Archive for 2012/05/21

Undercover MPAA Agents Expose Alleged Movie Pirates In What Hollywood Describes As The Largest Copyright Related Fraud Case In UK History

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Litigation, Stats / reports

A British couple are facing life imprisonment after an MPAA sting operation revealed they were the owners of streaming links site SurfTheChannel. Aside from the use of an undercover agent who gained access to the defendants’ house under false pretenses, the case also involves an unprecedented cooperation between the US and UK governments, in which a defendant in the US was offered a deal after agreeing to cooperate and testify in a UK trial.

For years the US movie industry has tried to bring streaming links site SurfTheChannel.com to its knees.

After a chain of events that reads like a Hollywood blockbuster script, the case is now on trial with husband and wife team Anton and Kelly Vickerman as the defendants.

Much more:

http://torrentfreak.com/undercover-mpaa-agents-expose-alleged-movie-pirates-120521/

See also:

Hollywood sting lands “pirate” pair in the brig
A Gateshead couple are accused of running a site that enabled a billion illegal film and TV viewings a year

18 Years In Prison And Involuntary Commitment For Dutch Pedophile Robert Mikelsons

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Jurisprudence, Stats / reports

Mikelsons lost his ‘cool’ today when the verdict was read. He threw water at the judge and started shouting that “it was all nonsense” and told the judge “to shut his mouth”. When the judge announced the actual sentence, Mikelsons showed him the well-known middle finger.

Dutch language news article:

http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/2815182/robert-m-krijgt-18-jaar-cel-en-tbs.html

Previously:

Public Prosecutor Discloses More Information About Pedophile Robert Mikelsons. He May Have Abused More Children Than The 87 Currently Identified

http://vrritti.com/2012/04/05/public-prosecutor-discloses-more-information-about-pedophile-robert-mikelsons-he-may-have-abused-more-children-than-the-87-currently-identified/

Breivik And Mikelsons: Two Well-Articulated, Sympathetic And Hyper-Intelligent Nut Cases?

http://vrritti.com/2012/04/04/breivik-and-mikelsons-two-well-articulated-sympathetic-and-hyper-intelligent-nut-cases/

Do You Know Why Some Children Can Not Recall Being Sexually Abused By Robert Mikelsons? Because They Were 19 Days Old

http://vrritti.com/2012/03/20/do-you-know-why-some-children-can-not-recall-being-sexually-abused-by-robert-mikelsons-because-they-were-19-days-old/

Dutch Pedophile Robert Mikelsons Was Teaching Peers How To Abuse Toddlers And Babies Without Parents Noticing

http://vrritti.com/2012/03/14/dutch-pedophile-robert-mikelsons-was-teaching-peers-how-to-abuse-toddlers-and-babies-without-parents-noticing/

The investigation into the Dutch pedophile Robert Mikelsons, who has abused 87 toddlers and babies, produced 46,803 pictures and 3,672 videos (8 Terabytes of data)

http://vrritti.com/2012/03/12/the-investigation-into-the-dutch-pedophile-robert-mikelsons-who-has-abused-87-toddlers-and-babies-produced-46803-pictures-and-3672-videos-8-terabytes-of-data/

Dutch Law Enforcement Hacks Into Computer Systems Of Suspected Child Abusers, Finds 220,000 Child Abuse Images, Videos And Manuals On “How To Kidnap, Abuse And Kill Children” – All Tied To Robert Mikelsons Case Who Abused 87 Toddlers While Working At A DayCare Center in Amsterdam

http://vrritti.com/2011/08/31/dutch-law-enforcement-hacks-into-computer-systems-of-suspected-child-abusers-finds-220000-child-abuse-images-videos-and-manuals-on-how-to-kidnap-abuse-and-kill-children-all-tied-to-robert/

U.S. European Command, NATO Boost Cyber Defenses

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy

Preparing a good defense to deter cyber attacks ranks among his top concerns, Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, the commander of U.S. European Command, told the Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service.

“In many ways, cyber is the threat I worry about most going forward over the long-term,” said Stavridis, who also serves as NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe. “And the reason is, the potential for damage to our fundamental, societal way of life … compared to our level of preparation.”

