Michael Lockyear Blog - Soapbox

Homeland Security Denies Entrance To Uk Tourist Because Twitter Joke

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:38:00 GMT

I have visited Saudi Arabia at least 20 times and never had a problem, however I would be concerned about visiting the US. Saudi Arabia is quite open (righteous?) about its restrictions, unlike the US which appears to be a democracy but by many accounts seems to behave like a police-state. The other important difference is that Saudi Arabia does not have the influence on the rest of the world that the US does.

Megaupload Indictment Shows That Google Does Actively Police Against Its Ads Showing Near Infringement

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:24:00 GMT

Difficult to understand the logic - nearly all search engine results go to pages that contained "copyrighted content"... (because copyright is automatic).

Apparently If Your Domain Has Dirt Name Section Safe Harbors Dont Apply Uh Oh

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:27:00 GMT

Techdirt is screwed now! Professionals like lawyers, accountants, doctors, etc often pay a hefty price for bad decisions, negligence, etc. What are the consequences for judges? (Hypothetically of course - I would not dare suggest that an actual judge had made a bad decision - it is probably illegal :) )

Klm To Allow People To Pick Seatmates Based Social Media Profiles

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:37:00 GMT

Possibly useful if it can identify someone on the plane that you know (FB friend etc)?

Scribd Comes Out Against Sopa Making Documents Disappear

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:20:00 GMT

Did some idiot / politician / uniformed thug confuse Wikipedia for Wikileaks? Or is it because Wikipedia links to copyrighted content?

Iran Outlaws Vpns Any Other Attempt To Get Around Filters

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:58:00 GMT

When VPN's become illegal, TOR over hacked WiFi will just take its place (and probably more secure)...

Iran Outlaws Vpns Any Other Attempt To Get Around Filters

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:50:00 GMT

...politicians of course will be exempt...

Times Change Dominant Tech Firms Change

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 08:21:00 GMT

Government gets involved because they like to show uppity corporates / individuals(i.e. those that are not paying lobbyists / bribes) who is in charge! I suspect that many of the laws we have today exist for this reason. It is ironic that there are people who believe government is competent to tell business / individuals how to run their affairs when government cannot seem to manage its own.

Patent Trolls

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 07:34:00 GMT

Is it defamation...for a lawyer? If I wanted to hire a lawyer as an attack dog, I would WANT the biggest a*hole in town! Sadly I can envisage a situation where lawyers might actually use their position on a troll page to get business...

Interesting

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:11:00 GMT

or Google...

Extensive Quotes Used W/o Permission/linkback

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:04:00 GMT

wtf! Does she know that this is TechDirt? This will probably get its own article...

Man Facing Years Jail Recording Police Illinois Assistant Ag Says No Right To Record Police

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:30:00 GMT

The reason that you are seeing more and more of these cases is that you live in a police-state...you just haven't realized it. The moment the American people allowed their government to openly hold people without trial and commit torture, America became a police-state. Expect to see more of the same and worse... No right to carry a firearm...even if you actually do have the right (Connecticut): www.theagitator.com/2011/08/27/ignorance-of-the-law-is-no-excuse-unless-youre-in-law-enforcement-2/ No right to resist criminal police action (Indiana): http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_ec169697-a19e-525f-a532-81b3df229697.html

Man Facing Years Jail Recording Police Illinois Assistant Ag Says No Right To Record Police

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:56:00 GMT

When "the law" is the problem, the law cannot be the solution.

Could New Zealands Parliament Lose Its Internet Connection Under Its Own Three Strikes Law

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:42:00 GMT

Politicians, like clever criminals, are above the law...EVERYONE knows that!

Government Love Other People's Money

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:44:00 GMT

Apple has money in the bank...the US government doesn't...I would be concerned :)

Tall Poppy Syndrome

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 07:02:00 GMT

I am a cynic - I believe that governments targets companies that become too uppity. (Apple should be concerned as well). I love Google, and would happily pay for their products if I had to...it saddens me that they might be distracted by this sort of action. (like Microsoft and IBM before them). It also surprises me that the American people let their government subsidize and bail-out broken industries (banks, GM, etc), while at the same time undermining the businesses that are successful. Up until now America has been lucky that they have been able to come up with the "next big thing" - I am not sure that this will always be the case.

Trying To Ban Encryption.

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:05:00 GMT

As will some of the commentators on this blog!

Potential Lulz Security Experts Think Uk Police Tricked Into Arresting Wrong Person Over Lulzsec Hacks

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:39:00 GMT

They wanted to ride the pony...

CSI Is Fiction!

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:13:00 GMT

Script kiddies would NOT have been able to hack: ~HB Gary Federal (Internet Security experts ... lol) ~Italian Police (the cyber crime evidence server ... lol) While it is possible that certain intelligence agencies have tools and people at the their disposal which may allow them to "see where the tunnels lead", I very much doubt that the authorities would allow these tools (if they actually exist) to be used in garden variety criminal matters and certainly would not allow these techniques to be documented in court (such techniques would have to break a few laws). I suspect that many of the arrests that have been made over the last few months are related to the use of the LOIC software as it is not really feasible to stealth the identity of machines running a DDoS tool (proxy'ing DDoS scale traffic would be difficult). As for the identity of Topiary...maybe it is kid in Scotland, or maybe a kid in Sweden...or maybe this is all just disinformation (which is what I would expect from the spokesperson of a hacker group).

Potential Lulz Security Experts Think Uk Police Tricked Into Arresting Wrong Person Over Lulzsec Hacks

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:58:00 GMT

The masterminds behind LulzSec and Anonymous have established that they are competent hackers. A competent hacker will access the internet from an open / hacked wifi connection / university internet lab, and route his / her handy-work through a network of rooted servers (spread around the world), with possibly a VPN (paid for with stolen credit card) and/ or TOR thrown in for good measure. If the authorities are able to trace an attack through this web to its origin (and this in itself is unlikely) the person that they will arrest will be a hapless idiot with an insecure wifi account / or rooted machine. Of course anyone of us could be that hapless idiot as the hackers have demonstrated that they are able to make "experts" from law enforcement and internet security companies look like infants.

Homeland Security Finally Admits To Latest Domain Seizures Arrests Guy Selling Unauthorized Sons Anarchy T Shirts

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 06:25:00 GMT

Breaking news: An American politician has called for your arrest (or worse) on the grounds of disseminating information considered vital to national security...

Man Made Famous Over Arrest Videotaping Police Arrested Again While Videotaping Police

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:52:00 GMT

Punishment for what exactly? Felony use of a camera? When the police are indistinguishable from criminals it becomes a case of he who has the most guns wins. In my country the poorly-paid police have learnt the hard way that the serious criminals have more money, faster cars and bigger guns. As a result crime is pretty rampant. When the bad guys expect the police to shoot first and ask questions later, they just get more guns and make sure that they shoot first instead.

The Land Of Freedom And Liberty

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:18:00 GMT

I would not expect anything less from a country a where you can actually go to jail for growing your own veggies! [ http://www.boingboing.net/2011/07/12/woman-faces-jail-tim.html ]

Wikileaks Can Receive Visa Mastercard Donations Again Visa Doesnt Understand Why

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:03:00 GMT

Both VISA and MASTERCARD have both had to pay out billions of dollars in anti-trust cases in the past...they should tread carefully. Maybe time time to start pushing for their break-up?

Does Second Video Showing How To Hack Nyt Paywall Violate Dmca

mikeblogs@michaellockyear.com (Michael Lockyear) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:05:00 GMT

I don't click on NYT links...I don't think that their content is worth the effort it would take to disable javascript or fiddle with the URL.