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Submission + - AOL: Screw our Creative Commons Licensing, we will sue for using our data! (wired.com) 1

Submitted by realized
realized writes: AOL has licensed its CrunchBase data under a free Creative Commons license. But once a startup decided to use the CrunchBase AOL threatened to sue them. Startup "Pro Populi" launched apps for apps for Google Glass and the iPhone that uses the CrunchBase database in its entirety. CrunchBase database has been published continuously under the Creative Commons CC-BY attribution license, which permits any use.

However, AOL seems to be upset that people are using their data. Quoted letter from AOL lawyers to the startup:

On the chance that you may have misinterpreted Matt’s willingness to discuss the matter with you last week, and our reference to this as a ‘request,’ let me make clear, in more formal language, that we demand that People+ immediately cease and desist from its current violation and infringement of AOL’s/TechCrunch’s proprietary rights and other rights to CrunchBase, by removing the CrunchBase content from your People+ product and by ceasing any other use of CrunchBase-provided content

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is representing the startup, sent AOL a letter Monday saying “People+ has the right to continue using the material that People+ has gathered to date.

Submission + - Obamacare enrollee's get interesting response from TS of healthcare.gov (gop.gov)

Submitted by realized
realized writes: The House Republicans YouTube account released a video Wednesday featuring excerpts from conversations between a would-be Obamacare enrollee and a customer service representative that’s almost too bizarre to believe actually took place.

Customer: Clicking ‘Save and Continue’ does not allow me to move forward
Obamacare rep: Don’t lose your sanity over this website. Try it. If it doesn’t work, walk away. Try it tomorrow,” the representative wrote back

Customer: I had the login problems for the first 11 days
Obamacare: Imagine you are stuck in this site’s rush hour traffic. You still exist. You just aren’t going anywhere

Customer: You have no way to assist those that ask for help?
Obamacare: Don’t run with scissors

and here is a text copy of the transcripts

is this a joke?

Submission + - Experian sold social security numbers to ID Theft Service

Submitted by realized
realized writes: Experian — one of the three national US credit bureaus — reportedly sold SSNs through its subsidiary, Court Ventures, to the operators of SuperGet.info who then offered all of the information online for a price. The website would advertise having "99% to 100% of all USA" in their database on websites frequented by carders.

Hieu Minh Ngo, the website owner, has recently been charged with 15-count indictment filed under seal in November 2012, charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, substantive wire fraud, conspiracy to commit identity fraud, substantive identity fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit access device fraud, and substantive access device fraud.

Submission + - Healthcare.gov Website Violates Open Source Licensing Agreement (weeklystandard.com)

Submitted by PoliTech
PoliTech writes:

The latest indication of the haphazard way in which Healthcare.gov was developed is the uncredited use of a copyrighted web script for a data function used by the site, a violation of the licensing agreement for the software.

The script in question is called DataTables, a very long and complex piece of website software used for formatting and presenting data. DataTables was developed by a British company called SpryMedia which licenses the open-source software freely to anyone who complies with the licensing agreement.

... a cursory comparison of the two scripts removes any doubt that the source for the script used at Healthcare.gov is indeed the SpryMedia script. The Healthcare.gov version even retained easily identifiable comments by the script's author ...

Submission + - Obama: thank you Mitch McConnell - here is $2million for your hometown DAM 1

Submitted by realized
realized writes: The bill that ended the government shutdown and forestalled a debt crisis Wednesday night had at its core what the country expected: it funded the government and averted default. But that was not all.

In exchange for raising the debt limit, Mitch McConnell also got 2.1 billion in extra funding for his hometown dam project.

Though Mitch secured 2.1 billion for helping Obamacare and rising the limit, others also benefited though not as much. $450 million in Colorado flood relief and $600 million to fight forest fires was also passed as part of the bill.

Submission + - PiracyData Reports Most-Pirated Films Are Unavailable otherwise

Submitted by realized
realized writes: A new website PiracyData.org (managed by Mercatus Center at George Washington University) shows real time examples of why most people may be pirating movies... Because they can’t get the movies legally...

The website gathers data on the top pirated movies and checks to see if the movies are available to either stream, rent digitally, or digitally purchase.

