News You Need to Know – Page 122

Apparently Giving Away Free Stuff is Illegal in France

I hate the French government for so many reasons but this one really takes the cake:

A French commercial court has found Google guilty of abusing the dominant position of its Google Maps application and ordered it to pay a fine and damages to a French mapping company.

In a ruling Tuesday, the Paris court upheld an unfair competition complaint lodged by Bottin Cartographes against Google France and its parent company Google Inc. for providing free web mapping services to some businesses.

Google is being made to pay a hefty fine to the French state because they decided to give one of their services away free of charge. Like any anti-competition ruling this one serves to benefit the state, not consumers. What does Bottin Cartographes receive from this ruling? Likely nothing as the fine being paid by Google goes to the French coffers. How do consumers benefit? They don’t because Google is being punished for providing a free service. What sense does this ruling make? None.

The bottom line is if I wish to give away a product or service that I’ve created for free that is my right. Bottin Cartographes is claiming Google is giving away their Maps service for free to undercut competitors but in reality Google’s strategy form day one has always been to give away free services and make money on either advertising or premium features. This is the same strategy most web-based companies end up adopting including other well-known industry players like Facebook and Twitter.

I’m not surprised about this ruling of course as the French government seems to have a complete disdain for any entity that actually contributes positively to the economy.

Naked Body Scanner Submission to Become Mandatory in Australia

I hate the naked body scanners for many reasons but the fact that they are likely to cause cancer and invade your privacy are enough to bitch about for one post. At least here in the United States you have the option of getting cancer or sexually assaulted by an agent of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Australians will no longer have any options:

PASSENGERS at airports across Australia will be forced to undergo full-body scans or be banned from flying under new laws to be introduced into Federal Parliament this week.

Remember when entering the scanner you are to place the heels of your feel together and raise your right arm at a forty-five degree angle. Now be a good little slave and don’t tell the shrink where the bad man touched you, tattletales always find themselves in a secret prison camp in Cuba.

Encrypting Information is Now Terrorist Activity

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) have put out a joint document [PDF] that describes suspicious terrorist activity. What constitutes such activity? The list reads like a list of common sense computer security practices:

Evidence of a residential based internet provider (signs on to Comcast, AOL,
etc.)

I’m not quite sure what this is supposed to mean but it seems to insinuate that anybody with a home Internet connection is a likely terrorist. Isn’t that kind of a catchall that labels almost everybody a potential terrorist? Wait, that’s exactly the point.

Use of anonymizers, portals, or other means to shield IP address

Using Tor? If so you’re a likely terrorist!

Encryption or use of software to hide encrypted data in digital photos, etc.

Do you try to protect your personal information from laptop thieves? If you encrypt your entire harddrive a thief can get your hardware but won’t have access to your data. Also you’re a likely terrorist.

Suspicious communications using VOIP or communicating through a PC game

Skype users are terrorists as well.

I can sum up the little propaganda piece in one sentence, “Basically, everybody is a suspected terrorist.” The propaganda piece then urges citizens to play Big Brother and collect information about any suspected terrorists and report them to your local Stasi.

Family of Murdered Border Patrol Agent Suing the ATF

The family of the murdered Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, are finally moving forward with a lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF):

The family of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry has filed a $25 million wrongful death claim against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives claiming Terry was killed with AK-47s that were knowingly sold under the Fast and Furious gunrunning probe to a straw purchaser for drug cartels.

I’m sure the ATF will be working hard to squirm their way out of taking responsibility for Terry’s death.

Worker’s Revolution

One idea communists and many flavors of anarchism agree on is the idea that workers should revolt against their bosses. In a communist society and many forms of anarchist society workers are each to own an equal share in the business they work at. The big scary capitalist, the owners of the businesses, are to be overthrown. Of course this idea also has a habit of leaving dead bodies in its wake:

Workers at the Regency Ceramics factory in India raided the home of their boss, and beat him senseless with lead pipes after a wage dispute turned ugly.

