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Submission + - Canadian DMCA Coming? (boingboing.net) 1

Submitted by whisper_jeff
whisper_jeff writes: News has come out that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is planning on bringing the DMCA to Canada. As a Canadian, this disgusts me. Watching Harper sell out Canadians in favour of US lobby groups is an affront. I am hopeful that enough Canadians write to Harper and their MPs to voice their disapproval of this effort.
Security

Submission + - Major Facebook Security Hole Discovered 2

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: A major security hole in Facebook has been discovered. Ironically, the source of this vulnerability is Facebook's own much-vaunted security "improvements." A video shows how you can view pending friend requests and chat history for any of your friends. Facebook Chat is down at the moment (coincidence? probably not). Unfortunately this isn't the only security hole in Facebook, another one was recently discovered which lets you retrieve the full name and Facebook URL for any account holder, given nothing but the Facebook ID number.

Submission + - Skype putting group videochat in focus (skunkpost.com)

Submitted by crimeandpunishment
crimeandpunishment writes: Got a group of people? Want to do a video call? Skype is getting ready to beta test a new group video chat function which will let up to five people get together. When it launches next week it will be available for PC users, with a Mac version coming out later this year. And in case you're wondering....it will be free, but only for a few months.
The Courts

Submission + - Court: RapidShare doesn't need to filter uploads (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Yesterday RapidShare announced ( http://rapidshare.com/news.html ) that it triumphed in its appeal over copyright holders who demanded that the service take more steps to control online infringement. Because RapidShare does not make uploaded files publicly available (those who upload them can control access), the court found that it could not be held liable for distribution and that running filename filters on all uploads would produce too many false positives.

In addition, the appeals court took aim at several filtering schemes. Blocking all files of a certain type (such as RAR files) was deemed inappropriate, since a file type has no bearing on the legality of an upload. Scanning by IP address was also tossed, because numerous people can use a single IP address. File name filtering tells you nothing about the contents of a file, so that was tossed. Even content scanning was problematic, as the court noted that this would just lead to encrypted files. Besides, even if you could know that a file was copyrighted, it could still be a legal "private backup" not distributed to anyone else.

ARS Technica: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/05/court-rapidshare-doesnt-need-to-filter-uploads.ars
Medicine

Submission + - The Pill Caused More Than One Revolution

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports that fifty years after its approval by the Food and Drug Administration, the first birth control pill not only revolutionized sexual and social relationships, allowing women to defer pregnancy, enter the work force and make life choices their mothers could not but led to profound changes in the FDA itself as many of the steps that underlie modern drug approvals — extensive clinical trials, routine referrals to panels of outside experts, continuing assessments of a medicine’s safety, and direct communications between the FDA and patients — were pioneered to deal with evolving concerns about the pill’s safety. The pill eventually led the FDA to communicate directly with patients without going through doctors, a change that was fiercely resisted by some physician groups, but that is now firmly entrenched as the FDA now routinely requires that many medicines carry significant and sometimes complex warnings that patients are expected to read and understand. “The FDA had been battling with the American Medical Association for years about who would talk to patients,” says Daniel P. Carpenter, a professor of government at Harvard. “And with the pill, the FDA clearly established the upper hand.” The pill was also one of the first drugs subject to increased testing after Congress toughened the drug approval process in the aftermath of the thalidomide disaster by requiring manufacturers to prove their medicines were both safe and effective causing the company to undertake one of the most extensive clinical trial programs to date, formally testing the drug in 897 women, mostly in Puerto Rico and Haiti. “The pill was a landmark in the field of drug regulation,” says Peter Barton Hutt, a former top agency lawyer. “This is the drug that started it all.”"
Security

Submission + - Shadows in the Cloud (nytimes.com)

