"Three Strikes" and Verizon: Not Happening: Via Public Knowledge.

Yesterday’s CNET report that Verizon had secretly adopted a “three strikes” policy towards alleged copyright infringers had our office all atwitter last night - how could a charter member of our ad hoc copyright reform coalition be engaging in such radical activity? Well, it turns out they weren’t.

As their misquoted spokesperson explains here, what Verizon employs is a process for passing on warning notices to alleged infringers, but that process does not include automatic termination. My guess is that to the extent that she was talking about infringers having their internet access terminated, she was referring to people who had been adjudicated by a court to be infringing, and as such, they would be violating Verizon’s terms of service.

Passing on warning notices that do not involve deep packet inspection is a process for limiting infringement that PK wholeheartedly supports and which appears to be quite effective. [ Read more ... ]

Citigroup, law enforcement refute cyber heist report: Via Computerworld Cybercrime/Hacking News.

Citigroup says no system breach, no losses of customer or bank data, funds

Citigroup and a federal law enforcement source on Tuesday refuted a claim that the bank's customers lost millions of dollars in an advanced cyber heist over the summer, leaving lingering questions over details of the alleged attack.

According to a report in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, the FBI is investigating the theft of tens of millions of dollars from Citibank using malicious software created in Russia.

A source within federal law enforcement who declined to be identified said the Wall Street Journal story was inaccurate and appears to have confused a known 2007 hack of Citigroup-branded automated teller machines with a long-running criminal effort to hack online banking customers and move money out of their accounts.

"They've screwed up so many different things," he said. The FBI had no comment. [ Read more ... ]

Albert Gonzalez Enters Plea Agreement in Heartland, Hannaford Cases: Via Threat Level.

Albert Gonzalez, who has admitted hacking into TJX and other companies, has filed a plea agreement in charges that he breached Heartland Payment Systems, Hannaford, 7-Eleven and two other companies.

Under the terms of the agreement, Gonzalez, a former Secret Service informant, will plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers, and to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors have agreed to seek a sentence of no more than 25 years, to run concurrent with his sentence in two other pending cases. Gonzalez had agreed to ask the court for no less than 17 years in prison.

Gonzalez is currently facing a sentence of between 15 and 25 years in two combined cases out of Massachusetts and New York, involving the hacks of TJX and Dave & Buster’s restaurants. The New Jersey agreement would add two years to the minimum time he could seek. [ Read more ... ]

Salon Radio: Critical state secrets hearing today: Via Salon: Glenn Greenwald.

(updated below w/transcript - Update II)

[link to recorder fixed]

The case of Mohamed v. Jeppesen -- brought by five victims of Bush's torture/rendition program against the Boeing subsidiary that shipped them to be tortured -- was the Obama DOJ's first test of its commitment to restore basic accountability and the rule of law.  Back in February, it resoundingly failed that test when they demanded that the case be dismissed in its entirety by invoking the same radicalized version of the "state secrets" privilege which the Bush DOJ, to great controversy, repeatedly invoked.  That was the first sign that things would go terribly awry with Obama's rule of law and civil liberties record.  This warped rendition of the "state secrets" doctrine transforms it from a long-standing, simple evidentiary privilege (i.e., this specific document is too sensitive to use in the litigation) into a sweeping, dangerous shield of immunity for government lawbreaking (i.e., courts have no right to review the legality of the crimes we commit in secret). 

The Obama administration now insists that courts must dismiss lawsuits alleging presidential lawbreaking whenever the CIA Director claims the lawsuit would jeopardize state secrets; or, as the ACLU Brief puts it, "torture victims must be denied a day in court based on an Affidavit submitted by their torturers."  The Obama DOJ has gone on to invoke that same Bush-created version of the secrecy theory to demand dismissal of numerous other cases alleging various types of lawbreaking by the Executive Branch. [ Read more ... ]

Lawsuit Challenging Unconstitutional Spying Should Be Reinstated, Says ACLU: Via American Civil Liberties Union.

FISA Amendments Act Must Be Subject To Judicial Review

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief late Wednesday arguing that its lawsuit challenging an unconstitutional government spying law should be reinstated. The ACLU and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed the landmark lawsuit in July 2008 to stop the government from conducting surveillance under the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), which gives the executive branch virtually unchecked power to collect Americans' international e-mails and telephone calls by the millions, without a warrant and without suspicion of any kind.