The workers were enraged enough to kill Regency’s president K. C. Chandrashekhar after their union leader, M. Murali Mohan, was killed by baton-wielding riot police on Thursday. The labor violence occurred in Yanam, a small city in Andra Pradesh state on India’s east coast. Police were called to the factory by management to quell a labor dispute. The workers had been calling for higher pay and reinstatement of previously laid off workers since October. Murali was fired a few hours after the police left the factory.

The next morning, at 06:00 on Friday, Murali went to the factory along with some workers and tried to obstruct the morning shift, local media reported. Long batons, known as lathis in India, were used by police who charged the workers, injuring at least 20 of them, including Murali. He died on the way to hospital, according to The Times of India. Hundreds of workers gathered outside the police station and demanded that officers be charged with homicide.

There is so much fail in this story that I’m not sure where to begin. First you have the workers striking in the hopes of getting better wages. I’m entirely for workers voluntarily coming together and demanding better pay, benefits, and working conditions but I’m also entirely for an employer being able to fire those employees. Some will call me and evil bourgeois but they miss the entire point of voluntary association. As an employer I can choose to associate with you by trading for your labor or not. On the other side of the coin workers can also choose to associate with an employer by trading their labor or not. When laws are made giving unions power over employers the entire concept of voluntary association is thrown out the window.

If the value brought to the job by the employees is worth more money then they will be paid more money (they may have to strike first). On the other hand if the value brought by the employees isn’t work the money being demanded they are given the option to continue working at the previously agreed to wage or leave and make room for a new person to take the job. Thus employees who strike need to realize that they may be replaceable making their strike worthless.

Next you have the idea of a picket line. Picket lines are simple in concept, strike participants block entry to the business. If the picket line is on the business property and the property owner doesn’t want the picketers there the owners should have the right to remove the picketers. This is a condition of absolute property rights.

Then you have the fact that police showed up to remove the picketers and were faced with physical assault. Somebody trespassing on your property has initiated violence again you and you have the right to take necessary means to remove him or her. This doesn’t mean you have the right to kill them outright, you do have the right to push or shove them off the property and if they escalate the situation you have the right to react in kind. In other words if you try to drag them off your property and are faced with physical force you have the right to use physical force yourself.

Some of the workers were killed by the police so the act taken by some of the other workers was to hunt down and kill the employer. Let’s stop and think about this for a minute, instead of targeting their wrath at the police officers who killed those workers the wrath was instead focuses at the employer whose land was being trespassed upon.

Violent revolution always ends with dead bodies therefore revolutionary communists (and any other philosophy for that matter) is a necessarily violent philosophy.

Another Great Job by the TSA

I’m not even sure what to say about this most recent screwup by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA):

TSA screener finds two pipes in passenger’s bags.

Screener determines that they’re not a threat.

Screener confiscates them anyway, because of their “material and appearance.”

Because they’re not actually a threat, screener leaves them at the checkpoint.

Everyone forgets about them.

Six hours later, the next shift of TSA screeners notices the pipes and — not being able to explain how they got there and, presumably, because of their “material and appearance” — calls the police bomb squad to remove the pipes.

TSA does not evacuate the airport, or even close the checkpoint, because — well, we don’t know why.

I don’t even feel the need to add a witty remark, the stupidity of the TSA speaks for itself.

I Thought Pakistan Was Our Ally

If this is how we treat our allies I don’t even want to know how we treat our enemies:

US President Barack Obama has confirmed that unmanned drones regularly strike suspected militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Mr Obama called the strikes a “targeted focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists”.

For the record were a country to fly unmanned drones into our airspace for the purpose of targeting and killing suspected terrorists we would call it a declaration of war. Somehow when we do the same thing it’s perfectly fine though.

Big Brother is Watching You Tweet

OK the title is misleading because Big Brother is watching more than just your Twitter feed but Twitter is one of the sites being monitored by General Dynamics under a contract granted by the Department of ~~Homeland~~ Motherland Security (DHS).

