Archive for the 'The Internet' Category

Tech Company Illegally Fires Cal Poly Student Workers for Unionizing

Published by
Gene Shinai
April 20, 2008 in Education, Government, Jobs, Labor, Newz, The Internet and sci-tech. 0 Comments

From LA IndyMedia by Cal Poly Community Activist Wednesday, Apr. 16, 2008 at 1:10 AM marginalized.student.workers@gmail.com

Pomona, Calif - After being subjected an unannounced pay cut from $10/hr to $8/hr, Cal Poly student marketing representatives Austin Garrido and Sarah Doolittle were fired by their employer, Uloop.com, for attempting to organize a worker’s union. The students were fired from their part-time jobs 20 minutes after posting a message in an online inter-company form announcing their intention to form a union. Doolittle and Garrido have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board. 

 

“My job with Uloop supported my education”, said Sarah Doolittle, a former Uloop student rep. “It’s disappointing that Austin and I were fired for choosing to exercise our legal right to form a union.”

 

According to the National Labor Relations Board’s website: “The NLRA [The National Labor Relations Act of 1935] forbids employers from interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees in the exercise of rights relating to organizing, forming, joining or assisting a labor organization for collective bargaining purposes, or engaging in protected concerted activities, or refraining from any such activity.”

 

Uloop.com is an online marketplace for college students currently operating in 50 campuses across America. The website hires two student representatives at each University who are in charge of promoting the site to fellow students.

“How can a company that caters to students, treat its own student workers so poorly?”, asked Austin Garrido, a former Uloop student rep. “You would expect better from a Silicon Valley high-tech company.” 

 

Article Continues @ Sourced Site.

  

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Administration Claimed Immunity to 4th Amendment

Published by
Gene Shinai
April 3, 2008 in Domestic Spying, Human Rights, Newz, Politics, The Executive Branch and The Internet. 0 Comments

From Slashdot.org:

 The EFF has uncovered a troubling footnote in a newly declassified Bush Administration memo, which asserts that ‘our Office recently [in 2001] concluded that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations.’ This could mean that the Administration believes the NSA’s warrantlesswiretapping and data mining programs are not governed by the Constitution, which would cast Administration claims that the programs did not violate the Fourth Amendment in a whole new light — after all, you can’t violate a law that doesn’t apply. The claimed immunity would also cover other DoD agencies, such as CIFA, which carry out offline surveillance of political groups within the United States.

 

Article Continues @ Sourced Site. 

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US Cyber Command Wants Greater “Attack” Mentality

Published by
Gene Shinai
April 3, 2008 in Military, Newz and The Internet. 0 Comments

From Slashdot.org:

 ”Lieutenant General Robert J Elder, Jr, a senior figure in US Air Force Cyber Command (AFCYBER), has told ZDNet UK thatcommunication issues are hampering the division’s co-ordination. ‘IT people set up traditional IT networks with the idea of making them secure to operate and defend,’ said Elder. ‘The traditional security approach is to put up barriers, like firewalls — it’s a defense thing — but everyone in an operations network is also part of the [attack] force. We’re trying to move away from clandestine operations. We’re looking for real physics — a bigger bang resulting in collateral damage.’”

 Article Continues @ Sourced Site. 

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FCC chairman rejects Skype petition

Published by
Gene Shinai
April 2, 2008 in Business/Finance, Newz, Policies and Procedures, Telecoms and The Internet. 0 Comments

Via Yahoo NewsLy PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology WriterTue Apr 1, 4:08 PM ET

 LAS VEGAS - The Federal Communications Commission should reject a petition byeBay Inc.’s Skype division to require wireless operators to allow any device on their networks, the agency’s chairman said Tuesday.To applause, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told an audience at the CTIA Wireless trade show that the industry’s recent push toward openness makes such a rule unnecessary.

 

Skype, which provides free voice calls and videoconferencing over Internet connections, asked the commission in February 2007 to apply the 1968 Carterfone decision to wireless networks. The decision opened AT&T’s wireline network to phones not made by the monopoly phone company.

