Saturday, December 3, 2005

Gay News From 365Gay.com - Judge Rejects School Claim It Could 'Out' Gay Students To Parents (Los Angeles, California) A federal judge Thursday rejected an Orange County school district's claim that it was within its rights to reveal a student's sexuality to her parents. The ruling turns down a motion by the Garden Grove Unified School District to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the student, Charlene Nguon. In its motion to dismiss the case, the school claimed that Nguon did not have a legal interest in keeping her sexual orientation private because she was affectionate with her girlfriend at school. The court disagreed, ruling that Nguon can proceed with her legal claim that the principal violated her constitutional privacy rights. 1:35:23 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

IE bug lets hackers phish with Google Desktop. IE bug lets hackers phish with Google Desktop. An Israeli hacker has demonstrated how a bug in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser can be used to steal personal information from Google Desktop users. [Computerworld Privacy News] 1:32:10 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

WROC TV NEWS 8 NOW ROCHESTER NEW YORK - Judge says random bag searches may continue A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that the NYPD's random searches of bags and backpacks on city buses and subways is constitutional and may be allowed to continue. In August, the New York Civil Liberties Union filed suit, arguing that the searches were an invasion of people's rights to privacy. 1:29:01 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

SignOnSanDiego.com - 7,800 linked to USD told of network security breach The University of San Diego has notified almost 7,800 individuals, including some faculty members, students and vendors, that hackers gained illicit access to computers containing their personal income tax data. The compromised data included names, Social Security numbers and addresses, according to a letter signed by Douglas Burke, the private Catholic university's director of network and systems operations. The undated letter aggravated many recipients, though, because it provided no details about the breach and offered no specific recommendations on steps they could take to protect their personal banking and credit accounts. "It's one of the worst security breach notice letters I've ever seen," said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a San Diego nonprofit consumer group once affiliated with USD. 1:25:19 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

First RIAA Lawsuit to Head to Trial. First RIAA Lawsuit to Head to Trial.  mamer-retrogamer writes  "Out of 14,800 lawsuits the RIAA has filed in the past two years, none have gone to court - until now. Patricia Santangelo, a divorced mother of five living in Wappingers Falls, New York, found herself the target of an RIAA lawsuit and vows to contest it. Santangelo claims that she knows nothing about downloading music online and the likely culprit is not her but a friend's child who used her computer. The RIAA disagrees."  [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 1:09:12 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

eWeek - ACLU Joins Fight Against Internet Surveillance The ACLU charged in a petition to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the ruling goes beyond the authority of CALEA, which specifically exempted information services. "The ACLU seeks review of the CALEA order on the grounds that it exceeds the FCC's statutory authority and is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, unsupported by substantial evidence, or otherwise contrary to law," the organization charged in its petition. Bolstering the challengers' position, the FCC decided last year that Internet communications like those offered by Pulver.com fall under the regulatory classification of "information services" and therefore are not subject to traditional telephone mandates. 1:05:18 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

ACLU Joins Fight Against Internet Surveillance. ACLU Joins Fight Against Internet Surveillance. aychamo writes "The American Civil Liberties Union today joined an expanding group of organizations filing lawsuits against a new rule that increases the FBI's power to conduct surveillance on the Internet. The rule being challenged is one the Federal Communications Commission adopted in September, granting an FBI request to expand wiretapping authority to online communications.he ACLU charged in a petition to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the ruling goes beyond the authority of CALEA, which specifically exempted information services. "The ACLU seeks review of the CALEA order on the grounds that it exceeds the FCC's statutory authority and is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, unsupported by substantial evidence, or otherwise contrary to law," the organization charged in its petition." [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 12:36:36 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

French Government Lobbied to Ban Free Software Friday November 18th, 2005, French Department of Culture. SNEP and SCPP have told Free Software authors: "You will be required to change your licenses." SACEM add: "You shall stop publishing free software," and warn they are ready "to sue free software authors who will keep on publishing source code" should the "VU/SACEM/BSA/FA Contents Department"[1] bill proposal pass in the Parliament. It appears that publishing Free Software giving access to culture is about to become a counterfeiting criminal offence. Will SACEM sue France Télécom R&D research labs for having published Maay and Solipsis (P2P pieces of software used to exchange data)[2]? Up to this point, the rather technical debate surrounding the issues addressed by DADVSI bill (copyright and neighbouring rights in the information society) makes one ask: Just how much control do the Big Players in the field of culture want to seize? It now looks like years of quibbling have put an end to compromises. What should have been the last meeting of CSPLA[2] Sirinelli Commission turned into an arranged battle dealing with the "VU/SACEM/BSA/FA Contents Department" bill. EUCD.INFO[4] cofounder Christophe Espern, representing Creative Commons France, had to argue for 13 hours to defend the right of Free Software to exist, but he lost the argument. The preliminary conclusions seem to regret that the bill "cannot be proposed by CSPLA in before the deadline." Maybe the new meeting scheduled today, November 25th, 2005, at 6:30pm, in the offices of the French Department of Culture, aims to impose the text ? [*] "Havoc is breaking loose," says Christophe Espern. "How can people possibly both pretend to defend culture and then want to ban the only software giving universal access to it? Actually, the contradiction may be only superficial: I think what they are truly after is the control of the public... culture is just a excuse." 12:34:57 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

