Tabrez Ahmad'sTechnolex


Tabrez Ahmad's Technolex

Technology, Education R&D, Consultancy,Hyperawareness,ODR,

Network of Law

The objective of the blog is to provide a fair analysis and awareness of legal issues in an easy way for the understanding of the people at large


Friday, August 28, 2009

Face book tighten up its privacy policies

Facebook,is one of the fastest growing social networking site in the owrld.It has 250 million users right now.The company was facing lot of pressure for increasing privacy standards.The company has upgraded its privacy level and accordingly users will now have more control over the personal information they share with third-party applications such as games and quizzes and will clarify what happens to data when a user deactivates an account.Generally people who wish to use such third-party software have to agree to share all their personal details with the application.Due to the recent changes, the application developer will have to specify which categories of data the software needs, for e.g. so now users can give explicit permission whether birthdays or geographic location,they have to specifically approve any access Facebook applications have to their friends' information. Such access would still be subject to the friend's privacy and application settings. Due to these changes the software dvelopers will need to update their software to comply with the new standardswho have built profitable businesses creating applications for Facebook users. Facebook said the changes would take up to a year to implement.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Three Indicted in Largest Hacking and Corporate Identity Theft Case in History

Albert Gonzalez, of Miami, along with two unnamed Russians, stands accused of hacking into Princeton-based Heartland Payment Systems; 7-Eleven Inc., a Texas-based convenience store chain and Hannaford Brothers Company, a Maine-based supermarket chain. The stolen data was sent to computer servers that Gonzalez and his co-conspirators operated in California, Illinois, Latvia, the Netherlands, and Ukraine.
The indictment also mentions two other unidentified corporate victims as being hacked by the co-conspirators.
According to the Justice Department,the "SQL injection attack," technique was used by the suspects this is a sophisticated hacking technique which "seeks to exploit computer networks by finding a way around the network's firewall to steal credit card and debit information."
Gonzalez and the others would seek out Fortune 500 companies and attempt to identify potential vulnerabilities in their computer systems.Asper the two-count indictment alleging conspiracy and conspiracy to engage in wire-fraud, beginning in October 2006,
After reconnaissance of the computer systems was completed, information would be uploaded to servers which served as hacking platforms. Once the information was discovered, it was stolen from the corporate servers and placed onto servers around the world controlled by the suspects.

Upon the alleged theft of the data, Gonzalez, known online as "soupnazi," and his co-conspirators would seek to sell the data to others who would then use it to make fraudulent purchases, unauthorized withdrawals from banks and other identity theft schemes.
As per the law if convicted, Gonzalez could face up to 20 years on a charge of wire-fraud conspiracy and an additional five on the conspiracy charge and fines of up to $250,000 for each charge.
He is currently in federal custody. The whereabouts of the two unidentified suspects, both from Russia, are unknown.
The latest charges are hardly Gonzalez's first brush with the law — in May
and August of 2008, he was indicted on additional charges for a number of hacks into eight major retailers including discount giant TJ Maxx that involved an estimated 40 million credit cards and cost TJ Maxx $200 million and in May 2008, the U.S. Attorney's Office of New York charged him for his alleged role in the hacking of a computer network run by a national restaurant chain.
Heartland Systems announced a suspected breach on January 20, 2009, noting the discovery of "evidence of an intrusion," but denying the compromise of any merchant data, social security numbers, PIN numbers or addresses.
Hacking is also crime in India.As per the Information Technology Act 2000, Sec 66 a fine upto 1 crore and 3 years jail may be awarded.

See, "Three Indicted in Major Hacking Case," Wall St. Journal, August 17, 2009, at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125053669921337753.html; "U.S. Indicts 3 in Theft of 130 Million Bank Cards," New York Times, August 17, 2009, at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/technology/18card.html.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Making a Hate Community on Orkut is Defamation

A Pune based girl on September 8, 2008 was started a community on Orkut against Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh. The cyber cell of Pune police has approached Google for the details of the girl who was started the community “I hate Satyapal Singh”.
Police is trying to find out the purpose behind the community.
Community have 13 members and in the meantime, two members of the community have commented against the Pune police commissioner. The comments have been posted on October 9 and November 9, 2008.
The issue came up in question after the information about the community was recently published on a local news portal.Police have initiated an inquiry and have contacted Google in the US and asked for the IP address and other information to reach to the details of the person.


Starting and publishing such a hate community cause cyber defamation and it is a crime under Section 499 of IPC.It will also attract liability under sec. 42 and 72 of the Information Technology Act 2000.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Cyberlaw: Protection of Copyright in the converging technology

Cyberlaw: Protection of Copyright in the converging technology

Cyberlaw: First Judge in USA with Cyberlaw Record

Cyberlaw: First Judge in USA with Cyberlaw Record

Cyberlaw: CRAT the first cyber court room is inaugurated in India

Cyberlaw: CRAT the first cyber court room is inaugurated in India

IPLex: WIPO has launched aRDi, to coordinate all the stake holders for developmnet of IPR .

IPLex: WIPO has launched aRDi, to coordinate all the stake holders for developmnet of IPR .

