Bartle Doo Article Archives

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Computers

Does your IP address betray you to data-harvesters?

July 20, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

In today’s world of hackers, stalkers, and cybercriminals, not to mention government spy programs and commercial sites that collect information about you for advertising purposes, is there a way to surf the Web and keep your privacy intact? Or does that mere fact that you have an IP address mean that your identity is out there for the taking?

Turns out, there’s no easy answer to this question. (Watch the slideshow version.)

Legally, an IP address does not constitute personal identifiable information, according to two recent court cases.

In July 2009, in a case involving Microsoft, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled that IP addresses do not constitute personal identifiable information (PII). And in a separate case in 2011, the Illinois Central District Court also ruled that an IP address does not — by itself — qualify as personal information that can accurately identify a specific Internet user.

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Computers

Infor hit with lawsuit over alleged software project failure

July 16, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Infor has been sued by a customer who claims an ERP (enterprise resource planning) project that was supposed to take six months instead allegedly dragged on for well over a year without any useful results.

Buckley Powder, a Colorado company that offers explosives and other products for mining and construction firms, entered an agreement with Infor in December 2011, according to the suit. Under its terms, Infor was supposed to install its SX.e software at Buckley, which had been using another Infor system called TakeStock. Both applications handle processes related to wholesale distribution.

The work was to take no longer than 180 days, but now 18 months has passed with no working system in place, Buckley said in its suit, which was filed last week in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

Instead, “the project has been plagued by setbacks and non-performance on behalf of Infor and no reasonable solution has been presented,” the suit states.

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Computers

Church, advocacy groups sue NSA over surveillance

July 16, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Nineteen organizations, including a church and gun ownership and marijuana legalization groups, have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. National Security Agency for a surveillance program that targets U.S. residents’ phone records.

The groups accuse the NSA, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation of violating their members’ First Amendment rights of association by illegally collecting their telephone call records.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Tuesday, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, include the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles, the California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees, Free Press, the Free Software Foundation, Greenpeace, the National Association for the Reform of Marijuana Laws’ California Chapter, Public Knowledge, and TechFreedom.

The groups object to the NSA’s bulk collection of telephone records, disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in early June. The collection of all Verizon phone records, including records of calls made, the location of the phone, the time of the call and the duration of the call, violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment by giving “the government a dramatically detailed picture into our associational ties,” said Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, representing the plaintiffs.

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Computers

Apple-Samsung phone battle to hit appeals court in August

July 15, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

A court’s decision not to prevent multiple Samsung handsets from being sold in the U.S. despite their being found to infringe Apple patents will go before an appeal’s court in early August.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., said Monday it will hear 15 minutes of oral arguments in the case from Samsung and Apple attorneys on August 9.

The hearing comes almost a year after a jury at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose rejected arguments from Samsung and found that the company willfully set out to copy elements of Apple’s iPhone when designing hardware and software for 26 of its phones and tablets.

The case, which saw Apple awarded more than $1 billion in damages, captivated the technology industry, and the appeals process is expected to be equally closely watched.

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Computers

Pixar, Lucasfilm said to settle employee no-poaching lawsuit

July 15, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Pixar and Lucasfilm have settled a lawsuit by workers alleging an illegal cartel formed by seven technology companies including Apple, Google and Intel, lawyers have informed the court.

The class counsels have informed the court in a letter that a settlement was reached, Judge Lucy Koh of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose division wrote in an order on Sunday.

Details of the settlement were not mentioned. The parties expect completing documentation of the proposed settlement and will submit it for court approval “in the near future,” according to the letter to the judge on Friday.

Five engineers alleged in the lawsuit, individually and on behalf of a class of all those similarly situated, that Adobe Systems, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm and Pixar, all high-tech companies with principal place of business in the San Francisco-Silicon Valley area of California, were involved in an “overarching conspiracy” to fix and suppress employee compensation. The companies are alleged to have restricted employee mobility by setting up “Do Not Call” lists and putting each firm’s employees off-limits to the other companies.

Articles of Interest

Clinton Supporter Suspected Of Illegal Donations

July 12, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Breaking News

Hillary Clinton SC Clinton supporter suspected of illegal donations

Employees of a Washington, D.C.-based accounting firm that federal prosecutors called an “assembly line for illegal campaign contributions” donated more than $500,000 to federal candidates and committees over the past 10 years, including nearly $50,000 to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, according to a Center for Public Integrity review of records.

An employee and a consultant for the firm, formerly run by Jeffrey Thompson, pleaded guilty last month in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to making so-called straw donations to several federal and D.C. campaigns. The two men — Lee Calhoun and Stanley Straughter — made donations in their names and their family members’ names and were then reimbursed by Thompson or his firm, Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio & Associates.

