Fast News Info

Microsoft Windows 7 Hit By Zero Day Vulnerability

2009-11-15T19:35:00.001Z

Laurence Gaffié, a security researcher, has discovered a weakness in Windows 7 and published all the relevant details on the full disclosure mailing list archives at Insecure.org. The bug has been recognised by Microsoft but its importance has been minimised by the software company. On his blog, Gaffié went as far as providing with a proof of concept which he used to remotely crash Windows 7 (and Windows Server 2008 R2) on a local area network. Such an attack is also possible through any version of Internet Explorer even older ones (or broadcasting NetBIOS Name Server "trick") even if the system's firewall is activated. The vulnerability, which is found in the Server Message Block (SMB) file sharing protocol, could effectively be used to perform a denial of service (DOS) attack through an infinite loop. Canada-based Gaffié also maintains that the bug was a "real proof" that Microsoft's Security Development Lifecycle had failed. The temporary solution, according to him would be to, "Close SMB feature and ports, until a real audit is provided." However, the flaw doesn't allow hackers to gain unauthorised remote access to information on any machine.

Source: http://www.itproportal.com/www/news/article/2009/11/15/microsoft-windows-7-hit-zero-day-vulnerability/#ixzz0WxUa1wCI

Pirates navigate around Windows 7 activation again

2009-11-11T23:19:00.000Z

A new activation crack method has been discovered and implemented to bypass Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 activation: remove and disable Windows Activation Technologies (WAT, older versions were referred to as Windows Genuine Advantage). The hack in question works by bypassing activation altogether, and thus does not require a product key. By blocking, preventing, removing, and disabling access to, or the loading of, all activation and licensing related Windows system files, slui.exe (the exe required to activate Windows 7) will fail to start, resulting in the permanent circumvention of Windows activation. Still, disabling WAT isn't the end of the story: after the 30-day evaluation period is expired, Windows 7 will still start nagging the user to activate the operating system, the wallpaper will be set to black, and a watermark saying "This copy of Windows is not genuine" will be placed in the bottom right-hand corner. You can continue to use the operating system indefinitely, but the side-effects can be annoying, so pirates have created tools to clean these up. Most of the tools support all editions of Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2. In addition to removing and disabling WAT from the Windows system, the tools clean up the side-effects by stopping relevant services and patching certain DLL files.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/11/pirates-find-another-way-around-windows-7-activation.ars

Google may lose WSJ, other News Corp. sites

2009-11-09T23:34:00.000Z

Rupert Murdoch, the media tycoon who has long accused Google of ripping off content from his newspapers, said this weekend that his sites may soon disappear from the search engine's listings. Murdoch is chairman of News Corp., the newspaper, TV, and Internet empire that includes The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, 20th Century Fox, Fox News, and Hulu. He made the comments in an interview late last week with Sky News Australia. After Murdoch accused Google, Microsoft, and others of "stealing" his company's content, he was asked why he just doesn't pull his Web sites from Google's search results. "I think we will," Murdoch responded. "But that's when we start charging." Murdoch and other News Corp. execs have said that they intend to charge readers and viewers. In the past, the company's sites have relied on advertising revenue. Murdoch made it clear he's no fan of the ad-supported model. "There are no news sites or blog sites making any serious money," he said. "What's the point of having someone come occasionally who likes a headline they see in Google," Murdoch continued. "The fact is there isn't enough advertising in the world to go around to make all the Web sites profitable. We'd rather have fewer people coming to our Web sites but paying." When asked why he would buck the trend of offering free content, Murdoch said: "(The public) shouldn't have had it free. I think we've been asleep."

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10393209-261.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0

Nokia recalls 14 million chargers

2009-11-09T23:32:00.000Z

Nokia is replacing potentially dangerous phone chargers for free, the mobile giant said Monday. The recall affects 14 million chargers, according to the Associated Press. The affected chargers are manufactured by third-party suppliers, Nokia said. A loose cover could potentially expose the charger's internal components and thus pose an electrical shock hazard if accidentally touched during use, the company said. Chargers involved in the exchange are 2-pin types and include the AC-3E and AC-3U models manufactured between June 15 and August 9, 2009, as well as the AC-4U model made between April 13 and October 25, 2009.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10393158-94.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0

Know What Google Knows About You with 'Dashboard'

