Saturday, November 05, 2005

Sony to offer patch for 'rootkit' DRM, by Andrew Orlowski, in The Register. 3:53:47 PM    comment []

>From BNA News: BREATHALYZER SOURCE CODE MUST BE DISCLOSED IN FLORIDA A Florida court has ruled that police cannot use electronic breathalyzers as courtroom evidence against drivers unless the source code is disclosed. The case, one of the first to test whether source code used in such devices will be divulged, could influence the outcome of hundreds of drunk-driving prosecutions in the state. WEIGHING WEBCASTERS' RIGHTS TO CONTENT The Washington Post runs an article about the fight over copying video from television or the Internet. If television broadcasters and Webcasters have their way in international treaty talks, they would gain new, 50-year rights to virtually any video they beam out, even if no one owns the rights to the content. The result, according to digital rights advocates, is that the viral power of the Internet to expose millions of people to news or unprotected creative works will be in jeopardy. [Washington Post] EFF REFLECTS ON TWO YEARS OF RIAA P2P LAWSUITS The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a report on two years of RIAA lawsuits against individual file sharers. It argues that the lawsuits are singling out only a select few fans for retribution, and many of them can't afford either to settle the case or defend themselves. EFF's report cites the case of a single mother in Minnesota who faces $500,000 in penalties for her daughter's alleged downloading, as well as the case of a disabled veteran who was targeted for downloading songs she already owned. Report at http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/RIAAatTWO_FINAL.pdf SEC BLAMES ESTONIAN FIRM FOR FINANCIAL NEWS HACK The US SEC has accused an Estonian financial firm and two of its employees of carrying out a fraudulent hacking scheme that netted them at least $7.8 million. The SEC accused the two of using a so-called spider program to steal information related to more than 360 embargoed press releases in advance of their official distribution date from news and PR Web site Business Wire. CALIFORNIA MAN CHARGED IN BOT NET ATTACKS A 20-year-old man accused of using thousands of hijacked computers, or "bot nets," to damage systems and send massive amounts of spam across the Internet was arrested Thursday in what authorities called the first such prosecution of its kind. Jeanson James Ancheta, who prosecutors say was a well-known member of the "Botmaster Underground" was taken into custody after being lured to FBI offices in Los Angeles 3:53:44 PM    comment []

What's the matter with cloning Rex? Humane groups oppose cloning dogs for pets. But we've been designing dogs to suit our whims for generations. Why stop now? By Kirsten Weir, in Salon. 3:53:40 PM    comment []

>From BNA News: BREATHALYZER SOURCE CODE MUST BE DISCLOSED IN FLORIDA A Florida court has ruled that police cannot use electronic breathalyzers as courtroom evidence against drivers unless the source code is disclosed. The case, one of the first to test whether source code used in such devices will be divulged, could influence the outcome of hundreds of drunk-driving prosecutions in the state. WEIGHING WEBCASTERS' RIGHTS TO CONTENT The Washington Post runs an article about the fight over copying video from television or the Internet. If television broadcasters and Webcasters have their way in international treaty talks, they would gain new, 50-year rights to virtually any video they beam out, even if no one owns the rights to the content. The result, according to digital rights advocates, is that the viral power of the Internet to expose millions of people to news or unprotected creative works will be in jeopardy. [Washington Post] EFF REFLECTS ON TWO YEARS OF RIAA P2P LAWSUITS The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a report on two years of RIAA lawsuits against individual file sharers. It argues that the lawsuits are singling out only a select few fans for retribution, and many of them can't afford either to settle the case or defend themselves. EFF's report cites the case of a single mother in Minnesota who faces $500,000 in penalties for her daughter's alleged downloading, as well as the case of a disabled veteran who was targeted for downloading songs she already owned. Report at http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/RIAAatTWO_FINAL.pdf SEC BLAMES ESTONIAN FIRM FOR FINANCIAL NEWS HACK The US SEC has accused an Estonian financial firm and two of its employees of carrying out a fraudulent hacking scheme that netted them at least $7.8 million. The SEC accused the two of using a so-called spider program to steal information related to more than 360 embargoed press releases in advance of their official distribution date from news and PR Web site Business Wire. CALIFORNIA MAN CHARGED IN BOT NET ATTACKS A 20-year-old man accused of using thousands of hijacked computers, or "bot nets," to damage systems and send massive amounts of spam across the Internet was arrested Thursday in what authorities called the first such prosecution of its kind. Jeanson James Ancheta, who prosecutors say was a well-known member of the "Botmaster Underground" was taken into custody after being lured to FBI offices in Los Angeles 3:53:36 PM    comment []

Sony to offer patch for 'rootkit' DRM, by Andrew Orlowski, in The Register. 3:53:26 PM    comment []