FC: Law lets Australian police hack computers; MS and antitrust future

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Thanks to Richard Payne and David Stern for forwarding this.


 http://www.newswire.com.au/9911/asio.htm

 Parliament passes ASIO bill 
 William Maher, Newswire 

 Parliament has passed laws that allow the Australian Security Intelligence
 Organisation (ASIO) to tap into and alter data on private computer systems.

 The ASIO Amendment Bill 1999 passed the Senate yesterday, giving
 federal authorities the power to tap into private computer systems for
 surveillance purposes. This is the first time in 13 years a major change has
 been made to the ASIO Act 1979. 

 [...]

Background:

http://www.newswire.com.au/apcweb/news.nsf/def5c94fb1fc5ea6ca25647b00461aa4/
ace558bb8e62541e4a25677100258420?OpenDocument

 The document detailed several important proposals allowing
 ASIO to "hack" into private computers, proposals that were since
 suppressed for reasons relating to "national security, law enforcement, and
 public safety".

One of a number of future-of-MS articles we ran over the weekend:

  http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,32466,00.html

                     MS Focus Bound to Change 
                     by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

                     3:00 a.m. 27.Nov.1999 PST 
                     Like miniskirts, tube tops, and wide ties,
                     politics also has its fashions. 

                     Economists didn't care much for the
                     Sherman Act -- the basis of US antitrust
                     law -- when it took effect over 100 years
                     ago, but the muckrakers soon changed all
                     that. In the late 1960s, government
                     antitrust cases became as popular as
                     hula hoops, and a White House task force
                     even suggested breaking up big firms --
                     whether they were monopolies or not. 

                     After President Reagan took over, the
                     idea that big-is-bad faded from memory
                     as quickly as brown suits and reruns of
                     Welcome Back Kotter. The number of US
                     Justice Department antitrust lawsuits
                     soon dropped. 

                     But today, antitrust bureaucrats are
                     enjoying fatter budgets, higher prestige,
                     and a renewed raison d'etre. The cause
                     for their celebration: The computer
                     industry, and especially Microsoft. 

                     [...]



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