Bad Cops, Sexual Assaults; Recording; Innocence; Impersonating an Officer; Incarcerating Kids; Law and Disorder; Racism; Guns; War on Drugs, 420; Surveillance and Privacy

Bad Cops

• Columbia police chief's post sets off Facebook frenzy—"We have arrested all of the violent offenders in Five points. Thank you for sharing your views and giving us reasonable suspicion to believe you might be a criminal, we will work on finding you."
• How the Houston Cop Who Killed an Unarmed, Disabled Man Was Found Innocent
• 22 Year Old With Down Syndrome Beaten By The Police For "Bulge In Pants" That Was His Colostomy Bag
• Man Shot, Killed After Arguing With Patrolman Over Double Parking
• Flipping Off Police Officers Constitutional, Federal Court Affirms—"A police officer can't pull you over and arrest you just because you gave him the finger, a federal appeals court declared Thursday."

Sexual Assaults

• Woman Forced To Strip And Serve Jail Time For Overdue Ticket
• Woman allegedly forced to strip naked while Philadelphia cop pleasured himself
• Arkansas cop tasers woman who refuses to show him her breasts: lawsuit
• Florida cop fired after he sexually harassed a rape victim while investigating her assault—"Deputy Paul Martin was fired for 'horrendous conduct,' according to the Pinellas County Sheriff." Salon
• Ex-Cleveland Police officer Wayne Scott guilty of rape

Recording

• Dallas officer caught on video shooting mentally ill man is fired, could face charges
• TPD detective caught on camera allegedly taking money—"He confirmed he borrowed 23 dollars from the container and intended to pay it back on payday." Borrowed.
• Charges filed against Skokie officer in videotaped jail cell incident
• California police use of body cameras cuts violence and complaints—"Body cameras worn by police in Rialto, California have resulted in better policing – and now other forces may follow suit."
• Armed robbery charges dropped against a man who proves innocence with surveillance video

Innocence

• Innocent Man Freed After 35 Years Has An Incredible Outlook On Life
• County borrowing $10 million to pay pair wrongfully convicted of rape—"Two men spent 17 years in prison for crime they didn't commit."
• Man Cleared In Rape Case Arrested For Not Registering As Sex Offender

Impersonating an Officer

• Man pretends to be police officer in front of police officer
• Long Island Man Accused Of Impersonating Police Officer In Traffic Stop
• Indianapolis woman suspected of impersonating Greenwood police officer
• Walker Man Arrested Tuesday After Impersonating an Officer on I-12
• Caller Impersonating Police Officer Threatens Victims With Arrest
• Retired Philly cop, 79, arrested for impersonating officer
• Police Impersonator Held At Officer's Funeral
• "Kid Cop" Sentenced to Jail

Incarcerating Kids

• Perhaps the Saddest Profit Motive Ever—"In Pennsylvania, there are two companies called PA Child Care LLC and Western PA Child Care. You might think that these companies offer services and supports to kids to help them become productive adults. You’d be wrong. These companies offered kickbacks to two Luzerne County, PA judges in exchange for these judges contracting with the company and sentencing 6,500 teenagers to spend time in two for-profit youth prisons these companies run."
• In Florida, agreement to reduce student arrests
• The School-to-Prison Pipeline: A Nationwide Problem for Equal Rights—"Advocates point to data showing that excessive disciplinary policies disproportionately target black, low-income and disabled students."

Law and Disorder

• Family: Louisiana Police stun father as son died in house fire—Might have ended up burning to death himself if he had gone in.
• Father's lesson is deadly for 19-year-old son Tyler Comstock as he is shot and killed by police—Called 911 on his own son who stole his truck.
• Police probe website targeting crime witnesses—"Philadelphia police and prosecutors are investigating an anonymous Instagram account with thousands of followers that for months has been identifying witnesses in violent crimes across the city - aiming, in its creator's words, to 'expose rats.'"
• D.C. businessman faces two years in jail for unregistered ammunition, brass casing—Smells like a shakedown.
• Texas man arrested for overdue library book

Racism

• Mother Responds to Controversy After Son Dresses as Klansman for Halloween
• In The First Six Months Of 2013 Los Angeles Police Dogs Only Bit Blacks and Latinos
• Alabama Man Pleaded Guilty To Hiring 'KKK' To Hang Neighbor 'Like An Animal'
• Jay Z: 'Why am I being demonized' over alleged racial profiling at Barneys?
• Concord, N.H., police link racist graffiti to writing on gun permit
• Hate crime charges dropped against black teens accused of beating white Brooklyn couple
• Minister sentenced to 2 years for setting fire—"... in a phony hate crime attack that included racist graffiti he painted to deceive police."
• Red Lobster customer has handwriting expert study receipt—It's looking like she scrawled "nigger" to herself.

Guns

• Sanford bans guns for neighborhood watch after Trayvon Martin shooting
• Family of slain Detroit woman seeks answers about incident—"The family of Renisha McBride, 19, said she went for help after a car accident around 2:30 a.m. Saturday. She died of a gunshot wound to the head after knocking on the door of a home...."
• Florida Sheriff Who 'Nullified' Concealed Gun Arrest is Acquitted, Reinstated

War on Drugs

• Kofi Annan: Stop 'war on drugs'—"Kofi Annan and Fernando Cordoso say the war on drugs is devastating communities worldwide and call on nations to decriminalize drugs and adopt humane policies."
• Man Dies In Jail Cell After Misdemeanor Pot Offense—Died of a food allergy which was allegedly ignored.
• Student injured by K-9 officer—In "a simulated raid... to help 'educate the Clay County fifth-graders on drug awareness.'"
• Florida Cops Made Millions Dealing Cocaine: The Latest Asset Forfeiture Outrage
• Traffic stop gone horribly wrong for Lordsburg man—Gets stiffed with colonoscopy bill after being wrongly suspected of carrying drugs. Butt wait... there's more!

