Slashdot | Your Rights Online - UK Media Gagged In "Official Secrets" Trial.
An anonymous reader writes "According to an an article at Cryptome, the UK media has been gagged from reporting on the trial of an ex-intelligence agent. More than this, they've even been gagged from reporting on the gag! Several UK websites that were covering the story have removed it. Insidious..."
The Register USA - If I tell you that I'll have to kill you: Red Hat fights the DMCA.
Red Hat has struck a small blow against the DMCA, by publishing a security patch which can only be explained fully to people who are not within US jurisdiction. The company's position here seems to be not altogether voluntary - according to a spokesman "it is bizarre, and unfortunately something Red Hat cannot easily do much about," but like it or not Red Hat has been recruited to the campaign to make the DMCA look ridiculous.
Slashdot | Your Rights Online - New RedHat Kernel Patch Illegal to Explain to U.S. Users.
Russellkhan writes "The Register is running a story about a new RedHat kernel patch that cannot be explained to U.S. citizens or others in the U.S. because of DMCA restrictions. The illegal explanation is hosted at Thefreeworld.net, a site created specifically to deal with these DMCA issues."
New York Times - free registration required Court Ruling Limits Prosecutors' Access to Patient Records.
New York State's highest court ruled yesterday that prosecutors cannot demand hospital medical records in their efforts to seek criminal suspects who have been wounded, because doing so infringes on patient confidentiality.
The decision by the Court of Appeals affects only cases that involve a doctor's medical judgment. Where information about a possible crime is apparent to anyone -- for instance, when wounds are readily visible on a patient's face, or when a packet of drugs falls from a patient's sock -- prosecutors may enforce a subpoena for records, the court noted in its unanimous decision.
The decision also does not affect established legal exceptions to patient confidentiality, like gunshot wounds, certain communicable diseases, potential child abuse and even potentially fatal stab wounds.
[ ... ]
The Court of Appeals had reached an almost identical decision in 1983, ruling on a similar dispute between prosecutors and hospital officials in upstate New York.
[ ... ]
The Manhattan prosecutors had sought a way around the 1983 ruling. In the subpoenas last year, they demanded patients' names, addresses and other information, "except any and all information acquired by a physician, registered nurse or licensed practical nurse in attending said patient in a professional capacity and which was necessary to enable said doctor and/or nurse to act in that capacity."
But the Court of Appeals rejected that distinction, saying the prosecutors were seeking people with a particular type of injury -- in this case a stab wound.
"The inherently medical nature of this judgment is not obviated by attempting to qualify it in terms of what a layperson might plainly observe," wrote Justice Albert M. Rosenblatt, in an opinion joined by the court's other six judges.
While there are some exceptions to medical privacy, the opinion said, "Patients should not fear that merely by obtaining emergency medical care they may lose the confidentiality of their medical records and their physicians' medical determinations."
Counterpane: Crypto-Gram: October 15, 2002
has a new issue out
In this issue:
Slashdot | "Ask Slashdot" - Questions for a Lecture on Microsoft's Palladium?
An anonymous reader asks: "Microsoft is going to be giving a lecture on Palladium for my Computer and Network Security class at MIT this Thursday. We're told that it's going to be the most technically detailed lecture publically given to date, and that we should be armed with questions as a result. Any suggestions from the Slashdot crowd? What technical details have you been dying to know about Palladium?" --- It would be interesting to hear back from someone who is planning on attending this. For those who wish they were, but can't for one reason or another, what would you have asked by proxy?
Slashdot | OpenSSH 3.5 Released.
Dan writes "Markus Friedl announces that OpenSSH 3.5 has just been released with notable updates since 3.4. It will be available from the mirrors listed at http://www.openssh.com/ shortly. Enhancements include bug fixes, improved support for Privilege Separation (Portability, Kerberos, PermitRootLogin handling), RSA blinding in order to avoid timing attacks against the RSA host key and much more. Congratulations are in order for the OpenSSH team's hard work and efforts."
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