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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 13 Issue 27
Volume 13, Issue 27 Atari Online News, Etc. July 8, 2011
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2011
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1327 07/08/11
~ ISPs Target Web Pirates ~ People Are Talking! ~ TSA Agent Is Thief!
~ Atari Sues Bootleggers ~ EU Upset By Microsoft! ~ CES Keynote: Ballmer!
~ South Korea Web Attacks ~ PSN Restored This Week ~ Web Access A Right?
~ Public Domain Law Fight ~ YouTube's Cosmic Panda ~ Players Control Story!
-* Spammers Are Shifting Focus! *-
-* Government Facilities Are Targets! *-
-* Italian Police Raid Notorious Hacker Group *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I don't know about you, but watching or reading the news these days is
just plain sickening. Major stories, local news - it doesn't really
matter! The Whitey Bulger case will be a 3-ring circus, guaranteed.
Casey Anthony is found not guilty of murdering her daughter, although I
have to admit that this crime story is/was a mess. Politicians acting
like idiots (take your pick!). Politics in general - idiotic! The
problem is that what little "good" and interesting news is buried among
the crap, and less focus is a sad result. It's disgusting.
Now, I try to be a realist as much as I can. I know that there are a lot
of good things going on in this country, and in the rest of the world.
Is it a reality that the bad outweighs the good and "demands" more
attention? I just don't know. Do you? Yes, only a short rant this
week; it's too depressing to delve into it deeper!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - PSN Back to Normal This Week?
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Letting Players Control Story!
PlayStation 4 in 2012?
And more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
PlayStation Network To Be Fully Restored This Week
Sony's PlayStation Network will end its 11-week outage when it fully
restores service in Japan on Wednesday.
Sony experienced a cyber attack on April 20 that took down the PlayStation
Network and Qriocity service, compromised 77 million users' private
information and cost the company about $170 million.
Sony previously announced deadlines for recovery, including an announcement
on April 21 that it might be "a full day or two" before PSN was restored.
On May 1, Sony Executive Deputy President Kazuo Hirai promised restoration
by the end of that week. Two weeks later, on May 14, the company announced
the first phase of the network's resumption. And most recently, on May 30,
Sony promised full restoration by the end of the week.
For the sake of Sony's integrity, we can only hope that this is the final
announcement for complete resumption of its service - it surely has a
number of challenges to overcome in regaining users' trust.
The company has also extended its welcome back program until Tuesday,
July 5 at 12 p.m. ET. The program enables all users who had signed up prior
to the outage to select two free PS3 games and two free PSP games.
Is Sony Releasing the PlayStation 4 in 2012?
It looks like the next-generation console wars are heating up. Sony is now
rumored to be preparing the PlayStation 4 for a 2012 launch, according to
a new report.
Perhaps more interesting, though, is that the PlayStation 4 may boast body
movement controls as one of its core features, something that Microsoft
pioneered with the Kinect.
Production for the device is rumored begin at the end of 2011, according
to Digitimes. The device is being manufactured by Foxconn and Pegatron
Technology. Sony intends to ship at least 20 million units, according to
the report.
Sony used to be the king of gaming consoles with the PS1 and the PS2.
However, Nintendo took the crown from Sony with the Wii and its innovative
motion controls. Microsoft struck back with the Kinect last year, one of
the fastest-selling devices in history. At the same time, Sony latched onto
the motion control craze with the PlayStation Move, a system that combines
motion capture with a wand-like controller. More than 8 million Move
controllers have been sold since its launch, but it still trails the Kinect
by a large margin.
We've heard rumors about a potential 2012 unveiling of the PlayStation 4,
but never that Sony intended to make it a 100% motion control device.
Digitimes has a mixed record at these types of stories, so we'll have to
wait and see if a PS4 is coming to challenge the Wii U.
Next Gen Video Games Let Players Control The Story
Menacing alien machines descend on Earth, and amid all-out war, a soldier
searches a building to find a frightened boy hiding in a vent.
