Amnesty International vs. Internet companies

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

Hi,
 
Re: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGACT300162006 (Amnesty
International launches global campaign against internet repression)
 
Companies throughout the world routinely cooperate with law enforcement to
shut down Web sites and get people thrown in jail.  I am wondering how
Amnesty International sees the examples described in attached list of news
stories fitting into their anti-internet repression campaign.  The PairGain
story from 1999 in particular sounds similar to the Chinese Journalist story
that Amnesty cites.
 
Thanks,
Richard M. Smith
http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com
 
  _____  

 

FBI agent testifies at Pearl trial
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1981158.stm

An FBI agent has given evidence at the trial in Pakistan of four men accused
of the kidnap and murder of an American journalist, Daniel Pearl.
Ronald Joseph gave details of e-mails sent by a group claiming to have
abducted the Wall Street Journal reporter, who disappeared in January in
Karachi.

The FBI helped Pakistani investigators trace e-mails sent to news
organisations by the group and threatening to kill other US citizens in the
country.


  _____  


Arrest made in Bloomberg story hoax
http://news.com.com/Arrest+made+in+Bloomberg+story+hoax/2100-1023_3-224500.h
tml

A PairGain Technology employee has been arrested and charged with posting a
false news story on the Internet that drove up the company's stock 31
percent, U.S. attorneys said.

Authorities tracked Hoke to a fraudulent news story posted April 7 after
combing through network logs of at least five companies, according to an
affidavit.

FBI investigators combed through Angelfire and Yahoo logs and almost
immediately learned that the offending posts had been made from someone
using computers owned by Tustin, California-based PairGain. The
investigators also searched PairGain logs, Internet service provider
MindSpring, and email provider Hotmail, which Hoke allegedly used in posting
the false story. All of the companies complied with a subpoena to turn over
logs of Internet protocol addresses and other information collected.



  _____  


http://news.com.com/2100-1023-230256.html

Court papers: Smith admits to creating Melissa virus

The New Jersey man charged with creating the Melissa virus, which disrupted
computers around the world, admitted to investigators that he did it,
according to court papers.

AOL tipped the New Jersey attorney general's office to the virus's
originator. AOL said it had tracked the source through a listserver to
Monmouth County, New Jersey.


  _____  


Feds shut down spam ring for good
http://news.com.com/Feds+shut+down+spam+ring+for+good/2100-7350_3-6059048.ht
ml

In a deal with the Federal Trade Commission and the state of California, the
people behind a prolific spam operation have agreed to pay $475,000 and
refrain from illegal activity.

The deal, which does not include an admission of any wrongdoing, was reached
with Optin Global, Vision Media, Qing Kuang "Rick" Yang and Peonie Pui Ting
Chen, the FTC said in a statement Thursday.

The defendants violated federal and state laws by sending millions of junk
e-mail messages hawking mortgage loans and other products and services, the
FTC charged. Consumers forwarded nearly 2 million of the messages to the
agency.


  _____  


Secret Service busts suspected ID fraud ring
http://news.com.com/Secret+Service+busts+online+ID+fraud+ring/2100-7348_3-54
31419.html?tag=nefd.top

By going undercover on the Shadowcrew.com Web site, investigators were able
to find out which of the site's 4,000 members were actively taking part in
criminal conduct, according to a Secret Service statement. The investigation
led to two other Web sites--Cardplanet and Darkprofits--that the Secret
Service alleges are the online portals to other financial-crimes
organizations.

The Secret Service has replaced the Shadowcrew Web site with a new site that
outlines the charges. Nothing has connected the fraud ring to any known
terrorist group, Townsend said.




  _____  


MPAA sues newsgroup, P2P search sites
http://news.com.com/MPAA+sues+newsgroup%2C+P2P+search+sites/2100-1030_3-6042
739.html

The Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday that it sued a new
round of popular Web sites associated with movie piracy, including several
that serve as search engines but do not distribute files themselves.

"Disabling these powerful networks of illegal file distribution is a
significant step in stemming the tide of piracy on the Internet," John
Malcom, MPAA director of Worldwide Antipiracy operations, said in a
statement.




  _____  


BetOnSports forced to close down poker and casino websites
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9070-2277661,00.html

It emerged yesterday that BetOnSports, which on Monday was indicted on
charges ranging from running an illegal gambling business to money
laundering, has been forced to close down its poker and casino websites as
well as its betting sites.




  _____  


Feds shut down BitTorrent hub
http://news.com.com/Feds+shut+down+BitTorrent+hub/2100-1028_3-5720541.html

Federal agents shut down a popular Web site Wednesday that had distributed
copyrighted music and movies, including versions of the latest "Star Wars"
movie.

Homeland security agents from several divisions served search warrants on 10
people around the country suspected of being involved with the Elite
Torrents site, and took over the group's main server. The agency said it was
the first criminal enforcement action aimed at copyright infringers who use
the now-popular BitTorrent file-swapping technology.




  _____  


Patent holder unplugs porn network
http://news.com.com/Patent+holder+unplugs+porn+network/2100-1025_3-5081177.h
tml

A holding company that has a stack of streaming media patents briefly shut
down a network of pornography Web sites over the weekend in an ominous sign
for mainstream providers of streaming Web content.

The company, Acacia Research, on Friday said it had used a court injunction
to persuade a Web hosting provider to unplug the Go Entertainment network of
42 "adult entertainment" sites.




  _____  


ISP shuts down antiabortion site
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-221262.html

MindSpring has shut down the controversial antiabortion Nuremberg Files Web
site after a federal jury ruled that the site threatened the lives of about
200 abortion providers.




  _____  


Web site virus attack blunted
http://news.com.com/Web+site+virus+attack+blunted/2100-7349_3-5248279.html

Web surfers are no longer playing Russian roulette each time they visit a
Web site, security researchers say, now that a far-reaching Internet attack
has been disarmed.

The attack, which had turned some Web sites into points of digital
infection, was nipped in the bud Friday, when Internet engineers managed to
shut down a Russian server that had been the source of malicious code.
Compromised Web sites are still attempting to infect Web surfers' PCs by
referring them to the server in Russia, but that computer can no longer be
reached.




  _____  


DMCA axes sites discussing Mac OS for PCs
http://news.com.com/DMCA+axes+sites+discussing+Mac+OS+for+PCs/2100-1016_3-60
40983.html

Apple Computer appears to have invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
to stop the dissemination of methods allowing Mac OS X to run on chips from
Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.




  _____  


Yahoo closes chat rooms over child sex concerns
http://news.com.com/Yahoo+closes+chat+rooms+over+child+sex+concerns/2100-102
5_3-5759705.html

Yahoo has shut down its user-created chat rooms after a TV station reported
that some of them were being used by adults to promote sex with minors.




  _____  



Microsoft Seeks to Identify Phishing Scam Authors
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16257-2005Mar31.html

Microsoft filed 117 civil lawsuits against unnamed individuals in federal
district court in Seattle, hoping to learn the identities of those behind a
rash of fraudulent e-mail messages identified over the past six months that
specifically targeted customers of Microsoft's MSN Internet and Hotmail
e-mail services, the company said.




  _____  



Spammers increase pump-and-dump scams
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic
<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&art
icleId=9001612&source=rss_topic82> &articleId=9001612&source=rss_topic82

Spammers are profiting from share manipulation by coaxing victims into
investing in junk bonds.

The spammers purchase cheap shares (which artificially raises the stock
price) and sell them off as victim investment raises their value further.

Internet security analyst firm Sophoslabs calls the spam technique a "stock,
pump and dump campaign" and said it accounts for about 15%of all spam, up 5%
from last year.





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