420

• Is it time for the U.S. to legalize marijuana?—County by county, state by state, it's happening.
• Maine: Portland voters strongly endorse pot legalization
• Colorado Will Use Pot-Taxes To Fund Its Schools—Toke weed; kids read.
• Alcohol Is Really Pissed Off at Marijuana Right Now—"The marijuana industry is convincing Americans its substance is safer than alcohol, and booze lobbyists don't like it."
• US court blocks NYPD stop-and-frisk ruling and removes judge from case—"Federal court says Shira Scheindlin showed appearance of bias when she ruled that stop-and-frisk was unconstitutional."

Surveillance and Privacy

• Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee criticises spy agencies—"The British computer scientist who created the world wide web has said encryption cracking by UK and US spy agencies is 'appalling and foolish.'"
• Why Saying 'We Knew This' Or 'Everybody Spies' In Response To NSA Revelations Is Wrong
• NSA and GCHQ mass surveillance is violation of European law, report finds—"Authors of study warn of 'systematic breach of people's fundamental rights' and call for EU parliament to take action."
• Forget the Backdoor: The Government Now Wants Keys to the Internet—"If the Department of Justice gets its way in court, secure email could become a thing of the past."
• C.I.A. Is Said to Pay AT&T for Call Data—"The disclosure shows that agencies beyond the N.S.A. exploit call metadata with programs regulated by an inconsistent patchwork of legal standards, procedures and oversight." NYT

Civil Liberties, Freedom of Speech and Anonymity, Journalism, Transparency; Snowden, Surveillance and NSA Spying; Syria, War on Terror, TSA

Civil Liberties

• The Banality of Systemic Evil—"A recent poll showed that 70 percent of people aged 18 to 34 thought Edward Snowden 'did a good thing.' Has the younger generation lost its moral compass?" NYT
• Amid NSA Scandal, ACLU Report Turns Spotlight Back To FBI's 'Unchecked Abuse Of Authority'
• DOJ: Some Constitutional Rights Can't Be Tested In Courts, Like Our Ability To Kill You With A Drone
• Federal Appeals Court: Border Agents Can't Answer Suspect's Cell Phone And Impersonate Owner
• Cross Border Killings—"What happens when US Border Patrol agents shoot across international lines, killing Mexicans in their own country?" Nothing because US courts asserted "that Mexican citizens do not have the same constitutional protections as US citizens..."

Freedom of Speech and Anonymity

• Anonymous Cop Pens Bizarre Editorial Calling for 'End of Anonymity on the Internet,' Says All Internet Posters Should be Forced to Register with the Government for 'Public Safety'—He says while his boot is stepping on your neck.
• Charles Xue tells Chinese media he spread irresponsible online posts—"Detained Chinese-American venture capitalist says 'freedom of speech cannot override the law.'" Room 101 strikes again.
• Supreme Court Weighs When Online Speech Becomes an Illegal Threat
• Judge Throws Out Officers' Convictions in Killings After Hurricane Katrina—"The judge harshly criticized federal prosecutors for making anonymous comments on the Web site of a New Orleans newspaper before and during the trial." NYT
• Cynics Online—"Ambiguous usernames that provide anonymity have resulted in an increase in freedom of speech and a decrease in liability."

Journalism

• "Free Flow of Information Act" Targets Independent Journalism—"According to the text of an amendment sponsored by Senators Diane Feinstein and Dick Durbin..., only salaried journalists will be given the free press protections guaranteed to all US citizens by the Constitution." How Orwellian can you get? "Free Flow" indeed.
• Why 'be transparent' has replaced 'act independently' as a guiding journalism principle
• The Onion Is The Country's Best Op-Ed Page. Seriously.

Transparency

• Ideas at the House: Panel - The War on Whistleblowers and Their Publishers—"US Journalist and activist Alexa O'Brien and Australian commentator Robert Manne are joined by video conference with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Guardian Journalist Glenn Greenwald and Chelsea Manning's Lawyer David Coombs on stage at the Sydney Opera House (moderated by Bernard Keane of Crikey)."
• AP Journalists: The NYPD 'Less Transparent' Than CIA, FBI And NSA When It Comes To FOI Requests
• DoD office can't process FOIAs because fax machine broken, no money for new one

Snowden

• Fugitive Snowden in running for European rights prize
• Former NSA chief: 'Morally arrogant' Snowden will probably become an alcoholic
• The NSA Has No Solution For The Real 'Snowden Problem' And It's Only Going To Get Worse

Surveillance and NSA Spying

• U.S. Telcos Have Never Challenged NSA Demands for Your Metadata
• Newly Released Secret Surveillance Court Ruling Confirms Sweeping Legal Standard For Collecting Phone Data
• FISA Court Pretends Every Member Of Congress Was Told Details Of Bulk Surveillance, Even Though They Weren't
• Senators Decry NSA 'Ineptitude,' Call for End to Dragnet Phone Surveillance
• Verizon exec slams Google, Microsoft, Yahoo for NSA lawsuit grandstanding—Big brother knows best!
• Guardian Story on Israel and N.S.A. Is Not 'Surprising' Enough to Cover—Nothing to see here folks. Move along... seriously, move... along. NYT
• Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff calls off US trip—"Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has called off a state visit to Washington next month in a row over allegations of US espionage."

Syria

• Forensic Details in U.N. Report Point to Assad's Use of Gas NYT
• Jon Stewart Goes After Sen. Graham, Others For Pushing War In Syria
• Final Tally: Americans Were 12 Times More Interested in Miley Cyrus Than Syria—State of the nation indeed.

