My first reaction to this story was, wow!, that’s harsh, but then I read on and saw that, against company policy, the data wasn’t encrypted. And I started to wonder how I’d feel if I was the CTO, or IT Manager, or whoever is responsible for Boeing’s personal computing infrastructure. From the article:

Jim McNerney, Boeing’s chairman, president and chief executive, said the breach of company policy was so serious that some Boeing managers also will be disciplined.

I think Boeing have got it dead right; this doesn’t just stop with the person taking that laptop off-site. There must be a reason for that user not encrypting their data, and I suspect responsibility for that lies at the feet of the people running Boeing’s IT as much as it lies at the feet of the user.

Think about it – why do you not do some things? Usually because they take too long, or they’re too complicated, or both. Would you forget to set your burglar alarm? No. Would you forget to lock your front-door before leaving the house? No. The reason that you don’t is because setting the alarm and locking your door are simple, 5-second jobs.

Using IT security should be that simple, too – a 5-second job that quickly becomes second nature. If you’re responsible for IT Security in your organisation, put yourself in the shoes of your users and tell me; is your security so easy to use that your users would never take unencrypted data off-site….?

[tags]EFS, Boeing, IT Management, CTO, encryption[/tags]

The BBC are reporting that there will be no copyright extension for songs in the UK. The official review commissioned by the Treasury on all IP law in the UK has not yet been published but it is highly likely the BBC have managed to get a sneak peak

Here’s what’s happened;  In the UK, the current laws grant copyright for 50 years. Artists like Cliff Richard want that term extended to 95 years. Some of his early material was released when he was in his teens, so the 50 years is almost up. His argument is that he should be able to receive royalties on his music, effectively, for the rest of his life.

I don’t disagree with him, but the problem is that extending the copyright term brings an awful lot of material which is currently out of copyright back in to the private domain. In other words, all of the music that is legally free from restriction today would belong to those Media Mafiosi; the big record companies. Release the Music, a campaign being run by the Open Rights Group, sums it up perfectly:

In an attempt to squeeze every last bit of profit from their catalogue, the recording industry is trying to extend their control over sound recordings by asking the government to extend the term of copyright protection for sound recordings. It’s important to remember that we’re not talking about the artists who make the music, but rather the companies who own the rights to that music. Most artists have to to give up their rights when they sign contracts with record labels. It is these surrendered rights that the companies seek to control.

Although early indications are that the UK Government won’t support the change, the recording industry are already making threatening noises, and are likely to bring a very powerful lobbying guns to bear. Release the Music have prepared a public petition for the Government minister responsible for culture.

If you’re in the UK, I’d urge you to add your name, too.

[tags]releasethemusic, DRM, digital rights, copyright, music[/tags]

We’ve seen bloggers making posts about presentations and keynotes as they happen before, but the interesting slant on this is that Keiren McCarthy from The Register will be there, trawling the blogosphere for blog posts about the meeting, tagged with “igf”, as they occur and feed the interesting ones back into the meeting in real time. I haven’t heard of this technique being used before, and certainly not being used at such a forum.

The output from the meeting will feed into the Internet Governance Fourm being held in Athens at the end of the month, so this represents a great opportunity for bloggers passionate about the future of the net to make their voices heard during a meeting of academics, business people and politicians as if they themselves were in the audience.

Of course, it depends on Kieren’s editorial control in making sure that the “right” blog posts are bought to the attention of the panel, but it’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.