ACM
USACM Identifies Digital Rights Management Policy Issues
USACM Urges Federal Funding to Ensure Secure Elections
European Officials Working on Standards for Electronic Voting
California Appeals Court Rules in Support of Reverse Engineering
House Democrats Release Report on Homeland Security Efforts
New Free Trade Agreement Includes Provisions of the US DMCA
USACM Leaders Meet to Discuss Policy Activities
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USACM Identifies Digital Rights Management Policy Issues
In a recent letter to members of the US Senate, USACM cautioned that broad Digital Rights Management (DRM) regulations that mandate specific access control and redistribution control technology to be built into computers, operating software, and other digital devices could interfere with many legal, non-infringing uses of digital computing. Proponents argue that DRM mandates and further restrictions on computing are necessary in part to "keep honest people honest" and to provide copyright owners additional control over how digital content is downloaded, printed, passed across a network, or viewed. USACM has concluded that government imposed DRM regulations could threaten the overall security of our nation's information infrastructure, competitiveness of the U.S. IT industry, and continued innovations in software and digital computing.
In the letter, USACM welcomed certain DRM related provisions of S. 1621, the Consumers, Schools, and Libraries Digital Rights Management Awareness Act of 2003. The provisions of the legislation highlighted by USACM seek to block government imposed DRM regulations, provide public transparency concerning the commercial use of DRM, and require a comprehensive review of the impact of DRM regulations on legitimate research, education and communication activities.
To review the USACM letter to Congress concerning DRM regulations, see:
http://www.acm.org/usacm/PDF/drmbrownback.pdf
To review additional information on S. 1621, see:
http://brownback.senate.gov/LIDRM.cfm
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USACM Urges Federal Funding to Ensure Secure Elections
USACM recently joined 35 other organizations in sending a letter to Congress urging funding for the initiatives authorized under Help America Vote Act (HAVA) law that are intended to ensure secure electronic voting systems. The HAVA law authorizes the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to coordinate efforts to develop voting systems guidelines that provide for the security of computers, computer data storage, and networks used in electronic voting systems. However, Congress did not provide funding for NIST to carry out its HAVA-related responsibilities during the fiscal year 2004 appropriations process.
In addition to USACM, the other groups that signed the letter to Congress include representatives of local and state elections officials, civil rights organizations and election reform advocates. USACM's action continues its commitment to raise public awareness of security and vulnerability issues resulting from the deployment of electronic voting technologies.
To review the letter signed by USACM and others, see:
http://www.acm.org/usacm/PDF/LCCR_HAVA_Funding_Letter.pdf
To review the USACM Evoting web page, see:
http://www.acm.org/usacm/Issues/EVoting.htm
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European Officials Working on Standards for Electronic Voting
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has been working on electronic voting standards with the goal of making recommendations to European Union member states later in 2004. The Multidisciplinary Ad Hoc Group of Specialists on legal, operational and technical aspects of evoting (IP1-S-EE) has been formed and active for over a year. One of the goals of the effort is to develop standards in a secure and cost-effective manner while ensuring interoperability. The key assumption adopted by IP1-S-EE is that e-voting has to be as reliable and secure as any traditional means of casting a vote and must comply with the fundamental principles of democratic elections (universal, free, equal, secret and direct elections). The evoting standards are intended to cover all the elements of an election, including the notification of an election, voter registration, candidate nomination, voting, results and audit.
For more information regarding Europe's evoting standards effort, see:
http://www.coe.int/t/e/integrated%5Fprojects/democracy/02%5FActivities/02%5Fe%2Dvoting/02%5FDraft%5FRecommendation/03IP1(2004)2ERec_on_los_Rev1.asp#TopOfPage
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California Appeals Court Rules in Support of Reverse Engineering
California's Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has found that an injunction barring the publication on the Internet of a tool that unlocks DVD technical protection measures violated the free speech rights of a computer programmer. In the case, a corporate consortium known as the DVD Copy Control Association (DVDCCA) contended that a programmer named Andrew Bunner violated its trade secrets rights by posting software (DeCSS) that decrypts DVDs on the Internet. The California appeals court disagreed with DVDCCA and ruled in favor of Bunner.
The ruling is welcomed by USACM and others in the computing community as it affirms the right to use widely accepted software engineering techniques to reverse engineer in order to learn about proprietary software products. During earlier consideration of the case by the California Supreme Court, USACM joined the Computer and Communications Industry Association and a group of intellectual property professors in submitting a brief that contended the reverse engineering of mass-marketed products is a lawful way to acquire a trade secret. In its interest statement attached to the brief, USACM argued that reverse engineering is critical for systems interoperability and facilitates the research and testing of information processing systems, and the development of programs that impede the spread of viruses and other kinds of malicious software.
To review the recent ruling by the California appeals court, see:
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/H021153A.PDF
To review the brief signed by USACM in July of 2002, see:
http://www.acm.org/usacm/Briefs/bunneramicusbrief1.pdf
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House Democrats Release Report on Homeland Security Efforts
In February, the Democrat members of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security released a report entitled *America at Risk: Closing the Security Gap*. The report surmises that although the US is safer than it was before September 11, 2001, significant security gaps remain to be addressed. The report was released to coincide with the first anniversary of the Department of Homeland Security and identifies shortcomings in current homeland security efforts. As part of the report's recommendations, it suggests that additional research and development funding should be provided for the National Science Foundation and NIST focusing on preventing, responding, detecting, mitigating, and recovering from cyber attacks.
To review the report, see the web page:
http://www.house.gov/hsc/democrats/
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New Free Trade Agreement Includes Provisions of the US DMCA
The governments of the US and Australia recently announced the completion of a Free Trade Agreement that reduces tariffs on a number of goods and services. The agreement includes an Intellectual Property Chapter that is intended to align the intellectual property laws and practices of the two countries to provide a more familiar and certain legal environment for trade involving value-added goods. The Intellectual Property Chapter of the agreement requires Australia to strengthen its laws to exert tighter controls on circumventing technological protection of copyright material in a manner similar to Section 1201 of US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The agreement must be approved by the US Congress, but does not require approval by the Australian Parliament. However, the Australian Government must pass legislation to implement the provisions of the FTA to give them effect.
USACM has found the enactment of the DMCA to have substantial negative impacts on the conduct of basic research in the US, particularly in cryptography and other computer security areas.
To review the Intellectual Property Chapter of the trade agreement, see:
http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/us_fta/outcomes/08_intellectual_property.html
To review the USACM DMCA web page, see:
http://www.acm.org/usacm/Issues/DMCA.htm
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USACM Leaders Meet to Discuss Policy Activities
On February 21, members of the USACM Executive Committee met in Washington, DC, with ACM leadership, staff and other guests to review 2003 activities and discuss policy objectives for 2004 and beyond.
USACM achievements for 2003 included testifying before the US Copyright Office regarding the deleterious impact of the anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) on analysis, research and publication. In addition, the 2003 efforts of USACM had a demonstrated impact in helping policymakers and the public to develop a deeper understanding of the technical issues and risks associated with electronic voting systems. Finally, USACM crafted numerous statements and signed legal briefs in 2003 on policy issues of importance to ACM and the computing community.
During 2004, USACM is expected to be active in a variety of policy matters as policymakers consider legislation to create new intellectual property restrictions for collections of scientific facts and data, establish minimum information technology security standards for government agencies, and to create new restrictions on the access to the results of fundamental research. The ACM Office of Public Policy is working with USACM to formulate a comprehensive public policy agenda to address these and other emerging policy issues.
For more information about USACM, see:
http://www.acm.org/usacm/
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