"Allowing this case to move forward is essential to protecting innocent Americans' e-mail and telephone communications from dragnet, suspicionless government monitoring," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. "Without court oversight, individual privacy rights are left to the mercy of the political branches. The courts have not only the authority but also the obligation to ensure that individual rights are not trampled by overbroad surveillance laws." [ Read more ... ]

Fact Check on FOX News' Misleading PATRIOT Act Reporting: Via EFF.org Updates.

Unfortunately, it appears that the only television news network that's been regularly covering the PATRIOT Act renewal process in Congress has been FOX News, and their coverage has seemed a lot more like pro-PATRIOT propaganda than unbiased news reporting. Fortunately, Julian Sanchez of The Cato Institute has been fact-checking them closely, in this detailed blog post and in this illuminating video: [ Read more ... ]

IRAN ELECTION 2009 | Gathering the news about Iran's 2009 National election in one place.: Via IRAN ELECTION 2009.

IRAN ELECTION 2009 Gathering the news about Iran's 2009 National election in one place.
http://IranElection2009.com/

I just wanted to point out a site that is coming together to try and give a central place to get information about Iran's recent election. [ Read more ... ]

Internet billing plan is put off: Via Winston-Salem Journal:.

Triad was to be test market for Time Warner Cable's tiered-consumption system

Time Warner Cable has shelved its plans for a consumption-based Internet pricing structure, but the company said it may return to the idea in the future.

The Triad was to be one of four test markets for the plan, which was to start this fall. The announcement of the plan was met with complaints from consumers and government officials, who said that it would stifle creative growth on the Internet. Some bloggers also speculated that the plan was part of a scheme to discourage people from watching streaming videos online rather than watching Time Warner Cable on television, which Time Warner officials denied. [ Read more ... ]

Fusion Centers: Listen to Us Already?: Via ACLU Blog.

The ACLU’s been raising the alarm about fusion centers for a while now and it finally seems that public is slowly catching up with us. These post-9/11 phenomena have been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. Let’s catch you up.

In February, a "Prevention Awareness Bulletin" became public from a North Central Texas Fusion System. The bulletin warned of a conspiracy involving former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Muslim rights groups, anti-war groups, the U.S. Treasury Department and — wait for it — hip-hop groups. The same month, a "Strategic Report" from the Missouri Information Analysis Center listed supporters of third party candidates like Ron Paul and Bob Barr as a threat, claiming they were a part of the "modern militia movement."

The latest disturbing news is out of a Virginia fusion center. [ Read more ... ]

Fears of a Conficker meltdown greatly exaggerated: Via Network World.

With 60 Minutes airing a report on Sunday, some people are panicking, but researchers don't expect anything dramatic

Worries that the notorious Conficker worm will somehow rise up and devastate the Internet on April 1 are misplaced, security experts said Friday.

Conficker is thought to have infected more than 10 million PCs worldwide, and researchers estimate that several million of these machines remain infected. [ Read more ... ]

German Cops Raid Home of Wikileaks and Tor Volunteer - Update: Via Wired: Threat Level.

Eleven German police officers raided the homes of Wikileaks amicus Theodor Reppe Tuesday night in an emergency raid and seized an employer-issued laptop, following Wikileaks publication of the Australian government's list of banned websites.

Apparently, the Germans, like the Australians, want the list taken down.

The police claimed they were on the hunt for child pornography writings (.pdf) and were seeking to shut down wikileaks.de, a domain name the 22-year-old hacker purchased to help out the whistleblowing website. The German domain name simply redirects surfers to a web proxy in Sweden that points to Wikileaks' real servers, Reppe told Threat Level by phone. [ Read more ... ]

Google’s Move Into Behavioral Targeting Via CDT - PolicyBeta :

After several years of saying that it doesn’t target ads based on profiles of users, Google took a giant step into behavioral targeting by beginning to target ads on its AdSense network (although not on search or display advertising… but that only seems to be a matter of time at this point).

On the whole, the move raises concerns for privacy advocates. Industry has long promised improved self-regulation, but has only delivered on dribs and drabs of improvements. Until the whole process becomes more transparent to the consumer, as well as easier to understand, users are going to continue to be confused and wary of a business model that tracks their online usage. [ Read more ... ]

Pirate Bay Trial Ends; Verdict Due April 17 Via Threat Level :

STOCKHOLM -- The Pirate Bay trial wrapped up here Tuesday amid a media circus as attorneys for the four accused founders of the world's most notorious BitTorrent tracker proclaimed their clients' innocence to charges of facilitating copyright infringement.

