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On the Border
Mark Rasch, 2008-03-20

Recently, I was going through an airport with my shoes, coat, jacket, and belt off as well as with my carry-on bag, briefcase, and laptop all separated for easy inspection. I was heading through security at the Washington D.C., Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, or "National" as we locals call it. As I passed through the new magnetometer which gently puffed air all over my body -- which to me seems to be a cross between a glaucoma test and Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes -- a TSA employee absent-mindedly asked if he could "inspect" my laptop computer. While the inspection was cursory, the situation immediately gave me pause: What was in my laptop anyway?

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On the Border 2008-03-20
Anonymous (1 replies)
Re: On the Border 2008-03-24
Anonymous
On the Border 2008-03-21
Anonymous
On the Border 2008-03-21
Dr. Neal Krawetz
On the Border 2008-03-31
Anonymous
Mirroring is theft. Use the DMCA on them. 2008-04-01
Jim
Unless I'm mistaken, the U.S. Government is no more entitled to pirate software, make illegal copies of music or unauthorized copies of other people's material than anybody else is. As such, mirroring the average laptop would pirate copies of dozens of pieces of commercial software, dozens of legally purchase songs and videos from the itunes music store and violate the copyright of *every* author of an email and document sent to you. As such, they could be sued for roughly a jillion dollars for each laptop they scan. One obvious answer to this legal response would be 'eminent domain' but then they would be required to pay the fair value of each license/IP. Let's pit one piece of electronic evil against another. I bet copyright loses, but if not, we'll bankrupt the snoops.

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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/469/35014#35014
On the Border 2008-04-02
A Canadian
On the Border 2008-04-04
Anonymous
On the Border 2008-04-10
Ichinin
On the Border 2008-04-10
Anonymous (1 replies)
Re: On the Border 2008-04-24
Anonymous







 

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