IsoNews Ostensibly Shut Down By The DOJ 1083
According to Yahoo News and also Cyber Crime The longest running news site for Piracy has been turned over to the Department of Justice. Stating David Rocci AKA krazy8, has recently plead guilty to selling modchips via his website http://www.isonews.com with profit of $48,000. Now the domain has been linked to the Cybercrime Site warning all pirates all there that modchipping is not a game. [chrisd] In case you needed a reminder...you don't own your hardware. Eff? That said, this is not 100% positive, and there are rumors of the old site floating around on other ip addresses out there.
In related DOJ web hijinks..joemite writes "Cannabis News released this article about how the DEA is seeking to redirect indicted businesses that sell glass bongs and pipes to the DEA's website. "If the court orders the sites to be redirected, Ashcroft said, they will point to a DEA.gov Web page that says: "By application of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the Web site you are attempting to visit has been restrained by the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania pursuant to Title 21, United States Code, Section 853 (e)(1)(a)."" Also check out an analysis of the entire situation by Richard Cowan"
DOJ doesn't own it (Score:5, Informative)
The iSO News (ISONEWS-DOM)
Jacobus van 't Hoffstraat 69
Nijmegen, MR 6533
NL
Domain Name: ISONEWS.COM
More Links... (Score:5, Informative)
Post article [washingtonpost.com]
TheRegister story [theregister.co.uk]
Quote:
---
Two Justice Department attorneys said Internet users would eventually be steered to the government's address as name servers across the Internet are updated over the next several hours.
"There is going to be some lag time between the domain-name switch-over," one attorney said. "But the domain name isonews.com now belongs to the federal government."
---
Enjoy...
GameTab [gametab.com]
Link to more info (Score:4, Informative)
Alternative NFO site ... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:DOJ doesn't own it (Score:5, Informative)
The DOJ uses Mozilla!
ISONEWS is 'shut down' (Score:5, Informative)
Since shutting down 8 servers at once (some of them being out of the US) is hard, the DOJ took control of the DNS for the isonews.com domain and pointed it to their own site, which is what many people get when they go to http://www.isonews.com now.
Some people still get redirected to the existing servers, but this will happen less and less as the DNS changes propagate out to leaf nodes.
the real isonews.com: (Score:5, Informative)
the real isonews.com with working forums
Re:DOJ doesn't own it (Score:5, Informative)
> host www.isonews.com
www.isonews.com has address 149.101.1.91
> whois 149.101.1.91
OrgName: US Dept of Justice
OrgID: UDJ
[...]
Also, in case you don't believe it, the press release is reproduced on the usdoj.gov webpage:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2003/February/03_crm_
So its for real. Add another notch to the DMCA's belt.
-molo
Re:Owning your hardware. (Score:2, Informative)
Not Hoax (Score:5, Informative)
-OctaneZ
Re:Arrested for Selling Mod-Chips? (Score:2, Informative)
Actually, you own your own hardware ... (Score:3, Informative)
What you aren't allowed to do (according to the articles) is to circumvent the copy protection mechanism as per the new digital rights law.
modchips? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Seems weird (Score:2, Informative)
The main thing they are dealing with is that is allows the consoles to boot copied discs and out of region discs (like region encoding with DVD players).
I also know that I have seen modchips (at least for PS1) that don't let you play copies but would let you play out-of-region disks (region free DVD player like).
Re:The Bong Show... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:I'm not living in US (Score:3, Informative)
Microsoft Shuts Down Lik Sang [slashdot.org]
More on Microsoft vs. Lik Sang [slashdot.org]
Lik-Sang Back Online, Minus Modchips [slashdot.org]
Lik-Sang Back Online [slashdot.org]
Lik-Sang To Take On The Big 3? [slashdot.org]
The Lik-Sang Saga Continues [slashdot.org]
Re:The Bong Show... (Score:1, Informative)
Correct. We sell tobacoo products. And the cops know we do, and give us no grief. We have signs that say its for tobacco only, and anyone making any reference to illegal use will be asked to leave. Its not all we sell, but its a part of what we sell. Notice I am posting as AC tho
LEGAL MODCHIPPING (Score:3, Informative)
Microsoft's reaction was to threaten to withdraw Xboxes from the Australian market. Xboxes aren't sold in Australia's largest electrical chain stores because M$ won't sell Xboxes to them unless they dropped Playstation and M$ was told to get lost.
Re:Seems weird (Score:2, Informative)
writable media does NOT have any flags which are accessible via standard read calls (ie on anything other than a burner) which indicates whether it's a burned copy or not. The PMA/ATIP area on a CD-R does have information regarding the kind of dye used on the disc, etc, but this is only accessible via CD-R(w) specific commands which you can't rely (as a copy protection manufacturer) on drives supporting.
Admittedly, DVD[+-]R(w) media DOES have no provision for burning to the keyspace, but I would doubt that that's accessible from userland either.
The way that PS(2) copy protection worked was to fudge the data in one of the subchannels which burners (to this day) can't burn to for some obscure reason. The problem with this scheme is that subchannel data is designed for things such as non-block-accurate positioning (think red book audio, accurate to within 75 sectors,) CD+text, etc, and was never designed to be reliably readable. The data in subchannels isn't reliably addressable or error corrected, which lead to a lot of borked PS discs which would (funnily enough) still play with a modchip....
