SiliconANGLE » Law

Nokia to Layoff 4,000 Workers, Apple Sued for iPad Trademark

Mellisa Tolentino — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:15:28 +0000

Nokia, the Finnish-mobile manufacturer, will be laying off approximately 4,000 workers from three factories as they move manufacturing to Asia.

The factories in Komarom, Hungary, Reynosa, Mexico, and Salo, Finland, have a total of 8,900 employees and Nokia wants to cut it in half as they move manufacturing to Asia. Nokia wants to concentrate on Asia to regain competitive market value.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop wants Windows Phone-based devices to be quickly reproduced and introduced to new markets, as they wean from their Symbian-based phones. Elop also wants to pick up the pace at which new models are launched.

And according to a Nokia spokewoman, the employees who will not be terminated will work on “smartphone product customization,” which could include tailoring the software of smaller batches of phones for specific operators.

“With the planned changes, our factories at Komarom, Reynosa and Salo will continue to play an important role serving our smartphone customers. They give us a unique ability to both provide customization and be more responsive to customer needs,” said Niklas Savander, Nokia executive vice president, Markets.

Google’s Plan For MoMo Patent-licensing, Chrome for Android

According to unnamed sources, Google is going to send a letter to standards organizations such as the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, a nonprofit recognized by the European Union, to assure them that their acquisition of Motorola Mobility will not affect licensing patents of the said company.

“Having the blessing of wireless standards committees could help Google’s position,” Maulin Shah, managing director of patent research firm Envision IP Inc. in New York said in an interview. “The regulators might see that as a sign that this is not going to lead to a monopoly position.”

The European Commission is still scrutinizing the Google-MoMo deal, with concerns that it will violate the fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms, or FRAND.

“Since we announced our agreement to acquire Motorola Mobility last August, we’ve heard questions about whether Motorola Mobility’s standard-essential patents will continue to be licensed on FRAND terms once we’ve closed this transaction,” Niki Fenwick, a spokeswoman for Google said. “The answer is simple: They will.”

Google’s been steadily updating its software offerings for its mobile devices while waiting for the MoMo acquisition to go through. Yesterday they released the Chrome for Android, which is seen as a move to accelerate browser update since Chrome for desktop rolls out faster and more stable.

“Right now, our focus is on making Chrome for Android Beta available to Android 4.0 phone/tablet users to gather initial feedback…. [But] our long-term plan is for Chrome to become the standard browser on Android 4.0 and above,” said a Google spokeswoman in an email to ComputerWorld.

Chrome for Android is available only for devices with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Apple Sued By Chinese Company Over “iPad”

The Chinese company Proview Technology (Shenzhen), a subsidiary of Proview International in Hong Kong, is suing Apple for $38 million, and demands an apology for the illegal use of the iPad trademark.

Apple bought the iPad trademark from Proview Electronics (Taiwan) for $55,000 in 2006 by way of a front company called IP Application Development. But the Taiwanese company claims that the deal did not include the rights to the trademark in China.

Proview sued Apple, seeking a total of 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in damages, but Apple countersued, claiming that they are the rightful owner of the trademark. A Chinese court sided with Proview, so Apple appealed the case. Proview is said to be ready to slap Apple with a $38 million legal fine, but Apple has managed to delay the hearing.

Aside from that, Proview Shenzhen’s lawyer Xie Xianghui claims an apology from Apple is more important for them.

“We ask the court to stop selling and marketing for Apple’s iPad in China. We also demand an apology,” Xie said.

Other Mobile News

When Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad went on a fire-sale, some tablets shipped were allegedly running on the Android platform and not webOS. The people from HP were dumbfounded as to how that happened, and the incident created quite a frenzy because companies shipping Android devices are required to make the kernel open source. Since HP didn’t officially release the tablets running Android, it was not required to make the kernel of its internal build open-source. But, since HP is such a good sport, they now offer the internal Android build to the open-source movement.

