Thursday, July 21, 2011

Pirate chasing firm moves abroad

ACS:Law, the controversial law firm that tried to get money from people by accusing them of illegal file-sharing, appears to be back in business.

Ralli Solicitors, which represented some of those accused by ACS:Law during a UK court case, has told the BBC it is now advising a client based in Greece.

"They have received e-mails purporting to be from the law firm," said Ralli solicitor Michael Forrester.

The letters have been sent to overseas addresses.

"The IP addresses quoted do not appear conventional, making reference to country codes outside of the UK," said Mr Forrester.

"Despite this, the letters of claim refer to UK law under the Copyrights, Design and Patents Act," he added.

Compensation

One of the letters seen by the BBC read: "We act as solicitors for DigiProtect Ltd, the owners of copyright of various films and music rights.

"Our client has retained forensic computer analysts to search for and identify internet addresses from which their copyright works are being made available on so-called peer-to-peer programs."

It requests a compensation payment of �1665 or else court action will be taken.

The letter asks that cheques are made payable to ACS:Law and supplies a central London address, which is in an adjacent building to where the law firm used to trade from.

ACS:Law has enjoyed something of a chequered history, and has been accused of taking advantage of tough new laws on piracy in order to make money.

Sole proprietor Andrew Crossley teamed up with companies DigiProtect and MediaCAT, which purported to represent copyright owners.

Together they sent letters to around 10,000 people in the UK, alleging that the IP addresses of their computers had been linked to illegal file sharing.

Individuals were given the option of paying �500 or facing court action.

Many of those contacted said they had never engaged in such activity. Consumer watchdog Which accused the firm of speculative invoicing and claimed that none of the evidence would stand up in court.

Bankrupt

Mr Crossley eventually brought 26 cases to court, but soon after hearings began he tried to have them dismissed.

Judge Colin Birss QC refused to allow proceedings to stop and accused Mr Crossley of trying to "to avoid judicial scrutiny".

He, in turn, left the court mid-way through the case and had his barrister read out a statement in which he said that he no longer wanted to pursue net pirates because he had received death threats.

The case was dismissed and Mr Crossley faced a large bill for wasted costs. The accused have since settled out of court.

Soon after, ACS:Law was wound up and declared bankrupt.

Mr Crossley is currently the subject of an investigation by the Solicitors' Regulation Authority.

"It is unclear how the firm ACS:Law is continuing to operate, despite purporting to close earlier this year and the sole principal recently being made bankrupt. We have advised clients that we may be dealing with an imposter," said Mr Forrester.

ACS:Law was not contactable at the time of writing.



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Traffic light plan for web music

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A music body wants online search results to steer fans to legal download sites.

The Performing Rights Society (PRS) For Music wants search engines to show which sites offer content illegally.

Links to sites that offer legal downloads would get green tags, while links to illegal download sites would be flagged in red.

The PRS says the new system is needed as some people don't know when they're illegally downloading.

"There is evidence out there that if you help people go in the right direction many of them will do," said Robert Ashcroft, boss of PRS For Music.

'Right thing'

"We're concerned about piracy, there are many things we can do about it, but we should start by telling people what is licensed and what is not licensed.

"We're not trying to stop people, this isn't a legal action, this isn't site blocking.

Screenshot of proposed plan PRS are proposing search results are flagged with 'traffic lights'

"This is an information to consumers and I think that many people want to do the right thing.

"I say watch this space - I would like to see something happen before the end of the year," he added.

The technology has already been developed and could be deployed at short notice.

But the proposal has had a mixed reaction from artists and music fans.

Wretch 32, the rapper who scored a number one single with his track Unorthodox earlier this year, said he understood why PRS are doing this.

But he thinks the plan is flawed.

"I think 98% [of people] are aware of where they're getting it from.

"Everyone has got their way of obtaining music - I think people who download [illegally]... they just download.

"They know exactly where they're going and that's just what they do."

Adam Gibblin is 23 and from London.

Adam Gibblin Adam Gibblin, from Northwood, says he thinks it's a good idea

He usually listens to his music on iTunes and YouTube but he thinks it's a good idea.

"I think people are quite naive - when you search for something you think it's come up on the internet it must be okay. You just use it.

"It'd make you think about it and consider what you're doing."

PRS for Music will now need to convince the most popular search engines to adopt the idea.

Google, which is by far the biggest search engine in the UK, said it had "no comment" on the plans.

But PRS for Music has had success in negotiating with the internet giant before.

