Episode: 1090
Title: HPR1090: TGTM Newscast for 10/2/2012
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1090/hpr1090.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-17 18:45:31

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You are listening to Talk Geek To Me News, number 77, record for Tuesday, October 2, 2012.
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From torrentfreak.com, day at September 30, 2012, by Renesto, Pirate Bay Founder remains
locked up without charges.
Following his arrest late last month, Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfried Swathom was deported
from Cambodia to Sweden.
Initially, it was assumed that Gottfried was sent to Sweden because of the outstanding
one-year prison sentence in the Pirate Bay case.
However, once he touched down at Stockholm's Orlando Airport, the authority said he was
suspected of being involved in the hacking of Lachika, a Swedish IT company that works
with the local tax authorities.
Since he hasn't been charged officially in the Lachika case, the Pirate Bay co-founder
could only be detained for a few days.
But after a request from prosecutor Henry Olin, this term was extended for another two
weeks mid-September.
And last Friday, the district court decided that Gottfried could be detained for another
two weeks, according to the prosecutor and the investigation into Gottfried's involvement
in the Lachika check is still ongoing.
Quote, he is suspected of this breach of data security.
The court ruled that there is a risk he could affect the evidence in their investigation
and that there is a risk he could be committing crimes again, unquote, Olin said.
To prevent Gottfried from interfering with the investigation, the prosecutor believes
it's justified to detain him for more than a month without being charged.
The Pirate Bay co-founder is not allowed to have visitors and is being refused access
to newspapers and television.
According to the Swedish system, when the preliminary investigation is finished, I as
prosecutor decide whether to prosecute him.
In the Swedish system, it is quite usual for people to be detained on this legal ground,
and it gives me the possibility to prevent him from having contact with other people,
Olin said.
The prosecutor hasn't ruled out a request for another extension of Gottfried's detainment
in two weeks if the investigation is still ongoing.
Two other Swedish citizens, both in their thirties, were previously detained under suspicion
of also being involved in the hack, one of the suspects was a member of Pirate Byron,
the group that found the Pirate Bay back in 2003.
Both of these earlier suspects have since been released, Gottfried meanwhile denies any
involvement with the logical hack.
From EFF.org, dated September 27th, 2012 by Mera Sutton, the secrecy must be stopped.
Congress members probe USTR on the confidential TPP negotiations.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement threatens to regulate and restrict the internet in
the name of enforcing intellectual property rights around the world.
Yet the public and civil society continue to be denied meaningful access to the official
text and are even kept in the dock about what proposals countries are pushing in this
powerful multilateral trade agreement, with users having sent over 80,000 messages to
Congress asking them to demand transparency in the TPP using EFF's action center, Congress
members have been urged into action to uncover the secrecy.
On September 20th, Representative Zoe Loughgren sent an additional file letter to the USTR,
which EFF applaud, according to the letter, Representative Loughgren, who has long been a strong
advocate for digital rights and was a vocal opponent of SOPA, met with Ambassador Ron Kirk
directly to discuss the TPP and her concerns over the lack of transparency in the process.
The letter, which mentions that Ambassador Kirk told her he welcomed feedback on how to
address the concerns, asks USTR to balance TPP IP enforcement provisions with use of
privileges, diversify the policy perspectives on their industry trade advisory committee
for IP, and be more transparent in its TPP negotiations overall.
Representative Loughgren stated her press release for the letter, TPP's IP provisions
must not undermine the free expression of internet users, the ability to share and create
content online, the free and open character of the internet, or the freedom of digital
service providers to innovate.
Lack of transparency and overbroad IP enforcement requirements have held back other international
trade agreements in the recent past.
These same issues are now undermining the results USTR seeks to achieve with TPP.
They have yet to hear back with a response from the USTR.
This is not Congress's first attempt to unveil the TPP.
As we have reported, Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Darryl Issa are currently
working on gathering signatures from their colleagues in Congress to ask the US Trade
Representative Ron Kirk to reveal what they are seeking in the TPP's IP chapter, specifically
in relation to provisions that would impact the internet and access to pharmaceutical
drugs.
