French three-strikes law no longer suspends Net access

Dropping a punishment that could cut off Internet access for those who shared music or video illegally, a French ministry vows instead to target those who profit commercially from piracy.

The French Hadopi authority was responsible for sending warnings to copyright-infringing downloaders. It used a "graduated response" that could mean cutting off the person's Net access.

(Credit: Hadopi) The French government has scrapped a provision that could cut off Internet access for those who downloaded copyrighted files illegally.
The so-called "three strikes" law brought first written warnings for infringement, then ultimately suspension of Internet access. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) applauded the law.
But the French government is now taking a new approach, focusing its antipiracy efforts on commercial piracy, such as Internet sites that profit from infringing, rather than individuals, according to a statement by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication Tuesday.
Although suspended Net access is no longer an option, fines remain as a punishment.
Net access under the law has been suspended only in one case, an individual lost Internet access for 15 days and was fined 600 euros ($767), but cutting people off from Internet access has been a controversial issue. Shortly after approval of the law in 2009, the French Constitutional Council said Internet access was a human right. And in its statement Tuesday, the French ministry Internet Internet access has become a major means of access to culture, especially for young people.
A government journal on Monday logged the end of the decree, called the Hadopi law after the three-strikes law led to the creation of a public organization called the Haute Autorité pour la diffusion des uvres et la protection des droits sur internet.
The minister of culture and communication has named Mireille Imbert-Quaretta to lead new antipiracy work that involves several involved parties, including payment companies, advertising networks, search engines, and social networks.

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Cyberattack on South Korea was part of 4-year spying campaign

McAfee releases a report saying that the massive March attack on banks and TV stations was part of an extensive campaign to steal government and military secrets. 

South Korea has been under a concerted cyberattack for the last four years, according to a comprehensive new report (PDF) released Monday by security firm McAfee. That means the hack that crippled three TV broadcasters and two banks in March was possibly just the tip of the iceberg.

What has been the goal of these hackers? To steal South Korean government and military secrets, according to McAfee.
"Our analysis of this attack -- known first as Dark Seoul and now as Operation Troy -- has revealed that in addition to the data losses of the MBR wiping, the incident was more than cybervandalism," McAfee's report reads. "The attacks on South Korean targets were actually the conclusion of a covert espionage campaign."
Initially, in March, it was revealed that servers in South Korea were victims of a massive coordinated attack that erased data from tens of thousands of computers. At first, the government blamed China for the hack, and then pointed the finger at North Korea.
According to McAfee, it's still not clear who was behind the stunt. But, the security firm has garnered far more information about the attackers and their methods. Dubbing the hacking campaign "Operation Troy," McAfee says the attacks were a coordinated effort between two groups called the "Whois Team" and the "NewRomanic Cyber Army Team." It's possible, McAfee says, that these two teams may have been working for the same leadership.
The malware used in Operation Troy included two Trojans and a wiper that installed themselves on users' computers via file transfers from online bulletin boards and discussion forums. According to McAfee, once the malware was installed, it could spy on users' computers and then destroy the hard drive.
"McAfee Labs can connect the Dark Seoul and other government attacks to a secret, long-term campaign that reveals the true intention of the Dark Seoul adversaries: attempting to spy on and disrupt South Korea's military and government activities," the report reads. "From our analysis we have established that Operation Troy had a focus from the beginning to gather intelligence on South Korean military targets."

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iOS 7 beta 3 brings bug fixes, other improvements

As expected, Apple releases the third beta of its software for developers right on schedule.

 

As expected, Apple on Monday released its third beta of iOS 7, exactly two weeks after it came out with the second iteration of the software for developers.
The release is in line with earlier speculation that the company planned to dole out betas in two-week cycles.
The new version includes some general performance improvements and fixes a number of issues that had cropped up in the second beta, including problems with iCloud, AirPlay, and the Messages application.
The user interface received a few tweaks as well, including more transparent folders, redesigned music controls, and the calendar now shows which days you have events on. The update also brought with it enhancements to FaceTime and a better Siri voice.
It's standard practice for Apple to release several beta versions of the software before it debuts it to the public. Apple has said iOS 7 will come to the public in the fall. iOS 6 had four different beta versions between its June debut and late September release last year, so we can expect at least one more beta to arrive for iOS 7.

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Facebook begins rolling out Graph Search to U.S. users

The search engine will allow people using Facebook to more quickly find answers to questions about friends in their Social Graph.

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Brace yourself for another Facebook search bar change.
The social-networking giant will begin rolling out an advanced search feature on Monday designed to tap its massive base of 1 billion users to answers users' questions about people, photos, places, and interests. Graph Search, which was announced earlier this year, will be available to users in the United States and others who use the American English version of the site, with access to other languages coming soon, a Facebook representative told CNET.

