Archive for 2010/12/21

Dutch MP worried over “Device Fingerprinting” technology

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Tech Evolution

Every device to roam the web is unique. When computers, smartphones or tablets make contact with websites, they exchange information about for, for instance, fonts, installed software and clock settings. This “fingerprint” of our digital devices is all but unique and easy to track, which is called device fingerprinting.

Device fingerprinting is a technology originally developed to track internet and credit card fraude. However, the technology has a further, potentially much bigger value for companies: as a means to create user profiles. As devices are easily identified, it is not hard to map the web behaviour from that devices. Device fingerprinting is already called “the next generation of online advertising.

MP Sharon Gesthuizen of the Dutch Socialist Party is doubtful of the societal value of this development and has questioned the Minister of the Interior. Gesthuizen wonders whether the privacy of Dutch citizens is duly safeguarded and whether the government shouldn’t initiate research to assess the impact, opportunities and threats of device fingerprinting. Furthermore, Gesthuizen proposes to open a “track-me-not” register, comparable to the “don’t call me” register that is already in place in The Netherlands.

More: http://www.futureofcopyright.com/index.php?page=news&id=1489

See also:

How One App Sees Location Without Asking
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/12/19/how-one-apps-sees-location-without-asking/

EU commission fined (12 million euros) for breaching software copyright

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Jurisprudence, Public Policy

The European Union’s court on Thursday fined the bloc’s executive over 12 million euros (16 million dollars) for breaching the copyright of translation-software firm Systran.

The EU has 23 official languages and prides itself on publishing all its most important documents in all of them. From 1997 to 2002, Luxembourg-based Systran developed for the European Commission a variant of its translation software tailored to EU needs.

In 2003, the commission launched a tender for maintenance and upgrades to the Systran system, dubbed EC-Systran Unix. The company said that the tender breached its copyright, as it effectively gave third parties access to Systran software without permission.

And the EU General Court ruled that the commission had ‘acted unlawfully by infringing the general principles common to the law of the member states applicable to copyright and know-how.’

More: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1606175.php/EU-commission-fined-for-breaching-software-copyright

Dutch police arrest 13 suspects in relation to 5.6 million euro cyber heist at Dutch ABN AMRO bank. The banking systems are said to have been compromised from the outside.

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, New Business Models, Organized Crime

Dutch media are reporting that the Dutch police have arrested 13 individuals who may have stolen and laundered 5.6 million euros from Dutch Bank ABN AMRO. The Bank is reporting that “they left a gate open” and “someone passed by and made use of that.” The issue is said to be resolved almost immediately.

According to the Dutch Association of Banks it would be the first time that people have managed to manipulate banking systems from the outside, without any help from anyone on the inside.

By manipulating the system of the Dutch bank, the suspects managed to transfer the amount to a 26-year-old from Wageningen in The Netherlands who immediately transferred the money to multiple accounts abroad.

By working together with various foreign authorities law enforcement was able to retrieve 2 million euros.

Dutch language article: http://security.nl/artikel/35571/1/Cybercriminelen_stelen_5%2C6_miljoen_bij_ABN_Amro.html

Most Carnivorous Dinosaurs Were Actually Vegetarian

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness

This is probably the saddest, worserest gift any kid would receive this year: Paleontologists and horrible individuals Lindsay Zanno and Peter Makovicky say in a research paper that most theropods—the family of the T-Rex and the Velociraptor—were actually vegetarians.

http://gizmodo.com/5715569/most-carnivorous-dinosaurs-were-actually-vegetarian

Use AirFlick to Send Video from Your Mac to AppleTV

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness, Tech Evolution

http://gizmodo.com/5715420/use-airflick-to-send-video-from-your-mac-to-appletv

Verizon FiOS Mobile App for iPad Lets You Change Channels and Manage DVR

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness, Tech Evolution

http://gizmodo.com/5715651/verizon-fios-mobile-app-for-ipad-lets-you-change-channels-and-manage-dvr

Streaming Video from iPad and iPhone to Linux

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness, Tech Evolution

Someone has ported Apple’s Airplay to a Linux box running Ubuntu and XMBC. It seems to work flawlessly, allowing the user to select and stream from any Airplay-enabled device. It seems pretty simple and straightforward, and works with video and audio.

http://gizmodo.com/5715654/apple-airplay-running-on-linux

In an interview with CNET, attorney Claes Borgström said, “I’m getting e-mails where people ask me how much the U.S. administration pays me to pursue this case.”

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness, Litigation

He denies any connection, emphasizing that his clients are two ordinary Swedish women who have no motive to interfere with WikiLeaks document-sharing activities, which have increasingly irked the U.S. government. “In fact, both my clients are supporters of WikiLeaks,” he said.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20026254-281.html

This is how (University) administrators can read your emails – in Live@edu, at least. The same applies to Google Apps and other cloud hosted and most in-house products for email communications.

