From: newsletter-bounces@thepcgurus.com on behalf of Kevin-PC Gurus
[microdome@seidata.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 9:06 PM
To: jpdurbin@jpdurbin.net
Cc: PC Gurus Newsletter
Subject: GuruNews, Volume 8 Number 6, 2-14-08
Attachments: ATT00218.txt
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Vol. 8, No. 6
2-14-08
1 Big Brother owns your phone lines
2 Are you certain?
3 Comcast throttles, US throttles back, banning dihydrogen monoxide, Chinese fire drill
4 Clipboard for cut-n-pasters
5 Thunderbird settings
This story has been percolating in my mind for at least a month and this week I think I finally have time to get it out. It has to do with your personal privacy in conversations, correspondence and reading material across the Internet and the coming wave of corporate espionage implemented on their own dime.
For decades communications providers such as AT&T and Insight have operated under a doctrine called Common Carrier, which basically means in this case that a public utility provider (power, water, telephone etc.) must provide access to any person when feasible and carries no responsibility for the actions of those using the product.
For instance, the USPS is not responsible if a letter they are obligated to deliver contains criminal plans made between individuals, and the phone company bears no liability for corporate secrets passed through the lines during a conversation.
This legal doctrine thus protects an ISP from litigation from groups like the RIAA if users download or share copyrighted material. For some insane reason, however, AT&T has decided to look hard at installing technology that will sniff all data packets crossing its network for infringing material and block it.
Not only is this a bad deal for users but also it endangers AT&T itself by opening them up to litigation from any number of sources for possible infringement.
Since no “tagging” system currently exists clearly marking data files as copyrighted, it’s entirely within reason to assume that many personal files such as home movie clips, original music recordings and even family photos could be erroneously identified as infringing and blocked.
In order to do this the ISPs would have to sniff every data bit going to and from your computer, in essence spying on your web browsing and reading your email. It’s a federal crime to open someone else’s mail (18 USC sec. 1702) one it’s been mailed and before it’s been delivered to the person it was intended for. I doubt this law applies to email and it would be problematic if it did, but there should be some sort of protection from snooping for the sake of snooping.
It could be argued that the USPS can open letters and packages that appear suspicious, but to that I would ask if every email flowing through a system appears suspicious? It would seem ISPs have joined with software companies and the Entertainment Industry in treating every customer as a likely thief.
Not only is this a threat to your correspondence, it’s also a potential security risk involving your financial and health data. Many states, Kentucky included, are moving to an electronic medical records system. This speeds access to records between primary physicians, specialists etc. but does so using the major backbones owned by the phone and cable companies. These are of course accessed through secure connections such as VPNs, but are they still secure if “snooped”?
Online shopping and banking would also be put at risk. What assurances will we have that these types of data will be safe?
I’ve been extremely happy with the service I’ve received since AT&T took over my BellSouth account but if they pull something like this I’ll switch to a provider that doesn’t depend on the phone backbone in a hot minute.
Hopefully they’ll see the light and drop this plan before they do something demonstrably stupid and end up sued into bankruptcy.
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Terry Wise
Tech News of the Week
Comcast doesn’t snoop, they just throttle your download speeds back to dial-up level:
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9871287-38.html?tag=nefd.top
In a response to Comcast, Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) introduces the Internet Freedom Preservation Act:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?no_d2=1&sid=08/02/14/1453245
Common email hoax leads New Zealand government official to call for a ban on water:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4200797a6160.html
Look for higher LCD prices after fire at Lite-On factory wipes out 75% of production capability:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/02/14/lite_on_lcd_factory_fire/
Matthew Dattilo
thepcgurus@gmail.com
www.mattstodayinhistory.com
Download of the Week
You use Windows Clipboard,
right? Then you'll love Polar's MultiClipboard, a free utility with skills that
are beyond those of Windows' woefully inadequate cut-and-paste Clipboard. Use
Control-C normally, but in the background, MultiClipboard captures and saves
everything you send to the Clipboard. Ready to paste? Control-V works for the
last clip and brings up MultiClipboard where you can pick the saved
clips--including images, multiple files, and text. If you're on a network, you
have the option of sharing clips with others; you can also make clipped items
permanent and assign a shortcut key to each one. It's free here:
http://www.polarsoftware.com/products/multiclipboard/
*Note the registration info
just below the “download button”.
Art Maley
Email Question of the Week
Q: I'm in a world of trouble. My pc is in the shop. I cannot get my new Lenova Thinkpad [with xp] set up correctly. I use Thunderbird as my mail program but Bellsouth/ATT tells me that they no longer support Tbird. I can receive email but can't send. I know my account settings must be wrong but haven't a clue how to correct them.
A: There are instructions at the following link
to setup your Thunderbird email with Bellsouth. Just because the tech
said they don’t support Thunderbird, doesn’t mean that you can’t use it with
their service.
Here’s the link: http://support.att.net/bellsouth/asp/home.asp?UserType=DSL&source=2
Art Maley
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