Ian Brown

Watercasting: Distributed Watermarking of Multicast Media

We outline a scheme by which encrypted multicast audiovisual data may be watermarked by lightweight active network components in the multicast tree. Every recipient receives a slightly different version of the marked data, allowing those who illegally re-sell that data to be traced. Groups of cheating users or multicast routers can also be traced. There is a relationship between the requirements for the scheme proposed here, the requirements for reliable multicast protocols, and proposed mechanisms to support layered delivery of streamed media in the Internet.

A proxy approach to e-mail security

New Internet applications and new releases of existing Internet applications appear with bewildering rapidity. Adding functionality to such applications can therefore be a time-consuming process. By contrast, Internet protocols are significantly less volatile. In some circumstances, the additional functionality can be provided by ‘tapping into’ the protocol exchanges rather than modifying the applications themselves. We claim that this represents a more manageable approach to the problem of adding additional facilities to applications. We demonstrate this approach using the example of e-mail security. Whenever possible, a proxy sitting between a mail client and server signs and encrypts outgoing mail. Incoming secured mail is automatically decrypted and verified. This means that any software that works with standard mail protocols gains security without requiring separate upgrading. The proxy attempts to keep the amount of user interaction required to a minimum providing security functionality for users without the need to learn a complex new user interface.Copyright

The Effect of WWW Document Structure on Students' Information Retrieval

Abstract: This experiment investigated the effect the structure of a WWW document has on the amount of information retained by a reader. Three structures common on the Internet were tested: one long page; a table of contents leading to individual sections; and short sections of text on separate pages with revision questions. Participants read information structured in one of these ways and were then tested on recall of that information. A further experiment investigated the effect that browsing moving between pages has on retrieval. There was no difference between the structures for overall amount of information retained. The single page version was best for recall of facts, while the short sections of text with revision questions led to the most accurate inferences from the material. Browsing on its own had no significant impact on information retrieval. Revision questions rather than structure per se were therefore the key factor. Reviewers: John Errington (U. Northumbria at Newcastle, UK), Xiufeng Liu (St. Francis Xavier U., CA), Sandra Wills (U. Wollongong, AU) n Interactive elements: The three Web document designs contrasted in the experiments are provided. n Interactive demonstrations: The websites contrasted in the experiments are explained in Sections 1.1.1 - 1.1.3 (Expt. 1), and 3.2 (Expt. 2), with links to the respective websites

Who is enfranchised by remote voting

The UK governments experiments with remote voting (by post, Internet, telephone and SMS) have focused on increasing turnout at elections. The data so far however show that those already most likely to vote, and those with an incentive to commit electoral fraud, have received the greatest benefit. This has not provided a solid base for the public trust necessary to e-enable elections, and has led to calls for universal eligibility for postal voting to be removed.

Serve yourself: shifting power away from the brothers

1. Big Brother is going distributed. Why should Big Brother do all the work, with an (Inter)network of Little Brothers to hand? CALEA’d telcos and banks who “know their customer” are just two examples of intermediaries co-opted through government regulation to store reams of information on their customers. Little Brothers have all the advantages of other distributed systems scalability, reliability, high performance... We need to take decentralisation one step further, and claw back control from Big Brother and his little siblings.

Regulating Code: Towards Prosumer Law?

In this interdisciplinary paper written by a socio-legal scholar and a computer scientist, we explain a novel holistic approach to Internet regulation in the broader public interest. We argue for ‘prosumer law’ and give an example of our proposed solution to the problems of dominant social networking sites. What should prosumer law consist of? We examine the international governance of information, especially the apparent incompatibility of human rights and trade-related concerns exposed in such multi-stakeholder fora as the OECD. Finally, we argue for holistic regulation of the Internet, taking a trans-disciplinary perspective to solve those ‘hard cases’ we have examined. Prosumer law suggests a more directed intervention, to prevent Facebook or Google or any other network from erecting a fence around its piece of the information commons: to ensure interoperability with open standards. It is not sufficient for it to permit data deletion as that only covers the user’s tracks. It requires some combination of interconnection and interoperability, more than transparency and the theoretical possibility to switch. It needs the ability for exiting prosumers to interoperate to permit exit. We argue that it is untrue to state that there is so much convergence between platforms that there is no clear distinction between open commons and closed proprietary environments, though ‘voluntary forfeiture’ of IPR to permit greater innovation has always been commonplace. We base our argument on the empirical case studies presented in ‘Regulating Code’ (MIT Press, 2013), but we extend our argument from that monograph to assess the environmental preconditions for prosumer law to operate in Europe. We describe the multistakeholder environment for Internet governance and regulation, in which user groups lobbied along with business and governments. We also describe the insights of new institutionalism, with exit and competition for standards becoming increasingly critical in the information economy. We then describe interoperability as a means of lowering entry barriers and increasing consumer welfare. We consider United States administrative and academic arguments (Wu 2010, Zittrain 2008, Lessig 1999, 2006) for self-regulation to have demonstrably failed, and focus on the European regulatory space as more fertile ground to explore prosumerism as both a market-based and citizen-oriented regulatory tool.

International Security Cooperation and Privacy

Following the events of September 11th, the leaders of developednations have moved quickly to establish new agreements forinternational security cooperation. Many of these agreements arebeing forged secretively, and with little democratic oversight.This session discusses the new era of control and surveillance thathas arisen since that tragic day, and what it will mean for ourprivacy and for national security and law enforcement.