the IRS appears to argue that because there might be some "non-charitable" uses of the software, the Foundation doesn't deserve non-profit status, which would make it exempt from certain taxes (and make donations tax deductible).
Group items tagged
White House releases trusted Internet ID plan - security, government, Google, Gary Lock... - 0 views
-
The U.S. government will coordinate private-sector efforts to create trusted identification systems for the Internet, with the goal of giving consumers and businesses multiple options for authenticating identity online, according to a plan released by President Barack Obama's administration. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will work with private companies to drive development and adoption of trusted ID technologies, White House officials said. The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), released by the Department of Commerce on Friday, aims to protect the privacy and security of Internet users by encouraging a broad online authentication market in the U.S. "The fact is that the old password and username combination we often use to verify people is no longer good enough," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said at an NSTIC release event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "It leaves too many consumers, government agencies and businesses vulnerable to ID and data theft."
IRS Rejects Non-Profit Status For Open Source Organization, Because Private Companies M... - 0 views
-
-
ots of other open source software that is (deservedly) classified as non-profit organizations -- including the Apache Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation and more. Furthermore, the IRS seems to argue that unless Yorba is actually teaching "the poor and underprivileged" how to use its software
-
Seems like a rather ridiculous logic. Businesses use NASA images.
Cops to Congress: We need logs of Americans' text messages | Politics and Law - CNET News - 0 views
-
CNET has learned a constellation of law enforcement groups has asked the U.S. Senate to require that wireless companies retain that information, warning that the lack of a current federal requirement "can hinder law enforcement investigations." They want an SMS retention requirement to be "considered" during congressional discussions over updating a 1986 privacy law for the cloud computing era -- a move that could complicate debate over the measure and erode support for it among civil libertarians. As the popularity of text messages has exploded in recent years, so has their use in criminal investigations and civil lawsuits. They have been introduced as evidence in armed robbery, cocaine distribution, and wire fraud prosecutions. In one 2009 case in Michigan, wireless provider SkyTel turned over the contents of 626,638 SMS messages, a figure described by a federal judge as "staggering."
FCC to buy out TV broadcasters to free up mobile spectrum | Ars Technica - 0 views
-
-
I had my first issue at step one, "asks broadcasters to tell the FCC how much it wold take for the agency to buy them out". They claim that this is a way to keep cost down by hopefully grabbing the least popular via low bids. I see two issues immediately. Number one by asking them what they want they are going to immediately INCREASE the bids. Two, if you are asking me what I want for my business to change how it broadcasts why would I not include any expense to make the switch. By asking them what they think a fair bid would be, they are, more or less, giving them a blank check.
-
-
the commission will put the newly-freed blocks of spectrum up for auction. If, as expected, the spectrum is more valuable when used for mobile services than broadcast television, then the FCC should reap significantly more from these traditional auctions than it had to pay for the spectrum in the original reverse auctions, producing a tidy profit for taxpayers.
-
-
The objective at an auction is to purchase the object at the lowest possible cost. How much mobile providers are willing to pay will determine how high bids will climb. Based on how our current mobile providers already provide poor service when compared to the rest of the world, how much is that bandwidth actually worth to these companies that, more or less, have a lobbied stranglehold on the consumer?
-
- ...6 more annotations...
September 11, 2012: Opus audio codec is now RFC6716, Opus 1.0.1 reference source released - 0 views
-
Free and Open Another reason there are so many audio codecs: silly licensing restrictions. Would you base a business on technology a competitor controls? That's why the Opus specification and complete source are Free, Open, and available for any use whatsoever without IP restrictions, explicit licensing or royalties. Opus was developed and tested in a public, fully transparent process within the IETF, proof that open collaboration can produce a better audio codec than proprietary, secretive, patent-encumbered systems. Open standards benefit-- and benefit from-- open source organizations and traditional commercial software companies alike. Opus itself is the result of a collaboration including Broadcom, Google, the IETF, Microsoft (through Skype), Mozilla, Octasic and Xiph.Org.
US banks hit by more than a week of cyberattacks (Update) - 0 views
-
-
They believe it was not a hacktivist attack because they are usually also associated with a rise in IRC and social network activity, those who would be joining the hacktivist event, and this even had no such spike.
-
-
Could a state actor be at play? U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, without offering any proof, said he believed the assaults were carried out by Iran in retaliation for tightened economic sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies.
-
only a handful of groups out there that have the technical ability or incentive
- ...3 more annotations...
Snowden hints at new revelations of industrial espionage by the NSA | The Verge - 0 views
-
"I don't want to pre-empt the work of journalists," he said, "but there's no question the US is engaged in economic spying. If there's information at Siemens that they think would be beneficial to the national interests (not the national security) of the United States, they'll go after that information."
-
While evidence shows the NSA has spied on Brazil's Petrobras oil company, the US government has never been conclusively linked to the surveillance or theft of trade secrets on an international stage. If true, the revelations would have a grave diplomatic impact, particularly the government attempts to regain the trust of allied nations.
-
Honestly, should we be shocked?
Amazon said to be negotiating Prime streaming music service | The Verge - 0 views
-
Last year, we reported that Amazon was talking to the labels about an on-demand music service, and Recode has essentially confirmed that a dialog is ongoing.
