The US Supreme Court said a lower court was correct to block the Child Online Protection Act from taking effect, since it likely violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution. The COPA has been criticised by, among others, the American Civil Liberties Union.

Slashdot: Supreme Court Rules Against Anti-Porn Law
FOXNews.com: Supreme Court Strikes Down Porn-Shield Law

A site called Save the iPod has been launched by Downhill Battle, Click the Vote, and FreeCulture.org. The site urges Americans to contact their politicians to stop the proposed INDUCE Act, which could make Apple criminals.

Lawrence Lessig reports that the EFF has written a fake complaint about Apple for violation of the proposed INDUCE Act that demonstrates the sillyness of the act. The complaint is here (PDF).

Yahoo! News reports than an Oklahoma state judge has been accused of frequently masturbating while his court was in session.

First mobile post. w00t!

Lawrence Lessig reports about new proposed US legislation. Something called the INDUCE Act, which will criminalize the act of inducing another to commit a copyright violation.

Furdlog has published the actual text and reports that the BSA supports the bill.

Open Source Initiative OSI – Doc11:Halloween Documents

Update: I posted a quick note about this when I saw it on Slashdot but I can’t be bothered to read it. Basically it seems to be ESR analysing some FUD

Regeringsrätten har beslutat att Stockholms universitets egenutvecklade databassystem, inklusive källkod och dokumentation, är offentliga handlingar. I IDG:s artikel antar man att detta kan “få långtgående konsekvenser för hela offentlig sektors möjligheter att behålla källkoden till sina databaser eller webbmotorer.”

Domen som PDF.

There is now a Linux version of the Skype VoIP program. The license is not very free, though.

Slashdot | Skype VoIP Software Released For Linux

Everyone keeps complaining about hacking in movies. Those actors always seem to guess passwords in 15 seconds or less. Well, it’s not as unrealistic as it may seem. I just guessed a password in less than five seconds. I needed to get into the BIOS of an old computer and, to my great surprise, that required a password. I had not set that password and I was pretty sure the computer’s previous owner hadn’t. My first thought was that there was just no way for me to get that password. I would have to to remove the battery or something ( yeah “or something . . .” I’m not very l33t, am I? ). Then I thought, well, I might as well use my m4d skilz and try to guess it. Hm, the name of the company that sold the computer perhaps? w00t!