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Google

Submission + - Google Street View and "No Photography" Lo (google.com)

Submitted by
thesandbender
thesandbender writes: "Google Street View is sure to upset a number of law enforcement agencies. Because of the "Terrorist Threat" photographing most tunnels and several bridges in and around New York City is strictly forbidden. Apparently Google didn't see the signs or forget to turn off their cameras. The site has entire photographs of all the major tunnels and bridges around New York. What other "sensitive" information does Google Street View reveal?"
The Internet

Submission + - eBay Ivory Trade Threatens Elephants' Survival

Submitted by
travdaddy
travdaddy writes: "The International Fund for Animal Welfare studied eBay's internationally illegal ivory trade and reported "over 2,200 elephant ivory items listed on eBay Web sites and found that more than 90% of the listings breached even eBay's own respective national wildlife policies." Normally banned items are delisted from eBay but the report continues, "very few of the suspected illegal items reported by IFAW investigators to eBay during the snapshot survey were removed from sale.""
Encryption

Submission + - Copying DVDs ruled legal in Finland

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Finnish court ruled today that breaking CSS copy protection scheme found on virtually all commercial DVD-Video discs is legal, despite country's EUCD-compliant copyright legislation. Court decided that since there are tons of freely available tools on Net to break the encryption, it cannot be deemed "effective"."
Republicans

Submission + - The War on Free Speech

Submitted by
populist
populist writes: "In a post-9/11 climate, the right of free expression is under attack. It's been endangered in the age of George Bush when dissent may be called a threat to national security, terrorism, or treason. But losing that most precious of all rights means losing our freedom; as 18th century French philosopher Voltaire spoke in defense of saying "I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Using it to express dissent is what noted historian Howard Zinn calls "the highest form of patriotism" exercising our constitutional right to freedom of speech, the press, to assemble, to protest publicly, and associate as we choose for any reason within the law."
Microsoft

Submission + - MS Wants to Identify All Web Surfers, All the Time

Submitted by Moochman
Moochman writes: New Scientist reports on a technology Microsoft is developing to identify users based on their browsing habits. Quote: "The software could get its raw information from a number of sources, including a new type of 'cookie' program that records the pages visited. Alternatively, it could use your PC's own cache of web pages, or proxy servers could maintain records of sites visited. So far it can only guess gender and age with any accuracy," but the aim is to be able to identify name, occupation and location as well. On a related note, The Inq reports on Microsoft's plans to widen the use of its identity-verification technology CardSpace, which is built into Windows Vista and available as an add-on to XP. It's being envisioned as an identity solution for the entire internet: says Kim Cameron, pioneer of the technology, "We feel it has to solve all use cases." (Aha, so the anonymous use cases, too, eh?) One might ask, with all of this user-identification information on hand, how long will it be until the Feds come knocking on Microsoft's door asking for help? They already have.
Education

Submission + - Student in court over suspension for youtube video

Submitted by
kozmonaut
kozmonaut writes: "A "model student" is in court this week over 40-day suspension for posting a mocking in-class video of "Mongzilla", a high school english teacher. The student is arguing he had First Amendment rights to publish the video, though it was filmed without permission in the classroom. The judge says she will have a decision by the end of the day. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/316618_youtube 22.html"
Announcements

Submission + - All Your Rights Are Belong to Us

Submitted by
cyrusmack
cyrusmack writes: "For those of us that thought US copyright law was about the most draconian in the world, we were shocked by today's announcement of a new lobbyist group that wants even stronger copyright law. The group, called the "copyright alliance", features the usual suspects: Microsoft, MAFIAA, Viacom und herr Maus ("Look, it's Walt Disney! Shoot him now!"). Funnily enough, there was no mention of information access rights nor of US copyright law's gross violations of basic human rights. Funny that."
The Internet

Spyware Still Cheating Merchants 82

Posted by CmdrTaco from the players-still-be-hatin dept.
Jamie found an interesting story about how Spyware is still on the move. It talks about how Spyware vendors are trying to clean up their image, but still doing fishy things. It breaks down several common types of spyware and some analysis of each.
Operating Systems

Submission + - Buy my software or I'll sue you!

Submitted by
jandrese
jandrese writes: "LONDON (Thomson Financial) — Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc could face a possible lawsuit for failing to include measures to control access to copyrighted material in products such as Vista OS, iTunes and the iPod, two companies have warned.

Media Rights Technologies and BlueBeat.com have issued cease and desist letters to both companies and to Adobe Systems Inc and Real Networks — which produce the Adobe Flash Player and Real Player respectively — for actively avoiding their X1 SeCure Recording Control, which they said is an effective copyright protection system.

I guess DRM companies have gotten so used to suing their customers that suing potential customers seems like a good idea."
United States

Justice Department Promises Stronger Copyright Punishments 322

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the dancing-the-big-business-polka dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has stated that the Justice department will be getting even harder on copyright infringement, targeting repeat offenders. The new 'Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007' is headed for Congress promising to 'hit criminals in their wallets' hoping to ensure that any 'ill-gotten gains' are forfeited.
Censorship

Submission + - Gov't requests sex offender data from MySpace

Submitted by
athloi
athloi writes: "Attorney generals from seven states sent a letter to MySpace.com on Monday, asking the social networking site to provide the names of registered sex offenders who use the site.

While no one wants to defend sex offenders, this could lead to account signups that require real identification so the provider is not subjected to subpoenas for sex offenders on a regular basis."
Worms

Submission + - Rinbot Worm Wreaks Havoc on Business Systems

Submitted by Scott Tracy
Scott Tracy writes: As reported by CNN Money, some major businesses in the U.S. are being hit by a worm that was apparently created by someone with a grudge against Symantec. This is also happening in Canada, where my company (which has hundreds of Windows PCs) has been completely off the Internet for days as IT tries to wipe the worm from every desktop and laptop.
Windows

Submission + - Daylight Saving Time

Submitted by
lilbudda
lilbudda writes: "Given the new Daylight Saving time in the US, how are you preparing your servers and users for the change?"

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