-
At this point, the novelty of music streaming services has largely worn off, but Amazon's business approach could prove interesting. Just as it does with movies and TV shows, the company would likely include music streaming as part your Amazon Prime subscription. And while all of that content may seem like a lot when you factor in Prime's $79 fee, Amazon has recently said it's considering upping the annual cost by as much as $40. Having both music and video at your fingertips could help make a price hike easier to swallow.
Uroburos Rootkit: Most sophisticated 3-year-old Russian Cyber Espionage Campaign - The ... - 0 views
-
The researchers claimed that the malware may have been active for as long as three years before being discovered and appears to have been created by Russian developers.
-
The two main components of Uroburos are - a driver and an encrypted virtual file system, used to disguise its nasty activities and to try to avoid detection. Its driver part is extremely complex and is designed to be very discrete and very difficult to identify.
-
The virtual file system can’t be decrypted without the presence of drivers, according to the Gdata’s analysis explained in the PDF.
- ...2 more annotations...
Snowden: I raised NSA concerns internally over 10 times before going rogue - 0 views
-
Snowden wrote that he reported policy or legal issues related to spying programs to more than 10 officials, but as a contractor he had no legal avenue to pursue further whistleblowing.
-
Yes. I had reported these clearly problematic programs to more than ten distinct officials, none of whom took any action to address them. As an employee of a private company rather than a direct employee of the US government, I was not protected by US whistleblower laws, and I would not have been protected from retaliation and legal sanction for revealing classified information about lawbreaking in accordance with the recommended process.
-
lsewhere in his testimony, Snowden described the reaction he received when relating his concer
Google launches the Android-based Open Automotive Alliance with Audi, Honda, GM, and mo... - 0 views
-
GM, Honda, Audi, Hyundai, and chipmaker Nvidia, and will focus on bringing the successful mobile operating system to in-car entertainment systems
-
planned for launch by the end of 2014.
-
Sync system found in Fords is based on Microsoft technology
- ...1 more annotation...
Robert Duncan Begins Prison Sentence For Working In Legal Medical Pot Shop - 0 views
-
Duncan does not have a background in the marijuana industry, and only began working for the dispensary after being laid off from a more traditional sales job as the economy soured. After the raid, he returned to mainstream employment and up until recently was a sales manager at a Bay Area merchandising company; Duncan told The Huffington Post that he wouldn't have taken the pot job if the feds hadn't signaled that they'd steer clear of medical marijuana businesses that were in compliance with state laws."It was shortly after the federal government said it would not intervene if people followed state law," Duncan said. "We wanted to abide by the rules. None of us had criminal backgrounds. We’re all regular guys. The only reason we got into this was because the federal government said they wouldn’t intervene."
NSA paid $10 Million bribe to RSA Security for Keeping Encryption Weak - 0 views
-
According to an exclusive report published by Reuters, there is a secret deal between the NSA and respected encryption company RSA to implement a flawed security standard as the default protocol in its products.
-
Earlier Edward Snowden leaks had revealed that the NSA created a flawed random number generation system (Dual_EC_DRBG), Dual Elliptic Curve, which RSA used in its Bsafe security tool and now Snowden has revealed that RSA received $10 million from NSA for keeping Encryption Weak. So, anyone who knows the right numbers used in Random number generator program, can decipher the resulting cryptotext easily.
DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials Day 1 - 0 views
-
Pictured above is Valkyrie from NASA JPL. We reported on Valkyrie earlier this month. Arguably one of the better looking robots of the bunch, Valkyrie proved to be all show and no go today, failing to score any points in its day 1 trials. The day one lead went to Team Schaft, a new robot from Tokyo based startup company Schaft inc. Schaft scored 18 points in its first day. In second place is the MIT team with 12 points. Third place is currently held by Team TRACLabs with 9 points. All this can change tomorrow as the second day of trials take place. The live stream will be available from 8am to 7pm EST on DARPA’s robotics challenge page.
FBI Arrested CEO of 'StealthGenie' for Selling Mobile Spyware Apps - 0 views
-
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested the CEO of a UK-based company for allegedly advertising and selling a spyware app to individuals who suspect their romantic partners of cheating on them.
-
The dodgy cell phone spyware application, dubbed as StealthGenie, monitors victims’ phone calls, text messages, videos, emails and other communications "without detection" when it is installed on a target's phone, according to the Department of Justice.
-
Once installed on the phone, it allows conversations to be monitored as they take place, enables the purchaser to call the phone and activate it at any time to monitor all surrounding conversations within a 15-foot radius, and collects the user’s incoming and outgoing email and SMS messages, incoming voicemail, address book, calendar, photographs, and videos. All of these functions are enabled without the knowledge of the user of the phone.
- ...1 more annotation...
U.S. Court Grants Order to Wipe Pirate Sites from the Internet | TorrentFreak - 0 views
-
A U.S. federal court in Oregon has granted a broad injunction against several streaming sites that offer pirated content. Among other things, the copyright holder may order hosting companies to shut down the sites' servers, ask registrars to take away domain names, and have all search results removed from Google and other search engines.
-
ABS-CBN requested power to take the sites offline before the owners knew that they were getting sued, and without a chance to defend themselves. While that may seem a lot to ask, Judge Anna Brown granted the request.
-
The preliminary injunction is unique in its kind, both due to its broadness and the fact that it happened without due process. This has several experts worried, including EFF’s Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry.
‹ Previous
21 - 37 of 37
Showing 20▼ items per page