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Finnish court rules open WiFi network owner not liable for infringement
by Cyrus Farivar
May 14, 2012
Several hundred use a network, someone infringes—can’t blame the owner.
A Finnish District Court has ruled that the owner of an open WiFi network is not liable for copyright infringement by others using that network.
“The applicants were unable to provide any evidence that the connection-owner herself had been involved in the file-sharing,” the defendant’s attorneys wrote in an English-language press release on Monday. “The court thus examined whether the mere act of providing a WiFi connection not protected with a password can be deemed to constitute a copyright-infringing act.”
If You Can Copyright an API, What Else Can You Copyright?
By Cade Metz
May 15, 2012
What does an API look like?
Sometimes, says Brian Pagano, it looks like this: /users. Or this: /products.
Brian Pagano is a software architect at Apigee, an outfit that does nothing but help companies build and operate APIs, interfaces that let one piece of software talk to another. In describing the APIs his company deals in, he wants to lend some perspective to another question, a question that may soon be answered by the federal judge overseeing the ongoing legal battle between Google and Oracle: Can you copyright an API?
If Judge William Alsup rules that APIs are subject to copyrights, he would overturn common wisdom in programming circles, potentially exposing many companies and developers who have built software platforms that openly mimic existing APIs. But that’s not all. Such a ruling could shake things up for many other companies across the programming world and beyond.
How the Toews-sponsored Internet surveillance bill quietly died
John Ibbitson
May. 15, 2012
The Internet surveillance legislation sponsored by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has disappeared down a dark legislative hole. For all intents and purposes, the bill is dead.
If the Harper government still wants to pass a law that would make it easier for police to track people who use the web to commit crimes, it will have to start from scratch.
That new bill, if there is one, will probably be shepherded by a different minister. That’s how much damage this botched legislation inflicted on the government and on Mr. Toews.
Pirate Bay ‘Censorship’ Judge is Corrupt, Claims Pirate Party Founder
enigmax
May 12, 2012
This week yet another court order was handed down in Europe with the aim of censoring The Pirate Bay. The ruling forbids the Dutch Pirate Party from not only running a direct proxy, but also telling people how to circumvent an earlier court ordered blockade. However, according to Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge, the judge in the case has a history of corruption relating to another file-sharing case he presided over in the Netherlands.
The Court of The Hague in the Netherlands has been particularly busy this work with Pirate Bay-related cases.
Following an earlier court ruling ordering two of the country’s largest ISPs to block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay, the Court ordered a further five ISPs to block TPB IP addresses and 20 domain names Thursday. The Court then went on to make a decision that was perhaps even more controversial than the first.
On Facebook, deleting an app doesn't delete your data from their system
by Casey Johnston
May 13, 2012
Facebook's proposed changes to its Data Use Policy give third parties a lot of flexibility.
Facebook announced some intended changes to its data use policy to "enhance transparency", according to a Friday post on its Facebook and Privacy page. The updates include better explanations, examples, and "tips" denoted in the text with a lightbulb, as well as some revelations about how third parties deal with users' data.
In the revised data use policy, Facebook makes explicit that any time one of your Facebook friends starts using an app, game, or partner website (that, is a site where you can log in using Facebook credentials), Facebook hands that service all of the "publicly available" information on that user. Information that is always publicly available only includes basic stuff like your name or cover photo, but users can have their entire profile publicly available, and thus handed to a service.
Party ends badly for U.S. trade reps, federal agents
By Andy Bichlbaum
May 12, 2012
Dozens of rogue "delegates" disrupt Trans-Pacific Partnership gala with "award," "mic check," mass toilet paper replacement, projection
Two dozen rogue "delegates" disrupted the corporate-sponsored welcome gala for the high-stakes Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations yesterday with a fake award ceremony and "mic check." Other activists, meanwhile, replaced hundreds of rolls of toilet paper (TP) throughout the conference venue with more informative versions, and projected a message on the venue's facade.
Reclaiming the hacker culture
George Wright
May 11, 2012
I am a crazy tinkerer when it comes to technology. It drives my family to despair sometimes because my various computing devices are in a near perpetual state of almost working perfectly (or brokenness as they might put it). I have always pulled things apart and nearly always been able to put them back together.
When I first started using computers back in the Apple II and Amiga days, my friends would play games but I would execute every system executable to see what would happen. I was a strange child. I would see if I could chain together pieces of binary in shell scripts to see if I could change the way in which the computer worked. I then discovered Unix in my first year of university. My path was set and I was in love. For the record, I’m a VI in the eternal VI versus EMACS war.
I learnt early on that computers were hard to break but easy to upset.
Amnesty International malware attack: when bad things happen on good sites
by Dan Goodin
May 11, 2012
The group's UK website was compromised to host a notorious espionage trojan.
Shattering the myth that only disreputable sites push malware, Amnesty International's UK website was recently compromised and used to install a notorious backdoor trojan that allows hackers to spy on political activists and government employees, security researchers said.
