It's not a sale, it's not a lease, you don't own it so you can't resell it. Fortunately, they haven't realized that their DRM is copyrighted, so they could charge repeatedly for the keys that allow access to the data you bought (leased?) (Perhaps you purchased a right to pay the copyright holder in perpetuity?)
Big Content: ludicrous to expect DRMed music to work forever
Rightsholders can't understand why people who bought DRMed music only to have the authentication servers go dark might demand the right to crack the DRM. Big Content believes the idea that rightsholders "are required to provide consumers with perpetual access to copyrighted works" is laughable. Ha ha.
By Nate Anderson Last updated July 29, 2009 11:54 AM CT
"We reject the view," he writes in a letter to the top legal advisor at the Copyright Office, "that copyright owners and their licensees are required to provide consumers with perpetual access to creative works. No other product or service providers are held to such lofty standards. No one expects computers or other electronics devices to work properly in perpetuity, and there is no reason that any particular mode of distributing copyrighted works should be required to do so."
(Related) I told you these guys were smart. But are they right?
How Wolfram Alpha's Copyright Claims Could Change Software
Posted by timothy on Thursday July 30, @05:09PM from the my-patent-app-will-involve-prayer-wheels-and-combinatorics dept. software
snydeq writes
"Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister suggests that Wolfram Research's claim to copyright of results returned by the Wolfram Alpha engine could have significant ramifications for the software industry. 'While software companies routinely retain sole ownership of their software and license it to users, Wolfram Research has taken the additional step of claiming ownership of the output of the software itself,' McAllister writes, pointing out that it is 'at least theoretically possible to copyright works generated by machines.' And, under current copyright law, if any Wolfram claim to authorship of the output of its engine is upheld, by extension the same rules will apply to other information services in similar cases as well. In other words, 'If unique presentations based on software-based manipulation of mundane data are copyrightable, who retains what rights to the resulting works?'"
(Related) Wasn't this to be expected? Was the student wrong to base his work on something he never owned (or leased or whatever)
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2359
Student sues Amazon.com over deleted homework
July 30, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Businesses, Court, Youth
A class action lawsuit filed today takes Amazon.com to task after the company deleted George Orwell books from customers Kindles.
According to the lawsuit, Amazon.com deleted these books after claiming that it had mistakenly sold them without permission from the copyright owner.
After a barrage of criticism from customers, the media, and public interest organizations, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos apologized for the companys behavior, conceding that it was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.
The suit is being brought by Justin D. Gawronski, a 17-year-old high school student who had purchased Orwells 1984 to complete a summer homework assignment.
When Amazon deleted the book from his Kindle, it rendered the electronic notes he had taken worthless.
(Related?) If the dancers tried to make money, they would have been sued for “stealing” the copyrighted music?
Hard ‘Boyled’: Sony, Chris Brown Cash in on Viral Wedding Video
By Eliot Van Buskirk Email Author * July 30, 2009 1:21 pm
couldn’t help making fun of Simon Cowell and company for failing to earn a single cent from Susan Boyle’s runaway YouTube success earlier this year. It appears the rightsholders behind another surprise YouTube smash hit — the “wedding dance” video that’s been making the rounds — learned from that mistake.
On YouTube’s business blog, technical account manager Chris LaRosa and music partner manager Ali Sandler describe how Chris Brown and Sony Music managed to capitalize on the 12 million-plus times people have watched the “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” video, which shows Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz’s wedding party boogieing down to the Chris Brown song “Forever.”
“The rights holders for ‘Forever’ used [YouTube's content management tools] to claim and monetize the song, as well as to start running Click-to-Buy links over the video, giving viewers the opportunity to purchase the music track on Amazon and iTunes,” they wrote.
(Related)
11-Word Extracts May Infringe Copyright In Europe
Posted by kdawson on Friday July 31, @08:42AM from the dibs-on-copyright-on-"the" dept. court
splodus writes
"The European Court of Justice, Europe's highest court, has ruled that a service providing 11-word snippets of newspaper articles could be unlawful. Media monitoring company Infopaq International searches newspaper articles and provides clients with a keyword and the five words either side. This practice was challenged by the DDF, a group representing newspaper interests, as infringing their members' copyright. The court has referred the issue back to national courts to determine whether copyright laws in each country will be subject to the ruling. The full ruling is available at the European Court of Justice Web site."
[From the article:
Infopaq argued that its process of scanning news articles, converting the data to text and emailing its customers summaries containing the five words before and after a keyword comprise fleeting use that's exempt from the permission requirements. Infopaq also prints out cover sheets with the text snippets.
