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Sat, 23 Nov 2002

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Aqua-Soft has released some of the most blatant OS X rip-offs I've ever seen for Windows.

Check out the iTalk screen shots in this forum. Apple's lawyers should have fun with these guys!








This is not a Mac screenshot!

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EFF: Deep Links

Deep Links features noteworthy news items, victories, and threats from

around the Internet.




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The Twelfth Annual International EFF Pioneer Awards - Call for Nominations

In every field of human endeavor, there are those dedicated to

expanding knowledge, freedom, efficiency, and utility. Many of today's

brightest innovators are working along the electronic frontier. To

recognize these leaders, the Electronic Frontier Foundation

established the Pioneer Awards for deserving individuals and

organizations. The Pioneer Awards are international and nominations

are open to all. The deadline for nominations this year is Feb. 1,

2003 (see nomination criteria and instructions below).



How to Nominate Someone

You may send as many nominations as you wish, but please use one

e-mail per nomination. You may submit your entries to us via e-mail

to: pioneer@eff.org



Just tell us:



1. The name of the nominee;


2. The phone number or e-mail address at which the nominee can be

reached; and, most importantly


3. Why you feel the nominee deserves the award.



You may attach supporting documentation as RTF files, Microsoft Word

documents, or other common binary formats, or as plain text.

Individuals, or representatives of organizations, receiving an EFF

Pioneer Award will be invited to attend the ceremony at the

Foundation's expense.



Nominee Criteria

There are no specific categories for the EFF Pioneer Awards, but the

following guidelines apply:



1. The nominees must have made a substantial contribution to the

health, growth, accessibility, or freedom of computer-based

communications.



2. The contribution may be technical, social, economic, or cultural.



3. Nominations may be of individuals, systems, or organizations in

the private or public sectors.



4. Nominations are open to all (other than EFF staff & board and

this year's award judges), and you may nominate more than one

recipient. You may nominate yourself or your organization.



5. All nominations, to be valid, must contain your reasons,

however brief, for nominating the individual or organization, along

with a means of contacting the nominee (or heirs, if posthumous), and

your own contact number. Anonymous nominations will be allowed, but we

prefer to be able to contact the nominating parties in the event that

we need further information.



The 2003 Awards


The 12th annual EFF Pioneer Awards will be presented in New York, NY,

in conjunction with the 13th Conference on Computers, Freedom, and

Privacy (CFP2003). All nominations will be reviewed by a panel of

judges chosen for their knowledge of the technical, legal, and social

issues associated with information technology.



Links:


Pioneer Awards webpage:

http://www.eff.org/awards/pioneer.html



CFP site:

http://www.cfp.org/

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EFF Releases Cybersecurity Comments

EFF recently submitted its comments on the U.S. government's

cybersecurity strategy document, The National Strategy to Secure

Cyberspace, noting three main criticisms.

First, the Strategy is so

broad that it fails to set any clear priorities for action. What are

the weakest links in cybersecurity? What are the most important

threats? What are the most important actions needed to improve

security? This failure was especially disappointing in light of the

much more concrete discussion of security issues in an earlier draft

(http://www.seul.org/~gabe/cybersecurity/)



Second, the Strategy is silent on oversight mechanisms for protecting

privacy and civil liberties, such as a privacy office with meaningful

authority, funding, staffing, and technical expertise.



Third, the Strategy relies primarily on exhortation and public-private

partnerships between government and industry. EFF is skeptical that

this approach will lead vendors to improve security to any meaningful

degree. EFF is also concerned that such partnerships signal a

"closed-door" approach to cybersecurity that will prevent the public

from learning about vulnerabilities, security breaches, and corrective

action (and may harm competition and innovation).



Other points:



  • The problem of "buggy code" needs to be openly confronted.

  • Encryption played only a small part in the recommendations.

  • Unrealistic assumptions were made about the ability of home and

    small business users to improve security.

  • Free software's potential for enhancing security was ignored.

  • The Strategy endorsed the Council of Europe Convention on

    Cybercrime, which poses serious privacy and civil liberties

    issues.

  • Legislation like the DMCA, CBDTPA, and the Berman P2P "hacking"

    bill are not good for cybersecurity.



Many of these themes were highlighted in a 2002 National Research

Council report, Cybersecurity Today and Tomorrow: Pay Now or Pay

Later, available at:



http://www.nap.edu/html/cybersecurity/.



To subscribe to the EFF Action Alert, please visit http://action.eff.org/subscribe/.

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