EPIC’s FOIA lawsuit forced the DHS to disclose 285 pages of records. The documents include contracts, price estimates, Privacy Impact Assessment, and communications concerning DHS Media Monitoring program. These records make public, for the first time, details of the DHS’s efforts to spy on social network users and journalists.

The records reveal that the DHS is paying General Dynamics to monitor the news. The agency instructed the company to monitor for “[media] reports that reflect adversely on the U.S. Government, DHS, or prevent, protect, respond government activities.”

The documents can be viewed at the provided link. What makes this interesting is the fact that this monitoring was apparently used to arrest a person traveling to the United States:

Two British tourists were barred from entering America after joking on Twitter that they were going to ‘destroy America’ and ‘dig up Marilyn Monroe’.

Leigh Van Bryan, 26, was handcuffed and kept under armed guard in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours after landing in Los Angeles with pal Emily Bunting.

The Department of Homeland Security flagged him as a potential threat when he posted an excited tweet to his pals about his forthcoming trip to Hollywood which read: ‘Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America’.

Bruce Schneier, who I obtained this story from is doubtful that General Dynamic’s monitoring of Twitter is what actually lead to the arrest of the two British tourists:

Still, I have trouble believing that this is what happened. For this to work General Dynamics would have had to monitor Twitter for key words. (“Destroy America” is certainly a good key word to search for.) Then, they would have to find out the real name associated with the Twitter account — unlike Facebook or Google+, Twitter doesn’t have real name information — so the TSA could cross-index that name with the airline’s passenger manifests. Then the TSA has to get all this information into the INS computers, so that the border control agent knows to detain him. Sure, it sounds straightforward, but getting all those computers to talk to each other that fast isn’t easy. There has to be more going on here.

Twitter does have a mechanism for entering your real name as I have my real name entered in it. When you go to my Twitter feed you can see my user name is ComradeBurg but the name displayed is Christopher Burg and that I’m in Minnesota. Therefore it is conceivable that the monitoring being done by General Dynamics grabbed the offending tweeter’s real user name and location, fed to to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to be cross referenced with flight manifests, and a target could be found and arrested.

Of course this all depends on the Twitter user entering the real name and real location, but that is a problem that must be overcome when monitoring any website. I do agree with Schenier’s remark though because as he said getting all of those computers (not to mention those bureaucracies) to talk to each other so quickly is unlikely. Claiming that the target was arrested solely from obtaining their Twitter information seems like propaganda being thrown out to scare the public into obedience. In fact that’s exactly what the concept of Big Brother was supposed to do in 1984’s society, scare the populace into obedience. Truthfully nobody was sure whether or not Big Brother was actually watching them, but the fear of being watched kept the people from getting too many thoughts of revolution in their heads.

Knowledge Made Illegal

You can now get prison time in the United Kingdom for obtaining verboten knowledge:

Asim Kauser, aged 25, of Bardon Close, Halliwell, Bolton, pleaded guilty to four offences under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 at an earlier hearing. The particulars are that Kauser was in possession of records of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

He has today, 27 January 2012, been sentenced to two years and three months in prison at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square. Kauser was arrested and charged following an operation by the North West Counter-Terrorism Unit.

The first thing I had to do was look up Section 58 of the Terrorism Act. What Section 58 does is make the possession of certain knowledge outright illegal:

58 Collection of information.

(1)A person commits an offence if—

(a)he collects or makes a record of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, or

(b)he possesses a document or record containing information of that kind.

(2)In this section “record” includes a photographic or electronic record.

(3)It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that he had a reasonable excuse for his action or possession.

(4)A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable—

(a)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years, to a fine or to both, or

(b)on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to both.

