Controversial Trade Deal Could Thwart Computer Security Research and Tinkering
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/10/15/trans_pacific_partnership_could_thwart_computer_security_research_and_tinkering.html Surely our government isn't insane enough to thwart research designed to keep us safer in the emerging "Internet of Things." Yet tell that, for starters, to the automobile industry, where one of the world's largest car makers, Volkswagen, cheated on emissions testing by tweaking its software. This crime against humanity--not an exaggeration, given the massive contribution this may have made to accelerating climate change--was discovered by researchers who, by good luck, discovered that VW's cars had been spewing vastly more pollutants than the company claimed for years. This almost certainly would have been uncovered much earlier had the industry not relied on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to "protect" its software from analysis; the DMCA made it illegal to circumvent "digital restrictions management." Yet the automakers continue to adamantly oppose any exception to the DMCA. - - - --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com _______________________________________________ pfir mailing list http://lists.pfir.org/mailman/listinfo/pfir
