23. november 2005

Texas sues Sony BMG over rootkit Don't mess with Texas. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a civil lawsuit on Monday against Sony BMG Music Entertainment (6758.T) for hiding "spyware" software on its compact discs in a bid to thwart music copying. According to the lawsuit filed in Travis County, several of the company's music compact discs require customers to download Sony's media players if they want to listen to the CDs on a computer. Software included with that media player "remains hidden and active" after installation, the Attorney General's office said, and makes users vulnerable to security risks and possible identity theft. Sony has been forced to recall all rootkit-protected CDs after what can be charitably described as a PR disaster. It has been reported that malware exploits the ill-thought-out DRM system. 4:21:05 PM    comment []  trackback []

'Rotten week for Zarqawi' Jack Kelly: Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the al Qaida chieftain in Iraq, has had a bad week. If it turns out Zarqawi was among seven al Qaida leaders killed in Mosul Saturday, it'll have been a really bad week. But even if Zarqawi got away again, it's been a rotten week for him. [...] Last Friday, more than 200,000 Jordanians took to the streets to demonstrate against al Qaida. Zarqawi is Jordanian, but his tribe has disowned him. This is a big deal, said Jim Robbins, who teaches at the National Defense University: "One of the reasons I thought the report of Zarqawi's death was credible at first was that his tribe had forsaken him," Robbins wrote. "Extended tribal ties among groups in al Anbar province in Iraq may be what has kept him safe thus far." It could have been a tip from a disgruntled relative that led U.S. and Iraqi troops to surround the house in Mosul where seven men and a woman died, several by blowing themselves up. More likely, they were ratted out by Iraqis who had once been friendly to al Qaida, but are turning against it. There has been a surge in tips from Iraqis over the last month, a U.S. intelligence officer told the Washington Post. "These tend to be traditional Iraqi leaders -- sheiks and imams -- upset with the organization, especially its recent execution of Sunni Arabs in Ramadi," the official said. Zarqawi may be brilliant at getting his blood-thirsty message out and playing to the most extreme jihadis, but he has surely turned the masses away, too. Update: A statement which may be from al-Qaeda denies earlier reports that al-Zarqawi had been killed. Al Qaeda in Iraq said media reports that its leader Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was killed by U.S. forces were a "lie," according to an Internet statement posted on Wednesday. "The media has lately circulated this news that was announced by the Crusaders (U.S.) about the death of the leader of the group in an armed confrontation … which was an additional lie," the group said on a Web site statement. Adding further confusion, it has to be added that this statement, as well, could not be confirmed. 12:13:19 PM    comment []  trackback []

Iraqi leaders want timetable for withdrawal Associated Press reports that Iraqi leaders ask for a timetable on withdrawal of foreign troops. Leaders of Iraq's sharply divided Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis called Monday for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces in the country and said Iraq's opposition had a ``legitimate right'' of resistance.  The "timetable" is of the particular kind without an explicit time in the table. And there is a fine print: The participants in Cairo agreed on ``calling for the withdrawal of foreign troops according to a timetable, through putting in place an immediate national program to rebuild the armed forces ... control the borders and the security situation'' and end terror attacks.  [...] On Monday, Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr suggested U.S.-led forces should be able to leave Iraq by the end of next year, saying the one-year extension of the mandate for the multinational force in Iraq by the U.N. Security Council this month could be the last. ``By the middle of next year we will be 75 percent done in building our forces and by the end of next year it will be fully ready,'' he told the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera. In that case, declare victory, pull out and good luck to them. The Kurds will just be looking for an excuse to pull out of Iraq themselves, and who can blame them? 1:31:59 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland. Last update: 30.11.2005; 19:07:29.