So a person commits and offense if possess a document or record containing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. That is so broad that somebody could be charged for possessing any document. A blueprint for a building would be very useful for somebody wanting to commit an act of terrorism at said building so the architect in possession of the blueprint could easily be charged under this section. Subsection three really makes me laugh because the only way to avoid this charge is to prove you have a reasonable excuse for the possession of that document. Notice that “reasonable” isn’t actually defined to it means whatever agents of the state says it means. That’s the kind of open ended law that I’ve come to expect from jolly old England (honestly I expect it from the United States as well).

Let’s get back to the story. Kauser is now sitting in prison for two years because he violated this catchall law. So what knowledge was Kauser in possession of exactly? Mostly material that I’d find interesting to read through:

Kauser’s father gave police a USB stick which was thought to contain CCTV images of the burglary.

However, when it was examined it contained recipes on how to make explosive devices and poisons, anti-interrogation techniques and details on how to kill efficiently.

A further examination of the stick revealed a letter, addressed to an unknown recipient, in which the author – again anonymous but referring to himself as a 24-year-old man – seeks spiritual guidance and says he has prepared himself physically and financially for jihad.

Officers also recovered a list that contained prices in both pounds and rupees of a number of items, including an AK47 rifle, rounds of ammunition, a grenade launcher and other survival or combat material.

Forensic analysis of the pen drive revealed the material had been downloaded in the spring of 2010.

With the exception of a letter seeking spiritual guidance all the information on the thumb drive would be material that interests me. While I have no interest in blowing anything up I find the chemistry of making explosives interesting and I sure as the hell enjoy reading about different counter-interrogation techniques. I don’t even think I need to state the fact that I have lists of gun prices in my possession on a very regular basis.

Ultimately though this story just seems downright fishy. Supposedly Kauser had a magical unencrypted USB stick that contains material on making explosives, killing people, and countering interrogation alongside a single archived email asking for spiritual guidance and a statement saying he’s physically and finically ready for jihad. Not only that but all of this information is from 2010 and Kauser hasn’t made any indication of acting using the information found on this USB drive. That combination of things just seems far too convenient.

I Guess the Secret Service has Nothing Better to Do

The Secret Service must be bored as shit if they can waste time interrogating a buch of guys who went to the range and used an Obama t-shirt as a target:

A photograph showing a group of men with guns posing with a bullet-riddled T-shirt containing an image of Barack Obama’s face is to be investigated by the Secret Service, a spokesman confirmed to NBC News.

The New York Times reported that the picture showed seven young men, four with weapons, one of whom was holding a T-shirt with the president’s face on it, above the word “HOPE.” The T-shirt was covered in holes and gashes.

The Times said the photograph was posted on the Facebook page of a Peoria, Ariz., police officer, Sgt. Pat Shearer, on Jan. 20.

“We are aware of it. Anytime information is brought to our attention that a group or individual expresses an unusual interest in one of our protectees, we conduct the appropriate follow-up,” Secret Service spokesman Max Milien told NBC News.

“We respect the right of free speech and expression but we certainly have the right and obligation to speak to individuals to determine what their intent is,” he added. “We treat anything (any potential threat) seriously. We can’t dismiss anything.”

While I find shooting a target representing a specific human being a bit distasteful there certainly is nothing illegal about it nor should it raise much in the way of suspicion. Let’s be honest with ourselves, people take their frustrations out on targets depicting people they dislike all the time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to the range and somebody was shooting a target emblazoned with a picture of Osama bin Laden. I’ve person shot up a copy of Twilight but in no way would I ever want to bring actual harm against the book’s author (I actually hold a lot of respect for anybody who knows their audience so well that they can crank up completely drivel and make a fortune doing it, I wish I could).

The Secret Service says they have the right to speak with these individuals and to that I disagree. Members of the Secret Service are paid using money stolen from me in the form of tax dollars so I feel I should at least get a little bang for my buck. If there is a credible threat to one of our politicians then do your thing and stop it, but this is obviously not a threat.

What’s more likely is that the Secret Service wants to make open criticism of the president a frightening ordeal. They’re basically saying, “If you express dissatisfaction with the president we’re going to be knocking on your door.”