Martin cited Verizon Wireless’ decision to open its network to any device or application by the end of this year, and the participation by T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel Corp. in Google Inc.’s Open Handset Alliance, which is developing new software for phones.

 

“In light of the industry’s embrace of this more open approach, I think it’s premature for the commission to place any other requirements on these networks,” Martin said. “Today I’m going to circulate to my fellow commissioners an order dismissing the petition by Skype that would apply Carterfone requirements to existing wireless networks.” 

 

EBay said it was disappointed in Martin’s statement.

 

Article Continues @ Sourced Site. 

 

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Comcast agrees not to interfere with file-sharing

Published by
elophan
March 27, 2008 in Newz and The Internet. 0 Comments

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) — Comcast Corp., an Internet service provider under investigation for hampering online file-sharing by its subscribers, announced Thursday an about-face in its stance and said it will treat all types of Internet traffic equally.

Since user reports of interference with file-sharing traffic were confirmed by an Associated Press investigation in October, Comcast has been vigorously defending its practices, most recently at a hearing of the Federal Communications Commission in February.

Consumer and “Net Neutrality” advocates have been equally vigorous in their attacks on the company, saying that by secretly blocking some connections between file-sharing computers, Comcast made itself a judge and gatekeeper for the Internet.

They also accused Comcast of stifling delivery of Internet video, an emerging competitor to the cable company’s core business.

Comcast has said that its practices were necessary to keep file-sharing traffic from overwhelming local cable lines, where neighbors share capacity with one another. On Thursday, Comcast said that by the end of the year, it will move to a system that manages capacity without favoring one type of traffic over another.

The company initially veiled its traffic-management system in secrecy, saying openness would allow users to circumvent it. But on Thursday, Werner said the company would “publish” the new technique and take into account feedback from the Internet community.

Comcast has been hampering the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol, which together with the eDonkey protocol, accounts for about a third of all Internet traffic, according to figures from Arbor Networks. The vast majority of that is illegal sharing of copyright-protected files, but file-sharing is also emerging as a low-cost way of distributing legal content — in particular, video.

Peer-to-peer file-sharing “has matured as an enabler for legal content distribution,” Werner said. “So we need to have an architecture that can support it with techniques that work over all networks.”

Comcast now says it is in talks with BitTorrent Inc., the company founded by the creator of the protocol, to come up with better ways to transport large files over the Internet. The companies said they want to work out these issues privately, without the need for government intervention.

FCC commissioners have indicated that they take the issue seriously, and commission Chairman Kevin Martin has voiced objections to secret traffic management. More…

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Sequoia Threatens Scientists Over NJ Voting Machine Test

Published by
Gene Shinai
March 18, 2008 in Election Fraud, Law and Justice, Newz, State/Local Government, The Internet and sci-tech. 0 Comments

From BradBlog:

Brad Friedman

Sequoia Voting Systems has sent a legal threat to Princeton University computer science professors Ed Felten and Andrew Appel warning them of legal action should they proceed with an analysis of New Jersey’s touch-screen voting machines as unanimously recommended last week by an association representing election clerks across the state.

In a terse email sent last Friday, obtained today by The BRAD BLOG, Sequoia’s Edwin Smith, Vice-President of Compliance/Quality/Certification, warns the university academics that the company has “retained counsel to stop any infringement of our intellectual properties, including any non-compliant analysis.”

“We will also take appropriate steps to protect against any publication of Sequoia software, its behavior, reports regarding same or any other infringement of our intellectual property,” Smith threatens.

The email from Smith to Felten and Appel is posted in full at the end of this article. Felten has confirmed its authenticity late this afternoon.

Story Continues @ Sourced Site.

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Bush: Americans ‘Ought To Say Thank You’ To Telecoms For ‘Performing A Patriotic Service’

Published by
Gene Shinai
March 5, 2008 in Newz, Telecoms and The Internet. 0 Comments

From Think Progress:

 The Bush administration has launched an aggressive campaign to pressure the House into passing retroactive immunity for telecoms that participated in the government’s warrantless wiretapping program.

