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Europe's top court rules that Facebook can be ordered to remove illegal content
Courts in the European Union can now order Facebook to remove user comments deemed illegal, according to a new ruling by the EU's highest court, which has implications for the way countries can manage content bans beyond their borders.
New York City bill could make selling phone location data illegal
New York City could become the first city in the country to ban the sale of geolocation data to third parties. A bill introduced today would make it illegal for cellphone and mobile app companies to sell location data collected in the city. It would impose hefty fines -- up to $10,000 per day, per user for multiple violations -- and it would give users the right to sue companies that share their data without explicit permission.
FTC crackdown targets operations responsible for one billion robocalls
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and its law enforcement partners are cracking down on robocallers. Today, the FTC announced that it's filed 94 actions against organizations responsible for more than one billion illegal calls. As part of "Operation Call it Quits," the FTC has opened four new legal cases and three new settlements, bringing the number of cases the FTC has filed against robocallers to 145.
Deep Silver deactivates 'Metro Exodus' keys stolen from a factory
If you've been sold a code for post-apocalyptic adventure Metro Exodus, you might want to check where it came from. According to publisher Deep Silver, a number of keys have been stolen from the factory where physical key printing for the game had been taking place, before it became an Epic Games Store exclusive. In a post on Steam, the company explained that physical keys don't have the necessary files to run "as they were not meant to be released."
SEC brings charges in connection with hack of its financial system
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it is bringing charges against a Ukranian hacker for breaking into the agency's corporate filing system to access nonpublic information. The SEC is also charging a number of individual traders and entities who used that information to generate more than $4.1 million on illegal trades. The Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey announced it will be bringing related criminal charges.
Investigators say China is behind illegal CFC emissions
A global environmental "whodunit" emerged last month, when researchers revealed that someone, somewhere, was pumping tonnes of banned chemical CFC-11 into the atmosphere. Now, investigators think they've found the culprits. According to The New York Times, the ozone-damaging gas is likely being emitted by illegal refrigerator factories in China, which claim no-one told them the chemical was prohibited by the 1987 Montreal Protocol.
The Pirate Bay begins testing browser streaming
The Pirate Bay torrent site has blown around so much, you might not even be sure where it is right now (thepiratebay.se, we think). It's still kicking though, and now has a new trick -- streaming directly from your browser. It's able to do that thanks to a new plugin from Torrents Time, using the same technology as Popcorn Time (the second version, not the original). If you dare, all you have to do is download the plugin for Firefox, Internet Explorer or Chrome, and when you go to a given Pirate Bay torrent, you'll get the option to stream.
Shutting down piracy sites is like playing Whac-A-Mole, says EU
The European Commission (EC) has finally confirmed what we've all known for years: if you shut down one online piracy site, another will simply take its place. A report published by the EC's Joint Research Center found that the closure of Kino.to, a popular unlicensed streaming site in Germany, had little impact on national online piracy. The team analysed the web activity of 5,000 German citizens, and found that while there was a sharp decline in June 2011, when the site was pulled offline by officials, average piracy levels quickly returned to normal. In addition, researchers concluded that Kino.to's demise did little to encourage licensed alternatives. Instead, a group of new illegal streaming sites rose to prominence -- kinox.to, mega-stream.to, video2k.tv and streams.to, among others.
Uber offices raided by police in France and South Korea
Uber is under seige on two separate fronts today, as police in South Korea have arrested a pair of its executives, according to ZDNet. At the same time, Le Monde is reporting that French Police have raided Uber's offices in Paris. In Korea, the situation is a bit more serious: Seoul police charged the company's brand manager, other employees and drivers for allegedly breaking the nation's transport laws. The city previously declared that Uber's services are illegal and vowed to ban it, going so far as to issue a warrant for CEO Travis Kalanick and offer rewards to anyone who reported on it. The company is also being probed over claims it failed to register its car-hailing app with South Korea's wireless regulator. It's not clear what kind of charges the employees face.
