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Reflecting on a new FBI anti-piracy campaign | A very special EFFector 26.09
In our 636th issue:
FBI Issues Reflection Warnings
Starting this week,
department stores will begin affixing "FBI Anti-Piracy" stickers to
mirrors, warning consumers that placing a reflective object in the same
room as a television could constitute a violation of U.S. copyright law.
In a related lawsuit, EFF is representing Dana Auerbach, a ballet
instructor who was caught watching The Black Swan in her dance studio
while on lunch break. She faces a $750 to $150,000 penalty for each of
her infinite charges of infringement.
New "Six Drone Strikes" Agreement Targets File-Sharers, Militants
A troubling new agreement
between the MPAA, the RIAA, several large ISPs, and the Department of
Homeland Security has paved the way for a new government program aimed
at combatting the violent overthrow of the United States and/or
moderate-to-heavy copyright infringement. The initiative, officially
named the Unmanned Aircraft Copyright Notification System, is said to
work on a "six strike" basis of warnings and destruction. The first
three accusations of infringement or terrorism by the U.S. government
will deliver pop-up notifications to targeted users. Subsequent offenses
will be addressed with a range of "mitigation measures" that will be
determined by the drones' onboard autonomy software. EFF is
concerned about the possibility of innocent American citizens being
caught in the (literal) crossfire of the program. In response, a DHS
spokesperson pointed to evidence compiled by the entertainment industry
that terrorists and file-sharers frequently hang out in the same seedy
bars, and often stay on each other's couches.
Nobody Expects the Cyber Inquisition
The House Subcommittee on
Cybersecurity released a report Tuesday blasting the United States'
cyber-preparedness for a wide range of cyber-tastrophes. "Though
Senators and Congressmen have discussed an impending
'Cyber-Pearl-Harbor' literally hundreds of times, U.S.
cyber-preparations have been in-cyber-adequate for a host of possible
disasters, such as a cyber-Vesuvius, a cyber-Teapot-Dome-Scandal, or
most alarmingly, a cyber-Bicholim-Conflict." The report goes on to
recommend a nearly threefold increase for the annual spending on the
Cyber-Department of Cyber-Prefixes.
EFF Updates
In a surprising response
to a recent Freedom of Information Act request filed by EFF, the
Department of Homeland Security has revealed ███████ ██ ██████ ██████
███████████. █████ ████ ██ ███████, ███ ██████ █████ ██████ ████ █████™.
███ █████ ███ ███: █████ █████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ████ ████, ██ ███ ████
█████. ███ ██ ███. ███ ████ █████ █████ █ ███ ████ ████ ████
█████████.
Citing the rising costs of
observing local privacy laws in Europe and other jurisdictions as well
as the cost of compliance with government data requests, Facebook has
announced plans to move its datacenters to a skull-shaped volcanic
island believed to be some 200 miles off the coast of Chile. In a video
promoting the move, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also touted the
security benefits of the new location and its roaming packs of
bloodthirsty wolves. EFF is researching legal arguments that local
privacy laws should still apply, without also requiring compliance with
overreaching government access requests. But when asked about the
relationship between these doctrines, EFF Junior Staff Attorney Mackey
said "It's
complicated."
Industry sources say that
representatives of Google's executive board are deep in negotiations
with an internal "skunkworks" start-up originally dedicated to
researching online marketing opportunities, but which has since expanded
to cover the entirety of evil services. The morally errant division,
nicknamed Googollum, is understood to be arguing internally that the
Internets stole the precious social networking, they did, and gave it to
the Facebooks, and must be punished. While some at the company have
suggested that it mustn't steal the Internets' privacies, other
Googollum workers, who asked not to be identified, have said that no-one
would notice, and anyways, what has the nasty Internetsies done for
Google lately? Talks are ongoing, although setbacks did occur when
Googollum's management, speaking at the company's Friday meeting,
refused to tell anyone where the Google Plus development team was
hidden, and went on to eat the Google Reader product manager raw.
For the first time, the Internet Archive will have a full and
complete archive of the U.S. Internet, including social media, email,
and VOIP telephone calls. Thanks to a deal with the National Security
Administration announced Wednesday, the San Francisco non-profit will
begin mirroring all online communications piped into the NSA's famous
SigInt operations centers to its own datastores. During the same press
conference, the NSA announced that archive.org will no longer be
accessible to the public and officially denied its existence.A Kickstarter project with the lofty goal of producing a smartphone that doesn't suffer from the same privacy drawbacks as the top offerings from Apple and Google has captured the Internet's attention, raising nearly $1 million from over 7,000 users in just three weeks. The designers' initial prototype -- a piece of balsa wood roughly the size of a deck of cards -- appears to deliver on the privacy promises, but some have criticized the phone's inability to run apps, take photos, place or receive calls and text messages. Battery life is, however, said to be "impressive."
On Thursday, EFF received a formal cease-and-desist letter from a group claiming to represent the Kalmar Union of Scandinavian Countries, urging the organization to stop using the terms "Copyright Troll" and "Patent Troll" in its campaign against abusive intellectual property litigants. Citing the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, a Kalmar Union spokesperson said said, "Trolls are a cherished element of Scandinavian folklore and the misuse of Nordic mythology results in the denigration of our culture and compromised search-engine optimization." In the event EFF refuses to comply, the group threatened that his country would post comments on Reddit and Hacker News comparing EFF lawyers to Nazi Germany.