"It's OK," says the soldier.
"Everyone's dying," the boy replies.
The soldier must choose: Help the boy or tell him to flee.
Though it's full of dramatic tension and realistic animation, this isn't
a scene from the next Hollywood blockbuster. It's actually from upcoming
video game "Mass Effect 3."
Game makers are crafting more sophisticated story lines and creating
characters that evolve based on their experiences within a game. It's an
attempt to interest new customers and reverse a decline in video game
sales as the maturing business fights for people's attention in the face
of new devices such as the iPad.
A new crop of games calls for players to make choices that go beyond
selecting a weapon. Among other things, players are asked to make moral
decisions that force their characters - and the game's narrative - to
evolve in different ways. Upcoming games such as "Bioshock Infinite" and
"Star Wars: The Old Republic" tap into this vein.
These storytelling games couldn't come at a better time. U.S. sales of
gaming consoles and video games hit a peak in 2008, at $21.4 billion,
according to market research firm NPD Group. Since then, however, annual
sales fell 13 percent to $18.6 billion in 2010. So far in 2011, sales are
flat compared with last year.
With the recent Supreme Court decision protecting violent games as free
speech, it's more appropriate than ever for games to have more of a
message.
Part of the goal of involved storytelling is to keep players occupied for
longer, playing out stories through to the end. Video game makers are
trying to stop players from getting bored and quickly offloading games
onto used game shops, which can sap sales.
The new games merge first-person shoot-em-ups with movie plotlines to
develop what some in the industry are calling a new art form.
In the past, games mostly sandwiched so-called theatrical "cut scenes"
between bouts of trigger-finger action. In "Grand Theft Auto IV," for
instance, players are given missions on a roughly linear progression as
other hoodlums call by cellphone and recruit them to participate in
crimes that will elevate the player in rank. Players can follow along or
ignore the story lines in favor of other pursuits, such as discovering
hidden details like the giant, chained heart inside the Statue of Liberty
lookalike.
Gradually, non-action scenes are becoming more central to games and the
story is the focus. "Grand Theft" was a start in that direction, with two
different endings depending on player choices. The new "Star Wars" game
will have about 20 different endings and a billion ways to get there.
"Photographs tell stories. Movies tell stories. Songs tell stories. Games
tell stories," said Ken Levine, creative director for Irrational Games.
Levine's studio is poised to release "BioShock Infinite" next year. The
shooting game confronts main character Booker with moral decisions - like
saving a man from execution or putting down a horse - all the while
roaming around an immersive floating world that resembles early 20th
century America.
"My mom's not going to connect to the story of 'Mega Man 2,'" Levine said,
referring to the pixelated Capcom game from the late 1980s. "But hopefully
she can connect to a story like this."
These storytelling games represent yet another way the video game business
is reaching out to people who have not traditionally considered themselves
"gamers." Mobile games including "Angry Birds" and addicting social-network
games such as "FarmVille" have gotten more women to play. Motion
controllers from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have turned video gaming into
a physical workout that appeals to young and old.
Storytelling games could appeal to those attracted to character development
more than killing.
Lindsay Grace, professor of interactive media studies at Miami University,
said the video game industry is trying to accomplish what Hollywood has
turned into a science: entering new markets by offering a little something
for everyone - a little romance, a little action, a little this and that.
"Games have started to understand this in the last four to five years, but
they are later to understand that than film," he said. "Before, it was a
shooting game, and that's what you do."
Grace, who's been studying video games for seven years, believes the answer
is not in more big-budget shoot-em-ups, but in independent video games
pushing the boundaries of entertainment.
"From indie games to more mainstream offerings, in the next decade or so
we are going to be seeing a greater diversity in subject matter," said
Scott Steinberg, the chief executive of video game consulting company
TechSavvy Global. "The selection of games will more closely resemble your
selection of movies."