Ahead of the upcoming Mobile World Congress, LG is teasing consumers with the ad for the LG Optimus Vu, a smartphone believed to measure at 5 inches, having a 4:3 aspect ratio display, 1.5GHz Qualcomm WPQ8060 dual-core paired with 1GB of RAM, 8-megapixel main camera, front-facing camera, 8GB of ROM space and NFC-capable.

GreenSimian, the brainchild of two Seattle veterans from Microsoft and Texas Instruments, will be launching SolMate, a smartphone power casing packing solar electricity, inductive charging, battery storage and energy management software that ups the ante on smartphone battery life, by Spring 2012.

“SolMate is not another iPhone casing. It’s a seductive combination of software, microelectronics and power-generating semi-conductors that take mobile power to a new level,” said Jamie Wojcik, GreenSimian CTO and co-founder.

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Symantec Code Leak Happens Where Sidewalk Ends in Law Enforcement Sting Attempt

Kit Dotson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:47:23 +0000

The source code stolen from Symantec in 2006 has been waiting in limbo for the past month as part of a hostage negotiation between the hacker Yama Tough and a persona invented by law enforcement officials to attempt to get the hacker to reveal themselves. This story first began to unfold back in January when it was discovered that Symantec had lost old source code (ancient in terms of software development) and that it was about to go onto the Internet.

Negotiations ended recently with the 1.27 gigabytes of source code released Monday night, claimed to be source from Symantec’s PCAnywhere. The company also makes Norton Antivirus, they warned users to disable PCAnywhere until they patched it (which happened earlier this month.) Thus, this leak may have little to do effect on the market altogether.

What really looks interesting about this is the saga of the sting and the involvement of law enforcement.

It all starts with a persona generated by law enforcement under the pretense of being a Symantec staffer offering $50,000 to not release the code. This started a month-long drama with the hacker Yama Tough, part of the Anonymous hactivist collective and also a member of the now notorious Lords of Dharamaja.

“You won’t believe it but Symantec offered us money to keep quiet,” YamaTough wrote on Twitter. “And quess what they couldn’t make it over 50k for the whole range of their src shit, therefore the show starts as of tuday.”

Of course we know now that the supposed Symantec staffer, “Sam Thomas,” is really a false identity used to attempt to lure the Lords of Dharamaja out and get them to reveal the code and perhaps set themselves up for arrest. The entire conversation that Yama Tough had with who they believed to be Symantec had been with law enforcement.

Over the weeks, a protracted negotiation for the $50k amount began to draw out. While the amount had been agreed upon YamaTough and cohorts would not accept it in small increments over time, they wanted it all at once in a lump sum or not at all. The hacker offered a Liberty Reserve account for the extorted money, refusing to accept PayPal transfers (possibly because of how easily it could be traced or stopped.) During the negotiations YamaTough revealed suspicions by accounting a belief that Symantec was working with the FBI.

We know now all of this had been for naught: the code is now leaked onto the Internet via BitTorrent.

Symantec is still poring over the leaked code. They still maintain that the code is way out of date, and a spokesperson for the company has stated that they believe that the recent patches will protect customers.

“We’re able to say with high confidence,” said Cris Paden of Symantec to Forbes, “any type of cyber attacks generated by this attack would have old characteristics and look like an attack from 2006 that can easily be stopped using current versions of our solutions. Our customers are protected.”

The saga may be over with the leak of the code, but the next step will be the cat-and-mouse game between law enforcement and the Lords of Dharamaja. Symantec has told the media that the cannot comment on what they know about any evidence revealed or the strategy of law enforcement.

“As to what happens next,” Paden says. “We’re not really sure.”

For those curious, the entire e-mail chain between YamaTough and the false Symantec employee persona is available on Pastebin.com.

