34081379
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
In an effort to combat fraudulent claims lodged within its Centrelink welfare-payment agency, the Australian Government has asked auction-site eBay to name all Aussies who sold more than $20,000 worth of goods in the last year.
Should someone be found to have been doing such a high-volume of business on eBay while claiming Centrelink benefits but not declaring that income, they could potentially face prosecution.
However, the president of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, Terry O'Gorman, says this action is a gross invasion of privacy.
"What we say should happen is that if police have probable cause for investigating someone, they go to a magistrate, they get a warrant and they access that person's eBay records that way," he said.
33824263
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
A landmark study into penguins that details homosexual acts and attempts by male penguins to mate with dead females has been unearthed by London's Natural History Museum.
George Murray Levick, a scientist with the ill-fated 1910-13 Scott Antarctic Expedition, was so horrified by his findings that he recorded them in Greek, so as to not 'corrupt' layperson readers.
Amongst Levick's observations: male penguins tended to gather in "hooligan bands of half a dozen or more and hang about the outskirts of the knolls, whose inhabitants they annoy by their constant acts of depravity."
The groundbreaking paper had been lost until the recent discovery of a copy by Douglas Russell, curator of birds at the Natural History Museum.
33729905
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
CASUAL workers at a warehouse in Melbourne's west are being required to wear — and pay for — armbands identifying them as non-permanent staff.
The armbands contain employee numbers on barcodes and must be used to obtain scanning equipment needed for their work.
33674515
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
IRONFIRE CAPITAL FOUNDER Eric Jackson has told the CNBC show Squawk on the Street, "In five to eight years they (Facebook) are going to disappear in the way that Yahoo has disappeared."
"Yahoo is still making money, it's still profitable, still has 13,000 employees working for it, but it's 10 per cent of the value that it was at the height of 2000," Jackson added. "For all intents and purposes, it's disappeared."
Facebook stock officially went on sale on May 18 at $38 per share. It closed on Monday at $26.90.
33571797
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
Farhad Manjoo examines Facebook's rumoured entry into the smartphone market, concluding, "So what would be the point in using the Facebook phone? Well, remember, it will be cheap. But so are lots of Android phones. If Facebook makes a phone, then, the device will necessarily spark a battle for the low end of the phone market, with each company offering ever-cheaper devices in the hopes of cashing in on some future advertising bonanza. If you're looking for a cheap, ad-heavy phone based on a dubious business model, you should rejoice. Otherwise, try to stifle your yawns."
33254271
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
After losing another 8.9% of it's IPO value in its third day of trading, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro has called for a review of the circumstances surrounding Facebook's IPO on the NASDAQ late last week.
Unable to sell Facebook short, investors have instead taken to short-selling funds that owned pre-IPO shares as revelations come out that the underwriters involved revised their Facebook profit forecasts downward in the days before the offering without similarly revising the opening share price.
Meanwhile, Thomson Reuters Starmine has come out with a post-party Facebook estimate of a meagre 10.8 per cent annual growth rate, valuing the stock at a paltry $US9.59 a share, a 72 per cent discount on its IPO price, signalling that the battered stock may not have found the bottom yet.
32971147
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
Police in the Australian state of Victoria have confirmed that they are investigating employing unmanned drones in the war against crime, following the lead of law enforcement agencies in the United States, set to begin using drones as of tomorrow.
This revelations has alarmed Australian civil libertarians, who fear that in a country with no constitutionally-protected civil rights, people could be surveilled for political reasons.
32301165
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
After winning an initial legal battle to continue its mobile TV Now terrestrial-television re-broadcasting service, Optus has lost a second battle in Australian Federal court. The Optus system 'time-shifted' broadcast signals by two minutes, and then streamed them to customers' mobile phones.
In the previous ruling, the judge sided with Optus' argument that since the customer requested the service, they were the ones recording the signal, and thus was fair-use under Australian copyright law. However, the new ruling had declared Optus to be the true entity recording and re-distributing the broadcasts, and thus is in violation of the law.
There has been no word yet on whether Optus will appeal the decision, but as they could be retroactively liable for a great deal of damages, it is almost certain that they will.
32132639
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
UK software giant Micro Focus is demanding at least $10 million dollars in damages from the New South Wales police for widespread use of unlicensed copies of its ViewNow software it is alleged were used by members to access the COPS criminal intelligence database.
Although other government organisations also alleged to have mis-used the software have settled with Micro Focus, the NSW police refuse to do so, instead seeking to fight out a battle in Federal court.
32040697
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
Alexander Gostev, head of the global research and analysis team at Kaspersky, says that “tens of thousands of sites powered by WordPress were compromised. How this happened is unclear. The main theories are that bloggers were using a vulnerable version of WordPress or they had installed the ToolsPack plug-in.”
32040437
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
Google, Apple, Adobe and Intel have been accused of maintaining an agreement not to poach each other's staff, thus restricting increases in salary and restricting career development.
California District Judge Lucy Koh has found that the plaintiffs have adequately demonstrated antitrust injury. Sparked by a request from the late Steve Jobs, from 2005 to 2007 the defendants had a 'no cold-call' policy of staff recruitment amongst themselves.
Jobs is also alleged to have threatened Palm with litigation for not entering into a 'no cold-call' agreement with Apple.
30546905
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
Wikileaks has announced that Julian Assange plans to run for a seat in the Australian Senate at the next election (likely in 2013).
30051691
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
British ISP's BT and Talk Talk have lost their appeal to overturn a law forcing them to send warning letters and potentially cut off subscribers who are 'reported' by purported rights holders.
29932779
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
Japanese researchers have developed a 'gun' that plays back a speakers voice milliseconds after they speak, distracting them and preventing them from continuing.
People who like to yammer away in libraries and other 'quiet-spaces' should pay heed.
29825101
submission
beaverdownunder writes:
Leaked e-mails from private US intelligence agency Stratfor indicate that American prosecutors have had a sealed, secret indictment drawn up against Julian Assange as early as January, 2011.
