Big Brother is Watching... Your Facebook

So I found something interesting while Stumbling my way through history class. Apparently, Facebook has initiated an interesting "security" (aka- keep Facebook's ass clear) feature. They are censoring all of their users emails. That's right folks: everything that you send in a Facebook message can, and will, be checked.

Now before everyone starts going all paranoid about the fact that all their email's are being read by Facebook, theres a few points you should consider. One, Facebook uses an automated checker that will scan all email for keywords, phrases, URL's and such. It's not like there are actual people sitting at a computer all day reading every word of your email (we call those people "stalkers"). Another point, Facebook isn't the only service that does this. Most email clients use similar programs to scan for, and remove, spam messages.

I decided to test their censorship, and here's what happens when you try to send "contraband" text (click for a larger version):



What was the terrible, terrible term that I put into this email message? A simple URL. I tried sending the URL for a torrent copy of a Don Quixote eBook (note that this was perfectly legal as the book is old enough that it is no longer bound under copyright laws), but it was blocked. Facebook wouldn't let me send the message, or allow my friend to receive it.

So is Facebook going too far? What do you guys think? Should they be censoring their users email? How "deep does the rabbit hole" go, as our good friend Morpheus would ask? It's possible for Facebook to search email for anything including drug usage, underage drinking, hackers, ponies, gum drop buttons... you get the point. So we ask you: They have the power to do this, they "technically" have the authority, but do they have the right? Should they?

Hackers Hit Time Magazine

Time magazine's website was hacked by an underground group of hacker punks earlier this week. The hacker group, known as Anonymous, has been behind other attacks against online entities. In one low blow, they put flashing pictures up on a forum for epilepsy. There attack against Time, changing the results of a poll to spell out "Marblecake also the game" with the first letter of each name, is the first that has been relatively harmless as far as hacker pranks go. It's good to see them starting to steer clear of their cruel jokes into lighter, more acceptable territory.

Check it out here.

Speaking of hacking, another attack was made against a fairly prominent web site last week. A major law firm who prosecuted the four men from Pirates Bay recently was recently vandalized by hackers as well. The MAQS law firm faced the wrath of the hacker community for putting away the notorious Pirate Bay operators. A denial of service attack was launched against there website, causing the server to crash. Although no lasting harm happened, the financial cost and labor required to fix it must be taken into account. Especially since it's the third attack against prosecutors of the Pirates Bay Crew.

Piractes Bay Update - Possible Mistrial?

Interesting turn of events in the Pirate Bay trial. Judge Tomas Norström, from Stockholm, who resided at the trial has recently come under fire from several of the "staff" members of Pirate's Bay. Norström is, apparently, a rather avid yay-copyright, nay-pirates kind of guy. He was part of two different copyright groups, which clearly could be basis for a conflict of interest. And we all know that conflict of interest in the courthouse is a very bad thing.

The decision should be made sometime within the next week or so, so I will try to keep you updated with what happens. To read Wired's coverage of the possible mistrial, go here.

Sweden Makes Pirates 'Walk the Plank'

Ok, not really. But they have convicted some of the most notorious scoundrels ever to loot the cyber-sea's. Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom, and Peter Sunde, operators of The Pirate Bay have been found guilty of copyright infringement.

The pirate's arguments against their charges were simple. They gave an infrastructure of torrents, but never hosted any of the pirated materials themselves. What does this mean? Basically, Pirate Bay users kept all of their media files on their own computers, and allowed The Pirate Bay and its other users to access and download their stored files directly from personal computers. Torrenting is very popular amongst internet users, but this is the first time it has resulted in actual jailtime for the owners of the torrenting site.

This is going to b a political hotspot now. By convicting the Pirate Bay operators, the internet pirating community is going to be pretty pissed. It will be interesting to see how this develops, because Pirates don't go down that easily. We'll try to keep you posted on the important events concerning the Pirate Bay trial as they happen.