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Physibles Come to Town with First Downloaded, 3D Printed Pirate Bay Ship

Kit Dotson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:49:05 +0000

The introduction of the Internet, vast amounts of storage, and the ability to copy what we see in high fidelity into an electronic form has exploded the copyright issue wide open on a multitude of fronts. However, the concept of being able to turn something inherently electronic into a tangible product has been out of reach—the stuff of science fiction and Star Trek replicators. This is the impetus behind the “physible,” the working-theory of a 3D model that can be transferred over the Internet, downloaded into a machine, and then rendered into an object.

Well, we may not be at the point that we can download cars or appliances, but the first market that might react to what we can do right now is going to be the toy merchandise market. Why? Because The Pirate Bay just shipped its first “The Pirate Bay Ship” via BitTorrent (a protocol limited to the bits-and-bytes of digital media) and had it printed into a real-life model ship made out of molded plastic.

Just last month, SiliconANGLE reported on the rise of the physible pushed by The Pirate Bay. “We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles,” they wrote when they announced their new 3D printing section.

An article on TorrentFreak reveals the first physible downloaded via BitTorrent and shipped from Shipways.com by Canadian Charles Randall.

“I was entertained by telling shapeways.com that I owned the copyright on the design though, something they force you to accept in order to have the model printed. But I guess, in a way, we all do,” Randall told TorrentFreak. “I debated just putting it up for sale on the site, but despite the Pirate Bay sensibilities, I didn’t want to entangle myself in any weird controversy for trying to sell it.”

Unlike regular downloads on BitTorrent, 3D objects come with a hefty price tag. Using the cheapest materials available, 3D pirates have to invest roughly $100 to get their new toy made.

“The raw price was about $80 for the material, $6.50 for the shipping, and then I had to pay $15 in Canadian duties,” Randall said.

As with any other form of expression, the 3D models used to make a product such as a toy boat or an action figure from a movie can be copyrighted. Distributing and printing such figures on a 3D printer without permission could be seen as copyright infringement by the parties who hold the copyright—of course, The Pirate Bay wants people to distribute their boat so that’s not going to happen here. Shipways.com themselves requires that people getting artefacts printed and shipped by them affidavit that they own the copyright for this reason.

I’ve said before, I don’t see a multitude of people using even the MakerBot (a home appliance 3D printer) to make themselves copyrighted marketable toys. What I do see people doing is producing busts, and figures of their favorite characters from TV shows, cartoons, video games, and etc. I can see Makers and gamers using devices such as this to produce models that they can use to produce artwork and scenes—imagine how the model train or battle recreation scene might change fundamentally if they could model their figures, trees, landscape, equipment, etc. on the computer and print it out instead of having to get it cast in metal/plastic elsewhere.

Products like MakerBot still don’t paint the figures, as we can see with the Pirate Bay ship; but I see that as a likely next evolution of the physible.

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Bail Denied Again, Dotcom to Remain in Jail Until Extradition Hearing

Mellisa Tolentino — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:29 +0000

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom appeared in court today in a hearing to appeal North Shore District Court’s earlier decision that denied him bail because he was considered as a flight risk. Unfortunately, the High Court in Auckland, New Zealand agreed with the earlier decision and rejected his appeal.

Dotcom appeared before the court citing his intent to un-freeze his account as the reason to not flee the country and go to Germany.

“I’m aware that if I go to Germany I would be unable to un-freeze my assets. What I want to do is stay here to fight and get my money back. What would I do in Germany with five kids and a wife with no money? It is not an option for me,” Dotcom stated.

Justice Raynor Asher stated that his intent to un-freeze his account was not enough to keep Dotcom in New Zealand and there is a possibility that the FBI did not freeze all of his accounts and that would enable him to flee to Germany where he will be safe from extradition to the US to face charges of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering, and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement.

Also, Crown lawyer Anne Toohey, on behalf of the United States Government, told the High Court this morning that since Dotcom’s stay at the Auckland Central Remand Prison, a man known to have forged travel documents tried to visit him, strengthening the possibility of Dotcom’s intent to flee.

