p2pnet World Headlines â Sept 25, 2009
French court hands GPL victory IT Wire
It’s the reason why Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer calls Linux viral. But French courts obviously think it has merit because the GNU General Public Licence has been upheld in a court of appeals in France. What’s more, the ruling (PDF in French) came following a submission by a user, not the copyright holder, according to a statement by the Free Software Foundation’s branch in France. Last week, the Paris Court of Appeals decided that a company named Edu4 violated the GPL by distributing binary copies of VNC, a remote desktop access application, and denying users access to the source code. The lawsuit was brought by an organisation dedicated to education, Association pour la Formation Professionnelle des Adultes (AFPA).
Maine Firm Sues Bank After $588,000 Cyber Heist Washington post
A construction firm in Maine is suing a local bank after cyber thieves stole more than a half million dollars from the company in a sophisticated online bank heist. On Friday, Sanford, Maine based Patco Construction Co. filed suit in York County Superior Court against Ocean Bank, a division of Bridgeport, Conn. based People’s United Bank. The lawsuit alleges that Ocean Bank did not do enough to prevent cyber crooks from transferring approximately $588,000 to dozens of co-conspirators throughout the United States over an eight-day period in May. People’s United Bank spokeswoman Valerie Carlson declined to comment for this story, saying the company is aware of the lawsuit but does not discuss pending litigation.
Trojan hides in Windows recovery Heist Online
According to a report by Microsoft virus specialist Chun Feng at the Virus Bulletin malware conference in Geneva, criminals spying out users’ online gaming login data in Chinese internet cafes and subsequently selling this information are said to have caused 1.2 billion US dollars in damage. The criminals use the Dogrobot trojan, which hides in the system and can even survive a Windows system recovery. According to Chun Feng, the malware exploits a back door in the Windows system recovery and a vulnerability in the “Hard Disk Recovery Cards” that are part of many PCs in Chinese internet cafes. The cards are designed to prevent hard disk write access to avoid problems such as virus infections, and allow a system to be recovered after a problem. Excelstor’s GStor-Plus offers a similar feature, but so far in Europe this type of system has not gained much acceptance.
Microsoft researcher converts his brain into ‘e-memory’ CNN
For the past decade, Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell has been moving the data from his brain onto computers — where he knows it will be safe. Sure, you could say all of us do this to some extent. We save digital pictures from family events and keep tons of e-mail. But Bell, who is 75 years old, takes the idea of digital memory to a sci-fi-esque extreme. He carries around video equipment, cameras and audio recorders to capture his conversations, commutes, trips and experiences. Microsoft is working on a SenseCam that would hang around a person’s neck and automatically capture every detail of life in photo form. Bell has given that a whirl. He also saves everything — from restaurant receipts (he take pictures of them) to correspondence, bills and medical records. He makes PDF files out of every Web page he views
Sweden’s ‘youngest female pimp’ remanded in custody The Local
A 17-year-old girl and 19-year-old woman have been remanded in custody in Malmö on suspicion of selling a disabled teenager for sex. The pair are believed to have exploited the handicapped teenager by arranging for her to have sex with different men several times a week over a period of several months. The 17-year-old is thought to be the youngest woman ever arrested for pimping in Sweden. “I have never heard of anything like this before,” said prosecutor Ulrika Rogland. The 17-year-old has admitted that she had arranged for men to have sex with the girl in return for payment between August and December last year. Often she would have sex with two men at the same time.
It’s a mystery: Whose $100 bills rained on Sunnyvale recycling workers? Mercury News
Surprise, surprise. After $3,200 of mystery money rained down from inside a Sunnyvale recycling center Tuesday, stories are emerging about who may rightfully own the stack of $100 bills. Tory Salazar called the Mercury News all the way from Texas. She said five years ago she was living in Santa Clara and was hired to help move a woman in her late 50s from a trailer home in San Jose to Sunnyvale. The woman, Salazar recalled, kept hordes of $100 bills in Ziploc bags, stuffed away in cardboard boxes. “I remember because she paid me with those bills and the bank questioned me,” Salazar said by phone today. “They thought the Ben Franklin faces were small.” It turns out, though, Salazar said, the money was still good: The bank told her that Franklin’s image was smaller about 20 years ago.
Employers grappling with social network use CNet
Social networking is on the rise, both on and off the job, leaving companies uncertain how to monitor their use by employees, reports new survey. More than 50 percent of companies questioned said they have no policy to address the use of social networking by employees outside the workplace, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance Association. Typically, companies shy away from restricting an employee’s actions off the job. But businesses are concerned about employees who use social networking and reveal private details or post inappropriate pictures that could embarrass the company. Some organizations, such as the U.S. Marines, have already banned their recruits from using Facebook and Twitter. But the survey found that many businesses aren’t sure what to do to restrict or monitor such usage. Of the companies questioned in the survey, 34 percent said they have a general employee policy that addresses all online activity, including the use of social networking, both on and off the job. Only 10 percent said they have a policy specifically geared toward social networks.
