NewsScan Daily, 13 October 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 13 October 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Supreme Court Turns Down Internet Piracy Case
        FDA Approves Medical Microchips
        7-Eleven Tests Wireless Inventory System
        What the World Needs Is More Lawyer-Bots
        Chinese Government Nixes Naming Son '@'

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Max Planck

SUPREME COURT TURNS DOWN INTERNET PIRACY CASE
      The Recording Industry Association of America has lost a round in its 
ongoing efforts to use the courts in its battle against online music 
piracy. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down a request to settle a 
dispute over whether Internet service providers can be forced to identify 
subscribers accused of illegally swapping music and video files. Lawyers 
for Verizon, which had sought to keep subscribers' information private, 
argued that the recording industry has been quite successful in going after 
people who trade copyrighted works, having sued more than 3,000 alleged 
infringers in the past 10 months. The issue turns on the provisions of the 
1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Law, which was written before the problem 
of file-swapping was common. An appeals court earlier ruled that it's up to 
Congress, not the courts, to expand the law to cover popular file-sharing 
networks. This latest decision is separate from a petition filed last week 
by the recording industry asking the Supreme Court to hold Grokster and 
Streamcast Networks responsible for their customers' file-swapping 
activities. (AP/Washington Post 12 Oct 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26513-2004Oct12.html>

FDA APPROVES MEDICAL MICROCHIPS
      The Food and Drug Administration has okayed an implantable radio 
frequency microchip that can transmit information on a patient's medical 
history to doctors in the event of an emergency. VeriChips, made by Applied 
Digital Solutions, are already in use as a way to track wayward pets and 
livestock, and nearly 200 people working in Mexico's attorney general's 
office have had the chips implanted in order to access secure areas. The 
tiny chips, which are embedded under the skin with a syringe, are 
programmed with a code similar to the UPC codes on retail goods, which 
releases patient-specific information on such issues as allergies and prior 
treatments when scanned. (AP 13 Oct 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041013/D85MJ8I83.html>

7-ELEVEN TESTS WIRELESS INVENTORY SYSTEM
      Prompted by the example of Wal-Mart, convenience store giant 7-Eleven 
is testing a wireless system in 10 Dallas-area stores that enable managers 
to scan shelves using a handheld device and instantly order products that 
need replenishing. Many retailers already use point-of-sale systems that 
deduct sold items from an overall inventory list, but 7-Eleven officials 
say the handheld computer takes the process one step further. The device, 
made by NEC, features software that helps predict demand for perishable 
food -- from sandwiches to milk -- by taking factors such as the weather 
forecast into account. Rainy days produce sales slumps, while hot weather 
triggers a run on Slurpees. Balancing supply and demand in the margin-thin 
world of food stores is critical, according to a 2002 study by Emory 
University, which estimated stores lose 4% of potential sales because they 
run out of items consumers want. (AP/SiliconValley.com 13 Oct 2004)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/9907516.htm>

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS IS MORE LAWYER-BOTS
      Mark Rasch, founder and former head of the U.S. Justice Department's 
computer crimes unit, says that the increasing trend toward lengthy, 
tiny-font policy "agreements" that users must click on before they can 
access a Web site are generating the need for more legal oversight. 
"Increasingly, companies have been putting some pretty nasty things into 
their clickwrap agreements -- such as that they can collect and sell your 
detailed personal information or install software that will capture your 
every keystroke… This is not legal boilerplate, the kind that everybody 
assents to when renting a car or buying a ticket to a ball game. It affects 
the privacy, security, and operability of all of the information you access 
online." Rasch says what's desperately needed is a law robot -- "a 
browser-based automaton that could be adjusted to match your tolerance for 
legal mumbo-jumbo… Once you establish privacy settings, your browser would 
transfer personal data (after prompting you) only to sites that conform 
with your privacy requirements." Rasch says such technology would go a long 
way toward eradicating such online nuisances as porn spam and spyware. "We 
will never fully automate the reading of contracts or agreements online. 
Nor would we want to -- after all, Internet lawyers need jobs, too. But by 
automating the vetting of clickwraps or implied agreements we could make 
everybody sleep a little easier." (Wired.com Oct 2004)
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/view.html?pg=2>

CHINESE GOVERNMENT NIXES NAMING SON '@'
      A father in China's Zhengzhou province has been denied permission to 
name his son "@" because it cannot be translated into Mandarin, as the law 
requires. The father had argued that the symbol is in common use on 
keyboards and should be acceptable. The attempt reflects parents' global 
penchant for saddling their progeny with silly monikers -- earlier this 
year a couple in Holland, Michigan insisted on naming their son Jon Blake 
Cusack Version 2.0. As The Register noted at the time, "Jon and his wife 
will certainly be spending many a sleepless night debugging little Jon 
Blake Cusack Version 2.0 and -- in about 16 years' time -- having a pretty 
hard time explaining to their unfortunate offspring whose bright idea this 
was in the first place." (The Register 12 Oct 2004)
<http://www.theregister.com/2004/10/12/no_at_for_chinese/>

*****

FLASH CARD
      "No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy 
days." (Max Planck)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: MAX PLANCK
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the German theoretical physicist Max 
Planck (1858-1947), who originated the quantum theory that revolutionized 
the field of physics by introducing the concept that radiant energy is 
absorbed or emitted in tiny irreducible bits called quanta.
      Planck's work, for which he was awarded the 1918 Nobel Prize for 
physics, marked the transition between classical and modern physics that 
occurred in 1900. His concept of energy quanta disagreed with the 
prevailing view that energy flowed continuously. That view, however, could 
not explain the absorption and emission of energy by matter. Planck's 
theory accounted for this phenomenon, and he demonstrated that a quantum of 
radiant energy could be measured by multiplying the frequency of the 
radiant energy (v) by a universal constant, now known as Planck's constant. 
Thus, Planck's formula relates the relative coolness of a red flame 
compared to a more energetic blue flame to the fact that red light has a 
lower frequency than blue light.
      Acceptance of the Planck concept of the quantum came first with its 
use in Einstein's prediction of the photoelectric effect in 1905, and then 
with Bohr's successful theory of the electronic structure of atoms in 1913. 
By the 1920s, Planck and others had made quantum mechanics -- the name 
given to mathematical analyses involving quanta --  indispensable for 
addressing the problems of modern physics which exceeded the reach of 
nineteenth century classical physics.
      Planck was born in Kiel, Germany, where his father was a professor of 
civil law at the university there. When Planck was nine years old, his 
father received an appointment at the University of Munich, and Planck 
entered the Munich's renowned Maximilian Gymnasium, where he excelled in 
all subjects, though when he went on to university studies, he chose 
physics over classical philology or music, two of his other interests. He 
did, however, keep alive his talent for music, becoming a competent pianist.
      He also loved the outdoors, taking long walks each day and hiking and 
climbing in the mountains on vacations, even in advanced old age.
     Planck entered the University of Munich in 1874, later transferring to 
the University of Berlin, where he completed his doctorate in 1879, at the 
youthful age of 21. He then went to Kiel, becoming a professor there in 
1885. A move to Berlin in 1888 followed.
      In 1930 he became president of Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Society; but 
in 1937 he was forced to resign because of his protest over the Nazis' 
treatment of Jewish scientists. However, at the end of the Second World War 
the Society was renamed the Max Planck Society and moved to Göttingen, with 
Planck reappointed president. Planck's son Erwin was executed for his part 
in the July 1944 plot against Hitler. Yet, some scientists, including his 
friend Einstein, faulted Planck for not being firmer in his opposition to 
Hitler.

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