Market tracker NPD Group doesn't track or categorize "storytelling" games
specifically. But many of the games that have had commercial success dive
deep into narrative territory. "Grand Theft Auto IV" has sold 20 million
units since its record-breaking April 2008 launch. "L.A. Noire" was the
top-selling game in the United States in May, with an estimated 899,000
units, despite an industry downturn.
A-list actors, writers and directors are increasingly participating in the
industry, lending their voices, faces and ideas to the medium.
Guillermo Del Toro, the Oscar-nominated director behind such hits as
"Pan's Labyrinth" and "Hellboy," recently cut off work on the unfinished
"The Hobbit" movies in part to free himself to work on video games. One
of his first new projects is with game maker THQ on a future release
called "Insane." Guillermo envisions the making of the game to take up
eight to nine years of his creative life.
"We are in the infancy of people recognizing video games as art," Del Toro
said in a recent interview.
He believes game releases will become major cultural events someday, much
like big-budget movies. "In order to be a storyteller in the 21st century,
we urgently need to learn to tell stories through video games," he said.
Aaron Staton, an actor from the Emmy-winning television series "Mad Men,"
said he signed on to play detective Cole Phelps in the epic crime game
"L.A. Noire," to be part of the cutting-edge method of storytelling that
the game explores.
Staton studied 2,200 pages of script in order to act out all the story
lines that evolve from player choices. A key game mechanic is determining
how the detective will react to suspects in the interrogation room.
Deciding to believe or doubt them moves the story into what he describes
as "its own separate reality."
Many recent games have featured actors' voices, but in "L.A. Noire," their
facial expressions and voices become "an important aspect of the story of
the game and the game play itself," Staton said. "So I thought that it
would be exciting."
Actions in these games are meant to have consequences that go beyond passing
levels or gaining points. They unlock new, unexplored chapters, like a book
that has dozens of endings, and provide lessons for the characters along
the way.
A love triangle is expected to develop in "Mass Effect 3," but only if
characters created romances in the earlier two versions.
In "Star Wars: The Old Republic," gamers can choose to play do-good Jedi
Knights, evil Sith lords or six other classes of characters. Sparing an
enemy's life, for instance, will determine which direction the game heads
and whether companions cooperate or betray the player later on.
Daniel Erickson, the lead writer of the "Star Wars" game, said the amount
of storytelling content was unprecedented. The studio behind it, BioWare,
created more than 10,000 characters to talk to and used voices from more
than 1,000 actors.
The alternate paths amount to more than 60 "Star Wars" novels worth of
content in a script that, if read completely, would last longer than the
entire 86-episode run of the HBO television show "The Sopranos," which
would take three days without sleep.
"BioWare is a lot closer in structure to an ongoing TV series studio when
it comes to the writing department than it is to a classic game design
studio," Erickson said. "It is story that drives everything."
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Bootleg Consoles Attract Lawsuit From Atari
Atari Interactive has filed a $30 million lawsuit in a California district
court against the owner and operator of distributor Tommo Inc., saying that
the latter knowingly sold illegal knockoffs of its Flashback 2 console.
According to the complaint, which was acquired by Gamasutra, video game
merchandise distributor Tommo has sold "wholesale quantities of unauthorized
and pirated copies of Atari software and Atari Flashback 2 consoles."
The Flashback 2, which was introduced in 2005, is a "plug-and-play"
console roughly shaped like Atari's original 2600 console. It had forty
games built in: mainly these were original Atari-published releases for the
system, though a handful of new games and previously-unreleased prototypes
were included. The product was discontinued in 2006, having sold over
860,000 units.
Bootleg Flashback 2s have been sold by a variety of retailers, including
Amazon, Woot.com, and stores owned by Kroger, including Fred Meyer, Smiths,
and Ralphs grocery stores.
According to reports by those who have purchased the units, the bootlegs are
nearly identical to the original units, down to the packaging design.
Reports suggest that the software itself has noticeable glitches not present
in the original units. The only notable cosmetic differences include a
slightly different font printed on the internal circuit board and a minor
color variation on a sticker on the unit's face.
