After all, how will you know? I mean, consider the source. And his source. Bush won’t reauthorize eavesdropping - pdf

President George W. Bush has decided not to reauthorize the controversial domestic warrantless surveillance program for terrorism suspects and to put it under the authority of a secret special court, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Wednesday.

Unless you think the Judiciary Committee has developed a spine: White House Says Judiciary Will Monitor Spy Program; Gonzales’ memo to the Committee; Tim Grieve’s thoughts

Note nothing about the military’s role in spying

Later: Glenn Greenwald seems to agree: Maybe Bush didn’t back down on wiretaps: Stop celebrating — it’s not yet clear whether the administration really intends to start obeying the law.

Later: the LATimes’ editorial - The administration that cried wolf on spying - pdf; and Slate’s read on how this announcement may merely indicate a compromising of FISA’s dictates: Gonzales’ Trojan Horse

NPR : Leaked Documents Spur First-Amendment Debate

For a couple of days, you could judge for yourself, because the Zyprexa documents were posted on the Web by individuals to whom they were also leaked.

On Dec. 18, Lilly obtained a temporary court order to get its documents back. The New York Times refused, but the Web links were shut down. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein will be asked to restore the links.

Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Freedom [sic] Foundation in San Francisco will argue that the order to shut down the Web links violated the protections of the First Amendment.

Hi, everyone. Sorry for the hiatus, but trying to get everything back on track after breaking my ankle has been a little more difficult that I imagined. I know, I have lots of catching up to do (Santangelo developments, for example). but I figured I’d start small and ramp back up. So, here’s the Summary for S.256, the PERFORM Act (cited in my last post). Here’s at least some of the language that raises the specter of an effort to make sure that home recording never becomes more technologically sophisticated than it is today::

  (d) Definition- Section 114(j) of title 17, United States Code, is amended–

    (1) by redesignating paragraphs (10) through (15) as paragraphs (11) through (16), respectively; and

    (2) by inserting after paragraph (9) the following:

      `(10)(A) A `reasonable recording’ means the making of a phonorecord embodying all or part of a performance licensed under this section for private, noncommercial use where technological measures used by the transmitting entity, and which are incorporated into a recording device–

        `(i) permit automated recording or playback based on specific programs, time periods, or channels as selected by or for the user;

        `(ii) do not permit automated recording or playback based on specific sound recordings, albums, or artists;

        `(iii) do not permit the separation of component segments of the copyrighted material contained in the transmission program which results in the playback of a manipulated sequence; and

        `(iv) do not permit the redistribution, retransmission or other exporting of a phonorecord embodying all or part of a performance licensed under this section from the device by digital outputs or removable media, unless the destination device is part of a secure in-home network that also complies with each of the requirements prescribed in this paragraph.

      `(B) Nothing in this paragraph shall prevent a consumer from engaging in non-automated manual recording and playback in a manner that is not an infringement of copyright.’.