hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr1256.txt

Episode: 1256
Title: HPR1256: TGTM Newscast for 2013-05-20 Bobobex
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1256/hpr1256.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-17 22:31:46

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You're listening to TGT News Number 98 Record for Monday, May the 20th, 2013.
You're listening to the Tech Only Hacker Public Radio Edition to get the full podcast
including political, commentary, and other controversial topics.
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Hello again, this is Boba Bex and now the tech round up.
Our first story comes from torrentfreak.com by Ernesto, dated May the 15th, 2013.
Six strikes, anti-piracy outfit loses company status, faces penalties.
The centre of a copyright information, a partnership between the RIAA, MPAA and several major internet
providers, has had its company status revoked.
The CCI, who are leading the six strikes anti-piracy scheme in the US, has violated state laws
and is unable to conduct any official business anywhere in the United States.
In addition, the outfit faces civil penalties and risks losing its name to a third-party
company.
During the summer of 2011, the MPAA and RIAA teamed up with five major internet providers
in the United States announcing their six strikes anti-piracy plan.
Parties found at the centre for copyright information, CCI for short, and a few months later
they started a non-profit company with the same name in Washington, DC.
After more than a year of delays, the CCI finally launched its copyright alert system during
February.
But just when it appeared that the group was on the right track, it met another roadblock.
According to the Columbia Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, DCRA, the company
leading the six strikes programme has had its status revoked.
This pretty much means that the company is unable to conduct any official business anywhere
in the United States.
The revocation means that the CCI's articles of organisation avoid, most likely because
the company forgot to file the proper paperwork or pay its fees.
If entity status is revoked, then articles of incorporation stroke organisation shall
be void and all powers conferred upon such entity are declared inoperative and, in the case
of foreign entity, the certificate of foreign registration shall be revoked and all powers
conferred here under shall be inoperative, the DCRA explains.
Unfortunately for the CCI, the DCRA doesn't have a strike-based system and the company
is now facing civil penalties and fines.
It appears that company status was revoked last year, which means that other businesses
now have the option to take over the name.
That would be quite an embarrassment to say the least and also presents an opportunity
to scammers.
When a Washington DC corporation is revoked by the DCRA, its name is reserved and protected
until December 31 of the year the corporation is revoked.
To December 31, other business entities may use the corporation's name the DCRA explains
on its website.
Technically, the CCI could have started a new corporation under a different name, but
this seems unlikely.
Torrent Freak was able to confirm that at least one of the participants in the Copyright
Alert system paid a substantial amount of money to the revoked company last year.
As with any other company, CCI will be able to have its company status reinstated after
fulfilling its obligations.
A source connected to the centre of Copyright Information informs Torrent Freak that the
proper paperwork has been filed now.
This most likely means that the DCRA will update the company's status in the near future.
Finally, it will be interesting to see if this situation holds consequences for the
anti-piracy warnings that are supposedly being sent out at the moment.
The internet seems strangely devoid of US subscribers in receipt of any.
Our next story comes from EFF.org dated May 14, 2013 and is by Cindy Cohn and Trevor
Tim, disappointing unceiling decision in the Air and Swartz case.
The public lost another battle in the US vs Air and Swartz case.
This one over transparency.
On May 13, 2013, the US District Court judge handing the prosecution side up with the
government the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and JSTOR and refused to make public
any information in the case that any of these three entities wish to keep under seal.
The ruling effectively grants the Department of Justice, MIT and JSTOR a veto over what
the public gets to know about the investigation.
The decision stems from the government's controversial prosecution of Air and Swartz,
the brilliant activist and internet pioneer who died in January.
The government brought a myriad of charges against Swartz, most notably under the draconian
computer fraud and abuse act, CFAA.
After his tragic death, they were widespread calls from an investigation into prosecutorial
misconduct and reform of the CFAA and in response, Swartz's lawyers have asked the court
to unseal the vast majority of evidence in the case such since all charges have been
dismissed for months.
The specific information that issue is undentifying information for JSTOR, MIT and certain law
enforcement personnel, along with any information identifying and sensitive network information.
As Swartz's attorneys have noted, the proposed reductions include job titles and other
information needed to understand who was talking to whom in the volumous email traffic,
and it's impossible to follow what happened in the course of the prosecution without it.
This information is vital in understanding how involved MIT was in the prosecution and
at what level in the institution when and how JSTOR was involved and whether the justice's
departments repeated public assertions that everything in the prosecution proceeded normally
were accurate.
To read the rest of this story, please follow the link in the show notes.
Our next story comes from techdirt.com by Mike Masnick, dated May 14, 2013.
Interesting move, Peter Sunday of the Pirate Bay in Flatter to run for EU Parliament.
The Pirate Party of Sweden famously got two MEPs elected to the European Parliament
in its last election, and now, in an interesting move, Peter Sunday, probably best known as
the former spokesman for the Pirate Bay, has announced the hill be running for the European
Parliament of Finland.
He was apparently born in Sweden, but his ancestry is finished.
After the Pirate Bay, which many people incorrectly assume is connected to the Pirate Party, Sunday
went on to found Flatter, a system which we use here that helps content creators make
money.
I've discovered that people have never met Peter, tend to be very quick to jump to conclusions
about him, almost always entirely incorrect.
Amusingly when I first met him a few years back in Berlin, he and I were sitting in the
green room of a conference right before a panel that he was supposed to be on.
All of the other panelists on his panel had entered the room and were discussing the panel
across the room, without knowing that Peter was sitting right there talking to me.
So they started talking about him, and someone explained that, the Pirates now hate Peter,
because he switched to the other side with Flatter.