Submitted by abhikhurana
abhikhurana writes: Turning the tables on a China-based computer espionage gang, Canadian and United States computer security researchers have monitored a spying operation for the past eight months, observing while the intruders pilfered classified and restricted documents from the highest levels of the Indian Defense Ministry.
In this report, the researchers, based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, provide a detailed account of how a spy operation it called the Shadow Network systematically hacked into personal computers in government offices on several continents.
The Toronto spy hunters not only learned what kinds of material had been stolen, but were able to see some of the documents, including classified assessments about security in several Indian states, and confidential embassy documents about India's relationships in West Africa, Russia and the Middle East. The intruders breached the systems of independent analysts, taking reports on several Indian missile systems. They also obtained a year's worth of the Dalai Lama's personal e-mail messages.
The intruders even stole documents related to the travel of NATO forces in Afghanistan, illustrating that even though the Indian government was the primary target of the attacks, one gap in computer security can leave many nations exposed.
Privacy

Submission + - PenTeleData Lists Subscriber Names in Reverse DNS

Submitted by jpiratefish
jpiratefish writes: Most people know that they can be identified when they browse to some degree — and if you're careful, nothing short of a subpoena will get your actual name — but not if you use PenTeleData in Eastern Pennsylvania. They're putting business and subscriber names into their reverse DNS, in direct violation of their privacy agreements (http://www.penteledata.net/support/aup.shtml and http://www.ptd.net/tiki-index.php?page=Residential+Policies). Some juicy examples include these:

24.229.69.2 : cpe-static-jpjayassoc-rtr.cmts.all.ptd.net
24.229.69.3 : cpe-wifi-subwaytilghman-145.2.1-ap.cmts.all.ptd.net
24.229.69.4 : cpe-static-aestheticsurgery-rtr.cmts.all.ptd.net
24.229.69.7 : cpe-static-thecontigrpmdm2-rtr-cmts.all.ptd.net
24.229.69.8 : cpe-static-apa612wlindenst-rtr.cmts.all2.ptd.net
24.229.69.10 : cpe-static-questlvfamily-rtr.cmts.tv2.ptd.net
24.229.69.12 : cpe-static-ramadainnkiosk-rtr.cmts.all.ptd.net
24.229.69.15 : cpe-static-cntyoflehighgovtcntr-rtr.cmts.all.ptd.net
24.229.69.51 : cpe-static-westendpharmacy-rtr.cmts.all2.ptd.net
24.229.69.52 : cpe-static-bnaibrithapartments-rtr.cmts.all2.ptd.net
24.229.69.55 : cpe-static-adultmedgeriatics-rtr.cmts.all2.ptd.net
24.229.69.56 : cpe-static-cysticfibrosis-rtr.cmts.tv2.ptd.net
24.229.69.57 : cpe-static-stanleywest-rtr.cmts.all2.ptd.net
24.229.69.58 : cpe-static-panylentzengineering-rtr.cmts.all2.ptd.net
24.229.69.59 : cpe-static-drhabig-rtr.cmts.all2.ptd.net

And that's just one little bit of their 24.229.0.0/16 network (16,384 hosts)....

I can only imagine that these folks are subjected to tons more targeted marketing, and identity theft, than the rest of us. If you use PenTeleData, you should do a reverse lookup on yourself (suggested link — http://ipchicken.com/ and see if your name is listed.

Submission + - Mac OS X major IPv6 block (www.digi.no)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to this Norwegian article in digi.no (IT Related online news), Redpill Linpro did an experiment on one of our largest online newspapers (www.vg.no) with regards to IPv6. They added a hidden iframe which pointed to a IPv6 enabled domain to test real-life problems about the reported IPv6-holes. The result was that mainly Mac OS X, older versions of Opera and a few Linux distributions exhibited problems. For Mac OS X it took 75 seconds to timeout before failing back to IPv4.
The Courts

Submission + - Craigslist "brothel business" under fire again 1

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Connecticut and 38 other states have subpoenaed Craigslist over what they consider to be the "Craigslist brothel business." The states are looking for answers as to how much money the online classified site is making from sex ads and what steps it is taking to fight prostitution. The move comes a year after Craigslist agreed to shut down its "erotic services" section and step up restrictions on posting sex-related ads, but that's apparently still not enough for the 39 states.

