Law

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Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Seigniorage Hack Could Resolve Debt Limit Crisis
* Ask Slashdot: Dealing With the Business Software Alliance?
* Tens of Thousands Flee From BT and Virgin
* Unified NoSQL Query Language Launched
* Ruling Upholds Gene Patent In Cancer Test
* Researchers Expose Tracking Service That Can't Be Dodged
* No Set-Top TV Device Market Domination For Google
* Movie Studios Want Automated BitTorrent Warnings
* Why Public Email Needs a Police Force
* Anonymous Releases 400 MB of FBI Contractor Data
* WD's Terabyte Scorpio Notebook Drive Tested
* Nortel Patent Sale Gets DoJ Review
* Facebook To Pay Hackers For Bugs
* Aircraft Made From 3D Printing
* 29 Universities Seek High-Speed Networks
* What's Needed For Freedom In the Cloud?

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| Seigniorage Hack Could Resolve Debt Limit Crisis
| from the or-we-could-just-argue-more dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday July 30, @11:45 (Government)
| with 555 comments
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1351209/Seigniorage-Hack-Could-Resolve-Debt-Limit-Crisis?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UltraOne writes "With the US Senate [0]voting to table the Boehner debt
limit bill, the US is only a few days away from running out of cash to
pay for all its obligations. Slate is [1]reporting on a fascinating legal
hack that could come in handy, [2]described by blogger 'beowulf' back in
January 2011. [3]Seigniorage is the extra value added when a government
mints a coin with a face value greater than the value of the precious
metal contained in the coin. The [4]statute governing the minting of
coins contains a section (31 USC 5112(k) ) that authorizes the Secretary
of the Treasury to mint and issue platinum coins in any denomination or
quantity. To keep the government from running out of money, Timothy
Geithner could order a $5 trillion platinum coin struck and deposited at
the Federal Reserve. The money could then be used to fund Federal
Government operations (blog post contains legal details)."

Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1351209/Seigniorage-Hack-Could-Resolve-Debt-Limit-Crisis?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/30/us/politics/30fiscal.html
1. http://www.slate.com/id/2300428/
2. http://my.firedoglake.com/beowulf/2011/01/03/coin-seigniorage-and-the-irrelevance-of-the-debt-limit/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seigniorage
4. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/31/usc_sec_31_00005112----000-.html

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Ask Slashdot: Dealing With the Business Software Alliance?
| from the sharp-sticks-and-harsh-language dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday July 30, @16:25 (Software)
| with 319 comments
| https://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/199226/Ask-Slashdot-Dealing-With-the-Business-Software-Alliance?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]Kagetsuki writes "We've just gotten a letter from an attorney
representing the Business Software Alliance stating someone (we're
certain it's a disgruntled former employee) submitted information we are
using illegally copied software. The thing is... we're not using
illegally copied software. We have licenses for all the commercial
software we are using. Still, according to articles on the BSA, that's
irrelevant and they'll end up suing us anyway. So we now need a lawyer to
deal with their claims and we don't have the money — this will surely be
the end of the company into which I've sunk all my savings and three
years of my life. Has anybody dealt with the Business Software Alliance
before? What action should I take? Is there any sort of financial
recourse, or at least a way cover our legal fees?"

Discuss this story at:
https://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/199226/Ask-Slashdot-Dealing-With-the-Business-Software-Alliance?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. mailto:zero@genshin.org

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Tens of Thousands Flee From BT and Virgin
| from the they're-swimming-to-iceland dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday July 30, @05:10 (The Internet)
| with 226 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/0315207/Tens-of-Thousands-Flee-From-BT-and-Virgin?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]twoheadedboy writes "The two biggest ISPs in the UK are [1]losing
thousands of customers. Earlier this week Virgin reported it had lost
36,000 cable broadband customers. BT, meanwhile, has seen around 125,000
active consumer line customers flee this quarter. With that many
customers leaving, where are they going?"

