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“Knocked Up” Movie Knocked Around by Lawsuit 2007-06-06 19:12:26 &ldquo
;Knocked Up&rdquo
; director/writer Judd Apatow and Universal Studios have been hit with a lawsuit for copyright infringement. Rebecca Eckler, author of a 2004 book entitled “Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-be”, learned of Apatow’s project when she was attempting to sell the movie rights to her book. The Apatow script, she claims, has a picture of a martini glass with a pacifier around the stem. This is the same imagery as the cover of her book. Eckler goes on to claim that the movie takes significant parts of her memoir which explains her accidental pregnancy. The main character in the movie, who is a television reporter, shares similarities to the main character in the book who happens to be a newspaper reporter.
Eckler gave Canada’s Macleans a rather long and full account of her side of the story:
Before my lawyer dumped me, we did get a response back from the lawyers representing Universal Studios and Judd Apatow, basically telling us Read more:Lawsuit
Reporter Arrested for Asking Question at Press Conference After GOP Debate 2007-06-06 18:19:55 Matt Lepacek, a freelance reporter for Infowars was arrested last night after the republican debate for asking a question to Rudy Giuliani’s press secretary. The press secretary identified Lepacek to police, who then arrested him for criminal trespassing. Lepacek was not being overly aggressive, he did not threaten the secretary, and he did not come into physical contact with the secretary as is evident in the video footage from the event. Lepacek had the proper CNN press credentials to be present at the debate. Despite this, his video feed, a hand held camera, was taken by a staff member who then shut it off. This arrest is a blatant violation of the First Amendment. The JonesReport has been in contact with the police station where Lepacek is being held, and they have further details about the arrest. The video clip of Lepacek’s arrest can be found below:
Read more:Reporter
, Question
, Press
, Debate
, Press Conference
Google Street View sparks privacy concerns 2007-06-06 01:13:53 Google launched its new Street
View feature this week for Google Maps. This new map feature offers panoramic views at street level. Street View was launched in Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, and Google touts the benefits of easily finding places and understanding neighborhoods. Blogs and Internet sites such as Wired and Streetviewr are full of images from Street View revealing people in potentially embarrassing positions: Stanford University coeds sunbathing in bikinis, men leaving strip clubs, a woman bent over exposing her thong, a man picking his nose. These candid photos highlight a growing concern over privacy issues surrounding this new service.
Google spokeswoman Kate Hurowitz told the Cincinnati Post by e-mail that Google takes privacy seriously. “Street View only features imagery taken on public property and is not real time,” she said. “This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see wal Read more:Google
, concerns
Michael Moore Appears on Oprah Today for Sicko Film 2007-06-05 15:26:46 Michael Moore
is set to appear on the Oprah
Winfrey show today to discuss his new film, Sicko
. Moore has drawn criticism for his actions in the film which will be released this month on June 29th. In Sicko, Moore takes a number of 9/11 relief workers to Cuba to receive health care. These workers have suffered from a number of severe respiratory and other problems without U.S. government support for their needs. Aside from the typical Moore flair, the film will discuss and highlight the shortcomings of the American healthcare system. Moore will show some clips for the film on the Oprah Winfrey show. Here is the official trailer for the movie:
Read more:Michael
, Appears
, Today
, Michael Moore
How to not get sued by the RIAA or MPAA (updated 2007) 2007-06-05 14:30:48 Not being sued by the RIAA or the MPAA is relatively easy. Although the 20,000+ people sued by the RIAA and the 6,000+ people sued by the MPAA might beg to differ, this is but the tip of the iceberg of the file sharing community. These methods are not 100% fullproof, but following steps can help you drastically reduce your chance of being sued:
Turn off the “Supernode” option in your P2P client (Kazaa, Kazaa Lite, etc). From the Kazaa website: “Being a Supernode helps other users. Other computers connect to you, and your computer does the searching for them. Your Supernode communicates with other Supernodes worldwide to help other users search.” The RIAA and MPAA find it much easier to target users who are willingly assisting the file sharing process.
Limit your amount of seeds or shared files. Don’t share hundreds (or thousands) of files simultaneously. Users who make it their fulltime job to file share gigabytes or terabytes of files on P2P networks are e
British Graves to be Re-used for Burials 2007-06-05 14:16:09 The BBC writes that graves filled at least 100 years ago can be re-used under government plans to ease pressure on cemetaries. FTA:
In a technique called ‘lift and deepen’ old graves will be deepened with room for up to six new coffins to be placed on top of the older remains. Families could refuse permission for their ancestors’ graves to be re-used for ‘at least another generation’. But once the deeper graves have been used once there will be no time constraints on when subsequent bodies are buried in them.