According to commentary by Flashback creator Legacy Engineering, it is
likely that the illegal manufacturer of the knock-off units was able to
obtain the original's source files and plastic molds.
Atari is seeking damages to be determined by Tommo's sales figures, and may
push for damages of up to $150,000 for each of its infringed copyrights,
of which it is claiming over 80 were violated.
Tommo is a distributor of video game merchandise that was formed in 1989.
Its past clients include Natsume, Konami and Capcom, though the majority
of its games distributed of late come from budget publisher UFO
Interactive.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Government Facilities Targets of Cyber Attacks
Two U.S. government-funded research laboratories and a defense contractor
were targets of a "highly sophisticated" cyber attack last week,
representatives of the organizations said, the latest in a string of
assaults on U.S. interests.
The attacks struck Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in
Richland, Washington; Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory in Newport News,
Virginia and Battelle Corp, a government contractor that manages PNNL.
The three shut down Internet access on Friday, when they became aware of
the attacks, they said. The two laboratories have yet to restore access
to their external websites.
"The good news is no classified information has been compromised or is in
danger from this attack," said PNNL spokesman Greg Koller. "At this time,
we have not found any indication of 'exfiltration' of information from our
unclassified networks as well."
The attack follows cyber assaults that shut down network access at Lockheed
Martin Corp, the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier by sales, and the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory, which is managed by UT-Battelle for the U.S. Energy
Department.
In Washington, retired Air Force General Michael Hayden, a former director
of central intelligence and ex-head of the Pentagon's National Security
Agency, said on Wednesday that growing cyber threats were pushing security
planners into uncharted territory.
"This is really hard for us to think about," he told a forum on cyber
deterrence hosted by the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, a nonpartisan
research group focused on science and technology. "If we don't act boldly,
something really bad is going to happen. Then we'll over-react."
James Mulvenon, a specialist on the Chinese military and Chinese cyber
issues at Defense Group Inc, a consultant to the U.S. intelligence
community, told the same forum that the United States must operate on the
assumption that its networked systems already have been penetrated by
foes.
U.S. strategy, he said, should be to enhance "resilience" so that the
United States can recover relatively quickly from possible cyber-enabled
attack.
Recently, a group of private experts briefed a U.S. intelligence audience
about how they could go 90 percent of the way toward bringing down a major
U.S. city's vital systems without anyone being able to tell, Michael
Tiffany, a cyber security expert, told the session.
"Force multiplication is cheap," said Tiffany, chief architect at Recursion
Ventures, a security technologies company. "And there are no indicators of
force buildup" when malicious code is carefully inserted into a system.
Spammers Shifting to Targeted Attacks
Ciscos Security Intelligence Operations group has published a new report,
Email Attacks: This Time Its Personal (PDF) that indicates the Internet
is experiencing a fundamental shift in the nature of spam: instead of
spammers relying on sending as many messages as possible and hoping to get
responses from a tiny fraction of one percent of gullible recipients,
spammers are shifting to a far smaller number of targeted, personalized
attacks - a.ka. spearphishing. The good news is that the overall volume of
mass spam has declined sharply, along with the amount of money criminals
gain from them. The bad news is that targeted attacks are up sharply - and
criminals make a lot more money every time one of them succeeds.
"Cybercriminal business models have recently shifted towards low-volume
targeted attacks," Cisco wrote. "With email remaining the primary attack
vector, these attacks are increasing in both their frequency and their
financial impact on targeted organizations."
According to Cisco, spam volumes peaked at an average of about 300 billion
spams per day in June 2010 down to about 40 billion spams a day in June
2011. With that decline, spammers have also found the amount of money they
haul in from mass email spam is going down: Cisco estimates mass spam
attacks netted spammers about $1.1 billion in June 2010, but that figure
dropped to $500 million by June 2011.
