Licensing Restrictions Research Articles

In Search of a Second Chance: Channeling BMW V. Gore and Reconsidering Occupational Licensing Restrictions

In Search of a Second Chance: Channeling BMW V. Gore and Reconsidering Occupational Licensing Restrictions

Deciding between information security and usability: Developing value based objectives

Deciding between security and usability of systems remains an important topic among managers and academics. One of the fundamental problems is to balance the conflicting requirements of security and usability. We argue that definition of objectives for security and usability allows for deciding about the right balance between security and usability. To this effect we propose two instruments for assessing security and usability of systems, and develop them in three phases. In Phase 1 we identified 16 clusters of means and 8 clusters of fundamental objectives using the value-focused thinking approach and interviews with 35 experts. Based on phase 1, in the second phase we collected a sample of 201 users to purify, and ensure reliability and unidimensionality of the two instruments. In the third phase, based on a sample of 418 users we confirmed and validated the two instruments found in Phase 2. This resulted in 14 means objectives organized into four categories (minimize system interruptions and licensing restrictions, maximize information retrieval, maximize system aesthetics, and maximize data quality), and 10 fundamental objectives grouped into four categories (maximize standardization and integration, maximize ease of use, enhance system related communication, and maximize system capability). The objectives offer a useful basis for assessing the extent to which security and usability has been achieved in systems. The objectives also provide a decision basis for balancing security and usability.

License Compliance in Open Source Cybersecurity Projects

Developers of cybersecurity software often include and rely upon open source software packages in their commercial software products. Before open source code is absorbed into a proprietary product, developers must check the package license to see if the project is permissively licensed, thereby allowing for commercial-friendly inheritance and redistribution. However, there is a risk that the open source package license could be inaccurate due to being silently contaminated with restrictively licensed open source code that may prohibit the sale or confidentiality of commercial derivative work. Contamination of commercial products could lead to expensive remediation costs, damage to the company's reputation, and costly legal fees. In this article, we report on our preliminary analysis of more than 200 open source cybersecurity projects to identify the most frequently used license types and languages and to look for evidence of permissively licensed open source projects that are likely contaminated by restrictive licensed material (i.e., containing commercial-unfriendly code). Our analysis identified restrictive license contamination cases occurring in permissively licensed open source projects. Furthermore, we found a high proportion of code that lacked copyright attribution. We expect that the results of this study will: i) provide managers and developers with an understanding of how contamination can occur, ii) provide open source communities with an understanding on how they can better protect their intellectual property by including licenses and copyright information in their code, and ii) provide entrepreneurs with an understanding of the open source cybersecurity domain in terms of licensing and contamination and how they affect decisions about cybersecurity software architectures. One bad apple can spoil the bunch. Proverb

Ether Today, Gone Tomorrow: 21st Century Sound Recording Collection in Crisis

Today’s music industry increasingly favors online-only, direct-to-consumer distribution. No longer can librarians expect to collect recordings on tangible media where first-sale doctrine applies. Instead, at an ever-increasing rate, librarians are discovering that music recordings are available only via such online distribution sites as iTunes or Amazon.com . These distributors require individual purchasers to agree to restrictive end-user license agreements (EULAs) that explicitly forbid institutional ownership and such core library functions as lending. What does this mean for the future of music libraries? The coauthors present an overview of an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded project tasked with investigating the issue, and recommend a series of next steps designed to build our professional capacity toward addressing the challenge.

Vespucci: A Free, Cross-Platform Tool for Spectroscopic Data Analysis and Imaging

Vespucci is a software application developed for imaging and analysis of hyperspectral datasets. Vespucci offers several advantages over other software packages, including a simple user interface with a small learning curve, no cost, and less restrictive licensing. Vespucci expands several analysis techniques including univariate imaging, principal components analysis, partial-least-squares regression, and vertex components analysis with endmember extraction, and k-means clustering. Additionally, Vespucci can perform a number of useful data-processing operations, including filtering, normalization, baseline correction, and background subtraction. Datasets that consist of spatial or temporal data with a corresponding digital signal, including spectroscopic images, mass spectrometric images, and X-ray diffraction data can be processed in this software. A few use cases for Raman and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopies are provided. Vespucci is written in C++ and makes use of the MLPACK [3], Armadillo [9], Qt, and QCustomPlot libraries. Vespucci is a graphically-driven package that is designed with ease-of-use in mind and is equally capable to other available tools. Vespucci’s capabilities are extended by interfaces to Octave and R to allow existing research code to be run from a common environment. Additionally, Vespucci’s C++ classes can be used to construct more specialized programs when an application programming interface (API) is desired. The source code and a Windows binary distribution can be accessed at https://github.com/dpfoose/Vespucci.

