Good news: They didn't steal the computers. Bad news: They didn't have to...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4790293.stm
UK bank details sold in Nigeria
Bank account details belonging to thousands of Britons are being sold in West Africa for less than £20 each, the BBC's Real Story programme has found.
It discovered that fraudsters in Nigeria were able to find internet banking data stored on recycled PCs sent from the UK to Africa.
The information can be found on a PC's hard disk, which is easy to access if the drive is not wiped before sending.
... The Information Commissioner's Office, the UK government's regulatory office dealing with data protection, said companies had a legal requirement to delete people's personal information from their computers when it was no longer needed. (Oops! Bob]
Any tactic that has the potential to move you toward your goal is worth exploring. Sometimes you get lucky and change the interpretation of the law...
http://blog.mises.org/archives/005459.asp
Defending the "right" to market share
S.M. Oliva August 11, 2006
This week the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said an antitrust complaint brought against 3M could proceed to trial. NicSand accused 3M of attempting to illegally monopolize the automotive abrasives market by signing exclusive contracts with four of the six largest retail distributors of such abrasives. Judge Ann Aldrich of the U.S. District Court in Cleveland dismissed the complaint for failing to allege an “antitrust injury.” The Sixth Circuit reversed Aldrich and said the case could proceed to trial. One appellate judge, Jeffrey Sutton, dissented and authored a well-written opinion that explains much of what's wrong with contemporary antitrust practice:
As this case comes to the court, it presents a most unusual candidate for antitrust protection. The case, to begin with, involves a claim by one competitor against another and thus implicates the classic rejoinder that the antitrust laws protect competition, not competitors.
When courts nonetheless have permitted one competitor to deploy the antitrust laws against another, that typically has been because one of them—usually, the larger competitor—has engaged in some form of predatory pricing or illegal tying. But here NicSand (the smaller competitor) concedes that 3M has not engaged in any form of predatory pricing and makes no allegations about any form of illegal tying.
... Unable to argue that 3M’s discounting amounted to anything but legitimate (and apparently long-overdue) competition, NicSand focuses on the fact that 3M entered into exclusive contracts with the four large retailers that switched from NicSand to 3M. Yet according to NicSand’s amended complaint, the retailers made exclusivity one of the preconditions for doing business with a new supplier. The complaint says that the large retailers (1) choose to carry just one brand of automotive sandpaper for sale to consumers, (2) re-negotiate these one-brand contracts just once a year, (3) require a new supplier to purchase the retailer’s existing supply of automotive sandpaper, (4) require a new supplier to provide racks and other display equipment, (5) require a new supplier to produce a full line of automotive sandpaper and (6) require a new supplier to provide a discount on the retailer’s first order. NicSand of course complied with these requirements in obtaining the supply business it held in 1997, and 3M complied with them in winning some of that business away. If retailers have made supplier exclusivity a barrier to entry, one cannot bring an antitrust claim against another supplier for complying with that precondition. Put another way, NicSand did not sue 3M insisting that it had a right to share shelf space; it sued 3M because it wanted that shelf space all to itself—just as it had it in 1997. This is precisely the kind of all-for-one-and-all-for-one competitor claim that the antitrust laws do not protect.
3M faced a similar lawsuit a few years ago from a competitor in the transparent tape market. There 3M successfully competed against the incumbent for a particular subset of the market, and the result was an antitrust judgment of more than $60 million. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals actually rewrote the existing standard of Section 2 liability so that a company that priced "above cost"--the purported standard for "predatory" pricing--could still be held liable. Clearly that decision encouraged NicSand to pursue its own complaint against 3M.
On occasion, even I can get one right. So what crimes are they charged with?
http://www.forbes.com/business/manufacturing/feeds/ap/2006/08/14/ap2948395.html
FBI Cites No Terror Ties in Arrests
Associated Press 08.14.2006, 02:13 PM
The FBI said Monday it had no information to indicate that the three Texas men arrested with about 1,000 cell phones in their van had any connections to terrorism.
Authorities had increased patrols on Michigan's 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge after the men were arrested, and local prosecutors charged them with terrorism-related counts.
But the FBI issued a news release Monday saying there is no imminent threat to the bridge and no information indicating that the men have any direct link to terrorism.
These guys clearly crossed the line. What could they have done legally?