War on Terror

• How the 'war on terror' came home—"The story of Aaron Alexis is still obscure. But effects of an over-taxed US military are painfully visible among 2 million veterans."
• The War on Terror is Still Everywhere
• Herat attack: Afghanistan Taliban target US consulate

TSA

• Ex-TSA agent: We steal from travelers all the time
• Keep your shoes, jackets on: TSA to expand pre-screening program
• Been groped by TSA agents? Former DHS official implied privacy advocates are to blame

Microsoft; Facebook; News You Can Lose; Cable Wars; Copyfight; Privacy; Trolling and Tough Guys; Aaron Swartz; Censorship; NSA Spying

Microsoft

• Steve Ballmer to retire as Microsoft CEO
• Why Steve Ballmer Failed—He calls the development of Microsoft Vista the biggest regret of his tenure.
• Pogue: How Ballmer Missed the Tidal Shifts in Tech NYT
• If Steve Ballmer Ran Apple—To the ground, creativity- and innovation-wise that is.
• The Poisonous Employee-Ranking System That Helps Explain Microsoft's Decline

Facebook

• Facebook use 'makes people feel worse about themselves'
• Florida fraternity censured, loses national charter over Facebook posts
• Using Facebook is about to get a lot more annoying
• Addicted to Facebook? Try Shock Therapy
• Hacker posts bug report to Zuck's wall after security team blew him off—"Facebook refuses to pay $500 to hacker who reported bug because he 'violated the TOS.'" Because of that, the Palestinian programmer received $10,000 from the community.

News You Can Lose

• Extra, Extra! Newspaper Crisis Hits Germany—"It came to Germany almost a decade later than America, but the newspaper crisis is sweeping the country, with plummeting circulations and revenues. The German news media must reinvent itself in order to retain readers."
• SF Chronicle Releases Statement Confirming That All Chron Content Is No Longer Behind A Paywall
• Craigslist has cost U.S. newspapers $5 billion—And saved users $5 billion.

Cable Wars

• Kevin Spacey urges TV channels to give control to viewers—"Give people what they want, when they want it, in the form they want it in, at a reasonable price, and they'll more likely pay for it rather than steal it."
• Americans are starting to cut the cable TV cord, and here’s what it looks like
• Time Warner Cable Sued Over CBS Blackout
• Time Warner Cable offers antenna to customers who want CBS
• Apple reportedly blows off cable companies, talks directly with HBO, ESPN for iTV service

Copyfight

• SOPA Has Returned, Time to Kill it Again
• Cross a border, lose your ebooks—Ones that were legally bought.
• Newest YouTube user to fight a takedown is copyright guru Lawrence Lessig—"EFF has filed a second lawsuit over a "bogus" takedown, hoping for better results."
• Reddit's gay gamers knock out "gaymer" trademark
• Getty Just Made 4,600 Incredible Images Free to Download and Use

Privacy

• Geek Squad Accused Of Stealing, Distributing Customer's Naked Photos. Yes, Again
• Comcast letter said to confirm that Prenda, Steele planted porn torrents—"Hard to claim copyright infringement if you create and seed the torrent."
• Webcam spying goes mainstream as Miss Teen USA describes hack
• Report: Teens Actually Do Care About Online Privacy
• 'Boyfriend Tracker' app raises stir in Brazil
• Paysafecard Begins Banning VPN Providers

Trolling and Tough Guys

• Huffington: Trolls uglier than ever, so we're cutting off anonymous comments
• Dear Internet Tough Guys: Cut it out—"The plague of ridiculous "do you know who I am" threats has to stop." Salon
• BioWare writer received death threats to family—More Internet fuckwads.
• "ebayisajoke" BUSTED By Fox2 News HALL OF SHAME Rob Wolchek
• Comment threads? They're a fight to the death. Look, you know I'm right—"The reason why we can't quite let go of those online arguments turns out to have psychological roots that go a long way back. Don't argue, just read."

Aaron Swartz

• DOJ Decided To Ratchet Up Case Against Aaron Swartz Because He Spoke Out Publicly About Being Innocent—And that the "Internet community rallied on his behalf."
• Documents show Secret Service kept tab of Swartz
• Changing IP address to access public website ruled violation of US law—"CFAA forbids easy method of evading IP blocking used by 3taps (and Aaron Swartz)."

Censorship

• British Library's wi-fi service blocks 'violent' Hamlet—"A man using the British Library's wi-fi network was denied access to an online version of Shakespeare's Hamlet because the text contained 'violent content.'"
• Wikipedia Co-Founder Refuses to Comply With China's Censorship—And China retaliates with grounding Wikipedia's China editor until 2016.
• Finnish Court Censors Website That Criticizes Censorship
• Web-based apps pose tricky problem for Saudi monitors—"Saudi Arabia is seeking to tighten control over web-based applications that offer a freedom to communicate that is impossible for most Saudis in the real world, and may even seek to ban such apps altogether."
• On Day of Suicide, Blogger Launches Site About His Life and Death—And the increasingly irrelevant Yahoo takes the pre-paid site down, claims TOS breach.

NSA Spying

• Obama Was Wrong: NSA Employees Have Deliberately "Abused" Their Power
• Corker: Congress in the dark on NSA—"The American people want to know that those of us who are elected... understand fully what's happening here. I don't think we do. [...] I would imagine there are even members of the [congressional] intelligence committee themselves that don't fully understand the gamut of things that are taking place."
• Matt Damon: Snowden did a great thing
• Former Salt Lake mayor: NSA snooping is the scandal of the century
• NSA hacked into encrypted UN communications, leaked documents show
• How to Decode the True Meaning of What NSA Officials Say—"A lexicon for understanding the words U.S. intelligence officials use to mislead the public."
• A Guide To The Latest Flurry Of NSA Revelations
• NSA Snooping Was Only the Beginning. Meet the Spy Chief Leading Us Into Cyberwar

CISPA and Your Security, Privacy and Surveillance, Your Data; Tech Tracking, Path, Google Glass; Prenda's Porn Trolling