“For example no grave should normally be re-used unless the last burial took place at least 100 years before. And families should have the opportunity to defer re-use of their relatives’ graves for at least another generation.” Read more:British
, Graves
British Civil Liberties Film, Taking Liberties, Opening June 8th 2007-06-05 12:07:09 The BBC reports on a new British
civil liberties film takes a hard look at the ‘dangerous erosion of traditional rights and freedoms under Tony Blair.’ Here is a brief synopsis from Real Movie News:
As our politicians talk about liberty, democracy and the war on terror, we are ignoring what’s actually happening here at home. Our own freedoms have been completely eroded by governments willing to shred history. This film examines how Britain’s government has undermined five key civil rights guaranteed by the Magna Carta and the European Convention on Human Rights. Everything is shown straight from the headlines, and yet the real truth overturning nearly a thousand years of freedom and democracy. And opening us up to a real possibility of ruthless tyranny. Read more:Civil
, Liberties
, Taking
You may become medical guinea pig without knowing it 2007-06-04 14:24:24 An increasing number of people are unwillingly becoming medical
test subjects. These new treatments may be jeopardizing a person’s safety in life or death situations. Federal guidelines now allow emergency workers to experiment on patients receiving emergency care who are unconscious or too injured to consent to these tests. Researchers at the University of Washington have been studying new treatments for patients in need of emergency care. They claim the experimental procedures are potentially safer than existing treatments and protocols. Researchers argue that this research is needed in order to improve medical care. You can read the full article at the Seattle Times. Read more:guinea
, knowing
, guinea pig
Will Photo Tagging Become a Privacy Issue? 2007-05-30 11:50:52 The Harvard Law Review has published a short article on the implications of photograph tagging and facial recognition. FTA:
When with close friends, people seldom present the same face they how to the rest of the world. But what if even the unguarded — and perhaps indiscreet — moments between friends were captured in pictures nd instantly available across the world in digital form? And what if a computer in some distant room could identify the faces in each picture to create a searchable database — a fully indexed catalog of life, captured in still frames? That technology is here. The effect of this technology, which creates an automatic, searchable pictorial documentary of one’s life, is multiplied by a dramatic change in how young people use photos stored on the Internet as a defining part of their everyday lives. The sales of digital cameras have exploded in recent years, with new camera phones alone generating an additional twenty-nine billion images in 2004. Billions of p Read more:Photo
, Tagging
, Become
, Privacy
Flickr Censored in China 2007-06-09 17:42:58 Popular photo sharing site Flickr
is being blocked in China
. Stewart Butterfield, in a Friday posting on the Flickr site, said the blocking continued after it was first discovered Thursday. The site has ruled out technical problems. Flickr said that it did not directly blame the Beijing government, which aggressively controls and censors material on the internet. The firewalling began Thursday and is keeping internet users in China from viewing photos on Flickr. Flickr is home to a number of images that the Chinese government is known to frown upon, including photographs of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.
Flickr left the following message on their forums:
It seems that access to our image servers is being blocked for users in much of China. Our technical staff has looked into this at depth and determined this is not a technical issue from our end. We will keep an eye on the situation and update if we get any developments.
Flickr users all across China have posted messages Read more:Censored
Bill Introduced to Re-Legalize Internet Gambling 2007-06-09 17:09:10 Almost a year ago today, Congress passed the Security and Accountability For Every Port Act of 2006. Attached to this bill was the Unlawful InternetGambling
Enforcement Act of 2006. The Act prohibits the transfer of funds from a financial institution to an internet gambling site. This essentially shut down most forms of online gambling such as poker in the United States (with the exception of fantasy sports, online lotteries, and horse racing) because companies were unable to receive payments from their customers.
Now, lawmakers (and even Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul) want to reverse the Act. “In the end, adults ought to be able to decide for themselves how they spend the money they earn themselves,” said Rep. Barney Frank, the Democratic chairman of the House Financial Services committee. Rep. Frank is a primary backer of the legalization effort. Frank has introduced a bill in that would replace the current broad restrictions with precise and strict
Server Downtime 2007-06-09 16:30:45 We apologize if you have been having difficulties connecting to the site. We determined that none of our php or java was causing the problems, and it turns out that our host is having some issues with the server this site is hosted on. We are back online now and the problem has been fixed. Thanks. Read more:Downtime
TorrentSpy Ordered By Judge to Become MPAA Spy 2007-06-09 16:26:15 In a decision made late last month but sealed until Friday, a court has ordered TorrentSpy (a BitTorrent search engine) to create and keep site logs detailing its users’ activity on the site. TorrentSpy is to then turn over the logs to the MPAA. The EFF is currently reviewing the court decision.
