Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Doesn't seem terribly practical (Score 3, Insightful) 151

Seems more like something that would be used by investigators, employers, jealous partners, and their like. As TFA says, "The downside for the malware creators is that they would need a lot of time on their hands to go through hours of Skype audio files to find anything of monetary interest." The idea is so obvious that this is likely why we haven't seen this before.

Comment I think I'm missing something here... (Score 1) 1079

The dorm room search stemmed from an investigation into who sent an email to a Boston College mailing list alleging that another student was gay. Police say they know who sent the email and that the sender committed the crimes of "obtaining computer services by fraud or misrepresentation" and obtaining "unauthorized access to a computer system." However, nothing presented by the investigating officer to obtain the warrant, including the allegation that the student sent the email to the mailing list, could constitute the cited criminal offenses.

First of all, I think outing someone is an abhorrent thing to do. It can psychologically destroy someone, and I'm all for punishing the outer. However, this is one of two things (provided Boston College doesn't handle this internally): a) libel or b) a civil suit for emotional damage. So what I'm missing is, how does one jump from a posting to a public mailing list to unauthorized access and computer fraud? And why would Boston College pursue legal recourse first instead of sanctioning him as a student?

Comment Twitter should solve its own problem (Score 2, Insightful) 354

Instead of using a plethora of different URL shortening services, any of which might disappear at some point in the future, Twitter should implement its own URL shortening service (using, say, the domain http://tw.it/ or similar) and thereby shorten any URL's that Twitter users post. Assuming the Twitter team can manage this (given their track record with things like message queues, however...) then there would be no possibility of linkrot.

Unless you're using shortened URL's somewhere besides Twitter, of course. But why on Earth would you do that?

Comment Talk about doublespeak (Score 1, Informative) 488

HADOPI, the office which is charged with overseeing the three-strikes system, stands for "haute autorité pour la diffusion des oeuvres et la protection des droits sur Internet" which more or less means "high authority for the distribution of [creative] works and the protection of internet rights".

I know that some level of doublespeak is to be expected of politics, but calling a government office whose express purpose is to limit what people can do on the internet the office for protection of internet rights? Damn. Maybe I'm just naïve though.

The Courts

Bloggers Immune From Suits Against Commenters 142

An anonymous reader writes "Suppose a commenter posts a libelous comment here at Slashdot. Can Slashdot and its owners be sued for defamation? A federal appeals court just held that no, they cannot. The court noted that a federal law was designed to ensure that 'within broad limits, message board operators would not be held responsible for the postings made by others on that board,' adding that, were the law otherwise, it would have an 'obvious chilling effect' on blogger speech."

Slashdot Top Deals

Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (9) Dammit, little-endian systems *are* more consistent!

Working...