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Wednesday, May 02, 2007
 
  How green is your machine?
Apple Macs may be the hippest looking computers on the market, but they are the least environmentally friendly, according to Greenpeace.

Google says Viacom lawsuit threat to Internet use - USATODAY.com
Viacom's copyright infringement suit against Google and its YouTube video-sharing unit strikes at the heart of how the Internet works, Google argued Monday in a U.S. federal court filing.

Hackers set traps on broad websites - USATODAY.com
Ordinary websites are fast-becoming a top security threat for PC users.

Broadband Over Power Lines - Is It for Real?
While broadband services have penetrated a large portion of the United States, many rural communities still have few options beyond dial-up. Forty-four percent of dial-up subscribers live in rural areas. Only 23 percent of rural residents subscribe to broadband services. This low broadband penetration is not due to lack of demand.

'Ignore the US copyright bullies'
Internet law professor Michael Geist says countries should resist US bullying tactics over copyright and intellectual property.

Wi-fi laptop fears for children
Computers with wireless internet should not be placed on children's laps, says the head of the government's committee on mobile phone safety research.

Warning over 'talking CCTV' plans
Talking CCTV cameras, due to be installed in 20 areas across England, may be a 'bridge too far', the UK's Information Commissioner has said.

YouTube fights Viacom legal bid
Google has asked a US court to dismiss a $1bn (£500m) copyright action from entertainment giant Viacom Media, saying it is a threat to the internet.

Dell to use Ubuntu on Linux PCs
Computer maker Dell has chosen Ubuntu as the operating system for its range of Linux computers for consumers.

DVD DRM row sparks user rebellion
Attempts to gag the blogosphere from publishing details of a DVD crack have led to a user revolt.

Google pushes U.S. states to open public records - CNN.com
By providing free consulting and some software, Google is helping state governments make reams of public records that are now unavailable or hard to find online easily accessible to Web surfers.

SABC sued for R13m in soapie music row
The producer of Generations, Mfundi Vundla, and the SABC are being sued for more than R13-million by the composer of the soap opera’s theme music.

Credit act could be good for those who have been blacklisted
The National Credit Act, which comes into effect in June, will provide some relief for people who have been blacklisted.

ISPA membership grows
The Internet Service Providers Association of SA (ISPA) increased membership by 23% between February 2006 and February 2007, doubling its growth from the previous year. In the 2005/6 year, ISPA grew 12%, the association says in a media statement.

GigaLaw.com Daily News: Women Bloggers Facing Sexual Threats Online
As women gain visibility in the blogosphere, they are targets of sexual harassment and threats. Women, who make up about half the online community, are singled out in more starkly sexually threatening terms -- a trend that was first evident in chat rooms in the early 1990s and is now moving to the blogosphere, experts and bloggers said.

Internet Pharmacy Agrees to $300,000 Settlement
An Internet pharmacy in Duluth, Minn., has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle civil charges of fulfilling prescriptions that did not comply with federal regulations. The settlement resolves a civil lawsuit filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin against Falk's Woodland Pharmacy Inc., the attorney's office said.

Companies Face "Brandjacking" Online, Report Says
Corporate brands face multipronged assaults from fraudulent online attackers, according to a report published that quantifies the scope of the most common threats. MarkMonitor, which supplies Internet brand protection services to companies, said its new 'Brandjacking Index' found cybersquatting -- in which illicit sites usurp popular trademarks -- false association, phishing and click fraud as major threats.

Google Says DMCA Protects It in Viacom Copyright Suit
A lawsuit filed against Google by Viacom, the New York entertainment giant, threatens the way hundreds of millions of people exchange information on the Internet, Google asserted in legal documents filed this evening. In an 11-page response to Viacom, Google said Viacom's suit 'challenges the careful balance established by Congress when it enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.'

