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| Authored by: mbouckaert on Wednesday, January 23 2013 @ 03:25 PM EST |
Just received this RSS
Maybe this "civic hacking day" should be named after Aaron?
The contrast
between inviting creativity and rewarding it
with threats of 35 years in jail
couldn't be stronger.
---
bck [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 23 2013 @ 05:00 PM EST |
PJ: The ringleaders were arrested beginning in 2010, and victims
were still losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in
2012? And prosecutors in
MA were wasting time hounding Aaron Swartz???
Big difference, the
76Service/Gozi three are only the code master-minds, and they went to great
lengths to conceal their operation.
Each botnet operator could buy from them
customized code for their particular victim-set/bank combination. The Trojan was
first
discovered early 2007, and will go on causing trouble for as long as the
botmasters, possibly hundreds of them, can go on picking
up unsecure victims.
More details at krebs on security .
In contrast Swartz' case was
open-and-shut. He made no serious attempt to conceal his activities, in spite of
what the
indictment claimed. The delay came from the Feds bewilderment that he
wouldn't come clean and 'fess up.
Similarity with
the Swartz case was
somebody made up some numbers as the "value" of the JSTOR articles, so on paper
Swartz and the Gozi gang had
both stolen a sum in dollars.
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 23 2013 @ 06:13 PM EST |
Honouring Aaron Swartz, Internet
Activist
The Internet community has been reeling for the
past
week as it grapples with the suicide of Aaron Swartz, a
prominent digital
rights activist who left a remarkable
legacy for a 26-year-old. Swartz's
contributions are used by
millions of people every day as he played a key role
in
developing the specifications for RSS (which makes it easy
to syndicate
online content), Creative Commons licenses
(which makes is easy to make
creative works freely
available), and the popular website
Reddit.
Michael
Geist, The Tyee[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 12:25 AM EST |
Microsoft won't release study that
challenged success of Munich's Linux migration
I imagine this
study was commissioned to use in negotiating tactics against customers who were
demanding "cut your price or we'll switch to Linux". The customer says "Linux is
cheaper than Windows", and Microsoft replies "no it isn't, here's my study that
proves it".
A number of very large customers have been using Linux as
a bargaining tactic to ratchet down their Microsoft licensing costs, but they
don't have serious plans to actually switch. Microsoft will use this study to
call their bluff. The customer will either have to go through with their threat
(to switch to Linux), or else back down and accept the price that Microsoft is
demanding.
These sorts of commissioned studies are common in the IT
business. You can determine what the results of an "independent study" will be
by setting the assumptions that go into it. At one time studies like this would
be published publicly (e.g. ads which would say "download your Windows TCO white
paper here"). Today however, they quickly get torn to shreds by the blogosphere.
The new tactic is to only hand them out to the people they are actually targeted
at, as these people rarely have the resources to spend on refuting
them.
The problem with using Linux as a stick to beat Microsoft with is
that it only works if just a few people are using it. Once everyone starts using
it, then Microsoft will view the loss of revenue due to lower prices as more of
a problem than the loss of a few customers to Linux. If it causes a few of those
customers to eventually actually go through with their threats, then it's a good
thing.
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 02:24 AM EST |
Last month, Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi noted the absurdity of HSBC
bankers skating on serious drug money laundering charges while hundreds of
thousands of Americans sit behind bars for petty drug offenses.
The Secret
Service's involvement in hunting down a 26-year-old charged with downloading too
many scholarly articles is just another example of our justice system's
chillingly warped priorities.
Steven Hsieh, Rolling Stone[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: SilverWave on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 02:37 AM EST |
Brady
disclosure
Response to @RadleyBalko: Why Loser Pays
in
Criminal Law is a Loser---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 03:16 AM EST |
In our first post, we presented some initial thinking about how
to fix the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and wire fraud law in light of
the tragic prosecution of Aaron Swartz.
Now we present part two:
suggestions to address the CFAA's penalty structure. The CFAA, which is
the primary federal computer crime law, allows for harsh punishments and makes
too many offenses felonies. The statute is also structured so that the same
behavior can violate multiple provisions of the law, which prosecutors often
combine to beef up the potential penalties.
So once again we're
showing our work, even as we continue to tinker.
Cindy Cohn and Marcia Hofmann, EFF[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 10:01 AM EST |
| Hamed Al-Khabaz - My Appeal to You! #HamedHelped
1'51"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUG65Xun1XM [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: raiford on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 10:24 AM EST |
| http://www.livemint.com/Companies/R3ejpyW3GZBmyVWUbg3t
hO/Alan-Cox-No-2-in-Linux-world-resigns.html [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: albert on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 10:39 AM EST |
| Link
""I was impressed by how smart the Justices were. These
were people who very thoroughly understood the issues and thought quickly on
their feet. They were interested in long-lasting effects and classics, I doubted
many cared much for Mickey or Steamboat Willie. It’s sad we don’t have this
level of intellectualism and intelligence in the rest of our government today.""