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/08/14/HNmoviedownload_1.html
Movie service sued over spyware
Washington sues Movieland.com for forcing users to sign up for paid service
By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service August 14, 2006
The U.S. state of Washington has sued the owners of the Movieland.com, alleging that the company used spyware to strong-arm users into signing up for its paid movie download service.
Consumers who dowloaded Movieland.com's free three-day trial software would eventually be hit with frequent pop-up ads informing them that they were legally obliged to purchase the product, [practicing law? Bob] said Paula Selis, an assistant attorney general with the state. The tactics forced some consumers to give in and pay between $19.95 and $100 for the service, she said.
Once again, porn leads the way...
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/14/1813251&from=rss
The 7 Ways That People Search the Web
Posted by Zonk on Monday August 14, @02:47PM from the seven-stages-of-search dept. The Internet
SpaceAdmiral writes "After the recent release of AOL search logs, Paul Boutin used the site splunkd.com to analyse the logs. His analysis groups searchers into seven categories: The Pornhound, the Manhunter, the Shopper, the Obsessive, the Omnivore, the Newbie, and the Basketcase. My favorite example search is in the Basketcase category: 'i hurt when i think too much i love roadtrips i hate my weight i fear being alone for the rest of my life.'"
There must be an Osama in here somewhere...
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/August2006/14/c5572.html
Privacy Commissioner launches investigation of SWIFT
OTTAWA, Aug. 14 /CNW Telbec/ - The Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Jennifer Stoddart, has officially launched an investigation of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a European-based financial cooperative that supplies messaging services and interface software to a large number of financial institutions in more than 200 countries, including Canada, to determine whether personal information relating to Canadians' financial transactions is being improperly disclosed by SWIFT to foreign authorities. The Commissioner has notified SWIFT of her intention to launch an investigation into the matter.
Good legal strategy (it never hurts to ask?)
http://digitalmusic.weblogsinc.com/2006/08/10/riaa-asks-for-blanket-gag-order/
RIAA Asks for Blanket Gag Order
Posted Aug 10th 2006 8:19PM by Grant Robertson Filed under: General
Ray Beckerman has his hands full. As many faithful readers of TDMW know, Ray Beckerman is a legal hero of mine, and is lead counsel for several RIAA case defendants.
Beckerman just posted to his blog a response to Sony BMG's demand for a blanket gag order before appearing at any deposition.
"plaintiffs are imposing an unacceptable precondition to their appearance: they are refusing to produce the witnesses unless defendant agrees to an advance blanket stipulation of confidentiality as to the entire contents of the deposition transcripts. Plaintiffs have refused to cite any legal authority for their omnibus protective order request other than the Seattle Times case, a completely distinguishable Supreme Court case which granted a limited protective order as to certain specified classes of documents, based on a traditional showing of "annoyance, embarrassment, [and] oppression" of the individuals whose information would be disclosed."
RIAA member companies have pulled a great list of legal stunts. This trumps them all in my opinion. To put it in plain and simple English, what Sony BMG have asked is that the court trump the 1st amendment rights of the defendant and the defendant's counsel in order to save them from public scrutiny of their own words during deposition.
This isn't normal. I can't wait to see what the judge rules. Sigh.
I'd be much more comfortable if their goal was to have the encryption software USED rather than merely installed...
VA buys encryption tools
Installation of software to be installed on all Veterans Affairs laptops within the month
By Grant Gross, IDG News Service August 14, 2006
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will spend US$3.7 million on encryption software following a theft in May of hardware containing the personal information of 26.5 million military veterans and spouses.
The VA has awarded a contract for veteran-owned small business SMS Inc. of Syracuse, New York, to install two encryption software packages on all of the department's computers, handhelds and storage devices. The installation is scheduled to start Friday, and VA Secretary R. James Nicholson wants all VA laptops to include encryption software within a month, the VA said.
Slightly different story...
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2003334,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
VA to Encrypt All Computers
By Wayne Rash August 14, 2006
... Final testing has already started on those machines, and the actual process of [installing, not using Bob] encryption will begin on August 18. The process is expected to be completed within one month, the statement said.
... Smith said his product would allow VA system administrators to set policies on how information is encrypted. While the product performs whole-disk encryption, there's a choice as to whether to encrypt removable storage such as USB drives or optical disks.
Smith also noted that the whole encryption process take place in the background, so users shouldn't notice that their files are being encrypted and decrypted.
How could they not?