Earlier this year after negotiation between the two parties, Google changed their Autocomplete search feature.

The most recent figures from the UK's recording music body British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said 1.2 billion individual tracks were illegally downloaded last year.



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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Apple goes download only for Lion

Apple has launched the latest version of its Mac operating system - OS X Lion - through its online app store.

It is the first time that the company has not issued new system software on disk.

Users without an internet connection, or whose link is too slow, will be given the option to download the file in an Apple store later this month.

For customers who want a physical copy, Apple is offering a memory stick version for an extra �25.

Editor-in-chief of Mac Format Magazine Graham Barlow said that many users viewed their OS disks as a "security blanket" in case something goes wrong with their machine.

"I for one will be looking at ways I can make an actual physical disk out of the download, if that is legally supported by Apple," he said.

Mr Barlow also warned that the 4Gb file may lead some users to exceed their download limit if their home broadband has a low cap.

iPad-esque

Apple is touting OS X Lion as a major redesign which takes many of its cues from the iOS operating system that runs on iPhones and iPads.

It adds additional multitouch gestures, full screen applications and an iPad-style launch screen.

Like the touchscreen devices, Lion features an auto resume feature where programmes are restored to the state they were left the last time they were used.

"For people that are using lots of creative apps all day with lots of documents open in them, that is going to make a big difference," said Adam Banks, editor-in-chief at Mac User magazine.

Mr Banks said that Lion contained a number of design themes that would help extend the appeal of Apple's laptops and desktops in the face of competition from its own handheld products.

"Some people predicted that by this point there wouldn't even be a Mac any more because Apple is getting all these millions and millions of users on its iOS devices, why do they need the relatively small number of people using Macs.

"Is Apple still about that creative, professional market? I think there are features here that make clear it is," said Mr Banks.



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&#39;Hackers&#39; held in US and Europe

Police in the US, Britain and the Netherlands have detained more than 20 people as part of an investigation into major cyber attacks.

Most of the arrests were in the US, where the FBI said 16 people had been held for alleged computer hacking.

Fourteen of them were suspected of an online attack on PayPal, claimed by hacking group Anonymous, said the FBI.

In Britain, a teenager was arrested in London, while four other suspects were detained by police in the Netherlands.

Wikileaks 'revenge'

The US indictment against 14 of those arrested on suspicion of December's attack on PayPal said it had been "retribution" for the site closing a donation account for the whistleblowing website Wikileaks.

The PayPal attack suspects were arrested in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington DC, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio, US officials said in a statement.

The other two US suspects were held under separate indictments but similar charges in Florida and New Jersey.

In the UK, Scotland Yard told the BBC that it had arrested a 16-year-old boy in south London on suspicion of breaching the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

"The Metropolitan Police is liaising with the FBI and indeed with our Dutch colleagues," a Scotland Yard spokesman said.

As well as attacking PayPal, Anonymous also temporarily shut down MasterCard and Visa last December, after they froze Wikileaks accounts.

Anonymous targeted Amazon, too, after it removed Wikileaks content from one of its servers, but that attack was not successful.

The hacking group has used a technique known as a distributed denial of service (DDoS) in an attempt to take the sites offline.

DDoS attacks bombard a website with data until it cannot respond, rendering it inaccessible.

Anonymous rose to fame with a series of attacks on websites linked to the Church of Scientology and Gene Simmons, bassist with the rock group Kiss.



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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Apple sales leap to record profit

Apple's latest profits soared past expectations as sales of its best-known iPhone and iPad products more than doubled.

The company's net income was $7.31bn (�4.6bn) in the third quarter, 125% higher than for the same period a year ago.

Apple sold more than 20 million iPhones in the quarter and 9.25 million iPads.

Mac computers sold 3.95 million, although iPod sales continued to slip, down by 20% to 7.54 million units.

The results assuaged concerns about the supply of the iPad 2, partly because of parts supply interruptions caused by Japan's tsunami and earthquake in March.

Lion

Apple chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, said: "We are extremely pleased with our performance.

"Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $25bn."

Mr Oppenheimer also said that Lion, the new version of the Mac OS X operating system, will go on sale Wednesday.

The Lion software mimics some of the features of the iPhone and iPad interface.

The company has a reputation for being conservative with its forecasts.

Shares jumped 5.3% in extended after-hours trading to their highest for a year.

Battles

The price had suffered after its founder and Chief Executive, Steve Jobs, took a long-term break last January for medical reasons.

