Vengance Daemon - Slashdot User

Comment It's Downhill from Here (Score 5, Insightful) 241

by Vengance Daemon on Thursday August 21, 2008 @08:58AM (#24688059) Attached to: People On No-Fly List Can Sue In District Court

Our enemy has become, not the Muslim fundamentalists, but the federal government of the United States. We are spending a lot of time and bandwidth talking about and complaining about their actions. There is kind of a resigned tone to many of the comments that I hear and read. The US government has become sort of not "of the people, by the people, and for the people," but more "against the people." The corruption in congress and the White House is not helping at all.

Submission + - No Voting For You, Colorado

Submitted by Vengance Daemon on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @01:08AM

Vengance Daemon writes: The Rocky Mountain News is reporting that the Colorado Secretary of State has announced that "A significant number of electronic voting machines widely used in counties across the state will be banned for the upcoming presidential election because they are unreliable and unsecure..." Machines from Sequoia, Hart Intercivic, and ES&S have been de-certified. Interestingly enough, he has approved all equipment made by Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold). The Denver Post has a few more details.

Submission + - The Video Prince Doesn't Want You to See

Submitted by Awesomely Anonymous on Friday October 26, 2007 @12:24PM

Awesomely Anonymous writes: ABC News reports on what happens when a mother posts a video of her pajama clad dancing child for her friends and family to view. After 28 views, her video is awarded the honor of being taken down at the behest of Universal Music for copyright infringement. The reason: "In the video, the child is seen bouncing and swaying for the camera, as, faintly, the Prince hit "Let's Go Crazy" plays on a CD player in the background." Now this mother from Pennsylvania has issued a counter-notice and filed a civil lawsuit against Universal for abusing the DMCA. In Universal's defense they were acting on behalf of Prince: "Prince believes it is wrong for YouTube, or any user-generated site, to appropriate his music without his consent [...] It's simply a matter of principle."

Submission + - New Attorneys Fee Decision Against RIAA 1

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Saturday September 22, 2007 @08:50PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA has gotten slammed again, this time in Oregon, as the Magistrate Judge in Atlantic v. Andersen has ruled that Tanya Andersen's motion for attorneys fees should be granted. The Magistrate, in his 15-page decision, noted that, despite extensive pretrial discovery proceedings, "when plaintiffs dismissed their claims in June 2007, they apparently had no more material evidence to support their claims than they did when they first contacted defendant in February 2005....." and concluded that "Copyright holders generally, and these plaintiffs specifically, should be deterred from prosecuting infringement claims as plaintiffs did in this case." This is the same case in which (a) the RIAA insisted on interrogating Ms. Andersen's 10-year-old girl at a face-to-face deposition, (b) the defendant filed RICO counterclaims against the record companies, and (c) the defendant has recently converted her RICO case into a class action"

Submission + - 'Opt Out' soon or Verizon will sell your CPNI 1

Submitted by

Rothfuss

on Saturday September 22, 2007 @05:23PM

Rothfuss writes: "I actually opened and read one of the 'Updates to my Customer Agreement Terms and Conditions' that I received from Verizon today. I have no idea why. This one explains that they will be upgrading my service by assuming (unless I tell them otherwise) that I am willing to let them sell my Customer Proprietary Network Information or give it to anyone they choose. Apparently that will help me. However, the FCC won't let them do this without your permission — like, for example *not* calling them and opting out. If you are a Verizon customer and would like to opt out, you can do so by calling 1-800-333-9956. Ask to speak to Mr. Prosser."

Submission + - Extortion, Conspiracy Claims Against RIAA Upheld

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Friday September 21, 2007 @06:25PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "You may recall that back in June a Florida woman counterclaimed against the RIAA for Trespass, Computer Fraud and Abuse, Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices, Civil Extortion, and Civil Conspiracy involving use of unlicensed private investigators without license, unauthorized access to a protected computer system, in interstate commerce, and extortion, in UMG v. Del Cid. She amended her counterclaims in some respects in August, and the RIAA wasted no time moving to dismiss all six of the amended counterclaims. Judge Richard A. Lazzara of the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida has now issued his decision sustaining five of the six counterclaims, dismissing only the counterclaim for copyright misuse claim. Judge Lazzara's decision (pdf) rejected, in its entirety, the RIAA's assertion of the "Noerr Pennington" defense, since it is inapplicable to "sham litigations", and Ms. Del Cid had properly alleged that the RIAA's cases were indeed "sham"."

Submission + - Microsoft activation servers are down

Submitted by anders on Saturday August 25, 2007 @01:50PM

anders writes: On Thursday I decided to rebuild my laptop and (re-)install Vista. I activated and everything was fine until sometime yesterday, when Aero stopped working and dialogs started popping up telling me I am the victim of counterfeiting. Since my copy of Vista if perfectly legit, I did a bit of googling and it turns out that Microsoft is the victim of server downtime: the WGA/activation servers are down: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/25/microsoft_wga _server.html

Submission + - SeattlePostIntelligencer stands up to FBI (wordpress.com)

Submitted by tekel on Friday August 24, 2007 @07:22PM

tekel writes: This post at RawStory caught my eye:

The alert issued by FBI agents in Seattle on Monday called for the public's help in identifying photographs of two Middle Eastern-looking men who had been reported travelling on ferries exhibiting "unusual behavior."
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer refused to run the photos, explaining:

"We have no confirmation that these men's behavior was anything but innocuous, and to forever taint them by associating them with terrorism under these circumstances is not consistent with our policy," the paper said.
Not consistent with the newspaper's policy, or, you know, the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press from government interference and equal protection under the law for everyone in the United States.