One of the attorneys declared the 2-week trial a mockery.

"These kinds of abstract case are not supposed to be brought to the court at all," attorney Per E. Samuelson said during his argument. "The prosecutor has not managed to keep calm in light of the enormous pressure and lobbying from record and film companies." [ Read more ... ]

Music Executive Ridiculed at Pirate Bay Trial: Via Threat Level

Special correspondent Oscar Swartz reports.

STOCKHOLM – Laughter filled The Pirate Bay trial here Wednesday when John Kennedy, the chief executive of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries, testified that people would have purchased every music track they got free file sharing.

Kennedy answered an affirmative "Yes" to Pirate Bay defense attorneys when asked whether that was true. Bursting laughter could be heard from the audio room beside the courtroom where the trial's sound was being broadcast. [ Read more ... ]

RIAA Courtroom Webcast in Jeopardy: Via Threat Level

A judge postponed a Recording Industry Association of America file sharing hearing that was supposed to be webcast live Tuesday, amid doubts about whether the broadcast would be legal.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner of Massachusetts ruled (.pdf) Monday, "until the narrowcast issue is resolved," the hearing is delayed until at least April 30.

It would have been the first time an RIAA case was broadcast. Federal trial judges rarely allow photography or sound recording of live courtroom action.

The pretrial hearing concerns Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum whose attorney, Harvard University professor Charles Nesson, is challenging the lawsuit and the constitutionality of the Copyright Act, which allows penalties of up to $150,000 per infringed music track. [ Read more ... ]

Prosecution Baffled by Pirate Bay’s Anarchic Structure: Via Threat Level

Special correspondent Oscar Swartz reports.

STOCKHOLM -- Defendant Fredrik Neij took the stand as the landmark trial of The Pirate Bay continued Thursday, and left the prosecutor scratching his head over who is in charge of the BitTorrent site.

Three young computer geeks and one businessman face civil and criminal charges here for alleged contributory copyright infringement.  The three geeks -- Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde  -- are often referred to as "the good, the bad and the ugly.” Neij is the bad one: a tech whiz with unpaid parking tickets and tax debts, who overslept last Sunday’s Pirate Bay press conference.

Clad in a brown T-shirt with golden print, Neij appeared awkward in court as he struggled to explain the community nature of The Pirate Bay to a prosecutor who seemed unfamiliar with non-hierarchical organization. [ Read more ... ]

Prosecution Drops Some Charges Against The Pirate Bay: Via Threat Level

Special correspondent Oscar Swartz reports.

STOCKHOLM — Prosecutors dropped half of the charges in the landmark trial of The Pirate Bay file sharing site Tuesday, leaving observers stunned and prompting questions about the government's preparedness in the long-awaited criminal proceeding.

"I will drop all charges that relate to producing infringing copies and will hence restrict the prosecution to the act of making works available to the public," prosecutor Hakan Roswall announced at the opening of the second day of the trial. "When I talk about making something available to the public I mean making available torrent files."

At an intermission, Roswall refused to clarify the change of heart to reporters. "As you can see I have a lot of other things to think about," he said. "There will be new adjusted charges distributed on paper tomorrow, Wednesday." [ Read more ... ]

Half the Charges Against Pirate Bay Dropped: Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online

eldavojohn writes "Half the charges have been dropped in the second day of the trial against the Pirate Bay. The charges dropped are those relating to 'assisting copyright infringement,' so the remaining charges are simply 'assisting making available.' No information on how this affects the size of the lawsuit or a settlement."

Read Original Article ( Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online. )

Poll: Majority Want Investigations on Warrantless Wiretapping: Via EFF.org Updates

A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds that a clear majority of Americans favor at least some kind of investigation into whether Bush administration officials and policies violated the law.

