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Submission + - Exclusive: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer (reuters.com)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: As a key part of a campaign to embed encryption software that it could crack into widely used computer products, the U.S. National Security Agency arranged a secret $10 million contract with RSA, one of the most influential firms in the computer security industry, Reuters has learned.

Submission + - NSA Metadata Program Has Stopped Zero Attacks (nbcnews.com)

Submitted by Antipater
Antipater writes: According to a member of the White House panel that recently called for the NSA's metadata-collection program to be curtailed, that program has not stopped any terrorist actions at all. This runs counter to the stories we've heard for months, which claimed as many as fifty prevented attacks.

"Stone declined to comment on the accuracy of public statements by U.S. intelligence officials about the telephone collection program, but said that when they referred to successes they seemed to be mixing the results of domestic metadata collection with the intelligence derived from the separate, and less controversial, NSA program, known as 702, to intercept communications overseas."

Submission + - Snowden Fallout: New Zealand Backpacker Stripped of All Electronics at Auckland (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A New Zealand backpacker stripped of all electrical equipment at Auckland airport suggests attending a London talk on cyber-security following the Edward Snowden leaks may be to blame.

Samuel Blackman was returning home for Christmas on 11 December from London Heathrow to Auckland via San Francisco when a customs officer at his final destination took the law graduate's two smartphones, iPad, external hard drive and laptop, demanding the passwords for all devices.

Submission + - Open source 'wasn't available' two years ago, says UK gov IT project chief (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The head of delivery for the UK's Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) flagship welfare reform project, Universal Credit, has said that the department didn’t adopt open source and web-based technologies at the beginning of the project because “such things weren’t available” two and a half years ago.
It is worse than the Healthcare.gov debacle....

Submission + - British Police Censor The Global Internet (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by judgecorp
judgecorp writes: A branch of the City of London police seems to be censoring suspected pirates worldwide, using threats. The Police Intellectual Proerty Crime Unit (PIPCU), acts on tip-offs from copyright owners to attempt to close down websites accused of piracy. the process involves cease-and-desist letters, followed by pressure on advertisers not to fund the site, and finally PIPCU uses threats to the domain registrar (not the ISP), all without any sort of court order.

Submission + - Study linking GM maize to rat tumours is retracted (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: Bowing to scientists' near-universal scorn, the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology has fulfilled its threat to retract a controversial paper that claimed that a genetically modified (GM) maize causes serious disease in rats after the authors refused to withdraw it.
The paper, from a research group led by Gilles-Eric Séralini, a molecular biologist at the University of Caen, France, and published in 20121, showed “no evidence of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of the data”, said a statement from Elsevier, which publishes the journal. But the small number and type of animals used in the study means that “no definitive conclusions can be reached”. The known high incidence of tumours in the Sprague-Dawley rat ”cannot be excluded as the cause of the higher mortality and incidence observed in the treated groups”, it added.
Today’s move came as no surprise. Earlier this month, the journal’s editor-in-chief, Wallace Hayes, threatened retraction if Séralini refused to withdraw the paper, which is exactly what he announced at a press conference in Brussels this morning. Séralini and his team remained unrepentant, and allege that the retraction derives from the journal's editorial appointment of biologist Richard Goodman, who previously worked for biotechnology giant Monsanto for seven years.

Submission + - openSUSE 13.1 released, reviewed! (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: openSUSE teams just announced the release of openSUSE 13.1 and it has already been reviewed. There are some core points which sets openSUSE apart from populist OS Ubuntu. While Ubuntu has become more or less Canonical owned project, openSUSE is becoming more and more community driven project and looking at the recent controversies around Ubuntu and their move towards mobile platforms, openSUSE seems to be a great option for desktop users.

Submission + - Senate Trying To Slip Internet Kill Switch Past Us (libertypulse.com)

Submitted by sanermind
sanermind writes: Sensing Senators don’t have the stomach to try and pass a stand-alone bill in broad daylight that would give the President the power to shut down the Internet in a national emergency, the Senate is considering attaching the Internet Kill Switch bill as a rider to other legislation that would have bi-partisan support.

Submission + - RIAA Accounting: How Labels Avoid Paying Musicians (techdirt.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last week, Slashdot posted Techdirt's story about "Hollywood Accounting" which showed how movies like Harry Potter still officially "lose" money with some simple accounting tricks. This week, Techdirt is taking on RIAA accounting, and showing why most musicians (even multi-platinum recording stars) may never see a dime from their album sales. The major labels basically give you a loan, but then demand the first 63% of any dollar you make, get to automatically increase the size of the "loan" by simply adding in all sorts of crazy expenses (did the exec bring in pizza at the recording session? that gets added on), and then tries to get the loan repaid out of what meager pittance they've left for you. Oh, and after all of that, the record label still owns the copyrights. The average musician on a major record deal "gets" about $23 per $1,000 made... and that $23 still never gets paid because it has to go to "recouping" the loan... even though the label is taking $630 out of that $1,000, and not counting it towards the advance. Remember all this the next time a record label says they're trying to protect musicians' revenue.
Canada

Submission + - Canadian Conservatives to revisit Bill C-61 (thestar.com) 1

Submitted by mandelbr0t
mandelbr0t writes: The Canadian Conservative government is preparing to reintroduce amended copyright legislation on Thursday. Most sources say that the proposed legislation is very similar to Bill C-61, generally dubbed the "Canadian DMCA". It still includes definitions of "technological protections" and criminalizes "circumvention" of those protections. Bill C-61 died in summer of 2008, facing massive opposition from the Canadian public. Once again, it's time for Canadians to get politically active. I recommend these readings to get you started.ORC ran a large campaign with the last attempt, and will likely be updated soon with the new proposed legislation. They have a lot of resources for getting involved.

