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Submission + - Twitter joke bomber loses appeal (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by Barence
Barence writes: The man who jokingly threatened to blow up a British airport on Twitter has lost the appeal against his conviction. Paul Chambers was fined by Doncaster magistrates in May after being found guilty of sending "a message that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character". Chambers was arrested in January after venting his frustration at a cancelled flight. "Robin Hood airport is closed," he tweeted. "You've got a week and a bit to get your s**t together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!" The appeal judge told Chambers: "Anyone living in this country in the present climate of terrorist threats, especially at airports, could not be unaware of the possible consequences [of their actions]".

Submission + - Twitter Joke Trial Appeal Rejected (blorge.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Paul Chambers has failed in an appeal to overturn his conviction for tweeting "Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!" The British court ruled that the post was "clearly menacing" and rejected Chamber's claim that he did not realise his words could be taken seriously.
The Internet

Submission + - UK ISPs Granted Judicial Review of Anti-Piracy Act (ispreview.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Mark.JUK
Mark.JUK writes: Two of the United Kingdom's largest internet service providers (ISP), BT and TalkTalk, which account for approximately 10 Million of the country's broadband users, have today won a critical Judicial Review of the controversially rushed UK Digital Economy Act 2010 (DEA). The Act seeks to identify those "suspected" of unlawful ("illegal") copyright P2P File Sharing to Rights Holders for legal action and could lead to the blocking of legitimate websites, connection speed restrictions, limits on public/open Wi-Fi usage or even account disconnection from your ISP.

However under UK law a Judicial Review is no guarantee that any changes will be made. It would force a significant part of the act back for debate and amendment, though this could just as easily make the situation worse instead of better because many of those who voted in favour are still present. The court agreed that the act had not be given enough debate.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Adds Always-On HTTPS Option to Hotmail (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Three weeks after researchers unveiled a plugin that allows Firefox Web browser users to snoop on the Webmail and social networking sessions of those around them, Microsoft has announced an option that will allow users of its Hotmail Web e-mail program to browse securely.

The company said on Tuesday that it was adding full session SSL encryption for Hotmail. Users of that service can enable HTTPS for their messages, calendar and contacts using a Web based interface. Microsoft had previously used SSL encryption only to secure connections at login, and first announced that it would deliver full session encryption in late September.

Related Web based services, including SkyDrive, Photos, Docs and Devices will all use SSL automatically from now on, according to the post on the Windows Team Blog, which was attributed to Dick Craddock, Group Program Manager for Windows Live Hotmail.

Submission + - Case of abusive treatment by US border gestapo (salon.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Another case of abusive treatment by US border gestapo involving air travel — #acta #coica #dmca #eff #fsf #geek

Submission + - Juilan Assange denied permission to stay in sweden (aftonbladet.se)

Submitted by j1976
j1976 writes: The migration office (Migrationsverket) today decided (link in swedish only, Aftonbladet blocks Google Translate) that Julian Assange will not get permission to live or work in sweden. The office refused to explain the reasons for their decision.
User Journal

Journal Journal: proclus: #ACTA notes - #drm #dmca #coica #music #downloads #technology

Journal by proclus

The latest ACTA text is out. Activists may wish to go straight to Section 5, which deals with digital enforcement and explicitly stipulates that the provisions preserve fundamental principles, such as free speech rights. A caveat would be that these stipulations are not present in the first part of the document, which deals primarily with non-digital property. Section 5 is about the restriction of access to knowledge.

Submission + - US Chamber allegedly funding ads with foreign cash (thinkprogress.org)

Submitted by coyoteworks
coyoteworks writes: Is the "US" (so-called) Chamber of Commerce (henceforth, UCOC) illegally funding political ads with foreign cash? The UCOC is a trade association organized as a 501(c)(6). ThinkProgress, a progressive political action project, claims that the UCOC has "...spearheaded an effort to raise money [for political ad campaigns] from foreign corporations". According to MoveOn, this is illegal, which is why they're asking the DOJ to investigate the UCOC. It seems to me, anyway, that liberals, conservatives, neo-cons, and libertarians should all be horrified at the prospect of voters being influenced by ads paid for by foreign powers.

Submission + - Ig Nobel prize winner wins real Nobel Prize (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Leemeng
Leemeng writes: Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both at Manchester University, UK, took this year's Nobel Prize for Physics for their research on graphene. Geim was one of the recipients of 2000 Ig Nobel Prize in physics, which he earned for magnetically levitating frogs. This makes Geim the first person to have won both the Ig Nobel and the Nobel Prizes.
Privacy

Submission + - Stop the Internet Blacklist (huffingtonpost.com) 1

Submitted by newviewmedia.com
newviewmedia.com writes: As banned books week gets underway, and President Obama admonishes oppressive regimes for their censorship of the Internet, a group of powerful Senators — Republicans and Democrats alike — have signed onto a bill that would vastly expand the government's power to censor the Internet.

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) was introduced just one week ago, but it's greased and ready to move, with a hearing in front of the Judiciary Committee this Thursday. If people don't speak out, US citizens could soon find themselves joining Iranians and Chinese in being blocked from accessing broad chunks of the public Internet.
Government

Obama Wants Broader Internet Wiretap Authority 646

Posted by CmdrTaco from the tap-this-way dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The White House plans to deliver a bill to Congress next year that will require Internet-based communication services that use encryption to be capable of decrypting messages to comply with federal wiretap orders. The bill will go beyond CALEA to apply to services such as Blackberry email. Even though RIM has stated that it does not currently have an ability to decrypt messages via a master key or back door, the bill may require them to. Regarding this development, James Dempsey of the Center for Democracy and Technology commented on the proposal, saying, 'They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function.'"
Politics

Submission + - Pirate Party Candidate Accurately Quoted by Paper (tennessean.com)

Submitted by ZOmegaZ
ZOmegaZ writes: Tennessee has some of the strictest ballot access laws in the nation. Two and a half years after three political parties filed suit, a federal court has ruled that these laws are unconstitutionally restrictive. The Tennessean, Nashville's local paper, ran a front-page article about the subject, including quotes from Stephen Collings. Collings is running for US House in the Tennessee fifth, and is one of the first candidates to be endorsed by the US Pirate Party.

Full disclosure: ZOmegaZ is Stephen Collings.
Australia

Stallman Crashes Talk, Fights 'War On Sharing' 309

Posted by kdawson from the no-problem dept.
schliz writes "Free software activist Richard Stallman has called for the end of the 'war on sharing' at the World Computer Congress in Brisbane, Australia. He criticized surveillance, censorship, restrictive data formats, and software-as-a-service in a keynote presentation, and asserted that digital society had to be 'free' in order to be a benefit, and not an attack. Earlier in the conference, Stallman had briefly interrupted a European Patent Office presentation with a placard that said: 'Don't get caught in software patent thickets.' He told journalists that the Patent Office was 'here to campaign in favor of software patents in Australia,' arguing that 'there's no problem that requires a solution with anything like software patents.'"

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