Category Archives: Uncategorized
We are witnessing political mobilizations across much of the globe, including the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and South America. Riots and flash mobs are increasingly making the news. In the United States the emergence of the Occupy movement shows that technology and our global atmosphere of dissent is the effective merging of the on- and offline worlds
Chicago Police Arrest 130 Occupy Chicago Protesters (videos)
The newest round of arrests follows 175 people who were taken into custody by police last Sunday around the same 1 a.m. time period.
http://www.inquisitr.com/153285/chicago-police-arrest-130-occupy-chicago-protesters/
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President Obama Comments On Occupy Wall Street: People feel separated from their government (video)
Verizon filed its expected challenge to the FCC’s network neutrality rules, suing in federal court to stop them. Verizon claims that the agency has no authority to issue rules affecting the Internet
‘Wall Street protesters know real power not in Washington DC’
“I think what is probably potentially transformative about this movement is the fact that they did not locate this on Washington,” he said. “It was not Occupy DC, it was Occupy Wall Street which I think shows the idea that the people are looking past the political theater that is taking place in Washington towards the real axis of political power which is located in the heart of the American empire on Wall Street and in the finance capital, not where the politicians are wrangling about austerity measures and that sort of thing.
“I think people are becoming more and more aware through the Ron Paul presidential campaign and other means that are travelling through the society right now that the real heart of the empire is in the finances and that is something that makes this political movement somewhat different and sets it apart,” Corbett added.
German Court Says ISP Not Responsible For Users Who Infringe
Identify the London rioters…because the small minority do not represent the vast majority
One report is titled ‘Note of Secretary of State’s meeting with Lucian Grainge (CEO, Universal Music Group International). In common with many documents released under FOI requests, this one (marked ‘RESTRICTED’) has blacked-out sections, hiding information deemed too sensitive for the public eye
However, due to the government’s failure to black-out the text in all versions of the document (and leaving the PDF version open to exploitation) we can now reveal the contents of a censored paragraph.
In it, Universal CEO Lucian Grainge begins by talking about a deal his company struck with Virgin Media.
http://torrentfreak.com/censorship-fail-reveals-big-music-isp-spying-plan-110801/
In a move that marks the first time that Government, the private sector and law enforcement agencies have collaborated to combat the growing problem of online criminal activity, the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance (ICSPA) has been welcomed by Prime Minister David Cameron
“Our Government has already injected an additional £650 million to help improve our national infrastructure and protect against cybercrime,” he commented, “but the very nature of this threat calls for more than a national response.”
He continued: “By forging new relationships between businesses, governments and law enforcement officers all over the world, by investing in new training, and by building an international exchange of expertise, the ICSPA is forming a network powerful enough and wide enough, to face down cybercrime.”
http://www.inspiresme.co.uk/news/general/new-agency-to-tackle-cyber-crime-04178/
ICSPA plans to train and accredit law enforcement personnel from various countries to fight online crime. In addition, the group plans to share information collected about cyber-criminals, and work closely with Europol, which investigates organized crime and terrorism.
http://www.mobiledia.com/news/96976.html
“Throughout our society we need a new culture, rules and structure, which encourages people to act with responsibility. We need to address this responsibility deficit we see in our society”
Takeaways from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
A broader discussion I had with my Microsoft contact and several others was whether mobile users will stay with Apps or move to Browsing. Apps make sense for tasks. If you know where you want to go, or what you want to buy, apps are great today. Furthermore, people are creatures of habit. The more they get used to apps, especially fanatically loyal Apple iPhone users, the more it becomes ingrained by a larger-and-larger user base. So, while intuitively it makes sense to browse the web on your smart phone, just like you do on a laptop or PC, this transition to browsing may take longer than expected. Two factors that may accelerate the adoption of browsing on smart phones are 1) the pace of improvement in smart phone operating systems that improve the browsing experience, and 2) Apple’s proprietary ecosystem, which together could drive users toward browser-based Google and Microsoft operating systems
More: http://seekingalpha.com/article/253765-takeaways-from-mobile-world-congress-in-barcelona
Given the US Government’s track record in keeping data secure, what makes anyone think moving Federal IT operations to the cloud is a good idea?