Dotcom’s lawyer, Paul Davison, stated that staying in jail was not good for his health and he wanted to spend time with his pregnant wife and that having access to a helicopter and a jet doesn’t mean that the defendant would actually use them to escape. And because Dotcom is high profile and has a unique appearance, it was highly unlikely that Dotcom could leave the country without being noticed by airport security.

During the hearing, Dotcom was given a chance to relay to the court his experiences since his arrest.

The Megaupload founder recalled how he was punched in the face and kicked by police officers when he was arrested in January. He cited that he was approached by a person claiming to be a court prosecutor that could help him with his bail appeal for a sum of money, getting letters from female inmates wanting to befriend him and that a man filed application to visit him who was believed to be an expert forger.

“If people were to approach me and to offer such a service, I would tell them to go to hell,” Dotcom said. “I have no desire to run away.”

Toohey told the court that Dotcom resisted arrest and questioned him about the gun in his open safe inside the room where he retreated to, as well as the numerous credit cards found in his house and at least two passports.

Dotcom stated that when he heard loud banging on his bedroom door, he followed the exit plan formulated by his body guard Wayne Tempero and headed for the Red Room, which was a panic room, and that he was afraid of getting shot. Dotcom added that the gun in his safe was loaded with plastic rounds for self-defense, but he had no intention of using it, as he didn’t know how to, and when the police entered the room he had his hands out, but was still brutalized by the officers.

“One guy stood on my hand so my nail was ruptured causing it to bleed. It was quite agressive,” Dotcom claimed.

As for the credit cards, Dotcom stated that most of them were already of no use, but he just likes keeping them.

Toohey then told the court that the gun was loaded with shells containing buckshots and that police claimed his hand were not visible. Tempero, who previouslu provided security for the Brunei Royal Family and David and Victoria Beckham, also took the stand and was questioned for his eligibility to use/carry a pistol, but has no license to do so. Dotcom’s body guard said that he was going to apply for the license but failed to do so, since the authorities already busted them.

Dotcom must now remain in jail until his first hearing in a U.S. extradition request, scheduled for February 22.

As for the others arrested, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato were granted bail. There’s no news yet for the bail hearing of Mathias Ortmann and Andrus Nomm.

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MoMo Wins Against Apple, Samsung Confident In EU Probe

Mellisa Tolentino — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:45:18 +0000

Motorola Mobility won a second German patent ruling against Apple over their iCloud service. The Mannheim Regional Court found Apple had infringed a patent used to synchronize e-mail accounts.

Presiding Judge Andreas Voss stated that “The court has come to the conclusion that the wording of the patent does cover functioning that were at issue here.” Apple “wasn’t able to convince the court that it isn’t infringing.”

The ruling allows Motorola to block the sales of devices with access to the iCloud, as well as ask Apple for information about past sales and holds Apple liable for damages.

“Apple believes this old pager patent is invalid and we’re appealing the courts decision,” company spokesman Alan Hely said.

Apple clearly is in a losing streak, as they were recently rejected twice in their request to ban the sale of Samsung devices in Germany.

Samsung Confident With EU Anti-trust Probe

After two wins against Apple, Samsung is quite confident that the anti-trust probe set by the European Union will end well as it would soon find out that they comply with the rules.

“We believe that, upon the scrutiny of the facts, the commission will conclude that Samsung Electronics has acted in compliance with EU competition rules,” Samsung said.

Samsung is under investigation, as the EU believes that some of the patent lawsuits they filed against Apple were considered essential to wireless communications, which must be licensed on a fair and reasonable basis to any company, under an agreement formed by industry groups and, in Europe, sanctioned by the European Commission.

RIM Offers Free PlayBook To Android App Developers

Research in Motion opened their doors to Android app developers in time for the roll out of the BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 OS. They gave the Android app developers until February 6th to submit their repackaged apps.