2009-11-06T00:22:00.000Z

That whole "don't be evil" thing is all well and good, but when a company's whole goal is cataloging the world's information, it would--at the very least--be nice to know what Google knows about you. The company has just launched Dashboard, which aggregates the different information its gathered from 20 different Google products, including Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Web History, Orkut, YouTube, Picasa, Talk, Reader, Alerts, and Latitude. You'll need to sign in to view your own personal information. Users can also edit account information from the page, such as privacy settings. Of course transparency doesn't mean that you can't still pat yourself on the back.
The scale and level of detail of the Dashboard is unprecedented, and we're delighted to be the first Internet company to offer this--and we hope it will become the standard," Google said in a statement.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355420,00.asp

With beefed up 3G, more networks to get 'Droid'

2009-11-03T23:52:00.001Z

Here in the US, excitement has been high over Verizon's first Android handset, the Motorola Droid; so high, in fact, that it has actually begun to make an appreciable dent in iPhone favoritism. This is partially due to the fact that a large number of iPhone users were Verizon customers before they got the iPhone, and still consider Verizon's wireless network to be superior to AT&T's. Verizon's "There's a map for that" advertising campaign has also added to the company's reputation for having a more robust network than AT&T. Verizon seems to be welcoming huge consumers of mobile bandwidth with the Droid. Now the Droid has been spotted in Germany, equipped with UMTS/GSM radios under the name Motorola Milestone on Telefonica's O2 network. Germany's O2 network is not viewed nearly as favorably as Verizon is here in the United States; it's actually the nation's fourth largest mobile carrier behind T-Mobile, Vodafone, and KPN's E-Plus. However, the carrier has made some serious strides toward becoming a bigger competitor in the market. Part of this is by similarly preparing for higher mobile data traffic. In late September, O2 completed the "largest ever live network upgrade in Germany," by adding 5,199 new dual-mode 2G/3G base stations to help carry more data traffic.

Source: http://www.betanews.com/article/With-beefed-up-3G-more-networks-to-get-Droid/1257194787

Unfinished Windows 7 feature turns laptops into Wi-Fi hotspots

2009-10-30T23:35:00.000Z

A Philadelphia developer has rooted out an unfinished feature of Windows 7 that turns any laptop into a wireless access point, allowing other Wi-Fi-enabled devices to share the connection without special software. Nomadio, which specializes in military network consulting and development, used the new "Virtual Wi-Fi" feature in Windows 7 to create Connectify, a free application that it released as a beta last Friday. Virtual Wi-Fi was crafted in Microsoft's research group as a way to "virtualize" one wireless card as several separate adapters. The project was discontinued in 2006, but the work made its way into Windows 7 as "Native 802.11 Virtual Wireless Fidelity (Virtual Wi-Fi) object identifiers (OIDs)". "A year ago, Microsoft talked a lot about this as a big feature in Windows 7," said Alex Gizis, the CEO of Nomadio. "But driver support didn't get finished. The low-level code is in there, but the driver-level stuff isn't. And there's no app or setting in Windows to turn it on." Explaining that the feature was "half there" in Windows 7, Gizis said his company realized "we have the rest of the software here, in our networking work."

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140133/Unfinished_Windows_7_feature_turns_laptops_into_Wi_Fi_hotspots?source=rss_news

Google drives into new market with Maps Navigation beta for Android

2009-10-28T22:39:00.001Z

If you're an Android user, Google is hoping to help you get where you're going. The company today unveiled the beta version of Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 devices. Basically, Google is trying its hand at a GPS system -- and another lucrative business market. "This new feature comes with everything you'd expect to find in a GPS navigation system, like 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting," wrote Keith Ito, a Google software engineer, on a blog post today. "But unlike most navigation systems, Google Maps Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of your phone's Internet connection."Ito noted that the new beta release is designed for voice search so users don't have to type on their phones in a vehicle. It will also offer live traffic data, satellite imagery, the ability to find businesses along your route, and a street view. For Google, the company is not only offering a new feature for the Android, but it's also diving headlong into a new market. And that, according to Dan Olds, principal analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, is a good idea. "With this product, Google injects itself into a new market and has the potential to cause serious pain for the existing players, like Garmin and TomTom, while giving potential customers one more solid reason to switch to a Google-powered phone," Olds said. "It's a lot easier to justify the switch to a new device if it takes the place of two devices, like a phone and a navigation device, and if it does the job better."

