contributed by Evil Wench
The Motion Picture Association has retained the services of the prestigious New York law firm of Proskauer Rose to handle its side of the DVD DeCSS case. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is still searching for a New York based firm that will handle the case without breaking the bank. The EFF is attempting to use 'open law' as one alternative but is having little success.

Wired

contributed by Weld Pond
Wireless Internet is the hot new feature in cell phone technology but some companies may be violating users privacy. Sprint PCS and possibly other companies embed users phone numbers inside the request for every page viewed. Sprint says that the use of phone numbers in this manner is clearly spelled out in its license agreement. (Look at the fine print, It's Huge!)

SF Gate

contributed by Evil Wench
Still in beta stages a new network known as Freenet hopes to provide even more privacy and anonymity to users. Without centralized control Freenet would have no IP addresses or DNS making it extremely difficult to censor information. With no way to identify users some advocates feel that the network would be a haven for software and multimedia pirates.

Wired
Freenet

contributed by Weld Pond
Two new bills are before congress that could have serious implications if passed. S2092 would get rid of the $5000 in damages limit before the FBI could investigate. It also authorizes a roving internet tap as well as lowering the age of an adult to 15. (Seems it was a problem proving any damages so lets just get rid of the limit! But if there are no damages shouldn'9t the crimes be treated as trespass which is a minor misdemeanor. If this passes someone can report someone has broken into their home PC but not damaged anything but the FBI has jurisdiction to investigate countrywide with a roving internet tap. Like they aren't overworked enough already.

Federal Register - via Cryptome

S2105 Would make it a crime to tamper with identification codes put in place by manufacturers. Disabling or changing such codes would be a crime. So changing a MAC address or disabling the PIII ID code would now be a crime.

Federal Register - via Cryptome

contributed by Aleph One
SecurityFocus.com, announced yesterday the addition of Kevin Poulsen as the company's editorial director. Poulsen has authored a weekly column on computer security for ZDTV, covering tech news for ZDNN, and contributed free lance articles for Computer Shopper and Wired Magazine. Kevin is probably best known for his illicit forays into the telephone network which turned him into a fugitive who was wanted by the FBI.

Security Focus