Europe's highest court held that the 11-word extracts were indeed "reproduction in part" under intellectual property laws. The court described transient acts as being "created and deleted automatically and without human intervention," such as those allowing for database browsing and caching. Such acts must also be incidental, the court said.
Not to be an alarmist, but consider the economic implications if a rogue nation (North Korea for example) was behind this type of attack and millions of bank accounts were suddenly drained or rendered inaccessible.
http://www.databreaches.net/?p=6493
Clampi Trojan stealing online bank data
July 30, 2009 by admin Filed under Malware
Hundreds of thousands of Windows computers are believed to be infected with a Trojan called “Clampi” that has been stealing banking and other login credentials from compromised PCs since 2007, a security researcher said on the eve of the Black Hat security conference.
Clampi, also known as Ligats, Ilomo, or Rscan, infects computers in drive-by downloads when people visit Web sites hosting malicious code that exploits vulnerabilities in browser plug-ins Flash and ActiveX, said Joe Stewart, director of malware research for the Counter Threat Unit of SecureWorks.
Read more on ZDNet Asia. Thanks to Brian Honan for this link.
Relatively small-time, but an example of “electronic ambulance chasing.” Dean Dan Vigil will be appalled!
http://www.databreaches.net/?p=6500
Jackson Memorial worker stole patient records, sold them to lawyer
July 31, 2009 by admin Filed under Breach Incidents, Healthcare Sector, Insider, Other, U.S.
Ambulance chasing just took a reckless turn — at the intersection of healthcare and the law.
A Miami man was charged Thursday with buying confidential patient records from a Jackson Memorial Hospital employee over the past two years, and selling them to a lawyer suspected of soliciting the patients to file personal-injury claims.
Ruben E. Rodriguez allegedly paid JMH ultrasound technician Rebecca Garcia $1,000 a month for the hospital records of hundreds of patients treated for slip-and-fall accidents, car-crash injuries, gunshot wounds and stabbings, federal authorities said.
Read more in the Sun-Sentinel. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/sfl-jackson-memorial-records-bn073109,0,3142534.story
How secure is that socket layer?
http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/30/186228/Null-Character-Hack-Allows-SSL-Spoofing?from=rss
Null Character Hack Allows SSL Spoofing
Posted by timothy on Thursday July 30, @02:43PM from the cannot-anticipate-all-evil dept. security internet
eldavojohn writes
"Two researchers, Dan Kaminsky and Moxie Marlinspike, came up with exact same way to fake being a popular website with authentication from a certificate authority. Wired has the details: 'When an attacker who owns his own domain — badguy.com — requests a certificate from the CA, the CA, using contact information from Whois records, sends him an email asking to confirm his ownership of the site. But an attacker can also request a certificate for a subdomain of his site, such as Paypal.com\0.badguy.com, using the null character \0 in the URL. The CA will issue the certificate for a domain like PayPal.com\0.badguy.com because the hacker legitimately owns the root domain badguy.com. Then, due to a flaw found in the way SSL is implemented in many browsers, Firefox and others theoretically can be fooled into reading his certificate as if it were one that came from the authentic PayPal site. Basically when these vulnerable browsers check the domain name contained in the attacker's certificate, they stop reading any characters that follow the "\0 in the name.'"
It all started when I realized I didn't have change for the meter...
http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/31/0110213/Hackers-Get-Free-Parking-In-San-Francisco?from=rss
Hackers Get Free Parking In San Francisco
Posted by timothy on Friday July 31, @07:58AM from the usually-spots-at-the-end-of-the-judah-line dept. security transportation
Hugh Pickens writes
"PC World reports that at the Black Hat security conference this week, security researchers say that it is pretty easy for a technically savvy hacker to make a fake payment card that gives them unlimited free parking on San Francisco's smart parking meter system. 'It wasn't technically complicated and the fact that I can do it in three days means that other people are probably already doing it and probably taking advantage of it,' says Joe Grand. 'It seems like the system wasn't analyzed at all.' [but it was marketed like crazy... Bob] To figure out how the payment system worked, Grand hooked up an oscilloscope to a parking meter and monitored what happened when he used a genuine payment card. Grand discovered the cards aren't digitally signed, and the only authentication between the meter and card is a password sent from the former to the latter. Examining the meters themselves could yield additional vulnerabilities that might allow someone to conduct other kinds of attacks, such as propagating a virus from meter to meter via the smart cards or a meter minder's PDA."
