I was quoted in the Wall Street Journal
about Microsoft Rights Management Services (subscription required,
but the text is available in the Cryptography mailing list archive)
An employee, for example, might be ordered to do something illegal in an e-mail
that effectively self-destructs. "If the person doesn't do the thing, he can be
fired," Mr. Schoen said. "If he wants to prove the boss had asked him to do
something illegal, there is no record of it."
and in the L.A. Times I was quoted
about the ARDG
Seth Schoen of the Electronic Frontier Federation, a group that
advocates civil liberties online, said the 1998 Digital Millennium
Copyright Act puts the burden on Hollywood to protect its programs.
But the studios' anti-piracy initiatives would shift the burden onto
manufacturers so that "whenever you make anything technical, you have
to go and ask them, 'How do I design this so that it protects your
interests?'"
I saw Brian LaMacchia at the
Berkeley DRM
conference today and got to talk to him a little more about Microsoft
RMS. I commended him on admitting the existence of attacks against
Microsoft's DRM, something many other DRM vendors refuse to
do. (Whenever I talk to a Microsoft technologist about a Microsoft DRM
technology and propose an attack, the technologist always replies "Yup,
that attack would work!"; do you know any other DRM vendor who'll react
that way?)
Mr. Rogers died today; he was 74.
Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My
whole approach in broadcasting has always been "You are an important
person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions." Maybe
I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a
person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a
healthy way, is important.
(Fred Rogers, March 20, 1928-February 27, 2003, quoted in Sony Corp.
of America v. Universal City Studios, 464 U.S. 417, 445 (1984), n. 27
(citations omitted))
I've long wondered what he meant by his proviso "in a healthy way";
I ought to have written to ask him. It reminds me of Locke's
proviso:
Whatsoever, then, he removes
out of the state that Nature hath provided and left it in, he hath
mixed his labour with it, and joined to it something that is his own,
and thereby makes it his property. It being by him removed from the
common state Nature placed it in, it hath by this labour something
annexed to it that excludes the common right of other men. For this
"labour" being the unquestionable property of the labourer, no man but
he can have a right to what that is once joined to, at least where
there is enough, and as good left in common for others.
(John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, para. 26)
What they have in common is that it's very easy to remember the
general statement and to forget about the proviso or qualification.
For Mr. Rogers, it was "in a healthy way"; for Locke, it was "where
there is enough, and as good left in common for others". It's
hard to imagine that either man would have wanted us to pass idly
by his qualification. To Mr. Rogers, "in a healthy way" would surely
have been a central part of his message.
I remember when Mr. Rogers ate some tapioca pudding on his show,
because one of his neighbors had shared it with him. I was really
jealous because Mr. Rogers got to have tapioca pudding, and I
(at home) didn't get any. I thought Mr. Rogers was really lucky
to have such friendly neighbors who wanted to give him tapioca
pudding. But he was lucky in more ways than that; he was lucky to
have the opportunity to help interpret the world to generations of
young people.
Another time he asked his cameraman to turn the camera around and
show us the studio (with its lights, cameras, scaffolding, and
staff members). That was a shock; it was fascinating and horrifying;
it was generous and courageous; it was a frame-breaking experience
which set me up to enjoy Hofstadter and, maybe, in a small way, to
weather other disillusionments.
I once wrote a fan letter to Mr. Rogers (long before I'd heard of
the Betamax doctrine or knew that I had him to thank for it). I
drew him a terrible picture of a fish and told him that I loved
his show. He wrote back, thanking me effusively, and included a
drawing of his own (a caboose, if I remember correctly, drawn
with somewhat greater artistic skill).
Now sweatered Rogers, each and every day,
Was kind and gentle -- "in a healthy way".
He'll come no more on the T.V.:
Timor mortis conturbat me.
We'll miss you, Mr. Rogers.
Early this morning, Quinn
gave birth to
her daughter Ada. Congratulations to Quinn and her
family!
As you can see from the link above, Quinn and her family decided
to post frequent updates during the experience, and
nearly
instantaneous baby pictures of Ada.