The US State Department's Internet Freedom division has begun soliciting applications for a $1 million grant intended to foster open government worldwide, and aimed at "hackers, coders, and other activist brainiacs". The money, which will be divided between a number of applicants, is intended to improve access to and understanding of the State Department's own set of internal cables, previously only available to three million US government personnel. The cables are understood to contain information of interest to citizens of many countries worldwide. "It's a great step forward for open government," said a State Department official, "We can only hope that there's some lone hacker out there who wants to take us up on our offer." Payments for the grant will be available through PayPal, Mastercard and Visa.
miniLinks
In drones today, drones drones droney droney drones. EFF Activist Trevor Timm reiterated, "Drones and drones drone droney drone drone. And nanodrones."In response to last week's exceedingly polite Canadian Supreme Court ruling on text message privacy, EFF will print a limited edition run of "Sorry if this is a bother, but I'd really prefer if you returned with a warrant, eh" stickers for Canadian mobile devices.
In a heartfelt video, former Senator and current MPAA chief Chris Dodd has lamented the sequester-motivated closure of the Senate barbershop. Dodd appears to be choking back tears at one point, yelling into the camera, "Leave the barbershop alone!"
Supported by Members
Our members make it
possible for EFF to bring legal and technological expertise into crucial
battles about online rights. Whether defending free speech online or
challenging unconstitutional surveillance, your participation makes a
difference. Every donation gives technology users who value freedom
online a stronger voice and more formidable advocate.
If you aren't already, please consider becoming an EFF member today.
Administrivia
Editor: Parker Higgins, Activist
editor@eff.org
editor@eff.org
EFFector is a publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
eff.org
eff.org
Membership & donation queries: membership@eff.org
General EFF, legal, policy, or online resources queries: info@eff.org
Reproduction of this publication in electronic media is encouraged. MiniLinks do not necessarily represent the views of EFF.
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Last Resistance
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| Fort Hood Victims Denied Purple Hearts Because Shooter Would Have to be Labeled a Terrorist The Department of Defense has revealed that no Purple Hearts would be given to victims – living or deceased – of the Fort Hood massacre. Their reasoning was mainly based on the belief that if the high honor was given, [...] ... READ MORE |
 Straining on Gnats While Swallowing Camels
It seems an
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of rage among Native Americans…. some of them angry with me for
publishing it. Here is a link to the article: Reservations, Plantations,
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Cyprus President’s Family Transferred Millions to London Days Before Bank Confiscations
Before the people of Cyprus knew that their savings were going to be confiscated, the president’s family transferred millions of dollars out of the country through one of their companies.
President Nicos Anastasiades in Cyprus Parliament
By JG Vibes
Intellihub.com
Over the weekend it was reported that people in Cyprus may lose as much as 60 percent of the money in their savings accounts.
The president of Cyprus, acting on behalf of the people, rolled over to the EU and agreed to go along with their plan and continue to mandate the EU currency under his jurisdiction.
Just days before the confiscations were announced to the public, a company closely connected to the president of Cyprus transferred millions of dollars to London.
RT reported that:
During two days, 12 and 13 of March, the company A.Loutsios & Sons Ltd., co-owned by Loutsios John, the husband of Nikos Anastasiadis’ daughter, Elsa, took five promissory notes worth €21 million from Laiki Bank. The money was then transferred to London, reported Cypriot newspaper Haravgi, affiliated to the communist-rooted AKEL party. The withdrawal was fulfilled just three days before the Eurogroup meeting when euro finance ministers agreed a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout for Cyprus. The newspaper recalls that Cyprus Finance Minister, Michalis Sarris, publicly admitted that the government was aware in advance about the Eurogroup’s intentions to impose a “haircut” on bank deposits of more than 100,000 euros.
Responding to the allegations, Anastasiades said: “The attempt to defame companies or people linked to my family… is nothing but an attempt to distract people from the liability of those who led the country to a state of bankruptcy.”
Yet as president of a country involved in central banking, Anastasiades is absolutely complicit in the countries state of bankruptcy. In addition, a list of companies and politicians that had loans written off by banks at the heart of Cyprus’ bailout crisis was published in Greece and was subsequently handed to the Cypriot parliament’s ethics committee.
This situation has caught the attention of people worldwide, who are now wondering if their savings accounts are at risk, considering that Cyprus is not much different from any other central banking government. These measures are not just possible in other places, they have actually already been planned, Cyprus just happens to be the first place in the EU to get robbed.
It was also revealed in plans dating back to last year that
“Confiscation of the customer deposits in Cyprus banks, it seems, was not a one-off, desperate idea of a few Eurozone “troika” officials scrambling to salvage their balance sheets. A joint paper by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Bank of England dated December 10, 2012, shows that these plans have been long in the making; that they originated with the G20 Financial Stability Board in Basel, Switzerland; and that the result will be to deliver clear title to the banks of depositor funds.”
It was also reported last week that a Cyprus style “bail in” was proposed in the new 2013 Canadian budget.
There has been a rush towards precious metals and Bitcoin because people are attempting to retain as much of their wealth as possible, but for many who have had their funds seized it was too late.
To help the people of Cyprus get their assets off the grid, Jeff Berwick has announced that he will be opening a Bitcoin ATM in Cyprus in the coming weeks.
http://intellihub.com/2013/03/31/cyprus-presidents-family-transferred-millions-to-london-days-before-bank-confiscations/
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