The future stewardship of the company remains an open question. On Tuesday the Wall Street Journal was reporting that several Apple board members had discussed a successor to Mr Jobs, and had talked about the matter with at least one head of a high-profile tech company.

Another uncertainty for the company is a web of patent battles with rivals.

It claims Taiwanese rival HTC has infringed its patents, with HTC claiming a number of infringements against Apple.

Apple is also in dispute over the rights to technology with South Korea's Samsung and US competitor Motorola.



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Giant space scope reaches orbit

RadioAstron, a Russian radio telescope intended to be the biggest radio telescope in space, has started touring the Earth for the first time.

Once operational, the 3.8 tonne "space eye" could help focus in on many remote places of the Universe.

The device will travel in an elliptical orbit that at its furthest reaches almost as far as the Moon.

Carried by a Zenith-3M rocket, it blasted off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome on Monday.

The telescope is part of a Russian space observatory called Spectrum-R.

Despite RadioAstron's antenna being only 10m across - far smaller than the antennas of many other radio telescopes on Earth - its signals are meant to be combined with those on the ground, effectively making it the biggest radio telescope in space.

"Start Quote

On the fifth day [after the launch] the telescope's mirror will open, and in the three following months we will prepare the observatory for practical work,"

End Quote Viktor Khartov Lavochkin R&D
No rivals

Shortly after the observatory reached its designated orbit, it successfully opened its solar panels, said Viktor Khartov, head of Lavochkin R&D that built the device.

He said that it would take the craft eight days and seven hours to circle the Earth.

"On the fifth day [after the launch] the telescope's mirror will open, and in the three following months we will prepare the observatory for practical work," he added.

Although RadioAstron is expected to deliver more precise data than the US space veteran Hubble, the Russian Federal space agency Roscosmos said the apparatus was not meant to replace it.

"Hubble is an optical telescope and RadioAstron is radio," Aleksei Kuznetsov, Roscosmos' spokesperson, told BBC News. "I would say that the two will complement each other."

Once RadioAstron's 27 carbon fibre petals open up to form a dish, the telescope will start to collect data, then combine it with observations captured by radio telescopes on Earth.

This technique of combining images from a network of telescopes to form a single image is called interferometry.

The result is expected to have an incredibly high resolution - as if taken by a telescope with a dish as wide as the maximum distance between the antennas - from the Earth to the Moon.

One of the telescope's primary goals is to zoom in to the neighbouring galaxy M-87, some 59 million light years from Earth.

It is there that the scientists believe the closest black hole to our solar system is located, and RadioAstron's mission is to confirm this hypothesis.

Researchers are also after some detailed data about pulsars, interstellar plasma and neutron stars in the Milky Way.

Soviet legacy

The Soviets first started building the telescope back in the 1980s, but the project was shelved when the USSR collapsed in 1991.

"In the 1990s, financial hurdles prevented us from completing the observatory, but in recent years Russia has come back to it," said Mr Kuznetsov.

"The launch of Spectrum-R is one of the main aspects of Roscosmos' space programme."

According to Roscosmos, the observatory is expected to remain in operation for at least five years.

Later in 2011, Russia also plans to go forward with its Phobos-Grunt mission, which involves sending a craft to Phobos, one of Mars' moons, to explore its surface.



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Telex to aid repressed web users

Data smuggling software could help citizens in countries operating strict net filters visit any site they want.

Developed by US computer scientists the software, called Telex, hides data from banned websites inside traffic from sites deemed safe.

The software draws on well-known encryption techniques to conceal data making it hard to decipher.

So far, Telex is only a prototype but in tests it has been able to defeat Chinese web filters.

Outside in

Telex was developed to get around the problem that stops other anti-censorship technologies being more effective, said Dr Alex Halderman, one of the four-strong team that has worked on Telex since early 2010.

Many existing anti-censorship systems involve connecting to a server or network outside the country in which a user lives.

This approach relies on spreading information about these servers and networks widely enough that citizens hear about them but not so much that censors can find out and block them.

Telex turns this approach on its head, said Dr Halderman.

"Instead of having some server outside the network that's participating we are doing it in the core of the network," he said.

Telex exploits the fact that few net-censoring nations block all access and most are happy to let citizens visit a select number of sites regarded as safe.

"Start Quote

We are all seeing how powerful information can be at helping citizens assert themselves and their human rights"

End Quote Dr Alex Halderman

When a user wants to visit a banned site they initially point their web browser at a safe site. As they connect, Telex software installed on their PC puts a tag or marker on the datastream being sent to that safe destination.