CISPA and Your Security

• ACLU: CISPA Is Dead (For Now)—"The Senate will not take up the controversial cybersecurity bill, is drafting separate legislation."
• CISPA's Immunity Provision Would Allow Corporate Hacking—"A perceived threat could be anything–whatever act a business finds threatening."
• ThinkSquad on CISPA
• Spyware used by governments poses as Firefox, and Mozilla is angry—"Mozilla sends cease and desist letter to maker of FinFisher software."
• Judge Rejects FBI Attempt to Use Spyware to Infiltrate Unknown Suspect's Computer
• Feds want to expand wiretap law from ISPs to Google, Facebook—"FBI wants Web companies to make digital 'back doors,' or pay fines."
• DoJ Secretly Granted Immunity to Companies that Participated in Monitoring Program

Privacy and Surveillance

• Privacy is 'off the table' in a 'post-9/11 world,' says New York City police chief—"Authorities using terror in the wake of the Boston bombings to justify expansion of public surveillance."
• Judge Allows Evidence Gathered From FBI’s Spoofed Cell Tower
• Lady Liberty's Watching You—"I wanted to write about face-recognition software considered for use at the statue. Here's what happened."
• DOJ: We don't need warrants for e-mail, Facebook chats
• Secretive Spy Court Approved Nearly 2,000 Surveillance Requests in 2012
• Prepare for Oz privacy reforms now: Attorney-general, privacy commissioner
• Dutch police may get right to hack in cyber crime fight
• When Did Google Become the Internet Police?

Your Data

• Here's a Good Reason to Encrypt Your Data—"There's many reasons to password-protect -- or encrypt -- one's digital data. Foremost among them is to protect it during a security breach. Another top reason to encrypt is to keep the government out of your hard drive."
• Who Has Your Back? 2013: Which companies help protect your data from the government?—Surprisingly, "EFF ranks Apple worse than Facebook when it comes to protecting your data."
• Apple can decrypt iPhones for cops; Google can remotely "reset password" for Android devices
• Senate committee passes ECPA bill to increase email privacy, full floor vote next
• Florida court clamps down on cops searching through cellphones
• 'Deleted' Snapchat photos saved in phone data, can be examined as evidence
• Cyanide & Happiness: History

Tech tracking

• Who is tracking you across the Web? Even the ad industry doesn't know
• The Man Who Turned Off Cookies In Firefox Doesn't Care If It Hurts Advertisers
• Ex-Google ad engineer fights back against advertisers with anti-tracking software
• Web users, tracked by corporations, try to turn tables
• With UDID gone, the mobile-ad floodgates will open – straight to Apple iOS

Path

• Users complain Path sending spam messages to contacts, company says it's a feature not a bug
• Facebook Blocks Path's "Find Friends" Access Following Spam Controversy
• Path Social Networking App Settles FTC Charges it Deceived Consumers and Improperly Collected Personal Information from Users' Mobile Address Books

Google Glass

• Google Glass Picks Up Early Signal: Keep Out—"The wearable computer is prompting questions of whether it will distract drivers, upend relationships and strip people of what little privacy they still have in public." NYT
• Google Glass: Obnoxious and invasive at any price
• Google Glass privacy: It's actually the world's worst surveillance device
• The Real Privacy Implications of Google Glass
• Google Glass censors swearing, no way to turn filter off
• Facial Recognition Comes to Google Glass

Prenda's Porn Trolling

• Judge smash: Prenda's porn-trolling days are over—"Prenda lawyers take the Fifth. And a federal judge will assume the worst."
• Things go from bad to worse for the beleaguered Prenda Law
• Judge Asks IRS, Feds to Investigate Copyright-Trolling Attorneys—Still time for a litle more popcorn.

CISPA, CFAA, Surveillance and Privacy, Tech Tracking; Your Rights Online; Copyfight; Public Access; Patents; Hacking

CISPA

• Congress Planning To Debate CISPA Behind Closed Doors; No Public Scrutiny Allowed
• CISPA Explainer #1: What Information Can Be Shared?
• CISPA Explainer #2: With Whom Can Information Be Shared?
• CISPA Explainer #3: What Can Be Done With Information After It Is Shared?
• CISPA Explainer #4: Is There Anything Besides Information-Sharing Hidden in CISPA?

CFAA

• Aaron Swartz's Prosecutors Were Threatened and Hacked, DOJ Says
• Anonymous rallies Twitter protest against CFAA—"The hacker collective ask online networks to voice anger at overreaching cybercrimes law under review in Congress." Salon
• Are You A Teenager Who Reads News Online? According to the Justice Department, You May Be a Criminal

Surveillance and Privacy

• Google Takes on Rare Fight Against National Security Letters—"Google has filed a rare petition to challenge an ultra-secret national security letter issued by the government to obtain private data about one or more of its users."
• DEA Accused Of Leaking Misleading Info Falsely Implying That It Can't Read Apple iMessages—Was it to instill a false sense of security?
• Surveillance Court's Opinions Must Remain Secret, Feds Say
• The ATF Wants 'Massive' Online Database to Find Out Who Your Friends Are
• FBI loses appeal in StingRay surveillance case
• EFF to Texas High Court: A Cell Phone Isn't a Pair of Pants
• Bill would allow bosses to seek Facebook passwords

Tech Tracking

• Meet Gabriel Weinberg, the man taking on Google and Bing—If you're after privacy, give DuckDuckGo a go.
• New California "Right to Know" Act Would Let Consumers Find Out Who Has Their Personal Data -- And Get a Copy of It
• Why Facebook Home bothers me: It destroys any notion of privacy
• Google Privacy Policy Under Scrutiny From Regulators
• Casey Anthony: Did she do a Google search for 'fool-proof suffocation'?
• Firefox prepares additional 'Do Not Track' options
• BlackBerry 10 tells your friends when you're watching porn

Your Rights Online

• French homeland intelligence threatens a volunteer sysop to delete a Wikipedia Article
• Time Warner Cable Systematically Looking To Shut Down Parodist's Accounts
• Opinion: Twitter, hate speech, and the costs of keeping quiet
• America's "second best" law school sues online critic, and loses on appeal—"Cooley Law School goes after former student who skewered it on his blog."
• How a banner ad for H&R Block appeared on apple.com—without Apple's OK—Someone, somewhere is injecting banner ads into webpages on the sly."

