Friday, March 28, 2014

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Turks ban YouTube now

Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:39 AM PDT

In yet another hamfisted move to stop citizens talking about government corruption, the Turkish government has shut down YouTube.

In a week after the government was told that its shutting down of Twitter was illegal, Turkey is now banning Google’s popular video site, Youtube.

At the heart of the problem were a series of videos which incriminate the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Edrogan, in a corruption scandal.

According to Webrazzi, “the videos included wiretapped sound recordings where, for example, the PM tells his son at home to hide large sums of money from the investigators. It is alleged to be around a couple of million dollars”.

The Turkish government demanded that they were taken down because they would result in an informed population. An informed population would not vote for a man involved with a corruption scandal.

Google refused to take down the videos and so Edrogan unleashed the hounds.

A Google spokespinner opined: “We’re seeing reports that some users are not able to access YouTube in Turkey. There is no technical issue on our side and we’re looking into the situation.”

It appears that all ISP in Turkey have been roped in to blocking the site.

US schools lose god-like powers over internet

Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:38 AM PDT

A US school is in shock after discovering that it did not have the power of God over its students' internet use.

Minnewaska Area Schools thought that all that stuff about human rights and the constitution did not apply to its staff when they forced a student to hand over her social media passwords to a school so they could snoop through her off-campus life.

It now looks like a US judge has reminded them of their status in society and told them clearly that forcing a student to give up their social media passwords is a violation of the First Amendment.

The school is coughing up $70,000 in damages and rewriting its policies to prevent further abuse.

However it seems that US schools really do not have a clue when it comes to thinking that they have the power of life and death over their students.

A Rogers High School senior Reid Sagehorn, a 17-year-old student and football captain, was suspended for seven weeks for a two word  internet posting.

The Minnewaska case also really has not been resolved because the school still does not see that it has done anything wrong.

The appropriately named Greg Schmidt, Superintendent, who wasn't in that position when the snooping occurred but did work on the settlement was quoted as saying "we want to make kids aware that their actions outside school can be detrimental"/

Actually, Schmidt, a judge just said that it is not your job, are you deaf boy? Now write out 100 times "The US constitution says I should not invade by student's privacy".

Blackberry boss will give product leakers a good kicking

Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:36 AM PDT

People leaking details of Blackberry products will face the full wrath of BlackBerry CEO John Chen.

Writing in his bog, Chen moaned that stringent action would be taken against anyone leaking information about BlackBerry products.

Leaks were “at their best, distracting, and at their worst downright misleading to our stakeholders. The business implications of a leak are seldom advantageous,” he muttered, darkly.

BlackBerry is not a stranger to leaks. When the BlackBerry Z3 was sitting in its box for months ahead of the device’s official unveiling it was snapped and leaked onto the web.

Apparently it is really terrible if someone from the media rings up and asks you about a product before you are ready to discuss it, rehearsed your sound botes and practised that look which says you think it is a cure for cancer.

Recently there has been a series of leaks, which divulged information about BlackBerry’s upcoming BlackBerry 10.3 OS. BlackBerry has released the hounds and tracked down the leaker who is being sued.

In this case the leaker “falsely posed as an employee of one of BlackBerry’s carrier partners to obtain access to secured networks,” the man muttered. The leak revealed the codenames for future BlackBerry handsets as well as the existence of features like Intelligent Assistant, an intelligent voice-based assistant that is BlackBerry’s answer to Siri and Google Now.

Chen admitted that some leaks were driven by fan curiosity, but that “strong action” would be taken when “curiosity turns to criminality”.

Of course, BlackBerry’s crack down on leaks would result in fewer blog posts with photos and rumours which will wipe it from the hearts and minds of its customers. However, he promised, portentously,  that BlackBerry would be “communicating our biggest updates to you early and often – when they are ready to be shared”.

It is not the first time that a tech company has lost its rag against leakers. Microsoft  said  last week that it is pursuing legal action against a former employee who leaked Windows 8.1 source code to a bogger.

Sony is cracking down on leakers by rolling out stringent security measures in its offices. Apple of course has been running a paranoid security system which makes Eastern Germany, and the United States Israel look like rank amateurs.

Europeans will have to filter pirate sites

Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:33 AM PDT

It is starting to look like EU ISPs will have to automatically filter pirate sites.

Thge European Court of Justice, while mulling over an Austrian case, has ruled that EU countries can ask carriers to block copyright infringers, whether the networks are involved or not.

The decision, which confirms an opinion late last year, follows a dispute between two movie companies – Germany’s Constantin Film Verleih and the catchily titled Wega-Filmproduktionsgesellschaft – and internet provider Telekabel Wien.

Telekabel has lost its case, in which it argued that it shouldn’t have to block access to streaming site kino.to, as it wasn’t responsible for the site’s actions.

 “An ISP, such as UPC Telekabel, which allows its customers to access protected subject-matter made available to the public on the internet by a third party is an intermediary whose services are used to infringe a copyright,” the court ruled. In other words, the EU's laws do not require governments to limit injunctions to just, the parties directly linked to a case.

This is bad news for online free speech advocates because it gives the thumbs up to governments who want to block sites. ISPs are also unlikely to be happy they may have to pay extra to obey local content restriction orders.

Big Content is over the moon because encouraging governments to crack down on pirates is easier than trying to bend the law to its will.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is delighted and claimed that national censorship was consistent with fundamental rights under EU law, and additionally confirming that copyright is itself a fundamental right requiring protection.

Now it is up to the Austrian government to decide if it wants to go ahead with the move. It makes no difference to the British government which has been blocking everything that moves for a while now.

Roku rubbishes Apple TV

Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:32 AM PDT

Telly streaming outfit Roku has been telling the world+dog that he is not at all worried about the fruity cargo cult Apple entering his market.

Founder and Chief Executive Anthony Wood dismissed the Apple competition saying that Jobs’ Mob will not make any money.

Wood said that Apple TV is essentially an accessory for the iPad and they will lose money, which is unusual for Apple. Speaking at the Recode conference he pondered: "If you're losing money, why would you want to sell more?"

Roku said that the big technology companies making forays into streaming boxes helps Roku to grow. The day Apple launched its $99 box, Roku sales doubled, he noted.

This is not the first time that Wood has claimed that big technology companies moving into the market has helped his outfit grow.

In the interview, Wood also disclosed that Aereo, the service that streams over-the-air broadcast programming, is now available as an app on Roku for some, right alongside pornography.

To avoid parent controls,  the company gives out testing codes to some customers to have access to certain content -- like pornography. An app for Aereo, which is being sued by Roku investors Hearst and 20th Century Fox, is available through the same means as well.

Roku exists in a market for streaming-video devices that is growing quickly as options for online video grow more robust, from original series on Netflix to a proliferation of more niche-oriented video apps. Roku has more than 1,200 apps available, double the number it had a year ago.

Competition among streaming-video devices is also expanding. In addition to Roku's biggest rival in Apple TV, Google launched Chromecast to wide appeal last year, and Amazon is widely expected to release a streaming product at an event next week in New York. If Wood is correct, and competition is good for his company, then he should be coining it in by the end of next year.

 
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