India’s Cops Get Orwellian
,----[ Quote
| If Orwell were brought back from the dead, I presume he’d chuckle and think
| how little things have changed. He would certainly have been bemused by
| happenings in India. A few days ago, Mumbai’s police revealed their plans to
| install keystroke loggers in Mumbai’s cyber cafes, besides imposing licensing
| requirements on them.
|
| [...]
|
| The government’s rationale (or rationalization) behind this is familiar and
| silly. Whenever the government wants to restrict freedom, it invokes
| security, and cops justify this move under the grounds of fighting terrorism.
| Well, firstly, at a practical level, the cops won’t have the manpower to
| scrutinize the massive volume of keystroke logs generated everyday, or to
| figure out what is terrorist code and what is teenage lingo. Secondly, at a
| moral level, it is simply wrong to deny people of their privacy in this
| manner.
`----
http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/indias-cops-get-orwellian/
Some nice quotes on DRM:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/series/digitalwrongs
Related:
BitTorrent Admin Monitored by US Government, Forced to Dump Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| Sk0t, an ex-administrator of the EliteTorrents BitTorrent tracker is to have
| his internet connection forcibly monitored by the US Government. If that
| wasn’t bad enough, the monitoring software is Windows based - which means he
| is being forced to ditch Linux - or face being barred from the internet.
`----
http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-admin-monitored-by-us-government-forced-to-dump-linux/
,----[ Quote ]
| Opinions Needed
|
| So, I am getting shafted by the Justice Department again...
|
| Here goes: I had a meeting with my probation officer today, and he told me
| that he has to install monitoring software onto my PC. No big deal to me,
| that is part of my sentence. However, their software doesnt support GNU/Linux
| (Which is what I use). So, he told me that if I want to use a computer, I
| would have to use an OS that the software can be installed on. Which
| basically means: MICROSOFT AND MONITORING SOFTWARE or NO COMPUTER. I use
| Ubuntu 7.04 now, and they are trying to force me to switch.
`----
http://sk0t.com/digg/
German and US researchers lay low, question just how far new law will go
,----[ Quote ]
| Moore notes that most Linux distros are now illegal in Germany as well,
| because they include the open-source nmap security scanner tool -- and some
| include Metasploit as well.
`----
http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=132255&WT.svl=news1_5
>From Zero to Holy $&*#!
,----[ Quote ]
| What if Linux and Free and Open Source Software became illegal to use due
| to “national security?” Never mind the fact that the American military uses
| it. Never mind the fact that Microsoft funded both political parties in the
| year 2000. Never mind that Richard Stallman has accused Microsoft of
| enabling terrorism in the first place.
`----
http://nixedblog.thenixedreport.com/?p=55
TorrentSpy shuts doors to America
,----[ Quote ]
| But he eventually admitted that the MPAA case was a "catalyst" in the
| decision.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/28/torrentspy_shuts_doors_to_america/
Anime Distributor Has No Legal Right to Threaten BitTorrent Users
,----[ Quote ]
| A company that tracked thousands of users sharing anime via BitTorrent has
| lost its legal battle to force an ISP to reveal its customer’s details.
`----
http://torrentfreak.com/anime-distributor-has-no-legal-right-to-threaten-bittorrent-users/
Comcast Throttles BitTorrent Traffic, Seeding Impossible
,----[ Quote ]
| Over the past weeks more and more Comcast users started to notice that their
| BitTorrent transfers were cut off. Most users report a significant decrease
| in download speeds, and even worse, they are unable to seed their downloads.
| A nightmare for people who want to keep up a positive ratio at private
| trackers and for the speed of BitTorrent transfers in general.
|
| [...]
|
| Last year we had a discussion whether traffic shaping is good or bad, and
| ISPs made it pretty clear that they do not like P2P applications like
| BitTorrent. One of the ISPs that joined our discussions said: “The fact is,
| P2P is (from my point of view) a plague - a cancer, that will consume all the
| bandwidth that I can provide. It’s an insatiable appetite.”, and another one
| stated: “P2P applications can cripple a network, they’re like leaches. Just
| because you pay 49.99 for a 1.5-3.0mbps connection doesn’t mean your entitled
| to use whatever protocols you wish on your ISP’s network without them
| provisioning it to make the network experience good for all users involved.”
`----
http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-throttles-bittorrent-traffic-seeding-impossible/
Torrentspy Disables Searching For US IPs
,----[ Quote
| Torrent indexing site Torrentspy.com appears to have disabled torrent
| searches for IPs that originate in the United States.
