An anonymous reader writes with news that Yahoo will be ending their email service in China on August 13th. A support post on the Yahoo China site tells users how to migrate their account to a different email service called Aliyun. If they do so, their data can be migrated and they will continue to receive emails to their Yahoo address until the end of 2014. From the article: “The US Internet giant Yahoo! has come under criticism in the past over its business in China, with executives apologising in 2007 for providing evidence that Chinese authorities used to convict government critics. The company said it was legally obliged to divulge information about its users to the Chinese government but that it was unaware it would be used to convict dissidents. The end of the service will affect millions of users, the paper quoted Alibaba public relations official Zhang Jianhua as saying, though he did not have a total figure.” Yahoo also announced the closure of six other products today: Upcoming, Deals, SMS Alerts, Kids, Mail and Messenger feature phone apps, and older versions of Mail. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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MasterCard Forcing PayPal To Pay Higher Fees
iComp sends this quote from El Reg: “PayPal, Google Wallet and other online payment systems face higher transaction fees from MasterCard in retaliation for their refusal to share data on what people are spending. Visa is likely to follow suit. The amount that PayPal has to pay MasterCard for every transaction will go up as the latter introduces new charges for intermediated payment processors. This change is on the grounds that such processors don’t share transaction details, which the card giants would love to get hold of as it can be used to research buying patterns and the like. Companies such as PayPal allow payments between users, so the party (perhaps a merchant) receiving the money doesn’t need to be registered with the credit-card company. PayPal collects the dosh from the payer’s card, and deducts a processing fee before passing the cash on to the receiving party. MasterCard would prefer the receiver to be registered directly so will apply the new fee from June to any payment that is staged in this way.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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MasterCard Forcing PayPal To Pay Higher Fees
Twitter Sued For $50M For Refusing To Identify Anti-Semitic Users
redletterdave writes “After a French civil court ruled on Jan. 24 that Twitter must identify anyone who broke France’s hate speech laws, Twitter has since refused to identify the users behind a handful of hateful and anti-Semitic messages, resulting in a $50 million lawsuit. Twitter argues it only needs to comply with U.S. laws and is thus protected by the full scope of the First Amendment and its free speech privileges, but France believes its Internet users should be subject to the country’s tighter laws against racist and hateful forms of expression.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Twitter Sued For $50M For Refusing To Identify Anti-Semitic Users
The NSA Is Training 13 Teams of Covert Hackers to Attack Other Countries
For the first time, the United States has officially disclosed plans to develop counterattack measures against foreign nations’ cyberattacks. General Keith Alexander, chief of the military’s Cyber Command and the NSA, told Congress yesterday the military is training 13 teams of programmers and computer experts to carry out offensive attacks. More »
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The NSA Is Training 13 Teams of Covert Hackers to Attack Other Countries
Canon Shows the Most Sensitive Camera Sensor In the World
An anonymous reader writes “Canon announced today that it successfully developed a super high-sensitivity full-frame CMOS sensor developed exclusively for video recording. The new Full HD sensor can capture light no other comparable sensor can see and it uses pixels 7.5 larger than the best commercial professional cameras in existence today.” There doesn’t seem to be a gallery of images, but the video demo (direct link to an mpeg4) makes it seem pretty sensitive. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Canon Shows the Most Sensitive Camera Sensor In the World
Linux Foundation’s Secure Boot Pre-Bootloader Released
hypnosec writes “The Linux Foundation’s UEFI Secure Boot pre-bootloader for independent Linux distros and software developers has finally been released. Announcing the release of the secure boot system James Bottomley noted that the signed pre-bootloader was delivered by Microsoft on February 6th. Bottomley has released two validated files PreLoader.efi and HashTool.efi. Bottomley has also created a bootable mini-USB image that provides “an EFI shell where the kernel should be and uses Gummiboot to boot.” Just last week the pre-bootloader had to be rewritten to accommodate booting of all versions of Linux.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Linux Foundation’s Secure Boot Pre-Bootloader Released
WTO Approves Suspension of US Copyright in Antigua
hydrofix writes “On Thursday TorrentFreak broke the story (verified by BBC) that the government of Antigua and Barbuda, a tiny island nation on the Caribbean, was planning to launch a legal ‘pirate’ website selling movies, music and software without paying a penny to U.S. copyright holders. Now, the World Trade Organization has given its final approval for the Antigua government to launch the website. The decision follows from long-running trade dispute between the countries, related to online gambling, which was ruled in Antigua’s favor in 2005. After the United States refused to compensate, the WTO granted Antigua the right to ‘suspend’ U.S. copyrights for up to $21 million annually.” From the article: “The Antiguan government further reiterated today that the term ‘piracy’ doesn’t apply in this situation, as they are fully authorized to suspend U.S. copyrights. It is a legal remedy that was approved by all WTO members, including the United States.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Cuba Turns On Submarine Internet Cable
angry tapir writes “A change in Internet traffic patterns over the past week suggests that Cuba may have turned on a fiber-optic submarine cable that links it to the global Internet via Venezuela. Routing analyst firm Renesys noticed that the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica began routing Internet traffic to Cuba’s state telecommunications company, Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (ETECSA). The Internet traffic is flowing with significantly lower latencies than before, indicating the connection is not solely using the three satellite providers that Cuba has relied on in the past for connectivity.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Cuba Turns On Submarine Internet Cable
Israel To Get Massive Countrywide Optical Upgrade
A Google Fiberhood-style rollout in the U.S., says a Goldman-Sachs estimate, would cost in the neighborhood of $140 billion. Even for Israel, a country approximately the size of New Jersey, there’s a high pricetag (“billions of shekels”) for installing fiber optics dense enough to reach most of the population, but just a massive fiber-optic rollout is planned, with the project led by Swedish firm Viaeuropa. If the scheme succeeds, it will cover two thirds of the country over the next 10 years or so. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Israel To Get Massive Countrywide Optical Upgrade
California’s marijuana boom is wreaking havoc on the environment
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the dramatic rise in pot farms in Northern California is starting to take a toll on the surrounding environment. Agricultural practices like water-siphoning, pesticide spraying, and littering are having a noticeable effect on what is a very fragile ecosystem. More »
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California’s marijuana boom is wreaking havoc on the environment