Auto Companies Create Grassroots Campaigns Against Fuel Standards

Via digg (originally from here).

Auto companies have creates a few websites which encourage the public to contact their representatives and oppose a fuel standard reform – a reform that, I believe, will not only help the environment, but ultimately it will also help the American economy by reducing dependency on foreign oil.

Here are links to a couple of the websites:

• www.drivingamericasfuture.com
• www.drivecongress.com

As usual in corporate land, these companies didn’t create the sites by themselves. Instead, they let some front organizations do the work for them. A whois query reveals that DriveCongress in owned by Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. As for the first site, the query doesn’t return any useful information – it just lists 1&1 as the owner. 1&1 is an internet registrar, thus it does not really own the site, it just lists itself as the owner to protect the identity of the real owner.

(A side note: 1&1 is a really crappy registrar. I once made the mistake of using their services, and I strongly recommend against it.)

I think that for grassroot look-a-like sites, they are doing a pretty good job, as long as the reader is an average joe that understands nothing about environmentalism, and is not an internet savvy user. The Contact Us page on the first site lists an address with just a postal code – no name, no street address; a sure hint that they are hiding from visitors. That alone is a sign not to mistake this site for a representative of an authentic grassroot movement (that is true even if you happen to agree with the opinion expressed in that site).

A few more things to note:

• A quote from the first site – “The American auto industry is taking the lead in incorporating alternative fuels and developing new technologies”.
  Huh? is that why they are losing sales to Toyota’s and Honda’s hybrid vehicles like there is no tomorrow? Did you know that by 2012, the entire Toyota fleet sold in Canada will be based on hybrid technology? (yes, I mean the entire fleet, including their SUVs and trucks) So who is the leader in developing new technologies? This quote is so falsified, that it is just another proof that we are surrounded by bullshit.
• As mentioned in a couple of comments on digg, this shows that the auto companies are afraid. In a twisted way, I guess that’s a good thing. Perhaps they’ll eventually stop the lobbying/PR/legislative parade, and start to actually make better cars.

An Over-hyped Copyright Issue?

This number has been all over the place recently:

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 56 C5 63 88 C0

Why? because this number is used in an encryption algorithm that encrypts new DVDs, so consumers can’t copy the movies. In the last couple of weeks, the RIAA has frantically tried to prevent this number from being published, but their effort back-fired and now it is all over the place (around 1,700,000 hits on google). Digg users revolted against censorship and forced digg to keep the number published. People have done all sort of things to get the number out there, like printing it on t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.
(Remember that the RIAA recently received the “honor” of being America’s most hated corporation)

Ed Felten, from freedom-to-tinker, wrote a very interesting series of posts about the topic. In his last post he even offers a nice parody on the way that RIAA claims to own numbers.

The only problem is, RIAA doesn’t claim to own this number, and this stories is not about copyrights. According to the EFF, the RIAA is indeed using the DMCA as part of their battle, but they are not claiming that the integer in question belongs to them. What they are claiming (or will claim in court when the day comes) is that the integer in question is used in a technology that illegally circumvents encryption (i.e., the integer is a “part” or a “component” of a malicious technology). Further more, the number has no other practical purpose, and therefore whoever publishes this number is engaged in “trafficking”.
(You can read a much better explanation directly at the EFF site)

Nowadays, the term ‘copyrights’ sneaks into every story that somehow intersects between technology and public policy, be it about privacy, file-sharing, espionage, law suits, medicine, theft of personal information and what not. Many times this term used in the wrong way, where the real issue is perhaps related to trademarks, trade-secrets, trespassing, civil rights and a whole lot of other things.

I don’t mind that bloggers over-use this term so they can feel like freedom fighter, like this blogger did. I do, however, find it disappointing that Ed Felten, who is such a prominent blogger and a policy-expert second to none, doesn’t see the difference.

Oh well, at least I got a chance to publish the number myself. I wonder if anyone at the RIAA would ever read this page.