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The U.S. Department of Justice has asked an appellate court to keep its arguments secret for a case in which privacy advocate John Gilmore is challenging federal requirements to show identification before boarding an airplane.

ChiralSoftware writes "Remember John Gilmore's fight to be able to travel on commercial airlines without having to show ID? It has dropped out of the news for a while, but now it appears that the fight is continuing. I remember in the 80s we used to make jokes about Soviet citizens being asked "show me your papers" and needing internal passports to travel in their own country. Now we need internal passports to travel in our country. How did this happen? The requirement to show ID for flying on commercial passenger flights started in 1996, in response to the crash...

Ottawa — Canada's police chiefs propose a surcharge of about 25 cents on monthly telephone and Internet bills to cover the cost of tapping into the communications of terrorists and other criminals. The suggestion is intended to resolve a standoff between police forces and telecommunications companies over who should foot the expense of providing investigators with access to phone calls and e-mail messages. Police say they cannot — and should not — be forced to pay the often hefty costs involved in carrying out court-approved wiretaps and message searches, warning that investigations will suffer if they are expected to pick...

The FCC is considering opening up additional spectrum to unlicensed uses -- the same kind of regulatory change that gave rise to Wifi. Much of the spectrum being considered for unlicensed use is currently allocated for broadcasters, however, so FCC's proposal creates tension between incumbents and groups that want to take advantage of the possibilities inherent in unlicensed spectrum. Most issues the FCC deals with, even contentious ones like limits on the ownership of radio and television stations, are changes within regulatory schemes. The recent proposal to move the maximum media market reach from 35% to 45% took the idea...

Just when you thought software licensing enforcement couldn't get any more fun, the copyright cops at the Business Software Alliance have enlivened the process with a spunky cartoon ferret. The BSA--a trade group supported by Microsoft, Adobe Systems and other major software makers to enforce software licenses and copyrights--revealed the new mascot Tuesday as part of a national campaign to scare kids out of using peer-to-peer networks. The "Play It Safe in Cyber Space" campaign will culminate with a four-page comic book, distributed in conjunction with tot journal the Weekly Reader, meant to impress kids with the idea that it's...

On a recent weekend, Erik Ebert traveled to Nevada's remote Black Rock Desert to shoot a rocket 11,000 feet in the air. But before he could even think about launching, he had to cross his fingers and hope that the motor he had ordered for his rocket would also be there, hand-delivered by the vendor. That's because, thanks to increased regulation after 9/11, it is more difficult than ever for rocket hobbyists like Ebert to legally store rocket motors -- which often include fuel that is now classified as an explosive -- at home. That often means the motor has...

The $90 billion entertainment industry is teaching middle-school children a course in copyright law that some education specialists say is one-sided and promotes commercialism in the classroom. In the past year, the Motion Picture Association of America has spent approximately $200,000 to launch its program called ''What's The Diff?" to combat digital piracy. Despite the criticism, the trade group plans to continue the program next school year. The 45-minute class is taught by volunteers from the nonprofit business group Junior Achievement, and reaches about 900,000 children in primarily disadvantaged schools from Boston to Los Angeles. The volunteers, some of whom...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Friday opposed a bid to ban the government from conducting secret "sneak and peek" searches of private property. The legislation, overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, would roll back a key provision of the anti-terrorism law adopted after the Sept. 11 attacks. If it became law, the legislation, "would have a devastating effect on the United States' ongoing efforts to detect and prevent terrorism, as well as to combat other serious crimes," Assistant Attorney General William Moschella said. In a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, he said...

The powerful Congressman at the center of the controversy over royalty rates for small webcasters took $18,000 from the Recording Industry Association of America. As chair of the House Judiciary Committee, James Sensenbrenner was instrumental in forcing the deal that could result in an antitrust suit against the RIAA being filed by small webcasters. The trouble is, Congressmen are forbidden from taking private donations to lobby abroad. Sensennbrenner recorded the visit to Taiwan and Thailand back in January, as a "fact finding mission". According to the House Ethics Committee's advisory booklet on Gifts and Travel, "Members and staff may not...

Techfocus recently conducted an interview with Cindy Cohn, Legal Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, focusing on the impending debate and strong possibility of enactment of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, or 'Patriot Act II.' Cindy Cohn has worked intensively on issues relating to online privacy and security, one notable case being her work on the U.S. v. Sklyarov case, which found Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov jailed in the US after speaking on security lapses in Adobe's eBook format. Ultimately cleared of wrongdoing, the programmer and his employer (Elcomsoft) are prime examples of where the EFF and Cohn are making...

