Mininova Forced to Remove Pirated Torrents

Although Mininova is the most popular BitTorrent service on the web, this doesn't stop the copyright organization to go after the website and force it to remove copyright

infringement torrent files. For those of you who don't know, Mininova is way more popular than The Pirate Bay, being placed on position number 52 in the Alexa traffic ranking. According to TorrentFreak, BREIN, a Dutch anti-piracy group, said it would file a lawsuit against the BitTorrent service in order to force it to remove torrent files linking to pirated content.

However, the Mininova administrators are prepared to go to the judge, pointing to the internal guidelines which promptly explain that downloading from the website is not illegal as the content published on it is not protected by copyright. Moreover, in case some anti-piracy groups suspect Mininova of copyright infringement, the service has always been opened to talks and infringing content could be removed without the need for a lawsuit.

for more information : http://news.softpedia.com/news/Mininova-Forced-to-Remove-Pirated-Torrents-85991.shtml

This is an ethical act of law to remove the pirated torrents in order to save the copy right work. Copyright gives its owner exclusive rights to control, use and exploit the copyrighted work or parts of it for personal gain, profit or otherwise. Copyright protects the specific expression rather than the underlying idea under Malaysia’s Copyright Act 1987

tutorial section

We are asked to find an article as a group and discuss it in the class. Therefore, me and my groupmates agreed on selecting this article on Standardize Bumi status.

KUCHING: The definition of bumiputra status in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak should be standardised, said Sarawak Teachers’ Union (STU) president William Ghani Bina.

He said under the Federal Constitution, a child born in the peninsula would be accorded the status as long as one of the parents was a bumiputra.

In Sabah, a child is considered a bumiputra if his or her father is one.

However, for Sarawak, the Federal Constitution states that for a child to be a bumiputra, both parents must be bumiputra.

“How can we have three different definition of bumiputra status if we want to promote the 1Malaysia concept?

“We want this to be rectified, and to get Sabah and Sarawak to follow the same definition as being used in the peninsula,” Ghani said yesterday.

Urging the Federal Government to standardise the definition, he said the basis should be race and not religion.

Ghani was asked to comment on the plight of several Sarawakian students who had been denied places in university matriculation programmes because they were of mixed parentage and, therefore, did not enjoy bumiputra status.

Although this is a sensitive issue, but on my opinion, the government should standardize the bumiputra status because sabah and sarawak are also parts of Malaysia and they have the rights to be one of the bumiputra status as easily as the peninsular Malaysia obtain their's status.

P2P SOFTWARE CAUSES SECURITY BREACH

Personal information on a few thousand ABM Amro Mortgage Group (unit of Citigroup) customers has been leaked out to anybody in the world through a peer-to-peer (P2P) software. The names, Social Security numbers, and mortgage information of some 5,200 people which was stored on an employee laptop was shared via the LimeWire P2P software.

While it is unclear how many times the information has been downloaded over the P2P network, the fact that a computer containing a large amount of personal information was allowed to run P2P software is inexcusable. In all likelihood, Citigroup (or ABM Amro Mortgage) have some sort of restrictions (administrative policy or an IT set of software restrictions) which prohibit P2P sharing in general and in all likelihood the employee who used the laptop in question did so without authorization. Even so, the problem remains at Citi and their IT security personnel for failing to prevent or detect such software earlier. Placing the blame on the individual user is not an excuse as it is Citi’s reputation (and possibly checkbook after claims by these 5,200 affected people are filed) on the line.

According to Pike & Fischer, in testimony at a July House subcommittee hearing on P2P risks, LimeWire Chairman Mark Gorton said that a "small fraction" of users override safe default settings that come with the program, despite the company’s warnings and precautions. The company is working on a "new generation of user interfaces and tools designed with neophyte users in mind," making it "even easier for users to see which files they are sharing and to intuitively understand the controls available to them," he said.

Even if LimeWire is successful in preventing users from ‘inadvertently’ sharing their business documents folders, a company which takes its intellectual property and information security and privacy seriously should, in most cases, take proactive steps to weed out P2P software from its networks.