“In the world of cyber, we are on the beach at Kitty Hawk, [N.C.],” Stavridis said, referring to the Wright Brothers’ famous first flight that heralded the birth of aviation. “We are just at the beginning.”

But he insisted that the United States and its friends and partners dealing with cyber threats don’t have the luxury of time the aviation industry enjoyed as it was being advanced.

“We don’t have 100 years in cyber,” he said. “We are so vulnerable. We have to take steps today to bring order to the chaotic world of cyber. And I think that is going to be not only a security challenge, but also a societal challenge.”

More:

http://www.defpro.com/news/details/35583/?SID=e1895d3b7b1b55161ee73aa84fb8d69a

And:

Chicago NATO Summit: declaration on defence capabilities

We are putting in place a new, leaner and more effective command structure.

We have made steady progress in developing a number of capabilities we identified in Lisbon as critical to the successful conduct of our operations, including: improving our defences against cyber attacks; extending NATO’s air command and control system; and augmenting our capabilities in Afghanistan for exchanging intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data and countering improvised explosive devices.

In the light of this progress, we have confidently set ourselves the goal of NATO Forces 2020: modern, tightly connected forces equipped, trained, exercised and commanded so that they can operate together and with partners in any environment”


http://www.avionews.com/index.php?corpo=see_news_home.php&news_id=1140935&pagina_chiamante=index.php

Greek Court Orders ISP Blockades of ‘Pirate’ Music Sites

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Blocking, Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Filtering, Illegal File Sharing, Jurisprudence, Stats / reports

Following in the footsteps of other courts around Europe, a Greek court has ordered the country’s ISPs to start censoring sites that allegedly infringe copyright. The blockades, which were requested by music rights organizations against two specific sites, will be implemented by DNS record tampering and IP address filtering.

2012 is proving to be momentous year for those looking to censor the Internet on copyright grounds. With nationwide blockades of The Pirate Bay biting in many countries including both the Netherlands and the UK, it was only a question of time before the phenomenon spread further still.

Much more:

http://torrentfreak.com/greek-court-orders-isp-blockades-of-pirate-music-sites-120521/

UK bookshop chain Waterstones will start stocking Amazon’s Kindle ereaders in an attempt to revamp its stores for the digital age

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reports


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/21/waterstones_amazon_kindle_deal/

A range of organisations from across the global creative industries have formed a coalition with the aim of developing a universal standard framework for licensing out use of their copyrighted material

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/21/creative_industry_bodies_copyright_single_framework/

Hacktivist group Anonymous continued its attacks on the Indian government and creative industries

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/21/india_anonymous_cert_ddos/

Five U.S. cable giants – Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable – announced this morning that they will allow each other’s high-speed Internet customers to access their metro Wi-Fi networks

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution


http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/comcast-cox-time-warner-partner-on-metro-wi-fi/77476

Facebook’s Simon Milner Says The Company Is Considering To Remove The Minimum Age Restrictions In Non-US Territories

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Education / Awareness, Legislation, Stats / reports

Dutch language news article:

http://tweakers.net/nieuws/82064/facebook-overweegt-ook-kinderen-onder-de-13-toegang-te-geven.html

Google must answer EU antitrust concerns over search, copyright, advertising and how it deals with competitors

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Google, Online advertising, Public Policy, Stats / reports

An investigation by Europe’s antitrust head Joaquin Almunia looked at whether Google gave preferential treatment to its own services in its search results.

Mr Almunia said the company must now “offer remedies” swiftly.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18143812

and:

“I offer Google the possibility to come up in a matter of weeks with remedies,” said Almunia. “If Google comes up with an outline of remedies which are capable of addressing our concerns, I will instruct my staff to initiate the discussions in order to finalize a remedies package.”

Google wasn’t immediately available to comment.

The EU’s anti-trust chief said it was in the interest of all those involved in the case to reach a “quick resolution” to the four areas of concern he has identified.

The first concern relates to how Google displays links to its own vertical searches for services such as restaurants or news differently to the way it does for links to competitors.

“We are concerned that this may result in preferential treatment compared to those of competing services, which may be hurt as a consequence,” Almunia said.

