#DataDump: Balconies, Breaches, Biggest Builds and more

Julian Assange takes aim at US as diplomatic row deepens;
Speech from balcony calls on Obama to abandon witchhunt*

Assange Calls on U.S. to End ‘Witchhunt’ Against WikiLeaks*
Did Bush’s Broadband Deregulation Upend His Own NSA Wiretapping?*
AT&T Claims Charging More for FaceTime is No Net-Neutrality Breach*
Feds Expand Domain Seizures to Mobile App Pirate Sites*
Alexandria 2.0: One Millionaire’s Quest to Build the Biggest Library on Earth*

1/26 defcon: mega-man, bigger brother

Mega-man: Bizarre rise & sudden downfall of Kim Dotcom*

What is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement?*
Video: Say NO to ACTA*
Big Brother Google Just Got Bigger*
Video: Google to Overhaul Privacy Policies*
Legality of Mobile Phone Tracking Still Unclear Despite Supreme Court GPS Decision*
Newt Gingrich wants to make the moon the 51st state*
Why crimes on Skype leave witnesses but no evidence*
Video: The Internet In 1969*

wyden wants answers from dhs over domain name seizures

from threat level: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) said Friday he would demand answers from the Department of Homeland Security about its domain seizure program known as Operation in Our Sites after it was revealed that the government kept a hip-hop music review site’s name for a year without affording the owner a chance to challenge the seizure. Wyden also wants to know why there was no court record of the case, other than the initial seizure filing a year ago.

hillary tells world leaders "hands off the internet" -
meanwhile, US govt prepares its own censorship regime

.xxx unleashed! internet porn domain goes live

from news24: A new .xxx domain suffix for adult content sites went live Tuesday, in a move which supporters say will help web surfers easily identify pornography sites. All sites using that suffix will also be monitored to ensure they do not contain hidden computer viruses commonly found on millions of sex sites.

Opponents of the new system, including anti-pornography and religious groups, say the move condones smut, encourages the viewing of pornography and makes it easier for kids to find. Some X-rated entrepreneurs also oppose the move on the grounds that it may eventually force all sexually explicit sites to use the .xxx suffix. Currently porn sites are free to keep their current suffixes, even if they have a .xxx site.

About 100 000 porn sites have already registered for addresses on the new top-level domain, according to Icann, the non-profit organisation which oversees the organisation of the internet. ICM Registry, which is managing the debut for Icann, said it was "the most successful launch of any new sponsored top-level domain".

"The internet is home to a wealth of content, suitable for a wide range of ages and values," the company said in a statement.

"The adult entertainment industry has, and always will, account for a large amount of this content and while it is enjoyed by some, it is not suitable, or of interest, to all internet users. Regardless of your views on adult content, it's here to stay, so let's be adult about it."

6/30 defcon: copywrong, dislike, discoveries

leaked: uk copyright lobby holds closed-door meetings with govt to discuss national web-censorship regime*

terrorists terrorised: al qaeda hacked*
scotus term in review: it's a mixed bag*
as hulu flirts, comcast must stay mum*
facebook 10th most hated company in US*
news corp. on verge of myspace sale*
judge: google can be sued for wiretapping in street view debacle*
kkr - kohlberg, kravis, roberts - to buy top web hosting/domain registrar 'go daddy'; but who is kkr?*
scientists discover most distant quasar known to exist*

6/23 defcon: strategies, taxes & trident tribunal

executive orders give pentagon new cyberwar guidelines*
officials 'expected to announce the entire strategy soon'*
ex-dhs chief warns of cyberwar with hackers*
cyber attacks grow more severe, frequent, say it practitioners*
bitcoin prices plummet on hacked exchange*
malware bitcoin theft a false flag on revolutionary currency?*
states look to internet taxes to close budget gaps*
righthaven loss: judge rules reposting entire article is fair use*
fbi seizes web servers, knocking sites offline*
$74m scareware ring raided in 'operation trident tribunal'*
winklevoss twins end appeal of facebook settlement*
google breaks billion-visitor barrier*
video: at new nyc hotel, a robot handles the luggage*

