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Submission + - Wal-Mart scams Millions with gift cards. (rightanglebuilders.com) 1

Submitted by
Nathan Wiering
Nathan Wiering writes: "Wal-Mart Scams millions. By: Nathan Wiering. Every year after Christmas thousands of shoppers return to the store to return items but this is not the only reason people return to the stores. There are also many people that go to the stores to purchase something with the gift card they received for Christmas. Today Wal-Mart's Gift card system went down in the early morning hours. I called around trying to get the exact time, but I was told they didn't know exactly when the system had gone down only that it had been down all day nation-wide. Customers that came shopping at Wal-Mart with their gift cards weren't able to use the cards. Instead they had to either use another payment method or leave without the items that had just spent valuable time gathering. A majority of the people simply paid by another method, because they didn't want to spend all the time shopping a second time, figuring they would use the gift card for some other products. When I called around I also asked when the system was expected to be back up. I was told they didn't know when the system would be back up. On the Wal-Mart website there was no mention of the outage which seems strange because the system went down nation-wide. Is this just bad timing for all the people shopping with their gift cards on the day when the most gift cards are used, or is it a well planned scam made to earn Wal-Mart millions. I can't say for certain, but the facts point to a well planned scam. Whether a scam or not, this could possibly double Wal-Mart's after Christmas gift-card sales."
Censorship

Submission + - Pirate Bay Sue Media Defender

Submitted by Ragein
Ragein writes: The Register is reporting that Pirate bay has sued Media Defender claiming they engaged in infrastructural sabotage, denial of service attacks, hacking, and spamming. This suit follows the recent leakage of internal emails from Media Defender [ars technica]
Enlightenment

Submission + - Bow down to the gods of Wikipedia (yuniti.com)

Submitted by
mateuscb
mateuscb writes: "Here is an example of a good thing gone bad. Wikipedia, the encyclopedia by the people seems to have lost site of its purpose. Too much power given to certain people and now they think they can judge everyone. This basically documents a user trying to get an article published and being faced with discrimination and illogical behavior;"
Microsoft

Submission + - Possible error in Slashdot story 1

Submitted by
Futurepower(R)
Futurepower(R) writes: "The story copied below at the bottom may be in error. It is possible that I may have visited the Windows Update web site on the date and time in question, where the files could have been copied as part of the update process. When I submitted the story, I made a mistake about the time; it was PM, not AM. Some people are reporting that the files are installed as a part of a visit to Windows Update, and not in a hidden way.

See http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=296677&cid=20587273

There is an issue of Microsoft breaking applications with updates. See http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=296677&cid=20589299

It is interesting that the files in question bear a creation date and time that is the same as the date and time of their installation, showing that the files were generated specifically for that computer:

Directory of c:\Winnt\System32\SoftwareDistribution\Setup\ServiceStartup

08/27/2007 03:38 PM <DIR> wups.dll
08/27/2007 03:38 PM <DIR> wups2.dll
It would be interesting if someone would investigate further and verify the facts.

_____________________________

Your Rights Online: Microsoft Installs New Software Without Permission
Posted by kdawson on 06:20 AM — Thursday September 13 2007
from the slipperiest-of-slopes dept. [ Microsoft ]

Futurepower(R) writes "Even though I have Automatic Updates turned off, on August 28, 2007, between 3:49 and 3:51 AM PDT, Microsoft installed new files on my Windows XP computer." Nine files are updated on Vista and on XP SP1, a different set of on each, relating to Windows Update itself. Microsoft-watch.com's Joe Wilcox and ZDnet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes confirm the stealth update.

