21 Oct 2007
Famous Criminal Opines that Technology Breeds Crime

Bingo!

In an interview with Computerworld's editor in chief, Don Tennant, Frank Abagnale spoke about his life of crime and crime prevention. Abagnale is a notrious criminal, whose exploits were portrayed in the movie 'Catch Me If You Can.' Abagnale claims: "It would be 4,000 times easier to do today, what I did 40 years ago, and I probably wouldn't go to prison for it. Technology breeds crime — it always has, it always will ... I really think the more technology there is in the world, the more you have to instill character and ethics. You can build all the security systems in the world; you can build the most sophisticated technology, and all it takes is one weak link — someone who operates that technology — to bring it all down."

(link) [Slashdot]

21:07 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Viacom Wants Industry Wide Copyright Filter

Note the list of companies supporting is out of the gate: Walt Disney, NBC Universal, Microsoft, CBS. One tech company, three studios. Mehtinks what Mr. Dauman has in mind is something akin to Plays for SureShit for video.

I'd like to suggest that it's his business model that's broken, not the Internet or personal computers. Maybe he should concentrate on fixing that, instead of imposing more hare-brained schemes for the maintenance of the existing order on the rest of the world.

Unsatisfied with the proprietary copyright filter Google recently unveiled, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman has called for an industry standard to filter copyrighted material. Mr. Dauman has the backing of Microsoft, Disney, and Universal. "They reflect the fact that there ought to be a filtering system in place on the part of technology companies," he noted. "Most responsible companies have followed that path. What no one wants is a proprietary system that benefits one company. It is a big drain to a company like ours to have to deal with incompatible systems."

(link) [Slashdot]

08:30 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link