The second part of the investigation, Almunia said, focused on how Google copies content from competing vertical search services and “uses it in its own offerings…using that material on its own sites without their prior authorization.”

Third, EU regulators want Google to change the deal it strikes with its partners, whereby Google dictates how websites deliver search advertisements. This obliges partners to “obtain all or most of their requirements of search advertisements from Google, thus shutting out competing providers”, and could potentially impact advertising services purchased for example by online stores, online magazines or broadcasters, Almunia said.

Finally, EU anti-trust regulators found that competitors were shut out of Google’s auction-based advertising platform, AdWords, on which advertisers can bid for the placement of search ads on search result pages provided by Google.

The Internet giant will now need to submit an outline of possible remedies to address regulators’ concerns.

More:

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120521-705717.html

When Porn Is Even More Of A Cash Cow Than Piracy: Survey Finds UK Internet Users Oppose Mandatory ISP Adult Site Blocks

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Filtering, Public Policy, Stats / reports

The results from 728 respondents to our latest monthly survey has revealed that the majority (83.9%) are against proposals designed to force home broadband ISPs into imposing mandatory adult website blocks by default. The introduction of such a system, which could be applied to all internet accounts in the UK, was recommended by the recent Parliamentary Inquiry into Online Child Protection (Claire Perry MP).

More:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/05/survey-finds-uk-internet-users-oppose-mandatory-isp-adult-site-blocks.html

See also the current popularity of sites such as xhamster, livejasmin, pornhub, xvideos and youporn:


http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries;0/GB

YouTube does pretty well for itself. So well, in fact, that between us we upload 72 hours of video to the site every minute – a number which has gone up by 50 percent in the last year

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports


http://gizmodo.com/5911913/we-upload-72-hours-of-video-to-youtube-every-minute

NASDAQ: We Really Messed Up the Facebook IPO

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports

The Wall Street Journal reports that Robert Greifeld, chief executive of NASDAQ, has come out as saying: “This was not our finest hour.”

So what went wrong? First, an embarrassing 30 minute delay. Then apparently, despite rigorous testing, their systems couldn’t cope, which led to order cancellations that slowed up the whole initial public offering process. Those glitches saw bankers and hedge fund managers waiting over two hours to know if their transactions had been successful.

Greifeld went on to explain that NASDAQ is “humbly embarrassed” by the technical problems. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg couldn’t really care less: he’s rich and married. [Wall Street Journal]


http://gizmodo.com/5911896/nasdaq-we-really-messed-up-the-facebook-ipo

40,000 Orthodox Jews Protest the Internet

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports

Citi Field is usually home to the Mets, but yesterday the stadium was filled by over 40,000 Orthodox Jews—who gathered to discuss the dangers of the Internet.

The crowd—entirely male, in accordance with the ultra-Orthodox tradition of separating the sexes—were there to hear about potential problems that can stem from access to pornography and other explicit content on the uncensored web.

Much more:

http://gizmodo.com/5911899/40000-orthodox-jews-protest-the-internet-at-nyc-baseball-stadium

Google’s chairman emeritus tells Boston University graduates: “Take your eyes off that screen and look into the eyes of the person you love”

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Education / Awareness, Google, Stats / reports


http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57437973-93/schmidt-challenges-grads-to-turn-off-the-screen-for-an-hour-a-day/

Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Netflix, and others will permanently turn on IPv6 in less than a month

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution

So here’s everything you need to know about IPv6. The short version? IPv6 has 79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,336 times more addresses than the current IPv4.


http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/05/the-future-is-forever-the-state-of-ipv6-in-the-apple-world/

Digital archivists: technological custodians of human history

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports


http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/05/digital-archivists-technological-custodians-of-human-history/

On an average day, 15 Americans get scammed for $8,900 each

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Stats / reports


http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/bad-romance-internet-scammers-prey-on-the-love-struck-and-lonely/

Anonymous targets government websites including Chicago Police Department in retaliation for police brutality against NATO summit protesters

Posted: 2012/05/21 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Network Security, Public Policy


http://www.examiner.com/article/anonymous-targets-government-websites-including-chicago-police-department