In malaysia, if a person were to make an unauthorize access is pleaded guilty under Section 3(1): A person shall be guilty of an offence if (a) he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer; (b) the access he intends to secure is unauthorized; and (c) he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the function that that is the case.

TRAVELERS’ LAPTOPS MAY BE DETAINED AT BORDER

Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

..

The policies cover "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover "all papers and other written documentation," including books, pamphlets and "written materials commonly referred to as ‘pocket trash’ or ‘pocket litter.’ "

We have known for some time that the border agents have the authority to search a laptop without probable cause and as part of the routine border inspection. But the detention, for an unspecified period of time, without any suspicion or probable cause may raise some eyebrows, especially from business travelers, who often carry not only a laptop full of confidential company information, but also flash drives (encrypted or otherwise), cell phones, Blackberries (often with sensitive information) or even sensitive company plans printed on paper.

Attorneys who travel internationally are also concerned by the new revelation - confidential and sensitive client information is often stored on mobile devices, and the detention, discovery and sharing of such information may have devastating consequences for a client’s case or the confidentiality of such information.

On my point of view, this could create chaos at the border of inspection because most of the data of personal belongings are very confidential and there are purpose of creating the key principles for data protection.

VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN STATE’S ANTI-SPAM LAW

"The Virginia Supreme Court today invalidated the state’s "anti-spam" law, designed to prevent the sending of masses of unwanted e-mail, by saying the law broadly violated the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, in particular anonymous speech."

The Virginia spam law makes it a misdemeanor to send unsolicited bulk e-mail by using false transmission information, such as a phony domain name or Internet protocol address. The domain name is the e-mail address. The Internet protocol is a series of numbers, separated by periods, assigned to every e-mail account. The crime becomes a felony if more than 10,000 recipients are mailed in a 24-hour period.

Justice Agee, writing the opinion, held that the only way to engage in an anonymous protected speech would be to falsify IP address or domain name information, and because such act is prohibited by the Virginia spam law, the law must be struck.

Based on the law in Malaysia had not specifically state about anti-spam yet, and it still in the midst of review by Government. However, Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia (MCMC) Act 1998 under Section 233(1) is applied against spammers. The person by means of any network facilities or network and service or applications service knowingly makes, creates or solicits; and initiates the transmission of, any comment, request, suggestion or other communication which is obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy abuse, threaten or harass another person.

cybercrime

CHICAGO, Nov 8 — A couple years ago a crippling cyber attack on one of Nanette Lepore’s haute couture boutiques served as a wakeup call for the fashion retailer to get serious about its online security.

In 2007, Nanette’s Las Vegas store had its router hacked by a cyber criminal and confidential point-of-sale information was accessed, potentially impacting hundreds of the company’s well-heeled patrons. The sensitive data was then transferred to Italy, where it was used to create phony credit cards that were subsequently distributed in Spain.

After a meeting with FBI and local crime officials, the Caesars Palace store was shut down during crucial Saturday shopping hours, but the company gained a valuable lesson about protecting its data.

“If they can gain access to your network routers, you’re pretty much an open book,” said Jose Cruz, Nanette Lepore’s director of information technology, who has since developed a Fort Knox-like security protocol for the confidential information flowing through the company’s 10 boutiques and its New York headquarters. “The first thing I did was lock it all down.”

Unfortunately Nanette Lepore is not alone among small and medium-sized businesses for its lack of planning for a cyber attack. A new study issued by the National Cyber Security Alliance and software company Symantec confirmed that small businesses are among the most vulnerable to Internet crime due to their unstructured approach to online security.

There are a few types of cyber crime such as offences against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data and systems, computer-related offences,content-related offences, offences related to infringements of copyright and related rights, and ancillary liability. In malaysia, its in under Computer Crimes Act (CCA) 1997 is in particular passed to provide for offences relating to the misuse of computers. Under Section 4(1) CCA says: A person shall be guilty of an offence under this section if he commits an offence referred to in section 3 (mere unauthorized access) with intent (a) to commit an offence involving fraud or dishonesty or which causes injury as defined in the Penal Code; or (b) to facilitate the commission of such an offence whether by himself or by any other person. .