Obama takes a leap of faith and trusts the government to the cloud
Hadopi Wants To Kick People Offline For Watching Unauthorized Streams As Well
Facebook is like Herpes: it never goes away
ISP KC UK Experiences Christmas Broadband Video Streaming Usage Surge
KC ( Karoo ), the incumbent telecoms operator and broadband ISP for Hull and East Riding (Yorkshire, UK), has informed us that general internet traffic over the recent Christmas 2010 weekend was actually “noticeably lower” than earlier weekends. However use of internet TV and video systems, such as the BBC iPlayer service, was up by about a third compared to last Christmas 2009.
Is Your Privacy Harmed If You Believe Others May Have Seen Private Info… Even If They Haven’t?
Feds to Telecoms: Stop Upgrading so We Can Wiretap More Easily
BSA Sends Ridiculously Bogus Letter To European Commission
Ohio Senator Introduces Bill That Would Let Ex-Convicts Try To Erase Online Information About Their Arrest
Thomas O’Toole points us to a report of an Ohio state senator who has proposed a bill that would allow repeat offenders the ability to “delete their record” from public view, which (stunningly) might also require newspapers to remove all old articles about their arrests and convictions.
The stunning performance of Silicon Valley’s PayPal alumni…
When EBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002 it triggered an investment boom by PayPal alumni that led to Youtube, Facebook, Tesla and much more…
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/foremski/the-stunning-performance-of-silicon-valleys-paypal-alumni/1451
At Raytheon, where engineering rules
For Mark Russell, the vice president of engineering, technology, and mission assurance at defense giant Raytheon, engineering is not just his profession–it’s also the lifeblood of the company.
It seems pretty obvious that engineering would be important at a company that makes just about every imaginable kind of defense system. But this important? At Raytheon, more than 40,000 of the total 75,000 employees are engineers, and the company is hiring thousands more each year.
And one of the key ideas at Raytheon is using existing technologies and applying them to non-traditional businesses.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20012451-52.html
Previously:
Google, Motorola and HTC have been working along side Raytheon, markers of the Patriot missile defense system, to develop software which could allow a soldier on the battlefield to gain important information via an Android OS device. According to Raytheon, Google has helped push the limits of the phone and integrate features such as detailed satellite imagery, unmanned drone video and even tap into the Patriot missile system itself
Yes Men Release Movie Via BitTorrent To Avoid Legal Hassles
BREIN: Situation of lawlessness must end
BREIN responds to lost court case
http://www.futureofcopyright.com/index.php?page=news&id=1142
Previously: http://contentprotection.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/dutch-brein-loses-trial-over-pirate-bay-block/
Servers overheated: Online banking system down
Dutch Bank Van Lanschot is experiencing problems because of its servers overheating. During the last couple of days customers have been unable to access Van Lanschot’s online banking system.
This has also resulted in the situation that the only alternative option, money transfers by phone, has become unavailable as that system could not handle the large amount of additional requests: the employees of the bank have to use the same computersystem to process those financial transactions.
The bank was unable to determine the entity responsible for the current situation.
Dutch language article: http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/66553/hitte-nekt-internetbankieren-van-lanschot.html
Copyright exceptions and fair use vs. contract law and CC licenses
Can copyright restrictions be circumvented by contract law? At the moment there is an interesting legal case pending on the matter in America. It concerns the relationships between the U.S. fair-use copyright doctrine and the limits set by a Creative Commons license (CC license).
Article 29 Working Party – Opinion on online behavioural advertising
This Working Party was set up under Article 29 of Directive 95/46/EC. It is an independent European advisory body on data protection and privacy. Its tasks are described in Article 30 of Directive 95/46/EC and Article 15 of Directive 2002/58/EC.
http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/privacy/docs/wpdocs/2010/wp171_en.pdf