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced the new feature in January, billing it as a new way find people, photos, places and interests that are most relevant to Facebook users. By incorporating various filters such as "place type," "liked by," and "visited by friends," users can use the structured search tool to find people in their network and uncover potential connections.
The new tool, which was rolled out to a limited number of users earlier this year, will appear as a bigger search bar at the top of each page, replacing the usual white search bar. Not to be confused with Web searches, which use a set of keywords to come up with results that best match the search words, Graph Search combines phrases to return content from its own audience.
Recognizing that the new tool exposes a copious amount of personal data that members may not realize is available for public scrutiny, Facebook has been working to quell users' privacy fears, including implementing specific search rules that dictate what results regarding teenagers that adults can see.
The search feature could prove key to keeping users members engaged on the site. My CNET colleague Jennifer Van Grove called the powerful discovery tool "smart, original, and a foundational piece of Facebook's future as a relevant social network.

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RIP, WebTV: Microsoft to shut down MSN TV on Sept. 30

The interactive TV service began life in the mid-'90s as WebTV, one of the first set-top box services to offer Internet access via television sets.

 

 

Microsoft is pulling the plug on MSN TV, a service formerly known as WebTV, as Apple ramps up its set-top box efforts.
The pioneering service, one of the first to offer Internet access via television sets, will shut down September 30, Microsoft revealed in an e-mail to subscribers and an FAQ posted to its Web site. WebTV, which was founded by Web entrepreneur Steve Perlman in 1996, was acquired by Microsoft for $425 million in 1997.
WebTV offered television-based e-mail and Web browsing via wireless keyboards but struggled to gain traction with consumers. Microsoft rebranded the service as MSN TV in 2001 to accelerate integration with products such as MSN Messenger and MSN Hotmail.
The software giant even offered the interactive service for free to new MSN online service, but it has largely taken a backseat to the company's focus on the Xbox game console, which also offers Internet access.
Microsoft cited the myriad ways people can now access the Internet as a contributing factor to the service's demise:

WebTV (later called MSN TV) started in 1996 with the goal to bring new people 'online' and to give those already online an easy, hassle-free means of accessing the internet from the comfort of their homes. Later, MSN TV 2 was released with vastly greater power and features. Since then, the web has continued to evolve at a breathtaking pace, and there are many new ways to access the internet. Accordingly, we have made the difficult decision to end the MSN TV service on September 30th, 2013. We are working with our customers to ensure the transition is as seamless as possible.

Microsoft's exit comes as Apple puts more emphasis on the set-top box sector. Apple is reportedly near a deal with Time Warner Cable that would bring new a significant influx of new channels to the computer maker's set-top box, Apple TV, for subscribers of the cable television service. Last month, Apple TV lassoed Time Warner Inc.'s HBO GO and Disney's WatchESPN apps.

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Facebook's Sandberg says she had planned to be aboard reportedly fatal flight

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg posts to the social network, saying she was originally planning on taking an Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul, South Korea, that wound up crashing at San Francisco's main airport. Two people have reportedly died as a result of the crash.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said she had planned to be on a flight that crashed on landing at San Francisco's main airport Saturday in an accident that reportedly killed two people. Meanwhile, a Samsung executive who was on board very quickly posted an eyewitness shot to the Web.
Sandberg posted to her page on the social network that she had originally intended to be on board the Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul, South Korea. "Thank you to everyone who is reaching out -- and sorry if we worried anyone," she wrote, explaining that she had switched to a different airline to take advantage of frequent flyer miles.
The shot by Samsung executive David Eun shows the smoking, tailless plane at the side of the runway with its emergency slides deployed and other passengers making their way toward where he is standing.

(Credit: Screenshot by CNET)

"I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I'm ok. Surreal..." reads a tweet Eun sent with a link to the photo.
It's not clear at the time of this writing exactly what happened or precisely what the injury or fatality count might be. A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman confirmed the crash, of Asiana Flight 214, and local television station KPIX reported that the San Francisco Fire Department had confirmed that two people had been killed and 61 injured.
The airport -- San Francisco's SFO -- has been closed to in-coming and out-bound traffic.
A Facebook representative told CNET that the social network had no official comment to make. "Her post says it all," the rep wrote in an e-mail. "Sheryl and her family are shocked and saddened but thankfully safe."
CBS News has ongoing coverage of the crash here. And here's a video posted by CBS:

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Animated WebP graphics support no shoo-in for Chrome

Google WebP engineers are encountering resistance from Google Chrome engineers about whether it's worth supporting the animated version of the image format.

 

Google introduced WebP in an attempt to speed up the Web, but now the company's engineers are raising concerns that one of the graphics format's features will actually slow it down.
WebP is designed to compress graphics more efficiently than JPEG, GIF, and PNG. Shrinking file sizes more means data arrives faster, though there can be a penalty of longer times to encode and decode image files. One of WebP's newer features is support for animation -- a package of multiple images shown in sequence to display a short movie.
Animated GIFs have risen from obscurity to become an unlikely art form, but now there's the possibility that WebP could take their place. That's just what some WebP fans would like, and they've begun building animated WebP support for Chrome, as detailed in an announcement by Google's Urvang Joshi of a plan to ship the feature in Chrome.
But the announcement triggered a discussion this week about whether animated WebP support is worth messing with, in particular given that in the years since animated GIFs arrived on the scene, Web-based video has arrived, built into the HTML standard used to describe Web pages.
"Animated GIFs are power hogs and really contribute much to slowing down the Web," said Chrome team member Darin Fisher in a response. "I'd imagine that animated WebP is superior, but by how much? How does it compare to the equivalent content packaged up in a video format?"

