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New "TXTMob" Messaging Available for Convention Protests

Protestors at last week's Democratic National Convention had a new tool in
their arsenal — a text messaging service designed just for them.

"TXTMob,"
as the service is called, allows users to quickly and easily broadcast
text messages to groups of cellphones. The system works much like an
electronic b-board: users subscribe to various lists, and receive messages
directly on their phones.

Eric Goldhagen writes

Germany: Bavaria Claims To Have Better Terrorism Database Than CIA, FBI

Report by Christoph Elflein and Tanja Treser.


[Source: Munich Focus in German -- centrist weekly news magazine]
[FBIS Translated Text]

The hunters with their high-tech equipment are based in a barracks from the last century: plain white walls and gray stone floors everywhere. The windows are secured by iron rods as thick as a finger. Behind a laptop sits Gerald Eder, 45, leading chief inspector of the Bavarian Office of Criminal Investigation (LKA). There is a great number of tiny black dots
linked by thin lines on the screen. This is a data cluster of the investigation and analysis system (Easy). It is the holy of holies of the protectors of state security: 12 million data sets of organized criminals and terrorism suspects, including violent radicals such as Islamist preacher Yahaya Youssef from Neu-Ulm.

bin Laden 'Suicide' Virus Pitched to Online Newsgroups

Message Designed To Lure Readers Into Trojan Horses

SEATTLE, Washington (Reuters) — A virus purporting to show images of Osama bin Laden's suicide popped up on the Internet Friday, designed to entice recipients to open a file that unleashes malicious software code, security experts said.


The virus was attached to a message that was posted on over 30,000 usenet newsgroups and is not being spread via e-mail, said Web security vendor Sophos.


The U.S. government has been hunting for bin Laden since 2001, holding him responsible for masterminding the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001, but he has not yet been found.


Chris Kraft, senior security analyst at Sophos, said the message and virus was designed to lure unsuspecting readers into opening a file, similar to the Anna Kournikova virus that enticed readers to open a file that unleashed malicious software code.


"If you don't know the person or the origin of a message, you shouldn't be opening it," Kraft said.


The fake bin Laden suicide file, when opened, unleashes a program called a Trojan horse that makes it possible for attackers to take over infected personal computers running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system.


Kraft said the virus itself had already appeared on the Internet before, but the virus writer had apparently repackaged it by saying it contained bin Laden's suicide photos.

Listen to the flip side

Suw Charman
Thursday July 22, 2004

The Guardian



As far as the music industry is concerned, the message is clear: file sharing is killing it. "Research clearly illustrates that the illegal use of music on the internet is damaging the entire UK music industry," said Peter Jamieson, the chairman of the BPI (British Phonographic Industry). Even Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs, agrees. "iTunes really competes with piracy, not the other services," he said at the iTunes Music Store Europe launch last month. "Piracy is the big enemy - the market has shrunk in France and Germany and seen zero growth in the UK."

kirsten anderberg writes:

"The Gold of the Nuclear Age:
Lost and Stolen Nuclear Materials"
Kirsten Anderberg


The Los Alamos National Laboratory (www.lanl.gov) in New Mexico, USA, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, has halted much of its operations as of July 15, 2004, in an unprecedented, and open-ended, shut down of important “secret work,” until security breaches can be seriously addressed.


Citing the loss of two computer discs containing classified information from the testing and design facility of the plant, during the first week in July 2004, as well as other security concerns, the nuclear plant is regrouping. In the last year and a half, Los Alamos has admitted losing classified materials four times, according to the Albuquerque Journal. And the Associated Press is reporting that in the last year, Los Alamos employees lost 9 floppy discs, a large-capacity storage disk full of classified information, and a recordable data storage device, and the lab officials say these materials are “believed” to have been destroyed.

copyriot writes:

"'Content Flatrate' and the Social Democrats"

Rasmus Fleisher


Recently, the communities of IP critics and P2P filesharers has been hit by a wave of demands for an "alternative compensation system". June 2004 was a month of European breakthrough for the idea of "content flatrate", as a solution intended to save filesharing, whilst "compensating" copyright holders who feel that their traditional means of income are slipping out of hand due to technological development.

Here I will discuss this new tendency, its premises, weaknesses and its relation to anti-copyright-activism, polemically arguing that "flatrateism" is a mistake. My observations are based mainly on German discussions, but also on Swedish, French and American proposals of "alternative compensation systems".

FBI Harrassment of Artist and Scientist Continues

CAE Defense Fund


Kurtz and Ferrell face 20-year charges of mail and wire fraud in
federal court arraignment


Dr. Steven Kurtz, Associate Professor of Art at the University of
Buffalo, was arraigned and charged in Federal District Court in
Buffalo today on four counts of mail and wire fraud (United States
Criminal Code, Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1341 and 1343),
which each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Surveillance Camera Players writes:

Staggering Increase of Surveillance Cameras in Chinatown
Surveillance Camera Players

In New York City, "Chinatown" is a legendary, small, and very densely populated neighborhood in Lower Manhattan. Originally centered around Mott Street below Canal Street, Chinatown has expanded a great deal since the 19th century, and now reaches as far west as Centre Street and as far east as Essex Street, and may be the last great ("real") neighborhood in New York. For a New Yorker, any subway with a "Canal Street" stop means Chinatown. The area is a popular attraction for both tourists and locals because of its "atmosphere" and inexpensive restaurants, food markets, and shops of all kinds.

hydrarchist writes..... this from The Register.
German Fined €8000 for Kazaa Uploads

A 23-year-old man has become the first music sharer to be successfully convicted in Germany for uploading songs to Kazaa. And expect more such cases across Europe, the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) warned today.

Anonymous Comrade writes: The FBI is presently investigating Steve Kurtz and other members of the Critical Arts Ensemble, for their possession of a laboratory which can determine whether foods have been genetically modified. This is a classic FBI move to stifle discussion and protect industry profits, by creating gigantic legal bills which the group must pay. From all reports, it is likely there will be a grand jury trial.(www.counterpunch.com)


Kurtz is an internationally recognized lecturer in the areas of genetic manipulation and information technology. Critical Arts Ensemble has published several books encouraging popular response to the specialized field of scientific investigation. (See autonomedia.net).

Financial and other support can be made at

CAEdefense@rtmark.com

http://www.caedefensefund.org/

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