Uber Television: Internet-Only Television Stations

Broadcast television in the United States is under siege. Viewers are jumping ship, finding their news and entertainment on the Internet. A thicket of intellectual property license restrictions makes it difficult for broadcasters to follow them. Some content producers limit distribution for the acknowledged purpose of slowing the migration to new technologies. The FCC’s Broadcast Incentive Auction provides an opportunity for TV stations to get a fresh start. By abandoning expensive transmitters and antennas, by embracing the Uber ride-sharing model of contingent work, by taking advantage of the creativity of indie video producers, by utilizing the full potential of targeted advertising, and by adopting best practices for Internet dissemination of news and entertainment, the FCC Incentive Auction can preserve what is best about television: on-the-spot journalism, careful analysis of public affairs, and compelling drama and comedy that make people think.

Driving and hypoglycemia

Qatar is one of the 20 countries of the IDF MENA region. Three hundred and eighty seven million people have diabetes worldwide and more than 37 million people in the MENA Region; by 2035 this will rise to 68 million. There were 303,700 cases of diabetes in Qatar in 2014. Large number of diabetic patients will seek or currently hold a license to drive. Most of these patients are either on oral medications or insulin to control their diabetes. Hypoglycemia is one of the major complications related to diabetes treatment. Many large studies have shown an increased risk of hypoglycemia with tight blood sugar control. Unfortunately most diabetes medication can cause hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia has been associated with cardiac arrhythmia, a decreased ability to drive and driving mishap. Recent meta-analysis of 15 studies showed a risk road traffic collisions (RTC) of 12-19% greater than general populations. The most significant subgroup of persons with diabetes is those on insulin therapy. The single most significant factor associated with RTC appears to be history of recent severe hypoglycemia. Government regulations have not been established in most of GSC and MENA in general. All EU countries do have regulations for diabetes and driving. Many US states have a restrictive license program for drivers with medical conditions including diabetes. These regulations include more frequent medical examination to denial of driving license, e.g.in those patients with hypoglycemia unawareness. Also more restriction regulations have been established for drivers who are using insulin and buses and heavy goods trucks.

Examining variations in prescribing safety in UK general practice: cross sectional study using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink

Study question What is the prevalence of different types of potentially hazardous prescribing in general practice in the United Kingdom, and what is the variation between practices? Methods A cross...

Towards a Licence-Free Europe? Impact and Reform of the EU Directive on Intra-Community Transfers of Defence-Related Products

Member State recourse to security derogations has restricted the free movement of defence goods within the Internal Market. Generalised security concerns have also meant that Member States have applied variable national laws and policies on the transfer of defence goods between Member States within the EU on terms equivalent to exports to third countries outside the EU. Consequently, significant costs and delays have been incurred through bureaucratic and restrictive licensing requirements. As part of the EU “Defence Package”, the Intra-Community Transfers Directive 2009/43/EU (“ICT Directive”) was adopted in 2009 introducing a harmonised transfer licensing and certification regime. The ICT Directive will soon be revised but has not yet been the subject of detailed legal analysis. Based on currently available data, this article investigates the ICT Directive’s impact with a view to reform. It will be argued, inter alia, that due to insufficient harmonisation, national laws and practices have not changed significantly in form and effect as a result of the ICT Directive’s implementation as an export control mentality continues to dictate. Adjustments are necessary to meet the ICT Directive’s objectives.

Is driver licensing restriction for age-related medical conditions an effective mechanism to improve driver safety without unduly impairing mobility?

