p2pnet headline roundups, Dec 4, 2007
p2pnet headline roundups | Last of the day …
Passport applicant finds massive privacy breach – Globe and Mail
A security flaw in Passport Canada’s website has allowed easy access to the personal information – including social insurance numbers, dates of birth and driver’s licence numbers – of people applying for new passports. The breach was discovered last week by an Ontario man completing his own passport application. He found he could easily view the applications of others by altering one character in the Internet address displayed by his Web browser.
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Microsoft’s sex-obsessed RoboSanta spouts filth at children – The Register
Disturbing news has reached our Yuletide youthful innocence bunker that Microsoft’s new artificial intelligence-powered Santa bot is subjecting the world’s children to an unprecendented torrent of filth. Reg reader Iain blew the whistle on the foul-mouthed software after his nieces – just 11 and 13 years old – were drawn into a chat about oral sex. Redmond has added the seasonal ID northpole@live.com to MSN messenger. Anyone can add the bot as a contact. During conversations it often suggests people play a child-friendly online game called Factory Frenzy where the player helps Santa’s elves. It also has a shocking predeliction for casually dropping in that it likes to talk about a certain sex act.
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Klausner sues Apple iPhone over voicemail patent – Reuters
Klausner Technologies Inc said on Monday the company had filed a $360 million suit against Apple Inc and AT&T Inc over voicemail patents that Klausner claims the Apple iPhone infringes. New York-based Klausner said the lawsuit also names Comcast Corp, Cablevision Systems Corp and eBay Inc’s Skype as infringing its patent for “visual voicemail.” The plaintiff seeks an additional $300 million from the three. Klausner said in a statement that it filed the lawsuit in U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Texas. A copy of the filing was not yet available from the court. The suit alleges asserts that the defendants’ Internet-based voicemail products and services violate a Klausner patent. It seeks damages and future royalties estimated at $300 million, according to the press release.
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Universal Music Restricting Music Streaming On Certain Sites – paidContent
Universal Music Group, the largest music label, has implemented a new online streaming policy for its artists: each song for its artists will be limited to either 90-second clips or full-songs that contain promotional voice-over messages, reports Billboard. Excluded are any online services that UMG has a commercial licensing deal with, which means it is getting compensated for each stream. The policy applies to MySpace (which UMG is suing for violation of copyright law) and others. The story says UMG is concerned that users won’t buy the track or album if they get free streaming of full songs.
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‘Kill switch’ dropped from Vista – BBC
Microsoft is to withdraw an anti-piracy tool from Windows Vista, which disables the operating system when invoked, following customer complaints. The so-called “kill switch” is designed to prevent users with illegal copies of Vista from using certain features.
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Supreme Court refuses to consider adult Web site’s anti-piracy lawsuit – Associated Press
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider an appeal by an online publisher that claims credit-card companies are enabling the piracy of its pictures of nude models. The case was brought by Perfect 10 Inc., which until recently published an adult magazine and also operates Perfect10.com. The company said in court papers that its business has been severely harmed by pirate Web sites, many of them overseas, which have used images of its nude models without authorization.
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Calgary man loses $20K after eBay sale hijacked – CBC
A Calgary man is one of 1,000 Canadians who have been scammed on eBay through a tactic known as hijacking, and the RCMP says the online auction service is not co-operating with their criminal investigations. Shaqir Duraj, a Calgary bakery owner, won an eBay auction for a car in early October. He thought he was dealing with a reputable seller with a 98 per cent customer satisfaction rating.
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Shorter URLs help phishers hook more victims – CNET News.com
Phishers are using shorter URLs for malicious sites in a bid to lend an air of legitimacy to threatening links. Internet Security Services, IBM’s online-security division, claims to have noticed a significant drop in the number of characters used by fraudsters in their phishing URLs. A post on ISS’s Frequency X blog stated that “analysts have been observing host names within fraudulent phishing URLs consistently arrive with lengths of between 30 and 37 characters”; observers “have noted a significant change” as phishing host names have shrunk down to an average of only 17 characters in recent weeks.
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More state Web sites will show up in searches with help from Google software – Associated Press
Googling something or someone? If the state of Florida has public records about your subject, they might show up in your search results. Many state agencies make numerous public records available online, but the information hasn’t been indexed by the search engines at Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp., the three most popular.
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