But it seems like not many Android app developers were interested, so RIM’s sweetened the deal by offering free BlackBerry PlayBooks to those that port their Android apps. RIM’s vice president for developer relations Alec Saunders made the announcement on Twitter.

Shh…. Android Devs – submit your Android app to BB AppWorld by Feb 13 and get a free Playbook –> tools here:http://bit.ly/w758Ci – @asaunders

Developers registered for the BlackBerry App World are entitled to a 16 GB Playbook if they repackage their Android apps into the compatible BAR file format and submit it to BlackBerry’s App World between Feb. 2 and Feb. 13. The repackeaged apps must meet RIM’s BlackBerry App World Vendor Guidelines.

Symantec Warns Of Mutating Android Trojan

After Symantec retracted their claim that Android.Counterclank was indeed an aggressive adware and not malware, the security software maker now warns Android users of malware that mutates every time is gets downloaded.

According to Symantec, “The applications morph themselves automatically in a few ways every time the threat is downloaded. In addition, manual modifications are also made every few days indicating that the malware authors are actively maintaining this malware family.”

These variants were identified Android.Opfake. and are used in malicious Android apps hosted in Russian websites. The sites hosting Opfake include links or buttons that can be used to download the malicious packages claiming to be free versions of popular Android software.

Vikram Thakur, the principal security response manager at Symantec, explains that the severity of damage, as well as how easily these polymorphic viruses can be detected and fixed, rely on the complexity of the polymorphism.

“If antivirus vendors place their detection on the executable and non-changing sections, all files would be successfully detected,” said Tim Armstrong, malware researcher at Kaspersky Lab. “However, if the Trojan’s executable code were also polymorphic, the challenge of detecting it would be more difficult,” Armstrong added.

HTC Gobbles Dashwire

Dashwire, Inc., the maker of the Dashworks platform that provides mobile and web applications enabling people to easily setup and personalize their smartphones, and seamlessly access their mobile content across multiple screens and services, has been acquired by HTC as they expand their reach to the cloud. It’s a smart move for HTC, which had a less than stellar fourth quarter and is struggling to keep up with other Android OEMs like Samsung.

“Cloud services are key to delivering the promise of connected services to our customers,” said Fred Liu, president of engineering and operations, HTC Corporation. “People want access to all of their important content wherever they are on any device. The addition of Dashwire’s cutting-edge sync services and deep mobile cloud experience strengthens our ability to deliver these services in a more powerful way.”

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Pirate Bay Founders Found Guilty in Sweden Amidst Web Copyright Drama

Maria Deutscher — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:21:00 +0000

Even before the battle over SOPA and PIPA has reached its climax, the media industry is going after the people who are making its copyrighted property available for free online.

The particularly case involving The Pirate Bay has come to end this week, and it set a rather interesting precedence for the rest of the battle between Hollywood and illegal uploaders.

Wired reported that the Swedish Supreme Court decided not to change the sentences of the four Pirate Bay founders who were convicted back in 2009. Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Carl Lundström and Gottfrid Svartholm are currently sharing fines totaling about $6.8 million, as well as 34 months of time in jail split among the four.

There are a lot of interesting twists to the case. The defense was based entirely on the claim that they’re innocent because no pirated material was stored on their servers, but rather in third party locations. The Pirate Way works by providing users links to uploaded video or music found on other sites, instead of streaming content directly like some of the other websites that have been shut down recently.

This wasn’t enough to persuade the judge, and found them to be accomplices. Sweden’s Supreme Court evidently accepted the decision.

Lundström’s lawyer, Per E. Samuelsson, blasted the Supreme Court for refusing to review the conviction. “The verdict is absurd,” he said. “I am disappointed that the court is so uninterested in dissecting and analysing the legal twists and turns of one of the world’s most high-profile legal cases of all time.”

The Pirate Bay is not the first site that took a hit recently. Megaupload has also been forced to cease operations by the authorities, and Ex.ua has been shut down earlier yesterday.

