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Cookie Clearinghouse pushes 'Do Not Track' another step
06.23.2013 8:22 AM
Stanford University has launched an online privacy initiative meant to
complement Do Not Track, an effort aimed at preventing sites from recording
people's Web browsing without permission.
Tweak your browser to show YouTube song lyrics
06.20.2013 7:07 AM
Available for all the major browsers, this handy extension lets you sing along to your favorite music videos.
U.S. states' attorneys general to take aim at Internet 'safe harbor' law
06.18.2013 1:26 PM
Frustrated by their difficulty prosecuting cases involving online content that is illegal or damaging to individuals, a group of state attorneys general are taking action. The group is circulating a draft letter that it plans to send to the U.S. Congress, pressing for an amendment to the federal law that currently broadly protects Internet publishers and service providers from responsibility for third-party content on their sites.
Microsoft unleashes bug bounty program — for betas, too
The software giant's bug bounty program will aim to fix security flaws, bugs, and vulnerabilities even before products are released.
Possibly related DDoS attacks cause DNS hosting outages
06.04.2013 1:05 PM
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that could be related have, in
the past few days, slammed the DNS servers of at least three providers of
domain name management and DNS hosting services.
In fog of browser wars, the victor varies with the metrics
06.02.2013 12:40 PM
NetMarketShare says Microsoft's IE is top dog, while StatCounter crowns Chrome the king in the competitive browser market.
Internet freedom group blasts proposed HTML5 standards
06.01.2013 8:16 AM
The Electronic Frontier Foundation says that stringent digital rights management technology will be harmful to online freedom.
Here we go again! Analyst says PC market will wait for Windows Blue
05.28.2013 1:54 PM
One analyst claims that PC buyers are simply waiting around for a better PC
experience - AKA Windows Blue - before they invest in a new Windows 8 PC.
A MINORITY VIEW
BY WALTER E. WILLIAMS
RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 2013
We Are the Idiots
Dr. Henry Miller, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Gregory Conko, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in their Forbes article “Rachel Carson’s Deadly Fantasies” (9/5/2012), wrote that her 1962 book, "Silent Spring,” led to a world ban on DDT use. The DDT ban was responsible for the loss of “tens of millions of human lives -- mostly children in poor, tropical countries -- have been traded for the possibility of slightly improved fertility in raptors (birds). This remains one of the monumental human tragedies of the last century.” DDT presents no harm to humans and, when used properly, poses no environmental threat. In 1970, a committee of the National Academy of Sciences wrote: "To only a few chemicals does man owe as great a debt as to DDT. ... In a little more than two decades, DDT has prevented 500 million human deaths, due to malaria, that otherwise would have been inevitable." Prior to the DDT ban, malaria was on the verge of extinction in some countries.
The World Health Organization estimates that malaria infects at least 200 million people, of which more than a half-million die, each year. Most malaria victims are African children. People who support the DDT ban are complicit in the deaths of tens of millions of Africans and Southeast Asians. Philanthropist Bill Gates is raising money for millions of mosquito nets, but to keep his environmentalist credentials, the last thing that he’d advocate is DDT use. Remarkably, black congressmen share his vision.
Wackoism didn’t end with Carson’s death. Dr. Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist, in his 1968 best-selling book, "The Population Bomb," predicted major food shortages in the United States and that “in the 1970s ... hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.” Ehrlich saw England in more desperate straits, saying, “If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000.” On the first Earth Day, in 1970, Ehrlich warned: “In ten years all important animal life in the sea will be extinct. Large areas of coastline will have to be evacuated because of the stench of dead fish.” Ehrlich continues to be a media and academic favorite.
Then there are governmental wacko teachings. In 1914, the U.S. Bureau of Mines predicted our oil reserves would last 10 years. In 1939, the U.S. Department of the Interior revised the estimate, saying that American oil would last 13 years. In 1972, the Club of Rome's report "Limits to Growth" said total world oil reserves totaled 550 billion barrels. With that report in hand, then-President Jimmy Carter said, "We could use up all proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade." He added, “The oil and natural gas we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are running out.” As for Carter’s running-out-of-oil prediction, a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office and private industry experts estimate that if even half of the oil bound up in the Green River formation in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado is recovered, it would be "equal to the entire world's proven oil reserves." That’s an estimated 3 trillion barrels, more than what OPEC has in reserve. Fret not. Carter, like Ehrlich, is still brought before the media for his opinion.
