NewsScan Daily, 3 October 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 3 October 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Homeland Security Seeks Better Tracking System for H1-B Workers
        Digital Rights Management
        Senator Seeks to Reduce File-Sharing Fines
        U. of Florida Pulls the Plug on P2P Users
        Napster to Make a Comeback
        Storage Firm Plans to Go Digital

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Do Scientists Deserve To Be Trusted?

HOMELAND SECURITY SEEKS BETTER TRACKING SYSTEM FOR H1-B WORKERS
A report by the General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of 
Congress, says that the Homeland Security Department needs to keep track of 
when foreign high-tech workers with H-1B visas enter and leave the country, 
and to develop rules limiting the length of time workers who lose their 
jobs are allowed to remain in the country. According to the GAO, "much of 
the information needed to effectively oversee the H-1B visa program is not 
available." The Homeland Security Department agreed with the 
recommendations and is in the process of changing the systems used to track 
the foreign workers. (AP/San Jose Mercury News 2 Oct 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6918370.htm

DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT
In Amsterdam, a film technology group called MPEG LA says it wants to 
collect all essential patents that can protect digitized music and movies 
in order to create new content-distribution models over the Internet. The 
problem is that at present it is often not known which companies own all 
the relevant patents, and the uncertainty is discouraging film and music 
publishers from selling their products in new digital ways. MPEG LA hopes 
that by early in 2004 it will have collected all essential digital rights 
management (DRM) patents, so that it can begin licensing them later that 
year. (Reuters/USA Today 3 Oct 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-10-02-patent-pool_x.htm

SENATOR SEEKS TO REDUCE FILE-SHARING FINES
Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) says the penalties currently on the books 
for downloading copyrighted music are too stiff and he will sponsor 
legislation to reduce them. "I can tell you that $150,000 per song is not 
reasonable, and that's technically what you can put in front of somebody. 
That forces people to settle when they may want to fight, but they're 
thinking, 'goodness, gracious, what am I going to face?'" Coleman says he 
will also push for changes in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act 
that would restrict the recording industry's subpoena power, instituting a 
judicial review process which currently is unnecessary. Coleman's 
recommendations come as a followup to a high-profile congressional hearing 
on the subject that included representatives of the recording and 
file-sharing industries as well as rappers LL Cool J and Chuck D. (AP 3 Oct 
2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031003/D7TUMLP80.html

U. OF FLORIDA PULLS THE PLUG ON P2P USERS
Students returning to the University of Florida this fall have discovered a 
new utility on the school network: Icarus (Integrated Computer Application 
for Recognizing User Services), a open-source program developed by campus 
personnel to thwart students' obsession with peer-to-peer file-sharing. 
Last spring, the university received about 40 notices of copyright 
violations per month and at peak times 90% of all the traffic on the 
housing network was P2P. "We needed something to stem the flow. We were 
spending too much time tracking people down," says Robert Bird, supervisor 
of network services for UF's housing department, who reports that the debut 
of Icarus has reduced P2P use by 90%. When students first register on the 
UF network, they must pledge not to share copyright files. Icarus then 
scans their computer, flags any worms, viruses or file-sharing software, 
and gives instructions on how to disable those programs. First-time 
offenders receive a pop-up warning and are disconnected from the campus 
network for 30 minutes, but a repeat performance results in being 
disconnected for five days. Third-time violators are subject to the 
school's judicial process and are cut off form the network indefinitely. 
The new system has some students grumbling, but most seem resigned to the 
new restrictions. "While file-sharing is nice, it's not worth risking 
college or your future," says one. (Wired.com 3 Oct 2003)
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,60613,00.html

NAPSTER TO MAKE A COMEBACK
Napster, the digital file-swapping service that had 60 million active users 
at the time court rulings caused it to go out of business, is planning to 
relaunch next week as a legitimate music subscription service. The relaunch 
will be made in a "star-studded gala in New York City" by Roxio, the 
company that acquired Napster's software last year for $19 million. (Beta 
News 3 Oct 2003)
http://www.betanews.com/article.php3?sid=1065173091

STORAGE FIRM PLANS TO GO DIGITAL
Iron Mountain, the world's largest paper-records storage firm, is planning 
a digital-records archiving operation that chairman and CEO Richard Reese 
hopes will be "a couple-of-hundred million dollar business in five years." 
Iron Mountain estimates revenues from its hard copy storage business at 
about $1.5 billion this year. Reese says the growing demand for digital 
storage is fueled by the record-keeping provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley 
bill and by litigation that requires companies to produce e-mail and 
instant-message traffic. Many companies routinely archive such traffic on 
tapes, but it's very time-consuming and expensive to manually retrieve 
specific e-mail messages in response to a subpoena, whereas data stored on 
a disk drive can be searched via keywords. Iron Mountain plans to store 
back-up digital records on computers at its underground site in 
Pennsylvania. (Wall Street Journal 2 Oct 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106511213899945100,00.html (sub req'd)

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Only he is an artist who can make a riddle out of a solution." (Karl 
Kraus)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: DO SCIENTISTS DESERVE TO BE TRUSTED
      Neuroscientist Colin Blakemore began his term as chief executive of 
the UK Medical Research Council by addressing the issue of public trust in 
science:
      "I think if you ask, 'Do you trust scientists?' in general, the MORI 
[Market and Opinion Research International] poll figures are rock solid 
with about two thirds of people saying, 'Yes,' as they have done for 6 or 7 
years.
      "But what is clear -- and I think this is a very healthy sign -- is 
that the public qualify their trust according to the type of scientist and 
the issue on which scientists are speaking. They trust academics, and 
particularly -- curiously! -- professors, more than they trust government 
scientists, and them more than they trust industry scientists.
      "But the distinctions among these groups are not as clear as the 
public would like to believe, particularly as university scientists come 
under pressure to exploit their observations and discoveries.
      "The trend towards consultancies, start-up companies, and protecting 
intellectual property and so on is important for the economy of the 
country, but it does produce a dilemma that there are very few truly 
objective scientists left, who have no other motive than the purity of 
scientific evidence. Yet it is exactly those people that the public want to 
turn to most."
      [Source: Robert Walgate reporting in The Scientist Daily News on 
October 1, 2003.]
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20031001/05/

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