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Submission + - Computer Scientists Ask Supreme Court to Rule APIs Canâ(TM)t Be Copyrighted (eff.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The EFF representing a coalition of computer scientists filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court yesterday in favor of a ruling that APIs can't be copyrighted. The names backing the brief include Bjarne Stroustrop, Ken Thompson, Guido van Rossum, and many other luminaries. "The brief explains that the freedom to re-implement and extend existing APIs has been the key to competition and progress in both hardware and software development. It made possible the emergence and success of many robust industries we now take for granted—for example, mainframes, PCs, and workstations/servers—by ensuring that competitors could challenge established players and advance the state of the art. The litigation began several years ago when Oracle sued Google over its use of Java APIs in the Android OS. Google wrote its own implementation of the Java APIs, but, in order to allow developers to write their own programs for Android, Google's implementation used the same names, organization, and functionality as the Java APIs."

Submission + - Shady car dealers install secret GPS trackers. 1

Submitted by FarnsworthG
FarnsworthG writes: A news story about the capture of a kidnapper mentioned that he was caught because a car dealer had secretly installed a GPS device on his car. Apparently this is becoming common for "buy-here-pay-here" dealers. The devices are sold by Spireon and Jalopnik among many others. Raises interesting privacy questions.

Submission + - EFF Hints at Lawsuit Against Verizon For Its Stealth Cookies (dslreports.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A few weeks ago I noted how security researchers had discovered that Verizon has been injecting a unique new "stealth cookie" identifier into all user traffic that tracks user online behavior, even if the consumer opts out. Using a unique Identifier Header, or UIDH, Verizon's ham-fisted system broadcasts your identity all across the web — and remains intact and open to third-party abuse — even if you opt-out of Verizon's behavioral ad programs.

Now the Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a complaint with the FCC and has strongly indicated that they're considering legal action against Verizon for violating consumer privacy laws

Submission + - Computer scientists say meme research doesn't threaten free speech (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: In a letter to lawmakers Tuesday, five of the nation's top computing research organizations defended a research grant to study how information goes viral. The groups were responding to claims that the government-funded effort could help create a 1984-type surveillance state. The controversy arises over a nearly $1 million research grant to researchers at Indiana University (IU) to investigate "why some ideas cause viral explosions while others are quickly forgotten," particularly on Twitter. The groups, which include Computing Research Association, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, Association for Computing Machinery, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and USENIX Association, all countered the claims by U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who heads the science committee, that the effort, known as Truthy, attacks free speech. "We do not believe this work represents a threat to free speech or a suppression of any type of speech over the internet," the letter said. "The tools developed in the course of this research are capable of making no political judgments, no prognostications, and no editorial comments, nor do they provide any capability for exerting any control over the Twitter stream they analyze," the wrote. The controversy over Truthy may be just another sign of the ongoing deterioration between the science community and lawmakers over basic research funding as well as the science itself.

Submission + - How the Giza Pyramids Looked When They Were First Built (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by Taffykay
Taffykay writes: The crumbling stones of the Giza pyramids may be a sight familiar to most people, but the original look of these ancient structures was considerably different. In a recent short documentary made by the Smithsonian Channel Harvard University, Egyptologist Jacquelyn Williamson explains the way each of the stones was manually polished to create glistening outer shells of the famous pyramids.

Submission + - Demacrocy, Free Speech; and Beta Slashdot considered Harmful. (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As a non-Beowulf cluster of Anonami, we humbly beg for the attentions of our Robotic Soviet Corporate overlords in the small matter of the Beta Slashdot debacle. As a member of the tin-foil hat wearing Anonamouses, we are trying to keep the size of our digital footprint at low as possible, but instead of being heralded and regaled as the pinnacle of digital evolution, we are instead accursed 25% of the time with BETA SLASHDOT.

Submission + - Dangerous Vulnerability Fixed in Wget

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: A critical flaw has been found and patched in the open source Wget file retrieval utility that is widely used on UNIX systems. The vulnerability is publicly identified as CVE-2014-4877. "It was found that wget was susceptible to a symlink attack which could create arbitrary files, directories or symbolic links and set their permissions when retrieving a directory recursively through FTP," developer Vasyl Kaigorodov writes in Red Hat Bugzilla. A malicious FTP server can stomp over your entire filesystem, tweets HD Moore, chief research officer at Rapid 7, who is the original reporter of the bug.

Submission + - Italian Supreme Court Bans the 'Microsoft Tax' (fsf.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In a post at the Free Software Foundation, lawyer Marco Ciurcina reports that the Italian Supreme Court has ruled that the practice of forcing users to pay for a Windows license when they buy a new PC is illegal. Manufacturers in Italy are now legally obligated to refund that money if a buyer wants to put GNU/Linux or another free OS on the computer. Ciurcina says, "The focus of the Court's reasoning is that the sale of a PC with software preinstalled is not like the sale of a car with its components (the 4 wheels, the engine, etc.) that therefore are sold jointly. Buying a computer with preinstalled software, the user is required to conclude two different contracts: the first, when he buys the computer; the second, when he turns on the computer for the first time and he is required to accept or not the license terms of the preinstalled software.9 Therefore, if the user does not accept the software license, he has the right to keep the computer and install free software without having to pay the 'Microsoft tax.'"

Submission + - Tech Support Scammers Shutdown Thanks to FTC (ftc.gov)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From the FTC press release:
At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a federal court has shut down a company that scammed computer users by tricking them into paying hundreds of dollars for technical support services they did not need, as well as software that was otherwise available for free.
According to the FTC’s complaint and other court documents filed by the agency, Pairsys, Inc., cold-called consumers masquerading as representatives of Microsoft or Facebook, and also purchased deceptive ads online that led consumers to believe they were calling the technical support line for legitimate companies.

Submission + - Computer users who damage national security could face jail (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Government plans that mean computer users deemed to have damaged national security, the economy or the environment will face a life sentence have been criticised by experts who warn that the new law could be used to target legitimate whistleblowers.

The proposed legislation would mean that any British person deemed to have carried out an unauthorised act on a computer that resulted in damage to human welfare, the environment, the economy or national security in any country would face a possible life sentence.

Last week the Joint Committee on Human Rights raised concerns about the proposals and the scope of such legislation.

Submission + - Block Google and Facebook to improve Firefox privacy (leaseweblabs.com)

Submitted by Maurits van der Schee
Maurits van der Schee writes: By using “free analytics”, “like buttons”, “JavaScript-driven ad engines” and “web-shop tracking” many, if not most, websites are sharing sensitive information about their visitors with third parties. You may want to rely on Firefox's Do Not Track (DNT) feature, but this does not actually block tracking. If you really want to protect your privacy you should take matters in your own hands and actively block Google and Facebook. A tool like AdBlock Plus can do that if you configure it correct. This article explains exactly how to do that. As a bonus your pages are also loading faster.

Submission + - FBI: backdoors in software may need to be mandatory (nytimes.com)

Submitted by wabrandsma
wabrandsma writes: The New York Times:

The director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, said on Thursday that the "post-Snowden pendulum" that has driven Apple and Google to offer fully encrypted cellphones had "gone too far." He hinted that as a result, the administration might seek regulations and laws forcing companies to create a way for the government to unlock the photos, emails and contacts stored on the phones.

But Mr. Comey appeared to have few answers for critics who have argued that any portal created for the F.B.I. and the police could be exploited by the National Security Agency, or even Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies or criminals. And his position seemed to put him at odds with a White House advisory committee that recommended against any effort to weaken commercial encryption.

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