Taming the Consumer's Computer Editorial from the New York Times warning of the danger of proposed "trusted computers" soon to be prepared for the consumer market. The discussion - and the lobbying by the likes of Disney's Michael Eisner and News Corporations' Peter Chernin - comes in the context of legislation being floated by U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings that would "outlaw the creation, distribution, or sale of "any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies." The "trusted computers" are being promoted under the guise of being reliable computers - something we all want - but are intended to "determine what software will and won't be allowed to run, what we can and can't do with the information to which we're exposed, and what data about our online activities will be collected." By Jonathan L. Zittrain, New York Times, March 11, 2002.[Refer]

K-12 and Rights Management take Centre Stage at IMS Forum More on the IMS technical forum held late last month in Sydney. Brief overview of work on the School Information Format (SIF), "an industry initiative to develop an open specification for ensuring that K-12 instructional and administrative software applications work together more effectively." Also some discussion of the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) proposal mentioned here yesterday. By Norm Friesen, CETIS, March 11, 2002.[Refer]

E-Publisher Wins Round in Court A small publisher wins another round in its bid to publish online versions of books the print rights for which are owned by major publishers. Random House sued RosettaBoks about a year ago. U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein ruled that the publisher was "not likely to succeed on the merits of its copyright infringement claim and cannot demonstrate irreparable harm." By Hillel Italie, Excite News, March 11, 2002.[Refer]

McGraw-Hill, NYTimes Team on Digital Content There's not too much too this item just yet, but the gist is that the New York Times and McGraw-Hill are offering a co-branded service aimed at college and university students using McGraw-Hill's Higher Education Online Learning Centers. The point of course is for the Times to reach people who otherwise wouldn't pay for a subscription and to offer more value at the McGraw-Hill site. By Anonymous, At New York, March 11, 2002.[Refer]

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