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140055/Google_drives_into_new_market_with_Maps_Navigation_beta_for_Android?taxonomyId=77

BREIN Gets Injunction Against Pirate Bay

2009-10-22T23:56:00.000+01:00

BREIN is making headlines along with The Pirate Bay this morning, as the copyright organization has obtained an injunction against The Pirate Bay in the Netherlands. It appears the court did not find the defense's testimony that they no longer own The Pirate Bay very compelling. The three Swedes that may or may not own The Pirate Bay, (Brokep, Anakata, Tiamo) tried to convince the court that a distant company named Reservella owned the company. "The Judge rules that the three are responsible for The Pirate Bay and therefore grants the injunction against them. The injunction against Reservella is not granted because it is not clear that it also is responsible in addition to the three. The judge furthermore rules that The Pirate Bay is not an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and that therefore the limited liability for ISPs does not apply." The Pirate Bay can still operate in the Netherlands, but it must prevent access to .torrent listings. Not doing so will result in a €5,000 ($7,500) per torrent penalty.

Source: http://www.slyck.com/story1877_BREIN_Gets_Injunction_Against_Pirate_Bay

Sneaky Microsoft plug-in puts Firefox users at risk

2009-10-20T22:02:00.001+01:00

An add-on that Microsoft silently slipped into Mozilla's Firefox last February leaves the browser open to attack, Microsoft's security engineers acknowledged earlier this week. One of the 13 security bulletins Microsoft released Tuesday affects not only Internet Explorer (IE), but also Firefox, thanks to a Microsoft-made plug-in pushed to Firefox users eight months ago in an update delivered via Windows Update. "While the vulnerability is in an IE component, there is an attack vector for Firefox users as well," admitted Microsoft engineers in a post to the company's Security Research & Defense blog on Tuesday. "The reason is that .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 installs a 'Windows Presentation Foundation' plug-in in Firefox." The Microsoft engineers described the possible threat as a "browse-and-get-owned" situation that only requires attackers to lure Firefox users to a rigged Web site. Numerous users and experts complained when Microsoft pushed the .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1) update to users last February, including Susan Bradley, a contributor to the popular Windows Secrets newsletter.

Source; http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9139459/Sneaky_Microsoft_plug_in_puts_Firefox_users_at_risk

Apple adds jailbreak resistance to recent iPhone 3GS models

2009-10-16T23:20:00.001+01:00

Each release of iPhone OS usually results in the iPhone Dev Team (not to be confused with actual Apple engineers) going back to the drawing board to re-enable jailbreaking, which lets iPhone users install unofficial software and access the UNIX-y internals of the operating system. However, Apple looks to be stepping up its fight against that practice, as iPhone 3GS models coming off the assembly line recently apparently have new bootloader code designed to make them jailbreak-resistant. "MuscleNerd" from the iPhone Dev Team has confirmed that Apple has updated the version of iBoot on the latest iPhone 3GS to 359.3.2. This version isn't vulnerable to the "24kpwn" exploit that has been at the heart of many jailbreaks, which could bypass part of the usual boot process, and allow unsigned code to run on the iPhone's processor. This means that even the latest version of PwnageTool, which can jailbreak iPhone OS 3.1.2, can't jailbreak these devices. The exploit was commonly used for jailbreaking, but could also enable hackers to get at the data inside a stolen iPhone as well—blocking jailbreaks could merely be a side-effect of plugging what is essentially a security hole. Still, Apple may be getting more aggressive about blocking jailbreaks since it allows running pirated apps, which a recent analysis by Pinch Media reveals is fairly common.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/10/apple-adds-jailbreak-resistance-to-recent-iphone-3gs-models.ars

BREIN Chases Pirate Bay Ghost

2009-10-09T23:34:00.000+01:00

BREIN and the defense of the former owners of the Pirate Bay (brokep, anakata, TiaMO) continued their legal confrontation in the Netherlands. This was the appeals hearing to address the ongoing issue of blocking The Pirate Bay to Dutch citizens. BREIN is continues to demand that the original three block the site in the Netherlands, but they’re claiming they no longer have any control or ownership over the world’s largest tracker. Who owns The Pirate Bay? Depends who you ask, really. A name that has come up and is repeated in Peter Sunde’s blog and BREIN’s press release is a Seychelles based company called Reservella. But BREIN isn't convinced there’s a difference between this company and the defendants, and still holds the original 3 owners responsible. “Denying their responsibility and playing hide and seek is what the gentlemen of The Pirate Bay have been doing since they began their illegal business”, says BREIN director Tim Kuik. “We have sufficient reason to assume that they still are responsible. The company on the Seychelles looks like a thin veil to cover up what is really going on and it appears that they too like to play hide and seek just like they gents from The Pirate Bay. Ultimately the point is that The Pirate bay is illegal and therefore is prohibited and must be made unavailable whomever its owners are. The previous verdict against the three Swedes and the company GGF that was going to take over the site also made it crystal clear: what is illegal is prohibited whomever does it.”