- Aaron Swartz
This echoes my thoughts when I did some informal
research on the backgrounds of the 5th Federal Circuit judges. IIRC, there was
one Computer Science degree, lots of IP experience both in gov't and in
industry, and the usual BA or AB degrees. Most of them were fairly young. Just
for fun, I did the same for SCOTUS. There were no tech degrees, no IP
experience, just AB or BA degrees, and the judges are much
older.
Isn't it interesting that Supreme Court justices manage to hit
the nail on the head most of the time, despite the lack of tech or IP
backgrounds? IP experience seems to negatively affect 5th Circuit
decisions.
Despite their conservative leanings, I've got a lot more
respect for the Supremes than I used to have.
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 02:45 PM EST |
Newspick.
Aleynikov (PDF) says
email
does not violate 18 U.S.C. 2314 (transportation of stolen goods) but Kerr thinks
amendment to make it so would
raise[..] all sorts of complex
conceptual problems for when data counts as being “stolen.”
Hello?
Isn't this conceptual problem of the "theft" of data very close to Square One?
Observe that the concept of theft is not defined in 18 U.S.C. 1030 (CFAA),
unless we consider §2 B (iii) "the value of the information obtained exceeds
$5,000;" Kerr lifts this to $50,000 in his
proposed amendment to 18 U.S.C. 1030,PDF but he appears to think
the
concept of theft of data can only occur in the situation of theft as a servant,
leading him to propose a new code 18 U.S.C. 1031.PDF
Swartz' actions might be considered similar to
picking up one of every free sample at a Trade Show, to take home to Mom.
Aleynikov on the other hand was
allegedly engaged in Grand Larceny, and the
Stolen Goods and Economic Espionage laws gave bigger jail time than CFAA. Then
we have the curious case of
Auernheimer, who started off demonstrating a flaw
in AT&T's data storage, but then by his words and deeds moved to malicious
acts and possible criminal intent.
How should he be dealt with?[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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- TWOCing - Authored by: Wol on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 07:32 PM EST
- TWOCing - Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 08:25 PM EST
- What About the Insiders? - Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 25 2013 @ 10:24 PM EST
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2013 @ 06:57 PM EST |
Article link.
I wondered about about the potential for something
for a bit now and the bit that's presented in the newspick raises that thought
anew.
Now - lots of us having been speaking out on a number of reasons as
to why software should fall into non-patentable subject matter.... or even does
depending on just which point of view one examines. The Supreme's have shown -
by quote - that they actually take the time to read various blogs. As a result,
they most likely have wandered across any number of the discussions which will
have been tiny seeds planted and being nurtured.
It wouldn't be
unreasonable that the Federal Circuit - having seen some of those blog quotes -
have started exploring the blogosphere as well if they hadn't been doing that
already.
Given the direction and focus the Supreme's have had on patents
recently, the thought goes along the lines:
The Federal Circuit - which
seemed for some time to be quite patent friendly (a possible illusion given my
limited exposure) - may see a reasonable potential future where the Supreme's do
actually rule that since software is abstract - after all it is nothing more or
less then a language - and abstract is not patentable, software (as are all
languages such as English) is therefore not patentable.
As a result -
in an attempt to preserve some measure of patentability - the Federal Circuit
has been more active in finding patent invalidity in areas of Patent Law such as
obviousness so they can turn the attention away from the subject of
patentability.
As I said - it's just a thought.... albeit a rather
interesting one. And I'll likely never know just how close (or far away) from
reality it really is.
RAS[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, January 28 2013 @ 10:51 AM EST |
Re: Obama's Techies Want To Open Source Their Work, But Politicians Want To Keep
It Secret
However, to open source it MIGHT BE a better option. As than other Democrats
-traditional who want to run against some other democrat in a primary, or even,
a run by another democrat (one who is not exactly favored by the
"established bosses"), or, let the Independent, Progressive, etc,
other parties and canidates have at it too (without having to first have the
blessing of someone who is IN CONTROL of it).
The parinoia mindset of CONTROL is a virus by itself. Think Stalin. Central
Control is not what OPEN SOURCE is all about.
It is wise that ALL can use it.
Is that not good for the process... any game should have a level playing field
from bottoms to top, and off to the sides.
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