France Hostile To Open Source Software? France Hostile To Open Source Software? -  AdamWeeden writes "According to the Free Software Foundation of France the French Department of Culture is telling free (as in speech) software providers that 'You will be required to change your licenses ... You shall stop publishing free software,' and warn they are ready 'to sue free software authors who will keep on publishing source code.'" ---  From the post:  "It appears that publishing Free Software giving access to culture is about to become a counterfeiting criminal offence. Will SACEM sue France Télécom R&D research labs for having published Maay and Solipsis (P2P pieces of software used to exchange data)? Up to this point, the rather technical debate surrounding the issues addressed by DADVSI bill (copyright and neighbouring rights in the information society) makes one ask: Just how much control do the Big Players in the field of culture want to seize? It now looks like years of quibbling have put an end to compromises." ---  More information on the DADVSI bill is available at Infos-du-net.com. They've come a long way since last year. [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 12:31:31 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Hackers Publish Two Windows Exploits. Hackers Publish Two Windows Exploits. Microsoft has posted fixes for both flaws, but an IE bug remains unpatched. [PCWorld.com - Latest News Stories] 12:25:07 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Son of the £300 ID card - the £290 ID scheme propaganda DVD. Son of the £300 ID card - the £290 ID scheme propaganda DVD. Home Office venture rocks entertainment world... Should the entertainment industry panic about the Home Office's shock entry into DVD production? Probably not, if figures revealed this week by Home Secretary Charles Clarke are anything to go on. In answer to a parliamentary question from Tory Home Affairs spokesman David Davis, Clarke said that so far a whopping 250 copies of his ID card propaganda film Passport to Perdition* had been produced at a total cost of £71,892.96, inc VAT. [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 12:23:09 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Location Privacy: 3, Warrantless Cell Phone Tracking: 0. Location Privacy: 3, Warrantless Cell Phone Tracking: 0. When we recently reported that the DOJ had chosen not to appeal two court decisions that forcefully rejected its secret requests to track cell phones without probable cause, we expressed our fear that the government would keep trying to secretly convince other judges to grant these illegal orders while avoiding appellate review. Well, that fear has now been confirmed by a newly-issued third court decision denying a DOJ request for a cell-tracking order, a request that was made after the DOJ chose not to challenge the other two decisions. This time, a federal magistrate judge in Maryland has followed the lead of judges in New York and Texas by refusing to allow the feds to track people's movement via a cell phone unless the government can at least meet the requirements for a search warrant. Even though there are now three published decisions rejecting the government's arguments and none supporting them, we're aware of at least one other case where the DOJ is still pushing for authorization to track a cell phone without a search warrant. At this point, one has to wonder: how many public trips to the woodshed is it going to take before the DOJ either stops seeking these orders, or is willing to subject its claims to appellate court scrutiny? I think we're going to find out soon enough--at this rate, we'll have a dozen new denials by the spring! [EFF: Deep Links] 12:20:39 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

