A Chinese national was set to plead guilty Monday for his role in a massive $100 million online software piracy scheme that authorities said was . According to Delaware federal court papers, Xiang Li has agreed to plead guilty to two federal charges related to the selling, without authorization, of high-end software programs for a fraction of their retail worth. The link for this article located at Wired is no longer available. . A citizen from China admitted guilt in a federal case involving an extensive $100 million intellectual property theft operation.. Software Piracy, Cybercrime Charges, Illegal Software Sales. . Dave Wreski
Sony has sued 3 hackers and 100 others whose names the company doesn't know for developing and releasing over the Web code that makes it possible to run homegrown or pirated software on the PlayStation 3 videogame console.. The consumer electronics company filed the complaint Monday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, naming as defendants well-known hacker George Hotz of Cambridge, Mass.; Hector Martin Cantero of Spain, Sven Peter of Hungary, and 100 other unnamed hackers. Sony claims Cantero and Peter are members of FailOverFlow, a hacker group the company says is dedicated to circumventing the TPM, or technology protection measure, in the PS3 to prevent the use of pirated games and unauthorized software. The link for this article located at Information Week is no longer available. . Nintendo has initiated a lawsuit against cybercriminals exploiting vulnerabilities in the Switch, pursuing both identified and anonymous culprits.. Sony Lawsuit, PS3 Jailbreak, Gaming Piracy, Technology Protection. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Microsoft needs to start beefing up the security of its Windows Phone 7 App Marketplace. An ethical hacker provided WPCentral, a Windows Phone centric site, with a video showing proof-of-concept program that could grab any App from Marketplace and be installed for free sans any DRM security.. This proof-of-concept program, dubbed FreeMarketplace, raises an alarm against a severe security issue with the Windows Marketplace that might lead to App Piracy. Recently Microsoft's Windows Marketplace started teething with 5000 Apps as reported two days ago. WPCentral clarified that the methodology of the FreeMarketplace and the proof-of-concept program itself will NOT be released to the public. Of course it did spark a discussion about the potential piracy going en masse if this methodology is leaked to the public. The link for this article located at TechTree is no longer available. . This proof-of-concept program, dubbed FreeMarketplace, raises an alarm against a severe security iss. microsoft, needs, start, beefing, security, windows, phone, marketplace, ethical. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Researchers have found a very simple method for evading the Android licensing scheme that Google uses to ensure that paid applications in its Android Market are correctly licensed.. The crack takes advantage of the fact that most Android apps are written in Java and the portion of the code that checks to see whether a particular app is properly licensed is easily identifiable and removable. The new method, which comes out just a few weeks after Google debuted its new licensing scheme, simply requires a user to add a small patch to the decompiled Java code of a given application, which will result in the licensing library thinking that the app is licensed, when it is not. The method was described in a post on AndroidPolice, in which the author details exactly how the licensing scheme works and what a user needs to do in order to evade it. The way that the Android Market Licensing service works is fairly simple. After a user downloads and installs a paid application, the service will check with the Market server to see whether the app is licensed. If it is not, the server will return a message saying that the app must be licensed. The licensing status is stored on the Market server and is signed using a unique key pair. The link for this article located at ThreatPost is no longer available. . The crack takes advantage of the fact that most Android apps are written in Java and the portion of . researchers, found, simple, method, evading, android, licensing, scheme, google. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
The noose appears to be tightening around one of Europe's largest software counterfeiting rings as a German court sentenced a second member of the network to prison on Monday, and handed a sentence to his father . . .. The noose appears to be tightening around one of Europe's largest software counterfeiting rings as a German court sentenced a second member of the network to prison on Monday, and handed a sentence to his father for helping run front operations. After an 18-week trial, a criminal court in Stuttgart, Germany, sentenced the convicted software pirate to three years in prison without parole for copyright infringement and selling counterfeit Microsoft Corp. software. The court also convicted the defendant's father for his participation in the counterfeiting scheme, issuing him a 16-month jail term and 100 hours of community service. The defendant, Dieter Rimmele, appears to be in his 30s while his father, Hubert Rimmele is 58 years old, according to sources close to the case. Dieter Rimmele had previously been arrested in 1999 for software manipulation and was sentenced to a year in jail. The three-year sentence he received on Monday comes on top of the 10 months he has already served in jail since being arrested late last year. The link for this article located at Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service is no longer available. . A French tribunal convicts a digital thief and his parent for orchestrating a large-scale forgery scheme across the continent.. Software Piracy, Copyright Enforcement, Criminal Justice, Counterfeit Software. