Design with Intent

Spiked: When did ‘hanging around’ become a social problem?

By Dan Lockton ⋅ August 30, 2006 ⋅ One comment

Josie Appleton, at the always-interesting Spiked, takes a look at the increasing systemic hostility towards ‘young people in public places’ in the UK: ‘When did ‘hanging around’ become a social problem?’
As well as the Mosquito, much covered on this site (all posts; try out high frequency sounds for yourself), the article mentions the use [...]

‘Carmakers must tell buyers about black boxes’

By Dan Lockton ⋅ August 25, 2006 ⋅ 2 comments

According to Reuters,
“The [US] government will not require recorders in autos but said on Monday that car makers must tell consumers when technology that tracks speed, braking and other measurements is in the new vehicles they buy.

The Privacy Ceiling

By Dan Lockton ⋅ August 22, 2006 ⋅ One comment

Scott Craver of the University of Binghamton has a very interesting post summarising the concept of a ‘privacy ceiling’:
“This is an economic limit on privacy violation by companies, owing to the liability of having too much information about (or control over) users.”
It’s the “control over users” that immediately makes this something especially relevant for [...]

Use of RFID in DRM

By Dan Lockton ⋅ August 22, 2006 ⋅ One comment

Via Dave Farber’s Interesting People, a brief New Scientist article outlines Sony’s continuing obsession with restricting and controlling its customers (the last one didn’t go too well):
“A patent filed by Sony last week suggests it may once again be considering preventing consumers making “too many” back-up copies of its CDs…
Sony’s latest idea is to place [...]

Ed Felten: DRM Wars, and ‘Property Rights Management’

By Dan Lockton ⋅ August 15, 2006 ⋅ 3 comments

At Freedom to Tinker, Ed Felten has posted a summary of a talk he gave at the Usenix Security Symposium, called “DRM Wars: The Next Generation”. The two installments so far (Part 1, Part 2) trace a possible trend in the (stated) intentions of DRM’s proponents, from it being largely promoted as a tool to [...]

DRM now the ‘biggest issue’ in preserving information for the future

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 11, 2006 ⋅ Post a comment

The Guardian has an interview with Richard Masters, of the British Library’s digital objects management programme looking at the impact of technology on archiving. The usual worries about file formats, media incompatability and how to select what to preserve and what not to are discussed, but:
“The biggest issue is digital rights management. At the moment, [...]

Oh yeah, that Windows Kill Switch

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 10, 2006 ⋅ 3 comments

I know the furore surrounding Microsoft’s ‘Windows Genuine Advantage’ is a few days old, and perhaps I should have blogged about it at the time, specifically the rumoured ‘Kill Switch’ which would remotely deactivate any PCs apparently running ‘non-genuine’ copies of XP. That’s certainly a candidate for my feature deletion/external control category, as well as [...]

EFF: Another Endangered Gizmo – the Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 5, 2006 ⋅ 2 comments

Image adapted from Neuros website
Via EFF DeepLinks, details of the Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2, a product specifically designed to allow users to break through the arbitrary architectures of control imposed by other video devices and formats, and hence make the most of the content you own:
“[It] digitizes analog video output and records it to a [...]

‘Researchers develop prototype system to thwart unwanted video and still photography’

By Dan Lockton ⋅ June 19, 2006 ⋅ 8 comments

Via Boing Boing, ‘Researchers develop prototype system to thwart unwanted video and still photography’, news from Georgia Tech of a system that scans and finds the CCDs of digital imaging equipment and shines bright light (or a laser) into them in order to flood them with light and prevent usable images being recorded.
“Commercial versions of [...]

‘Labels on digital content should spell out how easy it is to move from gadget to gadget’

By Dan Lockton ⋅ June 5, 2006 ⋅ 2 comments

A warning label mockup*
The BBC is reporting that the All Party Internet Group (APIG), a cross-party group of MPs, has made some intelligent – and interesting – recommendations about explaining DRM more fully to consumers:
“The MPs’ report made several recommendations and called on the Office of Fair Trading hasten the introduction of labelling [...]

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