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United States

Submission + - Bush claims mail can be opened without warrant

Submitted by
don_combatant
don_combatant writes: "President Bush is claiming new powers to search US Mail without a warrant as a result of the postal overhaul bill he signed into law on December 20th.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/ 2003508676_mail04.html

According to white house spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore "In certain circumstances — such as with the proverbial 'ticking bomb' — the Constitution does not require warrants for reasonable searches."

Really? I guess we view warrantless search of US mail "reasonable" now?

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Amendment 4, US Constitution."
Patents

Submission + - Petition against software patents (UK gov site)

Submitted by greenechidna
greenechidna writes: One of the U.K. government websites has a facility to create petitions to the Prime Minister. One of the petitions is "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make software patents clearly unenforcible".
The deadline to sign up by is 20th February 2007. Petitioners must be either a U.K. resident or a british citizen. At the moment, there are 790 petitioners. I know this topic has aroused a fair amount of interest in the past on Slashdot so please add your name to the list if you meet the criteria.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft On The Attack In India

Submitted by
ToyDaVirus
ToyDaVirus writes: "I am from a very small town in India called Siliguri. Most of the people over here use pirated software. Over the past week, Microsoft has been raiding Banks, Cyber Cafes and other small business outfits with its Lawyers and a bunch of cops. They have been slapping people using pirated versions of their OS with a fine of Rs. 5000 (~US $100). Is it time most people who can't afford paid software get changed to Open Source/Free Software. It was releaved that public sector banks also didn't have the genuine liscences for all its computers. The funny part is that these banks use online applications (Core Banking) packages to get their work done. Any version of Linux with Firefox would do that. That makes me think, what organisations look into when they select an OS. And why do they use Pirated Softwares. Microsoft have their work cut out over here as 98% of the software over here is pirated. Now the bigger question is will they come after home users and students."
XBox (Games)

Submission + - Porn found in Madden 07

Submitted by PadRacerExtreme
PadRacerExtreme writes: A 14 year old Utah boy got a surprise gift of porn rather than his copy of Madden 07. It appears to be either an annoyed employee or a mistake at the duplication plant. From the article:
The kid is obviously a very intelligent boy, as on discovering the porn, he was reported as thinking: "This is definitely not Madden."
Space

Submission + - Amazon founder launches innovative new spacecraft

Submitted by root_42
root_42 writes: As the BBC reports the billionaire founder of amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, has released the first images of the launch of a private spacecraft that could bring space travel to the masses. The spacecraft is operated by his company Blue Origin and looks like a soft, cone shape. It is able to perform vertical lift-off and landings. During the first test flight in Texas a height of 285ft were achieved.
Movies

Submission + - The Pirates of Osan, South Korea

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: "The entertainment cartels are going hell for leather after innocent men, women and children, calling then file sharing "thieves". But while they do that, the real criminals, the counterfeit 'pirates,' openly sell bent movie DVDs on the street of Sontang in South Korea. And some of their best customers are American forces on a a near-by US Air Force fighter base. p2pnet has a first-hand account of what's going on there."
Biotech

Submission + - Patent-free interferon produced by UK Researchers

Submitted by vorlich
vorlich writes: The BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6224601.stm has reported that the London School of Pharmacy has produced version of interferon- used to treat hepatitis C — that has the same therapeutic use as commercially patented interferon owned by Roche. Professor Sunil Shaunak is quoted as saying that medical academics can choose either to make large sums of money from their ideas or to provide affordable medicines for the global community.
Security

Submission + - GMail Exploit To Steal Contact List Is Fixed

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "If you're visiting the page and it still give your contact's information, you need to log out of all Google services, and then log back in. Doing so will now result in the error. However the exploit will fail to work despite the fact that you haven't logged out. It was fixed at around 8 EST."
Privacy

Submission + - Cameras Help Cops Capture Cold-blooded Killer

Submitted by CrazedWalrus
CrazedWalrus writes: Philadelphia police recently captured a serial killer using a combination of Homeland Security and private surveillance cameras. Police pieced together relevant video from twelve different cameras, and eventually were able to identify the murderer. Once caught, he confessed to several other murders spanning the past eight years. Without these cameras, this killer would probably be lurking the streets of Philadelphia today. With results like that, is there really a good basis for argument against these cameras?
Linux Business

Submission + - Tamil Nadu (India) may shut door on Microsoft

Submitted by
aprasadh
aprasadh writes: "Government of Tamil Nadu(a state in India) has started initiatives to fully convert their IT systems of all of their departments to OSS based software. A news item appeared recently in Deccan chronicle, an English Daily. A copy of the news item can be retrieved from this link. Mr. Umashankar, managing director of ELCOT(procurement,consulting and training agency for the Government of Tamil Nadu for the procurement and supply of the IT and IT related products) describes us about how he dealt with Microsoft executives and also about the reasons why he has chosen OSS."
Security

Submission + - Spyware found in Adobe Photoshop CS3!

Submitted by
profit42
profit42 writes: "Adobe made the beta version of Photoshop CS3 available on labs.adobe.com. Almost the whole community of photographers downloaded the new version and adopted the new features immediately. One of those new "features" is, according to profit42's article a shocking one: the installer installs, without letting the user know, the Bonjour Service: mDNSResponder. This service is associated with Apple and itunes and sets up a P2P connection without your permission. Removal is possible using Spysweeper or by following the steps described on profit42.com."

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