eBay could ditch uncrackable Skype tech


Skype's proprietary scrambling technology is purportedly the bane of electronic spies at the NSA and GCHQ, and now in a move sure to spark conspiracy theories, eBay has quietly revealed it could rip out and replace the code at its core.

In a regulatory filing this week, the online auction house said it might substitute Skype's encrypted peer to peer technology, which it has licensed from a company named Joltid.

"Skype has begun to develop alternative software to that licensed through Joltid," eBay told US regulators.

theregister.co.uk

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Sharing is caring - Why the pirates are on the rise in Sweden


Newsnight's Matt Prodger visits Sweden's Peace and Love music festival in Borlange to investigate what it is about the Swedes that has put them at the heart of a raging debate about internet freedom.

For 24-hour party people a visit to the land of the midnight sun is a must. For one thing, the Swedes are serious when it comes to having fun - and at this time of year the sun never sets.

bbc.co.uk

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CCC: Vorratsdatenspeicherung bringt unkontrollierbare Überwachung


Der Chaos Computer Club (CCC) macht in einem jetzt veröffentlichten Gutachten (PDF-Datei) zu den Verfassungsbeschwerden gegen die Vorratsspeicherung von Telekommunikationsdaten deutlich, welch tiefe Einblicke in die Privatsphäre aller Nutzer mit der umkämpften Maßnahme möglich werden. Im Kern werde durch die Speicherung der Verbindungsdaten und der Standorte der Mobiltelefone eine "Verwendung von Ausforschungsmethoden in der Polizeiarbeit möglich, die bisher nur im geheimdienstlichen und militärischen Bereich üblich sind", schreibt die Hackervereinigung in ihrer Eingabe an das Bundesverfassungsgericht. Durch die Ausforschung von Beziehungsnetzwerken, Aufenthaltsorten und Abfolgen von Kommunikation könne ein "nahezu vollständiges Profil der Persönlichkeit eines Betroffenen erstellt und über die Zeit fortentwickelt werden".

heise.de

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Kaspersky beats Zango in malware classification case


Kaspersky Lab has secured a legal victory against notorious adware firm Zango, with a ruling that goes a long way towards protecting security software developers from nuisance lawsuits from the developers of internet pests in future.

The judgment might also protects security researchers from legal threats when disclosing vulnerabilities.

theregister.co.uk

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Animated PNG files


In late 2007, PHUG, an open source community had the opportunity to meet Andrew Smith one of the key developers of APNG. Eager to get involved and expand on the open source community, PHUG placed it's initiative into the contribution of the APNG open source project. Our goal is to educate both open source commercial developers and designers on the beneficial aspects of using the APNG specification.

animatedpng.com

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The - Extremly early test - HTML5 media tags


Getting annoyed by the fact that you can’t really find videos (and other copyrighted material) on YouTube anymore? Depending on how patient you are, we’ve got some good news for you. The Pirate Bay’s video sharing project, The Video Bay has opened up its beta version to the public.

Video Bay

mashable.comthevideobay.org

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My Dream is to Cut All Ties with Civilization but Still be on the Internet


My Dream is to Cut All Ties

via

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The Proxy Fight for Iranian Democracy


If you put 65 million people in a locked room, they're going to find all the exits pretty quickly, and maybe make a few of their own. In the case of Iran's crippled-but-still-connected Internet, that means finding a continuous supply of proxy servers that allow continued access to unfiltered international web content like Twitter, Gmail, and the BBC.

renesys.com

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Taking Microsoft to Task Over IE8 ‘Myths’


Microsoft recently launched a campaign promoting its Internet Explorer 8 browser, making some bold claims about IE8’s capabilities.

The campaign, called “Windows Internet Explorer 8: Get the Facts,” trumpets IE’s speed, stability, ease of use, safety and customizability. It also provides a chart and several data points intended to show how IE8 surpasses other browsers in these areas.

IE8 ‘Myths’

webmonkey.com

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Is Germany Following Australia Down The Slippery Slope Of Internet Censorship?


Via Slashdot we learn that Germany is the latest country to consider a censorship regime that would create a blacklist of sites that ISPs would be required to block. As with most such things, the official claim is that this would be to block out child porn. Of course, this is a head-in-the-sand approach to fighting child porn.

techdirt.com

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Koalition einigt sich über Internetsperren


Union und SPD haben sich auf einen Entwurf für das geplante Gesetz gegen Kinderpornografie geeinigt. Die Sozialdemokraten konnten sich mit vielen Einwänden durchsetzen. So soll jetzt ein Kontrollgremium die Sperrlisten des BKA auf Korrektheit überprüfen. Nutzerdaten sollen nicht erfasst werden.

spiegel.de Große Koalition einigt sich bei Zensursula

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Sniffing Browser History Without Javascript


Ergasiophobia alerts us to a somewhat alarming technology demonstration, in which a Web site you visit generates a pretty good list of sites you have visited — without requiring JavaScript. NoScript will not protect you here. The only obvious drawbacks to this method are that it puts a load on your browser, and that it requires a list of Web sites to check against.

slashdot.org

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