Copyfight

• Aereo wins major court battle against TV networks
• HBO: Online piracy is a compliment and doesn’t effect sales
• Reselling Digital Goods Is Copyright Infringement, Judge Rules
• Movie Studios Want Google to Take Down Their Own Takedown Request
• Copyright As Censorship: University Threatens Own Faculty With Copyright Infringement For Campus Survey
• YouTube Won't Put Your Video Back Up, Even If It's Fair Use, If It Contains Content From Universal Music
• File-Sharers Will Not Be Held Liable For Piracy, Russia Says

Public Access

• Licence restrictions: A fool's errand—"Objections to the Creative Commons attribution licence are straw men raised by parties who want open access to be as closed as possible, warns John Wilbanks."
• The National Digital Public Library Is Launched!—"The Digital Public Library of America, to be launched on April 18, is a project to make the holdings of America's research libraries, archives, and museums available to all Americans—and eventually to everyone in the world—online and free of charge."
• Why You Couldn't Download DC Laws… Until Now—"The DC government claims copyright over the code and has outsourced the actual codification work to different private entities."
• Wikileaks opens Public Library of US Diplomacy (PLUSD), searchable repository of 1970s US diplomatic and intel documents
• British Library's online harvest will paint 'rich and vivid picture' of life in the UK—"The project to capture and store the entire UK web domain will be an invaluable resource for researchers in the future, says Lucie Burgess from the British Library."

Patents

• The Patent Protection Racket
• Lodsys lawsuit targets Disney over 'Where's My Water?' iPhone app
• Meet the nice-guy lawyers who want $1,000 per worker for using scanners—"It's not some kind of bull. We're not trying to harass people."
• Why Rackspace Is Suing The Most Notorious Patent Troll In America
• Mathematics Cannot Be Patented. Case Dismissed.
• Developer Freedom At Stake As Oracle Clings To Java API Copyrights In Google Fight
• Google Makes Patent Pledge, Promises It Won't Sue Open-Source Developers

Hacking

• Security reporter tells Ars about hacked 911 call that sent SWAT team to his house
• United States v. Auernheimer, and Why I Am Representing Auernheimer Pro Bono on Appeal Before the Third Circuit
• Krebs: Who Wrote the Flashback OS X Worm?

Drug Money Laundering, Wall Street, Banks, Reckoning; Inequality; Corporations; Politicking; Racism

Drug Money Laundering

• Elizabeth Warren Takes On Eric Holder's 'Too Big To Jail' Statement
• Warren: Drug possession warrants jail time but laundering cartel money doesn't?
• Cayman Islands Monetary Authority Revokes HSBC Mexico Banking License

Wall Street

• The Real Reason Wall Street Always Escapes Criminal Charges? The Justice Dept Fears The Aftermath
• Elizabeth Warren Blasts Senate Republicans For Holding Up CFPB Nomination—She says "it is time for Washington to stop protecting a handful the big guys."
• Greenberg doubles claims in AIG bailout lawsuit vs U.S. to $55 billion
• Mistakenly Released Documents Reveal Goldman Sachs Screwed IPO Clients
• The Executive Coloring Book

Banks

• JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is accused of hiding information about big losses
• Big Banks get subsidy of $780bn, equal to entire "stimulus" bill, every year
• Jaw-Dropping Crimes of the Big Banks
• Wells Fargo Victim Dies in Court Typo—"The bank billed Larry Delassus $13,361 owed by his neighbor, then foreclosed."
• Blast from the Past: Two Financial Crises Compared: The Savings and Loan Debacle and the Mortgage Mess NYT

Reckoning

• Big Banks Have a Big Problem—"The largest banks in the United States face a serious political problem. There has been an outbreak of clear thinking among officials and politicians who increasingly agree that too-big-to-fail is not a good arrangement for the financial sector." NYT
• Cohen's SAC to pay $616 million in SEC insider trade settlement
• Meet the Most Indebted Man in the World—"Former Société Générale rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel owes the bank $6.3 billion. Here's what his case tells us about financial reform."

Inequality

• Meet Scott Prouty, the 47 Percent Video Source
• Distributional Consequences of Ryan Tax Plan—"The poorest 20 percent of American households would receive, on average, a $60 tax cut. The middle 20 percent would get $1,961. The top 1 percent would get $227,420."
• Paul Ryan pretends he didn't lose—And probably "thinks we're too dumb to see what he's up to."
• The Contest Over the Real Economic Problem
• UK: The gap between rich and poor will continue to grow until we give up on QE

Corporations

• Supreme Court strikes down Montana law banning Citizens United
• Constitutional Amendment Sponsors Renew Push to Undo Citizens United
• Montana Bill Would Give Corporations The Right To Vote

Politicking

• What do you do when one party is this dishonest?
• Rubio at CPAC: Liberals are "freeloaders"—"In a rousing CPAC speech, Rubio mocks climate change, says life begins at conception, and declares he's not a bigot." Salon
• One America News Network, New Conservative Cable Channel, Sets Launch

Racism

• Emory president apologizes for citing slavery compromise as example of pragmatism
• Tea Party Event On Racial Tolerance Devolves Into Complete Chaos At CPAC
• The South still lies about the Civil War—"In an ongoing revisionist history effort, Southern schools and churches still pretend the war wasn't about slavery." Salon