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department (news - web sites) lifted a requirement Monday that the FBI (news - web sites) ensure the accuracy and timeliness of information about criminals and crime victims before adding it to the country's most comprehensive law enforcement database. The system, run by the FBI's National Crime Information Center, includes data about terrorists, fugitives, warrants, people missing, gang members and stolen vehicles, guns or boats. Records are queried increasingly by the nation's law enforcement agencies to help decide whether to monitor, detain or arrest someone. The records are inaccessible to the public, and police have been...

In a statement, CEO Steve Jobs noted that Gore is an avid Mac user who edits his own videos using Final Cut Pro. However, Gore's support of the Mac has not been unwavering, with the politician having said three years ago that he had switched from a Mac to a PC. Gore was chosen as a director at a meeting of Apple's board earlier Wednesday. "Al brings an incredible wealth of knowledge and wisdom to Apple from having helped run the largest organization in the world--the United States government," Jobs said. "Al is going to be a terrific director, and...

Patently Good Idea The Supreme Court recently ruled that congress' extending copyright protection for yet another 20 years does not violate the Constitution. The extension was pushed primarily by Disney, which didn't want any of its old Mickey Mouse cartoons entering the public domain. Now artistic works are protected for the lifetime of the creator plus 70 years; for companies, 95 years. Maybe Congress should just be done with it and declare that a copyright is forever. Disney, of course, hasn't hesitated to help itself to characters or works in the public domain, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and The Hunchback...

There's a reason our television sets so outgun us, spraying us with trillions of bits while we respond only with the laughable trickles from our remotes. To enable signals to get through intact, the government has to divide the spectrum of frequencies into bands, which it then licenses to particular broadcasters. NBC has a license and you don't. Thus, NBC gets to bathe you in "Friends," followed by a very special "Scrubs," and you get to sit passively on your couch. It's an asymmetric bargain that dominates our cultural, economic and political lives -- only the rich and famous can...

Hemingway had rock-star status (and even impersonators). Steinbeck was Springsteen. Salinger was Kurt Cobain. Dorothy Parker was Courtney Love. James Jones was David Crosby. Mailer was Eminem. This is to say -- and I understand how hard this is to appreciate -- that novelists were iconic for much of the first half of the last century. They set the cultural agenda. They made lots of money. They lived large (and self-medicated). They were the generational voice. For a long time, anybody with any creative ambition wanted to write the Great American Novel. But starting in the fifties, and then gaining...

Federal agents in Los Angeles are searching for a 12-year veteran of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who last week skipped out on felony charges of illegally selling sensitive information about private citizens from law enforcement computers, SecurityFocus has learned. "He's a fugitive," said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney's office on Friday. "He was out on bail, he made all of his appearances... Then he didn't show up for trial." Emilio Calatayud, 35, had been free on a $100,000 property bond since January, 2001, when prosecutors charged him with wire fraud, bribery, and violation ...

<p>The state budget that Acting Governor Jane Swift will unveil tomorrow scraps the annual $20 million contribution to the two-year-old Affordable Housing Trust, which legislators formed under pressure by housing activists and saved from extinction last year.</p> <p>Instead, Swift will seek legislative authorization to pay for low-cost housing development, school technology, and building maintenance through bond bills to reduce costs in the upcoming budget.</p>

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FAA-mandated inspections of Airbus A300-600 series and A310 aircraft with composite vertical stabilizers were underway last week while American Airlines Flight 587 accident investigators eyed rudder deflection as another contributing factor in the Nov. 12 crash. View of rear fuselage looking aft shows left center fin lug in left foreground with repair rivets visible. The fuselage clevis for the left aft lug is partly visible in the center, obscured by a torn piece of fairing. Part of the delaminated stabilizer skin rises above the fairing like a shark fin. Wake turbulence and composite structure of the vertical stabilizer were identified ...

PHILADELPHIA, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Shares of Global Crossing Ltd. fell more than 6 percent on Friday after the U.S. Department of Defense canceled a $400 million, high-profile contract awarded last month to the high-speed communications network services company. Shares of Global Crossing hit a record low of $4.34, but rebounded to $4.93, down 33 cents Friday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has fallen about 75 percent over the past year, underperforming the Standard and Poor's 500 Index by 70 percent. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) confirmed Friday that it decided on Aug. 14 to ...