Early in 2006, the MPAA filed suit against several file sharing companies. The MPAA says that TorrentSpy was sued for allegedly facilitating pirated file downloads. The MPAA says Torrentspy helps others commit copyright infringement by directing people to sites which enable them to download copyright material. The MPAA says this is secondary copyright infringement. At the time, a TorrentSpy lawyer said “It [TorrentSpy] cannot be held ‘tertiary’ liable for visitors’ conduct that occurs away from its web search engine”. TorrentSpy claims it did nothing illegal and suggested the MPAA should sue Google (pdf):
…everything alleged about defendants’ website (torrentspy Read more:Judge
, Become
Video: The Tank Man 2007-06-09 02:11:57 This month marks the 18th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. We found an amazing video documentary linked on Digg about the legendary Tank Man and surrounding events of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:
Appeals Court Rules Cops Can Steal Cars and Lie to Victims To Conduct a Warrantless Search 2007-06-08 16:45:16 Ascension Alverez-Tejeda and his girlfriend drove up to a traffic light. As the light turned green, the car in front of them lurched forward, then stalled. Alverez-Tejeda managed to stop in time, but the truck behind him tapped his bumper. As Alverez-Tejeda got out to inspect the damage, two officers pulled up in a police cruiser and arrested the truck driver for drunk driving. The officers got Alverez-Tejeda and his girlfriend to drive to a nearby parking lot, leave the keys in the car and get into the cruiser for processing. Just then, out of nowhere, someone snuck into their car and drove off with it. As the couple stood by in shock, the police jumped into their cruiser and chased after the car thief with sirens blaring. The police then returned to the parking lot, told the couple that the thief had gotten away and dropped them off at a local hotel.
The whole incident was staged. DEA agents learned that one of the leaders of a drug conspiracy was dealing drugs out of his car Read more:Appeals
, Court
, Rules
, Steal
, Victims
, Conduct
, Search
iPhone not affected by Qualcomm ban 2007-06-08 10:16:18 Apple’s new iPhone
will not be affected by a new cellphone ban that restricts imports of new cellphones made with Qualcomm
chips. The International Trade Commission (ITC), a federal agency, has banned imports of any new phones made with Qualcomm chips because they violate a patent held by Broadcom. The ban does not apply to the iPhone because Apple decided to not include third-generation (3G) cellular data networking technology in the iPhone. The ITC found that Qualcomm had infringed on patents owned by Broadcom last October, but until present it was relatively unclear what sort of action would be taken.
With this ban, Apple may be in a position to move even more units that previously though. The ruling is a blow to Qualcomm, to wireless handset makers like Motorola and Samsung, and to service providers like Verizon Wireless, SprintNextel and AT&T. The ruling by the ITC goes into effect immediately. Qualcomm, Verizon, and other companies are attempting to have the rul
Research Institute Tries To Patent Life — Well, Sort of 2007-06-07 22:46:13 The Venter Institute
, named after its founder and CEO who spearheaded the private sector race to map the human genome, has applied for patent that would essentially give them ownership of a free living organism that can grow and replicate constructed entirely from synthetic DNA.
Science writes:
The work involves a simple bacterium called Mycoplasma genitalium that Venter’s eponymous institute in Rockville, Maryland, has been tinkering with for years. An early goal was to determine the minimum number of genes for life, and in 1999, scientists there published a rough tally. Now, they want to synthesize this “minimal genome” from scratch, get it working inside a cell, then add genes that would enable the bug to crank out hydrogen or ethanol to produce cheap energy (Science, 14 February 2003, p. 1006). The Venter Institute describes this plan in a patent application filed last October and published on 31 May by the U.S. Patent
Office.
The ETC Group, a technology wa Read more:Research
, mdash
10 year sentence for teen convicted of receiving consensual sex challenged 2007-06-07 15:42:21 Genarlow Wilson (now 21) was sentenced to 10 years in prison for receiving consensual oral sex from a 15 year old girl when he was 17. Wilson’s lawyers recently asked an appellate judge to throw out the aggravated child molestation sentence saying that the punishment is disproportionate to the crime. MSNBC writes that defense attorney B.J. Bernstein noted that state lawmakers passed a law to close a loophole that led to Wilson’s sentence. However, prosecutor Paula Smith argued that the new law cannot be applied retroactively.