BackgroundWhile medical conditions have been recognised as a minor contributing factor to road traffic crashes, clinicians and driver licencing agencies need mechanisms for promoting safe mobility for those with age-related illnesses which can impact on driving safety. Restrictive licensing has been proposed as a possible intervention for decreasing the risk of crashes associated with medical crashes, whilst not unduly affecting patient mobility. ObjectiveTo analyse how the term “restrictive licensing” is defined in the literature, and to determine the effectiveness of this mechanism in improving driver safety. DesignA systematic literature review. MethodsA search of the Medline and TRID databases. ResultsRestrictive licensing is most commonly defined as a geographical, time of day or speed restriction placed on the driver. Personal and vehicle modifications are considered by some to also be a form of restrictive licensing. Existing studies are supportive of the efficacy of restrictive licensing programs, with reduced crash rates for drivers carrying restricted licences compared to controls. ConclusionRestrictive licensing has been shown to be an effective mechanism of increasing driver safety without unduly impacting driver mobility. It has significant potential to have a positive impact on the ability of those with medical conditions to drive safely. Further research is needed to determine the optimum format and policies for advising driver restrictions for age-related disease and disability.

A Systematic Content Analysis of Policy Barriers Impeding Access to Opioid Medication in Central and Eastern Europe: Results of ATOME

ContextReliable access to opioid medication is critical to delivering effective pain management, adequate treatment of opioid dependence, and quality palliative care. However, more than 80% of the world population is estimated to be inadequately treated for pain because of difficulties in accessing opioids. Although barriers to opioid access are primarily associated with restrictive laws, regulations, and licensing requirements, a key problem that significantly limits opioid access relates to policy constraints. ObjectivesTo identify and explore policy barriers to opioid access in 12 Eastern and Central European countries involved in the Access to Opioid Medication in Europe project, funded by the European Community's Seventh Framework (FP7/2007–2013, no. 222994) Programme. MethodsA systematic content analysis of texts retrieved from documents (e.g., protocols of national problem analyses, strategic planning worksheets, and executive summaries) compiled, reviewed, approved, and submitted by either the Access to Opioid Medication in Europe consortium or the national country teams (comprising experts in pain management, harm reduction, and palliative care) between September 2011 and April 2014 was performed. ResultsTwenty-five policy barriers were identified (e.g., economic crisis, bureaucratic issues, lack of training initiatives, stigma, and discrimination), classified under four predetermined categories (financial/economic aspects and governmental support, formularies, education and training, and societal attitudes). Key barriers related to issues of funding allocation, affordability, knowledge, and fears associated with opioids. ConclusionReducing barriers and improving access to opioids require policy reform at the governmental level with a set of action plans being formulated and concurrently implemented and aimed at different levels of social, education, and economic policy change.

The economic downturn probably reduced violence far more than licensing restrictions.

The economic downturn probably reduced violence far more than licensing restrictions.

Driving and diabetes: problems, licensing restrictions and recommendations for safe driving.

Driving is a complex process that places considerable demands on cognitive and physical functions. Many complications of diabetes can potentially impair driving performance, including those affecting vision, cognition and peripheral neural function. Hypoglycemia is a common side-effect of insulin and sulfonylurea therapy, impairing many cognitive domains necessary for safe driving performance. Driving simulator studies have demonstrated how driving performance deteriorates during hypoglycemia. Driving behavior that may predispose to hypoglycemia while driving is examined. Studies examining the risk of road traffic accidents in people with insulin-treated diabetes have produced conflicting results, but the potential risk of hypoglycemia-related road traffic accidents has led to many countries imposing restrictions on the type and duration of driving licenses that can be issued to drivers with diabetes. Guidance that promotes safe driving practice has been provided for drivers with insulin-treated diabetes, which is the group principally addressed in this review.

Participation in driver education/training courses during graduated driver licensing, and the effect of a time-discount on subsequent traffic offenses: Findings from the New Zealand Drivers Study

