Pirate Bay ‘Advert’ Appears on Hacked Billboard

The Pirate Bay is known for its technical ‘playfulness’, as was demonstrated earlier this week with a hack which led many to believe that the site had moved to the dictatorial waters of North Korea.
In the same tradition some computer science students took over a prominently placed billboard at the Republic Square in the center of Belgrade, Serbia.
Dressed in an appropriate “Keep Calm and Seed” shirt, one of the guys used his smartphone to play a game of Space Invaders on the meters-wide screen with a fellow student. After that, they displayed several other messages on the billboard including a “hacking4fun” banner.

Mediafire Swaps “Pirate” Links for “Buy Now” Button

When Megaupload was shut down last year the actions of competing file-hosting services were watched closely by the press and copyright holders.
Some concluded that other services were guilty by association, and Hollywood went as far as naming several other cyberlockers that should be shutdown next, including Mediafire.
U.S. based Mediafire was shocked by this characterization and emphasized that it has always cooperated with rights holders. On top of that the company has also implemented several measures to ensure that its users play by the rules.
A good example of this policy is Mediafire’s proactive monitoring of unauthorized sharing. With help from Audible Magic‘s digital fingerprinting technology Mediafire checks user’s compliance with the site’s Terms of Service by identifying copyrighted audio and video files.

VPN Services That Take Your Anonymity Seriously, 2013 Edition

Prompted by a high-profile case of an individual using an ‘anonymous’ VPN that turned out to offer less than expected protection, TorrentFreak decided to ask a selection of VPN companies some tough questions.
With our findings we compiled a report of providers that due to their setup were unable to link their outbound IP addresses with user accounts. Ever since we have received countless emails demanding an update.
It’s taken a long time but today we bring the first installment in a series of posts highlighting VPN providers that take privacy seriously. Our first article focuses on anonymity and a later installment will highlight file-sharing aspects and possible limitations.
We tried to ask direct questions that left providers with little room for maneuver. Providers who didn’t answer our questions directly, didn’t answer at all, or completely failed by logging everything, were simply left out. Sadly this meant that quite a few were disregarded.
This year we also asked more questions, which are as follows:
1. Do you keep ANY logs which would allow you or a 3rd party to match an IP-address and a time stamp to a user of your service? If so, exactly what information do you hold?
2. Under what jurisdictions does your company operate and under what exact circumstances will you share the information you hold with a 3rd party?
3. In the event you receive a DMCA takedown notice or European equivalent, how are these handled?
4. Which payment systems do you operate and how are these linked to individual user accounts?
The list of providers is a tiny sample of the thousands out there today and is not comprehensive by any means. Providers not covered this time around will be added during the coming weeks. All responses listed below are in the words of the providers themselves and the order of the list does not carry any meaning.

La Quadrature du Net se constitue en association déclarée en préfecture

Paris, 1 mars 2013 — Après 5 ans d'existence en tant qu'association de fait, La Quadrature du Net vient de se constituer en association de loi 1901 déclarée en préfecture1. La Quadrature du Net demeure cependant plus que jamais des « gus dans un garage ».

Cette nouvelle structure fonctionnera comme l'ancienne, en tant que collectif d'individus, au sein duquel les décisions stratégiques seront prises par un « collège d'orientation stratégique ». Celui-ci se constitue de six personnes, pour la plupart membres fondateurs : Philippe Aigrain (président), Benjamin Bayart, Lionel Maurel, Benjamin Sonntag (trésorier), Félix Tréguer (secrétaire) et Jérémie Zimmermann. Gérald Sedrati-Dinet reste membre fondateur mais n'a pas souhaité intégrer ce conseil d'administration. Les statuts de l'association sont visibles ici.

Tails 0.17 is out!

Tails, The Amnesic Incognito Live System, version 0.17, is out.
All users must upgrade as soon as possible.
Download it now.
Changes
Notable user-visible changes include:

• New features
  
  • Install the KeePassX password manager, with a configuration and documentation that makes it easy to persist the password database.
• Iceweasel
  
  • Upgrade to Iceweasel 17.0.3esr-1+tails1~bpo60+1.

New Tor Browser Bundles with Firefox 17.0.3esr

We've updated all of the bundles with Firefox 17.0.3esr. This includes significant changes to Torbutton and its interaction with Firefox, in addition to many new patches being added to Firefox, which are outlined below.
Very important: if you've been using the Tor Browser Bundles with Firefox 10.0.x, you must not attempt to overwrite it with the new bundle. Open these into their own directory and do not copy any profile material from older TBB versions.
https://www.torproject.org/download
Tor Browser Bundle (2.3.25-4)