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The Ukraine’s Largest File-Sharing Site Ex.ua Goes Dark After Raid

Kit Dotson — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:41:00 +0000

In what’s becoming the dark-age for cyberlockers, Ukraine-based Ex.ua just went dark after country authorities raided the site and seized equipment. According to an article on TorrentFreak, since being founded in 2009 it has been one of the most visited sites in the Ukraine and used to house 200 servers and over 6,000 terabytes of data.

Because the site was widely used to share copyrighted files, several international companies including Microsoft, Graphisoft and Adobe filed complaints against the service. After a six month criminal investigation, this resulted in the shutdown of Ex.ua today…

In addition, sixteen employees were taken in for questioning. At the time of writing it is unclear how many arrests have been made, if any. The authorities did confirm that the site was run by a Latvian citizen.

While Ex.ua bore many similarities the recently felled Megaupload except in a few major axis: the site also permitted users to search shares for particular types of files. Ex.ua permitted visitors to search their stores for files that were “MP3” or “video,” a capability which is quite uncommon for most cyberlockers. In 2010, the RIAA branded Ex.ua a “pirate haven,” and complained about its activities to the Office of the US Trade Representative.

With a multitude of file-sharing websites getting gunned down by authorities at the behest of trade federations like the RIAA and the MPAA it’s a dangerous day to be a file-sharing site in the cloud. Organizations that represent copyright holders in film, music, and software have been quick to make certain that they paint their target as rogue before they sic enforcers on them.

In the case of Megaupload, the sites administrators not only plead that they’ve been following provisions of the DMCA but the case FBI has made against them appears somewhat flimsy.

If convicted of the charges levied against them, operators of Ex.ua could face up to five years in prison.

[Photo credit: same TorrentFreak article about shutdown of Ex.ua]

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Chilly Storms Brewing in the Cloud Over Megaupload Takedown

Kit Dotson — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:52:26 +0000

Last week saw what felt like a surprise move by the US government against the Hong Kong-based file sharing site, Megaupload. Swooping in from afar the company and several of its executives found themselves embroiled in a legal battle. The takedown and its proximity to the SOPA protests even triggered one of the largest DDoS attacks ever perpetrated by Anonymous. Shortly thereafter, sites such as Filvesonic recoiled and shut down their sharing capabilities; while others such as Box.net and YouSendIt have commented that they involve themselves in a lot more sectors than just personal uploading and sharing.

However, the dark lining in the cloud right now is that Megaupload both claims and appears to have followed all the rules that should have given them an umbrella under the safe harbor provisions. In fact, according to legal analysis solicited of experts by Jennifer Granick of The Shout suggests that while Megaupload might have left themselves open to civil proceedings (which would have involved lawsuits) that they appear to me more-or-less innocent in the criminal lawsuit arena which the US DOJ seems to be moving forward with.

The upshot of this is that many of the other cloud-sharing and storage sites feel that they’re safe from this sort of prosecution but looking at what happened to Megaupload may be short sighted. If indeed Megaupload should have been protected under the DMCA by following its safe harbor guidelines then all the snow falling on them comes from a tussle they’ve been having with copyright holders lobbying the government to strike out at them using the impression that they were just a sleazy site.

As discovered by Granick, it seems that the indictment itself against Megaupload is incomplete in the criminal aspects and covers mostly civil aspects. Normally civil suits never proceed with such overbearing displays of firepower—and certainly rarely, if never with arrests or the threat of imprisonment.

This means that the US DOJ just showed that they can choose to hit any cloud-storage site they want essentially at the behest of highly motivated and deep protected content holders. The US is capable of causing tremendous harm to a business without much due process (including the total wipeout of the site itself by confiscating the domain) and the seizure of their servers. The US claimed jurisdiction over Megaupload because the Hong Kong-based company has servers in Virginia.

