My most recent column at Law.com, "Sony-BMG's Copy-Protection Quagmire", describes the various legal theories that have been brought against Sony-BMG over the CD copy-protection debacle. The quick summary: more than a dozen class action suits filed around the country, based on a mix of state anti-spyware statutes, the federal...

Displaying political courage too rarely seen, the Volusia County Council today voted to reject Diebold's proposal for a paperless e-voting system and instead adopt a more expensive contract with competitor ES&S. This contract will eventually lead to the use of a ballot marking system that will ensure an auditable, voter-verified...

That's the question that pearLyrics asked today on its homepage. But the cautious optimism from developer Walter Ritter comes after a rough week.
pearLyrics is software that automates the process of adding lyrics to iTunes tracks. As EFF's Fred von Lohmann outlined in his blog post Tuesday,...

While Sony BMG has only offered a patch for the MediaMax'd CDs that have a serious security problem, a recent Rolling Stone article notes that the band My Morning Jacket is offering its own recall of the MediaMax'd discs:
Mike Martinovich, manager for My Morning Jacket,...

EFF was sad but not surprised to discover that the security holes in the software Sony BMG has placed on its CDs did not end with the XCP rootkit. As reported on EFF's site Tuesday equally troubling risks are built into CDs loaded with another type of software, MediaMax...

Next Steps Unclear, Action Still Needed
The PATRIOT Act took a step closer to reauthorization today as Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announced that he would sign the conference report (in three parts: one, two, and three).
Backroom deals have watered-down the best reforms...

After failing to reach a compromise on the final draft of the USA PATRIOT renewal bill, as described previously, Congress headed home for some turkey and put off the debate until after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Now everyone's back, and the word through the grapevine is not good. We're...