crazyvas - Slashdot User

Submission + - FBI Bought Pegasus, the Most Powerful Phone Spyware (theguardian.com) 2

Submitted by crazyvas on Saturday November 12, 2022 @01:02PM

crazyvas writes: From the Guardian: "The FBI has confirmed that it obtained NSO Groupâ(TM)s powerful Pegasus spyware, suggesting that it bought access to the Israeli surveillance tool to âoestay abreast of emerging technologies and tradecraftâ.

It was a stunning revelation in part because the Biden administration has recently placed NSO on a commerce department blacklist, saying it had evidence that the companyâ(TM)s hacking tools had enabled governments around the world to conduct âoetransnational repressionâ, targeting dissidents and journalists."

Once deployed, the user of Pegasus spyware can take complete control of a personâ(TM)s phone, accessing messages, intercepting phone calls and using the phone as a remote listening device."

Isn't it time Congress upgraded old wiretapping laws to the smartphone era, limiting what government agencies can and cannot do? Separately, do you know if your smartphone is vulnerable to Pegasus?

Submission + - Patent trolls getting the attention of the Feds (nytimes.com) 1

Submitted by crazyvas on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @09:27PM

crazyvas writes: The New York Times has published an article on the FTC which is planning to investigate the patent system, and likely patent trolls such as Intellectual Ventures. From the article: 'To its defenders, Intellectual Ventures is a revolutionary company unfairly viewed, in the words of its co-founder Peter N. Detkin, “as the poster child of everything that is wrong with the patent system.” To its critics, it is a protection racket otherwise known as a patent troll. This summer, the Federal Trade Commission is expected to begin a sweeping investigation of the patent system after the agency’s chairwoman, Edith Ramirez, urged a crackdown. She has singled out a particular kind of miscreant, one that engages in “a variety of aggressive litigation tactics,” including hiding behind shell companies when it sues.'

How does Intellectual Ventures describe itself? See for yourself here.

Submission + - Smartphones may help reduce traffic in the near future (nytimes.com)

Submitted by crazyvas on Saturday July 13, 2013 @01:03AM

crazyvas writes: From the New York Times: "Experts say services that use smartphones to connect drivers and passengers could help end the reign of single-occupant cars (and unending traffic) in Los Angeles." One would hope that combined with a recent article from Time stating that Generation Y doesn't think car ownership is cool might pave the way for less car traffic, more efficient public transit, more pedestrians and bikers, even leading to a healthier population?

Submission + - Princeton goes open access to stop staff handing a (theconversation.edu.au)

Submitted by crazyvas on Tuesday October 04, 2011 @02:17AM

crazyvas writes: Princeton University will prevent researchers from giving the copyright of scholarly articles to journal publishers (except if a waiver is requested).The new rule is part of an Open Access policy aimed at broadening the reach of their scholarly work and encouraging publishers to adjust standard contracts that commonly require exclusive copyright as a condition of publication. Universities pay millions of dollars a year for academic journal subscriptions. People without subscriptions are often prevented from reading taxpayer funded research.

This is a bold first step in changing the face of how research (especially when taxpayer funded) works in the country, and a step towards weakening the current culture of charging increasingly exorbitant prices to view academic research publications.

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