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data Protection

http://www.zdnet.com/photos/how-universities-spy-on-student-and-staff-email/490912

See also:

A question to the Generation Y. Your email inbox is yours, for only you to see. Nobody without your username or password can see the intimate details of your online life. Fact or fiction?

It is good news that the US Government must now obtain a court-obtained search warrant to access and sieze emails stored by service providers. However, it does not protect individual users against their own organisations searching through their inboxes, as ZDNet Networking guru Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols concurs.

Organisations and universities actively monitor their email accounts for violations of terms of service and their own policies to ensure that employees and students and so on are using their accounts fairly.

More: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/gallery-how-universities-spy-on-student-and-staff-email/7137

Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness, Mobile tech, Stats / reports

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/gadgetreviews/microsoft-has-sold-15-million-windows-phone-7-devices-already/20913

Hulu Plus nixed for cable-provided TiVo Premiere DVR boxes

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/gadgetreviews/hulu-plus-nixed-for-cable-provided-tivo-premiere-dvr-boxes/20920

Pirate Bay Supreme Court Appeal “Should Consider ISP Liability”

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness, Litigation

One of the defendants, Carl Lundström, has just filed his appeal and says that among other things, the Supreme Court should consider ISP liability.

http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-supreme-court-appeal-should-consider-isp-liability-101221/

Homeland Security’s ‘Evidence’ For Domain Seizures Also Included Songs Sent By Labels

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101220/03324012341/homeland-securitys-evidence-domain-seizures-also-included-songs-sent-labels.shtml

US Ambassador To The UN: Protecting Patents & Copyrights More Important Than Development

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy

The US’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Betty E. King, recently gave a press conference in Geneva to talk about a variety of issues. What caught our attention, not surprisingly, was the discussion on intellectual property issues, which seemed to raise a lot more questions than it answered. Towards the end of her talk, she basically complained about WIPO, and how various developing countries are hijacking WIPO to focus on “development,” at the expense of things like patents and copyright. She says that she, and the US government, are pro development, but not if it comes at the expense of patents and copyrights.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101220/01525812337/us-ambassador-to-un-protecting-patents-copyrights-more-important-than-development.shtml

Law Professor Explains How Even When A Site Copies An Entire Article, It May Still Be Fair Use

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Copyright, Education / Awareness

A fair-use inquiry balances four statutory factors…. Righthaven, however, asks this Court to ignore those traditional factors and embrace an inflexible, one-factor test that prohibits a fair-use finding whenever an entire copyrighted work is used. That approach finds no support in the text and purposes of the Copyright Act and the cases interpreting it. Indeed, the Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit, and this Court have all found the use of entire copyrighted works to be consistent with the fair-use doctrine. Those rulings recognize that copyright law balances two important public interests: promoting creative expression and encouraging the use of copyrighted works for socially beneficial purposes.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101217/02365012311/law-professor-explains-how-even-when-site-copies-entire-article-it-may-still-be-fair-use.shtml

A flood and fire in one of BT’s major exchanges in London’s west end has left stores on Oxford Street and Regent Street unable to process card payments in the last few shopping days before Christmas

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness, Net Neutrality

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/21/bt_fire/

Undue process: how Uncle Sam seized BitTorrent domain names

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness

How did Customs seize five domain names back in November without a trial or hearing? By writing things like this: “A Bit torrent is a files distribution system used for transferring files across a network of people.” And the domain owners are angry.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/12/busting-bittorrent.ars

Czech version of Wikileaks will turn to The Pirate Bay for help

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness

Looks like the launchers of a new Czech Republic based Wikileaks site got a little nervous after a prominent politician demanded that they be thrown in jail. Now they’re turning to a Web hosting company run by the founders of The Pirate Bay for help.

http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2010/12/czech-version-of-wikileaks-will-turn-to-pirate-bay-for-help.ars

Second-gen Apple TV sales to top one million this week

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Stats / reports

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/12/second-gen-apple-tv-sales-to-top-one-million-this-week.ars

WikiLeaks was the perfect villian to help end Internet freedom. An introduction to Net Neutrality, Internet Blackouts, Cyber Security, and Seizing Domains

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy

Wikileaks app removed from App Store

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness

The Wikileaks app, which offered on-the-fly access to the whistle-blowing website, has been removed from the App Store.

Developer Igor Barinov confirmed to Techcrunch that the unofficial app had been removed from the App Store early on Tuesday.

http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=0971B9E2-1A64-6A71-CEB6FF2CE0CD0097

I had a long face-to-face interview with #assange today. He says he has enough material to make bosses of a major US bank resign #wikileaks

Posted: 2010/12/21 in Education / Awareness

http://twitter.com/AlexiMostrous/status/16964887112585217