Neowin News Feed for: Illegal

US senator claims NSA buys user data, including internet metadata, without warrants

Anushe Fawaz — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 17:16:01 +0000

A letter by Senator Ron Wyden sheds light on the illegal buying of sensitive American user data by the National Security Agency of the U.S. It also exposes the data broker industry. Read more...

UK's Online Safety Bill sees yet another delay

Paul Hill — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 15:16:01 +0000

Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons, has said the Online Safety Bill has been temporarily paused for further scrutiny. She assured colleagues that it would be back soon. Read more...

Meta details its latest approach to combat Facebook data scraping

Usama Jawad — Sat, 10 Sep 2022 10:12:02 +0000

Meta has highlighted a recent technical implementation in Facebook that is designed to deter unauthorized data scrapers from guessing and repeatedly accessing URLs to access user data. Read more...

All cryptocurrencies and related transactions are illegal in China, rules Supreme Court

Alap Naik Desai — Sat, 26 Feb 2022 01:50:01 +0000

All "cryptocurrency transactions" are now illegal in China, ruled the country's Supreme Court. The broad nature of the ruling suggests investing or trading in crypto tokens could be criminal. Read more...

Russia gives Google 24 hours to delete illegal content or be "throttled"

Subir Kathuria — Tue, 25 May 2021 01:56:01 +0000

Russia's Roskomnadzor internet commission has ordered Google to comply with its order of removing illegal content or face fines and have its services throttled in the country. It gave Google 24 hours. Read more...

Google has developed AI to help combat child sexual abuse material, gives it free to NGOs

Paul Hill — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 15:08:01 +0000

Google has announced a new AI tool that is now part of its Content Safety API. The new tool is intended to help organisations find and remove child sexual abuse materials on their platforms. Read more...

Sony begins sending copyright warnings to World Cup streamers

Paul Hill — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 13:04:01 +0000

Sony has been working preemptively to combat World Cup piracy online. The firm, which holds the rights to the event in some Asian countries, told streaming sites not to stream the event, or else. Read more...

Catalan referendum app removed from Google Play Store

Paul Hill — Sat, 30 Sep 2017 12:46:01 +0000

Google has yanked a pro-independence Catalonian referendum app from the Google Play Store for users inside of Spain. It's part of efforts by the courts to stifle a referendum taking place. Read more...

Scotland: Internet porn blamed for the rise in under-18s sex crimes

Paul Hill — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 04:56:01 +0000

Scotland is due to hold a summit later this week in order to work out how it can tackle the amount of under-18s committing sexual crimes. Experts are blaming online porn for the sharp rise. Read more...

China detains four WeChat users for spreading false rumours about earthquakes

Paul Hill — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 02:36:02 +0000

China's Ministry of Public Security has put four people into detention for causing panic by spreading false rumours that subsequent earthquakes, following the one in Sichuan, had hit the country. Read more...

LocalBitcoins traders jailed over money transmission business and narcotics

Paul Hill — Wed, 31 May 2017 01:48:01 +0000

A father and son in the US have been sentenced to 46 and 106 months in jail respectively for operating an unlicensed money transmission business through the popular bitcoin exchange, LocalBitcoins. Read more...

The sale of piracy-configured media boxes is now illegal, rules European Court of Justice

Florin Bodnarescu — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 10:22:01 +0000

In a decision that's bound to have repercussions throughout the Union, the European Court of Justice has ruled that the sale of media boxes pre-configured for piracy is now illegal. Read more...

According to a study, five million adults in the UK are streaming illegally

Paul Hill — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 19:18:01 +0000

The extent to which piracy is impacting sales of premium TV content in the UK has been revealed by a YouGov study. It shows that five million people are illegally streaming, and more are planning to. Read more...

Terbium Labs: Most of the dark web content, visible through Tor, is legal

Paul Hill — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 04:50:01 +0000

A new study by Terbium Labs has shown that the majority of the dark web, accessible through Tor, is in fact legal content. Drugs make up, by far, the largest section of illegal content. Read more...

Bitcoin issuers face 7 years in Russia's jails

Paul Hill — Sat, 12 Mar 2016 02:20:01 +0000

An amendment to a proposed law in Russia will see those issuing surrogate currencies - such as Bitcoin - face up to seven years in prison. The new amendment also introduces fines of up to £25,000. Read more...

Dating apps lead to rise in first-date rapes

Paul Hill — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 05:30:01 +0000

The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has said that due to increase in dating platform use, first-date rapes have increased six-fold. Most offenders were found to have no prior convictions. Read more...

Music streaming site 'Wefre' paused to check legality

Paul Hill — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 18:44:01 +0000

New music streaming site, Wefre, launched two weeks ago with a Kickstarter campaign. Now it has postponed the site and cancelled the Kickstarter fearing legal ramifications. Read more...

Meth-carrying drone crashes near US-Mexico border

Usama Jawad — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 19:22:01 +0000

A drone carrying 3 kilograms of meth crashed in a supermarket's parking lot a couple of days ago. The Tijuana Police and other authorities have varying views regarding its whereabouts. Read more...

City of London police fight piracy by ad switching

Vlad Dudau — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 10:44:35 +0000

The City of London police have announced a new campaign that's aimed at depriving websites with illegal content of their ad revenue. The police use a program to replace paid ads with a police warning. Read more...