IntroductionThe New Zealand GDL includes a time-discount at the restricted license stage, for attendance at an approved driver education course. This is despite international evidence showing that earlier licensure associated with a time-discount can increase risk for newly licensed drivers. ObjectiveTo examine participation in driver education courses and especially those that qualify for a time-discount; compare the profiles of course participants with non-participants; examine reasons for participation; and examine the association between a time-discount and traffic offenses once fully licensed. MethodThis study was based on the New Zealand Drivers Study (NZDS), a prospective cohort study of newly licensed drivers. Data on driver education courses were obtained at the full license interview (n=1763), driver license and traffic offense data from the NZ Driver Licence Registry, and other data at the NZDS interviews. Results94% had heard of and 49% (n=868) participated in a defensive driving course (DDC). No other course had more than 1% participation. Compared with the others, the DDC group were young, non-Māori, and from an area of relatively low deprivation. Through GDL, the DDC group were relatively more compliant with the conditions, and less likely to crash or receive a traffic offense notice. The groups did not differ on personality, alcohol and drug use. The reason most (85%) attended a DDC was to get their full license sooner; 86% (n=748) received a time-discount. The time-discount group were 40% more likely to receive a traffic offense notice on their full license; this reduced to 10% after controlling for other factors. Conclusion and practical implicationsThe results of this study, when viewed in conjunction with other NZ crash evidence, indicate that a time-discount should not be given for completing a DDC or Street Talk course.

Indian Journalism in the Colonial Crucible

India’s imperfect democracy may be underpinned by an equally imperfect journalism, but the symbiotic relationship between the two is rarely acknowledged or highlighted. The fact remains that India’s democracy is enabled and enhanced by its roots in the ancient tradition of dialogue, debate and argument, which was transformed by the growth of print journalism since the late eighteenth century. In the modern sense, this tradition matured in the acid bath of India’s freedom struggle, when journalism and journalist-leaders such as Gandhi and Nehru played a central role before independence in 1947. This paper focuses on a forgotten chapter in India’s modern political history, when the idea of a free press became the locus of the earliest example of constitutional agitation. In the colonial cauldron of the early nineteenth century, protest by Indian and British liberals against press licensing and other restrictions imposed by the East India Company took the form of “memorials” (petitions) addressed to the Supreme Court in Calcutta1 and to the King-in-Council in London. The agitation begun in Calcutta in 1823 was carried forward in London, which later curbed the Company-state’s restrictive acts towards the press in India, until the Mutiny of 1857. The agitation also included the daring act of Rammohun Roy to close his Persian journal, Mirat-ul-Akhbar, to protest against restrictions imposed by acting Governor-General John Adam. Recalling this chapter of political protest enhances our understanding of the dominant theme of politics in Indian journalism, which continues today, despite rampant commercialisation and corruption.

The effects of liquor licensing restriction on alcohol-related violence in NSW, 2008-13.

To estimate the effect on assault of a series of legislative reforms that restricted the trading hours and trading conditions of licensed premises in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. We examine the effects of the legislative reforms introduced between July 2008 and January 2012 using time series structural models. These models are used to estimate the underlying long-term dynamics of the time series of police recorded domestic and non-domestic assaults occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) and assaults occasioning grievous bodily harm (GBH) in NSW between January 1996 and December 2013. The effect of the legislative changes is captured by including terms in the models which reflect a smooth step change in the number of assaults. The reforms introduced between July 2008 and January 2012 were associated with a fall in levels of ABH and GBH assaults. The joint effect of all the interventions on ABH lasted until July 2013, accounting for a reduction of -31.27% over that period [parameter estimate -0.38 with 95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.65, -0.10)]. The same set of interventions had a greater effect on GBH assaults; achieving a -39.70% reduction over a shorter period of time July 2008 and July 2012 (parameter estimate -0.51 with 95% CI = -0.69, -0.33). Legislative reforms introduced in New South Wales, Australia between July 2008 and January 2012 to restrict trading hours and trading conditions of licensed alcohol premises appear to have reduced the number of police-recorded assaults of ABH and GBH by 31.27% and 39.70% respectively.

Rôle du médecin agréé pour l’évaluation de l’aptitude à la conduite. Aspects pratiques, responsabilité et secret médical

Every candidate for a driving license or any driver who meets a health problem must, on its own initiative, to submit to a medical examination. The list of approved doctors is available in the prefectures. There is a list of medical conditions that are incompatible with the licensing or involve restrictions on the use of the license. The treating physician is not authorized to carry out the assessment of medical fitness to drive for his own patients. This is the prefect who decides after consulting a licensed physician or medical committee composed of licensed doctors. If it deems medically necessary, the medical consultant outside medical commission may request the person to be summoned before the primary medical committee whose jurisdiction is then substituted for his. Possible advice is: fitness, temporary fitness, fitness subject to the license restrictions on use, or the inability of the candidate or driver to drive vehicles of the requested class. We emphasize the absence of shared secret between the attending physician and the medical officer or the Medical Committee.

