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Media

Submission + - BBC bans all phone in competitions

Submitted by kooky45
kooky45 writes: The BBC has been caught cheating viewers out of thousands of pounds by faking phone-in competitions across a wide variety of its programs, including flagship charity events like Children in Need. In response they have banned all phone in competitions on their TV and radio channels, and will be pulling competitions from online services very soon. This latest embarrassment follows last week when the BBC was fined £50,000 for faking another phone-in on Blue Peter, their most popular children's show. This is just the most public revelation in a scandal that is going to get bigger in TV media.
The Courts

Submission + - Revote likey because Diebold recount impossible

Submitted by Aidtopia
Aidtopia writes: A judge in Berkeley, California, has ordered a re-vote in a 2004 medical marijuana measure which had lost by fewer than 200 votes. A group supporting the measure requested a recount, which was meaningless since the Diebold electronic voting machines didn't produce physical ballots. The group petitioned for audit logs and other supporting documentation. The Registrar initially gave them the run-around, and, with a lawsuit pending, shipped the machines back to the manufacturer where 96% of the stored votes were erased. The ruling is tentative. The revote, if it happens, will be in the 2008 general election, using different electronic voting machines that produce a paper trail.
Software

Submission + - Open Standards Threatened in Europe (lwn.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From Open Standards: 'On June 29 2007, the European Commission agency IDABC published a document revising the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) and the Architecture Guidelines (AG). This second version wants to 'update' the previous version of the EIF but, contrary to the first version, it threatens explictely the good process of more open standards that had been a long time push of IDABC. "EIF v2.0 should facilitate the most profitable business model(s) of cost versus public value, under proper recognition of intellectual property rights, if any. The support for multiple standards allows a migration towards open standards when appropriate in the long run." There are unacceptable drawbacks from the previous "EIF 2004" that promoted the use of open standards as defined in this European definition, the use of free and open source softwares as well as XML.'

Who also reads 'Microsoft and OOXML out again to find some weak spot' between the lines? Help signing the campaign and sending complaining emails in the request for comments.
The Courts

Submission + - Army Sergeant in Tennessee Sues RIAA

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "A 33-year old Army Sergeant stationed at Fort Campbell, in Tennessee, has counterclaimed against the record company palintiffs, in Warner v. Paternoster. His counterclaim seeks forfeiture of the plaintiffs' copyrights, and other relief, against Warner, BMG, Arista, Virgin,, and UMG, based on his claim (pdf) that they had colluded together in violation of the antitrust laws, had deliberately padded their court filing with embarrassing material in order to "shame" the defendant into paying a settlement for actions he did not commit, and "conspired together on other activities ...including: (1) bringing, without investigation sufficient to establish that the allegations ... have evidentiary support, lawsuits against persons who are not specifically known to have infringed copyrights, including persons who are deceased, disabled or who lack knowledge of how to use computers or download files from the internet; (2) making false and unsupported allegations ... by making the unwarranted and technologically erroneous assumption that an Internet Protocol address is a unique identifier of a computer or an individual; (3) using a corporation as their agent to make extortionate threats to take criminal action and to defame defendants' names and credit, in order to force defendants to pay sums which have no relation to plaintiffs' actual damages, if any, and by delivering releases to settling defendants (few of whom are represented by counsel) which are fraudulent in that they do not constitute true releases of all claims by putative plaintiffs, thereby misleading settling defendants into erroneously believing that they cannot be sued again; (4) jointly agreeing upon exorbitant settlement amounts which are nonnegotiable and are arbitrarily increased at set intervals thereby depriving the defendants in these actions of any reasonable opportunity to negotiate a settlement; (5) commencing ex parte "John Doe" lawsuits which they have no intention of pursuing, but by means of which they are able to communicate with District Judges, Magistrate Judges, and other judicial officials on a daily basis, without providing defendants with notice or opportunity to be heard, in violation of attorneys' ethical obligations as officers of the Courts; (6) invading the privacy of these "John Doe" defendants by then serving subpoenas on Internet Service Providers without notice to the putative defendants; (7)withdrawing such actions upon being challenged and thereby preventing defendants from obtaining relief for having to defend them; and (8) engaging in other unconscionable conduct.....[They] have commenced tens of thousands of actions in the District Courts of the United States in the past five years, the overwhelming majority of which have resulted either in default judgments or extortionate settlements far in excess of any actual damages incurred by Counter-Defendants... Such actions represent an attempt by Counter-Defendants to secure for themselves rights far exceeding those provided by copyright laws....""
Google

Submission + - Google Should NOT Protect Copyright Thieves 3

Submitted by DKC
DKC writes: Plagiarism and copyright infringement have always been a problem for writers all over the world. The Internet only made it easier, and more profitable. Unfortunately, Blogspot and Google are not only aware of this problem, they seem to be throwing obstacles in the path of those who seek justice. Why can't they think about protecting the real authors, instead of their bloggers? Where's the corporate responsibility and leadership we have come to expect from Google? Are we supposed to sit still and watch these thieves take credit and payment for our hard work?
Privacy