UK to block pornography by default; it corrodes your childhood

Paul Ferson — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 12:20:33 +0000

A change in UK law means that pornography is to be blocked by default, becoming an opt-in feature. The move is ostensibly an effort to limit access to illegal content or underage content. Read more...

Federal authorities seize Bitcoins for what may be the first time

Paul Ferson — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 21:21:54 +0000

In what may be the first case of its kind, federal authorities have seized Bitcoins, the all-digital currency, from a South Carolina man for breaching the Controlled Substances Act in the USA. Read more...

Official figures show music and video piracy on the rise in the UK

Andy Weir — Wed, 29 May 2013 07:10:56 +0000

The latest figures from the UK's communications regulator, Ofcom, show an increase in online piracy, with 18% of all web users aged 12 and over accessing content online via an illegal source. Read more...

Watching DVDs on Linux is (mostly) illegal

Tim Schiesser — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 01:47:22 +0000

The most common, free method of watching a video DVD on Linux actually circumvents the CSS protection on the disc, which is technically illegal under the DMCA in the United States Read more...

UK Court orders blocking of more "illegal" websites

Steven Parker — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 11:38:51 +0000

The UK High Court strikes back: Following last years ruling that The Pirate Bay and its known addresses must be blocked by all major ISPs, the Court has now added three other sites to the ruling. Read more...

Google Takedown requests increase by 1137% compared to 2011

Paul Ferson — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 18:18:52 +0000

Google's Takedown requests have increased by over 1,000% compared to last year. The search giant now handles more than a million takedown requests weekly, from various groups and reporters. Read more...

Censoring the Pirate Bay is pointless, people bypass it easily

Paul Ferson — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 13:07:25 +0000

After The Pirate Bay was blocked in an attempt to curb illegal downloading, it has been found that the exercise was ineffective. Even information shared by ISPs seem to correspond with this. Read more...

Hacker claims to have gained access to Visa and MasterCard details; mass bank breach

Stefano Elia — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 18:54:49 +0000

A hacker going by the name of Reckz0r or "Jeremy", claims to have gained over 50GB of data from Visa and Mastercard customers, it would be wise to watch your credit info closely. Read more...

Trivia Tuesday: Some facts about software piracy

Tim Schiesser — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:07:41 +0000

Here at Neowin we're hoping you're enjoying your Tuesday, as this week's Trivia focuses on piracy, which is still a major issue for content providers worldwide. Read on for some facts about piracy Read more...

LimeWire goes sour, court orders immediate shut down

Andrew Lyle — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 23:42:54 +0000

LimeWire's days of file-sharing are over after a court ruling today is forcing the company to stop distributing and supporting LimeWire's P2P file-sharing service. As per the court ruling, LimeWire "intentionally encouraged direct infringement" and that... Read more...

EU agrees with guidelines on Internet restriction

Matthew Hopson — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:54:22 +0000

European MEP's and Council representatives have agreed on a set of guidelines that state restrictions to Internet usage may "only be imposed if they are appropriate, proportionate and necessary within a democratic society," and that... Read more...

7 million 'criminal' downloaders in UK

James Hall — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:20:47 +0000

According to the BBC, more than seven million people in Britain are illegally downloading copyrighted materials. Given the numbers involved, these cannot be all students. While many of these "criminals" do not know what they... Read more...

EA accidentally ships illegal weapons to the press

Sam Symons — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:24:11 +0000

What sort of shenanigans have you been up to this time, EA? It seems that during the promotional period for the Godfather II, EA may have sent out brass knuckles to members of the press,... Read more...

Quarter of British government databases are illegal

Matthew Hopson — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:53:42 +0000

A quarter of all databases created and used by the British government are illegal, and should be scrapped or redesigned, according to a report from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust,... Read more...

Cyber-squatting and phishing attacks on the rise

Matthew Hopson — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:09:27 +0000

A study carried out by brand specialist MarkMonitor has reported that abuse of the World's top brands, through practices such as cyber-squatting and phishing, is rising. The most common form of abuse is still cyber-squatting,... Read more...

Apple says jailbreaking is illegal

Brad Sams — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:54:13 +0000

Apple has for the first time gone on record to say that jailbreaking your iPhone or iPod Touch is copyright infringement. Every three years the US copyright office holds a rulemaking session with... Read more...

1 month until Belgian game rentals are illegal

Mike Brown — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:49:07 +0000

Following an announcement in June stating that Belgian rental shops will no longer be able to rent out newly released games, another announcement has been made that states from December 1st it will be illegal... Read more...

Music industry "should embrace illegal websites"

James Hall — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:26:15 +0000

The music industry should embrace illegal file-sharing websites, according to a study of Radiohead's last album release that found huge numbers of people downloaded it illegally even though the band allowed fans to pay little... Read more...

90% of music downloads illegal

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:07:16 +0000

The music industry has said that while it has started making money from music downloading, more than 90 percent of downloaded music is illegal. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, said record... Read more...

Judge Rules Internet Spying Illegal

Sat, 08 Sep 2007 23:03:58 +0000

In a case brought against the Department of Justice by the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Security Archive and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Judge Victor Marrero, of the District of Columbia, has determined... Read more...

AMD Claims Intel Collected $60 Billion in Illegal Profits

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:47:04 +0000

The latest development in a pending antitrust suit by CPU manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) against its cheif rival, Intel, comes in the form of a glimpse at the case AMD will present in a... Read more...