12 | MAXIMUMPC | NOV 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
QUICKSTART^
THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALLIn July, the Department of
Homeland Security released
two policies that, among
other things, allow U.S.
Customs agents to seize
“any device capable of
storing informa-
tion in analog
or digital
form”—yes,
your laptop,
cellphone,
fl ash drive,
and iPod—for
as long as
they deem necessary.
The policies are designed to allow U.S.
agents suffi cient time to analyze, trans-
late, or decrypt information crossing a bor-der in order to detect threats
or illegal information.
The problem? Customs
agents don’t have to give proba-
ble cause or even “individualized
suspicion,” when seizing your
assets. Apparently the Fourth
Amendment doesn’t apply here.
Still, we like the idea of los-
ing our hardware even less than
we like the idea of people rooting
through our private stuff. What’s a
geek to do? If possible, leave anything
you would miss at home. Encryption’s
still a good idea, but it could just draw
suspicion. Put your sensitive data on a
disc and mail it to yourself, or leave it
online and download it later. The Internet
knows no borders. – N EKiss Your Gear Goodbye
Homeland Security can seize your hardware and keep it indefinitely
INSIDE THE PIRATE MIND
Game developer asks people why they steal games
C
liff Harris, founder of Positech Games, wanted to know what drove
people to pirate games. So he asked the public via a blog post why
they pirated his games in particular. The post was picked up by
Slashdot, Digg, and other sites, and Harris soon found himself inundated
with responses. After reading every email, he discovered that a small
percentage of people disliked the idea of monetizing intellectual property
and a small group admitted to pirating simply because the chance of getting
caught was small. For most people, choosing to pirate came down to DRM
and the cost of games.
Harris took the information to heart, lowering the price of his games and
also removing DRM from the one title that had previously used it. –T EP
eople are pretty upset about how bad the
copyright situation is getting.
Outrageous fi nes and the occasional
jail sentence have everyone down. Even noted
copyright lawyer Bill Patry shut down his blog
saying, “The current state of copyright law is too
depressing.” A copyright lawyer!
But I’ve got good news: Copyright enforce-
ment is a lot nicer these days.
It used to be more... hands on.
Medieval history tells of two saints, Finnian
and Columba, with different views on copying.
Finnian was more of a collector of one-of-a-kinds
who liked them that way, and Columba was more
of an information-wants-to-be-free kind of guy.
The trouble began when Columba secretly
copied his fellow saint’s prized book of psalms.
He left with his copy, and when Finnian found
out, he got miffed. He complained to the High
King Diarmaid. Diarmaid agreed with Finnian,
declaring, “As to every cow its calf, so to every
book its copy.”
This was an especially cute pun at the time
since books were made of stretched cowhide.
King Diarmaid demanded the book back and
Columba refused. So Diarmaid sent troops to take
it, and Columba’s clan fought back—3,000 men
died, but Columba got to keep his book. He felt
pretty bad about it, and to make up for the death
toll he accepted exile from Ireland and promised
to convert at least that many pagans in Scotland.
But copyright really got rolling 1,000 years
later as a Tudor family feud. The Tudors, starting
with the infamous Henry VIII of England, really
knew how to spat.
Daughter Mary (a Catholic) granted monopo-
lies on printing and copying to keep anyone from
saying anything pro-Protestant. Printing without
permission, especially Protestant materials,
tended to get you imprisoned or killed. When
half-sister Elizabeth came home to be queen (and
killed Mary), she granted similar copyright, only
with pro-Catholic material getting you killed or
imprisoned. Mostly killed.
Copyright used to be harsh. So though it may
be a bit painful these days, at least we’re not
embroiled in the BitTorrent Wars... yet.BYTE RIGHTSYe Olde Copyfight
QUINN NORTONQuinn Norton writes about copyright for Wired
News and other publications. Her work has
ranged from legal journalism to the inner life
of pirate organizations.The ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus is headed
for a major overhaul. Right before this year’s
Intel Developer Forum, the USB-IF development
committee released a near-completed technical
specifi cation for USB 3.0 to its hardware
partners. AMD and Nvidia had reportedly been in
disputes with Intel due to the company’s alleged
lack of openness with specs. Expect to see
integration of the speedy (now 5Gb/s) interface
in consumer devices by the end of 2009. –N CUSB 3.0 Spec Released
LEARN MORE AT
MAXIMUMP C.com
http://tinyurl.com/usb3specKeeping encrypted
fi les on your gear
might be enough to
get it confi scated.