WASHINGTON--I'm going to miss Dick Armey, the crusty Texas Republican and House majority leader who is retiring after 17 years in Congress.

No, I won't miss his repeated attempts to outlaw electronic vice. An unapologetic social conservative, Armey voted to restrict online sales of alcohol, prohibit Internet gambling and restrict the sale of violent videogames to minors.

Still, Armey emerged as one of the finest champions of privacy in Washington, and his departure means that the House leadership will no longer include anyone attuned to the perils of electronic snooping.

As second-in-command in the GOP's congressional leadership, Armey has been in a perfect position to block hideous proposals while shepherding better ones toward floor votes. Because it looks like the Republicans will keep control of the House after next week's elections, Armey's exit means good privacy laws could become even more rare than they already are.

"The fact that technology makes so many things more possible creates a temptation to say: 'We've got these tools; we just want to use them.' Technology always gives us new opportunities and new abilities," Armey said in an interview last week. "Our question is: Do we learn to responsibly use them? My sense is at the Justice Department, you have people who are chomping at the bit. You have these new electronic capabilities, and they can't wait to deploy them. That's why we have a Congress that can provide oversight."

The Register (UK) - 'We are the worst security risk' - sys admins confess.

More than half of all senior IT managers (58 per cent) think that their own IT departments offer the largest threat to IT security.

IT security holes in corporate systems often open up during systems upgrades or when integrating new applications into core infrastructure, senior managers reported during a recent (and not particularly comprehensive) survey by security consultants Defcom.

Further questioning revealed that 67 per cent of senior IT security managers felt that their IT departments lacked the requisite skills to handle the widening spectrum of security threats that exist today. Two thirds also believed their employees to be a major threat to corporate IT security. By contrast, only 10 per cent quizzed during the poll identified malicious hackers as the largest threat to security.

PCWorld.com - Consumers Shun Copy-Protected CDs. Study finds music fans support copying for personal use, backup.

Music companies thinking of distributing copy-protected CDs to protect their content from piracy will likely raise the ire of consumers while lowering their revenue, a new study warns.

According to a survey recently released by GartnerG2, the research service of Gartner/Dataquest, 77 percent of respondents thought they should be able to copy CDs for personal use in another device. Also, 60 percent said they should be able to give copies of CDs to members of their families.

Meanwhile, 82 percent of respondents said that they should be able to copy CDs for personal backup purposes.

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - Gartner Survey: Consumers Don't Want Crippled CDs.

robkill writes "According to GartnerG2, 77% of consumers believe they should be allowed to copy CD's for personal use in another device. 82% believe they should be allowed to make personal backup copies of CD's. Let's hope Senators Hollings and Berman are paying attention. More details can be found in this PC World article."

SiliconValley.com part of San Jose Mercury News - ICANN's contrarian gets the boot.

Fellow board members on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers responded to Auerbach's caustic challenges by eliminating his seat and those of the four other publicly elected directors.

Auerbach was consistently the contrarian on a board whose decisions on Internet domains affect everything from how Web sites are named to how e-mail is sent.

As he prepares to step down in December, an exhausted and frustrated Auerbach believes ICANN is as out of synch as ever with the needs of innovators and the general Internet public.

``I wasn't expecting to get a lot passed, but I wasn't expecting the kind of knee-jerk reaction of anything I put forward must be bad,''' Auerbach said in an interview in a bare conference room at his office, still visibly tired from an early morning ICANN conference call that day.

[ ... ]

One thing Auerbach lacks is political savvy.

Auerbach likes to speak his mind, allowing ``ICANN to falsely paint him as a loose cannon,'' says Michael Froomkin, a University of Miami law professor and frequent ICANN critic.

Esther Dyson, former chairwoman of ICANN, said she agrees with Auerbach on increasing public involvement but finds his approach ``mostly counterproductive and polarizing.''

Auerbach acknowledges he can be pushy, confrontational and politically naive. But he believes he has a unique perspective as a deep-seeded generalist -- his undergraduate major at Berkeley was in geography.

Though soon leaving the ICANN board, Auerbach vows to keep complaining. And he leaves with no regrets -- he'd do it again.

Slashdot | ICANN Eliminates Karl Auerbach's Seat.

BrianWCarver writes "SiliconValley.com carries an AP report by Anick Jesdanun indicating that ICANN has given Karl Auerbach the boot by eliminating his seat as well as the four other publicly elected seats on ICANN's board. ICANN is the internet's key oversight body, managing the Top-Level Domains (TLDs). You may recall from this previous Slashdot story that Auerbach is the director who successfully sued ICANN to receive access to their records without having to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. 'Though soon leaving the ICANN board, Auerbach vows to keep complaining. And he leaves with no regrets -- he'd do it again.' It'll now be up to organizations like ICANNWatch to keep an eye on ICANN for the public. Is that good enough?'"