The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

[walktalker]

Senator Wants Answers From RIAA
Sen. Norm Coleman is concerned the recording industry is taking an extreme approach in its attempt to quash online file trading and may hurt innocent people in the process. On Thursday, Coleman (R-Minn.), chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, asked the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA, to provide detailed information about the more than 900 subpoenas it has issued so far. The RIAA has issued the subpoenas to universities and Internet service providers in order to obtain the names of file traders it suspects are violating copyrights. At the end of the month, the music trade group plans to file lawsuits against those caught offering "substantial" amounts of music for others to share. Penalties could run up to $150,000 per song.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59862,00.html

Patriot Act Legal Attacks Pile Up
Nazih Hassan is deliberately noncommittal when asked whether the Muslim organization he leads in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has been targeted by federal investigators. "Even if I have been asked, I cannot tell you," he says, noting that under provisions of the USA Patriot Act, he isn't allowed to discuss pending investigations. According to the act -- drafted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to broaden government powers in fighting terrorism -- organizations are prohibited from revealing requests for records by federal agents. The obligation to secrecy, however, hasn't prevented Hassan from taking action to prevent future investigations carried out under the Patriot Act. Hassan's 700-member Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor signed on as lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed this week by the American Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of U.S.-based Islamic organizations seeking to dismiss provisions of the Patriot Act on constitutional grounds.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59863,00.html

Wonders Aplenty at Siggraph
The Mona Lisa picture has been projected onto screens millions of times. But it's safe to say it's never been projected like it is at this year's Siggraph: onto a fog bank. "We've had some military people interested in it," said Ismo Rakkolainen, the Finnish creator of the walk-thru fog screen, neatly stepping through Mona Lisa's nose and reappearing on the other side. "You can imagine many possibilities." The fog screen is one of 21 new technologies on display at Siggraph's Emerging Technologies exhibition where some of the world's weirdest -- and occasionally useful -- new technologies are vetted each year. The world's largest and most prestigious conference on computer graphics and interactive technologies, Siggraph attracted about 25,000 people this year from 75 countries.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,59857,00.html

Data Dump Required Before Flights
The Transportation Security Administration on Thursday revealed details of the newest version of a computerized system designed to prevent terrorists from boarding airplanes by checking passengers' backgrounds against several databases. The second-generation Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II, as outlined in a notice to be published Friday in the Federal Register, will rate every passenger by checking dates of birth, home addresses and phone numbers against commercial databases and the government's terrorist watch lists. The system also would allow the Transportation Security Administration to look for people wanted for "crimes of violence." It could look for domestic groups accused of terrorism, including members of radical groups such as the Animal Liberation Front.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,59860,00.html

RIAA Rocks Around the Clock
The Recording Industry Association of America's dragnet for people who illegally swap copyrighted music online is the story that just keeps on giving. And like any good epic about money, theft and greed, this one is gaining all sorts of new angles as it rolls along, from college students to senators to pornographers. Let's start with the college students. The RIAA still is serving hundreds of subpoenas on students and colleges and universities, where high-speed Internet connections make it easy to trade music and other digital files. Earlier this year, several students settled lawsuits with the RIAA for allegedly setting up Napster-like trading systems. But the trade group, which represents the major music labels, is aware that it could be scaring off potential customers, considering that college-age students are a sweet spot demographic for music sales.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2003Aug1.html

Hold on, it's not over yet...