Judge Gives Man Lower Offense Risk in Net Sex Case
A man convicted of second-degree attempted rape for arranging on the Internet to have sex with an undercover police officer he believed to be a 14-year-old girl has successfully contested New York's proposed Level 2 sexual-offender risk assessment. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Laura A. Ward instead imposed the less restrictive Level 1 assessment, finding that, absent actual sexual contact, defendant Christopher Boncic's e-mails and text messages did not constitute a 'continuing course of sexual misconduct' and the resulting stricter assessment.

durham region news: ajax, pickering, whitby, oshawa, scugog, uxbridge and clarington newspapers
Hundreds of new charges have been laid against a fraud suspect and his wife after Durham cops busted the two as they allegedly broke his bail conditions.

Data breaches worry firms - 25 Apr 2007 - Computing.co.uk
A new report has found that a significant proportion of firms are concerned that a data breach could put them out of business.

Bank Associations Plan Lawsuit Over TJX Data Theft
Bank associations in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine said they will sue TJX Cos. over a data theft that exposed at least 45 million credit and debit cards to potential fraud. Banks have been saddled with costs to replace cards and cover fraudulent charges tied to the theft from TJX, the owner of nearly 2,500 discount stores including T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.

GigaLaw.com Daily News: Legislation Aims to Lower Internet Radio Fees
A bill introduced in Congress aims to overturn a controversial royalty fee increase that Internet radio advocates say threatens to cripple their services. The 'Internet Radio Equality Act,' introduced by Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Don Manzullo (R-Ill.), would invalidate a March 2 decision by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board that calls for raising royalty rates paid by Net radio operators.

Lawsuit Seeks to Uncover Identify of E-mail Harvesters
A company representing Internet users in more than 100 countries was expected to file a lawsuit in Virginia seeking the identity of individuals responsible for harvesting millions of e-mail addresses on behalf of spammers. The suit was to be filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on behalf of Project Honey Pot, a service of Unspam Technologies LLC, a Utah-based anti-spam company that consults with private companies and government agencies.

SABC cans 'I have a dream' ad: South Africa: News: News24
The SABC has refused to broadcast the Sowetan's Freedom Day campaign, based on 'three opinions' that 'it borders on hate speech'.

Viacom Admits Mistake Over Parody on YouTube
Activist groups dropped a federal lawsuit against Viacom Inc. after the parent of Comedy Central acknowledged it made a mistake by asking YouTube to yank a parody of the cable network's 'The Colbert Report.' Although the video in question contained clips taken from the television show, the groups argued that their use was protected under 'fair use' provisions of copyright law, and thus Viacom shouldn't have asked YouTube to remove the item.

Warner, Bertelsmann Settles Charges Over Napster
Warner Music Group and Bertelsmann have settled a lawsuit regarding Bertelsmann's involvement with Napster's music service in 2001, both companies announced. Bertelsmann will pay $110 million to Warner Music, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Yahoo China Ordered to Delete Links to Music Sites
A Beijing court has ordered Yahoo China to delete links to free Web sites offering music-downloads and to pay about 200,000 yuan ($27,200) for facilitating distribution of unlicensed songs by other sites, Xinhua news agency reported. But in the ruling published on a Chinese Web site linked to the Court, Beijing's No. 2 Intermediate Court said Yahoo China should bear some responsibility for the copyright infringement, although the music was downloaded from servers of third-party Web sites.

Telkom cornered on ADSL
Telkom will need to take a machete to its ADSL pricing structure and radically improve speeds on the service within the next 18 months should it win a pay-TV licence.

Gay couple sue adoption website- from Pink News- all the latest gay news from the gay community - Pink News
Michael Butler and Rich Butler, a gay couple from San Jose, have got approval to go ahead with a discrimination suit against an adoption web site.

MacBook hacked in contest at security event | CNET News.com
Macaulay, a software engineer, was able to hack into a MacBook through a zero-day security hole in Apple's Safari browser. The computer was one of two offered as a prize in the 'PWN to Own' hack-a-Mac contest at the CanSecWest conference here.

No data stolen in 2006 computer intrusions, says Commerce Dept.
Unknown intruders last year managed to infect 33 computers belonging to a bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) with data-stealing Trojans and other malware.