IPLex

IPLex

IPLex: Linking of News and Copyright Law in India

IPLex: Linking of News and Copyright Law in India

IPLex: Soon IP Law in Bagladesh

IPLex: Soon IP Law in Bagladesh

IPLex: RIAA has got big success agaisnt Music Piracy

IPLex: RIAA has got big success agaisnt Music Piracy

IPLex: Patenting of Life forms and food security

IPLex: Patenting of Life forms and food security

IPLex

IPLex

IPLex: Whether Market experimentation can be protected as Intellectual Property

IPLex: Whether Market experimentation can be protected as Intellectual Property

Monday, August 10, 2009

A new begining of Cyberlaw adjudication in USA

As I have already written in my earlier blog regarding the Sonia Sotomayor’s appointment as a justice of US Supreme Court.The appointment of Sotomayor is special for the cyberlaw community keeping in mind her good knowledge in the field. She is the first judge with cyber law background took the judicial oath on 8th August 2009, becoming the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve the US Supreme Court. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr administered to her in two private ceremonies at the Supreme Court building, completing her ascent to a life-tenured position as the nation’s 111th justice — the first to be nominated by a Democratic president since 1994.
Her rise brought her to the attention of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat of New York, who recommended that President George Bush appoint her to the federal bench, which she joined in 1992. President Bill Clinton later elevated her to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. President Obama nominated her in May to succeed Justice David H. Souter. She is a highly qualified, mainstream and moderate jurist. On Sept. 8, 2009, the US Supreme Court will hold a special invitation-only investiture ceremony, a special sitting at which she will take her seat for the first time, probably followed by an appearance alongside Chief Justice Roberts for a traditional picture on the front steps of the court.
Now it is expected that some good judgments will come in future in the field of cyberlaw. Because still we lack judges in most of the countries who have sound understanding in the field of cyberlaw.

Friday, August 07, 2009

Obama's Photo and Fair use of Copyright

Fair-use cases are those which are not the violation of copyright and are exceptions to the infringement of copyright. There is fair use doctrine which is meant for the non commercial use of the copyrighted works. Almost all the Copyright Acts of the various countries have in one or the other form some provisions for fair use. Accordingly Indian Copyright Act 1957 has sec. 52, which provides fair use. US copyright law also provides fair use. But the boundaries of fair use and infringement are very thin and some time it becomes very difficult to decide. Accordingly there is ongoing controversy as J.D. Salinger, Woody Allen and J.K. Rowling have provided over the months on the fair-use front, the following just might take the cake as Best Fair-Use Smackdown Ever.

It hasn’t yet boiled into a lawsuit yet, but it’s got serious potential. At issue: a poster created by folks at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (aka NORML), which uses a photo of Barack Obama as an undergraduate at Occidental College, circa 1980.




The picture shows Obama puffing on a cigarette (of the tobacco type). People at NORML took the image, dressed it up a little to make it look like Obama’s puffing on some serious Early Pearly Maui (or something), and stuck it on their Summer of Love-inspired promotional poster for their annual conference. The message on the poster: “Yes We Cannabis.”
Lisa Jack, an Obama classmate back at Oxy, was very angery over the picture instead of Obama.
“They do not have my permission,” said Jack, now a psychology professor in Minnesota, to the Post. These photos “are absol. She held that it is not to be used in this way. … I really made a grand effort to do this properly, and I’m very irritated.

Some experts of the IPR didn’t seem it to cause any trouble. “With very little adulteration, experts placed what appears to be a cannabis cigarette” in the Obama’s hand. St. Pierre admits they didn’t get permission, but “our lawyers thought it was adulterated enough to comply with the fair use doctrine.

The standard provided as per the copyright law is is whether there was a “transformative use.” And that doesn’t necessarily mean the image has to be transformed — an image can remain exactly the same and satisfy fair use if the picture is framed in a way that sends a message. Let us wait and watch and see what happens on the issue.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

US Govt. is now going to enforce cyberlaw control on the netizens

US Govt. is aimed to enforce Cyber law Control on netizens.
The US Govt. is aimed on forcing Cyber Law controls on an unwilling public in an environment that is not controllable. Americans have various rights that are assured by Law, and when the American Government begins forcing Cyber Law controls by online surveillance in Internet, which spreads over the entire world, the control factor looks very similar to that level of control that is found in a Communist society.
It is pertinent to mention that Cyber Laws relate to the communication devices such as cellular telephones and the areas of the Internet that provide freedom to people to talk openly about any topic. Now Americans are feeling uncomfortable with expressing their opinions while in Internet chat rooms.
The Government feels that it is losing income due to e-commerce and m-commerce. There are difficulties in drawing a line to give tax benefits to a particular State, or to afford the Federal government the right to claim their Federal taxes on such work. By enforcing e-commerce and m-commerce taxation, the Government could be considered to be guilty of double dipping if they ever get to the point where they could get paid taxes for work that is done through cyber contacts.
The law enforcement agencies are using WebCrawler programmes and online surveillance to track predators and illegal activities. They are just as guilty of using the cyberspace for gain as the next person, but the gain they achieve is in removing predators that make the Internet their home away home and not from gaining income that the Federal government cannot tax.
Americans have a real problem with anyone who wants to control them. The freedoms they enjoy everyday have given them the right to learn from information on the Internet and earn an income from the research that is done. Monitoring the places through cookies and other programmes that they go is forcing Cyber Laws controls on an unwilling Public who have privacy as a part of human rights and fundamental rights. Now lot of netizens access the Internet from home, and doing surveillance over internet could be construed as a home invasion and a violation of their right to privacy that is one of the basic essences of life.