wikileaks

LAS VEGAS--A security researcher involved with the Wikileaks Web site was detained by U.S. agents at the border for three hours and questioned about the controversial whistleblower project as he entered the country on Thursday to attend a hacker conference here, sources said Saturday.

He was also approached by two FBI agents at the Defcon conference after his presentation on Saturday afternoon about the Tor Project.

Jacob Appelbaum, a Seattle-based programmer for the online privacy protection project called Tor, arrived at the Newark, N.J., airport on a flight from Holland on Thursday morning when he was pulled aside … Read more

Jailbreaking your iPhone or other mobile device no longer violates federal copyright law.

The decision, imparted by the U.S. Copyright Office, said that bypassing a manufacturer's protection mechanisms to allow "handsets to execute software applications" is permissible.

The Copyright Office also allowed bypassing the anticopying technology used in DVDs, but only for "documentary filmmaking," noncommercial videos, and educational uses--a ruling that stopped short of allowing Americans to legally make a backup copy for their own use, in case the original DVD gets damaged. It also doesn't apply to making backup copies of video … Read more

PHILADELPHIA--There are few words in digital-media jargon that are more weighted than "transparency."

Though it was overshadowed by talk about the complexities of broadband access policy, government transparency was one of the topics highlighted in a set of "Policy Workshop" panels on Thursday at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business as part of the Supernova 2010 technology conference. But, as is one of the downsides of a 45-minute panel, the speakers were barely able to scratch the surface.

These calls to action on access and openness come at an uneasy time for Washington … Read more

During the last 24 hours or so, official Washington has erupted with volcanic denunciations of Wikileaks, the document-sharing group that released about 75,000 military reports regarding the war in Afghanistan on Sunday.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called it "alarming" to find so many "top secret documents" publicly available on the Web. (See transcript.)

National security adviser James Jones "strongly" condemned the release in a statement that was reprinted on the U.S. Embassy Web sites for Afghanistan and Turkey.

Over at the Pentagon, spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said it could take weeks … Read more

The U.S. State Department on Monday said investigators were trying to uncover the source who provided Wikileaks with tens of thousands of classified military dispatches from Afghanistan.

Philip Crowley, assistant secretary for public affairs, said there is an ongoing criminal investigation, but provided few additional details

"We have not identified a particular--a single source or a particular source for this leak. There is an ongoing investigation, as you are aware, and so we're trying to determine if this is related to that ongoing investigation or a new--a new leak," Crowley told reporters during Monday's briefing. … Read more

The White House on Monday condemned Wikileaks' decision to release more than 75,000 secret military reports from Afghanistan, calling the move "alarming" and saying there is an investigation into how the documents were obtained.

Wikileaks gave the documents in advance to The New York Times, Germany's Der Spiegel, and the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper, which independently confirmed their authenticity. The Guardian called the disclosure a "devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan," saying it reveals how the United States-led coalition has killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have risen, … Read more

The U.S. copyright office now says that there are instances in which you may hack, fold, spindle, or mutilate copy protection, but just a few, and don't go breaking any other contracts while you're at it. Also, Microsoft wants its employees to build Windows 7 phone apps... for free!

Wikileaks, the document-leaking organization that has previously released internal U.S. military videos, on Sunday disclosed more than 75,000 confidential files related to the war in Afghanistan.

The group gave the documents in advance to The New York Times, Germany's Der Spiegel, and the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper, which independently confirmed their authenticity. The Guardian called the disclosure a "devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan," saying it reveals how the U.S.-led coalition has killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have risen, and NATO commanders worry that neighboring Pakistan … Read more

A Wikileaks representative has denied receiving more than 150,000 classified U.S. State Department cables.

Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange said at the TED Global conference in Oxford, England, last week that if the organization had received the cables, "we would have released them."

The question of diplomatic cables arose after an Army intelligence specialist, Bradley Manning, was linked to Wikileaks. Manning may face a court-martial; one document listing charges against Manning says he transmitted "more than 50 classified U.S. State Department cables" to an unnamed person not authorized to receive them, in violation of … Read more