Archive for 2012/06/24

Several music rights groups including the Recording Industry Association of Japan say they have developed a system capable of automatically detecting unauthorized music uploads before they even hit the Internet. In order to do that though, Internet service providers are being asked to integrate the system into their networks.

The system works by spying on the connections of users and comparing data being uploaded to the Internet with digital fingerprints held in an external database. As can be seen from the diagram, the fingerprinting technology employed is from GraceNote, with intermediate systems provided by Copyright Data Clearinghouse (CDC).

Once a match is found, rightholders want ISPs to automatically block the allegedly infringing content. But according to one report, there may even be requests to send out warning letters to uploaders. If implemented this would amount to the most invasive “3 strikes” style regime anywhere in the world.

The system is being promoted as a benefit to ISPs, in the sense that once installed (and licensed at a cost of around $600 per month) they can potentially avoid being held liable for copyright infringements carried out by their customers.

More:
http://torrentfreak.com/jail-for-file-sharing-not-enough-labels-want-isp-level-spying-regime-120624/

…six months after a scientific advisory board suggested that the papers’ most potentially dangerous data be censored.

The paper, by scientists at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, identified five mutations apparently necessary to make the bird flu virus spread easily among ferrets, which catch the same flus that humans do.

Two of the five mutations are already common in the H5N1 virus in the wild, said Ron A. M. Fouchier, the paper’s lead author. One has been found in H5N1 only once. The remaining two have never been found in wild H5N1, but occurred in the H2 and H3 flus that caused the 1957 Asian flu pandemic and the 1968 Hong Kong flu.

The Dutch team artificially introduced three mutations. The last two occurred as the virus was “passaged” through 10 generations of ferrets by using nasal washes from one to infect the next. Four changes were in the hemagglutinin “spike” that attaches the virus to cells. The last was in the PB2 protein. As the virus became more contagious, it lost lethality. It did not kill the ferrets that caught it through airborne transmission, but it did kill when high doses were squirted into the animals’ nostrils.

Dr. Fouchier’s work proved that H5N1 need not mix with a more contagious virus to become more contagious.

Some of the early alarm was fed by Dr. Fouchier speaking at conferences and giving interviews last fall in which he boasted that he had “done something really, really stupid” and had “mutated the hell out of H5N1” to create something that was “very, very bad news.” He said his team had created “probably one of the most dangerous viruses you can make.”

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/health/h5n1-bird-flu-research-that-stoked-fears-is-published.html

A mysterious mass death of a herd of cattle has prompted a federal investigation in Central Texas. Jerry Abel opens the gate on his 80-acre ranch in Elgin, walking on a field of grass he’s been using for cattle grazing and hay for 15 years.

The grass is a genetically modified form of Bermuda known as Tifton 85 which has been growing here for 15 years, feeding Abel’s 18 head of Corriente cattle. Corriente are used for team roping because of their small size and horns.

“When we opened that gate to that fresh grass, they were all very anxious to get to that,” said Abel. Within hours, 15 of the 18 cattle were dead. ”That was very traumatic to see, because there was nothing you could do, obviously, they were dying,” said Abel.

Dr. Gary Warner, an Elgin veterinarian who specializes in cattle, conducted the 15 necropsy. Preliminary tests revealed the Tifton 85 grass, which has been here for years, had suddenly started producing cyanide gas, poisoning the cattle.

What is even more worrisome – other farmers have tested their Tifton 85 grass, and several in Bastrop County have found their fields are also toxic with cyanide, although no other cattle have died.

More & video:
http://www.weareaustin.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_2393.shtml

Such a security clearance is needed to be allowed to handle documents containing sensitive information. The government officials are working at NATO headquarters as well as embassies in the Middle-East, Eastern Europe and South America.

Fully in line with local Dutch customs and traditions, the whistleblower – who has been employed by the Dutch government for 24 years – is now feeling the wrath of the Dutch Ministry of Defense which has revoked his security clearance, preventing him and his Serbian partner from moving from The Netherlands to Brazil where he would go and work at a local Dutch embassy himself this month.

In April 2012 the Dutch Ministry of Defense argued that they weren’t able to check the background of the Serbian partner of the Dutch whistleblower and therefore he wouldn’t be able to go to Brazil in June 2012. The whistleblower however, had already notified the Dutch Ministry of Defense and the Dutch Military Intelligence Service MIVD about his relationship with his Serbian partner back in 2009.