defcon 6/16: solar threats, hack attacks & jet packs

solar threat: minutes to respond;
governments plan blackouts; elites prep contingency plans*
US/uk to cut power in preparation of massive solar storm*
magnetic levels ebb as scientists note missing sunspot activity*
mysterious 'structure' discovered on mars?*
audio satire: nasa finds evidence of humans on moon*
video: closely held 'area 51' secrets revealed in new book*
US faces legal challenge to internet-domain seizures*
obama anti-whistleblower case collapses*
ex-spy agency official strikes plea bargain*
US underwrites internet detour around censors*
pentagon ramps-up cyberwar plans*
notorious hacker group breaks into senate server*
imf breached by sophisticated hack attack*
'anonymous' attacks, shutters spanish police website*
hacker group claims credit for invading cia website*
video: lulzsec hackers inspire rap song*
video: personal jet packs to go on sale by end of 2011, says inventor*
audio satire: government says ignore throbbing love orb*

dhs/ice start another round of 'pirate' domain seizures

from torrent freak: US authorities have resumed “Operation In Our Sites” and have seized several domain names associated with copyright infringement or counterfeit related crimes. Among the new targets are two sites that linked to copyrighted films hosted on third party streaming sites such as megavideo.com and veoh.com. Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has yet to officially announce the new operation.

Over the past several months a series of domain name seizures by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made headlines across the Internet.

Under the flag of “Operation In Our Sites” the authorities shut down a dozen file-sharing and streaming sites and many more accused of selling counterfeit goods.

Today ICE continued the operation with a 4th round, and the first one since February this year. Although the authorities are yet to give an official comment on the new seizures, TorrentFreak was able to confirm the following targets:

* Re1ease.net
* Watchnewfilms.com
* Dvdcollectionsale.com
* Dvdscollection.com
* Dvdsetsonline.com
* Newstylerolex.com

The first two domains are accused of copyright-related offenses, but did not host any copyrighted films themselves. Both Re1ease.net and Watchnewfilms.com linked to popular movie streaming sites such as Veoh.com and Megavideo.com. The rest of the domains appear to be connected to sales of counterfeit goods.

The new targets were most likely put forward to ICE by movie industry groups. In April of this year ICE director John Morton admitted that his organization was acting based on “tips from industry representatives,” among others.

The authorities are also aware of the fact that the domain seizures themselves are not really an effective tool. As pointed out before, more than half of the piracy-related domains that were seized by Operation In Our Sites simply continued under a different name.

Morton replied to this critique by emphasizing that the seizures also act as “public education about pirating.”

To quash allegedly copyright infringing sites more effectively U.S. lawmakers introduced the PROTECT IP Act last week. Aside from domain seizures, the new bill will also make it possible to block sites on an ISP level, to censor search engines, and to cut funding of allegedly copyright-infringing websites.

flashbacks: government seizes domains alleged to infringe copyright & dhs seizes more domains; this time for linking to copyrighted material

5/5 defcon: re-entry & removal

video: Spacecraft re-entry over Wash. & Oregon on may3?*

Department of Justice:
FBI Too Focused On Child Porn*
Feds Demand Firefox Remove Add-On That Redirects Seized Domains*
Mozilla Refuses to Block Extension for dhs - As Government's ICE Effort Continues to Look Silly*
flashback: 'mafiaa fire': firefox add-on to reverse US govt domain censorship
Gabrielle Giffords leaves Florida after shuttle Endeavor delay*

4/28 defcon: guilt trips down the surveillance highway

obama on manning: 'he broke the law' - so much for fair trial*
video: 'pentagon papers' whistleblower daniel ellsberg says bradley manning can't get fair trial after obama's comment*
some fbi cyber agents lack adequate skills, report finds*
tomtom apologies for giving customer driving data to cops*
android data tied to users? some say yes*
facebook looks to cash in on user data*
apple says they 'must have' comprehensive user location data on you - and you will comply*
sony says credit card data at risk in playstation hack*
sony unveils ipad rival tablets*
'a vast, global online network of homeless people'*
miniature drone to drop tracking dust onto people*
cryptogon.com on 'the future where soda cans have screens'*
limewire facing billion-dollar damages trial*
video: ice uses seized domains for 'best anti-piracy video ever'*
spacex aims to put man on mars in 10-20yrs*
seti institute to shut down alien-seeking radio dishes*
alpha magnetic spectrometer to go on endeavour shuttle*
gabrielle giffords can attend husband's shuttle launch*
endeavor shuttle launch: time, where to watch*

