RIAA trying to institute ISP surcharge

Just like with blank CDs and digital music players, the RIAA is trying to make money off of something that has little to directly do with its business. It is now pressuring ISPs to add a surcharge to internet access fees that would go directly to the music executives' pockets. The rationale, they argue, is that... well, there's really no rationale, just another typical RIAA money-grab justification. Read about it at Wired and Slashdot.

FBI Abusing NSL

The FBI has been found to have been abusing National Security Letters, aka warrants sans judge. Here is the article from Wired and Slashdot. Is anyone surprised that when you give an investigative agency license to investigate anyone at the drop of a hat, it will (a lot)? I guess I just have more foresight than Dick Cheney, et al. Either that or they hate due process and privacy. Probably the latter.

Hack t3h heart

Ghee whiz, the future is here:

To the long list of objects vulnerable to attack by computer hackers, add the human heart.

The threat seems largely theoretical. But a team of computer security researchers plans to report Wednesday that it had been able to gain wireless access to a combination heart defibrillator and pacemaker.

They were able to reprogram it to shut down and to deliver jolts of electricity that would potentially be fatal — if the device had been in a person.