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Study finds support for presidential Net 'kill switch'

If the U.S. were hit by a severe cyberattack, would you want the president to be able to control or even shut down portions of the Internet?

A majority 61 percent of Americans polled by Unisys for a new security study believes the president should have the power to control or effectively "kill" portions of the Internet if key U.S. systems (military, financial, electrical) were hit by a malicious cyberattack from a foreign government.

These findings from the latest biannual Unisys Security Index suggest that the public may support a pending cybersecurity bill that would give … Read more

GOP senator proposes law targeting WikiLeaks 'cowards'

A Republican senator has proposed rewriting the Espionage Act to target WikiLeaks.

Sen. John Ensign of Nevada yesterday announced a bill that would make it illegal to identify informants working with the U.S. military, which WikiLeaks did earlier this year when releasing files from the war in Afghanistan.

In last week's Iraq war files release, WikiLeaks removed names, but the U.S. Defense Department said yesterday that information in the leaked documents could still identify dozens of people.

"My legislation will extend the legal protections for government informants, such as the Iraqis named in this latest document … Read more

Piracy domain seizure bill gains support

A proposed law allowing the government to pull the plug on Web sites accused of aiding piracy received a sizable political boost yesterday.

Dozens of the largest content companies, including video game maker Activision, media firms NBC Universal and Viacom, and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) endorsed the bill in a letter to the U.S. Senate. So did Major League Baseball and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, said new laws are needed to curb access … Read more

Big media wants more piracy busting from Google

When it comes to fighting online piracy, some music and film industry executives think Google could be doing more to help.

At a time when Google is negotiating with television, movie, and music producers for the recently launched GoogleTV and an upcoming digital music service, the company has been sending mixed messages about how much help it will provide in removing links to pirated songs from its search index.

Last month, executives from two music-industry trade groups, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), asked Google if it could provide a … Read more

Senate antipiracy bill shelved--for now

As expected, a bill that would have given the U.S. Department of Justice increased ability to shut down sites it accused of illegal file sharing, won't be a law any time soon.

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act proposes to give the DOJ the power to shut down Web sites "deemed" to be trafficking in pirated films, software, music, and other U.S. intellectual property. Attempts to rush the bill through the Senate before Congress adjourned for November elections were unsuccessful. The legislation simply ran out of time.

Supporters, who now must wait until after … Read more

Feds say mobile-phone jailbreaking is OK

Jailbreaking your iPhone or other mobile device will no longer violate federal copyright law, the U.S. Copyright Office ruled Monday.

The decision, part of a process that takes place every three years, 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. … Read more

Mystery shrouds closures of blog, forum platforms

Note: For more recent news on this issue, read "Bomb-making tips, hit list behind Blogetery closure"

Two services that enable users to blog or create online forums have disappeared from the Internet under mysterious circumstances.

Blogetery.com, a blogging platform, went dark on July 9, less than a week before Ipbfree.com, a service that helped users create Web message boards, went offline. No one has said these situations are linked, but they nonetheless possess intriguing similarities.

• Each of the services host loads of user-generated content. • Operators at both Blogetery and Ipbfree said they were shut … Read more

Federal rules on campus file sharing kick in today

Frat parties and free music have been among the perks of attending college in the United States during the past decade. But now the days of using fat campus bandwidth to download movies and music via file-sharing networks appear to be coming to an end.

Thursday is the deadline for colleges and universities that receive Title IV federal aid to have implemented antipiracy procedures on their campuses as part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008.

HEOA, which was backed by the movie and music industries, addresses a lot of different facets of higher education, but tucked in … Read more

Web copyright: YouTube up, Lime Wire down

While YouTube managers do victory dances following their massive courtroom win in the copyright case brought against the video service by Viacom, the triumph appears to have done little to buoy file-sharing service Lime Wire.

Lime Wire, the Web's largest and most popular file-sharing service, has fended off allegations that it violated the copyrights of the four largest recording companies for four years, but U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood last month granted summary judgment in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America. The court found Lime Wire and founder Mark Gorton liable for copyright infringement and that … Read more