The charges stem from a federal investigation of the 2010 campaign of Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray. At the center of the probe is Thompson, who has been implicated by prosecutors as the financier of an illegal, off-the-books $650,000 “shadow campaign” that federal prosecutors say helped get Gray elected.

An analysis of campaign finance records provided by the Center for Responsive Politics found that Thompson and other donors who listed the accounting firm as their employer have given at least $514,350 to federal candidates and political action committees since the 2002 campaign cycle, including $36,900 from Calhoun, the employee who pleaded guilty last month.

The biggest beneficiary of those funds was former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose campaigns took in $50,400. Clinton’s presidential campaign committee received $40,300 from employees at Thompson’s firm in November 2007, when she attended an intimate fundraiser at the company’s headquarters in downtown D.C., according to three people who were at the event.

Read more at The Center for Public Integrity. By Alan Suderman and Ben Wieder.

Hearing for Miss. man in suspicious letters case

April 29, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

The Mississippi man charged with making and possessing ricin as part of the investigation into poison-laced letters sent to President Barack Obama and others is expected in court.

The FBI arrested 41-year-old James Everett Dutschke (DUHS’-kee) at his house in Tupelo, Miss., on Saturday.

He’s charged with making and possessing ricin for use as a weapon.

He’s scheduled to appear Monday in U.S. District Court in Oxford, Miss.

Tests show the letters were tainted with ricin. They were sent April 8 to Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and an 80-year-old Mississippi judge.

Dutschke faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Mississippi man charged in suspicious letters case

April 28, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

The arrest of a 41-year-old Mississippi martial arts instructor in a probe of poison-laced letters sent to President Barack Obama and others capped a week in which investigators initially zeroed in on a different man.

Federal authorities arrested James Everett Dutschke (DUHS’-kee) early Saturday at his home in Tupelo. He is charged with making and possessing the poisonous ricin for use as a weapon.

Dutschke is expected to appear Monday in U.S. District Court in Oxford. He faces up to life in prison, if convicted.

Earlier in the week, Dutschke insisted he had nothing to do with the letters.

Charges were dropped previously against another man, 45-year-old Paul Kevin Curtis. Curtis’ lawyers say he had been framed.

Dutschke’s attorney, Lori Nail Basham, said she had no comment.

US says Usama bin Laden's name belongs in New York terror trial

April 28, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Usama bin Laden’s name should not be banned from the terrorism trial of an Egyptian Islamic preacher despite claims by defense lawyers that it would be prejudicial toward their client, the government has told a federal judge.

Federal prosecutors said in court papers filed Friday in U.S. District Court that references to the deceased founder of al-Qaida will not be prejudicial or inflammatory and are important to explaining the case against Mustafa Kamel Mustafa to the jury.

They noted that Mustafa is charged with conspiring to provide or providing material support to al-Qaida and said the fact that bin Laden was the leader of the group at the time “is plainly relevant.”

Mustafa was extradited to the U.S. from Great Britain in October to face charges that he conspired with Seattle men to set up a terrorist training camp at a ranch in Bly, Ore.

The government plans to prove the camp, which never opened, was to be used for training in military tactics, weapons, assassinations, hand-to-hand combat and explosives.

Mustafa also is charged with helping to abduct two American tourists and 14 other people in Yemen in 1998. He has pleaded not guilty. The trial is scheduled for March.

In papers filed earlier this month, defense lawyers asked the trial judge to exclude bin Laden’s name, saying it would be “irrelevant and inflammatory” to Mustafa.

“Bin Laden‘s leadership of al-Qaida is irrelevant to the charges, and its inclusion in the indictment is highly prejudicial to Mr. Mustafa,” the lawyers said. “The danger of unfair prejudice is overwhelming in this case, because of the toxic impact the mere mention of Usama bin Laden would likely have on a jury.”

But prosecutors offered multiple reasons why the mention of bin Laden was important. They noted that one of two men Mustafa is accused of sending from London to the United States to help establish the Oregon training camp had sent a letter to bin Laden saying in part: “We love you here” and “I ask God to help you here, and support you to fulfill His desire.”

The government said the letter would support its argument that the efforts to create the training camp were carried out in support of al-Qaida.

“Even though the letter does not make mention of al-Qaida by name, because bin Laden was the leader of al-Qaida, such expressions of loyalty to bin Laden are indistinguishable from expressions of loyalty to al-Qaida,” it said.

The request by the defense is not the first time lawyers in a terrorism case have sought to exclude the mention of bin Laden or other terrorism references. Generally, judges have sided with the government.