Swartz; EFF's Rebooting Computer Crime Law; Your RIghts Online; Tech Tracking, Surveillance, Privacy; Porn Ban

Swartz

• Requiem for a Dream—Aaron Swartz was brilliant and beloved. But the people who knew him best saw a darker side."
• Life Inside the Aaron Swartz Investigation—"A reluctant witness's account of a Federal prosecution."
• Aaron Swartz's partner accuses US of delaying investigation into prosecution—"Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman says she's been told an out-of-date manifesto was a key element in the case against him."
• Aaron Swartz's Partner Accuses DOJ Of Lying, Seizing Evidence Without A Warrant & Withholding Exculpatory Evidence
• Attorney General: Aaron Swartz Case Was a 'Good Use of Prosecutorial Discretion'
• Inquiry widens into Swartz prosecution
• Aaron Swartz Was Right

EFF's Rebooting Computer Crime Law

• Part 1: No Prison Time For Violating Terms of Service
• Part 2: Protect Tinkerers, Security Researchers, Innovators, and Privacy Seekers
• Part 3: The Punishment Should Fit the Crime

Your Rights Online

• White House warns of dangers posed by WikiLeaks, LulzSec, other 'hacktivists'
• Google Exception in Obama's Cyber Order Questioned as Unwise Gap
• You Can't Delete Your Way Out Of Social Media
  
• Librarians Rally Behind Blogger Sued by Publisher Over Critical Comments
• iCloud e-mail "censorship" thanks to overzealous spam filtering

Tech Tracking

• Google Says the FBI Is Secretly Spying on Some of Its Customers
• Microsoft backs privacy bill in effort to keep Google Apps out of the classroom
• Anonymous leaks alleged data on BofA execs, surveillance—"Hacktivist group says 14GB of data includes evidence that Bank of America engaged in an effort to 'spy and collect information on private citizens.'"
• Firefox 22 will block third-party cookies—"Cookies from sites you visit? Good. Everything else? Blocked by default."
• VPN Services That Take Your Anonymity Seriously, 2013 Edition

Surveillance

• Supreme Court kills activists' challenge to FISA spying law
• Chinese Skype Surveillance Trigger Words Uncovered by Researcher
• Canada: OK for police to search cellphone if no password, says court

Privacy

• Court curbs Homeland Security's laptop border searches
• Reding fights US to protect Europeans' data rights
• Majority of doctors opposed to full access to your own electronic records—"A survey of 3,700 doctors in eight countries revealed that only 31 percent believe that patients should have full access to their own medical records via electronic means."
• U of I shared student info even if no threat posed
  
• Officials admit selling information to UK newspapers

Porn Ban

• Iceland's porn ban 'conflicts with the idea of a free society', say critics
• EU to vote on porn ban, calls for Internet enforcement
• European Parliament blocks citizen e-mails protesting EU 'porn ban'

Bradley Manning, War on Terror, Torture, Benghazi, Fake News, Gaza, Israel, Drones

Bradley Manning

• Manning plea statement: Americans had a right to know 'true cost of war'
• If Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks are guilty, then so is the New York Times
• Bradley Manning Nobel Peace Prize Nomination 2013

War on Terror

• DOJ Gives Blackwater a Whitewash On Felony Charges
• 'Homeland Security': The Trillion-Dollar Concept That No One Can Define
• 'It's the four suicide bombers driving around ready to take on England'—"Their ambition was to outdo the 7/7 attacks, but at times they seemed more akin to characters in the film Four Lions."

Torture

• Italy ex-spy chief sentenced to 10 years over CIA 'extraordinary rendition'
• Tortures, Lies and Hollywood NYT
• Zero Dark Thirty, the CIA and film critics have a very bad evening—"The stigma attached to the pro-torture CIA propaganda vehicle, beloved by film critics, results in Oscar humiliation."

Benghazi

• Jon Stewart destroys Sen. John McCain over hypocritical Benghazi outrage—"No, McCain, you don't get to pull the four dead Americans shit. You lost that privilege over a period of, oh, I don't know, the Iraq war — which I believe, American casaulty-wise, was literally Benghazi times 1000. Far from holding up all Senate business until that fiasco was resolved, I think you had a slightly different perspective."
• Graham: I Won't Vote On CIA Director Until I Get Answers On Benghazi
• House spending bill adds $2B for embassy security post-Benghazi

Fake News

• Senate Minority Leader Fooled by Report in Military Version of The Onion
• 'Friends of Hamas': My role in the birth of a rumor—"A Daily News reporter explains how he inadvertently created the myth that Chuck Hagel spoke to a non-existent group."
• False Beliefs Persist, Even After Instant Online Corrections

Gaza

• Egypt floods Gaza tunnels to cut Palestinian lifeline
• Image of two Gaza children killed in Israeli strike wins World Press Photo prize
• A textbook debate riddled with tired cliches

Israel

• Israel's 'Prisoner X' was Australian Mossad agent, documentary claims
• Gag orders silence Israeli press
• Unaired SNL Skit Mocks Masturbatory Love for Israel at Chuck Hagel's Senate Hearing—Pointing out issues with Israel is not anti-semitism.