“We don't need no stinking lawyers!” It's simple. You give us access or we'll let everyone see those pictures on your Facebook account.
EU bank data move ignored legal advice
ANDREW RETTMAN 29.07.2009 @ 16:09 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU member states laid aside the advice of their own legal experts in cutting MEPs out of talks on a new bank data deal with the US.
… The new data pact will give US treasury officials the right to peek into EU citizens' banking transactions to investigate potential terrorist activity. [Nothing controversial here... Bob]
Is this the Best Practice a security vender could demonstrate?
http://www.databreaches.net/?p=6497
McAfee keeps leaked details to itself
July 31, 2009 by admin Filed under Breach Incidents, Breach Types, Business Sector, Exposure, Non-U.S.
McAfee is yet to confirm with delegates to its recent Strategic Security Conference that their details were leaked in a bulk email, as reported on iTnews yesterday. [Could it be they are hoping they weren't responsible? Bob]
[...]
In an interview on security podcast Risky Business, McAfee’s Asia Pacific President, Steve Redman, didn’t say if the security vendor will disclose the data breach to those whose details were leaked.
Redman at first said that McAfee has “a small legal responsibility and a high social responsibility” to let affected customers know about the breach, but later said “I don’t think we would send that email”.
Read more on iTnews.
Perhaps this works because the Amish don't “get” the technology they shun. Or perhaps the Amish are to be feared? “Clippity-clop, clippity-clop, BANG, clippity-clop” Amish drive-by shooting
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/21/nation/na-spycam-city21
Lancaster, Pa., keeps a close eye on itself
A vast and growing web of security cameras monitors the city of 55,000, operated by a private group of self-appointed gatekeepers. There's been surprisingly little outcry.
By Bob Drogin June 21, 2009
… It may become the nation's most closely watched small city.
… "Years ago, there's no way we could do this," said Keith Sadler, Lancaster's police chief. "It brings to mind Big Brother, George Orwell and '1984.' It's just funny how Americans have softened on these issues."
"No one talks about it," agreed Scott Martin, a Lancaster County commissioner who wants to expand the program. "Because people feel safer. Those who are law-abiding citizens, they don't have anything to worry about."
… Laid out in 1730, the whole town is 4 square miles around a central square. Amish families still sell quilts in the nation's oldest public market, and the Wal-Mart provides a hitching post to park a horse and buggy. Tourists flock to art galleries and Colonial-era churches near a glitzy new convention center.
An update on the status of “Skynet?” Can Terminators be far behind?
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/07/30/2251233/AI-Developer-Challenges-Pro-Human-Bias?from=rss
A.I. Developer Challenges Pro-Human Bias
Posted by timothy on Thursday July 30, @06:58PM from the what-it-is-you-intend-to-practice dept. technology
destinyland writes
"After 13 years, the creator of the Noble Ape cognitive simulation says he's learned two things about artificial intelligence. 'Survival is a far better metric of intelligence than replicating human intelligence,' and "There are a number of examples of vastly more intelligent systems (in terms of survival) than human intelligence." Both Apple and Intel have used his simulation as a processor metric, but now Tom Barbalet argues its insights could be broadly applied to real life. His examples of durable non-human systems? The legal system, the health care system, and even the internet, where individual humans are simply the 'passive maintaining agents,' and the systems can't be conquered without a human onslaught that's several magnitudes larger."
For my students. LOTS of free books.
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/sciencebooksonline-free-science-ebooks/
ScienceBooksOnline: Free Science eBooks
ScienceBooksOnline is a directory of free science ebooks in different subject categories like Astronomy, Biology, Math and others. You can browse ebooks by category and read them for free online or download in PDF format. All the listed texts are offered legally on the site and have been authorized by their respective authors and publishers.
Similar sites: Project Gutenberg, Wowio and eBooksDB. Also check out earlier MakeUseOf article on The Best 6 Sites to Get Free Ebooks.
Global Warming! Global Warming! (It's coming for Al Gore! Run Al, run!)
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/hightides/
Mysteriously High Tides on East Coast Perplex Scientists
By Alexis Madrigal Email Author July 30, 2009 12:56 pm
From Maine to Florida, the Atlantic seaboard has experienced higher tides than expected this summer. At their peak in mid-June, the tides at some locations outstripped predictions by two feet.
The change has come too fast to be attributed to melting ice sheets or anything quite that dramatic, and it’s a puzzle for scientists who’ve never seen anything quite like it.
… The unexpected tidal surge is subsiding, has reduced its reach from the entire coast, and is now concentrated just in the mid-Atlantic states.
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