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/0315207/Tens-of-Thousands-Flee-From-BT-and-Virgin?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.itpro.co.uk/
1. http://www.itpro.co.uk/635284/bt-and-virgin-losing-thousands-of-customers

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Unified NoSQL Query Language Launched
| from the ontogeny-recapitulates-phylogeny dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday July 30, @08:30 (Databases)
| with 158 comments
| https://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/058232/Unified-NoSQL-Query-Language-Launched?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

splitenz writes "Hoping to unify the growing but disparate market of
NoSQL databases, the creators behind CouchDB and SQLite have introduced a
[0]new query language for the format, called UnQL ([1]Unstructured Data
Query Language — .PS). It has Microsoft's backing."

Discuss this story at:
https://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/058232/Unified-NoSQL-Query-Language-Launched?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/395469/couchbase_sqlite_launch_unified_nosql_query_language
1. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.33.3465&rep=rep1&type=ps

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Ruling Upholds Gene Patent In Cancer Test
| from the every-pair-of-genes-is-a-hand-me-down dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday July 30, @08:09 (Biotech)
| with 146 comments
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/035226/Ruling-Upholds-Gene-Patent-In-Cancer-Test?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

diewlasing writes with a report in the New York Times which begins: "In a
closely watched case, a federal appeals court [0]ruled on Friday that
genes can be patented, overturning a lower court decision that had
shocked the biotechnology industry." [1]Techdirt has some insightful
commentary on the ruling.

Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/035226/Ruling-Upholds-Gene-Patent-In-Cancer-Test?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/30/business/gene-patent-in-cancer-test-upheld-by-appeals-panel.html
1. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110729/16573515324/appeals-court-says-genes-are-patentable-because-theyre-separate-your-dna.shtml

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Researchers Expose Tracking Service That Can't Be Dodged
| from the advertising-arms-race dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday July 30, @12:55 (Privacy)
| with 127 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1458235/Researchers-Expose-Tracking-Service-That-Cant-Be-Dodged?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Worf Maugg writes with this excerpt from Wired: "Researchers at U.C.
Berkeley have discovered that some of the net's most popular sites are
[0]using a tracking service that can't be evaded — even when users block
cookies, turn off storage in Flash, or use browsers' 'incognito'
functions. The service, called KISSmetrics, is used by sites to track the
number of visitors, what the visitors do on the site, and where they come
to the site from — and the company says it does a more comprehensive job
than its competitors such as Google Analytics."

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1458235/Researchers-Expose-Tracking-Service-That-Cant-Be-Dodged?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/07/undeletable-cookie/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| No Set-Top TV Device Market Domination For Google
| from the when-purchase-means-traction dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday July 30, @02:14 (Google)
| with 125 comments
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/0528205/No-Set-Top-TV-Device-Market-Domination-For-Google?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]itwbennett writes "According to a report in the Wall Street Journal,
[1]returns of the Logitech Revue (Google's set-top box) exceeded sales in
the first quarter. Explaining why sales were so poor, Logitech Chairman
Guerrino De Luca went way out on a limb, saying: 'There was a significant
gap between our price and the value perceived by the consumer.' So
significant that 'Logitech must take a $34 million charge in the first
quarter, which more than comprises the company's Q1 net loss of $30
million,' writes blogger Chris Nerney. 'In other words, Google TV is
[2]pushing Logitech into the red!'"

Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/0528205/No-Set-Top-TV-Device-Market-Domination-For-Google?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.itworld.com/
1. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904800304576474581913302222.html
2. http://www.itworld.com/hardware/188125/googles-domination-set-top-tv-device-market-indefinitely-postponed

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Movie Studios Want Automated BitTorrent Warnings
| from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday July 30, @10:31 (Piracy)
| with 120 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1242250/Movie-Studios-Want-Automated-BitTorrent-Warnings?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

daria42 writes "The lawsuit filed by movie and TV studios against
Australian Internet service provider iiNet appears to have taken a new
twist, with the studios using early judgments in the case to attempt to
push other ISPs towards what it has described as a '[0]standardized
automated processing system' for BitTorrent copyright infringement
notices that would integrate with the ISPs' networks and automatically
forward messages to customers when they were sent by the studios."