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012119.html
August 14, 2006
Group Requests FTC Investigation of AOL Privacy Breach
Follow up to August 9, 2006 posting, AOL Data Breach Causes Privacy Group to File Complaint With FTC, news today "the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)...asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate America Online (AOL) and require changes in its privacy practices, after the company recently released search history logs that exposed the private lives of more than a half-million of its customers." A copy of the EFF complaint (11 pages, PDF).
I checked. They are allowing breast milk. Apparently no one was willing to give up the containers...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012123.html
August 14, 2006
TSA's Evolving List of Items Prohibited From Carry On Luggage
Use this TSA Prohibited Items site to stay abreast of the items now excluded from carry-on baggage, as well as the exceptions to prohibited items (each with their own set of specifications). See also the TSA's Our Travel Assistant site.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012124.html
August 14, 2006
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Report on Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda: The Many Faces of an Islamist Extremist Threat, June 2006 (47 pages, PDF)
Related report: Initial Assessment on the Implementation of The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, July 27, 2006 (41 pages, PDF)
[From the report:
The Islamist extremist threat will continue to grow through the exploitation and use of the Internet.
Wow! But you must consider, they already have a variety of movie download technologies in place. Is it possible could simply skip a controversial (and outdated?) technology?
http://techdirt.com/articles/20060814/0748218.shtml
Even The Porn Industry Can't End HD Format War
from the bring-in-the-UN dept
It's almost a cliché that the porn industry tends to be a driver of new technologies and a kingmaker when it comes to standards. The industry is definitely on the cutting edge when it comes to internet distribution of movies, and many have predicted that the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray battle would hinge on which format was adopted by Silicone Valley. But this particular format war has become so convoluted that even the adult film industry is taking an uncharacteristic wait-and-see approach with the new technologies. Studios aren't inclined to make a heavy investment in a new format, when so much remains unclear. Meanwhile, the longer this battle rages on, the shorter the lifespan for the eventual winner; the porn industry is already interested in more advanced modes of distribution.
Subpoena this! (Hiding in plain sight.)
http://offsystem.sourceforge.net/wordpress/?page_id=13
The Owner-Free Filing system has often been described as the first brightnet; A distributed system where no one breaks the law, so no one need hide in the dark.
OFF is a highly connected peer-to-peer distributed file system. The unique feature of this system is that it stores all of its internal data in a multi-use randomized block format. In other words there is not a one to one mapping between a stored block and its use in a retrieved file. Each stored block is simultaneously used as a part of many different files. Individually, however, each block is nothing but arbitrary digital white noise.
Owner-Free refers both to the fact that nobody owns the system as a whole and nobody can own any of the data blocks stored in the system. The latter claim is explained below and supported in the linked works.
Owner-less Data
It seems highly unlikely to most people that the same exact data can be used to represent several things at once. But indeed, the same digital representation can be, “both a floor wax and a dessert topping.”
The misperception is simply a relic of computer metaphors that obfuscate an important reality of the digital world. Traditional rules do not apply. Mathematics is the only law.
... A simple description of the process is available on this site. http://offsystem.sourceforge.net/wordpress/?page_id=4 A more extensive treatment is done in the paper, “On copyrightable numbers with an application to the Gesetzklageproblem” http://offsystem.info/CopyNumbCJ.pdf
Inevitable? Many of my students do not have landlines...
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2006/tc20060814_285305.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech
AUGUST 14, 2006 Technology By Olga Kharif
T-Mobile's Trial Balloon
The wireless provider is testing routers that will allow users to make calls from home via cell phone for a flat monthly rate
On Aug. 10, T-Mobile USA started a hush-hush trial of a service that could turn telecom on its head. In the trial, the nation's fourth-largest wireless service provider will equip customers in states such as Oregon with special routers to be placed in their homes. The devices will enable users to make calls from home via a T-Mobile cell phone for a flat monthly rate, according to message board postings seeking volunteers for the trial, BusinessWeek.com has found.
Why is this T-Mobile-At-Home service such a big deal? If this trial is successful and is followed by a full-blown rollout, it could open the floodgates on landline-to-wireless migration.
While today some 7% of Americans use their mobile as their primary phone, that number should climb to 40% within 10 years, figures Craig Mathias, president of wireless consultancy Farpoint Group. After all, if you can make calls from your mobile phone for, say, $5 a month—the amount T-Mobile is rumored to be charging during the at-home trial—why would you pay some $30 for a landline?
No comments:
Post a Comment