North Carolina Illegally Certifies Diebold E-voting System. North Carolina Illegally Certifies Diebold E-voting System. Board of Elections Ignores Rules to Escrow Code, Identify Programmers Raleigh, North Carolina - The North Carolina Board of Elections certified Diebold Election Systems to sell electronic voting equipment in the state yesterday, despite Diebold's repeated admission that it could not comply with North Carolina's tough election law. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) believes that this raises important questions about the Board of Elections' procedures as well as the integrity of Diebold's bid for certification. In all, three companies were certified for e-voting in North Carolina: Diebold, Sequoia Voting Systems, and Election Systems & Software. However, Keith Long, an advisor to the Board of Elections who was formerly employed by both Diebold and Sequoia, has said that "none of them" could meet the statutory requirement to place their system code in escrow. Instead of rejecting all applications and issuing a new call for bids as required by law, the Board chose to approve all of the applicants. "The Board of Elections has simply flouted the law," said EFF Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "In August, the state passed tough new rules designed to ensure transparency in the election process, and the Board simply decided to take it upon itself to overrule the legislature. The Board's job is to protect voters, not corporations who want to obtain multi-million dollar contracts with the state." Last month, Diebold obtained a broad temporary restraining order that allowed it to evade key transparency requirements without criminal or civil liability. The law requires escrow of the source code for all voting systems to be certified in the state and identification of programmers. Diebold claimed that it could not comply because of its reliance on third-party software. Monday, responding to EFF's arguments, a judge dismissed Diebold's request for broad exemptions to the law and told Diebold that if it wanted to continue in its certification bid, it must follow the law or face liability. Diebold had told the court that it would likely withdraw from the bidding process if it was not granted liability protection. But instead, Diebold went forward with the certification bid. Diebold's certification now means it is permitted to sell e-voting equipment in North Carolina. But Zimmerman says that any county that buys from Diebold is taking a risk. "If Diebold's certification is revoked, counties using their equipment could be left holding a very expensive bag," Zimmerman said. Despite Long's assertion, at least one Diebold competitor -- Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software -- has publicly stated that it is capable of meeting the escrow requirement for the code used it its system. For more on the judge's decision Monday: http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_11.php#004203 Contact: Matt Zimmerman Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation mattz@eff.org [EFF: Breaking News] 12:18:23 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Security Fix - Researcher: IE Flaw Allows Data Theft / Brian Krebs on Computer and Internet Security - (washingtonpost.com) A security researcher has published information showing that a previously unknown design flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could be used by malicious Web sites to steal sensitive information from IE users' computers. Israeli hacker Matan Gillon says he's discovered that an unpatched security hole in IE could allow a Web site to see files on the visitor's computer that store data about the user's relationship with other Web sites. In a detailed analysis published on his Web site, Gillon demonstrates how the hack could be leveraged to steal data on the victim's machine indexed by Google Desktop Search, a free program that allows users to quickly find a variety of files on their computers. The problem is not with Google's software, which contains several built-in security measures to ensure that data cached by its software cannot be read by anyone other than the user. Gillon's research shows that if an IE user is already logged on to a Web-based service -- such as Gmail or Hotmail, for example -- a malicious Web page could execute certain operations in the user's account, such as opening e-mails and relaying them back to the site's owner for remote viewing. "This discovery has implications that go far beyond the Google trick," said Tom Liston, a senior analyst for Intelguardians, an information security consulting group in Washington. "Over the next few days I think weâo[dot accent]re going to see a lot of people coming out and saying the Google Desktop thing was kinda cool, but that there are far more dangerous implications." 12:16:50 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

IE Bug Lets Hackers Phish With Google Desktop. IE Bug Lets Hackers Phish With Google Desktop. Hacker could scan your hard drive and steal sensitive info. [PCWorld.com - Latest News Stories] 12:12:16 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

EFF - Updated Sony BMG DRM Spotter's Guide. Updated Sony BMG DRM Spotter's Guide. Spotting Sony BMG's DRM in the wild can be challenging. While many have a standardized disclosure box on the back, CDs with the SunnComm MediaMax software have a far wider array of indicia; notably stickers on the front and, less helpfully, fine print on the back. To help out the amateur DRM spotter, we have put together a slideshow illustrating the various methods, along with a picture compilation of variations of SunnComm's MediaMax software labeling on CDs. Out of the over 250 titles listed on the SunnComm support site (see the pull down menu for "The CD in Question."), we were able to confirm that the following CDs are Sony-BMG (or a sublabel) releases that are labeled on the package as having SunnComm MediaMax aboard: Alicia Keys, Unplugged (Standard) Angie Stone, Stone Love Babyface, Grown & Sexy Backstreet Boys, Never Gone Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Howl Charlie Wilson, Charlie Last Name Wilson Dave Matthews Band, Stand Up David Gray, Life in Slow Motion Eve 6, It's All in Your Head Imogen Heap, Speak for Yourself J-Kwon, Hood Hop Jim Brickman, Grace Kasabian, Kasabian Kings of Leon, Aha Shake Heartbreak Maroon 5, Live Friday the 13th My Morning Jacket, Z Pink, Try This Santana, All That I Am Sarah McLachlin, Bloom Remix Silvertide, Show and Tell Soundtrack, XXX: State of the Union Stellastar, Harmonies for the Haunted Velvet Revolver, Contraband There may be many more. See the our full list of CDs affected and possibly affected by MediaMax. [EFF: Deep Links] 12:10:55 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []