Archive for 2010/08/21

Sweden drops warrant for WikiLeaks founder

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement

“I do not consider there to be any reason to suspect that he has committed rape,” chief prosecutor Eva Finné said in a statement explaining her decision

“She (Eva Finné) has adjudged that he is not suspected of rape. There is thus no reason to retain a warrant for his arrest,” Karin Rosander at the Prosecution Authority confirmed.

A source close to the case told the newspaper that two women in their twenties went to the police in Stockholm on Friday to speak about their recent encounters with Assange.

The Prosecution Authority released a statement on Saturday morning in which it revealed that the warrant was based on “one report of rape and one report of molestation. A warrant has been issued for the person’s arrest since there is a risk that he could hamper the investigation.”

http://www.thelocal.se/28504/20100821/

Previously:

http://vrritti.com/?s=wikileaks

Prosecutors Eye WikiLeaks Charges – Wikileaks Lawyer Says Pentagon Given Access to Unpublished Secret Documents

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Public Policy

Pentagon lawyers believe that online whistleblower group WikiLeaks acted illegally in disclosing thousands of classified Afghanistan war reports and other material, and federal prosecutors are exploring possible criminal charges, officials familiar with the matter said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704488404575441673460880204.html

Wikileaks Lawyer Says Pentagon Given Access to Unpublished Secret Documents

A U.S. lawyer representing the whistleblowing web site Wikileaks says U.S. government officials have been given codes and passwords granting them online access to official U.S. government documents that Wikileaks so far has not published. Timothy Matusheski, a lawyer from Hattiesburg, Miss., who says he represents whistleblowers and has been in touch with both Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and at least one government official involved in investigations of Wikileaks, said Wikileaks had set up a “secure channel” through which authorized users could access the unpublished material. He said credentials for using this Web site had been forwarded to representatives of the U.S. government whom he did not identify. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/2010/08/20/wikileaks-lawyer-says-pentagon-has-been-given-codes-granting-access-to-unpublished-secret-documents.html

Previously:

http://vrritti.com/?s=wikileaks

WikiLeaks founder suspected of rape

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement

Prosecutor Marie Häljebo confirmed that a warrant was issued on Friday evening and that the level of suspicion against Assange was the highest in the Swedish legal system, newspaper Expressen reports.

A source close to the case told Expressen that two women in their twenties went to the police in Stockholm on Friday to explain what had happened when they met Assange earlier in the week.

Both were terrified and neither of the women wished to file an official report, according to Expressen’s source.

UPDATE: The Swedish Prosecution Authority released a statement on Saturday morning in which it revealed that the warrant was based on “one report of rape and one report of harrassment. “A warrant has been put out for the person’s arrest since there is a risk that he could hamper the investigation.”

http://www.thelocal.se/28496/20100821/

See also:

Pentagon concludes WikiLeaks broke law (registration required)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8ae43d12-acd1-11df-8582-00144feabdc0.html

Moore supports Wikileaks accused

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11045943

Previously:

http://vrritti.com/?s=wikileaks

UK ISP Demon Internet Launches New Broadband Package for Online Gamers

Posted: 2010/08/21 in New Business Models

The service, which will be assisted by a 24 hour UK based in-house technical support team (many of whom are apparently avid gamers, Demon claims), costs £21.99 per month (12 month contract) and also adds a FREE wireless router, static IP address and no usage restrictions off peak, 100GB peak (8am to 11pm).

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/08/21/uk-isp-demon-internet-launches-new-broadband-package-for-online-gamers.html

Ofcom Proposes New UK Broadband ISP Market Competition Definitions

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Public Policy

Market regulator Ofcom has today opened a short re-consultation on the UK market definition element of its Wholesale Broadband Access (WBA) review. The move could potentially have repercussions for the price that broadband ISP customers pay for their service, depending on where you live in the country.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/08/20/ofcom-proposes-new-uk-broadband-isp-market-competition-definitions.html

Google likes Like.com, buys visual search team

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Google, New Business Models

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20014343-265.html

Should We Be Interested In ‘Saving’ Any Industry?

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models

The industry may be in the process of being changed (often radically), but that’s not the same thing as needing saving.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100819/15584510694.shtml

German Photographer Plans To Add Back In Buildings That Opt-Out Of Google Street View

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Education / Awareness, Google, Tech Evolution

German photographer is going to go photograph all of those buildings that have been excluded, then upload them to Google’s Picasa image hosting service, link them up to their GPS coordinates, and then “re-connect” them with Google Maps.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100820/01492710699.shtml

Why Big Companies Almost Never Notice Disruptive Innovation

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100812/01263310600.shtml

Why Debates Over Copyright Get Bogged Down: Conflating Use With Payment

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Education / Awareness

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100820/00543610697.shtml

Thaileaks – Resurrecting Wikileaks in Thailand

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Filtering, Public Policy, Tech Evolution

For unknown reasons the Thai Government has closed access to the Wikileaks website. This means that Thai internauts and webizens are not allowed to take part in the current netbased movement of freedom. This is not acceptable, anywhere in the world. Therefore we make all Thai-related content from the Wikileaks website available for direct download. We will continue doing this for every country that blocks essential internet infrastructure. The internet is an intricate system of tunnels, we will dig a hole in every national firewall.

You may access the entire Wikileaks site by browsing to wiki.thaileaks.info or use secure connection (you need to accept the certificate) on the https-enabled version.

This is sensitive material, all quoted from Wikileaks. Please note - This is not about disrespecting the Thai State or the Royal family. It is about making a statement for the freedom of information.

No offense, this is about the internets!
If you are a censorship regime, expect us!

http://thaileaks.info/

Previously: http://vrritti.com/?s=wikileaks

Providers battle to offer biggest download limit

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution

iiNet yesterday announced it would be the first provider in Australia to offer a download limit of one terabyte (1TB), or one thousand gigabytes (GB).

The news prompted rival Primus to match that limit and go one step further, announcing last night it would offer a 1.1TB limit.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/isps-race-to-offer-the-biggest-download-limit/story-e6frfro0-1225907188295

UK mobile networks more popular than ever

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Mobile tech, Stats / reports

Even if they are making less money…

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/20/ofcom_mobile_sector/

The tablet bandwagon

Posted: 2010/08/21 in New Business Models, Tech Evolution

Various initiatives listed here

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/20/lg_tablet/

Apple eyes kill switch for jailbroken iPhones

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Tech Evolution

…for your own good

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/20/apple_jailbreak_patent/

Human right to use a jailbroken iPhone?

Supreme Court told P2P users can be “innocent infringers”

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Education / Awareness, Litigation

Had thought P2P use to be just like listening to free music on the radio

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/supreme-court-told-p2p-users-can-be-innocent-infringers.ars

Argentinian court applies common sense to search defamation lawsuit

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Education / Awareness, Google, Litigation

Google and Yahoo’s troubles are far from over, though. Da Cunha’s case is only one of many similar ones in Argentina, as noted by Baudino. According to the New York Times, there are at least 130 other cases going back to 2006 wherein someone wants something about them removed from the search engines.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/argentinian-court-applies-common-sense-to-search-defamation-lawsuit.ars

Will the future bring a Google op-out service?

Half of Norwegian streamers stop file-sharing

Posted: 2010/08/21 in File Sharing, Illegal File Sharing

According to Norwegian research exactly one third of the Norwegian population has streamed music. Just over half of them (18% of the total population) say they no longer illegally download music because of streaming services.

http://www.futureofcopyright.com/index.php?page=news&id=1232

Hirai rules out download-only PSP2

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models

“We are doing business not just in the developed nations of the world, but also in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn’t as robust as one would hope for”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/40528/Hirai-rules-out-download-only-PSP2

L.A. ‘Big One’ could come sooner than expected: study

Posted: 2010/08/21 in Education / Awareness, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection

Strong earthquakes — between 6.5 and 7.9 magnitude — shook the area every 45-144 years, instead of the previously established 250-400 years. Since the last big 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck southern California in 1857, or 153 years ago, scientists believe the next “Big One” could happen at any time.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h2yrArUZSfWcS-gLIAE9eqosF4fg