FBI Remotely Installs Spyware to Trace Bomb Threat 325

Posted by CmdrTaco from the hey-wait-a-minute dept.
cnet-declan writes "There have been rumors for years about the FBI remotely installing spyware via e-mail or by exploiting an operating system vulnerability from afar — and now there's confirmation. Last month, the FBI obtained a federal court order to remotely install spyware called CIPAV (Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier) to find out who was behind a MySpace account linked to bomb threats sent to a high school near Olympia, Wash. News.com has posted a PDF of the FBI affidavit, which makes for interesting reading, and a summary of the CIPAV results that the FBI submitted to a magistrate judge. It seems as though CIPAV was installed via e-mail, as an article back in 2004 hinted was the case. In addition to reporting the computer's IP address, MAC address, and registry information, it also gave the FBI updates on which IP addresses the user(s) visited. But how did the FBI get the spyware activated and past anti-virus defenses? Two obvious ways are for the Feds to find and exploit their own operating system backdoors, or to compromise security vendors..."
Censorship

Submission + - Save Net Radio (savenetradio.org)

Submitted by
Peter
Peter writes: "Many internet radio stations may have to shut down for good if something is not done soon. In light of this threat, many internet radio stations are airing a day of silence today. Participaing sites include Yahoo!, Pandora, MTV, Rhapsody,and Live 365 among many many others. If you enjoy internet radio Contact your Senators and Representatives!!!"
Microsoft

Google Calls For More Limits On Microsoft 270

Posted by kdawson from the keeping-watch-a-while-longer dept.
teh_commodore writes "Scientific American is reporting that Google is now asking a Federal judge to extend the government's anti-trust oversight of Microsoft, specifically with regard to desktop search software. Microsoft had already agreed to modify Vista to allow rival desktop search engines, but Google says that this remedy will come too late — specifically, after (most of) the anti-trust agreement expires in November. What makes this political maneuver interesting is that Google went over the heads of the Department of Justice and US state regulators, who had found Microsoft's compromise acceptable, to appeal directly to the Federal judge overseeing the anti-trust settlement." Update: 06/26 17:20 GMT by KD : The judge is unwilling to play along with Google; she said she will likely defer to an agreement on desktop search forged between Microsoft and the plaintiffs in the case: i.e. Justice and the states.
The Courts

RIAA, Safenet Sued For Malicious Prosecution 337

Posted by kdawson from the what-goes-around dept.
DaveAtFraud writes "Tanya Anderson, the single mother from Oregon previously sued by the RIAA — which dropped the case just before losing a summary judgement — is now suing the RIAA and their hired snoop Safenet for malicious prosecution. (Safenet was formerly known as MediaSentry.) Anderson is asserting claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. A reader at Groklaw has already picked up that she is seeking to have the RIAA forfeit the copyrights in question as part of the settlement (search the page for '18.6-7')."
Censorship

Submission + - Supreme Court rules against free speech

Submitted by
palewook
palewook writes: "The Bong Hits 4 Jesus kid lost 5-4 in the Supreme Court decision. Chief Justice Roberts summary, "A principal may, consistent with the First Amendment, restrict student speech at a school event, when that speech is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use." While Justice Breyer dissented and warned, "One concern is that, while the holding is theoretically limited to speech promoting the use of illegal drugs, it could in fact authorize further viewpoint-based restrictions.""
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA Sued for Malicious Prosecution

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Tanya Andersen, the disabled single mother in Oregon who had been defending herself against baseless copyright infringement allegations by the RIAA for almost two years, until the RIAA finally dropped its case against her, has filed a lawsuit for malicious prosecution, Andersen v. Atlantic. Included as defendants in the complaint (pdf), in addition to the record companies, are the RIAA itself, Safenet (which owns MediaSentry), and Settlement Support Center LLC."
Censorship

Citizen Journalism Combating Chinese Censorship 86

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the civil-disobedience dept.
teh_commodore writes to tell us that Breitbart has a look at how Citizen Journalism is shining a whole new light on China. "Recognizing the threat of China's growing online community, Chinese President Hu Jintao called in January for the Internet to be 'purified', and the government has since launched a number of online crackdowns. [...] 'One cannot truly say that the Internet in China is becoming more and more free, because at the same time as the development of citizen journalists, the government finds ways of blocking or censoring content,' Pain said."
Privacy

Submission + - Protect Privacy Online Using Secret Identity (akacard.com)

Submitted by
techna
techna writes: "A new credit card is in the works that offers users an alternative identity, including name, address, credit card number, CVV and exp date to protect their privacy online. Several racy uses have been suggested for the card but generally it's best for avoiding new account fraud- the bad kind where the carders take your name, SSN, bday and start a new life in FL. The card is launched but under the radar for now. There are a few blogs on it and a few articles on the website too. http://www.akacard.com/"
Privacy

Submission + - iPhone and AT&T - It's the devil's bargain (wordpress.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Scholars & Rogues has posted an interesting argument against buying the new iPhone, not on it's lack of support for open standards but rather because "...that means for the next two years or so, your bills are going to support a company that is turning over your calling records to the government without your knowledge or consent. AT&T also provided extensive assistance to the NSA in developing and facilitating its massive illegal wiretapping initiative, which violates everything from FISA to the Constitution."
Google

Thailand Sues YouTube 435

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the let's-all-take-off-our-left-shoe dept.
eldavojohn writes "Thailand is hitting YouTube with charges of lese majeste (up to 15 years in prison) regarding the recent videos on YouTube showing the king next to feet, something extremely offensive in Thailand. 'Since the first clip, more new videos mocking the king have appeared on YouTube, including pictures of the monarch that had been digitally altered to make him resemble a monkey. Thailand's 79-year-old king, almost universally adored by Thais, is the world's longest-reigning monarch, and one of the few who is still protected by tough laws that prohibit any insult against the royal family.'"

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