One reason that spammers revenues havent declined in proportion to the
amount of messages they send out is that an increasing number of messages
are individualized with personalization tools and other information designed
to pull in a potential victim and 'convert' them into a paying victim, or
get them to click through to a site that will try to install malware. Cisco
estimates that spammer revenue from these customized attacks grew from $50
million in June 2010 to $200 million by June 2011.
Cisco also notes that while spam filters and blocking technologies are able
to block about as many targeted attacks as mass attacks, targeted attacks
are far more likely to be opened by their intended victims, and have
click-through rates as high as 50 percent.
Cisco also credits the decline in mass attack spam to the work of industry
organizations, security firms, and law enforcement, noting that in the last
year botnets like SpamIt, Rustock, Bredolab, and Mega-D have been severely
curtailed by law enforcement actions.
Italian Police Raid Notorious Hackers Group
Italian police Tuesday detained 15 suspected members of an international
hackers cabal called "Anonymous" blamed for several major online attacks,
an Italian newspaper reported.
The suspected hackers, including five minors, were picked up by police,
questioned and later released, while authorities also seized dozens of
computers, the Italian daily La Republica said.
Anonymous, which is believed to have branches in several countries, gained
prominence after it launched retaliatory attacks on companies perceived to
be enemies of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.
The group was linked to attacks on Visa, Mastercard and Paypal, who
blocked donations to Wikileaks after it published thousands of US
diplomatic cables.
The Italian branch of the gang is suspected of online sabotage against the
country's parliament, senate and large companies like the state oil major
ENI, according to La Republica.
Police grabbed suspected hackers in several regions of Italy and also in
Switzerland, where a 26-year-old accused of approving attack targets was
questioned by police, the paper said.
Last month, Turkish police arrested 32 suspected Anonymous members, and the
group has also been targetted by investigators in Britain, Spain and the
US.
U.S. Internet Providers To Act Against Online Pirates
Consumers who illegally download copyrighted films, music or television
shows might see their Internet speed slowed or access restricted under an
industry anti-piracy effort announced on Thursday.
U.S. Internet service providers, including Verizon Communications Inc,
Comcast Corp, Time Warner Cable Inc, Cablevision Systems Corp and AT&T
Inc agreed to alert customers, up to six times, when it appears their
account is used for illegal downloading. Warnings will come as e-mails
or pop-up messages.
If suspected illegal activity persists, the provider might temporarily
slow Internet speed or redirect the browser to a specific Web page until
the customer contacts the company. The user can seek an independent
review of whether they acted legally.
Internet access will not be terminated, according to a statement from
the industry partners behind the effort. The coalition includes groups
representing movie studios, independent film makers and record labels.
The group argues that content piracy costs the U.S. economy more than
373,000 jobs, $16 billion in lost earnings and $3 billion in tax revenue
each year.
Industry officials said they thought most people would stop copyright
violations once they were warned about illegal activity. The warnings
also might alert parents unaware of their children's activity.
"We are confident that, once informed that content theft is taking place
on their accounts, the great majority of broadband subscribers will take
steps to stop it," James Assey, executive vice president of the National
Cable & Telecommunications Association, said in a statement.
Two consumer groups said the effort had the "potential to be an
important educational vehicle" to help reduce online copyright
infringement, but voiced concern about the sanctions.
"We are particularly disappointed that the agreement lists Internet
account suspension among the possible remedies," the Center for
Democracy & Technology and Public Knowledge said in a statement.
The groups said it would be "wrong for any (Internet service provider)
to cut off subscribers, even temporarily, based on allegations that have
not been tested in court."
The Obama administration welcomed the industry effort.
"We believe it will have a significant impact on reducing online
piracy," Victoria Espinel, the U.S. intellectual property enforcement
coordinator, wrote on the White House blog.
The administration expects the organization that implements the program
to consult with advocacy groups "to assure that its practices are fully
consistent with the democratic values that have helped the Internet to
flourish," she added.
South Korean Web Attacks Might Have Been War Drill
Attacks that crippled South Korean government websites in July 2009 and
again in March 2011 might have been cyber war drills conducted on behalf
of North Korea, according to security software maker McAfee Inc.