The sentence Wilson received has even been denounced by members of the jury that convicted him. The author of the 1995 law that put Wilson behind bars disagrees with Wilson’s punishment. “The law was designed to protect kids against really, really bad people doing very bad things,” said the sponsor, former state Rep. Matt Towery, a Republican. “It was never intended to put kids in jail for oral sex.”
Wilson
Comcast, Cox, Verizon, Roadrunner Take Steps to Begin Charging for E-mail 2007-06-13 00:11:14 Some of the largest ISPs in the United States have begun to support Goodmail, an email and authentication service that charges money in exchange for guaranteed delivery of email. Goodmail then splits the money with your ISP. These four ISPs join AOL and Yahoo! who are already members of the CertifiedEmail program.
Although sending certified mail through Goodmail is currently optional with ISPs, this service rides a slippery slope that could one day lead to ISPs charging for all email sent. Since Goodmail shares its revenue, it reduces the incentive for ISPs to waste man hours improving spam filters when they could just be charging you to send your certified email. Certified mail increases the incentives for ISPs to over-block incoming email, and this reduces the chances that you receive legitimate email and forcing you to turn to certified mail. Worst hit would be groups with large mailing lists who face the choice of paying up or not having their emails successfully delivered.
Read more:Comcast
, Verizon
, Charging
Security flaws found in Safari on Windows 2007-06-12 14:59:33 A whole host of different security vulnerabilities and flaws for Apple’s Safari
browser are popping up all over the net.
Security researcher Aviv Raff claims to have found the first security vulnerability in Apple’s Safari browser on Windows
mere hours after the software was first released. He says:
A first glance at the debugger showed me that this memory corruption might be exploitable. Although, I’ll have to dig more to be sure of that. Again, this is just a beta version.. But, don’t you hate those pathetic claims [of security]?”
Errata Security, a consulting and product testing company also finds problems with Safari:
I’d like to note that we found a total of 6 bugs in an afternoon, 4 DoS and 2 remote code execution bugs. We have weaponized one of those to be reliable and its different that what Thor has found. I can’t speak for anybody else but the bugs found in the beta copy of Safari on Windows work on the production copy on OSX a
Long time friends involved in lawsuit over Chicago Bears tickets 2007-06-12 09:58:01 Donald Ramsell and Douglas Warlick’s friendship had become strained in recent years as they argued over tailgating tactics and who would drive to ChicagoBears
games. So when it seemed like Douglas Warlick wouldn’t come through with the tickets for this year, Donald Ramsell did what came naturally: he sued.
“He’s a lawyer. I’m a lawyer,” said Ramsell, a DUI lawyer who is representing himself in court. “The courthouse is where you go when you have a dispute. I’m not going to let somebody muscle me out of my tickets.”
Warlick, a family-practice attorney who has held the tickets since 1985, was shocked when he learned of the lawsuit from a reporter. “I’m still in shock. That’s so obnoxious, so immature,” Warlick said. “He could’ve just picked up the phone. I think ’sad’ is an appropriate word for somebody who does something like that.”
The suit Ramsell filed Ma Read more:Chicago Bears
EFF Privacy Advocate Photographed by Google’s Street View 2007-06-12 00:30:13 You’ve got to see this. EFF’s staff attorney Kevin Bankston has been spotted on Google
’s Street
view smoking a cigarette. The funny thing is, this isn’t the first time! A few years ago, Bankston was photographed by Amazon’s A9 service smoking a cigarette at the time that he was trying to conceal his smoking from his family.
Read more:Privacy
, Advocate
, Photographed
States rebel against Real ID Act 2007-06-11 23:53:37 Four states have passed laws that reject federal rules regarding a national identification system. This casts serious doubt on the future of the 2005 Real ID Act that goes into effect in December 2009. New Hampshire and Oklahoma joined Montana and Washington state in the passage of statutes that refute guidelines set forth in the Act. However, these actions could eventually lead to drivers licenses issued in these states to not be accepted as official identification when boarding airplanes or accessing federal buildings. In addition to these four states, members of the Idaho legislature intentionally left out money in the budget to comply with the Act.
The Real ID Act raises serious privacy concerns, but there is disagreement about whether the Act will actually institute a national identification card system or not. The new law only sets forth national standards, but leaves the issuance of cards and the maintenance of databases in state hands. Some claim that this does not const Read more:States
, against
Privacy group slams Google’s performance 2007-06-11 23:04:12 London-based Privacy
International has assigned Google
its lowest possible rating. The group is trying to intensify the recent focus on Google’s handling of personal information about its users. None of the other 22 companies surveyed (including Yahoo and Microsoft) obtained ratings as low as Google.
