53962437
submission
Diamonddavej writes:
TorrentFreak reports a potentially troubling court decision in Germany. The company Appwork has been threatened with a 250,000 Euro fine fine for functionality committed to its open-source downloader (JDownloader2) repository by a volunteer coder without Appwork's knowledge. The infringing code enables downloading of RTMPE video streams (an encrypted streaming video format developed by Adobe). Since the code decrypted the video streams, the Hamburg Regional Court decided it represented circumvention of an “effective technological measure” under Section 95a of Germany’s Copyright Act and it threatened Appwork with a fine for "production, distribution and possession" of an 'illegal' piece of software.
44282957
submission
Diamonddavej writes:
The Guardian newspaper warns that Bloggers in the UK could face costly fines for libel with exemplary damages imposed if they do not sign up with a new press regulator under legislation (Clause 21A — Awards of exemplary damages) recommended by The Leveson Inquiry into press behaviour and ethics. Kirsty Hughes, the chief executive of Index on Censorship, said this a "sad day" for British democracy, “This will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on everyday people's web use". Exemplary damages, imposed by a court to penalise publishers who remain outside regulation, could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, easily enough to close down smaller publishers such as Private Eye and local newspapers. Harry Cole, who contributes to the Guido Fawkes blog says he does not want to join a regulator, he hopes his blog will remain as irreverent and rude as ever, and continue to hold public officials to account; it's servers are located in the US. Members of Parliament voted on Clause 21A late last night, it passed 530 to 13.
42785231
submission
Diamonddavej writes:
Leading privacy expert, Caspar Bowden, warned European citizens not to use Cloud services hosted in the US over spying fears. Bowden, former privacy adviser to Microsoft Europe, explained at a panel discussion hosted at the recent Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference in Brussels, that a section in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act 2008 (FISAAA) permits US intelligence agencies to access data owned by non-US citizens on Cloud storage hosed by US companies, if their activity is deemed to affect US foreign policy.
Bowden claimed the Act allows for purely political spying of activists, protesters and political groups.
Bowden also pointed out that amendments to the EU's data protection regulation proposal, introduce specific loopholes that permit FISAAA surveillance. The president of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves (at a separate panel discussion) commented that, “If it is a US company it’s the FBI’s jurisdiction and if you are not a US citizen then they come and look at whatever you have if it is stored on a US company server”.
The European Data Protection Supervisor declined to comment but an insider indicated that the authority is looking into the matter.
29437281
submission
Diamonddavej writes:
The BBC reports that software development student Glenn Mangham, 26, of Cornlands Road, York, UK was jailed 17 February 2012 for 8 months for computer misuse, after he discovered serious Facebook security vulnerabilities. Hacking from his bedroom, Mangham gained access to three of Facebook's servers and was able to download to an external hardrive the social network's "invaluable" intellectual intellectual property (source code). Mangham's defence lawyer, Mr. Ventham, pointed out that Mangham is an "ethical hacker" and runs a tax registered security company. The court heard Mangham previously breached Yahoo's security, compiled a vulnerability report and passed on to Yahoo; he was paid "$7000 for this achievement" and he was merely trying to repeat the same routine with Facebook. But passing sentence, Judge Alistair McCreath told Mangham, that despite that he did not intend to pass on the information gathered, nor did he intend to make any money from his hack, his actions were not harmless and had "real consequences and very serious potential consequences" for Facebook. Persecutor, Mr. Patel, said Facebook spent "$200,000 (£126,400) dealing with Mangham's crime, ...
13985602
submission
Diamonddavej writes:
The LA Times reports that Californian legislators are close to dropping the translucent green rock Serpentine as the State Rock of California because of its tenuous association with Chrysotile Asbestos. Sen. Gloria Romero declares in her bill (SB 624) that Serpentine should be dropped as California's State Rock because it "contains the deadly mineral chrysotile asbestos, a known carcinogen, exposure to which increases the risk of the cancer mesothelioma". The bill has backing from mesothelioma support groups. Critics point out that Serpentine is a group of 20 different minerals, Californian Serpentine rarely contain much chrysotile never mind its dangerous fibrous asbestos form. Its is suspected that lawyers involved in asbestos compensation claims and clean up companies will profit from the bill, vast tracts for California where bedrock is made of Serpentine could be declared hazardous to health (Serpentine = Crysotile Asbestos) ... even if it contains no crysotile at all! It looks like SB 624 will be passed, it won unanimous bi-partisan support from an Assembly committee last week.
6498095
submission
Diamonddavej writes:
The BBC reports that researchers at the University of Edinburgh — Sigrid Dengel, Dominik Aeby and John Grace — writing in the in the journal New Phytologist, have found that Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) somehow makes trees grow faster. GCRs vary according to the 11-year solar cycle, with more GCRs hitting the Earth during solar minimum when there is a lull in the Solar Wind,which normally acts to protect the inner Solar System from external galactic radiation. The mechanism might have something to do with GCRs increasing cloud cover, which diffuses sunlight and increases the efficiency of photosynthesis. Nevertheless, the researchers remain mystified and are requesting further ideas and research collaboration to test hypotheses. (How about Radiation Hormesis?, AKA Vitamin-R).