_____________________________"
The Internet

Submission + - Porn industry bands together against Bittorrent 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Acording P2P Blog to AVN: It's been a well-know fact that a lot of the content swapped on P2P networks is porn. Even so, adult entertainment companies have been on the sideline of the fight against P2P piracy, leaving the mass lawsuit campaigns to their colleagues from the music industry and relying on mainstream Hollywood for anti-piracy lobbying. Five companies nevertheless decided to go forward and form a lose alliance with the goal of eventually establishing an industry association to initiate anti-piracy lawsuits. More can be found here : http://www.p2p-blog.com/item-361.html and here : http://www.avn.com/index.cfm?objectid=70F9F731-B1E E-818D-931BEAF17B36C7C6&articleid=DD5F351A-D142-61 98-043BDF47539D8467
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - You can not reverse-engineer our GPL-violations... 6

Submitted by
phorm
phorm writes: "If appears that Monsoon Technology, the makers of the Hava media-transmission systems, don't quite understand the GPL. As some users pointed out in their forums, their systems appear to be based on Linux and various GPL'ed software, with the output of "strings" and other tests showing signs of running busybox and others. A monsoon spokesperson on the forum has indicated that they are aware it uses GPL'ed software, and are "working" on making source available, but at the same time are dropping various threats against supposed reverse-engineering of the software by those that determined the GPL violations.

A few snippets from the Monsoon rep include: I have a little secret to let you in on — HAVA runs Linux! Yes, much of the source is GPL and we should publish those sections which we have modified per the terms of GPL. A project is underway to pull this together. A couple of observations — some of you appear to be violating the terms of the End User License Agreement

You recognize and agree that the HAVA Software including its structure, source code and the design and structure of modules or programs, constitute valuable trade secrets owned by Snappymultimedia or its licensors. You will not copy or use the HAVA Software except as expressly permitted by this EULA and, specifically, you will not ...

(b) yourself or through any third party modify, reverse engineer, disassemble or decompile the HAVA Software in whole or part, except to the extent expressly permitted by applicable law, and then only after you have notified Snappymultimedia in writing of your intended activities; Seems to me that some of you have just come out blatantly admitting you are reverse engineering the firmware — or trying to. How should we handle this? As responses have indicated, the methods used to determine the violation do not seem to constitute reverse-engineering. Moreover, the initial friendliness of the rep is severely marred by the apparent hostility of the later message, as forum members have indicated. The overall message seems to be "we have not lived up to our obligations under the license of the software which we are using, but we'll get to it... sometime. Meanwhile, do not attempt to poke around our code yourself or things will get ugly."

The owners of BusyBox have been notified of this violation, however the response is still troubling. Is this the response we should come to expect as more and more commercial software uses and misuses GPL'ed components?"

Privacy

Submission + - Man Arrested for Post on craigslist.com (grupthink.com)

Submitted by
davidthedrake
davidthedrake writes: "Kevin Zimmerman posted his eye-witness account of an arrest by Kalispell police (which occurred on July 28th, 2006) on a Montana craiglist.com site. The official police report stated the prank-pulling kids, whom Zimmerman witnessed, were arrested without incident. Zimmerman's post on craigslist.com painted a different picture saying police:

"...yanked the boy down, twisted him sideways, then grabbed his arm and cuffed him. He then kicked the boy in his leg twice, patted him down then shook the boy really hard." Zimmerman went on further in his post to insult the officers associated with the arrest.

Nearly a year later, police showed up at his door and arrested him for 'criminal defamation.' The police obtained Zimmerman's information by first sending a subpoena to craigslist.com and then sending a subpoena to Zimmerman's ISP."
Spam

Submission + - Spammers E360Inight and Linhard has a bad day

Submitted by
www.sorehands.com
www.sorehands.com writes: "The infamous spammers, e360insight and David Linhardt, had a very bad day in Court today.

The 7th Circuit Court of appeals ruled against Linhardt. The appeals Court vacated, the $11M in damages and the injunction against Spamhaus, but left the default judgment in place. Not a complete win, but significant. Linhardt will have a difficult time on damages where Linhardt in the Spamhaus case said "e360 and I lost ..." but in my case against e360Insight and Linhardt Linhardt said, I personally didn't lose business but suffered those losses in my position as president and director.