Open source software for the analysis of corneal deformation parameters on the images from the Corvis tonometer.

BackgroundThe software supplied with the Corvis tonometer (which is designed to measure intraocular pressure with the use of the air-puff method) is limited to providing basic numerical data. These data relate to the values of the measured intraocular pressure and, for example, applanation amplitudes. However, on the basis of a sequence of images obtained from the Corvis tonometer, it is possible to obtain much more information which is not available in its original software. This will be presented in this paper.Material and methodThe proposed software has been tested on 1400 images from the Corvis tonometer. The number of analysed 2D images (with a resolution of 200 × 576 pixels) in a sequence is arbitrary. However, in typical cases there are 140 images. The proposed software has been written in Matlab (Version 7.11.0.584, R2010b). The methods of image analysis and processing and in particular edge detection and the fast Fourier transform have been applied.Results and discussionThe software allows for fully automatic (1) acquisition of 12 new parameters previously unavailable in the original software of the Corvis tonometer. It also enables off-line (2) manual and (3) automatic browsing of images in a sequence; 3D graph visualization of: (4) the corneal deformation and (5) eyeball response; 6) change of the colour palette; (7) filtration and (8) visualization of selected measured values on individual 2D images. In addition, the proposed software enables (9) to save the obtained results for further analysis and processing.ConclusionsThe dedicated software described in this paper enables to obtain additional new features of corneal deformations during intraocular pressure measurement. The software can be applied in the diagnosis of corneal deformation vibrations, glaucoma diagnosis, evaluation of measurement repeatability and others. The software has no licensing restrictions and can be used both commercially and non-commercially without any limitations.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12938-015-0027-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Hello Barbie: First They Will Monitor You, Then They Will Discriminate Against You. Perfectly.

This Article argues that the evolution of software — and the looming age of the “Internet of Things” — will allow manufacturers to make use of consumer monitoring technologies and restrictive software licenses to price discriminate more perfectly. First, the increasing communication between software and its producers gives more opportunities to monitor consumer behavior and characteristics. Second, attaching restrictive copyright licenses to software — and to goods containing software — enables producers to restrict use and resale of their products. By combining monitoring and restrictive licensing, producers will have increasingly better ability and opportunities to price discriminate among their consumers.This Article explains that increased monitoring and price discrimination will not always happen because, in some cases, it will be against the manufacturers’ financial interests. But in other cases, manufacturers will indeed restrict use of products to facilitate price discrimination. The Article argues that the low marginal cost of distribution of software makes it more likely that price discrimination of software-enabled goods will be welfare enhancing and will result in cross- subsidization from rich to poor so that poor consumers can get more products for lower prices. The Article also demonstrates that the traditional policy reasons to disallow restraints on personal property do not apply to software-enabled devices. We conclude that rather than discouraging the use of restrictive software licenses, the law should adapt to better facilitate such licenses and the more perfect price discrimination that goes with them.

Developers’ Incentives and Open-Source Software Licensing: GPL vs BSD

Abstract One of the puzzling aspects of open-source software (OSS) development is its public good nature. Individual developers contribute to developing the software, but do not hold the copyright to appropriate its value. This raises questions regarding motives behind such effort. We provide an integrated model of developers’ incentives to describe OSS development and compare restrictive OSS licenses that force all modifications to be kept open with non-restrictive OSS licenses that allow proprietary ownership of modified works. Different incentives govern effort provision at different stages of the software development process. We show that open-source licenses can provide socially valuable software when a proprietary license fails to do so. We also show that restrictive OSS licenses generate greater effort provision in the design stage of software development relative to non-restrictive licenses. Endogenizing licensing choice, we find that a project leader chooses a non-restrictive OSS license if reputational concerns drive developers’ incentives, a proprietary license when there is a large population of users in the market and a restrictive OSS license if user population is small but reputational benefit is high. Our results resonate well with empirical findings and suggest additional testable implications about the relationship between licensing and software project characteristics. Finally, we also find that the market under-provides restrictive OSS licenses relative to the efficient level, suggesting the need for subsidizing restrictive licenses in some cases.