Kaspersky Lab's Malaysian Web site hacked

Russian security company Kaspersky Lab's Web site for Malaysia was defaced on Saturday along with one of its online shopping sites, according to Zone-H, an organization that documents such attacks.

The attacker, nicknamed "m0sted," wrote that the site was compromised through SQL injection, wrote Roberto Preatoni on a Zone-H posting.

The attack involves inputting code into a form on a Web page in an attempt to get the back-end database to respond. It can enable the hacker to gain control over the Web site.

Kaspersky has since locked down the site, which is apparently running Microsoft's Internet Information Services Web server. The site is no longer open to the public and requires a user name and password for access.

Images of the hack posted on Zone-H show repeated subjects in the left-hand news section reading "hacked by m0sted and amen Kaspersky Hax0red No War." Other secondary pages were also compromised, Preatoni wrote...

The hacker hacks the website without authorize permission and enable the hacker to gain control over the Web site. It causes the site to no longer open to the public and requires a user name and password for access. Although the attacks appear to be just vandalism, but there could be more serious risks because it is possible for an attacker to upload malicious software labeled as Kaspersky's software. This creates problems to user who were tricked by downloading the software and affected by it which will harm the computer system causing it to be error. Furthermore, hackers which inserted malicious software such as “key loggers” will obtain the information u keyed in and will abuse and use for their own their advantage.

malaysian hacker

WASHINGTON, 9 SEPTEMBER 2008 - An Indian national and legal resident of Malaysia was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison on a conspiracy charge related to an international fraud scheme that hacked into online brokerage accounts in the U.S. in an attempt to manipulate stock prices, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Judge Laurie Smith Camp of the U.S. District Court of the District of Nebraska also sentenced Thirugnanam Ramanathan, age 35, to a fine of US$362,247 on a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud, computer fraud and aggravated identity theft. Ramanathan, a native of Chennai, India, and a legal resident of Malaysia, pled guilty to the charge on June 2.

Ramanathan was arrested in Hong Kong and extradited to the U.S. in May 2007.

Jaisankar Marimuthu, age 33, and Chockalingham Ramanathan, 34, also residents of Chennai, were indicted with Thirugnanam Ramanathan in January 2007 by a grand jury in Omaha, Nebraska, the DOJ said in a news release..

In this case, it is not only unethical but also a illegal act due to its fraud that hacked into online brokerage accounts in the U.S. They have hacked into the accounts of customers at brokerage firms and fraudulently inflated the prices of some stocks by making unauthorized purchases. Without customer’s knowledge, transactions have been made and this could cause a major lost to the business society and create chaos to the economy. By law, if although he is a Malaysian, but he has committed the crime in U.S. therefore, his punishments are based on the U.S law.

for more info http://www.mis-asia.com/news/articles/malaysia-resident-sentenced-in-brokerage-hacking-scheme

Legal framework for multimedia

This would be my first blog regarding my studies on law...

Vietnamese escapes the gallows in murder case

By K. KASTURI DEWI

kasturidewi@thestar.com.my

GEORGE TOWN: A Vietnamese, who is accused of joining three of his countrymen in causing the death of another Vietnamese over a debt, escaped the gallows when he was jailed six years by a High Court here for the offence.

Nguyen Van Thang, 33, pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of causing the death of Nguyen Ngoc Bau, in a room on the second floor of an unnumbered house in the compound of Hup Sheng Huat Sawmills Sdn Bhd in Jalan Kulim, Machang Bubok, Seberang Perai Tengah at 10.30pm on Aug 27, 2005.

this is part of the passage from the star newspaper, for further information you may check it out by clicking on this link .. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/12/nation/20091112155826&sec=nation

In this incident i've notice that the vietnamese, as mentioned by the lawyer, only happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. He had merely followed the others to the scene to get back the debt. It was the other two, who fled the scene, were the ones who had actually attacked the deceased. Therefore, on my opinion, its quite fair for the judge to be charged under Section 304 (b) of the Penal Code carries a maximum 10-year jail sentence. instead of Section 302 or Section 304 (a) of the Penal Code punishable with a 20-year-jail term.