On its current top 10 list of most pirated movies – none are available to stream legally, and only three are available to rent digitally.

The only options left are to Purchase digitally (only available for 6 of the movies) or... pirate.

Submission + - 35,000 vbulletin sites have already been hacked via exploit released last week

Submitted by realized
realized writes: Last week slashdot covered the Dangerous VBulletin Exploit In the Wild. Apparently hackers have been busy since then because according to security firm Imperva, more than 35,000 sites were recently hacked via this vulnerability. The sad part about this is that it could have all been avoided if the administrator of the websites just removed the “/install” and/or “/core/install” folders – something that you would think the installer should do on its own.

Submission + - Irish government close Apple's tax loophole (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: Ireland and particularly its tax system came under some extreme scrutiny earlier this year when it was revealed that Apple funnelled billions of dollars of revenue though three subsidiaries based on the island. Thanks to a loophole none of these subsidiaries were tax-resident in Ireland, meaning they didn't even have to pay Ireland's relatively low 12.5% corporation tax rate. Worryingly for Apple, Ireland's finance minister has just shut this loophole.

Submission + - Lavabit Briefly Allowing Users To Recover Their Data (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Former users of the Lavabit encrypted email service that was shut down in August have 72 hours (starting yesterday at 7 p.m. U.S. Central Time) to change their passwords and start recovering their data. 'Following the 72 hour period, Thursday, October 17th, the website will then allow users to access email archives and their personal account data so that it may be preserved by the user,' said Lavabit's founder and owner Ladar Levison.

Submission + - British Police Foil Kenyan Mall Massacre Copycat Plot (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Washington Post reports, "British law enforcement agencies averted a plot to orchestrate a large-scale terror attack similar to the assault on Kenya’s Westgate mall, an official said Monday. Police were questioning four men in their 20s on suspicion of terrorism after they were detained Sunday in pre-planned, intelligence-led raids. A British security official said the men were planning a shooting spree akin to the Westgate attack in Nairobi, in which at least 67 people died. ... in a series of statements, the force said the men were all British nationals between the ages of 25 and 29, with roots in Turkey, Pakistan, Algeria and Azerbaijan. ... the London police firearms unit took part in the arrests. British police rarely carry weapons and their involvement suggested concern that men might have been armed." — The Sydney Morning Herald has video. Prime Minister Cameron recently expressed concern regarding such a possibility.

Submission + - Obamacare's Healthcare.gov hidden terms says user has absolutely no privacy (weeklystandard.com)

Submitted by realized
realized writes: The ObamaCare website, Healthcare.gov has a hidden terms of service that is not shown to people when the sign up. The hidden terms, only viewable if you “view source” on the site says that the user has “no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding any communication or data transiting or stored on this information system”. Sadly, the $634 million dollar website still does not work for most people so its hard to confirm – though when its fixed in 2 months, we should finally be able to see it.

Submission + - "Western Express" credit-card fraud prosecution ends with jail sentences

Submitted by realized
realized writes: Involved in a ring that is responsible of trafficking more than 95,000 stolen credit cards and stealing more then $5 Million dollars, the last three people involved in "Western Express" were finally sentenced today.

EGOR SHEVELEV, a/k/a “Eskalibur” a/k/a "Esk,” 27 sentenced to 13 1/3-to-40 years in state prison
DOUGLAS LATTA, a/k/a “Realbusy,” 40 sentenced to 22-to-44 years in state prison
NNA CIANO, a/k/a “Angela Perez,” 41 sentenced to 19 2/3-to-47 years in state prison

You can read the opinion of the court of an earlier trial regarding the corporation behind the whole thing, "Western Express International" and its owner, VADIM VASSILENKO.

Submission + - Apple being sued over Passbook (venturebeat.com)

Submitted by realized
realized writes: Apple is currently being sued over four patents when it comes to passbook. The first two are in regards to "Information management and synchronous communications system with menu generation", and the second two titled "Information management and synchronous communications system with menu generation, and handwriting and voice modification of orders"

The company doing the suing is called Ameranth, a company that both Microsoft and Motorola have given strategic investments to.

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