That would make the South Korean attacks more menacing than recent attacks
by hacker activists, or "hactivists," such as the groups Anonymous and
Lulz Security. Those groups have temporarily shut down high-profile
websites, including those of MasterCard, the CIA and NATO.
Hactivists attack as a form of electronic protest, but the attacks on
South Korea were likely Internet reconnaissance missions to test the
impact that cyber weapons could have in wartime, said Dmitri Alperovitch,
vice president of threat research for McAfee Labs.
"This stuff is much more insidious and much more dangerous to national
security than what Anonymous is doing," he said.
McAfee made the claim in a technical analysis of malicious software hackers
used to launch the March 2011 denial of service attacks against South
Korean websites. Denial-of-service attacks shut down websites by
overwhelming them with traffic.
The document, which was released on Tuesday, said the attackers likely
built the army of computers that launched the attacks by infecting healthy
PCs with malicious software at a popular South Korean file-sharing site.
Once the PCs were infected, they became part of a "botnet," or army of
enslaved computers, the hackers managed remotely from "command and control
centers."
That botnet was used on March 4 to attack some 40 websites in South Korea,
according to McAfee.
"It was a very rapid operation - very constrained with specific goals,"
Alperovitch said. "The intent was to see what level of damage you can do
in a very rapid time period."
The hackers responsible for the attacks tried to make it difficult for
researchers to figure out what they were doing.
They encrypted their software, or scrambled it to make it difficult to
study, and also programed it to destroy itself and its host PC 10 days
after the March 4 attack began.
It is highly rare for botnet herders to instruct infected computer systems
to attack themselves. They typically try to keep enslaved computers
running as long as possible so they can use their botnet to perform many
tasks.
The hackers likely worked so hard to hide their tracks because they wanted
to make it difficult for authorities to ascertain the real purpose of the
attacks, Alperovitch said.
They were cyber war drills designed to determine how difficult it would be
to take down key government websites in the event of war, he added.
McAfee is a subsidiary of chipmaker Intel Corp.
EU Upset by Microsoft Warning About US Access to EU Cloud
Members of the European Parliament have demanded to know what lawmakers
intend to do about the conflict between the European Union's Data
Protection Directive and the U.S. Patriot Act.
The issue has been raised following Microsoft's admission last week that
it may have to hand over European customers' data on a new cloud service
to U.S. authorities. The company may also be compelled by the Patriot
Act to keep details of any such data transfer secret. This is directly
contrary to the European directive, which states that organizations must
inform users when they disclose personal information.
"Does the Commission consider that the U.S. Patriot Act thus effectively
overrules the E.U. Directive on Data Protection? What will the
Commission do to remedy this situation, and ensure that E.U. data
protection rules can be effectively enforced and that third country
legislation does not take precedence over E.U. legislation?" asked
Sophia In't Veld, a member of the Parliament's civil liberties committee.
Commissioner Viviane Reding, who is responsible for data protection, has
in the past seemed to welcome a privacy protection bill introduced by
senators John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, and John McCain, an
Arizona Republican, as a possible solution. "I welcome a draft Bill of
Rights just introduced in the U.S. Congress as a bipartisan initiative
of Democrats and Republicans. The Commission also shares the main
objective of the Bill: strengthening individuals' trust in new
technologies through compatible standards," she said.
Microsoft can already transfer E.U. data to the U.S. under the Safe
Harbor agreement. But legal experts have warned that this agreement is
hardly worth the paper it's written on. There are seven principles of
Safe Harbor, including reasonable data security, and clearly defined and
effective enforcement. However all this is nullified if the Patriot Act
is invoked.
"I'm afraid that Safe Harbor has very little value anymore, since it
came out that it might be possible that U.S. companies that offer to
keep data in a European cloud are still obliged to allow the U.S.
government access to these data on basis of the Patriot Act, " said Theo
Bosboom, IT lawyer with Dirkzager Lawyers. "Europeans would be better to
keep their data in Europe. If a European contract partner for a European
cloud solution, offers the guarantee that data stays within the European
Union, that is without a doubt the best choice, legally."
