[Quote:]

Newly released emails secured through a Freedom of Information request show that a UK Home Office official colluded with and offered guidance to Phorm, providers of illegal spyware that British Telecom infected its users’ PCs with. BT deployed a secret test of Phorm that involved infecting its customers’ PCs with the spyware, which then rewrote every web-page they viewed with BT’s advertising, while gathering information on their browsing habits and delivering it to Phorm and its marketing partners. Subsequently, BT switched from running Phorm as client-side spyware and instead implemented it as a server-side spyware app that captured every web-page visited by affected BT subscribers and inserted BT ads and captured users’ clickstreams for BT’s marketing partners. The EU has initiated legal action against Phorm for violating European privacy and consumer-protection laws.

Now it transpires that a UK Home Office official provided guidance to Phorm, offering advice on how to skirt British law with a minimum of fuss, tenderly asking if the Phorm executives and partners could be “comforted” by Home Office assurances.

And the proper government response is, of course, denial. Does anybody believe this?

[Quote:]

The Home Office denied the accusation of collusion with Phorm.

A spokesman said: “Any suggestion of ‘collusion’ is totally unfounded. We have repeatedly said since these documents were released a year ago that the Government has not endorsed Phorm or its technology.

[Quote:]

“Yes, this is an actual logo designed in 1973 for the Catholic Church’s Archdiocesan Youth Commission. It even won an award from the Art Directors Club of Los Angeles.”

The suspense is killing me….

[Quote:]

The operator of a technology discussion forum has sued Apple Inc., claiming that the company used U.S. copyright law to curb legitimate discussion of its iTunes software.

The lawsuit, filed Monday, could test the limits of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). It centers around an open-source effort to help iPods and iPhones work with software other than Apple’s iTunes. Last November, Apple’s lawyers demanded that the Bluwiki.com Web site remove a project called iPodhash, saying that it violated the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions.

[..]

The EFF has previously argued that reverse-engineering in order to build new products is permitted under the DMCA. However, this case is a little different, according to Fred von Lohmann, an attorney with the digital civil liberties organization. “This is the first time I’ve seen a company suggest that simply talking about reverse-engineering violates the DMCA,” he said. “All of the previous cases have been cases that involved actual successful reverse-engineered tools.”

[Quote:]

Police have withdrawn charges against a man who was found driving a fake pope-mobile around Sydney.

The car was built as a protest against the Pope’s visit and World Youth Day in July last year.

Police charged the driver, Ian Bryce, for distracting motorists and ordered him to take the car off the road.

[..]

Mr Bryce says he had a barrister and solicitor from the NSW Council of Civil Liberties, which he believes persuaded the police to drop the charges.

[..]

Mr Bryce says the charge that was dropped was one related to his vehicle being an annoyance to other motorists.

He says he was trying to aggitate attention about World Youth Day and, when asked if he was an annoyance, he replied, “I hope so, I think the Pope is a bigger annoyance.”

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This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert’s political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert’s political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion.

[Quote:]

A priest has shocked parishioners by welcoming them to church wearing a swastika armband.

Fascist Father Angelo Idi, 51 – who once saw off a charity box thief with a truncheon at his church in Vigevano, Italy – confessed: “I am proud of my right wing beliefs. But people shouldn’t care about my politics, they should care about how good a priest I am.”

That would be a “not very good at all”, I guess..

[Quote:]

War crimes will be prosecuted, war criminals will be punished and it will be no defense to say, “I was just following orders.”

-G.W. Bush

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As secret missions go, this one was a flop.

On Monday morning, one of the 747s used to ferry around the U.S. president was dispatched to the Statue of Liberty, escorted by a fighter jet. Assignment: Get some fresh glamour shots of the plane.

The Air Force said the flight needed to remain confidential. So while New York police knew about it, as did at least one person in the mayor’s office, regular New Yorkers remained in the dark.

As a result, to onlookers Monday all across downtown Manhattan — where the World Trade Center once stood — the photo shoot looked like a terrorist attack. People watched in horror as a massive aircraft, trailed closely by an F-16 fighter jet, banked and roared low near the city, in a frightening echo of the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Fearing the worst, thousands of people streamed out of the skyscrapers and into the streets. Some buildings ordered evacuations. “Oh God, it was mayhem in here, just mayhem,” says Rubin Shimon, manager of Styling Haircutters, a barbershop near Ground Zero. Many people took shelter in the shop to call loved ones on their cellphones.

There used to be a time when New Yorkers simply extended their middle fingers and yelled, “Hey, I’m walkin’ here!”

The terrorists have won.