RIAA Filesharing Case to Go To Appeal
We all mourned the trial loss where the RIAA won a judgement of over $200,000 against a woman who claims she didn't even download anything. Whether she did or not, I support her appeal on the basis that $200k is excessive. Assuming she downloaded songs and shared them too, the amount of her penalty should be far closer to real .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: P2P, RIAAPrivacy Analysis of the “Protect America Act”
Cute names for bad laws aside, here's a solid report on the privacy implications of the "Protect America Act" and some recommendations on how to change it to make it acceptable.
.... [Click here to read the rest of this post]Tags: Big BrotherVerizon Wireless Bends to Dollars, Screws Customers
Verizon has issued a notice stating that unless you opt-out now, they will have the right to sell your data to whoever they want (including all the data of who you're calling). It's bad enough if the major telcos worked with the government to spy on us, but now they want to sell it to anyone and everyone? Are .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: Scams - Ripoffs - Dirty Tricks, VerizonBush Blackmails Congress
Bush is threatening to veto any wire-tapping bill that comes to him without language that retroactively provides immunity to the telecommunication companies (like AT&T) for their part in the illegal spying fiasco.
Has anyone else noticed or is refusing to sign a law because of a provision that technically has nothing to do with said law considered .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: Accountability, George BushAT&T and Apple Intentionally Broke Unlocked Phones?
Not surprisingly, a class-action lawsuit has begun against Apple and AT&T becuase of their firmware update that some claim was intentionally designed to break any iPhone that someone had unlocked.
The real problem here is that people really like the iPhone. As soon as it came out, busy hackers got to work unlocking it so it could be .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: Scams - Ripoffs - Dirty TricksBush Administration Bungles Formerly Successful Anti-terror Program
No I'm not talking about the illegal spying, but the case of the Al-Queda video that was discovered before it was publicly released. The problem is that the disclosure of the video alerted Al-Queda that their networks had been compromised. While I read about this news yesterday, what I didn't know was that it was the Bush administration .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: George Bush, LeaksOnStar Helps With Stolen Cars, Police Chases
I don't like OnStar. That said, here's an article about how OnStar can be used to remotely slow down and then disable stolen cars (particularly those involved in a high-speed chase).
I wonder how long it will be until they incorporate automatic ticketing for people who exceed the speed limit.
.... [Click here to read the rest of this post]Tags: OnstarVictory! All Three Companies to Offer Credit Freeze Protection!
Consumeraffairs is now reporting that the last credit reporting company, Experian, will now be offering credit freezes in all 50 states, just like the other two.
Credit freezes have always been the quickest, strongest, and most effective way to reduce identity theft. And while this is true:
All three credit bureaus had staunchly opposed credit freezes in .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]Public Citizen Still Protecting Online Speech – Go Guys Go!
One of my heroes is Paul Levy who spoke at the 2006 Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference in DC. He works at public citizen and is one of their main guns when it comes to protecting people online. You see, companies have this bad habit of bullying people out of their domain names or first amendment rights. Public Citizen .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: Funny, public citizen, Your RightsWalmart’s Failed RFID Plan
Because Walmart isn't addressing the privacy concerns with rfid, I can't help but cheer when I hear their efforts to get RFID into all their products has failed.
Wal-Mart's change of plan demonstrates the need for retailers and suppliers alike to tread carefully with RFID. As retailers such as Best Buy have observed, widespread adoption is .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]