The rest of my amateur legal analysis here.

Submission + - Google Search Slowed Down by Vista

Submitted by Vengance Daemon on Saturday June 09, 2007 @05:30PM

Vengance Daemon writes: The United States Justice Department has rejected an antitrust claim made by Google. A New York Times Article states that "...Google has accused Microsoft of designing its latest operating system, Vista, to discourage the use of Google's desktop search program." It then adds that a Justice Department "memo dismissing Google's claims, sent to state attorneys general around the nation, alarmed many of them...Some state officials said they believed that Google's complaint had merit...[and] the memo appears to have backfired. Prosecutors from several states said they intended to pursue the Google accusations with or without the federal government. In response, federal prosecutors are now discussing with the states whether the Justice Department will join them in pursuing the Google complaint." What an odd place to work the Justice Department must be these days.

Submission + - Simple alternative to PGP

Submitted by

gardenermike

on Friday May 25, 2007 @02:04PM

gardenermike writes: "Ever tried to get a non-technical friend to set up PGP? How about all of them? Recently, we decided to come up with a free service that would enable people to easily communicate securely without needing an infrastructure. We were inspired particularly by recent privacy concerns in the US, and continuing problems in nations like China. The result is xchangey. It is a free service that will encrypt any message in Rijndael (AES) 256-bit encryption using JavaScript and store the encrypted text, allowing secure end-to-end transmission of data. It is sessionless and plays well with Tor. It's great for either passwords or your plans to bring democracy to North Korea.
xchangey is willing to pay $100 to the first person who can crack the encryption.
Use it while it's still legal!"

Submission + - Stupidest DMCA Threat Ever

Submitted by

Mike

on Friday May 11, 2007 @08:27AM

Mike writes: "Media Rights Technology, a DRM vendor, has launched what what is probably the most idiotic DMCA threat ever. They're threatening to slam Adobe and Real with cease and desist lawsuits for failing to buy their crap-ass technology. Forbes says that Media Rights Technology advanced the theory that since the DMCA makes it illegal to break DRM, companies with broken DRM have to buy someone's DRM. In other words, "Buy our product or we'll sue you!"."

Submission + - Uri Geller Using DMCA to Block YouTube Clip

Submitted by

There is No Spoon

on Wednesday May 09, 2007 @04:16PM

There is No Spoon writes: "The EFF has filed a lawsuit against Uri Geller over his DMCA Takedown Notice targeting a YouTube clip critical of his claims of psychic powers. The video, which is twelve minutes long, apparently contains no more than a three second clip of Uri, which is the only part he could possibly claim copyright on. Thus, the EFF believes that this was a clear case of fair use and they are asking for damages, an injunction against Uri, and attorney's fees. Note that this is not the first time Uri has sued his critics, as one critic has pointed out, "[Uri] calls himself a psychic and has sued several people for millions of dollars for saying otherwise. His psychic powers were not sufficient to reveal to him, however, that he would lose all the lawsuits against his critics.""

Submission + - National ID card "a disaster in the making"

Submitted by

jdp

on Thursday May 03, 2007 @11:41PM

jdp writes: "Security experts Richard Forno and Bruce Schneier's CNET column describes Real ID as a disaster in the making, highlighting issues including vulnerability to identity theft from unscrupulous employees, flawed technologies, external compromises or human error; the risks of mission creep ("other homeland security initiatives, such as the Patriot Act, have been used and applied — some say abused — for purposes far removed from anything related to homeland security. How can we ensure the same will not happen with Real ID?"), and the important point about how Real ID makes the people who aren't eligible for it — or live in states that have rejected it into second-class citizens. Several of these points were also brought up at Tuesday's Town Hall meeting and webcast, as well as other concerns from DMV directors and employees, transgender people, seniors, and representatives from Gun Owners of America, American Friends Service Comittee, California Commision on the Status of Women, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, CDT, and EFF. A coalition of privacy, civil liberties, and consumer groups have launched a campaign to encourage public comments to DHS before the May 8 deadline. One thing to say for Real ID: it's certanly a unifying issue — at least for the opposition."

Submission + - All Is Not Well at Circuit City

Submitted by Vengance Daemon on Wednesday May 02, 2007 @08:12PM

Vengance Daemon writes: The Washington Post is reporting that Circuit City's recent firing of the highest paid/most experienced employees has not worked out quite as well as management thought it would. Sales are down and their stock price is down.

Student Arrested for Making Videogame Map of School 998

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday May 02, 2007 @03:33PM from the obviously-a-terrorist dept.

tanman writes "A student at the Houston-area Clements High School was arrested, sent to an "Alternative Education Center" and banned from graduation after school officials found he created a video game map of his school. School district police arrested the teen and searched his home where they confiscated a hammer as a 'potential weapon'. ' "They decided he was a terroristic threat," said one source close to the district's investigation.' With an upcoming May 12 school board election, this issue has quickly become political, with school board members involved in the appeal accusing each other of pandering to the Chinese community in an attempt to gain votes."

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