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1242250/Movie-Studios-Want-Automated-BitTorrent-Warnings?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://delimiter.com.au/2011/07/29/afact-wants-automated-bittorrent-violation-system/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Why Public Email Needs a Police Force
| from the quis-custodiet-ipsos-spamodes dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday July 30, @14:08 (Communications)
| with 107 comments
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1558237/Why-Public-Email-Needs-a-Police-Force?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]jfruhlinger writes "Those of us who had email addresses in the early
days of the Internet age remember sending notes to webmaster email
addresses to report malicious email behavior — and actually getting a
response back. But today, a huge majority of mail comes from public
services like Gmail or Yahoo mail, and getting anyone at those companies
to take responsibility for abusive users is nearly impossible. 'If they
could agree on a third-party service that could be the receptacle on a
24/7 basis for rapid account suspension, the 419 Fraud problem might
dwindle down to a trickle quickly. It would take trust among the email
providers to do this, but it would also alleviate big problems that law
enforcement officials are usually unable to handle. [1]Call them the
email cops.'"

Discuss this story at:
https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1558237/Why-Public-Email-Needs-a-Police-Force?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://joshreads.com/
1. http://www.itworld.com/node/187529

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Anonymous Releases 400 MB of FBI Contractor Data
| from the another-day-another-breach dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday July 30, @09:19 (Security)
| with 103 comments
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1216237/Anonymous-Releases-400-MB-of-FBI-Contractor-Data?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader writes "Anonymous, as they [0]have claimed they would,
finally released [1]400 megabytes of files (NSFW language) allegedly
stolen from ManTech, a cyber security firm contracted by the FBI.
Anonymous stated, 'The FBI is outsourcing cybersecurity to the tune of
nearly $100 million to a Washington-area managed services company. The
deal shows a willingness in the federal government to place IT services
more and more in the hands of third parties as agencies don't have enough
staff on hand to do the job.'"

Discuss this story at:
https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1216237/Anonymous-Releases-400-MB-of-FBI-Contractor-Data?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Anonymous-Claims-Network-Breach-of-FBI-Security-Contractor-ManTech-693504/
1. http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6571301-

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| WD's Terabyte Scorpio Notebook Drive Tested
| from the border-guards-will-not-be-amused dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday July 29, @23:19 (Data Storage)
| with 88 comments
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/0148214/WDs-Terabyte-Scorpio-Notebook-Drive-Tested?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]MojoKid writes "Recently, Western Digital stepped out and announced
their new [1]1TB 9.5mm Scorpio Blue 2.5-inch notebook drive. The
announcement was significant in that it's the first drive of this
capacity to squeeze that many bits into an industry standard 9.5mm, 2.5"
SATA form-factor. To do this, WD drove areal density per platter in their
2.5" platform to 500GB. The Scorpio Blue 1TB drive spins at only 5400RPM
but its [1]performance is actually surprising. Since areal density per
platter has increased significantly, the drive actually bests some
7200RPM drives."

Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/0148214/WDs-Terabyte-Scorpio-Notebook-Drive-Tested?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://hothardware.com/
1. http://hothardware.com/Reviews/1TB-WD-Scorpio-Blue-25-HD-QuickTake/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Nortel Patent Sale Gets DoJ Review
| from the use-your-powers-for-good dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday July 30, @19:59 (Google)
| with 65 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/211218/Nortel-Patent-Sale-Gets-DoJ-Review?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]gavron writes "The [1]US Department of Justice will review the Nortel
patent sale to the entity formed by Apple, Microsoft, and others. This is
[2]the same sale that the [3]Canadian authorities declined to review
because the $4B+ deal was valued by them at less than $328M. According to
a (paywalled) [4]Wall Street Journal report, 'The Justice Department
wants to know whether [the consortium] intends to use them defensively to
deter patent lawsuits against its members, or offensively against
rivals.'"