Transport inspectors say Uber blocked their accounts to avoid fines
Uber likes to play chicken with local ride-sharing laws, hoping to keep its service in cities long enough to generate positive public buzz. Case in point is Queensland and Western Australia, where UberX is illegal and carries fines of up to $1,700 (AUS) for infringing drivers. According to emails obtained by ABC News in Australia, Uber has actively blocked the accounts of transport inspectors to avoid the penalties, which it pays on behalf of drivers. One inspector said "due to blocking by Uber, only two covert rides were undertaken... time was spent purchasing new credit cards, activating Gmail accounts and setting up two more phones."
The Talos Principle traps pirates in an elevator
Claustrophobic pirates, beware: Anyone who illegally downloads The Talos Principle will be trapped in an elevator early in the game, with no way to progress. Developer Croteam and publisher Devolver Digital tweeted links to a NeoGAF thread featuring a screencap of a post titled "Elevator doesn't work!" on The Talos Principle's Steam forum. The first response to the thread reads, "Congratulations you must be the first one to show to the internet world what Croteam did this time to punish pirates :) You should be proud of yourself, it will be all over the internet in about 30 minutes I'd say." Well played, @Croteam. Well played. http://t.co/jHO3BiQoPN pic.twitter.com/UYfYXPlbrH - Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) December 28, 2014 Croteam previously deterred pirates from fully enjoying Serious Sam 3: BFE with an immortal, speedy, rifle-wielding, giant scorpion. The elevator trick, while more subtle, appears to be similarly effective. We discussed The Talos Principle's surprisingly emotive philosophy on episode 126 of the Super Joystiq Podcast. [Image: Devolver Digital]
The NSA chose Christmas to detail 12 years of accidental spying
The NSA's idea of a Christmas present, it seems, is to release multiple reports detailing 12 years of improper conduct. The heavily redacted accounts reveal many incidents of misuse (both accidental and intentional) of the NSA's Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) systems. A large portion of the misconduct occurred due to the way agents searched the NSA's systems. Poorly constructed and sometimes unauthorized searches led to agents gleaning data on either US citizens and other unintended targets. According to an accompanying press release, data acquired illegally or accidentally is "almost always" deleted in what it refers to as a "purge process."
Posting revenge porn could soon become a serious criminal offence
The posting of 'revenge porn' may become unequivocally illegal in England and Wales soon, after the House of Lords agreed yesterday the law should be amended to specifically include the practice. Currently, anyone that shares explicit images to humiliate a former partner can be prosecuted under sex offense laws -- something the Crown Prosecution Service was keen to highlight in new guidance released a few weeks ago. To deal with the growing problem more directly, however, the Lords' amendment would consider the sharing of such images a serious criminal offense in its own right, carrying a maximum prison sentence of two years. Should MPs in the House of Commons approve the amendment, perpetrators would be more easily punishable, and victims would have stronger grounds to demand the removal of any published images. Clarifying the law with regards to revenge porn isn't the only crackdown on bad internet behaviour currently under consideration, as the UK Justice Secretary recently called for the maximum prison sentence for serious trolls to be increased from six months to two years.
Cops using controversial database to identify search and seizure targets
The Washington Post has reported that a network called "Black Asphalt" is used by police officers as a (possibly illegal) aid in seizing drugs and cash during roadside stops. The site was created by a counterterrorism firm called Desert Snow, and has been tapped by as many as 25,000 police officers, DEA officials, customs agents and others to share information. Some of that data includes reports about US drivers never charged with a crime, including personal data like Social Security numbers. It is also frequently used to share "Be On the Lookout" or BOLO reports, which often target drivers based only on a cop's hunch. Officers using the site and various Desert Snow training methods reportedly seized $427 million in five years, drastically increasing the take in the Justice Department's contentious "asset forfeiture" fund.
