bob

For years, criminal defense attorneys, academics, and civil libertarians have warned that an anti-hacking law, originally designed to protect NORAD's computers, needs to be reformed. Federal prosecutors have used the law to prosecute the late Aaron Swartz and a Missouri woman accused of lying on her MySpace profile.

Now a key U.S. House of Representatives committee finally is rewriting the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. But instead of fixing the law's vagueness problems, or reducing its penalties, draft legislation backed by the Justice Department would make it even more Draconian.

It's a bitter setback to the … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Check out our interview with B.O.B. and Big Boi for their new game, "Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel."

- Mico headphones let your brainwaves choose the music.

- Google Images adds filters for animated GIFs.

- Detroit doctors link garbled texting as first sign of a stroke.… Read more

A once-obscure copyright law that the U.S. Senate unanimously approved in 1998 has finally irritated so many members of the public that Congress might bother to defang it.

It's not like the flaws of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have remained a state secret for the last 15 years: it's been wielded to threaten Princeton security researchers, restrict replacement garage door openers, and jail a programmer who dared to create an e-book converter. One federal appeals court even invoked the law when banning "linking" to certain DMCA-offending Web sites.

Not one of those extrusions of … Read more

Disney CEO Bob Iger said today that the Hollywood giant plans on making a series of new spin-off films based on existing "Star Wars" characters.

These new films would be in addition to the forthcoming "Episode VII" that is slated for a possible 2015 release (and which will be directed by "Star Trek" director J.J. Abrams), and two subsequent full "Star Wars" sequels.

Iger revealed the news in an interview on CNBC today (see video below), explaining that the spin-off films will be produced alongside the full "Star Wars" … Read more

It was one year ago today that an unprecedented outcry against the Stop Online Piracy Act proved to Washington officialdom that sufficiently irritated Internet users are a potent political force. After Wikipedia, Google, Craigslist and other major sites asked their users to contact their representatives, the deluge of traffic knocked some Senate Web sites offline, and votes on both bills were indefinitely postponed.

The massive public outcry that, by some counts, involved more than 10 million Internet users concerned about the proposals' impact on free expression has turned the protests into a cautionary tale on Capitol Hill. Aides now worry … Read more

Anyone wanting to download the SpongeBob Diner Dash game from Apple's iTunes app store today is out of luck.

Nickelodeon has removed the app from the store after an advocacy group filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission alleging the game violated children's online privacy rights by collecting their e-mail addresses without parents' permission.

According to the Center for Digital Democracy, which filed the complaint earlier today, cable network Nickelodeon and mobile game-maker PlayFirst are misleadingly marketing the game and are violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

SpongeBob Diner Dash is a free app … Read more

Apple's technology chief Bob Mansfield has sold off another sizable chunk of his company stock.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this afternoon, Mansfield yesterday let go of 35,000 shares, worth just over $20.37 million.

Mansfield, who joined Apple when the company acquired Raycer Graphics in 1999, now has a little under 30,000 shares, a tally that does not include restricted stock units given out as bonuses.

A leaked company-wide e-mail from Cook last month noted that Mansfield would be staying on with Apple for another two years.

Mansfield, of … Read more

The outgoing chairman of a House of Representatives panel responsible for U.S. copyright law conceived the memorable Stop Online Piracy Act. Its next chairman happens to be even more enthusiastic about expanding digital copyright law.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte was elected head of the House Judiciary committee today, much to the dismay of advocacy groups that had doggedly worked to defeat SOPA and Protect IP a year ago.

The Virginia Republican has long been a steadfast ally of Hollywood and other large copyright holders, saying as recently as two months ago that "I remain committed to enacting strong copyright … Read more

The pace of modern consumer technology has been so swift in recent decades that you can still meet the people who helped change the world, and find that they're still at it and working on what's next. Bob Rennard is an example.

He was one of the developers of the GPS technology we rely on today, and is a co-founder of TeleNav, a provider of GPS-related software and services. The company called me and offered to have Rennard explain its Scout platform. I'm normally reticent to come do a story on a product pitch, but the key … Read more