Analysis of the MediaMax CD3 Copy-Prevention System
This report explains how to disable a copy-prevention method applied to an album released by BMG by simply pressing the shift key. DRM Watch gets the analysis right: "this is a superb example of what DRM Watch believes is inherently wrong with the anticircumvention provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The Act allows technology that patently (pun intended) doesn't work - and SunnComm's MediaMax is hardly the only example - to be protected by the threat of criminal prosecution. Halderman's work is probably not criminally liable, because DMCA 1201 carves out circumvention for research purposes, but an ordinary consumer pressing Shift while inserting a CD into a drive may be breaking U.S. federal law. This is simply absurd. The law allows any technology marketed and sold as 'copy protection' to be shielded in this way." Now my own position, of course, is that unbreakable copy protection is overkill. More...

PrepCom3 Activity Report
Interesting account of how open access is being removed, bit by bit, from documents prepared for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). More...

Princeton Report Critical
Yesterday's parody has become today's news: SunnComm Technologies Inc., the developer of the DRM technology that can be bypassed with the use of the shift key, is suing the Princeton student who authored the paper, Alex Halderman, for significantly damaging the company's reputation and causing the stock to drop $10 million (though there may be more to that than meets the eye). More...

The Crisis in Canada’s School Libraries: The Case for Reform and Re-Investment
This report, released last June, has been making the rounds. The central premise is that there is a positive correlation between well-funded school libraries and greater student achievement. The implication, of course, is that libraries should receive more funding to buy more books and other resources. More...