`----
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/27/1541244&from=rss
Comcast Cuts Off Heavy Internet Users
,----[ Quote ]
| Customers complain bandwidth limits are secret.
`----
http://consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/08/comcast_ban.html?imw=Y
Microsoft Finds Legal Defender in Justice Dept.
,----[ Quote ]
| Nearly a decade after the government began its landmark effort to break
| up Microsoft, the Bush administration has sharply changed course by
| repeatedly defending the company both in the United States and abroad
| against accusations of anticompetitive conduct, including the recent
| rejection of a complaint by Google.
|
| [...]
|
| In the most striking recent example of the policy shift, the top
| antitrust official at the Justice Department last month urged state
| prosecutors to reject a confidential antitrust complaint filed by
| Google that is tied to a consent decree that monitors Microsoft's
| behavior. Google has accused Microsoft of designing its latest
| operating system, Vista, to discourage the use of Google's desktop
| search program, lawyers involved in the case said.
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/business/10microsoft.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Congress says P2P networks harm national security
http://news.com.com/Congress+P2P+networks+harm+national+security/2100-1029_3-6198585.html?tag=nefd.lede
File sharing could threaten personal and national security
,----[ Quote ]
| A recent government report says that the old adage "buyer beware" now
| even applies to those who are not technically buying anything at all.
| Despite the reputation of "free" downloads, much of the illegal file
| sharing done on the internet comes at a steep price: personal and
| national security.
`----
http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6424471&partner=eb&spacedesc=news
Web downloads and P2P traffic consume 75% of the Internet. Much of that's
still illegal.
,----[ Quote ]
| "LimeWire, Edonkey, Ares, BitTorrent--we want to commercialize them
| all," Kozel says. "I hope we can get rich and make a lot of money."
`----
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0326/082.html?partner=yahoomag
US politicians go to bat for Microsoft
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/26/microsoft_eu_political_lobbying/
Report Says Nonprofits Sold Influence to Abramoff
,----[ Quote ]
| E-mails released by the committee show that Abramoff, often
| with the knowledge of the groups' leaders, exploited the tax-exempt
| status and leveraged the stature of the organizations to build
| support among conservatives for legislation or government action
| sought by clients including Microsoft Corp., mutual fund company
| DH2 Inc., Primedia Inc.'s Channel One Network, and Brown-Forman,
| maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey.
`----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200889.html
http://tinyurl.com/y2rbpu
Politicians in Microsoft's Pocket
,----[ Quote ]
| Continuing on the theme of which politicians are receiving money from
| who. Here is a list of candidates who took money from MSFT.
`----
http://www.fonz.net/blog/archives/2007/06/04/politicians-in-microsofts-pocket/
Politics and tech companies: follow the money
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft took first place with $651,100 given out, while
| Hewlett-Packard gave only $185,550, and Gateway gave a paltry
| $2,000. Microsoft's donations certainly illustrate well the true
| size of the company and the extent of its political concerns.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061110-8194.html
German Supreme Court Deems Police Hacking Illegal
,----[ Quote ]
| Germany's supreme court determined Monday that police may not
| secretly hack into suspects' computers. Some are celebrating
| the decision as a civil rights victory, but the ruling may
| not be the last word on the matter.
`----
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2337932,00.html
Data Protection Commissioner criticizes search of private PCs online
,----[ Quote ]
| "In the case of a search via the Internet a police officer covertly,
| without the person knowing about it, accesses a person's computer."
| During such an operation he or she might copy data and obtain all
| kinds of personal documents; the police officer was acting as a "state
| hacker," so to speak. Mr. Schaar observed. "Such an approach is in
| conflict with the legal obligation to protect the core of
| individuals' privacy," Mr. Schaar stated emphatically.
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/82529/from/rss09
United States Government Online Watchdogs? Part of the war on terror?
,----[ Quote
| Is there anyone in the abandonia community with a US based connection who is
| experiencing this watchdog behavior? Are any foreign Vista users experiencing
| similar attacks from their own countries ministries and governing agencies?"
`----
http://www.whitedust.net/news/3984/United_States_Government_Online_Watchdogs?_Part_of_the_war_on_terror?.../
FBI ducks questions about its remotely installed spyware
,----[ Quote ]
| There are plenty of unanswered questions about the FBI spyware that, as we
| reported earlier this week, can be delivered over the Internet and implanted
| in a suspect's computer remotely.
