New Bill: IP Holders can Hack p2p Networks?
According to a new bill introduced by California Rep Howard Berman, intellectual property (IP) holders would be able to hack into individual machines participating in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Unlike server-based networks, p2p thrives on individuals and their machines. This bill takes IP owners closer still to consumers.
posted by Bryan Alexander @ 12:08 AM

DMCA civil disobedience attempt scuttled
According to Gillmor's fine blog, Bruce Perens was going to try to challenge one feature of the DMCA by publicly hacking DVD area codes, playing a disc out of its zone. His employer, HP, asked him not to do it.
posted by Bryan Alexander @ 12:19 PM

News Flash: Blogging Is Popular!
Another day, another newspaper article on blogging. I think legit news organizations are reluctant to use weblogs on their sites because they're horrified that readers might desert their sites, even temporarily. Weblogs are chipping away at their idea of having a constant, captive audience. What do you think?
posted by Matt Hinrichs @ 6:21 PM

US House offers life to hackers
The US House of Representatives passed a measure including a possible life sentence for hackers.

The House is often weirder than the Senate, fwiw.
posted by Bryan Alexander @ 1:40 PM

Metropolis Restored
Kino has a great website for the restored version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. It's playing though July 25 at the Film Forum in New York City, hopefully with a DVD soon to follow.
posted by Donald Melanson @ 11:06 PM

Comdex Toronto Report
Some interesting gadgets were showcased. Most memorable for me were Microsoft's Tablet PC with integrated Wi-Fi 802.11b networking, as was Sony's CLIÉ PEGNR70V Handheld PDA with integrated still camera. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth were definitely well-represented by products. Digital convergence is not dead, but is colliding with networking.
posted by Jim Lai @ 11:02 PM

Congressman moves to strengthen fair use
In a rare break from the herd, Rep. Rick Boucher (D-NY) plans to introduce legislation strengthening fair use in the digital world.
posted by Bryan Alexander @ 6:23 PM

EBay Buys PayPal
EBay has announced that it will buy online payment system PayPal for $1.5 billion in stock. Wired News has the details.
posted by Donald Melanson @ 3:29 PM

Danish courts vs hyperlinking
A Danish court ruled against "deep" linking, administering an injunction to Newsbooster.com.
Such a move, although gratifying to the copyright holder, strikes at the heart of the Web's hypertext nature.

posted by Bryan Alexander @ 1:04 AM

net radio goes guerrilla
After the Librarian of Congress decided to slap net radio broadcasters with fines many found fatal (if lower than the RIAA's demands), some who see the internet as a new venue for enhanced radio are considering setting up their own distribution systems. Examples include Streamer and Icecast. No p2p versions - not yet.

For good background on pirate radio's long history, check out
Jesse Walker's fine book.
posted by Bryan Alexander @ 10:14 AM

religious sect hacks tv, voice mail
Falun Gong apparently hacked Chinese tv and voicemail. The group flung a "Falun Gong is good" banner into a tv slot, then told (via recordings) citizens about the group's virtues.

(Thanks to grimjim)
posted by Bryan Alexander @ 2:47 PM

Hacker Mitnick testifies in Vegas
Kevin Mitnick, one of the most famous/notorious hackers of our time, testified in Las Vegas at the trial of an adult entertainment provider, Eddie Munoz. The actual defender feels like Sprint of Nevada, though. Munoz holds that his phone setup, hosted by Sprint, was hacked; Sprint denies the claim, arguing that their network remained secure during the time in question. Mitnick is a sort of star witness, stating that he had hacked his way through the Sprint Nevada system, accumulating a series of stellar privileges.

My favorite exchange:

"The only way I know that this is a Nortel document is to take you [Mitnick] at your word, correct?," asked Riley. "How do we know that you're not social engineering us now?"

(Thanks, Jesse)
posted by Bryan Alexander @ 11:54 AM