Because they complied in illegally wiretapping their customers, telecoms currently face around 40 lawsuits. Yesterday in a speech to the National Association of Attorneys General, Bush sharply criticized Americans who are suing the telecoms:

Now the question is, should these lawsuits be allowed to proceed, or should any company that may have helped save American lives be thanked for performing a patriotic service; should those who stepped forward to say we’re going to help defend America have to go to the courthouse to defend themselves, or should the Congress and the President say thank you for doing your patriotic duty? I believe we ought to say thank you.

Story with Video Continues @ Sourced Site.
 

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Follow Up: Wikileaks Gets Domain Back, Injunction Dissolved

Published by
Gene Shinai
March 2, 2008 in Business/Finance, Newz, The Courts and The Internet. 0 Comments

From Slashdot.org:

 ”The judge in the Wikileaks case has dissolved the injunction against Wikileaks, which means that it can get its .org domain back. He defended his prior ruling because it was based on the pittance of information the bank and registrar had provided him, saying ‘This is a case in which we had a (dispute) with named parties, and the parties were duly served. One of which properly responded and came to this court with a proposed settlement in this lawsuit… Nobody filed any timely responses to the court’s order.’”

Story Continue @ Sourced Site. 

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Comcast Packs Hearing Room with Paid ‘Supporters’ For Net Neutrality FCC Publc comment

Published by
Gene Shinai
February 27, 2008 in Crime, Freedom of Speech, Government, In Defense of Democracy, Newz, Policies and Procedures, Telecoms and The Internet. 3 Comments

From Save the Internet:

There was huge turnout at today’s public hearing in Boston on the future of the Internet. Hundreds of concerned citizens arrived to speak out on the importance of an open Internet. Many took the day off from work — standing outside in the Boston cold — to see the FCC Commissioners. But when they reach the door, they’re told they couldn’t come in.

The size of the crowd is evidence that many Americans don’t want giant corporations like Comcast and Verzion to decide what we can do and where we can go on the Internet.

But will the FCC hear these voices? For many people who showed up on time for the hearing, apparently not.

Comcast — or someone who really, really likes Comcast — evidently bused in its own crowd. These seat-warmers, were paid to fill the room, a move that kept others from taking part.

[Update: Comcast admits to paying people to stack the room in their favor. Read the report.]

They arrived en masse some 90 minutes before the hearing began and occupied almost every available seat, upon which many promptly fell asleep (picture above).

One told us that he was “just getting paid to hold someone’s seat.”

>> Listen to the audio

Story Continues @ Sourced Site.

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Pakistan Causes Worldwide YouTube Outage

Published by
elophan
February 26, 2008 in Foreign, Freedom of Speech, Newz and The Internet. 0 Comments

By PETER SVENSSON, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Most of the world’s Internet users lost access to YouTube for several hours Sunday after an attempt by Pakistan’s government to block access domestically affected other countries.

The outage highlighted yet another of the Internet’s vulnerabilities, coming less than a month after broken fiber-optic cables in the Mediterranean took Egypt off line and caused communications problems from the Middle East to India.

An Internet expert said Sunday’s problems came after a Pakistani telecommunications company complied with the block by directing requests for YouTube videos to a “black hole.” So instead of serving up videos of skateboarding dogs, it sent the traffic into oblivion.

The problem was that the company also accidentally identified itself to Internet computers as the world’s fastest route to YouTube, leading requests from across the Internet to the black hole.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had ordered 70 Internet service providers on Friday to block access to YouTube.com because of anti-Islamic movies on the video-sharing site, which is owned by Google Inc.

The authority did not specify what the offensive material was, but a PTA official said the ban concerned a trailer for an upcoming film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, who has said he plans to release a movie portraying Islam as fascist and prone to inciting violence against women and homosexuals.

YouTube confirmed the outage Monday, saying it was caused by a network in Pakistan. More…

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