The Dutch Ministry of Defense has now stated that it doesn’t feel that there is a security issue regarding the 40 invalid, incorrect and expired security clearances. They also argue that what has happened to their employee is a separate issue and does not relate to him revealing this information.

The whistleblower notified his superiors and the Ministry in The Hague about this issue in 2010, but has come forward now since he feels that he’s being mistreated for doing his job.

Dutch language news article:
http://nos.nl/artikel/387725-klokkenluider-defensie-op-zijspoor.html

See also:

What else is new in a country where judges appear to be corruptmembers of parliament are being arrested for joining a protest march, asylum seekers are being mistreated and child abuse and human trafficking networks can roam free. The abundance of such practices makes it quite logical to arrest reporters if one aims to keep up appearances.

The Netherlands is a small and delicate society with low levels of corruption, but high levels of collusion, due to which any whistleblower will quite easily be facing very difficult times. One famous example being whistleblower Ad Bos, who exposed the largest construction fraud case in The Netherlands (video with English subtitles) in 2001 and who was told this week that he will still be prosecuted after 11 years.

Another one being Fred Spijkers who was facing the Dutch Ministry of Defense after being told to lie about an accident involving faulty land mines. It took 26 years to have his name cleared. Having been called a ‘political criminal’, it became known that the Ministry of Defense had put together a document which contained a strategy to target Spijkers.

More:
http://vrritti.com/2012/06/15/dutch-version-of-alex-jones-behind-bars-reporter-and-whistleblower-micha-kat-arrested-and-now-in-custody-for-at-least-90-days/

 

Cyril de Lalagade is, as they say, a young man, born well. He is the heir to the prestigious Parisian restaurant “La Maison du Caviar,” which now has branched out worldwide, and is also the Vice President of Caviar Volga. A successful man whose resume hides a troubled past and a love of wild parties, drugs, sex and pretty women.

Caviar, cocaine and orgies in Paris’ rich neighborhoods was the setting for the now 42-year-old’s parties where he allegedly committed “rape, torture and barbaric acts” for which he is now standing trial.

According to several guests – including the son-in-law of a former French minister, film producers, luxury real-estate agents and wannabe starlets accepting occasional prostitution – “freebase,” burned cocaine that triggers immediate addiction when inhaled, was available for free.

In exchange for a few lines of coke, Lalagade also had Ketamine delivered by a nurse working in a Parisian hospital. This anesthetic traditionally used on animals, is known for its disinhibitive and aphrodisiac effects, and can easily and discreetly be mixed with cocaine. Witnesses told investigators that Lalagade insisted on having sex with the girls at the end of the parties. Those who refused were dismissed and branded as “useless.”

At the time, he already had two partners, who each gave him a child. In 2005, he met Inès, then a model for the famous Elite agency. “He was unstoppable when he took freebase,” she told investigators, saying she verbally refused some sexual practices but was physically incapable of fighting back because she was under the influence of drugs.

On a flight from France to the US in 2001, he made another important friend, an assistant prosecutor for a Paris court. The 50-year-old who was going through a divorce at the time found him “endearing, charming, polite with his heart on his sleeve.” A year later, Cyril introduced him to his mother, who eventually moved in with the magistrate after the death of Cyril’s beloved 19-year-old step-sister in a car crash.

Questioned by investigators back in 2007, the magistrate denied knowing anything about Cyril’s offences. But the tape of a very tense phone conversation in July 2006 showed otherwise. Cyril’s mother accused him of not doing anything and the magistrate replied that he helped her son “avoid prison.” As proof, his promise to organize a lunch, “once the case is settled,” with the judge who decided to put Cyril under judicial control.

A psychiatric evaluation in July 2007, while Cyril was in jail, noted a “potential for dangerous behavior,” and no sign of regret or guilt.

More:
http://www.worldcrunch.com/cocaine-caviar-and-charges-rape-sordid-tale-parisian-high-society/5652

And much more:

Sexe, drogues et caviar : le roman noir d’un jet-setteur
http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/l-enquete-de-l-obs/20120606.OBS7843/sexe-drogues-et-caviar-la-descente-aux-enfers-d-un-jet-setteur.html

Narcissism is the curse of our age. Celebrity is its more familiar manifestation, spawning countless magazines and TV shows, but its tentacles have spread into every area of public life. France has recently terminated an unhappy experiment with a hyperactive president, suggesting that its appetite for constant self-promotion has its limits. Now a similar proposition is being tested in the UK by the saga of the celebrity-hacker, Julian Assange.