The latest effort is being led by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who believes that Craigslist has abandoned its continued promises to fight prostitution. "The craigslist brothel business seems booming," Blumenthal said in a statement. "[T]housands of ads that remain on craigslist—skimpily and slickly disguised with code words. We are asking craigslist for specific answers about steps to screen and stop sex-for-money offers—and whether the company is actually profiting from prostitution ads that it promised the states and public that it would try to block. We’re seeking answers, so we can reach legal conclusions. If it is breaking its promises to the public, it may be breaking the law."

Craigslist has been under fire for allegedly enabling prostitution for several years now. The company has responded by defending its users' rights to post whatever salacious ads they want while simultaneously taking measures to crack down on illegal activity. One of the first high-profile challenges to Craigslist came from the Cook County Sheriff's Department in Chicago, which claimed Craigslist was "the single largest source of prostitution in the nation."

ARS Technica: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/05/craigslist-brothel-business-under-fire-again.ars
Apple

Submission + - Regulators consider Apple antitrust probe (reuters.com)

Submitted by Albanach
Albanach writes: Apple's recent decision requiring developers use Apple tools when coding for the iPhone and iPad has drawn the attention of Government regulators, The Reuters news agency reports that regulators in the United States are now considering an antitrust investigation into the restriction. Reuters quote David Balto, a former FTC policy director as saying "What they're (Apple) doing is clearly anticompetitive ... They want one superhighway and they're the tollkeeper on that superhighway."

Submission + - Opera Dragonfly changes to Apache License (opera.com)

Submitted by netux
netux writes: Since 10 February 2010 Opera's answer to firebug has been an open source project under the BSD license. This license change creates patent protection for other browser developers to implement the scope protocol without worry of eventual patent problems ala SCO. Good to see Opera ASA continuing to support open protocols beyond just RFC's.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Office 2010, Dissected (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: Preston Gralla writes: I review plenty of software packages throughout the course of a year, and it's rare that I come across one that I believe will truly make a difference in the way that I work or use my computer. With Office 2010, which recently hit RTM status, it is one of those times. The main attraction, as far as I'm concerned, is the Outlook makeover that makes it far easier to cut through e-mail overload and keep up with your ever-expanding group of contacts on social networking sites. There's also an improved Ribbon that now works across all Office applications, and some very useful new PowerPoint tools for giving Internet-based presentations and handling video. Question is: Is Office 2010 good enough to stop the defection to Google Apps? Some large enterprises are seriously considering jumping from Exchange to Gmail, or already have, reports Robert Mitchell. The final version of Microsoft Office Web Apps, the Web-based version of Office, isn't yet available but is expected before summer. Microsoft has beat Google in one race, to deliver its office suite to Facebook users first.
Google

Submission + - BumpTop 3D Desktop - Last chance for PC/Mac

Submitted by ErkDemon
ErkDemon writes: The BumpTop 3D physics desktop has been around in beta form for a while (see SlashDot June 2006) and the commercial version, BumpTop Pro, appeared in April 2009.

Google have just bought the company, and immediately pulled the plug on the PC and Mac versions of the software, presumably so that BumpTop can become the new face of Google's own operating system (and nobody else's).

If you want to grab last-minute freebie copies of the PC and Mac versions, you only have until May 7th 2010 to get them from the site. After they're gone, they're gone.
Idle

Submission + - MTV and the mob (myway.com)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: A judge in New Jersey has agreed to hear a lawsuit that claims producers of MTV's hit reality show "Jersey Shore" engaged in a "criminal enterprise" by profiting from showing fights that cast members deliberately provoked.

Attorney Eugene LaVergne of Long Branch said Monday that he filed the suit in March.

It seeks unspecified monetary damages on behalf of three clients involved in drunken fights with cast member Ronnie Magro.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Joseph L. Foster denied a motion to dismiss the claim that the defendants' conduct violated New Jersey's racketeering statute.

An MTV spokeswoman has not returned after-hours messages left Monday seeking comment.

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