Net routers outside the country recognise that the datastream has been marked and re-direct a request to a banned site. Data from censored webpages is piped back to the user in a datastream disguised to resemble that from safe sites.

Rights fight

The datastream is subtly altered using a well-known encryption technique called public key cryptography. This allows anyone with a public key to lock content but only allows the owner of the corresponding private key to unlock it.

This cryptographic technique helps secure Telex against interference, said Dr Halderman.

"You cannot see this marker unless you have a corresponding private key," he said.

The Telex-spotting routers know the key so they can unlock the content and discover the website a user is really interested in seeing. If Telex is deployed, ISPs would be encouraged to add marker-spotting software to the routers in their networks.

Although Telex was "not ready" for real users, Dr Halderman said the development team had been using it for their own web browsing for months. In addition, he said, the team had carried out some small scale tests against sophisticated filtering systems.

"We've also tried it from within China bouncing it off computers there," he said. "So far, we've had no problems with the censorship there."

Telex allowed the team to view banned content such as high definition YouTube videos and sites deemed "subversive" by the Chinese authorities.

One stumbling block for Telex was getting the basic software to users without it being compromised by net censors who could add spyware or key loggers to it, said Dr Halderman.

There were other issues to be resolved as development continues.

"The most difficult part is making sure the connections the user is making to an uncensored website that we use to disguise the censored content are convincing enough," he said.

"But," he said "that's the parameter we would adjust as the censor becomes more sophisticated."

The developers are planning to give a more formal launch to Telex at the upcoming Usenix security conference. That conference will host an annual workshop for the growing numbers of people developing anti-censorship code, he said.

"We are all seeing how powerful information can be at helping citizens assert themselves and their human rights," he said. "It's a deeply interesting technical problem and a goal that's worthy of any technologist's attention."



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Hackers tamper with Sun website

A group of computer hackers has tampered with the website of News International-owned The Sun's website.

At first, readers were redirected to a hoax story which said Rupert Murdoch had been found dead in his garden.

A group of hackers called Lulz Security, which has previously targeted companies including Sony, claimed responsibility via Twitter.

Visitors to the Sun website were then redirected to the group's Twitter page, before News International took it down.

News International said it was "aware" of what was happening but made no further comment.

Readers trying to access thesun.co.uk were taken to new-times.co.uk and a story entitled "Media mogul's body discovered".

It suggested that Mr Murdoch had been found after he had "ingested a large quantity of palladium".

After that site stopped working, The Sun's address was re-directing to LulzSec's Twitter account, which claimed to be displaying "hacked internal Sun staff data" in one entry.

In another, the group said: "Arrest us. We dare you. We are the unstoppable hacking generation...."

Disbanding

BBC technology reporter Iain MacKenzie said the attack on the Sun website was in line with LulzSec's "hacktivist" ethos, with the combination of a mischief-making news story, and a target that is seen as being involved in corporate wrongdoing.

He said: "Clearly this is not the most significant development in the scandal currently engulfing News International. But the turning of the hacking tables is, at least, curiously ironic sideshow."

Last month the hacking group announced it was disbanding.

Lulz Security made its announcement through its Twitter account, giving no reason for its decision.

A statement published on a file-sharing website said that its "planned 50-day cruise has expired".

The group leapt to prominence by carrying out attacks on companies such as Sony and Nintendo.

Broadcasters Fox and PBS, the CIA, and the United States Senate have also been cyber-attacked by the group.

As a parting shot, the group released a selection of documents apparently including confidential material taken from the Arizona police department and US telecoms giant AT&T.



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IBM profits up on computer sales

International Business Machines (IBM) reported second quarter net income up 8% on the same quarter last year.

The rise was fuelled by strong growth in sales of both its computers and software.

IBM, the world's biggest maker of mainframe computers, made $3.66bn (�2.27bn), compared with $3.39 billion a year earlier.

IBM raised its prediction for full-year earnings for the second quarter running.

Revenue at the 100-year-old company was 12% higher at $26.7bn.

Although the figures beat expectations, IBM's shares fell slightly on the results.

Kim Caughey Forrest, senior analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group, said: "I'm a little confused as to why the shares are down because the margins were very strong and the revenue, especially in the second quarter when you expect softer revenue, makes it look like they did well in the quarter."



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Monday, July 18, 2011

BBC to survey UK mobile coverage

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Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones explains the ambitious BBC project which aims to map mobile coverage across the UK.

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The BBC is conducting a major survey into the state of mobile phone coverage in the UK.