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/AIKVCd2yIxg/

Florida becomes 4th state to sue BP over oil spill

April 20, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

The state of Florida filed a lawsuit Saturday against oil company BP and cement contractor Halliburton over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, becoming the fourth state to seek damages for the 2010 disaster.

The suit, among other things, faults BP for not changing the batteries on the rig’s blowout preventer. Halliburton was blamed for installing faulty cement barriers that were supposed to gird the well against oil pressure.

The 40-page complaint by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was filed in U.S. District Court in Panama City. The federal court has jurisdiction under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

Bondi filed suit on the three-year anniversary of the tragedy that killed 11 rig workers in the Gulf of Mexico. Florida is now the fourth state to sue over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill; Mississippi sued on Friday. Cities and counties along the coast also have filed.

A BP spokesman declined comment and Halliburton spokespeople were not immediately available. A note on BP‘s website Saturday from BP America Chairman and President John Mingé said, “On the third anniversary of the tragic accident in the Gulf of Mexico, our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of our 11 colleagues who died and those injured.”

A battery-operated blowout preventer, powered by “a series of 9-volt battery packs,” was supposed to activate automatically but didn’t, according to the suit, because BP didn’t replace the batteries.

“BP knew or should have known that the manufacturer recommended replacement of the batteries in the battery packs at least once per year,” the suit said. Divers later couldn’t manually turn it on, either. The suit also blames BP for installing a defective valve on the same blowout preventer.

The spill fouled 1,100 miles of beaches and marsh along the Gulf coast, keeping away waves of summer tourists who swim and fish in the waters.

“Indeed, Florida relies on the pristine nature of the Gulf of Mexico as the source for much of the attraction of patrons, tourists and visitors,” the suit said.

The suit focuses on the state’s economic losses and includes negligence and other claims under federal, state and maritime law.

Bondi argues that the 2010 spill cost the state a variety of

Movies & TV

Warner Bros. Wins Superman Case

April 19, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Superman turned 75 this week, but it wasn’t just the Man of Steel celebrating, as Warner Bros. got some great news of its own yesterday.

Thanks to a ruling in the U.S. District Court, the studio ended its legal issues with the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel.

The ruling affirms a contested 2001 agreement between the estate and Warner, with the Siegels granting the studio full rights to Superman and Superboy.

The history of the case can be read over at Deadline, but the decision means that the studio can now make Superboy movies alongside their Man of Steel reboot should they so wish. Is that a good idea? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and check out our feature on what Superman means to us.

From: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/19/warner-bros-wins-superman-case

Computers

Motorola patent that got Apple's push mail banned in Germany could be invalid, court says

April 19, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

A Motorola Mobility patent that was successfully used to force Apple to turn off its iCloud push email services for users in Germany last year could be invalid, the District Court in Mannheim, Germany, said on Friday.

The court said it doubted the validity of Motorola’s patent entitled “Multiple Pager Status Synchronization System and Method,” also known as the push notification patent, in a lawsuit between Motorola and Microsoft. Google-owned Motorola alleged that several Windows Phone devices in Germany infringed on this patent, according to Microsoft.

The court however decided to postpone a decision in the case pending a validity procedure about the patent in the German Federal Patent Court, Mannheim court spokesman Joachim Bock said in an email.

“This decision is a win for consumers, and we’re gratified the Court has not allowed Google to obtain an injunction and has expressed doubts about the validity of Motorola’s patent,” David Howard, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Microsoft, said in an emailed statement.

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From: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2035754/motorola-patent-that-got-apples-push-mail-banned-in-germany-could-be-invalid-court-says.html#tk.rss_all

Computers

Firm says Epicor wants to 'monopolize' services market for its ERP software

April 17, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

An IT services firm recently sued by Epicor has responded, calling the claims “unwarranted” and part of an attempt on Epicor’s part to “monopolize” the services market for its ERP (enterprise resource planning) software.

Epicor sued Alternative Technology Solutions in March, alleging that the company illegally used Epicor’s software to create and sell “bolt-on” products and services. Such add-ons can’t be created without access to Epicor’s applications, but Alternative has never licensed the software, nor has Epicor given a third party permission to give Alternative access, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Instead, Alternative has “duplicated” the software or managed to access it illegally, violating Epicor’s intellectual property as well as software license agreements between Epicor and customers, according to the suit. Alternative has also given customers the erroneous impression that it is an authorized Epicor partner through the use of Epicor trademarks, the suit alleges.

A number of Alternative employees, including CEO Vivian Keena, once worked at Epicor.

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From: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2035457/firm-says-epicor-wants-to-monopolize-services-market-for-its-erp-software.html#tk.rss_all

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/haaWEa8dQwk/

Indiana man faces sentencing in Ohio mosque fire

April 16, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

A former Marine from Indiana is set to be sentenced after admitting he started a fire inside a mosque in Ohio because he wanted revenge for the killings of American soldiers overseas.

A deal between federal prosecutors and Randy Linn of St. Joe, Ind., calls for him to receive a 20-year sentence at a hearing scheduled Tuesday afternoon in Toledo.

A U.S. District Court judge turned down Linn’s attempt last month to withdraw his guilty plea.

His attorney wanted the judge to throw out the plea so the 52-year-old Linn could undergo a competency exam.

Linn said in court that he set the fire at The Islamic Center of Greater Toledo last fall after seeing images of wounded soldiers in the news.

The fire caused extensive damage at the mosque.

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/TBfx2NvuQ8g/

Ga. prison guards accused of attacking inmates

April 16, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

A deputy warden and seven members of a specially trained team of guards at a Georgia prison have been indicted on charges of repeatedly attacking inmates.

The indictment, filed this week in U.S. District Court, accuses members of the Correctional Emergency Response Team of beating inmates in retaliation for previous assaults on prison guards at Macon State Prison in Oglethorpe.

The indictment outlines several attacks that prosecutors say was carried out by the guards.

For instance, five of the team members are accused of either attacking an inmate in a prison gymnasium or watching the attack and not preventing it around Dec. 14, 2010.

The defendants are also accused of taking steps to mislead investigators about the attacks and cover up evidence.

Computers

Judge says Apple, Motorola pursuing business strategy in court

April 11, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

A court in Florida said that Apple and Motorola Mobility have no interest in quickly and efficiently resolving a patent infringement lawsuit, but are instead using their litigations around the world as “a business strategy that appears to have no end.”

Referring to the “parties‘ obstreperous and cantankerous conduct,” Judge Robert N. Scola of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, described it as not a proper use of the court.

The judge was reacting to the litigation before the court which now includes over 180 claims asserted from 12 patents, in which the parties dispute the meaning of over 100 terms from those claims, according to an order which was entered into the court record on Wednesday. “Both Apple and Motorola greatly expanded the scope of this patent litigation by, among other things, supplementing patent infringement and invalidity contentions,” the judge wrote.

The parties agree that the case needs to be simplified, primarily through voluntarily agreeing to drop patents and claims from the case, but it is not a surprise that they have been unable to agree on how to accomplish this goal, the judge wrote in his order.

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From: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2033813/judge-says-apple-motorola-pursuing-business-strategy-in-court.html#tk.rss_all

Prosecutors seek to end myth of Utah mountain man

April 10, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

At first, many locals took to calling Troy James Knapp the mountain man. Even victims of his many cabin break-ins marveled over his ability to slip back into the woods and evade authorities over six years.

But on Wednesday, as the trim 45-year-old whom police characterize as a reclusive survivalist made his first court appearance by grainy video feed from Sanpete County jail, a prosecutor sought to dispel Knapp’s image as some sort of folk hero.

“He wants to be viewed as a gentle drifter in the forest, a romantic figure,” Brody Keisel, the county attorney, told The Associated Press. “I’m convinced he’s a criminal. When I grew up, a mountain man was different. This guy was going from cabin to cabin and enjoying the night in a queen-sized bed.”

Knapp appeared by video for only 10 minutes inside 6th District Court in the rural town of Manti, answering “yes” to Judge Marvin Bagley about his identity and whether he understood the latest of 29 burglary-related felony and misdemeanor charges filed against him across four Utah counties. The charges could keep him behind bars for life.

Authorities say Knapp, whose identity was revealed a year ago from cabin surveillance photos and fingerprints, has been regaling detectives with stories about his long wilderness run and how he managed to evade them.

“He says, ‘You don’t know all about the burglaries,'” Sevier County Sheriff Nathan Curtis said.

Knapp also has been telling authorities where he stored stolen weapons and camping gear, according to investigators.

“He’s trying to help us get property back to folks,” Sanpete County Sheriff Brian Nielson said.

In Sanpete County, Knapp faces initial charges of three cabin burglaries, theft of a hatchet, GPS device and other items and criminal mischief for broken windows.

The judge assigned a public defender after finding Knapp had no money to afford a lawyer.

The fugitive who authorities say had a fondness for whisky and a dislike of people had only to face a closed-circuit camera Tuesday. He wasn’t immediately required to enter a plea. His next procedural court hearing was set for April 17.

A police helicopter flushed Knapp from