ethics.cse.sc.edu

Note that we just changed the schedule of classes.

We WILL hold class on 13 February, and this will be the presentation on Chapter 5.

We will NOT hold class on 15 February, because this is the day of the Science/Engr/Tech Career Fair, and you should be attending this.

Ditto 22 February, which is the university's overall career fair.

We WILL hold class on 6 March, and that will be the Chapter 8 presentation.

RESUMES: If you send me resumes, I will critique them prior to the 15 Feb date. If I say that the resumes are ok, then that will constitute submission of the "resume" part of the resume and career plan assignment.

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| Vista DRM Cracked by Security Researcher |
| from the only-a-matter-of-time dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday January 29, @14:16 (Windows) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/29/1811201 |
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An anonymous reader writes "Security researcher Alex Ionescu claims to have [0]successfully bypassed the much discussed DRM protection in Windows Vista, called 'Protected Media Path' (PMP), which is designed to seriously degrade the playback quality of any video and audio running on systems with hardware components not explicitly approved by Microsoft.

There is a fundamental difference between the US and Europe on the right to data. In Europe, *you* own your own data, including phone records, medical data, credit card purchasing data, etc. The government has an extensive right to look at that data, but the companies who are custodians of that data do not.

In the US, the government cannot see the data (for the most part) without legal action, the companies have pretty extensive usage rights, and you the citizen have almost no right to that data unless it is specifically given to you.

The curious thing is that the EU charter says that the EU will not do business with nations that do not accept EU standards. About 2000 there was a standoff between the EU and the US over exactly this issue. The EU eventually caved in and found a way to do business with the US even though we do not provide the rights that the EU charter mandates.

This is one that begs for more detailed information. Contrary to what most people believe, getting a patent for an idea is not justification for claiming to have invented the idea. All it really means (to the cynic, like myself) is that the US PTO granted a patent.

Unfortunately, up until about 12-14 years ago, "computer scientist" was not a category recognized by the PTO, so they had no such experts reviewing patents. This has changed, but the sheer volume in patent applications makes it very hard to be as thorough as one would like.

This itself is a problem because once granted the assumption is that the patent is valid. If you wish to challenge a patent based on prior art, the burden of proof is on the challenger; the law assumes that PTO does not make mistakes.

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| Maine Rejects Federally Mandated ID Cards |
| from the marks-of-the-beast dept. |
| posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday January 25, @23:04 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/26/0136221 |
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[0]WebHostingGuy writes "The State of [1]Maine rejected the federally
mandated ID cards passed by Congress. In a [2]non-partisan vote the
legislature flatly stated that they would not force its citizens to use

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| Norway Outlaws iTunes |
| from the run-out-of-town dept. |
| posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday January 25, @21:37 (Media (Apple|
| http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/25/2341240 |
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haddieman notes that while many people are getting more and more annoyed
at DRM, [0]Norway actually did something about it. The PC World article
explains: "Good intentions, questionable execution. European legislators

Questions Remain in D-13 Undervote Controversy
Bradenton Herald (FL) (01/25/07) Marsteller, Duane

A recent study by electronic voting experts has concluded that the cause of the undervote in Florida's 13th Congressional District election may not be found without a thorough investigation of the voting machines involved. The race's location on the ballot could be partially to blame, although machine failure is still a possibility, according to Cornell professor of government Walter Mebane, who conducted the study with Stanford University computer science professor David Dill. The report also says that "personalized electronic ballot" cartridges used to operate the machines could have caused the undervote, and that an above-average frequency of "invalid vote" error messages were found on machines that showed high undervote rates, displaying the possibility of malfunction.

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| At Least 25 Million Americans Pirate Movies |
| from the you-or-someone-you-know dept. |
| posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday January 25, @18:29 (Movies) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/25/236224 |
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[0]ThinSkin writes "Roughly 18 percent of the U.S. online population has
[1]illegally downloaded a full-length movie at some point in the past,
according to a telephone and online study of 2,600 Americans. A typical

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| The Insanely Great Songs Apple Won't Let You Hear |
| from the let's-hear-it-for-blumchen dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday January 25, @09:25 (Media (Apple)) |
| http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/25/1336208 |
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[0]FunkeyMonk writes "Slate.com has an article by Paul Collins explaining
that the iTunes music store has [1]thousands of tracks that you can't buy
in the U.S. From the article: 'The iTunes Music Store has a secret hiding

Here's the link mentioned by Mr. Salley in class.

http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72510-0.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2