A cloud of fear and uncertainty hung over the 10th annual Usenix Security Symposium here last week, as IT researchers wondered nervously whether they would be hauled off to jail by the FBI for revealing security flaws in an antipiracy technology . . .
A cloud of fear and uncertainty hung over the 10th annual Usenix Security Symposium here last week, as IT researchers wondered nervously whether they would be hauled off to jail by the FBI for revealing security flaws in an antipiracy technology backed by the music industry. That didn't happen, but new charges of government censorship are being levied by critics of a 1998 law designed to protect copyrighted digital material, such as software, from unauthorized access and copying (see story). If the law isn't changed, legitimate scientists and corporate IT workers conducting research to improve computer and network security could be sent to jail, legal experts said.

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