Linhardt stuck his tail between his legs and ran in e360Insight and Linhardt v. Ferguson et al.. At the hearing on two of the motions to dismiss and motion for change of venue, Linhardt asked the Court to dismiss the case. Instead of facing the judge and being ordered to pay attorney fees and costs, Linhardt ran."
Privacy

Submission + - News site subpoenaed for linked lynching photo (thonline.com)

Submitted by
James12
James12 writes: "Police have subpoenaed the Telegraph-Herald (a newspaper in Dubuque, IA) to discover who posted a photo (linked from another site) of a black man's lynching in the Telegraph-Herald's website's comments section. The offending photo had been posted 73 times in a seven-minute period, in response to a story about a white man who was stabbed to death by a black man. The newspaper plans to add more safeguards to its comment filtering system; no word on whether it will comply with the subpoena."
Censorship

Submission + - A&P sues brothers over YouTube video 1

Submitted by im_mac
im_mac writes: Supermarket chain A&P has sued two brothers for $1million after they posted a parody entitled "Produce Paradise" on YouTube. The video "prompted at least one complaint by a 'disgusted and distressed' customer who said she will no longer shop at A&P thanks to the 'repulsive acts' in the video. Though how they knew it was A&P is questionable since the brothers took care not to feature any A&P logos or mention it in their lyrics. Trying to get $1million out of a couple of college students whose source of income was working at A&P until they were fired, might be rather difficult. More info is also posted on the pair's website: FakeLaugh, including their belief that the complaint that brought the video to the management's attention was prompted by some sort of personal vendetta.
Quickies

Submission + - at&t's Class Arbitra. Waiver Ruled Unconsciona (consumerist.com)

Submitted by
Tech.Luver
Tech.Luver writes: "Consumerist reports, " Like many many companies, Cingular has a little thing in their contracts saying that if you use their service, you void your right to a class action lawsuit and instead have to go through "mandatory binding arbitration," which is basically an extra-judicial corporate court exempt from many of the basic rules and laws and procedures and rights of real court. Well, today, that clause was ruled "unconscionable" by the 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals. Therefore, lawsuits can proceed against Cingular and go to real court, not monkey court. Hooray! ""
Businesses

Submission + - New ToU @ WotC lets them steal all user content (wizards.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Recently at Wizard of the Coast, the implementation of a new "Gleemax" service required them to update their online Code of Conduct and add a "Wizards.com & Gleemax.com Website Terms of Use" document. In that new document Wizards has claimed ownership of all user submitted content. Due to the nature of the popular forums where "homebrew" content is submitted in massive quantities, this is a horrible decision as it will almost certainly drive away anyone not interested in having their intelluctual works confiscated and sold for profit without so much as a "thank you"

Below is the relevant section of the "Wizards.com & Gleemax.com Website Terms of Use" that lets them steal any User Content that they want.

1. User Content

By posting or submitting any text, images, designs, video, sound, code, data, lists, or other materials or information (such User-submitted content, collectively, "User Content") to or through a Site, including without limitation on any User profile page, you hereby irrevocably grant to Wizards, its affiliates and sublicensees, a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive, and fully sub-licensable license, to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such User Content (in whole or in part) in any media and to incorporate the User Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed. The foregoing grants shall include the right to exploit any proprietary rights in such User Content, including but not limited to rights under copyright, trademark, service mark or patent laws under any relevant jurisdiction.
Security

Submission + - Fast-Moving Web Threat Spreads Around The World

Submitted by Adam
Adam writes: HNS has a story about an accelerating infection in Italy of seemingly legitimate web pages loaded with malicious code that could plant a keylogger to steal user passwords, or turn computers into proxy servers for various other attacks. Tens of thousands of users worldwide have already accessed compromised URLs, oblivious to the threat as a result of their natural web surfing activity. The initial HTML malware takes advantage of a vulnerability in so-called "iFrames" that are commonly used on websites and commonly exploited.

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