As with Bill C-61, the Conservative government has launched a campaign of misinformation to attempt to force the law down our throat. Industry Minister Tony Clement is trying to convince people that "format shifting" is currently illegal. Of course, it is not actually criminal, and enforcement of private infringement, as always, is prevented by the fact that massive invasion of privacy would have to occur. Second, Mr. Clement is claiming that this law is necessary to bring Canada into line with the WIPO Treaty. The above readings discredit WIPO altogether. Furthermore, the two articles that are being referred to are Articles 11 and 12. Note the use of the phrase "effective technological measure" and the absence of any criminality requirement. This legislation is not necessary to provide amended copyright law that is consistent with the WIPO treaty, and will hopefully die an uneventful death, to be buried for eternity.

Submission + - Australian schools to teach Intelligent Design (couriermail.com.au) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It appears that schools within the Australian state of Queensland are going to be required to teach Intelligent Design as part of their Ancient History studies. While it is gratifying to note that it isn't being taught in science classes (since it most certainly isn't a science), one wonders what role a modern controversy can possibly serve within a subject dedicated to a period of history which occured hundreds of years before Darwin proposed his groundbreaking theory?

Feed Techdirt: USTR Responds To Sen. Wyden About ACTA; Admits It Hopes ACTA Will Cover Patents (techdirt.com)

From feed by feedfeeder
You may recall, at the beginning of the year, Senator Ron Wyden complained about the secrecy surrounding ACTA and sent a series of questions to the USTR about the negotiations behind ACTA. While the USTR apparently replied in late January, both sides have only just revealed the contents of the response (pdf). It's about what you would expect. The answers leave plenty of wiggle room, and a few seem to be blatant falsehoods. For example, Wyden is concerned (accurately) not just over whether or not ACTA will change US copyright law, but if it will limit Congress's ability to change copyright law to fix some of its problems. The USTR claims that it is making sure there is "flexibility" in the agreement to allow for that -- but the leaked documents show no such flexibility.

Furthermore, the response confirms what became clear in the most recent leak, that the US sees ACTA as covering not just copyrights and trademarks -- but patents as well (though, some of the other participants are against including patents).

Finally, the USTR repeats the bogus claims that it is being transparent about ACTA, noting that it put up a dedicated web page. Well, doesn't that just solve everything?

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Feed Techdirt: USTR: A Lot Of Misperception Over ACTA, But We Won't Clear It Up Or Anything (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
Via Michael Geist, we're pointed to a short interview with a representative from the US Trade Reps office, where the issue over ACTA concerns is raised, and the response is almost comically ridiculous. Stan McCoy, the assistant US Trade Representative for intellectual property and innovation, responds to complaints by saying that there has been a lot of misrepresentation about ACTA and that it really has a lot about counterfeiting and isn't just about copyright. And....? Well, that's it.

You see, this is the point where Stan McCoy or Ron Kirk or anyone in the USTR's office should explain what those misperceptions are, by telling us what's actually being negotiated. But, of course, they don't. The USTR keeps insisting that it's going to be more transparent, but hasn't actually done anything. If anything, over the last couple months, the USTR has become even more secretive about ACTA. Saying that people aren't accurately describing what's in the document, and then not saying what's actually in the document, doesn't help matters. It just makes us wonder who the USTR is representing, because it certainly does not appear to be the American people.

Furthermore, McCoy is being willfully disingenuous, in saying that the "misperception" is that "this agreement will focus mostly or exclusively on copyright infringement in the digital environment." No one has been suggesting that at all. Everyone knows that it covers real counterfeiting as well -- but the part people are concerned about is the intellectual property part, because it's being shoved into ACTA as if copyright infringement and counterfeiting are the same thing (or at least very similar) when they're not. So his next statement is meaningless:

"The threat of physical goods bearing counterfeit trademarks is a real one and it is a priority for ACTA. Americans do not want to brush their teeth with counterfeit toothpaste or drive a car with knockoff brakes."
That implies people are arguing otherwise, but no one is. Of course, we don't want dangerous counterfeits, but that's not the issue. The issue is using ACTA as a back door to changing IP laws in a way that does not reflect what's best for the country.

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Submission + - Unpacking the Secret Copyright Treaty Secrecy (michaelgeist.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As negotiations in the 7th round of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement talks continue this week in Mexico, Michael Geist has been posting a comprehensive guide to the secret copyright treaty. He started with a review of the substance of the treaty, then posted links to all the leaked documentation, and has now unpacked the secrecy associated with the talks, including why governments have made it secret, the public concern, and why this isn't business as usual.

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