'mafiaa fire': firefox add-on to reverse US govt domain censorship

from boingboing: Earlier this year, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement shocked the world by asserting the right to seize any .com or .net domain that it characterized as a "pirate" or child porn site, with little due process or judicial oversight. ICE conducted a series of high-profile seizures that were notable in that they were sloppy (80,000 sites were erroneously seized for being implicated in child porn and anyone who subsequently visited them was redirected to a page chiding them for being horrible perverts). They were also notable for being almost completely ineffective at shutting down the targeted sites. Once their domains were seized, the site operators simply registered new domains, avoiding .com and .net. It wasn't much of a challenge for their users to locate them again. Nevertheless, the ICE has promised more seizures in the years to come. But one developer decided that subverting ICE censorship was too important to be left to chance, so he created MAFIAA Fire, a Firefox plugin that automatically redirects links to the seized domains to their new homes, effectively undoing the seizures.

2/17 defcon: cyber-coup, backdoor & track more

cyber-attack hits canadian government computers*
report: egypt shut down net with big switch, not phone calls*
voice of america uses social media to aid foreign dissent*
surveillance footage & code clues indicate stuxnet hit iran*
cia head panetta warns of possible cyber-pearl harbor*
lynn urges partnership against cyber threat*
dod talks up plans to deploy cybercommandos 3.0*
video: hillary announces expanded US cyber-coup campaign*
US intelligence officials concerned about cyber attack*
'kill switch' internet bill alarms privacy experts*
cyberwar issues likely to be addressed only after a catastrophe*
fema loses official lesson reports on katrina, floods, fires*
feds seize 18 more domains in piracy crackdown*
fbi to announce significant new wiretap push:
backdoors galore in everything from skype to bittorrent*
online 'do not track' bill introduced in congress*
internet searches beginning to be used as evidence in trials*
obama/holder case against assange dribbles away*
jobs, schmidt & zuckerberg meet with obama in san francisco*
reminder: facebook & google are cia fronts*

dhs seizes more domains; this time for linking to copyrighted material

from eric blair: Apparently the Department of Homeland Security is now authorized to rewrite and enforce copyright infringement laws. In a stunning precedent, the recent round of domain seizures to shut down websites that allowed illegal streaming of the Super Bowl, also included a few other websites that were seized simply for linking to infringing content. Mike Masnick of TechDirt, who received and published a DHS seizure affidavit, had this to say in a must-read article:

...the affidavit itself is chock full of legal and technical errors, compounded by assertions-as-facts that seem to have little basis in reality... The biggest problem is that Homeland Security seems to suggest — without a hint of doubt — that merely linking to infringing content is criminal copyright infringement.

Additionally, this type of precedent would seem to massively change the Internet as we know it. What’s next, seizing websites that link to those affiliate sites, like Facebook, Google, or Twitter? Well, that’s the exact question Masnick investigated in his follow-up article, "Homeland Security Tries & Fails To Explain Why Seized Domains Are Different From Google"...

Despite the DHS’s obvious distortion of the law, we are rapidly approaching a day where information can no longer flow freely on the Internet. We better wake up and share these stories with everyone we know, because tyranny is fast approaching. These words written above belong to nobody but the open-source, free Internet. Share and re-post at will.

flashback: govt seizes domains alleged to infringe copyright

12/23 defcon: spectacles & seizures

the wikileaks spectacle*
apple bans lame wikileaks app*
dhs seized domains based on bad evidence*
new zealand military releases ufo files*

end of the internet as we know it?

US Senate Committee in a lame duck Congressional session passed recently the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act (COICA). Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, calls it an 'internet censorship bill'. "Clearly this was funded by media cartels, but this has a lot more to do with Internet censorship as it does about copyright infringement," says Activist Post entry.

In "Stop the Internet Blacklist", Rhode Island State Representative David Segal writes: "COICA creates two blacklists of Internet domain names. Courts could add sites to the first list; the Attorney General would have control over the second. Internet service providers and others (everyone from Comcast to PayPal to Google AdSense) would be required to block any domains on the first list. They would also receive immunity (and presumably the good favor of the government) if they block domains on the second list." Welcome to the Brave New World!