Websites Look to "Fingerprinting" to Fight Video Piracy
Can 'fingerprinting' bring a truce to the Web's video-copyright wars? The technology is based on the premise that any video content has unique attributes that allow it to be identified even from a short clip -- just as a human fingerprint identifies a person.

State May Make It Illegal to Text-Message While Driving
Washington may become the first state to impose a specific ban on reading or sending text messages while driving, according to the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures. Washington state's measure, which Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire is expected to sign into law, brings attention to the practice of texting while driving, which many lawmakers say is more dangerous than talking while driving.

More Cyberattacks Using Corrupt Microsoft Office Files
Cyberspies have a new secret weapon: tainted Microsoft Office files. A rising number of cyberattacks are taking aim at specific individuals at critical government agencies and corporations -- enticing them to unwittingly open a corrupted Word, Excel or PowerPoint file sent as an e-mail attachment.

Mapping Out a Data Protection Plan
Most of the hacking we hear about involves individuals breaking into systems for private information. What we don't hear is hackers breaking into a system and sabotaging data. Companies that experience a breach are reluctant to report it, fearing the effect on public image or market valuation.

Hacker Exposes Security Hole in Mac's Safari Browser
A hacker managed to break into a Mac and win a $10,000 prize as part of a contest started at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver. In winning the contest, he exposed a hole in Safari, Apple's browser.

Privacy Groups Complain to FTC About Google-DoubleClick Deal
Online privacy groups filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission seeking to block Google's $3.1 billion bid for online advertising firm DoubleClick unless the world's largest search engine agrees to greater consumer privacy protections. The complaint alleges if the deal is allowed to go unchecked, Google will have the unprecedented ability to 'record, analyze, track and profile' the activities of Internet users, a charge both Google and DoubleClick were quick to deny.

Domain Speculators Target Killings at Virginia Tech
Just hours after a student at Virginia Tech went on a killing spree that claimed 33 lives, speculators began snatching up domain names related to the shooting. Dozens of people registered sites like vatechbloodbath.com, virginiatechmurders.com and blacksburgmassacre.com, and several of the names went up for sale on eBay later that day.

Judge Refuses to Dismiss Google Keyword Lawsuit
A U.S. judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Google that charges the Web search leader's AdWords program abuses trademarks. In making his decision to allow the case to move forward, U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled that the public has an interest in whether AdWords, the company's popular pay-per-click advertising system, violates U.S. trademark law.

Caterpillar says computer equipment containing employee data stolen
Caterpillar Inc. said late Friday that a laptop computer containing personal data on employees was stolen from a benefits consultant that works with the company.

Attack code published for 'critical' Photoshop flaw - Print this article - ZDNet.co.uk
Security vulnerability could allow users' systems to be taken over, although the threat is described as 'limited'

Deputy found guilty in spyware case
A judge convicted a suspended Monroe County sheriff's deputy Tuesday of using spyware to eavesdrop on his neighbor's computer.

Music industry wins UW IDs in file-sharing case
As many as 53 UW-Madison students could be slapped with lawsuits by the music recording industry after a federal judge on Wednesday ordered the university to surrender their names and other information for sharing digital music files over the Internet.

Four plead guilty in auction software piracy scheme | InfoWorld | News | 2007-04-26 | By Grant Gross, IDG News Service
Four men have pleaded guilty in U.S. court in Wisconsin to selling copyrighted software on eBay.com, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Five years jail for ID theft
DISHONEST use of identity information will become a crime under new laws, with penalties of up to five years jail for a range of offences including on-selling personal data.

Germany Halts Online Computer Spying by Intelligence Agents | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 27.04.2007
German intelligence agencies have stopped secret Internet monitoring of suspects' computers. Germany's Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble remains in favor of the controversial practice, but will wait for a legal ruling.

The European Parliament approves new, stricter anti-piracy directive | NordicHardware
The European Parliament voted yes on the new controversial directive Ipred 2 which concludes that all kinds of infringement of the intellectual copyrights will be considered criminal.

SMEs need e-mail policies too
Small and medium enterprise must take proactive action to protect against the liability that arises out employees' abuse of e-mail, says Buys director, Reinhardt Buys."

 

 

 

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