Computer Ethics, Spring 2017


Comm 010, 4:15-6:45 Thursdays
Class 10
March 30

Week 10 Readings

Baase:
    Read the Chapter 4 sections on software patents.

Read the Garfinkel, Stallings and Graham papers on software patents. (You don't have to read the entire Graham paper.)

News

Congress legalizes selling your browsing history!

Well, sort of. They legalized the sale of the sites you visit, overturning an FCC regulation. And they can release only aggregated data (though nobody's quite sure what that means). See theverge.com/2017/3/29/15115382/buy-congress-web-history-gop-fake-internet-privacy.

But your ISP cannot see the pages within the site that you went to, or any search terms you entered, if the site uses TLS.

UK hates encryption: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-security-rudd-idUSKBN16X0BE

Dishwasher with a directory-traversal bug: www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/26/miele_joins_internetofst_hall_of_shame. (To be fair, it's a lab-grade glassware washer. Not that this makes the bug any more acceptable.)

Orin Kerr writing for the Volokh Conspiracy: A Florida court rules that the police must have a warrant to search your automobile event recorder. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/03/30/the-fourth-amendment-and-access-to-automobile-black-boxes/

And speaking of the Volokh Conspiracy, Eugene Volokh asks what is wrong with this court order. In at least some of the links, the alleged defendant Krista Ivanski claims to be in Australia. But the real issue is the Colorado notary stamp. Compare the stamp with the official Colorado sample here. Note the number, 20121234567, and the date, August 8, 2016. Cut. And. Paste.


If you want your papers encrypted when I return them, let me know. You'll need to install GPG, and send me your public key. I'll use that to encrypt your paper before returning it.

A key is created with gpg --gen-key. It may take some time. You'll be asked to enter your email address as your identifier.
To export your own public key, use gpg --export your_email_addr. Add the -a option for easier manageability as text. You'll need to send this public key to me.


Google and being forgotten
Equustek
Source code as speech

Patents