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3 September 2012 | V3.co.uk

Facebook cracks down on click fraud

Facebook is looking to crack down on scammers who use malware and fraud to generate phony "Like" votes. The company said that it will be increasing its use of automated tools which can detect and remove fraudulent "Likes." The effort will included the use of updated security components which can better identify suspect behaviour. "On average, less than 1 per cent of Likes on any given page will be removed, providing they and their affiliates have been abiding by our terms," the company said. "These newly improved automated efforts will remove those Likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk Likes." The use of fraudulent Likes, or "Like-jacking" has become a popular method for scammers and malware writers to spread their attacks and divert users to advertising or malware-serving sites, as well as advertising affiliate pages. Just as a click-jacking attack would trick users into visiting a page and artificially inflating traffic numbers, automated Like operations can artificially inflate the perceived popularity of a page or company, allowing the attacker to collect a higher affiliate rate from an advertiser. Facebook noted that any effort to buy, sell, or otherwise artificially generate "Like" activity on the site is a violation of its terms and conditions.

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3 September 2012 | The Local

Pirate Bay founder arrested in Cambodia

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, one of the founders of the file sharing website The Pirate Bay has been arrested in Cambodia after an international warrant was issued following a conviction in Sweden for copyright violations. In April 2009, the Stockholm District Court convicted Svartholm Warg, along with co-founders Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and financier Carl Lundstrom, of facilitating copyright violations. Each man was sentenced to one year in prison. They were also ordered to pay a total of 30 million kronor ($4.4 million) in damages. All four appealed their sentences, and in November 2010 the Svea Court of Appeal uphold the convictions, with the exception of Svartholm Varg who failed to turn up at the hearing because of illness. After failing to request his appeal be heard, the guilty verdict came into force in October 2011 and when Svartholm Warg failed to turn up for prison at the appointed time on April 18th 2012, an international warrant was put out for his arrest. All three of Svartholm Warg's fellow Pirate Bay-founders had the jail terms of their sentences reduced from those initially handed down by the lower court, with Neij being sentenced to 10 months in prison, Sunde to eight months and Lundstrom to four months. In addition, the court of appeal increased the compensation the defendants are required to pay up to SEK 46m (USD 6.57m).

Original source

3 September 2012 | AFP

Myanmar to allow daily newspapers next year

Myanmar's new information minister on Sunday predicted newspapers would be able to publish daily from early 2013, heralding fresh reform for a sector recently freed from decades of draconian censorship. Aung Kyi told the Myanmar Times that state-owned newspapers - currently the only news publications able to be printed daily - would also be revamped with private sector involvement in the coming months. "It is my sincere belief that daily [private sector] newspapers are essential for a democratic country," said Aung Kyi, who replaced a prominent hardliner last week when he was appointed as part of a cabinet reshuffle seen as promoting reformists in Myanmar's government. The former labour minister, who acted as the liaison between Myanmar's previous junta government and democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi while she was under house arrest, said a code of practice should be discussed before changes were made to publication rules for private weekly journals. He declined to give a firm date for the issuing of daily publication licences to private sector news groups - many of which have turned to the web to provide up-to-the-minute content for a population hungry for information after years of restrictions - but estimated it could be "early next year".

Original source

3 September 2012 | Focus

Romanian PM claims ex-secret police working in German press

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta alleged in an extraordinary outburst that former Communist-era secret police had infiltrated the German press and were to blame for critiques of his rule, AFP reported. He claimed agents under ex-Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu who slipped into German media ranks two decades ago were behind the recent bad press over a failed attempt by Ponta's party to impeach rival President Traian Basescu. "In Germany, Ceausescu's former Securitate has and continue to have its best men in the press," Ponta said in an interview with private television channel Antena 3 late Friday. "There are people there who, if you look at the last 20 years, are the only ones to write about Romania and they do it 'correctly'," he said with irony, adding they "speak Romanian as well as you and me" despite their German names. Ponta's ruling centre-left coalition launched a move in July to remove centre-right Basescu, which led to a referendum that failed as voter turnout fell short of the required 50 percent threshold. Germany and other countries, along with the European Union and several rights groups, sharply criticised the impeachment move and expressed concern the EU country's democracy was under threat.

Original source

3 September 2012 | BBC News

Egypt’s veiled presenter in breakthrough TV appearance

A woman presenter has appeared on Egypt's TV in Islamic headscarf for what is believed to be first time since the state channel opened in 1960. Fatima Nabil wore a cream-coloured headscarf as she read a news bulletin. Under the regime of ex-President Hosni Mubarak there was an unofficial ban on women presenters covering their hair. But the new Muslim Brotherhood-led government has introduced new rules, saying that nearly 70 percent of Egyptian women wear the headscarf. Fatima Nabil appeared in the headscarf to read the mid-day news bulletin on Sunday. The presenter later told the BBC: "At last the revolution has reached state television." She is expected to be followed by other news and weather presenters similarly dressed. New Information Minister Salah Abdel-Makshoud, a Brotherhood member, has pointed out that many women appearing on other Arab and international TV channels cover their hair. Under Mubarak's regime, women employed in the TV industry were given jobs away from the cameras. Some of them sued against the unofficial ban and won, but the former government ignored the court rulings - which was part of a wide opposition to the introduction of Islamic values, says the BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo.

Original source

3 September 2012 | Reuters

Apple, publishers offer antitrust concessions: source

Apple and four major publishers have offered to allow retailers such as Amazon to sell e-books at a discount for two years in a bid to end an EU antitrust investigation and stave off possible fines, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. The EU antitrust watchdog opened an investigation into Apple's e-book pricing deals with the publishers last December, saying these may hamper competition in Europe. The four publishers are Simon & Schuster, News Corp unit HarperCollins, French group Lagardere SCA's Hachette Livre and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, which owns Macmillan in Germany. The publishers have agreed deals with Apple under which online versions of their books sell for set prices on Apple's iTunes, with Apple taking 30 percent of the proceeds. The deals specified that other retailers, such as Amazon, could not sell the e-books at a lower price. The Commission said in April that the five companies had offered concessions in a bid to end the investigation and avert penalties which could reach 10 percent of their global turnover, but it did not give details. Pearson Plc's Penguin group, which is also being investigated, was not mentioned among those submitting proposals. The Commission was now sounding out opinions from the industry as to whether the concessions are sufficient, the person familiar with the matter said, before a formal market test which could lead to the investigation being dropped.

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