`----
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9747666-7.html
Yahoo!, Microsoft ink web pact with Chinese government
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft and Yahoo! have signed a pact with the Chinese government
| that "encourages" the big name web players to record the identities of
| bloggers and censor content. So says Reporters Without Borders, an
| organization that fights for journalistic rights across the globe.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/24/yahoo_and_microsoft_ink_chinese_blogging_pact/
Microsoft, Yahoo Tailor Ads To Users' Behavior
,----[ Quote ]
| Google will remain on the sidelines — at least for now. But its Web portal
| rivals are stepping up their efforts to use behavioral targeting to make
| display, or banner, ads more relevant to Web site visitors.
`----
http://investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=17&issue=20070823
,----[ Quote ]
| Vista--Microsoft’s latest operating system--may prove to be most
| appropriately named, especially for those seeking evidence of how a
| computer was used.
`----
http://www.abanet.org/journal/ereport/jy13tkjasn.html
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Forget-about-the-WGA-20-Windows-Vista-Features-and-Services-Harvest-User-Data-for-Microsoft-58752.shtml
Microsoft patents the mother of all adware systems
,----[ Quote ]
| The adware framework would leave almost no data untouched in its quest to
| sell you stuff. It would inspect "user document files, user e-mail files,
| user music files, downloaded podcasts, computer settings, computer status
| messages (e.g., a low memory status or low printer ink)," and more. How could
| we have been so blind as to not see the marketing value in computer status
| messages?
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070717-microsoft-patents-the-mother-of-all-adware-systems.html
New software can identify you from your online habits
,----[ Quote ]
| That is the spectre raised by new research conducted by Microsoft.
| The computing giant is developing software that could accurately
| guess your name, age, gender and potentially even your location,
| by analysing telltale patterns in your web browsing history. But
| experts say the idea is a clear threat to privacy - and may be
| illegal in some places.
`----
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=mg19426046.400&feedId=being-human_rss20
http://tinyurl.com/2lrazk
Microsoft could be teaching police to hack Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft may begin training the police in ways to break the
| encryption built into its forthcoming Vista operating system.
`----
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2150555/microsoft-teaching-police-hack
UK holds Microsoft security talks
,----[ Quote ]
| "UK officials are talking to Microsoft over fears the new version of
| Windows could make it harder for police to read suspects' computer files."
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4713018.stm
Data Protection Commissioner criticizes search of private PCs online
,----[ Quote ]
| "In the case of a search via the Internet a police officer covertly,
| without the person knowing about it, accesses a person's computer."
| During such an operation he or she might copy data and obtain all
| kinds of personal documents; the police officer was acting as a "state
| hacker," so to speak. Mr. Schaar observed. "Such an approach is in
| conflict with the legal obligation to protect the core of
| individuals' privacy," Mr. Schaar stated emphatically.
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/82529/from/rss09
Could Hollywood hack your PC?
,----[ Quote ]
| Congress is about to consider an entertainment industry proposal
| that would authorize copyright holders to disable PCs used for
| illicit file trading.
`----
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-945923.html
Researchers: Forensics software can be hacked
,----[ Quote ]
| Based on their findings, Stamos's team believes that the EnCase software is
| not written as securely as it should and could theoretically be exploited by
| an attacker.
`----
http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=2057073648&rid=-50
Microsoft trying to derail Google/DoubleClick deal by lobbying congress
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has hired lobbying firm Patton Boggs LLC to do work on "competitive
| issues surrounding Google/DoubleClick [sic] merger."
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070816-microsoft-spends-40000-to-lobby-congress-about-googledoubleclick-merger.html
Microsoft's 'Men in Black' kill Florida open standards legislation
,----[ Quote
| It was just a bit of text advocating open data formats that was slipped into
| a Florida State Senate bill at the last minute with no fanfare, but within
| 24 hours three Microsoft-paid lobbyists, all wearing black suits, were
| pressuring members of the Senate Committee on Governmental Operations
| (COGO) to remove the words they didn't like from Senate bill 1974.
`----
http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/04/16/2019244&from=rss
Politicians in Microsoft's Pocket
,----[ Quote ]
| Continuing on the theme of which politicians are receiving money from
| who. Here is a list of candidates who took money from MSFT.
`----
http://www.fonz.net/blog/archives/2007/06/04/politicians-in-microsofts-pocket/
Bill Gates to address Senate panel
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is scheduled to descend on Capitol Hill
| next week to pepper a U.S. Senate committee with his suggestions for
| boosting American competitiveness.
`----
http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-6163930.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
|
|