The advice will come as a blow to the many cloud computing players
registered in the U.S. including Microsoft, Facebook and Google.
Microsoft's new cloud service, which is due to be launched next week,
will allocate geographic regions where customers' data will be
physically stored. But the computer giant could not guarantee that E.U.
users' information would not be disclosed: "In a limited number of
circumstances, Microsoft may need to disclose data without your prior
consent, including as needed to satisfy legal requirements, or to
protect the rights or property of Microsoft."
"I hope Commissioner Reding will respond soon, as this is really a key
issue. Essentially what is at stake is whether Europe can enforce its
own laws in its own territory, or if the laws of a third country
prevail," said In't Veld. "I hope the Commissioner will ensure that the
U.S. and other countries respect E.U. laws in E.U. territory. I don't
think the U.S. would be amused if Europeans (or other non-U.S.
authorities) were to get access to databases located within U.S.
jurisdiction."
TSA Agent Stole $50,000 Worth of Electronics from Passengers
Flying can be a stressful time for anyone, and between packing, long
lines, and security screenings, the last thing you want to worry about is
having your stuff stolen.
Unfortunately, that's just what happened to an untold number of
travelers departing from Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood International
Airport's terminal 1 over the past 6 months. A TSA agent named Nelson
Santiago is the culprit, and was caught red-handed in an attempt to
swipe an iPad from an innocent
traveler's luggage.
After being spotted in the act by a Continental Airlines employee - and
subsequently arrested and interrogated - Santiago admitted that it wasn't
the first time he had taken items from the bags he was supposed to be
screening. In fact, he had been doing it for the past 6 months, usually
selling the items online and pocketing the profits. Authorities estimate
his total haul at over $50,000.
Based on Santiago's information, detectives are attempting to make
contact with travelers who became unwitting victims, but the process is
slow and tedious. Tracking down the items the TSA officer stole is even
more difficult, as the transactions made online leave very little in the
way of a paper trail. Santiago has since been released on bond and is
awaiting trial. He has also been fired from the TSA.
Windows 8? New Xbox? Ballmer To Deliver CES Keynote
Tradition lives. Microsoft's Steve Ballmer will, once again, deliver the
pre-show keynote address at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Next year's CES is scheduled for January 10-13, but Ballmer will kick
things off at 6:30pm on January 9 from The Venetian.
"From mobile to desktop to gaming and beyond, Microsoft has a
significant impact on all aspects of the consumer technology industry,
and Steve Ballmer's keynote is a great way to kick off the exciting 2012
International CES," Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro
said in a statement.
This will be Ballmer's third CES keynote appearance; he took over in
2009 after Bill Gates retired in 2008 to focus on philanthropic efforts.
In recent years, however, the Microsoft CES keynotes have not included
anything particularly spectacular or unexpected.
The 2009 keynote, for example, included the release of the Windows 7
public beta, two additions to its /Halo/ gaming lineup, and the
worldwide availability of Windows Live Essentials.
The following year, on the heels of Windows 7's October release, Ballmer
showed off an HP tablet and said that "Project Natal," later renamed
Kinect, would be released in time for the 2010 holiday season. The software
giant also contended with a brief power outage.
Earlier this year, Ballmer's keynote included stats on Kinect (8 million
sold, gesture- and voice-based access to Netflix and Hulu Plus via Kinect,
and plans for Windows Phone 7's first software update.
What will this year's keynote include? Nokia has promised to unveil
Windows Phone 7-based devices by year's end, so expect to see those on
display at CES. There will also likely be more details on Windows 8, and
maybe an updated Xbox? A lot can happen in six months, so stay tuned.
EFF Urges Supreme Court to Block Law That Erodes Public Domain
Law Hurts Libraries, Artists, and First Amendment Rights
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to
block a federal law that erodes the public domain and hurts libraries,
artists, and others who want to exercise their First Amendment right to
share and receive information in an amicus brief filed today on behalf a
coalition of libraries and other digital repositories.