Memories to be Deleted from the Cloud

As snow begins to fall in the cloud during this blizzard we can see the first very real “chilling effect” of this sort of prosecution. According to a report released in the Associated Press and covered by SilionANGLE personal data on Megaupload servers could be deleted as soon as Thursday this week. According to TorrentFreak users of the site have already begun organizing proceedings against the US DOJ and FBI to sue them for losses and damages should this happen—already people who had valid business arrangements with Megaupload have lost access to their data due to this activity and deleting it would add permanence to that inaccessibility.

According to sources, the government did not seize the servers themselves but simply copied files from them (presumably for use in the criminal proceeding) but by freezing Megaupload’s assets the US government has essentially put the datacenter providers between a rock and a hard place: they aren’t receiving money to upkeep the servers that house the user data yet the servers are now laying fallow.

As a result, the FBI and others will be facing a lawsuit shortly if files unrelated to their investigation are deleted.

Further into the freezing rain falling from the cloud, smaller file sharing outfits who use the cloud are already deleting content to avoid being targeted by the United States.

“If the US government can come for Kim Dotcom it can happen to almost anyone,” a file-hosting operator told TorrentFreak on condition of anonymity. “I’m trying to think of everything I did possibly wrong in the last 3 years and worrying about that and the next 3 years also, if we even have that long.”

Although this purge is unlikely to do anything to the actual piracy scene, it will probably impact people who have uploaded their thoughts, images, and files to the web via these smaller outfits with a profoundness. The actual piracy scene doesn’t exist in bulk on sites like Megaupload or other cyberlocker sites—these are an extreme newcomer to the scene and that’s possibly why they got caught in the headlights when the DOJ came for them.

In fact, looking at cloud sharing sites, the remaining contenders have seen a huge increase in customers flocking to them after losing Megaupload. For the rest of the networks of piracy, they existed before cloud cyberlockers arrived on the scene and they still act behind the scenes in invisible black markets that still hadn’t thought of fully exploiting cloud-based sharing. That’s not to say that they don’t trickle into every single one…meaning that all cloud-storage could be just as vulnerable.

As the snow starts piling up, other sites receiving those customers may start wondering if the US and copyright holders will turn their high beams onto them and hopefully before then they’ll understand better how to protect themselves under the law.

While it might be true that staying within the confines of the DMCA may help them win in court, the US has made it obvious that these matters of law won’t save your business from being hammered from existence by asset and domain seizures and that’s all that it would take to crush the business model of many of these new startups.

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Megaupload Files to be Deleted as Early as Thursday, Personal Data at Risk

Mellisa Tolentino — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:32:48 +0000

According to a report from the Associated Press, federal prosecutors stated that files in Megaupload could be deleted as early as Thursday, February 2.

The site has been inaccessible to users since the US authorities blocked the site, along with the arrest of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom together with other Megaupload employees Bram van der Kolk, Finn Batato, and Mathias Ortmann. The fifth person arrested, Andrus Nomm, a citizen of Estonia and a resident of both Turkey and Estonia, was also charged with engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering, and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement. Seven were charged and the government is still working on arresting the two others.

Megaupload hires third party companies such as Carpathia Hosting Inc. and Cogent Communications Group Inc. to store user files, but according to Megaupload attorney, Ira Rothken, the company’s money had been frozen so these third party storage companies aren’t getting paid.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia filed a letter in the Megaupload case stating that the government copied some data from the servers but did not physically take them. And since they already executed their search warrant, they no longer have the right to access the data. Carpathia and Cogent will now start deleting Megaupload files. Spokespersons for the two companies and for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

Rothken is said to be working with prosecutors trying to prevent Megaupload data from being deleted.

“We’re cautiously optimistic at this point that because the United States, as well as Megaupload, should have a common desire to protect consumers, that this type of agreement will get done,” Rothken said.

