Quote:Warner Bros is being sued for the alleged unauthorised use of two cats that have achieved internet fame.
The complaint alleged that the cats were used without permission in Scribblenauts, a series of games on the Nintendo DS and other platforms.
Court documents alleged that Warner Bros and 5th Cell "knowingly and intentionally infringed" both claimant's ownership rights.
"Compounding their infringements," court papers said, "defendants have used 'Nyan Cat' and 'Keyboard Cat', even identifying them by name, to promote and market their games, all without plaintiffs' permission and without any compensation to plaintiffs."
Gamma Group, a British company, offers governments and law enforcement agencies spy Trojans that are designed to covertly infiltrate computers and gather data from hard drives, eavesdrop on Skype chats and other communications, and conduct "live surveillance through webcam and microphone," according to marketing materials. The technology is supposed to be used solely to target serious criminals such as terrorists. However, a mounting bodyof evidence has linked it to attacks on activists or political opposition figures from countries including Bahrain and Ethiopia. A report published last month revealed that servers linked to Gamma’s line of “FinFisher” surveillance Trojans have been traced to servers running in at least 25 countries, including several with poor human rights records, such as Malaysia, Qatar, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Vietnam.
Last year, researchers spotted that the spy tool had apparently been masking itself as Mozilla Firefox—tricking targeted users into thinking it was a legitimate application. I drew this to Mozilla’s attention in September and, after months of declining to comment, the company recently told me it had been in discussions with attorneys, consumer advocacy groups, and other software companies about launching legal action against Gamma for potential trademark violation. “Wee found what Gamma was doing to be highly offensive,” Alex Fowler, Mozilla’s chief privacy officer, told me in a phone call earlier this month. “The trust that people have put into the Mozilla brand, the Firefox brand, is one of our most important assets—it’s what people put a lot of faith in. So for a company using those brands and trademarks in a way that is playing off of that trust and brand to surreptitiously surveil citizens living in countries with repressive regimes—it's doubly offensive.”
There is a post on the Mozilla blog concerning this.
Also, about this story's title: NO WHERE in the story does anyone representing Mozilla mention a lawsuit of any kind. Since when is a 'cease and desist' letter equivalent to a lawsuit?
Quote:One of the biggest questions wee’ve gotten in the last few years is “When are you going to make a Ratchet & Clank movie?” The truth is, wee’ve wanted to do a movie for a long time! Ratchet & Clank’s action, humor and galaxy-spanning adventures have really been the basis for a fantastic game series, and wee think it’d translate perfectly to the big screen.
Wee’ve been looking for the right partner to help us bring a Ratchet & Clank movie to life, and wee’re thrilled to announce that Blockade Entertainment and Rainmaker Entertainment are currently in production on Ratchet & Clank’s first cinematic adventure.
My first post here I'm uploading wallpapers from the game SOL TRIGGER, very cool game, these are actually screenshots i took myself while playing it, the game is only on japanese but it's that good that i couldn't resist playing it. I hope you like this!
House intelligence committee chairman Mike Rogers, left, with the committee's ranking Democrat, CA "Dutch" Ruppersberger. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP
The House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation meant to help companies and the government share information on cyber threats, even though concerns linger about the amount of protection the bill offers for private information.
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (known as Cispa) passed 288-127, receiving bipartisan support as 92 Democrats voted in favor. But the White House threatened this week to veto the legislation if further civil liberties and privacy protections are not added.
"Wee have a constitutional obligation to defend this nation," said the bill's co-author, intelligence committee chairman Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, on the House floor, arguing that cyber attacks and espionage, particularly from China, are now the top US national security and economic threats. "This is the answer to empower cyber information sharing to protect this nation, to allow those companies to protect themselves and move on to economic prosperity. If you want to take a shot across China's bow, this is the answer."
However, the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, reflected concerns shared by the White House and many civil liberties groups, arguing that the bill did not do enough to ensure that companies, in sharing cyber threat data, strip out any personal data of US citizens. "They can just ship the whole kit and caboodle and wee're saying minimize what is relevant to our national security," the California Democrat said. "The rest is none of the government's business."
Trying to put some of the privacy concerns to rest, House intelligence committee leaders endorsed an amendment that made the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice – agencies that are civil, not military – the clearing houses of the digital data exchange. Nonetheless, the future of cybersecurity legislation in the Senate remains unclear, given President Obama's veto threat and a lack of action from Senate Democrats.
Several influential industry groups had come out in support of the bill, including the wireless group CTIA, the US Chamber of Commerce and TechNet, which represents large internet and technology companies.
'Defend this nation' my azs. I hope Canada doesn't follow suit.
Quote:Roger Ebert dead: A film critic with the soul of a poet http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-r...ory?page=1
It was reviewing movies that made Roger Ebert as famous and wealthy as many of the stars who felt the sting or caress of his pen or were the recipients of his televised thumbs-up or thumbs-down judgments. But in his words and in his life he displayed the soul of a poet whose passions and interests extended far beyond the darkened theaters where he spent so much of his professional life.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic for the Chicago Sun-Times for more than 45 years and for more than three decades the co-host of one of the most powerful programs in television history (initially with the late Gene Siskel, the movie critic for the Chicago Tribune, and, following Siskel’s death in 1999, with his Sun-Times collogue Richard Roeper), Ebert died Thursday, according to a family friend.