Source: http://www.slyck.com/story1873_BREIN_Chases_Pirate_Bay_Ghost

Ignoring RIAA lawsuits cheaper than going to trial

2009-10-07T22:43:00.000+01:00

Jammie Thomas-Rasset and Joel Tenenbaum captured the nation's attention when they were defendants in the RIAA's first two trials against accused online infringers. But here's the mind-warping reality: both defendants would have been far better off monetarily if they had simply ignored the complaint altogether and failed to show up in court. That counterintuitive logic played out again this week in Massachusetts, where federal judge Nancy Gertner issued four default judgments against accused P2P file-swappers who never bothered to respond to the charges against them. Their failure to appear meant an automatic loss, and though the judge does have some discretion in setting penalties, judges often pick the minimum awards in such cases. That was true in all four cases, where Gertner accepted the record labels' claims and awarded them the minimum statutory damages of $750 per song. The defendants were accused of downloading an average of ten songs, putting total awards in the $7,500 range, in addition to a few hundred more for court costs. Having $7,500 in damages assessed against you by a federal court is no picnic, but it pales in comparison to the two twenty-somethings who actually showed up to court, got attorneys, went through a multiyear process and a nationally covered trial, and came out the other side owing far more money.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/ignoring-riaa-lawsuits-cheaper-than-going-to-trial.ars

Google strips Pirate Bay homepage from search results

2009-10-03T02:31:00.000+01:00

The Pirate Bay’s homepage and seven other pages relating to the BitTorrent tracker website have been removed from Google’s search engine, following a DMCA complaint. Anyone attempting to locate thepiratebay.org via Google will be greeted with some results to access the website, but none that point directly at its homepage. We’ve asked Google if it could tell us more about removing some of the site’s pages from its search engine, but at the time of writing it hadn’t got back to us with comment. The Pirate Bay mouthpiece, Peter Sunde - who actually quit his position as the website’s main spokesman a few months back - asked on his Twitter account this morning “why is 'thepiratebay.org' (the frontpage) removed from your [Google’s] index?” A DMCA notice at the bottom of a “thepiratebay.org” search query via Google reveals that Mountain View has simply reacted to a takedown request. “In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 8 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org,” reads a notice.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/02/google_removes_pirate_bay_homepage/

Judge Orders Gmail Account Deactivated After Bank Screws Up

2009-10-01T22:09:00.000+01:00

A California federal judge has ordered Google to temporarily de-activate a Gmail account after a bank mistakenly sent sensitive data to the account. U.S. District Judge James Ware also ordered Google to disclose the identity of the Gmail account holder. The Rocky Mountain Bank of Wyoming sued Google to obtain the account holder’s name after a bank employee erroneously e-mailed an attachment to the account containing sensitive information on 1,325 individual and business bank customers. The attachment contained customer names, addresses, Tax ID and Social Security numbers and loan information. The employee sent a second e-mail to the recipient instructing the person to delete the e-mail and attachment without opening it. When the employee got no answer, the bank contacted Google to find out if the account was active or not. Google wouldn’t provide any information without a court order so the bank sued Google to get the account holder’s name and contact information. Google has stated that once it receives a court order to identify an account holder, its policy is to notify the account holder before complying with the order to give the account holder a chance to file an objection.

Source: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/judge-closes-gmail-account/

End in site for Yugoslav domains

2009-09-29T21:13:00.000+01:00

Websites using the .yu domain extension will cease to be available online from 30 September. The extension - assigned to the former Republic of Yugoslavia - has been replaced by .rs (for Serbia) and .me (for Montenegro). Icann - which oversees the assigning of top-level domain names - allowed extra time for sites to make the transition before removing the .yu extension. It is thought up to 4,000 websites have still not migrated to a new domain. However, the Serbian National Register of Internet Domain Names has requested a postponement of several months; The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) is meeting to consider the request. Icann removed the .yu extension from their list of approved country domain names in 2006. The former Republic of Yugoslavia was renamed Serbia and Montenegro in 2003, although Montenegro subsequently broke from the union in 2006. Icann says the .rs and .me extensions are now the appropriate domain names as the Republic of Yugoslavia no longer exists.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8278364.stm