Users of Megaupload were not given a chance to get their files, legal or not, and they are not very pleased with the situation. It’s one thing to block the site but if files get deleted, then that’s another story. The Pirates of Catalonia, along with other Pirate Parties, are organizing a massive class action lawsuit against the US government stating that the FBI violated Articles 197 and 198 of the Spanish Penal Code by misappropiating personal data. The group is asking for support and donation from those users affected by the Megaupload shutdown.

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Megaupload Week in Review: Cloud, Hackers Affected

Mellisa Tolentino — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:15:33 +0000

Last week the celebrity-backed file sharing site, Megaupload, was taken down by the US Justice Department. Along with the shutdown, arrests were made, which included Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, Bram van der Kolk, Finn Batato, and Mathias Ortmann.

The four were charged with engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering, and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement. An unnamed source from the US Justice Department hinted that a fifth person had been arrested. If convicted, they will be facing the maximum penalties of 20 years for conspiracy to commit racketeering and to commit money laundering, five years for each count of copyright infringement and five years for conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.

Dotcom plead “not guilty” to charges filed against him, but his request for bail was denied because of prior convictions, and was deemed as a flight risk by Judge David McNaughton. An appeal is said to be in progress. An e-mail from Dotcom addressed to his New Zealand neighbors surfaced. The e-mail was a confession of Dotcom’s dark past but also stated that he has turned a new leaf.

On the other hand, because of no prior convictions or fears of flight risk, Batato and Van der Kolk were granted bail.

A judge at the North Shore District Court postponed the bail hearing for Ortmann, scheduled today, until next week at the Manukau District Court after his lawyer asked the court for more time to prepare submissions.

The Effect On Cloud Services

Because of the take down, other file sharing sites shutdown their services or restricted access to their sites from US users. FileSonic, Uploaded, UploadBox, x7.to, 4shared, FileJungle, UploadStation, FilePost, VideoBB, VideoZer are just some of the sites that made drastic changes.

MediaFire and RapidShare were quick to denounce any resemblance to Megaupload, stating that their services do not promote piracy and they comply with anti-piracy laws and disable accounts suspected of piracy as well as remove suspected pirated content from their database.

Other cloud services are confident that they would not be the next target by the Justice Department because they comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) but others are still concerned since Megaupload, who claimed adhering to the DMCA guidelines, with little evidence of DMCA guideline violations was still shutdown.
So the question remains, are cloud services really safe from the clutches of the Justice Department?

The Effect On Hackers

After Megaupload was taken down, hackers, led by Anonymous, went on a rampage and retaliated, taking down 10 government and entertainment sites, such as the Justice Department, FBI, RIAA, Universal Music etc. This was then followed by an attack on CBC and Universal and the hacktivists warn that this is just the beginning.

Unfortunately, because of the popularity of Anonymous, hackers are now creating havoc under the Anonymous banner. One hacker announced an attack on Facebook while another created a shady file sharing site. Anonymous denied any connection or involvement with the two hackers and stated any attack on Facebook is not sanctioned by them and that AnonyUpload looks like a SCAM.

The Effect On Cloud Users

Because of the Megaupload debacle, users lost the files they had on the site and users, especially the legit ones, claim injustice. The Pirates of Catalonia, in collaboration with and Pirate Parties International and other Pirate Parties [including the Pirate Party of the United Kingdom], stated that the FBI violated Articles 197 and 198 of the Spanish Penal Code by misappropiating personal data and will facilitate submission of class action lawsuit against the US authorities in as many countries as possible.

The Pirata.cat statement read: “Regardless of ideology, or opinions on the legality or morality of those running Megaupload, actions such as the closure of this service cause huge damage to lawful users of the sites and are unacceptable and disproportionate violations of their rights.”

“For these reasons, we ask that everyone spread the call to join this initiative, as actions like this one cannot and should not be forgiven.”

Megaupload Week in Review: Cloud, Hackers Affected is a post from: SiliconANGLE
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