Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Hackers Pocket W16 Billion in Cyber Cash, by Chung Ah-young, The Korea Times. The state prosecution on Tuesday indicted two computer hackers and one of their accomplices on charges of stealing cyber money worth 16.4 billion won ($15.3 million) by infiltrating one of the largest online game firms. The Seoul Central District Public Prosecutors' Office said the suspects pocketed the largest amount of cyber money ever obtained in hacking crimes. Investigators said the suspects allegedly broke into the online game site to steal cyber cash, which can be exchanged for real money, and sold it to cyber brokers on Sept. 24-27. Prosecutors said that suspects plotted the crime beforehand through closely reviewing the company¡¯s electronic payment system and conducted practice runs beforehand. . . . Before committing the crime, the suspects did a mock hacking via the service and stole cyber cash worth 27 million won in March and June. Prosecutors said they connected to the company¡¯s information network system 227 times during the Chusok holiday in September. They illegally charged mileage points worth 164.7 billion won through 152 identification numbers that they set up beforehand. The suspects then allegedly traded stolen cyber cash at 750 million won to a broker, identified as Kim, who also raked in a total of 168 million won by selling it to other brokers through e-mails or identification numbers. 9:45:18 AM    comment []

Court Documents Not Fit for Web?. States are rethinking their policy of publishing all court documents -- divorces, medical histories, arrests -- on the web. On one hand is the citizens' right to know how their government operates. On the other is their right to privacy. By Jacob Ogles. [Wired News] 7:10:59 AM    comment []

Ed Felten's lecture: "Rip, Mix, Burn, Sue" -- UPDATED [bOing bOing] 7:08:37 AM    comment []

A Kinder, Gentler Copyright Bill?. The Senate passes a copyright bill that is not as bad as digital rights activists had feared. The bill drops language that would have banned tech that would have allowed people to skip commercials. By Katie Dean. [Wired News] 7:08:29 AM    comment []

VHS Follows Beta. IT Observer - VHS Format Dies Quiet Death One of Britain's largest retailers, Dixons, is officially retiring VHS players. "We're saying goodbye to one of the most important products in the history of consumer technology," Dixons marketing director John Mewett said. "We are now entering the digital age and the new DVD technology available represents a step-change in picture quality and convenience." VHS was the format which brought video into peoples homes. Until VHS, home... [The Politburo Diktat] 7:08:28 AM    comment []

ENFORCER. Shaping the Future Of Science Michael Koubi worked for Shin Bet, Israel's security service, for 21 years and was its chief interrogator from 1987 to 1993. He interrogated hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including renowned militants such as Sheikh Yassin, the former leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, who was killed in an Israeli attack this year. He claims that intelligence gained in interrogation has been crucial to protecting Israel from terrorism. He tells Michael Bond that, given enough time, he could make almost anyone talk [Gibson Blog] 6:59:16 AM    comment []

metaphorical capital. 1. First we had Human Capital. You There! Go to the next village and kill everybody because I'm the Chief of this village and I say so etc. 2. Then came Physical Capital. Land, property, factories etc. 3. Then... [...] 6. Metaphorical Capital. Our products make it easier for the end user to find and/or express meaning, narrative, metaphor, purpose, explanation and relevance in his/her own life than our competitor's products. [gapingvoid] 6:50:34 AM    comment []

More on a story noted yesterday: Perfect 10 Sues Google (Donna Wentworth). Last we heard from Perfect 10, the porn purveyer failed miserably in its Induce Act-like attempt to hold credit card companies liable when people use the cards to purchase access to purloined Perfect 10 pics. Andrew Bridges, a partner in the firm representing MasterCard, observed that the company's attempt to apply the Napster decision to the case shows how law made in extreme cases -- e.g., to fight peer-to-peer file sharing -- can later be applied in different scenarios (*cough* Induce). "A lot of copyright [litigation] is being pushed by pornographers who are trying to take advantage of cases brought by more mainstream media," Bridges said. Now Perfect 10 is at it again, this time filing a filing a complaint (PDF) against a company that it presumably hopes will be an easier target: Google. Writes John Palfrey: What's intriguing about Perfect 10's claims, and I suspect their best shot at differentiating their claims from previous assaults on search engines, is the way they're trying to hook nearly the entire set of claims on (in a general sense) the notion that Google gets adwords revenue thanks to the porn company's content that's been copied and distributed on "stolen content websites" who in turn pay Google (so one would presume from the complaint, anyway) for click-throughs -- see paragraphs 27 - 34, then claims 2 (contributory infringement of copyright) and 3 (vicarious infringement of copyright) and the subsequent trademark, unfair competition, and right of publicity claims. In short, Perfect 10 says: Google is profiting -- a lot -- from the bad acts of others and they should stop doing it and pay us for what they've done. Interesting. Reading it in the wake of the Jeff Jarvis interview I linked to below, I can't help but imagine how he might respond: "If 'bad actors' can profit this handsomely from the 'distribution' of copyrighted works via P2P or search, why can't we find a way for the 'good actors' -- the copyright holders -- to profit just as much?" [Copyfight] 6:46:54 AM    comment []