MacInSchool

Today's Issues

There really is a whole lot more to the world than the Macintosh. This page provides links to perspectives on current issues that may have nothing at all to do with computers. Newest links are listed above older ones.

• Deep Links
• Third Voice, copyright
• Privacy, internet security
• Censorship, internet filtering
• Alienation, student rights

Linking, Deep Links, Open Link Policy

• The Open Link Policy, 8/20. Webmasters band together to encourage deep links, protect content.
• Don't link or I'll sue!, Salon, 8/12. "Links are the Web's essence and its genius. Every public Web page's URL, its address, is available to all; we can point any Web page to any other."
• Is linking always legal? Experts aren't sure, New York Times, 8/6. "Especially controversial is the use of so-called "deep" links, which point directly to Web pages or other content within another site...."

Third Voice, Copyright

• Third Voice and the smoking gun, Andrew Zimmerman.
• Third Voice: the next step or cybertrash?, MacBC, 6/15. "These guys need not win, the sheer cost of defending themselves will drive them out of business."
• Third Voice and copyright, Larry Rosenstein, Mac Musings, 6/15. "If I download one of your pages, I'm free to do whatever I want with it on my computer."
• Third Voice, boon or bane?, The iMac NewsPage, 6/14. "...if webmasters want improved feedback and interactivity with their readers, it's best left to them to decide how to achieve this...."
• Punishing the innocent, denying the user, MyAppleMenu, 6/14. "Third Voice is only a channel for communication.... It need not seek permission."
• Hands off my site, Dan Knight, Low End Mac, 6/11. "Have you heard about the new electronic sticky notes Third Voice lets users put on web sites?"
• Third Voice vandalizes web sites?, MacOS Rumors, 6/10. Now Windows only, IE only plugin lets anyone put notes on your web site.
• Say No to Third Voice. "This software is interpreted to be a violation of copyright and should be investigated on a Federal Level...."

Privacy, Internet Security

• Now you are an enemy of the state, Jesse Berst, ZDNet, 8/23. "...the U.S. Department of Justice wants the right to break into your home and (without your knowledge) disable the security precautions on your computer. Then it can track and trace everything you do."
• Furor rising over PC wiretap plan, ZDNet, 8/20. "The plan is 'an unprecedented attempt by the Clinton administration to impose "big brother" monitoring powers over American citizens.'"
• DOJ wants to bug PCs, ZDNet, 8/20. "Under the proposed 'Cyberspace Electronic Security Act,' investigators armed with a sealed warrant could comb computers for passwords and install devices that override encryption programs...."
• Big Brother wants to read your email, Charles W. Moore, MacTimes, 6/28. British government wants ISPs to provide police with ability to intercept internet traffic.
• Massive internet tapping revealed, MacOS Rumors, 5/27. "...a large majority of Internet traffic, including personal/business communication such as email, is being passively tapped...."
• U.S. uses key escrow to steal secrets, TechWeb, 5/18. "European plans for controlling encryption software are nothing to do with law enforcement and everything to do with U.S. industrial espionage...."
• Careful, they might hear you, The Age, 5/23 [Slashdot]
  Echelon system has US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand "illicitly pick up commercial satellite communications."

Censorship, Internet Filtering

• House passes net filtering bill, Cnet, 6/18. Mandatory internet filtering in schools, libraries may become reality.
• Don't shoot the messenger, MacWEEK, 6/3. Australian Senate embraces web censorship.
• UK ISP blocks defamatory usenet articles and links to defamatory sites, deja.com [Slashdot]. "Current thinking is that we and you may be found liable if we do not take action to prevent an article continuing to be available when notified of its presence on our servers."
• Fewer than 50% of parents closely monitor kids' net use, MacTimes, 6/1. "Disturbingly, 18% of 62 children aged 8 to 18 surveyed say they plan to meet someone they have met on the Internet face to face."
• Australians demonstrate against net censorship, MacTimes, 5/28.
• Australian Broadcasting Authority given power to censor Internet, Australian Broadcasting Corp., 5/26 [Slashdot]
  "The broadcasting authority will be given responsibility for ordering the removal or blocking of pornographic, violent or otherwise offensive websites, newsgroups and databases."
  A bit more information on Yahoo.
• Amazon reverses decision on book ban, ZDNet, 5/20
  "The book (A Piece of Blue Sky), a critical examination of Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, was pulled by Amazon in February after an injunction against its distribution in the United Kingdom." (I waited to post this until Amazon listed the book. dk 5/26)
• Censorship: Canada sets example for the world!, The Mac Observer, 5/25
  "...the government of Canada refused to censor content on the Internet."
• More on censorship and school violence, MacTimes, 5/24
• Not censorship, something else, Scott Link, Mac Musings, 5/21
  "This is quick-fix legislation at its worst."
• Censorship and Filtering, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 5/20
  "There is great potential for filtering, potential both for good and evil."
• It is too censorship!, Applelinks, 5/18
• Internet censorship column catalyzes debate, MacTimes, 5/18
• It Isn't Censorship, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 5/18
• Thin Edge Of The Wedge: Why Internet Censorship Is A Bad Idea, MacTimes, 5/17
• Net censorship and Apple, Don Crabb, ZDNet, 5/7
  "The Internet, in fact, did nothing, except provide an inexpensive and readily available information conduit that may have allowed those kids to proclaim their own violent alienation from our society in the form of a Web site and postings on AOL."

Alienation, Student Rights

• Geek unions?, Jon Katz, Slashdot, 7/6. What if high school geeks were to organize and promote their interests in our schools?
• Reflections of a Columbine father, MacKiDo, 6/19. The father of two Columbine victims shares his thoughts.
• Suffer the (white, middle-class) children, The Village Voice, 6/25
  "Some French theorist . . . deduced quite some time back that school (just like work or the army) is a jail-shaped box: a containment system to keep people in a useful order, brutally if necessary."
  More on Slashdot.
• Blaming Internet for school violence scapegoats real problem, MacTimes, 5/24
  "Bluntly stated, moral relativism and situational ethics have rendered many people incapable of judging right from wrong."
• Have we grown deaf to the plight of alienated teens?, USA Today, 5/21
  "School districts that have enacted strict rules against bullying have taken a key step toward imposing the discipline of civility on their students. But more is required."
• A Student Bill of Rights, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 5/19
  "What happened in Littleton was inexcusable, but it was also a consequence of students being dumped on by their peers."
• Shut down the schools?, macRelations 2000, 4/29
• The price of being different, Slashdot, 4/29
• Outcast, Mac Musings, 4/29