Of course nothing is further from the truth.
This was never about sides, but about reality.
Peter has always been incredibly focused on recognising what reality is, and trying to
respond to reality, rather than making up artificial boundaries and pretending a fake
world must exist where it does not.
I'm not sure how well that will play in actual political situations, but it would be great
to see what would happen.
The one bit that surprises me frankly about the decision to do this via the Pirate Party
is that in the past Peter has actually distanced himself from the Pirate Party, saying that he
preferred other parties, such as the Swedish Green Party.
Either way, in my limited experience with him, Peter has always been one of the most
perceptive and thoughtful commenters on the state of technology and its impact on society
and culture.
I've come away from our conversations feeling like I understood a lot more about the
world than when the talks first started.
I recognise that for many who come with preconceived notions, it will be easy to dismiss
him.
But for those who are willing to take a chance and to see what he actually has to say,
there is a tremendous value in hearing what he's got to say.
In a political world, it would be great to see what he could accomplish.
That said, there is the outstanding matter of the ruling against him, and the fact that
he's been sentenced to jail, though it's still never been made clear when or how he
will be expected to serve that sentence.
I would imagine that somehow that issue will need to be clarified if his candidacy actually
does get any real momentum.
Our next story comes from allgov.com, dated May 15, 2013, by Noel Brinkerhoff.
Latest Middle East cyber attacks on the US corporations employ sabotage.
Cyber attacks against American corporations have moved beyond attempts to steal data,
and now evolve sabotaging computers that run important infrastructure operations.
Energy companies have been the targets of the latest attacks, which the Department
of Homeland Security say originated from somewhere in the Middle East.
DHS officials would not say if the cyber attacks were the work of individuals or were state-sponsored.
The New York Times reported that the attempts, which are ongoing, employ probes designed
to figure out how to seize control of processing systems in order to interfere with energy production.
A senior official told the newspaper that DHS is concerned about a repeat of what happened
in Saudi Arabia last summer, when an Iranian-based cyber assault affected 30,000 computers
at Saudi, Aramco, one of the world's largest oil producers.
That attack was similar to the American Israeli operation that unleashed the Stuxnet worm
on computers used in Iran's nuclear enrichment plants, which was intended to slow Tehran's
goal of developing nuclear weapons.
Our final story this week comes from TechDirt.com, by Mike Masnick dated May 15, 2013.
TV networks finally discover live streaming, still get it really, really wrong.
Over and over again, people have pointed out that one of the reasons people flock to unauthorized
versions of content is that legitimate versions aren't available.
For a decade or so, it's been odd that network TV has been generally resistant to embracing
the internet.
A big part of the reason, of course, is money-driven, since they make so much cash from cable deals,
even if their content is free over the air.
The fight with area, of course, is not so much about copyright, as it is about retransmission
fees that the networks can get from cable.
So it might seem like a bit of progress to see that the networks are finally moving towards
live streaming of content.
While many shows are now available online, they usually aren't available until hours
or sometimes days or weeks after things air.
And while yes, we are now a DVR world, where people don't always watch shows when they
air, there is still a sizeable population of fans of shows that like to watch them in
real time.
In fact, many have said that the supposedly evil internet is actually making them more
interested in watching live, because they can share the cultural experience more widely
via things like Twitter and Facebook.
So, recognising that reality, making it easier for people to view the content live at the
same time, such as via online streaming, makes a lot of sense.
Queued off to the networks for recognising that, about a decade later than they should
have.
Disney's ABC Network will become the first broadcast network to stream its show's live online
through an ongoing service, starting with viewers of its TV stations in New York and
Philadelphia on May the 14th, and expanding to its other stations by the end of the summer.
Okay, that's the good part.
But given who we're talking about, of course there's a catch, there's always a catch.
Starting July the 1st, Disney will only provide its watch ABC service to subscribers of
cable, satellite and other TV subscription services that have agreements with ABC to offer
the service to their subscribers in New York and Philadelphia.
Subscribers must provide an authentication code to be granted access to the shows.
Later this summer, Disney said that it will expand use of its watch ABC service to authenticate
subscribers that receive its TV stations in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston,
Raleigh Durham and Fresno, California.
Remember, this is free over the air network television that we're talking about here.
But they're so frightened of pissing off the cable-stroke satellite guys from whom they
make boatloads of money that they won't offer the content to cord cutters, only to people
who are already paying ridiculous sums for cable-stroke satellite TV.
Oh, and rather make it work on any platform, it appears to be specific to certain devices.
The app will initially allow users to be able to watch the service on Apple's iPad and
iPhone and on the Kindle Fire device and later this summer on Samsung Galaxy devices.
Oh, and they're not done with the bad ideas either.
The report also claims that in the future, ABC will, with hold its most recent TV episodes
from the free versions of hulaandabc.com, further limiting access to paying subscribers
of cable and satellite providers only.
Way to take a good idea, live streaming, and make it completely crappy and pointless again,
locking it to devices and existing over-priced pay TV offerings whilst taking away the
value for everyone else and further fragmenting the space.
Other headlines in the news this week that you can read by following the links in the
show notes are, do not track, are weak protections worse than none at all.
The McCain cable bill can only do so much, real change is market-driven.
Jail terms for unlocking cell phones show the true black heart of the copyright monopoly.
This production has been staffed and produced by the TGTM news team, editorial selection
by DeepGeek and views of the story authors reflect their own opinions and not necessarily
those of the TGTM news.
News from WL Central.org is used under permission of the Creative Commons by Attribution
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New sources retain their respective copyrights.
Thank you very much for listening.
Speak to you soon.
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