And in June of this year, 130 members of the House of Representatives sent a detailed
letter to the USTR, certain Congress's required role in the trade negotiations, making
specific requests as to how they could make the process democratic and transparent while
emphasizing the ways in which it fails to be neither of those things.
Two months later, the USTR responded in a letter that did not address any of the specific
issues raised by Congress members.
The USTR claims that at the outset of TPP negotiations in 2009, the participating countries
signed a confidentiality agreement.
In the June letter from 130 US representatives, they explicitly asked for a copy of the
confidentiality agreements and an explanation as to what role USTR or other governments
played in creating it.
In the USTR's response letter, they completely ignored the request.
However, the model confidentiality agreement that served as a base for the TPP negotiations
is a public document available at the page on the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and Trade website.
The model agreement lays out the rules of confidentiality for signatory countries.
Over TPP draft texts proposed those communications and other documents relating to the negotiations
over the agreement.
It is not clear, however, whether the model mirrors the exact agreement the USTR signed,
and USTR is likely subject to internal confidentiality policies in addition to the agreement.
To read the rest of the story, follow links in the show notes.
From TechDirt.com by Mike Masnick did Friday, September 21, 2012.
Lauren Forgeman officials freak out about the possibility of having to get a warrant to
read your email.
We recently know that Senator Leahy had attached his mostly good ECPA Electronic Communications
Privacy Act reform bill to another bill reforming the VPPA the Video Privacy Protection Act.
The ECPA reform would update the decades-old law that Lauren Forgeman has interpreted
to more or less mean they don't need a warrant to read your online email.
Leahy's update would require a warrant.
This is good and important to reform that should be supported, but of course, Lauren Forgeman
freaked out and it appears that Leahy has backed down delaying hearings on the bill for
now.
Funny how he really wanted to push through the paper despite Matt's public protests, but
a few Lauren Forgeman people get upset about respecting the Fourth Amendment and things
get delayed.
From Declan McColley's coverage, Black quote, the delay comes two days after the failings
of Lauren Forgeman organizations objected to the legislation asking Leahy to reconsider
acting on it until a more comprehensive review over its impact on Lauren Forgeman investigations
is conducted.
The groups included the National District Attorney's Association and the National Sheriff's Association.
A person participating in Capitol Hill meetings on the topic told CNET that just as the
department officials have been expressing their displeasure about requiring search
warns.
The department is on record as opposed to such a requirement.
James Baker, the Associate Deputy Attorney General, has publicly warned that requiring a
warrant to obtain stored email could have an adverse impact on criminal investigations.
And Black quote, of course it would have an adverse impact on criminal investigations,
so do lots of things, but those are the rules Lauren Forgeman plays by in a free society.
It's not built to make Lauren Forgeman's life easy.
Either way, it appears that this bit of EPCA reform will get pushed off once again, hopefully
when it comes back, it won't be wore down.
For Wordsworth, both the EFF and the ACLU, who strongly support EPCA reform similar to
what Leahy has been proposing, have also not been happy with how Leahy introduced his
bill because they both oppose the changes to the VPPA, which they are afraid will weaken
privacy for people.
This is a somewhat rare but unprecedented situation where I disagree with both of these organizations.
The VPPA was a specific and broad callout to deal with a single situation, Bork Bork Bork.
I think it's reasonable to update it to allow for things like letting people choose to
let Netflix and social network share info on what movies they've watched, just like
they can choose to show what music they listen to.
I don't necessarily believe that it makes sense to link the VPPA to EPCA reform, but I
don't think that passing the VPPA reform is so problematic that it should stop EPCA
reform.
Of course, if Lauren Forgeman has its way and so far, that seems to be the case, EPCA
reform might never happen.
Is it really worth worrying about how you can choose to share your Netflix movies on
Facebook while the Justice Department feels it can snoop boardly through your Gmail?
From TechDirt.com by Mike Masek, Dave Friday, September 28th, DHS Boss, in charge of cyber
security, doesn't use email or any online services.
We've talked in the past about the problematic efforts to push for new cyber security
regulations, especially when little to nothing has been done to show the actual problem.
There has been quite a turf war over who would own cyber security within the federal government,
with some wanting to give it to the Defense Department where the NSA would control it,
along with all your info, and others wanting to give it to the Department of Homeland Security.