Over the course of the next month, the project will attempt to chart the availability of 3G and 2G services up and down the country.

Mobile operators offer their own coverage maps but no independent survey has yet been carried out.

Measurements will be made using an app developed by network analysis firm Epitiro.

The software can be downloaded by anyone with an Android handset and will record street level coverage across Britain.

At the end of the test period, the BBC aims to display the results on a clickable map.

"Coverage is the number one issue for consumers," said Gavin Johns, chief executive of Epitiro.

According to Ofcom, there are over 12 million smartphones being used around the UK and a good service is crucial for the web browsing that more and more people demand from their handsets.

"Our coverage app will provide the information consumers need to see if 3G services are available and from which mobile operator. As mobile broadband is important to many of us, we hope people volunteer and make the project a success," said Mr Johns.

Most people have an anecdote about poor mobile coverage and it depends on a variety of factors including whether the user is indoors or out and what time of day they are using the network.

When a phone connects to high-speed 3G broadband services it will typically display a 3G or H symbol by the signal bars. The UK's average mobile download speed is 1.5Mbit/s. In areas of good 3G coverage, that figure rises to 2.1Mbit/s.

Alternative technologies include EDGE, which has a maximum speed of 0.3Mbit/s. Phones typically display an E symbol when using the system.

When consumers get a circle or 'o' symbol it is unlikely that broadband services will work satisfactorily, regardless of the number of signal strength bars.

Coverage is an issue that regulator Ofcom describes as a priority. It estimates that in terms of land mass, 91% of the UK has 2G coverage and 76% has 3G coverage.

It is conducting its own tests on UK mobile notspots - areas of low or no service. The research is due to be published later this year.

The regulator stated: "More information on coverage is required, and this should be in a standardised format enabling comparison between operator services such that users can make an informed decision about coverage in their area.

"Whilst postcode-based checkers go some way to this, their accuracy is limited to the point at which they have limited value."

O2's chief technology officer Nigel Purdy agrees that the current coverage checkers which rely on predictive modelling are not entirely accurate.

His company, along with other operators, conducts its own, more in-depth tests - including drive-bys - to see what coverage is like in a particular area and to plan where to place new base stations.

The challenge is "to get that data in a format for easy access for our customers," he said.

Operator 3 is calling for change in the way consumers are informed about coverage.

"There is no common standard for measuring coverage and some operators tend to grossly exaggerate. We like to manage people's expectations," said Phil Sheppard, 3's director of network strategy.

One of the biggest challenges for 3, which owns high frequency 3G spectrum that is not great at penetrating buildings, is ensuring coverage when people use their phones indoors.

The problem will be solved, to an extent by gaining access to lower frequency spectrum that will be freed up by the digital switch-over.

Ian Fogg, an independent telecoms analyst, said that all operators struggle with indoor coverage.

"It is much easier to predict outdoor coverage. Indoors it will depend on the structure of the building. Thick concrete walls will block signals much more than a wooden structure," said Mr Fogg.

As homes become ever more energy-efficient, so the problem is exacerbated as highly insulated houses tend to block mobile signals.

Spectrum that will allow 4G services is not due to be released until at least 2012.

Meanwhile 3 is busy adding more base stations. It now has 12,653 sites around the UK. It site-shares with T-Mobile and will gain more locations following the T-Mobile and Orange merger.

But mobile masts bring their own challenges, according to Mr Purdy.

"Everyone craves good coverage but when we rock up to build a site near them it can cause problems," he said.

In urban centres, where more masts are needed at roof-top level, the challenge is finding a suitable rental price, he added.

The BBC survey will measure speeds, but this is becoming increasingly crucial as people use their handsets for downloading and web browsing.

Ofcom, in conjunction with Epitiro, recently carried out a national test.

In those speed tests, O2 and Vodafone came out on top, averaging between 2 and 3Mbit/s, compared to Orange which managed between 1Mbit/s and 1.5Mbit/s.

Broadband comparison website Top10.com released its own 3G speed app this year and it found that Milton Keynes had the slowest 3G speeds at around 1.73Mbit/s (megabits per second) compared to 3.6Mbit/s in Peterborough.

Mr Fogg thinks that, if enough people download the UK mobile map app, it could play a valuable role in helping improve coverage.

"One of the key solutions is identifying the problem. X network's may only be terrible in certain locations and this survey will provide better information for operators," he said.

Have you had issues with coverage? How do you manage to get a signal? Where are your local "notspots"? You can get in touch using the form below:



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