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/211218/Nortel-Patent-Sale-Gets-DoJ-Review?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. mailto:gavron@wetwork.net
1. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20085705-38/report-nortel-portfolio-buyers-facing-doj-scrutiny/
2. http://slashdot.org/story/11/07/01/1344205/Nortel-Patents-Go-To-Apple-Microsoft-Sony-and-Others
3. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/19/us-nortel-canada-idUSTRE76I5AO20110719
4. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903635604576476430510833852.html

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Facebook To Pay Hackers For Bugs
| from the scrabble-counts-are-always-wrong dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday July 29, @20:25 (Facebook)
| with 53 comments
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/0022217/Facebook-To-Pay-Hackers-For-Bugs?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

alphadogg writes "[0]Facebook is going to pay hackers to find problems
with its website — just so long as they report them to Facebook's
security team first. The company is following Google and Mozilla in
launching a Web 'Bug Bounty' program. For security related bugs — cross
site scripting flaws, for example — the company will pay a base rate of
$500. If they're truly significant flaws Facebook will pay more, though
company executives won't say how much. 'In the past we've focused on name
recognition by putting their name up on our page, sending schwag out and
using this an avenue for interviews and the recruiting process,' said
Alex Rice, Facebook's product security lead. 'We're extending that now to
start paying out monetary rewards.'"

Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/0022217/Facebook-To-Pay-Hackers-For-Bugs?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/072911-facebook-to-pay-hackers-for.html

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Aircraft Made From 3D Printing
| from the fleet-on-the-cheap dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday July 30, @15:17 (Transportation)
| with 49 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1832201/Aircraft-Made-From-3D-Printing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

countertrolling tips news of a project undertaken at the University of
Southampton, where engineers designed and created a functioning UAV using
unusual methods. Quoting: "It was printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon
laser sintering machine, which fabricates plastic or metal objects,
building up the item layer by layer. No fasteners were used and all
equipment was attached using 'snap fit' techniques so that [0]the entire
aircraft can be put together without tools in minutes. The
electric-powered aircraft, with a 2-meter wingspan, has a top speed of
nearly 100 miles per hour, but when in cruise mode is almost silent. The
aircraft is also equipped with a miniature autopilot developed by Dr.
Matt Bennett, one of the members of the team."

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1832201/Aircraft-Made-From-3D-Printing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.soton.ac.uk/mediacentre/news/2011/jul/11_75.shtml

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 29 Universities Seek High-Speed Networks
| from the streaming-lectures-versus-movie-torrents dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday July 30, @17:38 (Education)
| with 44 comments
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1921238/29-Universities-Seek-High-Speed-Networks?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader sends this quote from USA Today: "The University of
Missouri announced Wednesday it is joining an effort by some of the
country's top colleges to [0]build 'ultra' high-speed data networks in
their local communities. The project is known as Gig.U: The University
Community Next Generation Innovation Project. The 29 participating
schools include Arizona State, Duke, Florida, Michigan, New Mexico, North
Carolina, South Florida and Wake Forest University. The Aspen Institute,
a Colorado-based nonprofit, initiated the effort. The schools and their
local partners will solicit proposals from telecommunications companies
in their area. They hope to quickly build high-speed broadband networks
in communities with low unemployment and heavy demand for such services."

Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/1921238/29-Universities-Seek-High-Speed-Networks?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-07-27-universities-high-speed-internet_n.htm

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| What's Needed For Freedom In the Cloud?
| from the gumption-and-a-sturdy-parachute dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday July 30, @18:50 (Cloud)
| with 41 comments
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/2046206/Whats-Needed-For-Freedom-In-the-Cloud?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]jrepin writes "Georg Greve from Free Software Foundation Europe has
often been asked to explain what he considers necessary prerequisites for
an open, free, sustainable approach toward what is often called 'The
Cloud,' or also 'Software as a Service.' He gives [1]7 ingredients that
are necessary for freedom in the cloud. For example, 'it should be
illegal to change privacy policies on users without their explicit
consent. They need to know what is changing, and how, and what will be
the resulting level of privacy they enjoy – in the same clear,
transparent and understandable manner.'"

Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/07/30/2046206/Whats-Needed-For-Freedom-In-the-Cloud?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://slashdot.org/~jrepin
1. http://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=452

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