jlp2097 writes: It looks like the recent activities by Hollywood studios and the AACS LA finally led to the closing of Slysoft Inc, creator of the popular AnyDVD HD tool for creating personal backups of BluRay/DVD/etc. Slysoft Inc’s website confirms the closing due to “recent regulatory requirements”. The final nail in the coffin has also been confirmed with slightly more details in their forum: “this is final. Slysoft is gone.” Sad to see them go — it looks like legitimate buyers of BluRays will now have to find other sources for backing up their property to HTPCs and NASes. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Slysoft (of AnyDVD Fame) Closes After Increased International Pressure By AACS
Penguinisto writes According to a scan by Qualys, Hillary Clinton’s personal e-mail server, which has lately generated more than a little controversy in US political circles, has earned an “F” rating for security from the security vendor. Problems include SSL2 support, a weak signature, and only having support for older TLS protocols, among numerous other problems. Note that there are allegations that the email server was possibly already hacked in 2013. (Note: Mrs. Clinton plans on Giving a press conference to the public today on the issue.) Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Rambo Tribble writes: Many of the 300+ theaters showing The Interview on Christmas were rewarded with sell-out crowds. While reviews of the comedy have been mixed, many movie-goers expressed solidarity with the sentiment of professor Carlos Royal: “I wanted to support the U.S.” Despite sellout crowds, the movie’s limited release meant it only brought in about $1 million on opening day (compared to $10M+ for the highest-grossing films). Curiosity about the film seems high, since hundreds of thousands rushed to torrent the film, and others figured out an extremely easy way to bypass Sony’s DRM. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
mr_mischief writes “Multiple sources report that the US found remnants of WMD programs, namely chemical weapons, in Iraq after all. Many US soldiers were injured by them, in fact. The Times reports: “From 2004 to 2011, American and American-trained Iraqi troops repeatedly encountered, and on at least six occasions were wounded by, chemical weapons remaining from years earlier in Saddam Hussein’s rule. In all, American troops secretly reported finding roughly 5, 000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs, according to interviews with dozens of participants, Iraqi and American officials, and heavily redacted intelligence documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
An anonymous reader writes with a link to an article by the EFF’s Jennifer Lynch, carried by Gizmodo, which reports that the L.A. Police Department and L.A. Sheriff’s Department “took a novel approach in the briefs they filed in EFF and the ACLU of Southern California’s California Public Records Act lawsuit seeking a week’s worth of Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) data. They have argued that ‘All [license plate] data is investigatory.’ The fact that it may never be associated with a specific crime doesn’t matter. This argument is completely counter to our criminal justice system, in which we assume law enforcement will not conduct an investigation unless there are some indicia of criminal activity. In fact, the Fourth Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution exactly to prevent law enforcement from conducting mass, suspicionless investigations under “general warrants” that targeted no specific person or place and never expired. ALPR systems operate in just this way. The cameras are not triggered by any suspicion of criminal wrongdoing; instead, they automatically and indiscriminately photograph all license plates (and cars) that come into view. … Taken to an extreme, the agencies’ arguments would allow law enforcement to conduct around-the-clock surveillance on every aspect of our lives and store those records indefinitely on the off-chance they may aid in solving a crime at some previously undetermined date in the future. If the court accepts their arguments, the agencies would then be able to hide all this data from the public.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
bill_mcgonigle writes with this news from from CNET: “Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D NY) disclosed that NSA analysts eavesdrop on Americans’ domestic telephone calls without court orders during a House Judiciary hearing. After clearing with FBI director Robert Mueller that the information was not classified, Nadler revealed that during a closed-door briefing to Congress, the Legislature was informed that the spying organization had implemented and uses this capability. This appears to confirm Edward Snowden’s claim that he could, in his position at the NSA, ‘wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president.’ Declan McCullagh writes, ‘Because the same legal standards that apply to phone calls also apply to e-mail messages, text messages, and instant messages, Nadler’s disclosure indicates the NSA analysts could also access the contents of Internet communications without going before a court and seeking approval.’ The executive branch has defended its general warrants, claiming that ‘the president had the constitutional authority, no matter what the law actually says, to order domestic spying without [constitutional] warrants,’ while Kurt Opsahl, senior staff attorney at EFF claims such government activity ‘epitomizes the problem of secret laws.'” Note that “listening in” versus “collecting metadata” is a distinction that defenders of government phone spying have been emphasizing. Tracking whom you called and when, goes the story, doesn’t impinge on expectations of privacy. Speaking of the metadata collection, though, reader Bruce66423 writes “According to the Washington Post, the Bush administration took ‘bulk metadata’ from the phone companies under voluntary agreements for more than four years after 9/11 until a court agreed they could have it compulsorily.” Related: First time accepted submitter fsagx writes that Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive has calculated the cost to store every phone call made in the U.S. over the course of a year: “It’s surprisingly inexpensive. It puts the recent NSA stories (and reports from the Boston bombings about the FBI’s ability to listen to past phone conversions) into perspective.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Qedward writes “Internet access is as crucial to everyday life as having a phone connection and the loss of connectivity is deserving of financial compensation, the German Federal Court of Justice has ruled. Because having an internet connection is so significant for a large part of the German population, a customer whose service provider failed to provide connectivity between December 2008 and February 2009 is entitled to compensation, the court ruled today. ‘It is the first time the court ruled that an internet connection is as important a commodity as having a phone,’ said court spokeswoman Dietlind Weinland. The court, however, denied the plaintiff’s request of €50 a day for his fax machine not working.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.