Archive for 2012/05/19

BitTorrent Inc. is claiming damages for trademark infringement, unfair competition and cybersquatting

Posted: 2012/05/19 in Education / Awareness, Litigation, Stats / reports

“This filing is part of a series of actions that we’ve taken since 2010 to prevent this company from using the BitTorrent brand to trick users into using a service that is not the genuine article our company provides,” a BitTorrent Inc. spokesperson told TorrentFreak.

In conclusion, BitTorrent Inc. is asking for BitTorrent Marketing to be barred from using the BitTorrent mark “or any mark confusingly similar.” They also request damages for trademark related offenses committed by their German namesake including $100,000 for each infringing domain name.

http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-inc-takes-legal-action-against-download-scammers-120518/

Facebook rules: Everyone can vote on new privacy policy

Posted: 2012/05/19 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reports

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-rules-everyone-can-vote-on-new-privacy-policy/13412

China’s persistent cyber intrusions are a significant threat to US economic security

Posted: 2012/05/19 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Stats / reports

http://www.rt.com/news/cyber-attacks-espionage-china-653/

FBI wants a wire-tap-friendly ‘back door’ to all internet providers

Posted: 2012/05/19 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reports

http://www.infowars.com/fbi-wants-a-wire-tap-friendly-back-door-to-all-internet-providers/

White House Hires a New Cybersecurity Boss

Posted: 2012/05/19 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Public Policy, Stats / reports

Last week, longtime chief Howard Schmidt stepped down. He’s replaced by Michael Daniel, who’s been in the Office of Management and Budget’s national security division for 17 years. What does that mean for the future of the cybersecurity issue? Probably that we can expect his knowledge of the intelligence community to play a part in not just tracking down hackers, but determining the lines that need to be crossed with future SOPA-like bills. So while this sounds like a relatively nondescript appointment, Daniel will almost definitely be a major player the next time someone comes for your internet.

http://gizmodo.com/5911617/white-house-hires-a-new-cybersecurity-chief

Posting Pictures of Her Terminally Ill Son Got Grieving Mother Banned from Facebook

Posted: 2012/05/19 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Filtering, Stats / reports

So, why did Facebook remove them from Heather’s profile? And subsequently, after Heather reposted this pictures and got her friends and family to contact Facebook, she was banned from the site entirely.

Facebook’s community standards page lists nine types of content that may be deemed objectionable and removed: Violence and Threats, Self-Harm, Bullying and Harassment, Hate Speech, Graphic Violence, Nudity and Pornography, Identity and Privacy, Intellectual Property and Phishing and Spam.

Which category Grayson’s photos fall into is anyone’s guess.

http://gizmodo.com/5911641/posting-pictures-of-her-terminally-ill-son-will-got-grieving-mother-banned-from-facebook

See also:

It’s The Algorithm Stupid! Part IV – Humanity becomes redundant
http://vrritti.com/2012/04/15/its-the-algorithm-stupid-part-iv-humanity-becomes-redundant/

Record companies score infringement victory over “Russian Facebook” vKontakte

Posted: 2012/05/19 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Jurisprudence, Litigation, Stats / reports

Russian social media site vKontakte—a platform with 135 million accounts across Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus—has lost its court appeal seeking to overturn an earlier ruling against it stating that the company was infringing copyright by allowing file-sharing services to integrate with vKontakte’s user-uploaded media libraries.

On May 17, Russia’s Commercial Court of St. Petersburg reaffirmed a lower court’s January ruling in favor of SBA Music Publishing and Gala Records, a Russian subsidiary of EMI, which claimed that vKontakte was liable for all the copyright infringement taking place on its site. The Facebook-like site (even down to the design) will most likely be required to shutter or severely restrict its file-sharing services.

More:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/record-companies-score-infringement-victory-over-russian-facebook/

Federal regulators considered testimony Wednesday here at UCLA Law School on whether to allow citizens and filmmakers to legally crack DVD encryption meant to protect the discs from being copied

Posted: 2012/05/19 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Stats / reports

Filmmakers, video mixers and others have petitioned the U.S. Copyright Office for the ability to continue to use DVD decryption tools to copy short clips of DVDs from motion pictures to put into their own films. The issue isn’t whether they have a fair-use right to the material, but whether they can utilize decrypting tools to make the best reproduction for film-making purposes.

Much more:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/feds-considering-allowing-dvd-encryption-cracking/

Facial detection technology to output stats on bar attendance

Posted: 2012/05/19 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Tech Evolution

The cameras, which are mounted above the door of their client bars, scan patrons’ faces as they enter and exit the bar. The company’s software then immediately determines whether the person is male or female, and counts how many of each are in the bar, divides that by the known capacity of the bar, and then outputs something like: “Crowd: >90% full | Women: 58% | Men: 42%.”

http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/05/scenetap-poised-to-creep-out-san-francisco-bar-patrons/