Attorney Allonn Levy writes 27 September 2006:

Microsoft has reportedly sued numerous Doe defendants for producing and distributing FairUse4WM a software program that counters Microsoft Digital Rights Management System used to safeguard content downloaded through Microsoft s Windows Media programs. This follows at least one software patch that was released to counter FairUse4WM. The patch worked briefly, but now an updated FairUse4WM is available that technologically counters Microsoft’s patch.

To its credit, Microsoft seems to understand one thing that some of its predecessors have struggled with: An anti-DRM tool that is being freely circulated on the Internet is not going to be stopped through a simple lawsuit. At the end of the day, Microsoft will need to continually monitor and update its DRM technology understanding that each successive patch will eventually be countered by a newly updated tool.

The real problem that Microsoft faces is that the recording and movie industries are demanding strict DRM protections before agreeing to release their movies and songs on the Internet. Hollywood demands these technological protections so that they can maintain an artificially high price for reproductions of their content.

The problem that consumers face is that DRM technologies are simply computer programs. They cannot differentiate between lawful copying and unlawful copying. So, all DRM technologies, to some extent, will hamper the fair use rights of consumers. Until that issue is addressed, anti-DRM technologies will always have widespread appeal.

Put another way, few people support piracy, but many support lawful fair use rights. Producers of Anti-DRM technologies say that their tools are intended to support fair use rights they argue that any misuse by content pirates is just an unintended consequence. The argument is not far from that of DRM producers: That the DRM products are intended to secure the legitimate rights of copyrightholders they argue that the effective removal of consumers fair use rights is simply an unintended consequence.

Until these unintended consequences are addressed, DRM producers and their stealth counterparts will perpetually face off in a modern-day game of cat and mouse.

Today saw the Nokia announce its new N Series mobile phone. The N91 Music Edition, now fitted with a huge 8GB hard drive, is aiming to secure Nokia’s position in the mobile media market. The phone is said to sync with Windows Media Player and, thusly, supports the WMA music format. Surprisingly, the new N91 also supports a variety of other formats, including, MP3, AAC, AAC+ and eAAC+. Nokia has said that it will be bundling an updated version of its PC Suite data synchronisation software with Music Manager rip and transfer code.

The lower spec N70 and N73 are said to incorporate 1GB and 2GB of memory respectively, whilst Nokia haven’t announced whether this will be as removable SD media or built in memory, its more than the current versions offer.

The N70 and N73 go on sale this November, with the 8GB N91 shipping by the end of the year. Potential buyers will be looking at a price of £234-£369, dependant on model.

Online retailer, amazon.co.uk, are offering the current standard 4GB N91 from £235

If you thought that was a mouthful, imagine stuffing a terabyte of data into your mouth every second. That’s exactly what Intel announced during this Tuesdays IDF Conference.

With the release of Intel’s Quad Core processors next month, there is much excitement in the hardware industry. But just as you think things have got as good as they can for a few months, Intel have announced the construction of a processor with no little than 80 Cores!

At the, bi-annual, conference this Tuesday, CEO Paul Otellini, offered up a silicon wafer with the prototype chips to amazed onlookers. During his speech, Otellini stated that the 80 Core chips are capable of exchanging data at an astonishing terabyte per second. Each core clocking in at 3.1Ghz. With next months Quad Core processors looking to put Intel ahead of the competition for now, they have announced that the new 80 Core processors are on target for release within the next five years.

More Information : Intel - Intel Core Microarchitecture

Recently I uploaded some footage to video sharing giant YouTube.com. Once uploaded, I found that, due to the video to flash conversion, the audio / visual sync was out.

When uploaded, YouTube takes the submitted video and transcodes it - it decodes the original data into raw format, and then re-encodes it into Flash Video Format (FLV). During this process, the loss in A/V sync becomes apparent. A symptom that has been experienced many times by YouTube users. Whilst there are ideas around to fix the fault from the flash side, they don’t prove useful for fixing the bug when submitting media to YouTube.

My original video was ripped from a DVD VOB file (a recording using a Sony DVD Recorder) and exported via Adobe Premiere as an MPEG-1, with a single video and single audio track. As mentioned, once uploaded, the A/V was found to be out of sync.

To correct the problem I took the MPEG-1 format video, and ran it through a number of conversions, with which I had no luck. My salvation came soon with Windows Movie Maker. Whilst not a favourite application of mine, I imported the MPEG-1 video into the Microsoft application, checked the A/V sync was intact, then exported the video as a Windows Media Video (WMV) file. After checking the A/V sync again, I uploaded the new video format to YouTube.