Peace,
MH
Re:The Bong Show... (Score:5, Informative)
Ain't it grand?
One of my tobacconists also sells glass pipes. It's no accident that they sell tobacco. It removes the question of assumption.
According to the DoJ *rolling papers* are also now considered "drug paraphenalia" and a federal offense to possess, which will surprise the hell out of a lot of "roll your own" tobacco smokers I know.
KFG
Re:"EFF??" Oh, Please...! (Score:5, Informative)
The EFF has been one of the most high profile and active organizations out there. See the list of cases below, easily available from their website and newsletter, though I'm sure you are aware of these since you've been following them since the early 90's.
Recent cases [eff.org]
Active cases [eff.org]
At worst, at the very worst, they have made an extremely large number of people aware of these issues, which in turn has led to many more people getting involved. And even if they dont have the same clout(meaning cash to burn) as the tobacco lobbyists or hollywood, your suggestion is to stop supporting them now so they never do? sh'yeah.
P.S. their address is in San Francisco, they left DC sometime ago.
Re:In the US (Score:2, Informative)
Re:More Links... (Score:5, Informative)
Libertarians are a political party. Like Republicans. Conservatism is a political philosophy.
Libratarians are conservative in many ways, but not in others. They are very isolationist, for instance, where the Conservative philosophy doesn't demand this. Many of us see the Conservative view as meaning a small but powerful central govt. whose only role is to do the things that 1) we cant do for ourselves, like national defense and highways, and 2) things that the states can't do, make treaties, international relations. I see conservatism as not isolationist, but more selective in who we "do business with".
ie: we do business with China, even tho they are terrible with human rights, its the only method to introduce rights to their people. We don't do business with Saudi Arabia because there is no hope of introducing human rights without going to war, so we go to war or dont do business. If you can't make a positive difference, you isolate yourself from that country. Not in anger, just as a choice. Thats my interpretation. One of the basic concepts of conservatism is "equality of opportunity", national or international. I could go on (and I am writing an article that does) but I won't here
While I have plenty of respect for Libratarians (they are more bound to a philosophy than the other parties) they have been labeled as the party that simply wants pot legalized. While this is a worthwhile goal (read my definition: anything that doesnt affect other adversely is ok) it is one tiny effect of conservatism. Conservatism would also demand strong penalties for driving while stoned or drunk, because it affects others.
http://back.to/isonews (Score:1, Informative)
Re:1984 (Score:1, Informative)
This WHOLE THING is a FAKE! (Score:2, Informative)
It's not a fake. (Score:5, Informative)
They probably just made an A record change to the DNS.
This buys them time to go seize the server physically, or copy all the user records off if it's a virtual colo.
If leaving the IP alone for a while prompts some clueless users to continue to log in or attempt to order more stuff, it's a smart move.
Re:Department of Infinite Justice? (Score:2, Informative)
Including Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General:
Neighborhood Bully [thesunmagazine.org], an interview with Ramsey Clark by Derrick Jensen for The Sun magazine.
BTW, I don't normally post as AC, but in this case I am afraid of the US government. I'm currently applying for my Green Card, and don't want to have to live apart from my wife becuase I'm "undesirable.
I lived with IRA terrorism in the UK for thirty-odd years, and I'm not scared of terrorism, but Ashcroft scares the shit out of me...
Re:The Bong Show... (Score:2, Informative)
By decades. In fact, it predates the internet, on which you will not yet find the sum total of human knowledge.
The use of the pacifier by those who take extasy does not constitute drug parapenalia. Nor does it's use have anything to do with it's being an upper per se. People who take dexedrin for example don't use a pacifier.
The use of a pacifier or other suckable items as a method of delivery for LSD does constitute drug paraphenalia. People were doing this before you were born, and if you are as young as you appear perhaps before your mom was born.
Jewelry itself can be made out of pure illegal suckable drugs, but that's another subject.
KFG
Modchips have copywrited data (Score:2, Informative)
It's not like selling a blank cd or cd burner. IT is more so like selling illegal game copies or music.
Re:What are you smoking? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Weird... (Score:2, Informative)
of the modchips out there are using a bios built
using the xbox development kit, and microsoft's
copyright code. Not all of them, but certainly
the ones that let you play pirate games (as opposed
to the custom bios written for xbox linux, which
does not contain copyright code).
So, is it illegal to sell (basically) a flash chip
with someone elses copyright code written to it? Your damn right it is.
Re:pled guilty (Score:3, Informative)
My guess as to why he plead guilty: The Department of Gestapo... err Justice goons threatened to hold him without a bail hearing or a trial for a long time (much like the government did to Kevin Mitnick), and told him it'd be a lot easier in the long run to plead guilty rather than fight.
This is one of the reasons why it'll soon be illegal for Dutch courts to extradite people to the US. There is so much pressure on accepting a plea bargain that basically nobody gets a fair trial anymore.
The other reason is that agreements for extraditions of Dutch citizens to the US always state that they will be allowed to sit out their jail time in a Dutch prison - but this never actually happened in the last ten years.
Re:Oh come on (Score:5, