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Men Charged With Hijacking DOD Paychecks
A federal grand jury is indicting two Southern California men accused of using peer-to-peer file sharing software to hijack unsuspecting victims’ money, including paychecks from five Department of Defense employees. The defendants, San Diego federal prosecutors say, from 2005 and 2006 accessed the passwords and repeatedly logged into a DOD online payroll system known as “DFAS MyPay” to redirect paychecks to prepaid credit cards – about $20,000 in all. The accused obtained the passwords after the victims erroneously made them available on peer-to-peer networks, including Limewire and Bearshare.
Continue reading »Phone ringtones a “public performance”? EFF, AT&T say no
It isn’t often that you find AT&T and the Electronic Frontier Foundation in agreement, but consensus has been reached on one matter: ASCAP’s demand that wireless companies pay it license fees for ringtones is, well, ridiculous. On Wednesday EFF called the move “outlandish” and “a ploy to squeeze more money out of the mobile phone companies.” The advocacy group filed a friend of the court brief with the United States District Court for the Southern District New York this week, which is hearing the dispute between ASCAP, AT&T, and Verizon over whether the telcos have to pay the music licensing body royalties for wireless ringtones. Joining the amicus brief are Public Knowledge and the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Continue reading »Apple sued over iTunes pricing and "fraudulent" gift cards
An Illinois couple has filed a class action suit against Apple for selling “fraudulent” iTunes gift cards. At issue is the language printed on some cards that reads, “Songs are 99¢,” and as we all all know, a variety of tracks on the iTunes Store are now sold for $1.29 . The couple alleges that such language constitutes deception and fraud on Apple’s part, and that the gift cards end up being “worth less than what was represented” because some songs after April 7 of this year cost more than the 99¢ price.
Continue reading »Lying RIAA files more than 60 new cases
You know how RIAA boss Mitch ‘The Don’ Bainwol (right) claims his Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music extortion outfit has stopped filing new lawsuits against innocent people? He’s a liar, said p2pnet in March, going on, “He and Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music extortion unit, the RIAA, come out with one falsehood after another to be faithfully, and without question, repeated in the mainstream media. “The most glaring recent example was when Bainwol used the Wall Street Journal to bolster a claim he’d made in August, 2008, that the RIAA had abandoned the bizarre sue ‘em all marketing campaign it’d been running on behalf of its owners, the Big 4 record labels.” Last week , “Just for the heck of it I took a look to see whether the RIAA had filed new cases against individuals in April, in the Eastern District of New York and Southern District of New York,” said Recording Industry vs The People ’s Ray Beckerman, adding: “I found 1 in the Southern District, 2 in the Eastern District.
Continue reading »RIAA lied about cessation of lawsuits
RIAA spin-doctor-in-chief Mitch ‘The Don’ Bainwol (right) is a liar, said p2pnet in March, going on, “Lies, half-truths, dissemblance, mis- and disinformation and sophism are all standard tools used routinely by the RIAA”. He and Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music extortion unit, the RIAA, come out with one falsehood after another to be faithfully, and without question, repeated in the mainstream media. The most glaring recent example was when Bainwol used the Wall Street Journal to bolster a claim he’d made in August, 2008, that the RIAA had abandoned the bizarre sue ‘em all marketing campaign it’d been running on behalf of its owners, the Big 4 record labels.
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