EFF Wins Release of Telecom Lobbying Records EFF
A judge ordered the government Thursday to release more records about the lobbying campaign to provide immunity to the telecommunications giants that participated in the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White ordered the records be provided to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) by October 9, 2009. The decision is part of EFF’s long-running battle to gather information about telecommunications lobbying conducted as Congress considered granting immunity to companies that participated in illegal government electronic surveillance. Telecom immunity was eventually passed as part of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) of 2008, but a bill that would repeal the immunity — called the JUSTICE Act — was introduced in the Senate last week.
Sex offenders welcome: Fla. apartments offer home Associated Press
No sign marks Miracle Park, a cluster of one-story yellow buildings surrounding a small church that caters to one of society’s most despised demographics: sex offenders. Since the development opened eight months ago, the minister who runs it has recruited former inmates by distributing brochures in Florida prisons and plugging it in sermons at the lockups. Some 35 sex offenders now live in the complex about three miles from Pahokee, a poor farming community of 6,000 wedged into sugar cane fields of the Everglades.
Monkees’ Davy Jones believes Mackenzie Phillips: ‘If I had known, I’d have killed John.’ LA Times
The Dish Rag asked ’60s music icon Davy Jones — remember the Monkees and their hit song “I’m a Believer?” about Mackenzie Phillips’ allegations of incest with her father, John Phillips, the founder of The Mamas and the Papas. And boy did he say a mouthful about his old friend John. “I was very friendly with John and that whole gang,” Jones admitted. “And I’ve known Mackenzie since she was a little girl. She’s always been lovely and kind. I’ve seen her many times over the years. I absolutely believe her.”
Leopard gecko and fanged frog among new species discovered in Mekong The Guardian
The world is reassuringly stranger than we thought: another fanged frog has hopped into view, along with a leopard striped gecko, a tube nosed bat and a bird called the Nonggang babbler, all recently discovered in the Mekong delta in south-east Asia. The announcement comes weeks after the revelation by a BBC team of their fanged frog, a different newly identified species, along with rats as big as cats, grunting fish and a teddy bear-like tree-climbing silky cuscus, all found on an expedition to a volcanic crater in Papua New Guinea. The new bird-eating fanged frog, which lies in wait along the riverbank for prey including birds and large insects, is among a wealth of new species announced today by WWF International. In 2008, scientists discovered 100 plants, 28 fish, 14 amphibians, two mammals and the new bird species in the region on top of over 1,000 new species identified there in the previous decade. Scientists believe the frog, found in eastern Thailand, and named Limnonectes megastomias, uses fangs as intimidating as any snake’s in combat with other males, as well as to catch prey.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
September, 2009
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September 25th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
France Telecom, which operates under the Orange brand, has come under public scrutiny after 22 workers committed suicide and another 13 attempted to kill themselves since the start of last year.
Unions are demanding a parliamentary inquiry into the deaths, which they blame on stress linked to massive restructuring at the company, involving forced transfers and the introduction of new profit targets.
However, The boss over at France Telecom blames smartphones for stress leading to suicides as the company comes under scrutiny.
“A top executive at France’s biggest telecommunications company, which is dealing with a spate of suicides, warned that the barrage of emails from smartphones and personal computers was stressing out employees.
France Telecom chief financial officer Gervais Pellissier said workers in all big companies were under more pressure in the age of the BlackBerry.”
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/biz-tech/boss-blames-smartphones-for-stress-as-company-suicide-rate-comes-under-scrutiny-20090925-g5g1.html
…and there we go. Canadian RIM is responsible for Frances telecom employee suicides. Damn you Canada!
September 25th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Canadian Pirate party stated a BT tracker:
http://www.pirateparty.ca/captain
September 26th, 2009 at 12:20 am
“France Telecom chief financial officer Gervais Pellissier said workers in all big companies were under more pressure in the age of the BlackBerry.â”
This is BS! This criminals know perfectly well why so many suicides!
This is the story and it highlight why corporations must be destroyed if the example of the recording and music industry was not enough:
France telecom was before a government operated company called (PTT) just like the US post office and was operating the land line phone and the mail delivery. This means that employees were virtually unfirable. In despite of that the PTT was doing very well in term of services and efficiency. Still one day some morons decided to denationalize the company and sale share of it in the stock market. The twist was that existing employees would remain unfirable.
So now when the management decides to reduce the work force or get ride of the older workers how can they do that since most employees are unfirable?
Answer: They harass them to death to force them to resign! I am not kidding! Some employees can not take it and commit suicide!
How evil and criminal is that?
September 26th, 2009 at 12:58 am
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=114264
Judge Orders Google To Deactivate User’s Gmail Account
just because some goof at some bank made a mistake.