Respondents were asked about whether there should be a criminal investigation, an investigation by independent panel — or neither — into questions of politicization of the Justice Department, torture and warrantless wiretapping. [ Read more ... ]

Leslie Harris: Internet Censorship: Dead or Just Dormant?: Via CDT on Huffington Post

In a little noticed action in late January, the Supreme Court put an end to the government's quixotic and wasteful ten-year effort to impose censorship on the Internet via a piece of misguided legislation dubbed, "The Children's Online Protection Act," or "COPA." The law placed severe restrictions on a wide range of legal, socially valuable speech, including content relating to sexual identity, health and art. Such content was covered by the law's definition of "harmful to minors" and criminalized any site that allowed minors access to that type of material.

But the law was never enforced because it was immediately challenged in the courts as a violation of the First Amendment. Yet the government stubbornly pressed on in a tortured and expensive procedural odyssey that took the case up to the Supreme Court and down to the trial court, over and over again. [ Read more ... ]

NSA Whistleblower on Credit Card Data Mining, Illegal Spying: Via Threat Level

Former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice shed new light on the Bush administration's warrantless domestic spying last week when he told MSNBC that the NSA blended credit card transaction records with wiretap data to keep tabs on thousands of Americans.

But Tice didn't say where the credit card information, and other financial data, came from. Did the agency scoop it in as part of its surveillance of U.S. communications backbones, or did financial companies give up your records in bulk to the NSA?.

The distinction is significant. Telecommunication companies, such as AT&T and Verizon, are embroiled in lawsuits over their alleged cooperation with the government's warrantless surveillance. If credit card companies and banks also provided information without a warrant, it's conceivable they could face a courtroom challenge as well. [ Read more ... ]

PwC Auditors Arrested In Satyam Fraud Inquiry: Via Slashdot

theodp writes "Indian police arrested two employees from the affiliate of PricewaterhouseCoopers who audited Satyam Computer Services, the IT outsourcing giant at the center of the nation's largest fraud inquiry. The move comes after Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju said he had fabricated $1 billion of assets and confessed to making up more than 10,000 employees to siphon money from the software company. State Farm Insurance has severed its ties with Satyam, citing uncertainty about the company's future as 'the only factor responsible for the termination of the contract,' which will reportedly affect at least 400 on-site Satyam employees. Other customers, including GE, are standing by Satyam, one of the top recipients of H-1B and L visas (so much for those $500 Fraud Prevention and Detection fees!)."

Read Original Article ( Via Slashdot. )

Whistleblower Reveals New Abuses of Wiretapping Power: Via EFF.org Updates

Last night, less than 48 hours after George Bush left office, whistleblower and former NSA analyst Russell Tice revealed new information about the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program:

.msnbcLinks {font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 425px;} .msnbcLinks a {text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px;} .msnbcLinks a:link, .msnbcLinks a:visited {color: #5799db !important;} .msnbcLinks a:hover, .msnbcLinks a:active {color:#CC0000 !important;}

Countdown begins the segment with an appropriate clip of Ex-President Bush's December 2005 talk on wiretapping, in which he claimed that the only communications being intercepted were those with "a clear link to terrorist networks."

Tice, in his role as an NSA analyst, quickly came to understand that this just wasn't true: [ Read more ... ]

Obama's Quick Response to Privacy Concerns: Via EFF.org Updates

The incoming Obama administration has impressed advocates of open government, first by making a clear commitment to answer FOIA requests with a presumption of openness, and now by responding quickly -- within 24 hours! -- to criticism from CNET blogger Chris Sogohian and others that the retooled WhiteHouse.gov is placing cookies on user computers via YouTube videos embedded on the site.

Sogohian's article discussed a problem raised by EFF last year: the fact that YouTube videos can place a cookie on the user's computer the moment the user visits a page with embedded video. This means that even before the user chooses to click the play button they have had their IP address shared with a third party. EFF developed a script, MyTube, that plugs this hole by using javascript to prevent the user's client from connecting with a third-party video-host until the visitor explicitly opts-in by clicking on the play button. [ Read more ... ]

First Federal Courtroom Webcast Postponed: Via Threat Level

The nation's first live steaming webcast of federal trial court action -- a pretrial hearing in a Recording Industry Association of America file sharing copyright case -– has been postponed.

A federal judge on Tuesday stayed(.pdf) enforcement of her ruling that set the stage for the live broadcast to stream Thursday.

Among other things, U.S. District Judge court Nancy Gertner agreed with the RIAA that the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals should review her precedent-setting ruling, which would allow the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University to livecast the hearing.

The hearing concerns a Boston University student challenging the RIAA's copyright infringement case against him. [ Read more ... ]