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Technology Resource Mobilization Unit pursues GNU/Linux as a means of reducing software piracy. It must be quite flattering when a government sits up, takes note of the potential of a Linux-users group, and prominently features it in advertisements noticed nationwide. . .. Technology Resource Mobilization Unit pursues GNU/Linux as a means of reducing software piracy. It must be quite flattering when a government sits up, takes note of the potential of a Linux-users group, and prominently features it in advertisements noticed nationwide . This happened recently in Pakistan, where a small but growing band of GNU/Linux enthusiasts--and some senior policy planners working at another level--have understood the impact that this alternative computing operating system could have on their plans. Sometime in June, the English-language newspaper The Dawn published from the port city of Karachi, announced: "The Government of Pakistan is committing itself to the reduction of piracy and the protection of intellectual property. Linux and open source technologies are the corner stone of this initiative." Deploying GNU/Linux to avoid piracy might be unexpected logic. But in the subcontinent of South Asia--covering the populous regions of India, Pakistan and smaller neighbours--per capita income hovers around $300 US a year. Affordability of software prices is a key issue, and faced by repeated charges of "piracy" of costly proprietary software, some are beginning to see GNU/Linux as an option. (This is perhaps one reason why the many forms of "freedom" offered by GNU/Linux are also sometimes interpreted in terms of the "price freedom" and affordability it offers users here, though this may not be seen as too important an issue in the more-affluent world.) Pakistan's Technology Resource Mobilization Unit has been established by the Government of Pakistan to enable groups of professionals to exchange views and coordinate activities in their sectors. One is to focus on GNU/Linux. The link for this article locatedat LinuxJournal is no longer available. . The Digital Advancement Collective of Pakistan champions open-source platforms to mitigate software infringement and improve availability.. GNU/Linux Adoption, Open Source Strategy, Affordable Software Initiatives. . Anthony Pell
The Russian company that created software to circumvent Adobe's e-book format argued on Monday that its conduct -- which caused the arrest and detainment of programmer Dmitri Sklyarov in a high-profile case last summer -- was not illegal. Elcomsoft, the Moscow-based software firm, claimed that because it offered the encryption-breaking software on the Internet, the company was not subject to U.S. copyright law.. . .. The Russian company that created software to circumvent Adobe's e-book format argued on Monday that its conduct -- which caused the arrest and detainment of programmer Dmitri Sklyarov in a high-profile case last summer -- was not illegal. Elcomsoft, the Moscow-based software firm, claimed that because it offered the encryption-breaking software on the Internet, the company was not subject to U.S. copyright law. Joseph Burton, Elcomsoft's attorney, told U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte that Elcomsoft's actions "occurred in Russia or on the Internet, and we take the position that the Internet is a place" outside of U.S. jurisdiction. The link for this article located at Wired is no longer available. . The Russian company that created software to circumvent Adobe's e-book format argued on Monday that . russian, company, created, software, circumvent, adobe's, e-book, format, argued, monday. . Anthony Pell
it is unlikely that Apple imagined people would walk into computer stores, plug their iPod into display computers and use it to copy software off the hard drives. This is exactly the scenario recently witnessed by Kevin Webb at a Dallas CompUSA store.. . .. it is unlikely that Apple imagined people would walk into computer stores, plug their iPod into display computers and use it to copy software off the hard drives. This is exactly the scenario recently witnessed by Kevin Webb at a Dallas CompUSA store. Webb, a computer consultant from Dallas, was browsing his local CompUSA when he saw a young man walk toward him listening to an iPod. Webb recognized the iPod's distinctive ear buds. The teenager stopped at a nearby display Macintosh, pulled the iPod from his pocket and plugged it into the machine with a FireWire cable. Intrigued, Webb peeped over the kid's shoulder to see him copying Microsoft's new Office for OS X suite, which retails for $500. The link for this article located at Wired is no longer available. . Delve into the unforeseen surge of online copyright infringement ignited by iPods, as teenagers began duplicating software directly from exhibition computers.. iPod Theft, Software Exploitation, Digital Rights, Unauthorized Access. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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