One response from Alpha (Hin-Chung) Lam, analyzing 63 cat videos from Tumblr, found animated WebP file sizes to be 38 percent of the animated GIF format originals. Videos encoded with Google's VP8 video codec were 53 percent of the animated GIF originals, a notch larger than the animated WebP version but still smaller than the animated GIFs.
Another Google engineer, Peter Kasting, expressed worries that animated WebP would merely continue with problems on the Web that come with animated GIFs.
"If you're not trying to fix GIF, I am opposed to shipping animated WebP at all," Kasting said. "Since you're going to be trying to convince the entire world to change direction anyway [from animated GIF to animated WebP], you should convince them all to switch to <video> and be done with it."
Nonanimated WebP images -- the primary use case for the graphics format -- are a less contentious issue. Google itself has found the format to save dramatically on network bandwidth, and Facebook is a notable WebP ally.

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Western Powers Call for Democracy in Egypt as Muslim Brotherhood Threatens Action

Morsi's ouster could result in increased violence in Cairo

 

 he violence does not appear to be de-escalating as the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi's conservative Islamist Party that spread throughout his government, called on supporters to begin a "Friday of Rage."

The instability is beginning to spill over into parts of the already tense region of the Middle East. Militant political party Hamas, which rules the neighboring Gaza Strip, is reportedly jolted by the ouster of Morsi, a known ally. Morsi's alignment with the conservative Muslim Brotherhood was among the sources of discontent in the Egyptian protesters.
"We are not afraid of losing our cause, no fear that our cause will be absent from the Islamic nation's agenda, despite the difficulties and hard circumstances that sometimes the Islamic nation faces," said Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Friday.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. declined to comment Friday on the situation in Egypt.
The question remains whether the events that have occurred this week amount to a military coup. If overtly so the party, has called on supporters to protest. It has said it will not work with subsequent leadership appointed under military rule and says hardliner supporters should engage in a "Friday of Rage" if the military does not back down.
"We declare our complete rejection of the military coup staged against the elected president and the will of the nation," a spokesman said in a statement. "We refuse to participate in any activities with the usurping authorities."

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01 THE qutes

"WHAT EACH KISS MEANS"
- Kiss on the Forehead: We're cute together .
- Kiss on the Cheek: We're friends.
- Kiss on the Hand: I adore you.
- Kiss on the Neck: I want you, now.
- Kiss on the Shoulder: Your perfect.
- Kiss on the Lips: I LOVE YOU...
____________________________________________________
WHAT EACH GESTURE MEANS:
- Holding Hands: We definitely like each other.
- Holding you tight pressed against each other: I want you.
- Looking into each other's Eyes: I like you, for who you are.
- Playing with Hair: Let's fool around.
- Arms around the Waist: I like you too much to let go.
- Laughing while Kissing: I am completely comfortable with you.
____________________________________________________
ADVICE:
- If you were thinking about someone while reading this, you're definitely
in Love.
____________________________________________________
REQUIREMENTS:
- Add this to ur favorites after reading!!
Or you will have a bad year of Relationships.
____________________________________________________
IF YOU (LIKE), (LOVE), OR (MISS) SOMEONE RIGHT NOW:
- and can't get them out of your head.
- then add this to ur favorites within One Minute and Whoever you are missing
will surprise you.

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Jay-Z Android app cloned by hackers

 

Hackers have cloned the Android app of rapper Jay-Z and inserted messages criticising the US government.

The official app is being used by the rapper as a way to promote his latest album - Magna Carta Holy Grail.
Cloned versions of the app available via unofficial sites contain code that unlocked anti-Obama messages on 4 July.
The attack is believed to be part of protests against US government surveillance programs revealed this month.
Security firm McAfee discovered the app on third-party Android app sites. In a blogpost, McAfee researcher Irfan Asrar said the program initially appeared to do everything that the official app did.
However, he wrote, code added to the cloned version copied and sent information to a command-and-control server every time the phone was re-started. Once it made contact, the app tried to download extra code that included the anti-government images and messages.
A timer in this extra code waited for 4 July and then changed the app's wallpaper from pictures of album artwork and Jay-Z to that of President Obama wearing headphones. Above his image were the words "Yes we scan"- believed to be a reference to the NSA's extensive Prism scanning system. It is also plays on the slogan that President Obama campaigned under "Yes, we can."
"The image and the service name NSAListener suggest a hacktivist agenda," wrote Mr Asrar, "but we haven't ruled out the possibility that additional malware may target financial transactions or other data."
To avoid falling victim to this and other mobile threats, users should avoid downloading apps from unofficial sources and ensure security software is kept up to date, he added.

 

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