Drones

• Obama DOJ again refuses to tell a court whether CIA drone program even exists
• Senator Lists the Death Toll From U.S. Drones at 4,700 People
• DHS Considers Eavesdropping Tech for Spy Drones on Border—"The government has argued that the border in fact extends 100 miles inland and is exempt from the search and seizure protections of the Fourth Amendment...."
• Don't Trust the Government on Drones
• The Drone War Doctrine We Still Know Nothing About
• Napolitano: Drone policy 'much narrower' than law permits
• Why Drones Should Make You Afraid. Very Afraid.
• Jon Stewart Eviscerates Obama For Withholding Drone Memos: What Happened To 'Promise Of Transparency'?
• British terror suspects quietly stripped of citizenship… then killed by drones
• Amazon.com: Maisto Fresh Metal Tailwinds 1:97 Scale Die Cast United States Military Aircraft

Swartz; Phone Unlocking; Copyfight; Patent Trolls; News; Blackberry; You've Got a Dell; Tech; Syntax Error; Malware and Hacking

Swartz

• Feds Used Aaron Swartz's Political Manifesto Against Him—Prosecuted for advocating "civil disobedience" over the "privatization of knowledge."
• White House: Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research
• Blast from the past: "How we stopped SOPA"

Phone Unlocking

• Petition to make unlocking phones legal again passes 100,000 signatures; White House now required to respond
• Cellphone unlocking is the first step toward post-SOPA copyright reform
• Law Change Makes It Harder To Unlock Cellphones

Copyfight

• NASCAR blocks eyewitness video of Daytona crash, but YouTube reverses the takedown—"YouTube implies that no copyright was infringed in the video. As a result, it says NASCAR 'does not have the right' to take the video down."
• Germans can't see meteorite YouTube videos due to copyright dispute—"German rights group wants $0.005 per stream and Google says nein."
• Indie booksellers sue Amazon and big publishers over DRM (but have no idea what "DRM" and "open source" mean)
• Blog posts pulled using DMCA restored (mostly) as fake "originals" vanish
• Six Strikes Officially Begins On Monday

Patent Trolls

• Obama: Patent Trolls Hijack Others' Ideas to 'Extort Some Money'
• EFF to defend against troll with "podcasting patent"—granted in 2012
• Google files first patent suit against British Telecom
• Android developer fights evil patent troll
• Facebook sued over 'like' button
• Cicso's attempts to sue patent trolls over 'shakedowns' a bust
• How Patent Trolls Kill Innovation
• Major change to U.S. patent law goes into effect on March 16, 2013
• EFF wants software patents to include working code
• The Case Against Patents
• Trevor Baylis: I've wound up broke despite inventions
• Dead Dutch Programmer Sues Facebook For Patent Violations—"A deceased Dutch social media visionary may have invented Facebook. Oh yeah, and the firm bringing the legal heat also represented the Wright Brothers."

News

• Magazine sales suffer from the hard cell
• Hearst president David Carey: Apple taught people 'how to buy digital content'
• Thirst app creates your 'personal newspaper'
• Washington Post Layoffs: Dozens Fired In Restructuring—Mobile division hit hard.
• xkcd: App

Blackberry

• RIM changes name to Blackberry with release of Blackberry 10
• BlackBerry 10 smartphones won't be sold in Japan
• BlackBerry Rebrand May Be Too Little, Too Late

You've Got A Dell

• Why Michael Dell Really Had to Take Dell Private
• Dell's downward spiral: 10 years of failed consumer devices
• Dell through the years

Tech

• Hacking Hollywood: How Digital Insurgents Are Disrupting Film
• ISP speed test: Real speeds vs. advertised speeds, FCC February update
• Hold The Phone, I Want My Dick Tracy Watch
• Flickr Is Back, Letting Us Go Home Again
• The Panasonic Toughpad Press Conference—"Like most journalists everywhere, I am hungover."
• Microsoft's 'Child Of The 90s' Internet Explorer Ad Is A Nostalgic Trip Back In Time
• Found! The first Emoticons

Syntax Error

• Problems With Precision and Judgment, but Not Integrity, in Tesla Test—Well, Broder's got no credibility left in this regard.
• Facebook error that hijacks thousands of websites isn't just an 'inconvenience'
• GoDaddy deletes my domains and charges me to restore them
• Online Class on How To Teach Online Classes Goes Laughably Awry
• Printer ink cartridges: why you're paying more but getting a lot less—"Big printer companies are accused of 'squeezing ever-increasing amounts of cash out of the poor consumer.'"

Malware and Hacking

• Facebook using scareware tactics to push people to download the McAffee anti-virus
• Facebook hacked in 'sophisticated attack'
• Apple, Macs hit by hackers who targeted Facebook
• Official Google Blog: An update on our war against account hijackers
• Police hold 11 over ransomware scam 'affecting thousands'

Aaron Swartz, Ortiz; Cybersecurity, Hacks and Scams; Corporate Misconduct, Apple; Facebook, Social Media

Aaron Swartz

• Congressmen want answers from Aaron Swartz prosecutors
• Why Did the Justice System Target Aaron Swartz?
• Aaron Swartz, Financial Fraud and the Justice Department—"The Justice Department's determination to commit substantial time and resources to prosecuting Swartz presents a striking contrast to its see-no-evil attitude when it comes to financial fraud by the Wall Street banks."
• How the Legal System Failed Aaron Swartz—and Us
• Congresswoman to Propose Computer Crimes Amendment in Wake of Activst's Death
• What the Aaron Swartz Tragedy Means to His Generation
• Aaron Swartz protesters take over government websites, install Asteroids

Ortiz

• Carmen Ortiz and Stephen Heymann: accountability for prosecutorial abuse—"Imposing real consequences on these federal prosecutors in the Aaron Swartz case is vital for both justice and reform."
• Prosecutor in Aaron Swartz 'hacking' case comes under fire—"''He was killed by the government,' Swartz's father, Robert, said at his son's funeral in Highland Park, Ill."
• Aaron Swartz's embattled prosecuting attorney releases first statement, says conduct was 'appropriate'
• Still More About The Death Of Aaron Swartz—"United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz, who still has political ambitions beyond her current station, and her husband, and some unfortunate media enablers, have finally organized a response to the torrent of criticism she and her office have received in regard to her breaking-a-butterfly-on-a-wheel prosecution of activist Aaron Swartz, whom Ortiz's office tried to throw in prison for the crime of stealing stuff the actual owners eventually said that they didn't care that much about."
• Aaron Swartz prosecutor 'drove another hacker to suicide in 2008 after he named him in a cyber crime case'
• Swartz didn't face prison until feds took over case, report says—"The late Internet activist was facing a stern warning from local prosecutors. But then the U.S. Attorney's office, run by Carmen Ortiz, chose to make an example of Aaron Swartz, a new report says."
• White House Must Respond to Petition to Remove U.S. Attorney in Aaron Swartz Case