While neither option is ideal, DHS is clearly lesser of two evils, should it come to pass.
It makes much more sense for this issue to be in the hands of a civilian organization
rather than a military one, especially a military one, with a horrible track record when it comes
to privacy.
That said, it's tough to be enthusiastic about DHS either, given the various problems
and abuses we've seen in that department as well.
Making matters even worse, it appears that the DHS boss, Janet Napolitano, who would
effectively be in charge of cyber security, doesn't know much if anything about the
Internet, and seems rather proud of that fact referring to herself as a ludite.
Black quote, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who is a key player in national
cyber security efforts, said on Friday, she doesn't use email.
Don't laugh, but I just don't use email at all, she said, during a discussion that a
cyber security summit hosted by National Journal and Government Executive, she didn't explain
what communications tools she does use.
President Obama, who appointed Napolitano, broke President by carrying his own Black
Buried Device, but in response to a question about her personal cyber security practices,
the Palatano said she avoids many online services.
I don't have any of my own accounts, some would call me a ludite, she said, and
Black quote.
I don't think anyone should be laughing, but perhaps they should be very, very worried,
well perhaps they should be asking why she's in that job when she doesn't seem to have
a necessary experience.
If it comes to pass that the DHS gets control over new cyber security efforts, this seems
there's a good reason to find someone else who actually has some grasp on what it is
that they're regulating.
From torrentfreak.com, date September 22nd 2012 by IndigMax, 2 legit to quit, 124.2 million
legal bit torrent music downloads in 2012.
On Monday, Musicmetric, a data and analytics company that maps the trends and preferences
of music fans around the world, publishes first digital music index.
Musicmetric revealed that their bit torrent monitoring, which spanned the first half
of 2012, covered a total of 750,000 recording artists.
During that six month period, they logged a total of 405 million music release downloads.
Now as regular readers will note, every week and in annual roundups torrentfreak produces
two charts, three or three include our games chart, one for the world's most download
movies, and the other for TV shows.
They rarely, if ever, contain authorized material.
But interestingly, Musicmetric's analysis shows that in music things are quite different.
Not only did legal music make an appearance, but in five of the top 20 downloading countries
worldwide, dubstep artists build van top the charts after signing a licensing deal with
bit torrent and corporate, the company behind you torrent.
Legal content has become hugely popular in place of other illegal content in a quarter
of the top 20 countries for downloads, Musicmetric explained.
And today, bit torrent corporate points torrentfreak towards what the company describes as
a fun infographic, but one with a very serious point, while Musicmetric might have logged
405 million downloads in total, bit torrent corporate can claim credit for a significant
proportion of them through its licensing work.
During the first half of 2012,
the torrent corporate's Autist Promotions delivered 124 million 191,863 licensed legal
music downloads, a massive number which shows that bit torrent is much more than a tool
for pirates.
What this statistic shows very clearly is there's a lot of good legitimate content in the
bit torrent ecosystem that is adding value to the careers of the artists and publishers
who decided to release their work using the protocol.
Bit torrent incorporates Matt Myson told torrentfreak.
These are just the bit torrent bundles we as a company were seeding ourselves, which
are the only things we can track.
The total number of times these files were shared worldwide is probably much higher.
Whatever that number is, one thing is certain, to say bit torrent is just for illegal file
sharing, is flat out wrong.
According to Mason, the Autist Promotions bit torrent ran, have been a great success,
and not just because of the impressive download statistic.
Autists are eager to work with bit torrent and see value ensuring they work for free, in
the coming months and years bit torrent incorporated therefore plans to continue and improve their
collaboration with artists.
Bit torrent is quite simply the best way to move launch files across the internet, more
more of the creative industries are coming to understand bit torrent and are using it
to get their work directly to their fans in ways that make sense for everyone, Mason
told torrentfreak.
The 124 million plus downloads is a huge figure in difficult to visualize, so bit torrent
corporate has chosen to show what 689,955 looks like, the number of licensed music downloads
the company facilitates in a single day using new torrent.
If you have fun scrolling, then multiply the time it took by 180 to get an ideal of
6 months worth of downloads.
Other headlines in the news to read these stories follow links in the show notes, file
sharing for personal use declared legal and Portugal.
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