US objects to Google book deal

2009-09-21T20:26:00.000+01:00

The US Justice Department has urged a New York court to reject a deal that would allow internet company Google to publish millions of books online. The deal raised copyright and anti-trust issues, the department said, and should be rejected in its current form. The court is due to rule on the issue early next month. Under the deal - the product of a legal suit - Google would establish a $125m (£77m) fund to compensate those whose works it published online. It would establish a Book Rights Registry so that authors whose work it digitised were paid when their material was viewed online. The deal was agreed in October 2008 with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) after they sued Google for copyright infringement. Companies including Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo have all objected to the deal.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8264544.stm

Google goes into print with 2m books

2009-09-17T22:55:00.000+01:00

After five years of scanning books electronically, Google is finally entering the print publishing business for the first time. Through an arrangement with a printing company unveiled on Thursday, Google will offer 2m out-of-copyright books that can be picked up or shipped from libraries, universities and other spots around the world. It has struck the deal with On Demand Books, makers of the Espresso Book Machine that can print a 300-page book in less than five minutes, complete with a cover and a bound edge. The editions are likely to cost about $8, with Google keeping a dollar, On Demand Books keeping a dollar and the retailer keeping $3. The remaining $3 should cover the cost of materials and labour.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6cad4992-a3b3-11de-9fed-00144feabdc0.html

Microsoft Bing adds visual search

2009-09-15T22:34:00.000+01:00

Software giant Microsoft has introduced "visual search" to its Bing search engine to try to further set itself apart from market leader Google. The new feature will allow users to browse results using pictures instead of text. Visual search will initially concentrate on four main areas: travel, health, leisure and shopping. "The whole concept is that the world of search is going to change," said Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi. "There will be a more graphic way people will search, and it will pivot how people search," said Mr Mehdi, the firm's senior vice-president of online service. Microsoft unveiled the beta, or test version of the feature, at TechCrunch 50, a conference being held in San Francisco for start-ups to pitch their ideas to investors.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8256046.stm

IFPI Prepares IPRED Complaints Against File-Sharers

2009-09-09T22:56:00.000+01:00

The controversial Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) has gathered opposition from various sides, notably from much of the Swedish public. The law gives rights holders the authority to request the personal details of alleged copyright infringers so that they may be pursued through the legal system. On April 1st the new law became active and immediately there was a dramatic drop in Internet traffic, which many observers put down to file-sharers retreating based on a fear of becoming identified. Indeed, Henrik Pontén from Antipiratbyrån – the Swedish anti-piracy office – said he was convinced. “The majority of all Internet traffic is file-sharing. Because of that, there’s no other explanation for the decrease in traffic than the IPRED law,” he stated. Then at the end of April, two ISPs – Bahnhof and Tele2 – both announced they would stop logging Internet activity which would seriously hamper the effects of IPRED on their customers. But despite the massive opposition to the legislation, despite the fear, the huge drop in Internet traffic, the action of ISPs to limit its effects (and The Pirate Bay team releasing iPredator to neutralize it), so far in the battle against music file-sharers, IPRED is a sleeping beast.

Source: http://torrentfreak.com/ifpi-prepares-ipred-complaints-against-file-sharers-090908/

Gmail in massive web outage

2009-09-01T22:14:00.001+01:00

Gmail is widely unavailable to users on both the west and the east coast of the United States, the United Kingdom, and perhaps elsewhere. Even Google is unable to access its own web-based email service. But the service is still able to route mail via POP and IMAP Gmail has experienced several, much-discussed hiccups in recent months, but judging from Google's blog post on the latest outage, this one is particularly widespread. "We know many of you are having trouble accessing Gmail right now - we are too, and we definitely feel your pain," the post reads. "We don't usually post about minor issues here (the Apps status dashboard and the Gmail Help Center are usually where this kind of information goes). Because this is impacting so many of you, we wanted to let you know we're currently looking into the issue and hope to have more info to share here shortly." The post then points out that users already using POP or IMAP will not have problems. As of 1:35pm West Coast time, Reg staffers in San Francisco, New York, London, and Edinburgh are unable to access the service. And countless users on Facebook and Twitters are complaining about similar issues.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/01/gmail_titsup_google/