Cybersecurity

• Web inventor says governments stifling net freedom—"The inventor of the World Wide Web warned Friday that government control is limiting the possibilities of the Internet, as dozens of countries and businesses signed a cybersecurity deal at the Davos forum."
• Homeland Security's Napolitano invokes 9/11 to push for CISPA 2.0
• Pentagon to increase cyber security force fivefold - report
• Greenwald: Pentagon's new massive expansion of 'cyber-security' unit is about everything except defense—"Cyber-threats are the new pretext to justify expansion of power and profit for the public-private National Security State."
• The Hunt for Red October: Virus Hunters Try to Catch Diplomatic Time Bomb—It's been going on for five years.

Hacks and Scams

• 31 Years Ago Today, the Computer Virus Was Born
• Cisco Annual Security Report: Threats Step Out of the Shadows
• Researchers Find Serious Security Flaws in Universal Plug and Play—The recommendation is to turn it off.
• Oracle: 'We Have to Fix Java'—And Java's vulnerabilities aren't the only problem with it.
• Zero-day exploits: Should the hacker gray market be regulated?
• Apple Now Locking Screenshots for Submitted Apps, Shutting Down Popular Scam Tactic
• Internet criminals: so reliably dumb at hiding their tracks

Corporate Misconduct

• How Newegg crushed the "shopping cart" patent and saved online retail—Patent trolling should be illegal.
• CNET forbidden from reviewing Aereo following CBS-Dish controversy—Throwing their journalistic integrity out the window.
• Sim City beta EULA includes company-wide ban for unreported bugs
• Amazon deletes negative feedback, but only for its own shipping service
• How PRWeb Helps Distribute Crap Into Google & News Sites

Apple

• In Asia's trend-setting cities, iPhone fatigue sets in
• Has Apple finally abandoned its sad claim to the 'Multi-Touch' trademark?
• Judge: Samsung didn't 'willfully' infringe Apple patents—"A California judge made a post-trial ruling today in the Apple vs. Samsung case that will most likely prevent the iPhone-maker from collecting millions more in damages."

Facebook

• Social oldies mean Facebook loses its cool
• Facebook: Yeah, We're Getting Tough With Developers—"Under fire for cutting off popular new apps, Facebook has announced new rules for developers using its social network."
• Addicted To Facebook? It May Be Time To Rethink Your Priorities, Consider A "Facebook Diet"

Social Media

• Instagram Asking For Your Government Issued Photo IDs Now, Too
• Watch out Facebook, Google+ is now the world's second largest social network and it's growing fast!
• The last three months on Foursquare

Copyfight, Dead Trees, e-Books, Amazon.com, Bad Apple, Patents, Megaupload

Copyfight

• ISP 'Six Strikes' to Begin This Weekend - Throttling, Filters, 'Education' Warnings, and Fun!
• Gallo: If You’re Campaigning Against ACTA, You're A Terrorist
• Fair use gets stronger—thanks, "What What (In the Butt)"

Dead Trees

• After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses NYT
• Click here or we’ll burn this book--"Is threatening to torch books the only way we can get people to care about them anymore?" Salon
• Ebook Sales Surpass Hardcover for First Time in U.S.

e-Books

• Author Tells DOJ The Authors Guild Doesn't Speak For Him & Amazon Is The Only Company Encouraging Competition
• No, Virginia, e-books don't publish themselves: Ken Auletta addresses one of the popular myths of the Internet
• Nook version of War and Peace turns the word "kindled" into "Nookd"--As commenter Alyeska pointed out, it's "[j]ust more nook for the fire that companies aren't putting much effort into their e-books."
• Tor Books Announces DRM-Free E-book Store
• Kindle astroturf for sale

Amazon.com

• The Amazon Effect
• How Amazon is changing the rules for books and movies
• Barnes & Noble: Ebooks Should Be Expensive So Amazon Won't Kill Us And Make Ebooks Expensive
• Amazon’s markup of digital delivery to indie authors is ~129,000%
• The Self Publishing Revolution on Amazon--A compilation of articles discussing Amazon's censorship actions.

Bad Apple

• Judge: Ample evidence that Apple "knowingly joined" e-book conspiracy--And will bring the case to trial next year. Apple is also being investigated in Montreal for price-fixing.
• Apple to pay $2 million for misleading Aussies over 4G iPad
• App Privacy Case Against Apple Allowed to Proceed
• The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable--Unfortunately, it's not yet feasible to allow removeable components and keep the thinness in a laptop. This opens the market to a company that can figure this out and still make a profit, like how to charge less than $199 to replace its batteries.
• Apple Store In Georgia Refuses To Sell iPad, iPhone To Farsi-Speaking Customer, Citing Company Policy--Iran is on the US embargo list, supposedly anyway, but this wasn't a one-off incident. An Apple Store in Atlanta did the same to an Iranian-American.

Patents

• iPad App That Helps a Little Girl Speak Pulled from App Store
• Judge dismisses Apple vs. Motorola in its entirety, companies unable to prove damages
• Apple sues HTC in Virginia court for abuse of 4G/LTE standard-essential patents

Megaupload

• Kim DotCom warrant 'invalid,' New Zealand judge rules
• Judge Considers Hearing on Improper Megaupload Seizure--"A U.S. judge may hold an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the U.S. Department of Justice acted improperly in blocking Megaupload customers' access to their files when seizing the file-sharing service's domain name and servers in January."
• Megaupload founder still faces NZ extradition battle