Assange is a fabulist, someone who stretches and distorts the truth to make himself look exciting in the eyes of his diminishing band of followers.

Narcissists are shameless in their promotion of themselves, but they aren’t noted for consistency. Assange’s politics are simplistic, amounting to not much more than a belief that governments cheat and lie and need to be exposed. They do, sometimes, but his preferred scenario of total transparency would be a nightmare, making relations between democratic countries and despotic regimes even more difficult. He doesn’t understand power, which can be exercised for good as well as selfish reasons, and by individuals – himself included – as well as governments.

It’s time his double standards were spelled out: Assange has used his hacking skills to turn himself into a worldwide phenomenon, and now he demands for himself exactly the same impunity he excoriates in politicians.

Without coherent politics to explain his predicament, Assange has had to rely on two things: the gullibility of people who share his Manichean world view and a yearning for heroes.

Much more:
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=514205&version=1&template_id=46&parent_id=26


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Following similar events in The Netherlands, where The Pirate Bay has now dropped a further 48 positions since 20th June (when it dropped off the list of top 100 websites), the court ordered blockade is now taking its toll on The Pirate Bay in The United Kingdom too.

On 30th April 2012, The Pirate Bay website was the 39th most popular website in the United Kingdom. Shortly after that day, more and more Internet Service Providers started to implement website blocking remedies as a result of a blocking order by the UK court of law. The two largest broadband providers — BT, and TalkTalk — have now also implemented their server-side blocks to prevent access to the Swedish-based file sharing site. As a result, the site is now the 105th most popular site in The United Kingdom according to Alexa.com:

http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries;4/GB

It remains to be seen whether – similar to legal proceedings in The Netherlands – there will be a need for additional litigation to address the use of proxy servers and virtual private networks or any alternative IP addresses used by The Pirate Bay or their advocates.

See also:

Slew of Dutch ISPs Also Have To Block New IP Addresses Used By The Pirate Bay. And Within 10 Days
http://vrritti.com/2012/06/19/slew-of-dutch-isps-also-have-to-block-new-ip-addresses-used-by-the-pirate-bay-and-within-10-days/

The Dutch Court has forbidden the Dutch Pirate Party from linking to, operating or listing websites that allow the public to circumvent a local Pirate Bay blockade
http://vrritti.com/2012/05/10/the-dutch-court-has-forbidden-the-dutch-pirate-party-from-linking-to-operating-or-listing-websites-that-allow-the-public-to-circumvent-a-local-pirate-bay-blockade/

Judge: Dutch Pirate Party’s Proxy Has To Be Taken Down Within 6 Hours
http://vrritti.com/2012/04/13/judge-dutch-pirate-partys-proxy-has-to-be-taken-down-within-6-hours/

Belgian Anti-Piracy Federation Now Targeting Pirate Bay Proxies Too
http://vrritti.com/2012/04/06/belgian-anti-piracy-federation-now-targeting-pirate-bay-proxies-too/

Dutch Anti-Piracy Organization BREIN Ordered Dutch Proxy Services To Stop Providing Access To The Pirate Bay
http://vrritti.com/2012/03/22/dutch-anti-piracy-organization-brein-ordered-dutch-proxy-services-to-stop-providing-access-to-the-pirate-bay/

See also the various events leading up to this situation:

http://vrritti.com/?s=pirate+bay+block&submit=Search

Using the service is easy. People can securely use their Dropbox credentials to pair Dropbox with Boxopus, and add as many torrents as they like. The Boxopus servers will then take care of the downloading and put the completed downloads in a folder.

One of the main benefits to users is that they can add torrents to their Dropbox from work, school or on the road. The files will then be automatically synced to all computers running Dropbox. Another plus side is that these downloads are anonymous, as Boxopus takes care of the downloading.

More:
http://torrentfreak.com/boxopus-downloads-torrents-to-dropbox-120623/

http://gizmodo.com/5920791/mit-makes-tv-more-immersive-with-blurry-side-screens-for-your-peripheral-vision