It’s always fun to learn whole new layers of technology. What I’m posting about here is probably known by a lot of people, but my recent involvement in two new start-up companies has really started to have me think about the breadth and depth of data mining occurring on the Internet involving personal behavior and habits. And one of the largest harvesters of all of that personal information is Google. There are already others who cover this much better than I … Google Watch is one … however I still wanted to blog about this.
Category: Electronic Rights
A Look at the UW’s “Broad” Stem Cell Patents
Antonio Regalado & David Hamilton:
The broadly worded patents, which cover nearly any use of human embryonic stem cells, are held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, a nonprofit group that handles the school’s intellectual-property estate, managing a $1.5 billion endowment amassed during 80 years of marketing inventions.
John Simpson, an official at the foundation bringing the challenge, says WARF’s efforts to enforce its patents are “damaging, impeding the free flow of ideas and creating a problem.” Mr. Simpson’s group got involved in the dispute earlier this year after Wisconsin officials said they would demand a share of state revenue from California’s voter-approved stem-cell initiative.
WARF doesn’t charge academics to study stem cells, but it does ask commercial users to pay fees ranging from $75,000 to more than $250,000, plus annual payments and royalties. So far, 12 companies have licensed rights from WARF to use the cells, and more than 300 academic laboratories have agreements to use the technology without charge. WARF spokesman Andy Cohn declined to say how much the organization has earned from the patents so far but says it is less than what it has spent funding stem-cell research and paying legal costs.
Data Miners Dig a Little Deeper
Michelle Kessler & Byron Acohido:
When customers sign up for a free Hotmail e-mail account from Microsoft, they’re required to submit their name, age, gender and ZIP code.
But that’s not all the software giant knows about them.
Microsoft takes notice of what time of day they access their inboxes. And it goes to the trouble of finding out how much money folks in their neighborhood earn.
Why? It knows a florist will pay a premium to have a coupon for roses reach males 30-40, earning good wages, who check their e-mail during lunch hour on Valentine’s Day.
Microsoft is one of many companies collecting and aggregating data in new ways so sophisticated that many customers may not even realize they’re being watched.
FBI Plans New Net-Tapping Push
The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned.
FBI Agent Barry Smith distributed the proposal at a private meeting last Friday with industry representatives and indicated it would be introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.
Sensenbrenner on Immigration
In recent weeks, Mr. Sensenbrenner has refused to yield on anything, derided what he calls the “amnesty” of the Senate bill and warned that he is willing to walk away without a compromise. He says his views have been influenced by the flood of immigration-related cases coming through his office and what he sees as the failure of previous immigration reform efforts he has worked on.
He is known as one of the toughest negotiators in Congress, which invites another canine metaphor from a colleague. “Sensenbrenner is a pit bull,” says Representative Ric Keller, a Florida Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “And the Senate negotiators he’s up against are wearing Milk-Bone underwear.”
Sensenbrenner has been a powerful friend of many Non-Wisconsin special interests such as the recording industry.
Hilary Rosen Gets DRM Religion?
Obviously, Apple has a business strategy that says “proprietary” works for them. The record companies, I think, have tried to convince Apple to open up their system. I don’t think that’s been successful. The choice now is to either go unprotected so everybody has the same shot and the market expands, or to continue down what I think is an unfriendly path for consumers and the industry, because I don’t think it’s growing as fast as it can.
I understand there’s a rabid philosophy on both sides of this to protect or not to protect … and I actually am not that black and white about it. I think if people want to protect their content, and want to have a DRM or a business model that limits its distribution, that’s okay. If others don’t want to, that’s okay too. That’s why I like Creative Commons. It’s all about choice. What I have focused on is what will most dramatically expand the music market at a time when device choices feel so limited and the service side is so underutilized.
Save The Internet: Where Kohl & Feingold Stand
Music Sales: Fewer Big Hits, Many More Sales at the Tail….
Larry Lessig pointed me to an interesting bit of research on filesharing and the decline of music sales in Denmark, which shows that the fall in sales has been felt far more in the hits than in the niches. The work, by Claus Pedersen, uses data from the Nordic Copyright Bureau. That means the data are not just estimates of sales declines, but actual sales. I’ve charted one aspect of the research, which looks at the change in sales in four sales categories, from bestsellers to the long tail:
DCStat: Data for Digital Democracy
Starting in mid-June, [the city of Washington] DC began releasing operational data from a variety of city agencies to the Internet, in several XML formats including RSS and Atom.
BioPassword
BioPassword (Authenticates computer users based on the way they type on a keyboard.):
BioPassword offers the only multifactor authentication software that combines the user’s login credentials (userID and password) with the behavioral biometric of keystroke dynamics (unique typing rhythm) to provide a low-cost accurate security solution that is specific to the user, requires no change in user behavior, monitors and authenticates credentials and is immediately deployable across the organization and the Internet without the need for expensive hardware tokens, cards or other security devices.