would also cut federal funds provided to the nation's network of Small Business Development Centers and introduce fees of $10.75 to $11.00 an hour for counseling provided to small firms by an SBDC counselor, after a free first hour. President Bill Clinton had also tried to assess new counseling fees in the past, but Congress enacted legislation in 1997 that barred that move. So a new law would be required to allow the new SBDC fees to be imposed. Federal funding of the SBDCs is matched by state money.
Other cost-cutting measures proposed by Bush include moving certain disaster-assistance programs to other federal agencies.
http://www.fsb.com/fortunesb/articles/0,2227,1555,00.html

FSB: Win the Loan You Need
The annals of small business history are filled with stories of entrepreneurs who got turned down by banker after banker for a loan. Getting the big brush off is almost a rite of passage.

But it doesn't have to be that way. By understanding how the lending process works, you can fast track your loan application. Use this arsenal of advice to position your company to get the credit you need.
http://www.fsb.com/fortunesb/articles/0,2227,1552,00.html

Spirits maker serving free start-up cash - Tech News - CNET.com
Scotch whisky maker Johnnie Walker's Keep Walking Fund will award a total of $500,000 in grants to entrepreneurs, organizations and individuals in September.

The fund plans to give up to $100,000 per grant recipient. And while that amount may be small compared with the investments companies would receive from angel investors or venture investors, entrepreneurs will not have to give up any equity in their companies.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-5578314.html?tag=cd_mh

FSB: Attract New Business Now
Just because the economy is uncertain, it doesn't mean you can't continue to grow your business. With a solid game plan, you can insulate your company—and your bottom line—from the ups and downs of the stock market.

Direct Marketing Diva: The Art of Winning Referrals
Get your customers to send new accounts your way.

Net Guys: Expand Your Customer base
Use the Internet to reach consumers around the world.

Net Guys: Direct marketing for the Internet Age
Put these powerhouse techniques to work for your business.
http://www.fsb.com/fortunesb/articles/0,2227,1558,00.html

Fortune.com
1. Household E-Budget Crunch
2. Rebirth of Voice
3. Going for Rapid Returns
4. The End of Privacy
5. Gigabit Ethernet Rocks
6. eBay
7. Stick With Storage
8. Wireless E-Mail
9. The Three-Network Web
10. Beyond the Box
http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?doc_id=200846&channel=artcol.jhtml&_DARGS=%2Ffragments%2Ffrg_morestories.jhtml.1_A&_DAV=artcol.jhtml

Law Professor Sees Hazard in Personalized News
Filtering software will allow consumers to create a personalized media diet catering to their tastes, the forecasters contend. Whether it be a steady stream of world news, baseball statistics or politically conservative editorials, intelligent filtering software will make focused information delivery possible.

The ease and speed with which citizens get information in the digital era expands democracy, he argues, but the Internet simultaneously makes it all too easy to customize media experiences, narrowing readers' minds and souls.

"Democracy requires at least two things: that people have common spaces where they can share experiences some of the time, and that people have unanticipated, un-chosen exposures to ideas and other people," Sunstein, 46, said recently …
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/13/technology/13CYBERLAW.html?pagewanted=all

ZDNet: Story: Protect yourself! A pair of lethal viruses lurks on the horizon
One of the earliest, and most famous, virus to damage a PC's BIOS is Chernobyl, or CIH. The CIH virus, triggered on the anniversary date of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, April 26, infected more than a million PCs in Korea and resulted in more than $250 million in damages. Be aware. CIH is still around, and its second anniversary is in two weeks.

Similar to CIH is another virus called Kriz. Triggered on December 25, Kriz clears the information in the BIOS. If you have the Kriz virus, Symantec has a tool to remove it. Even if you don't have Kriz, its threat still lingers. This past December, several antivirus companies noticed that Kriz had piggybacked with other, newer viruses such as Bymer. That's yet another reason to keep your antivirus signature files up to date.

Now there's a more sophisticated virus called Magistr. Because it is a mass mailer, like Melissa, Magistr can spread quickly. Since it changes its subject, body, and attached file names with each new infection, Magistr can also be tricky for antivirus software to detect. What started as a trickle of reports worldwide has become a steady stream. Within the last month and half, Magistr has climbed from obscurity to the penultimate position on the MessageLabs top threats list.
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2706608,00.html

Mass Victimization Net Crime Not Far Off - Gartner Mass victimization crime, or online theft from thousands of people simultaneously by one individual, is less than two years away and the perpetrator will probably get away with it, researchers predict.

Such global online theft is inevitable via converging technologies and poorly equipped international law enforcement authorities, according to Gartner Inc. [NYSE:IT]

"Using mundane, readily available technologies that have already been deployed by both legitimate and illegitimate businesses, cybercriminals can now surreptitiously steal millions of dollars, a few dollars at a time, from millions of individuals simultaneously," Gartner Research Fellow Richard Hunter said in a news release. "Moreover, they are very likely to get away with the crime."
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/163928.html

For Some Reason Black Unemployment Always Iis and Always Has Been Twice White Unemployment

Job Loss in March Biggest in 9 Years
The unemployment rate took another tick upward, to 4.3 percent from 4.2 percent in February and 3.9 percent in October, as the Labor Department's job figures, announced yesterday, finally reflected the parade of layoffs and hiring freezes since last fall. Job losses in March, as they have been for months, were concentrated in manufacturing. But this time, job gains elsewhere were no longer sufficient to offset the cutbacks.

Blacks are suffering the most from rising unemployment. Their unemployment rate was 8.6 percent in March and averaged 8.1 percent in the first quarter, up from 7.5 percent in the fourth quarter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/07/business/07ECON.html?pagewanted=all

Top 25 Most E-Mailed Articles From the New York Times Most popular articles sent by NYTimes.com readers in the last 24 hours.
http://ea.nytimes.com/cgi-bin/poppage

The trouble is, these filters are dumb: they can't tell the difference between a sexual solicitation sent by e-mail and a news story about restrictions on online pornography or between a computer virus and a story about a computer virus.

Compressed Data: Law Newsletter Has to Sneak Past Filters
There is nothing wrong with David Carney's spell-checker. It is on purpose that in his e-mail newsletter, Tech Law Journal, he misspells words like sex (sez) and pornography (pormography) and camouflages the names of computer viruses. If he did not, he explained last week in an editor's note, his journal would never get past the computers at readers' offices that screen incoming e-mail messages for references to sex or network security.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/02/technology/02FILT.html?pagewanted=all

Medical Fees Are Often Higher for Patients Without Insurance
A New York gynecologist says he gets $25 for a routine exam for a woman insured by Group Health Insurance and charges $175 for the same exam for a woman without insurance.

"It's horribly ironic," said Paul Menzel, a professor of philosophy at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash. The care of the poor once was supported by the wealthy and the insured, but now the opposite is happening, he said. "It is the people who are most provided for, not the people who are least provided for, who get the benefit of cost-shifting," Professor Menzel said.

In a medical emergency, uninsured people can get care, even if they walk away from their bills. But if it is not an emergency, doctors and hospitals may insist on payment, often requiring a deposit in advance. As a result, some uninsured people struggle for years to pay medical bills and others put off seeing a doctor until minor problems become major ones.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/02/national/02INSU.html?pagewanted=all