Hackers scalp Apache

2009-08-28T21:59:00.000+01:00

The website of Apache was taken offline for several hours on Friday after the SSH remote administration key on one of its servers was compromised. SSH is a widely used technology for remote administration, so in the worst scenario the compromise created a means for hackers to upload Trojanised code onto the download section of Apache's website. Around 50 per cent of webservers run Apache, according to the latest stats from Netcraft, so any problem would be extremely widely felt. It's unclear at present whether any code on the Apache website was actually modified. Nor do we know how the attack was carried out or who was behind it. Apache's web site was restored after DNS records were changed so that servers based in Europe rather than at the main US site were carrying the load. Rik Ferguson, a security researcher at Trend Micro, notes that the same type of compromised SSH key problem led to attacks that attempted to install rootkits on Linux based systems in August 2008. Screenshots of Apache's statement on the incident, since removed, have been preserved for posterity in a blog posting by Trend Micro here and F-Secure here.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/28/apache_hack/

Pirate Bay buyer claims it's been smeared

2009-08-25T18:19:00.000+01:00

GLOBAL GAMING FACTORY (GGF), the Swedish firm attempting to buy file sharing site The Pirate Bay, has claimed it has been the subject of a smear campaign orchestrated chiefly by former GGF board member and chief technology officer Johan Sellström. In an interview with V3.co.uk, GGF chief executive Hans Pandeya said that reports at the end of last week claiming that he owed Sellström around £500,000, and that the company was in too much debt to buy The Pirate Bay, were all "bogus". He also denied rumours that his firm has not even begun to prepare the technology needed to re-launch The Pirate Bay, and other reports that the Swedish stock exchange restricted trading of GGF shares due to irregularities.

Source: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1530932/pirate-bay-buyer-claims-smeared

The Pirate Bay Taken Offline By Swedish Authorities (Updated)

2009-08-24T22:28:00.000+01:00

Following the earlier court defeat for Fredrik, Gottfrid and Peter and the pending civil action taken by several Hollywood studios, the Swedish authorities have now ordered The Pirate Bay to be disconnected from the Internet. The site’s bandwidth suppliers have been threatened with a large fine. The site is completely offline. Today, Stockholm’s district court took action to completely remove The Pirate Bay from the Internet. The court ordered the site’s major bandwidth supplier, Black Internet, to disconnect TPB from the Internet or face penalties of 500,000 kroner ($70,600). The ISP complied, saying that it had no choice but to uphold the law. The censorship of The Pirate Bay will continue pending the outcome of a civil action taken by several entertainment companies including Disney, Universal, Warner, Columbia, Sony, NBC and Paramount. Rick Falkvinge, leader of The Pirate Party said: “This is absolutely ridiculous. The Court seems to consider themselves above the Constitution,” while criticizing the effect that these civil actions are having on freedom of speech. “This clarifies how copyright law has become untenable, and how information is lacking political skills in the judiciary,” he added. Black Internet is probably not the only supplier of bandwidth to The Pirate Bay, so it may be possible for them to reconnect to the Internet elsewhere. Whether or not another Swedish supplier would even consider doing that is seriously in doubt.

Source: http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-taken-offline-by-swedish-authorities-090824/

Patent Lawsuit Threatens to Clip Twitter’s Wings

2009-08-19T00:16:00.000+01:00

TechRadium, a little known Texas-based player in the emergency mass-notification field, didn’t just wake up this month and decide to sue Twitter for patent infringement. The company says it didn’t care about Twitter when the Twitterati was watching the tweets of NBA superstars, musicians, politicians and news outlets. But then TechRadium began seeing promotional materials and news accounts of companies, school districts and local governments using, or considering adopting, the microblogging service as their emergency notification system – muscling into TechRadium’s wheelhouse. “Honestly, that’s what got us the attention of Twitter,” said Shawn Staples, TechRadium’s attorney. “We don’t really give a damn about social networking. TechRadium is concerned that it developed these patents by extending a lot of time and money and is protecting its market.” Now the lawsuit, filed August 5 in a Texas federal court, could become a financial thorn in Twitter’s side. Heavily venture-funded, the free three-year-old microblogging service is working to find a business model. Patent law is complex, and legal experts interviewed by Threat Level declined to predict the outcome of the lawsuit, but they agreed it’s not a frivolous claim. TechRadium appears to have some legal legs to stand on in the nation’s first lawsuit attacking Twitter’s tweeting protocol. In fact, TechRadium has already used its patents to win a licensing agreement in a separate infringement case.

Source: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/patent-lawsuit-threatens-to-clip-twitters-wings/