Our continued acceptance of environmentalist manipulation, lies and fear-mongering has led Congress to establish deadly public policies in the name of saving energy -- such as Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, which downsize autos and cause unnecessary highway fatalities. That’s on top of the stupid 1970s 55 mph laws. The next time an environmentalist warns us of a pending disaster or that we are running out of something, we ought to ask: When was the last time a prediction of yours was right? Some people are inclined to call these people idiots. That’s wrong. They have been successful in their agenda. It’s we who are the idiots for listening to them and allowing Congress to let them have their way.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
Proposed law would make reprogramming cellphone IDs a crimehttp://www.techhive....one-ids-a-crime.html
05.24.2013 12:46 PM
Reprogramming the identification number of a cellphone could be punishable with a prison sentence of up to five years under the terms of a proposed law announced Friday.
Unchain Your Phone With the Unlocking Technology Act
One law has tripped up security researchers and filmmakers, blocked
competition, outlawed phone unlocking, and undermined your right to make
backups of your videos and music. What's the culprit? It's the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, and it's chaining up your technology.
But now, after 15 years of unintended consequences, a great new bill in
Congress could finally fix many of its problems. We need to make sure this
bill gets the attention it deserves. Contact your legislators today to urge
them to support the Unlocking Technology Act.
We're opening a new front against secret IP treaties
In most issues of EFFector, we give an overview of all the work we're doing at EFF right now. This week, we’re taking a deep dive into a single issue: the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the role the United States Trade Representative plays in spearheading abusive copyright laws in the U.S. and around the world.
I’m Danny O’Brien, EFF’s new International Director. Five years ago, I worked on the EFF team that identified the threat of ACTA, a secret global intellectual property treaty we discovered was being used to smuggle Internet control provisions into the laws of over thirty countries. Together with an amazing worldwide coalition of activists from Europe to South Korea, we beat back that threat.
I’m writing to you today to explain what's happening with the new ACTA: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). TPP has been around since the Bush administration, but recently the pace has picked up, with governments saying they want to get the agreement signed and done by the end of this year.
Global activism can stop TPP, but preventing the endless merry-go-round of new IP treaties means tackling the problem at its roots. I'd like to describe what we're doing on both those fronts, and how you can help. But first, I'd like you to meet this gentleman:
Meet Michael Froman: The Most Important Man in Global Copyright:
This is Michael Froman, and barring a scandal, he's about to be the new United States Trade Representative (USTR). The U.S. Trade Representative negotiates international trade agreements on behalf of the United States. Congress has one opportunity to ask him questions at his nomination hearing.
They should take full advantage of it. Right now, the only reason the public knows anything about what the USTR is doing on IP is that whistleblowers participating in the treaty process have leaked what they can. (Congressman Darrell Issa re-published the leaks on his own office site, over the USTR's objections).
Those documents show that the American proposals for the Trans-Pacific Partnership would export the worst of modern U.S. copyright law, and thwart other countries' ability to create laws that best meet their domestic needs:
The proposed rules could prevent individuals from circumventing DRM—the technical barriers put in place to make copying, accessing, and sharing copyrighted content more difficult. This would hinder technical fixes necessary to make content accessible for the blind or to unlock your phone.
It contains provisions that would, by default, regulate "temporary" reproductions of copyrighted files, thereby restricting all kinds of intrinsic functions of your computer.
It increases copyright terms well beyond international standards, adding some 20 years to copyright terms worldwide, potentially robbing the public domain of decades of cultural works.
In many countries, an allegation of infringement is not enough to get material taken offline. TPP’s proposals, by contrast, put in place a system (similar to the one we have in the U.S.) that encourages ISPs to take down content based on nothing but a notice. We’ve seen how that can be abused here—do we really want to export it wholesale?
Treaties like this also help to fossilize existing U.S. law and force other countries to sign up for American missteps. Momentum in D.C. for rolling back copyright terms and DRM law is growing, but opponents of those changes have argued that lawmakers can't undo their own mistakes—because, they say, we've already signed onto IP trade agreements that we supposedly can't undo.
What We're Doing
We're asking U.S. senators to use the nomination process to grill Froman about the USTR’s IP plans, and we’re petitioning him directly to adopt meaningful transparency and stop using trade agreements to push aggressive IP programs worldwide.
Could Froman really reform U.S. trade agreement strategies? Yes, but only if he and the Administration face coordinated pressure from American politicians and citizens plus resistance from other countries pushing back against American demands.