Google’s deputy counsel Nicole Wong responded to the rating by Privacy International. “We are disappointed with Privacy International’s report, which is based on numerous inaccuracies and misunderstandings about our services. It’s a shame that Privacy International decided to publish its report before we had an opportunity to discuss our privacy practices with them.”
A statement issued by Google states that it aggressively protects its users’ privacy and stands behind its track record. Last year, Google successfully fought a U.S. Justice Department subpoena demanding to review logs of millions of search requests from its users. Google also ha
Which ISP’s are spying on You? 2007-06-11 22:49:39 Wired has a great article about internet service providers and their privacy policies. From the article:
Wired News, with help from some readers, attempted to get real answers from the largest United States-based ISPs about what information they gather on their customers’ use of the internet, and how long they retain records like IP addresses, e-mail and real-time browsing activity. Most importantly, we asked what they require from law-enforcement agencies before coughing up the data, and whether they sell your data to marketers. Read more:spying
Maine Becomes the First State to Pass Internet Neutrality Legislation 2007-06-16 10:37:53 Maine has become the first state in the union to pass legislation on net neutrality. The resolution, LD 1675, recognizes the importance of “full, fair and non-discriminatory access to the Internet
” and instructs the Public Advocate to study what can be done to protect the rights of Maine internet users.
Lawmakers and consumer advocacy groups had nothing but good things to say about the resolution:
“Maine is the first state in the nation to stand up for its citizens’ rights to a nondiscriminatory internet,” said Senator Ethan Strimling, the original sponsor of LD 1675. “The rest of the nation should follow suit and study what can be done to protect net neutrality.”
Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union said, “Maine is once again leading the way in protecting the rights of its citizens. This resolution will help re-establish the internet as the free and open arena of democracy it was always intended Read more:Maine
, First
, State
, Neutrality
, Legislation
YouTube to Begin Using Video Fingerprinting 2007-06-15 22:23:36 The AP writes that YouTube
will begin testing video recognition technology in conjunction with Time Warner and Disney. Testing will begin next month in hopes that the software, designed to recognize copyright content in videos, will be ready to roll out later this year, the company said. Google, which now owns YouTube, had agreed to implement some kind of technology to identify copyright content on its site so it can remove pirated content or negotiate with owners for a license.
Although much of YouTube’s videos are home-made, copyright content from such partners as CBS and NBC also attract viewers. In March, Viacom, which no longer owns CBS, sued YouTube and Google for more than $1 billion in a federal complaint alleging YouTube hasn’t done enough to prevent its users from posting thousands of copyright clips to the site. YouTube stated that it had already started using audio recognition technology from Audible Magic in an attempt to block unauthorized content or pa Read more:Fingerprinting
Judge Orders FBI to Release Abuse Records 2007-06-15 21:31:50 A judge has ordered (pdf) the FBI
to release agency records about its abuse of National Security Letters (NSLs) to collect Americans’ personal information. The ruling came just a day after the EFF urged (pdf) the judge to immediately respond in its lawsuit over agency delays. This is the same case in which an internal FBI audit found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years.
EFF sued the FBI in April for failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about the misuse of NSLs as revealed in a Justice Department report. More evidence of abuse was uncovered by the Washington Post, and EFF urged the judge Thursday to force the FBI to stop stalling the release of its records on the deeply flawed program. The Washington Post writes:
An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency r Read more:Judge
, Release
, Records
Microsoft Signs Deal with Linspire 2007-06-15 21:01:49 The AP writes that Microsoft
announced it will license instant messaging and digital media technology to Linspire, adding to a growing number of deals that are meant to assist the Windows operating system work more smoothly with open source software. The deal comes as a bit of a surprise as the two companies have clashed in the past. Microsoft cost Linspire $20 million to switch its original name, Lindows, to Linspire under a trademark infringement settlement. Kevin Carmony, the Linspire CEO, said that settling the trademark lawsuit took care of any problems between the two companies.
“For me personally, Linux in its formative years was about, ‘The reason you should pick Linux is, it’s not Microsoft,’” said Carmony. “I’m beyond that,” he said, which is why he said he approached Microsoft a year and a half ago to explore possible deals. Linspire will license Microsoft code related to Voice over Internet Protocol, Windows Media files
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