The law in question is Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act,
which takes potentially millions of works by foreign authors that were
previously in the public domain and puts them back under copyright
protection. Works affected by this law include Sergei Prokofiev's Peter
and the Wolf, music by Stravinski, paintings by Picasso and drawings by
M.C. Escher, and writings by George Orwell and J.R.R. Tolkien - material
that has been used and performed countless times. Now that the works are
back under copyright protection, use of the works may require paying hefty
license fees.
In the amicus brief, EFF argues that this law creates dangerous uncertainty
about copyright policy, posing a significant threat to libraries, digital
repositories, and others that promote access to knowledge.
"Libraries and digital repositories are using new technologies to make our
cultural commons more accessible than ever, but they need a robust and
stable public domain to be able to do that crucial work," said EFF Staff
Attorney Julie Samuels. "Section 514 has up-ended a basic tenet of copyright
law: once a work enters the public domain, it stays in the public domain."
"The public domain helps make sure the copyright monopoly serves its
purpose: to promote the progress of science and the useful arts," said EFF
Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry. "Congress should not have
put a small potential benefit to some authors ahead of the public
interest."
EFF represents the Internet Archive and the University of Michigan Dean of
Libraries. Joining the brief are the Wikimedia Foundation, the American
Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and
the Association of Research Libraries.
Internet Access A Fundamental Human Right
Access to the Internet should be seen as a fundamental human right and
respected as much as freedom of expression, the transatlantic security
body OSCE said in a report Friday.
"Everyone should have a right to participate in the information society
and states have a responsibility to ensure citizens? access to the
Internet is guaranteed," the report, presented in Vienna, said.
The analysis was the first ever of state regulations on Internet access
within the 56-member OSCE.
"Some governments already recognise access to the Internet as a human
right. This trend should be supported as a crucial element of media
freedom in the 21st century," the OSCE's media representative Dunja
Mijatovic told journalists upon presentation of the report.
Finland and Estonia have already done so, the OSCE praised.
And since last year, Finnish citizens have a legal right to Internet
access, the first country to lay down such a rule, while Norway had also
taken steps in that direction, it noted.
However, seven other states admitted they had regulations allowing them
to limit access to the Internet in cases of state emergencies, to defend
national security and to protect public health.
At least 10 states also failed to submit any data to the OSCE for its
report.
"Legislation in many countries does not recognise that freedom of
expression and freedom of the media equally apply to Internet as a
modern means of exercising these rights," Mijatovic noted.
As a result, the organisation offered guidelines to ensure that
citizens' access to the Web was guaranteed, such as clearly wording
laws, refraining from blocking content and generally respecting freedom
of expression and of the media.
"We will use the study as an advocacy tool to promote speech-friendly
Internet regulation in the OSCE participating States," Mijatovic said.
YouTube Invites Users To Try 'Cosmic Panda'
On July 7 video sharing site YouTube announced the launch of an
experimental version of the site called Cosmic Panda; users are
encouraged to test the site and leave their feedback.
Cosmic Panda is part of YouTube's Test Tube experiments and is separate
from YouTube, which retains its current format.
Test Tube is a side project conducted by YouTube in order to get user
feedback on their latest project developments; users of the site can try
a number of editing and search tools not currently widely available.
As part of this project, Cosmic Panda provides users with additional
editing tools for altering their YouTube channel, and it gives Google
Chrome users the ability to watch one video while moving between other
videos, playlists and even channels.
In a July 7 blog post YouTube outlined the principles of Cosmic Panda
and encouraged users to express their thoughts on the service. Users can
leave feedback by accessing the channel and clicking the blue label on
the left-hand side of the screen marked "Feedback."
Other popular video sharing channels include Vimeo, Daily Motion and the
popular Chinese site Tudou, which includes a variety of clips from
English language shows alongside Chinese videos.
=~=~=~=
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