Digg bringing back the bury, changing its look

by Josh Lowensohn

In a note introducing himself to users, Digg's latest CEO Matt Williams, who came on at the end of August, today penned an apology to the Digg community, saying that changes are on the way that should remedy some of the biggest complaints that have cropped up since the company completely retooled the site in late August.

"As many of you know, the launch of Digg v4 didn't go smoothly, and we're deeply sorry that we disappointed our Digg community in the process," Williams said. "Thank you for your patience and your extremely candid feedback--we hear you loud and clear."

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20019384-248.html?tag=topTechContentWrap;editorPicks

New Apple music subscription rumor pegs price at $10/month

By Jacqui Cheng 

Just because Apple didn't announce a music streaming service at its September media event, it doesn't mean the rumors are dead yet. The New York Post—which has a checkered history with rumors—claims that Apple is still in talks with music labels to roll out a monthly subscription service, citing unnamed music industry sources.

The number being tossed around is $10 to $15 per month for the streaming subscription, though a number of details are still left in the air, such as how much music users would be able to access in a month, and for how long. If Apple followed the same model as other subscription services out there, the answers to those questions would be "unlimited" and "until the subscription is canceled." There's no guarantee it will play out that way, though, as Apple likes to do its own thing.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/10/new-apple-music-subscription-rumor-pegs-price-at-10month.ars

US Chamber of Commerce: “Censoring Foreign P2P Sites Not Censorship”

by Jared Moya

  Steve Tepp, Senior Director of Internet Counterfeiting and Piracy for the U.S. Chamber’s Global Intellectual Property Center, argues that recently proposed Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act does not amount to ” foreign political censorship” even though the bill would force ISPs to “prevent the importation into the United States of goods and services offered by an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities,” and it’s unlikely accused website operators from around the globe would be able to appear in a US courtroom to dispute the charges.

The US Chamber of Commerce is trying to counter critics claims that recently proposed legislation would not be tantamount to “foreign political censorship.”

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/90904/us-chamber-of-commerce-censorin-foreign-p2p-sites-not-censorship/

FBI drive for encryption backdoors is déjà vu for security experts

By Ryan Singel, wired.com 

The FBI now wants to require all encrypted communications systems to have backdoors for surveillance, according to a New York Times report, and to the nation's top crypto experts it sounds like a battle they've fought before.

Back in the 1990s, in what's remembered as the crypto wars, the FBI and NSA argued that national security would be endangered if they did not have a way to spy on encrypted e-mails, IMs and phone calls. After a long protracted battle, the security community prevailed after mustering detailed technical studies and research that concluded that national security was actually strengthened by wide use of encryption to secure computers and sensitive business and government communications.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/fbi-drive-for-encryption-backdoors-is-deja-vu-for-security-experts.ars

Twitter worms spread quickly thanks to blatant security flaw

By Peter Bright | Last updated about 9 hours ago

Anyone checking twitter.com this morning was probably greeted with a mess of JavaScript, mouseover effects, and spam retweets, after a flaw in the site's handling of hyperlinks allowed attackers to inject scripts into Twitter's pages. The mere act of visiting the site with scripting enabled was sufficient to cause exploitation. Payloads ranged from the harmless—tweets with a black background—to the more malicious—redirection to porn sites.

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/09/twitter-worms-spread-quickly-thanks-to-blatant-security-flaw.ars

P2P defendants demand legal fees from Far Cry filmmaker

By Nate Anderson | Last updated 21 minutes ago

Lawyers for the US Copyright Group have sued more than 14,000 people in 2010, all of them in the federal courts of Washington, DC. Individuals have moved to quash the subpoenas that would expose their names, but these have been almost wholly rejected, in large part because they were written (sometimes by hand) by individual defendants making inappropriate arguments. But now, some defendants are fighting back in a much savvier way, with actual lawyers. And they want their pound of flesh from rightsholders.

The Far Cry case targets more than 4,000 "Doe" defendants alleged to have shared that particular Uwe Boll film using BitTorrent, and it's in that case that a major "Omnibus Motion" has now been filed. A group of defendants have hired several DC lawyers to file a joint motion demanding that the subpoenas in the case be quashed, that the defendants be dismissed from the litigation, and that Boll's production company cover their legal expenses (something probably not anticipated by Boll's firm, Achte/Neunte Boll Kino Beteilingungs GmbH, when it signed on with US Copyright Group to score some cash).

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/turnabout-p2p-defendants-demand-legal-fees-from-film-company.ars

Saddle up: world's smallest airline seat unveiled

Would you fly shoe horned in too a seat so small that your cat would struggle to fit, well some of the worlds airlines consider their customers to be no more than mere cattle as they prepare to increase plane seating to the detriment of passenger comfort and safety. Greed pure and simple as this article from the Melbourne Age details.

By Craig Platt

If you find economy class seats too cramped for comfort, we have bad news: they may be about to get even smaller.

Italian airline seat and interiors manufacturer Aviointeriors has designed a saddle-like seat with just 23 inches of seat pitch (the space between seats) – significantly smaller than the average 32 inches in economy class. Even the highest-density airline seating normally offers 28 inches of seat pitch

http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/saddle-up-worlds-smallest-airline-seat-unveiled-20100914-15ad6.html?rand=1284447337070

UK teen banned from US after sending threatening Obama email

The USA may talk about free speech and as long as you don’t call the president a prick and you are located in the US it probably still does, However if your any where else in the world watch out as this article demonstrates and oh don’t send offensive emails it can cost you your right to travel.

Not allowed into US for life

By Marc Chacksfield

Dear Mr Obama *hic*

A 17-year-old teenager from Bedfordshire has found himself with a lifetime ban from the US, after it was found that he sent a threatening email to President Barack Obama.

Luke Angel from Silsoe, sent the email while drunk and called the president abusive names after watching a documentary on the 9/11 attacks.

After the email was sent, the FBI intercepted the message and contacted police in the UK about the incident.

Read more: http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/uk-teen-banned-from-us-after-sending-threatening-obama-email-716306#ixzz0zXf73HF6

Claimed HDCP master key leak could be fatal to DRM scheme

By Peter Bright

High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), the copy protection system used to prevent the making of perfect digital copies of audio and video data sent over DisplayPort, HDMI, and DVI interfaces, may have been blown out of the water if a post made to pastebin.com yesterday is what it claims to be. The post purports to contain the HDCP "master key," a 40×40 matrix of 56-bit numbers, which is used by the HDCP licensing company, Digital Content Protection (DCP), to generate the private keys used in all HDCP devices.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/claimed-hdcp-master-key-leak-could-be-fatal-to-drm-scheme.ars

Brisbane atheist burns Koran and Bible

Courtney Trenwith

A Brisbane atheist is bracing himself for a criminal investigation after posting an online video showing him burning the Koran and Bible.

Lawyer Alex Stewart appears to smoke marijuana using pages from the religious texts, before rating which "burns better".

The homemade video was posted on video sharing website YouTube on Friday.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-atheist-burns-koran-and-bible-20100913-157ao.html