People visiting Amnesty.org.uk on Wednesday and Thursday were exposed to malicious code that exploited a now-patched vulnerability in Oracle's Java software framework, according to a blog post published Friday by Websense. End users who hadn't yet applied the patch were infected with Gh0stRat, a family of malware that siphons sensitive data from victims' machines and can also operate Web cams and microphones in real time. The trojan came to light in 2009 when researchers reported that it infiltrated government and private offices in 103 countries. That included computers belonging to the Dalai Lama.
After the German Pirate Party's String Of Successes, Here Comes The Backlash
by Glyn Moody
May 11, 2012
from the it-was-bound-to-happen dept
Over the last few months, Techdirt has been reporting on the amazing rise of the German Pirate Party, with win after win after win. Politicians in the other parties have looked on aghast, powerless to halt the rise of something they clearly can't fathom. Inevitably, the fightback has finally begun, but packaged as an artists' revolt, not simply that of the copyright industries worried about their profit margins.
Perhaps the most dramatic manifestation of that was a major section in the Handlesblatt newspaper (German original) a few weeks ago. It was entitled "A hundred creatives provoke the Pirates", and included 160 statements on the subject of "My head belongs to me." That paints this as huge numbers of artists having their ideas taken away by the Pirates, but the reality was a little different.
Court Upholds Google-NSA Relationship Secrecy
By David Kravets
May 11, 2012
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the National Security Agency’s decision to withhold from the public documents confirming or denying any relationship it has with Google concerning encryption and cybersecurity.
That’s despite the fact that Google itself admitted it turned to “U.S. authorities,” which obviously includes the NSA, after the search giant’s Chinese operation was deeply hacked. Former NSA chief Mike McConnell told the Washington Post that collaboration between the NSA and private companies like Google was “inevitable.”
Chile Threatens to Pull out of TPP because of US IP demands
By Sean Flynn
May 10, 2012
A new (Spanish language) news story contains a quote by a higher level government official to the effect that Chile may pull out of the TPP negotiations if the U.S. does not significantly moderate its intellectual property demands. This follows similar statements made last month in a public forum by a current trade official, a senior senator from the opposition party and a former lead trade negotiator. Today’s statement arrives from the Directorate General of International Economic Relations (Direcon), Rodrigo Contreras — Chile’s top trade official.
Major Cyberlocker Movie Pirate Faces 5 Years In Prison
enigmax
May 8, 2012
Later this month an individual who allegedly uploaded thousands of movies and TV shows to cyberlocker services will face trial and a possible 5 year prison sentence. The 29-year-old, who was also the moderator of a warez forum, committed the alleged infringements over a period of more than 4 years. The movie industry claims he cost them nearly $4.2m but the Pirate Party reject the damages calculations as “simply ridiculous.”
Online he was known as “Stainless” and according to the MPA-affiliated anti-piracy group chasing him down, he was the will become the most prolific movie and TV show Internet pirate ever to face trial in the Czech Republic.
Pirate Bay Condemns Anonymous DDoS Attack on Virgin Media
By Chloe Albanesius
May 9, 2012
The Pirate Bay last night criticized Anonymous for taking down the Virgin Media website over its blocking of The Pirate Bay, arguing that the move is a form of censorship.
"We do NOT encourage these actions. We believe in the open and free internets, where anyone can express their views. Even if we strongly disagree with them and even if they hate us," The Pirate Bay wrote on its Facebook page.
VirginMedia.com was hit with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on Tuesday, and appears to still be inaccessible as of Wednesday afternoon. In a statement, Virgin Media confirmed the attack and said it took the site offline itself.
Twitter fights request for Occupy protester's data
By Gerry Shih
May 8, 2012
(Reuters) - Twitter Inc filed a motion in a New York criminal court on Tuesday seeking to quash a subpoena for Tweets and account records associated with Malcolm Harris, a Twitter user who was arrested last fall on the Brooklyn Bridge during an Occupy protest.
Prosecutors in Manhattan have sought to build a case around Harris' Tweets by arguing that they show Harris was "well aware of the police instructions, and acted with the intent of obstructing traffic on the bridge," according to court filings.
Orangutans at Miami zoo use iPads to communicate
David Fischer
May. 9, 2012
MIAMI (AP) — The 8-year-old twins love their iPad. They draw, play games and expand their vocabulary. Their family's teenagers also like the hand-held computer tablets, too, but the clan's elders show no interest.
The orangutans at Miami's Jungle Island apparently are just like people when it comes to technology. The park is one of several zoos experimenting with computers and apes, letting its six orangutans use an iPad to communicate and as part of a mental stimulus program. Linda Jacobs, who oversees the program, hopes the devices will eventually help bridge the gap between humans and the endangered apes.
"Our young ones pick up on it. They understand it. It's like, 'Oh I get this,'" Jacobs said. "Our two older ones, they just are not interested. I think they just figure, 'I've gotten along just fine in this world without this communication-skill here and the iPad, and I don't need a computer.'"