FedEx charged with transporting drugs for illegal online pharmacies
Live animals. Hazardous waste. Used tires. Cash. These are all items that you can't ship via FedEx. Medication is accepted, however, as it poses no risk to the carrier -- or so it seemed. Today, FedEx was indicted in a US District Court, facing criminal charges for its role in providing logistics for illegal online pharmacies. Various US agencies have reportedly been warning FedEx to stop accepting such shipments for years, so as shocking as the charges may seem, they should come as no surprise to executives. If guilty, FedEx would have to hand over the $820 million or so it's earned by transporting drugs such as oxycodone and hydrocodone for black market distributers.
Sweden fines pirate $650,000 for illegally sharing a single film
Sure, it's no Somalia, but Sweden's been fighting plenty of its own battles against piracy -- of the digital variety. The former home of Pirate Bay, the infamous online repository for everything the RIAA and MPAA stand against, has just fined an unnamed 28-year-old man 4.3 million krona (about $650,000) for uploading a single film to a torrent site. Granted, an anti-piracy group called Rights Alliance described the man as the country's "worst ever" pirate, according to a BBC report, so just because this fine covers only one film, he's likely responsible for ripping off plenty more. In fact, the same court that assigned the fine also convicted the man of sharing 517 other flicks -- that charge brought a rather tame punishment, including a suspended jail sentence and 160 hours of community service.
Nintendo continues piracy fight with lawsuit against hacked goods retailer
Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against HackYourConsole.com, a site that offers DS and 3DS flashcarts, devices that allow owners to play pirated games on their systems. Nintendo's press release to the media stated that the site "has developed a global business focused on selling unauthorized copies of Nintendo games and game-copying devices (such as the R4 device) used to circumvent the technological protection measures contained in the Nintendo DS family of hand-held systems." One of the products offered on the site is a portable hard drive that's pre-loaded with 200 Wii games. Which, you know, is probably super-illegal. "The website operator, for a fee, also provides services to hack and modify the Wii console and allow the play of illegal software," Nintendo added.
UK government considering fines for drivers wearing Google Glass
Wondering what West Virginia and Britain have in common? This. After hearing that a bill in WV would outlaw Google Glass for motorists in the state, a new report from Stuff suggests that the United Kingdom is considering something comparable. A Department for Transport spokesperson was quoted as saying the following: "We are aware of the impending rollout of Google Glass and are in discussion with the Police to ensure that individuals do not use this technology while driving. It is important that drivers give their full attention to the road when they are behind the wheel and do not behave in a way that stops them from observing what is happening on the road." He went on to affirm that a range of penalties already exist in order to punish drivers who aren't "paying proper attention to the road," and while a law has yet to be passed targetting Glass specifically, it certainly sounds as if that type of modification is on the table. Silver lining? North Korea has yet to issue a similarly depressing condemnation of the headset.
DayZ studio hacked, encrypted passwords downloaded
DayZ developer Bohemia Interactive was struck by hackers today, resulting in the illegal download of player usernames, emails addresses, and passwords. Bohemia posted a letter stating that while the passwords were stolen, their encryption should protect players from the hackers using them. Even so, Bohemia has reset all of the passwords in its database, requiring players to register for a new password in order to access the studio's website and forums. The good news is that credit card info is safe. "We would like to reassure everyone that no other information such as credit card details is stored by us and thus was not at any risk from this illegal breach," Bohemia stated.
Nintendo wins another legal battle against R4 flashcart resellers
Nintendo has achieved another victory in its ongoing quest to rid the world of the R4 flashcart. The Tokyo District Court has ruled that two Japanese resellers of the homebrew/piracy-enabling device owe Nintendo (and 49 other companies, including Capcom, Konami, Square Enix and Namco Bandai) ¥95,625,000, or roughly $946,113 at today's exchange rates. Nintendo et al.'s victory also reinforces legislation passed into Japanese law in 2009, which makes it illegal to sell R4 carts in the country. Another blow to the R4 was dealt last year, when new law made importing the device into Japan illegal as well.