The process took a little longer then the previous attempts, but after about 20 minutes the video was ready for streaming. Loading the URL, I watched the video through and found that the A/V was once again in perfect synchronisation.

I’ve posted this in case anyone else should find any sync problems with Video - FLV conversions, in the hope that, given a try, might fix them.

On August 29, 2006 a patent request was made by Roger Detzler for an invention that instantaneously destroys the data contained on magnetic data storage media upon the occurrence of certain events.

Unauthorized access to data stored on magnetic media is prevented by destruction of the media with a reactant chemical. This approach may be initiated as a response to tampering or intentionally by using any one of several triggering interfaces rendering the data unrecoverable even to aggressive recovery procedures.

For the full document click here.

UK energy company, Moixa Energy, have just released a new type of rechargeable battery that requires nothing more than a standard USB port to refill.

The NiMH batteries are currently available in AA size and can be purchased via the Moxia website for a mere £12.99 a pair. Details on performance are sketchy, but the new battery certainly looks to be full of potential. The battery itself appears to be a normal AA size. Re-charging is achieved by flippy the postive terminal off to reveal a USB connector, and inserting it into a bog standard USB port.

Each battery runs at the standard 1.2v (1300mah) and a dead to 90%+ charge will take you approximately 5 hours.

The good people over at Hackivismo have conjured up a new browser that allows users to surf the internet completely anonymously.

The open source program, named Torpark, utilises The Onion Router(TOR) network to constantly change where the user appears to be coming from. Along with an encryption method, Torpark provides end users with the means to scour the internet free of nosey ISPs.

“We live in a time where acquisition technologies are cherry picking and collating every aspect of our online lives - so it seems that it’s a browser attempting to redress that supposed imbalance.”
- said Oxblood Ruffin, founder of Hackivismo

Torpark is availabe as a free download from torpark.nfshost.com, and can be run from removable media, such as USB sticks, potentially turning any computer into an anonymous terminal.

An event to honor the inventions, inventors, historical milestones and the future of Public-Key Cryptography.

WHERE
Computer History Museum
Hahn Auditorium
1401 North Shoreline Boulevard
Mountain View, CA 94043

PROGRAM
6:00 to 7:00 PM Networking reception
7:00 to 7:30 PM Welcome and PKC Overview
7:30 to 8:30 PM Panel presentation discussing the past, present,and future of PKC moderated by Steven Levy.
8:30 to 9:00 PM Audience question and answer session

Panel Includes:

• Moderator: Steven Levy, Author of Crypto and Senior Editor, Newsweek Magazine
• Introduction: John Markoff, Author and Senior Writer, New York Times
• Mr. Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation
• Dr. Whitfield Diffie, Chief Security Officer, Sun Microsystems
• Dr. Martin Hellman, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
• Mr. Jim Bidzos, Former CEO, RSA and Founder, Verisign
• Mr. Brian Snow, Former Technical Director for the Information Assurance Directorate, NSA, Retired
• Dr. Dan Boneh, Professor Computer Science, Stanford University

For more information check out: ComputerHistory.org.

Terrorism and organised crime should not be used as excuses for passing laws which undermine people’s privacy and data protection rights, according to the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). Existing laws do not need changed, he said.

From The Register article, Peter Hustinx of EDPS: “It is a misconception that protection of privacy and personal data holds back the fight against terrorism and organised crime,” said Hustinx. “Current legislation does allow, for instance, law enforcement to check suspicious phone numbers found in a computer.”

Read More : The Register - Terrorism no excuse for privacy breaches, says EU regulator

On the 13th of September the United States Government Accountability Office submitted a document to the House Committee stating that the Department of Homeland Security had not been fullfilling their 13 key responsiblities including the National Infrastructure
Protection Plan and its responsibility to develop an integrated public/private plan for Internet recovery.

The GAO have outlined around 25 key recommedations to the DHS over the last few years, these recommendations tend to incorporate the following 5 points…

• Conduct threat and vulnerability assessments
• Develop a strategic analysis and warning capability for identifying potential cyber attacks
• Protect infrastructure control systems
• Enhance public/private information sharing
• Facilitate recovery planning,including recovery of the Internet in case of a major disruption.

Not only have the DHS not been fullfulling these 5 points but also a whole load of cyber security officials have abandoned their jobs with the DHS.

Either the DHS is run by a bunch of incompetant fools or the government intentionally keeps the DHS in a state of limbo so to ease the passage of futher laws which breach our privacy and liberties. Take your pick.

You can find the full report here.