Which brings us to why EFF's Maira Sutton and Katitza Rodriguez are remotely working right now—from Lima, the capital of Peru.
Yara TPP!
Starting today, the U.S. Trade Rep and negotiators from 10 other countries are meeting in Lima to take part in the latest round of negotiations for TPP.
We beat them there. Kat is our International Rights Director. She's also Peruvian. She's spent the last month in Lima working with fellow Peruvian technologists, makers and artists, highlighting how TPP will affect them. She has been working with the other groups fighting TPP on the ground, including Hiperderecho, Peru's own digital rights activism group.
The result? An explosion in information and public debate in Peru about TPP. Kat has written Spanish language editorials, met with Peruvian politicians, journalists, students, free software advocates and filmmakers. Lima's hackerspace, Escuelab, hosted a two-day hackathon that produced memes and microsites that explain TPP to fellow Peruvians and the world. There's even the inevitable Peruvian TPP Downfall video. Other hackerspaces took part around the world, producing sites with titles like http://whythehecksho...careaboutthetpp.com/.
The slogan and hashtag of Peruvians' digital rights activists is "#yaratpp", a slang term which means (roughly) "Warning! TPP!". Peruvians have joined the fight at Nonegociable.pe, asking their President to set clear non-negotiable lines to ensure that Peruvians' fundamental freedoms are respected in the TPP negotiations.
Help Us Stop the TPP – and the IP Treaty Tarpit
The TPP negotiators are on deadline in Lima. They've already said TPP's IP chapter is one of the "more challenging issues that remain." It's more challenging still when the host country is demanding to know why this trade agreement would undermine local entrepreneurs and artists. Meanwhile, politicians back in the U.S. are demanding a closer look at their head negotiator's IP stance.
Like battling ACTA, stopping the TPP and its descendants is going to be a long-term fight that will take a worldwide effort. But you can help us today by taking advantage of the Froman nomination to speak truth to power.
Sign our petition demanding that Froman usher in a new age of transparency as the next U.S. Trade Representative:
Stop USTR Secrecy
https://www.eff.org/stop-ustr-secrecy
If you’re in the U.S., please also send a message to your representative to demand an end to these secret backdoor negotiations:
Don’t Let Them Trade Away Our Internet Freedoms
https://action.eff.o...lic/?action_KEY=8229
And if you're in Peru, join Hiperderecho and tell the Peruvian president that our digital rights are non-negotiable:
Pidamos juntos límites no negociables
http://www.hiperdere...ites-no-negociables/
Stay tuned to the Deeplinks blog for more updates on the fight for sensible global copyright policy.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks
Defending your digital rights around the world,
Danny O’Brien
International Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Adobe releases critical security updates for Reader, Flash Player and ColdFusion
05.14.2013 11:59 AM
Adobe has released scheduled security updates for its Reader, Acrobat, Flash Player and ColdFusion products on Tuesday in order to fix many critical vulnerabilities, including one that is already actively exploited by attackers.
The proper care and feeding of SSD storage
05.13.2013 3:02 AM
Treat a solid-state drive like its mechanical cousin and you could end up in a world of pain. Here's how to handle these exotic beasts.
Porn troll case prompts ISPs to fight to protect customer IDs
05.12.2013 12:35 PM
Cox, AT&T, other ISPs are fighting a court order in a copyright case, seeking to protect BitTorrent users from a legal fishing expedition.
Several major ISPs embroiled in a copyright lawsuit with an adult film copyright holder are appealing a ruling in the case that could permit hundreds of innocent subscribers to be harassed by copyright trolls.
Appeals court ruling could be 'death' of software patents
05.10.2013 1:13 PM
A U.S. appeals court has ruled that an abstract idea is not patentable simply because it is tied to a computer system, signaling what one judge described as the "death" of software and business method patents.
The ruling in CLS Bank v. Alice gives "staggering breadth to what is meant to be a narrow judicial exception" on patent ineligibility, she wrote. "And let's be clear: if all of these claims, including the system claims, are not patent-eligible, this case is the death of hundreds of thousands of patents, including all business method, financial system, and software patents as well as many computer implemented and telecommunications patents."
Senate passes Internet sales tax
05.06.2013 10:44 PM
The U.S. Senate has voted to allow states to collect sales tax from online retailers, making it more difficult to buy tax-free products online.
Pentagon accuses China government, military of cyberattacks
05.06.2013 7:50 PM
China's government and military appear to be directly involved in cyberattacks against the U.S., according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Defense.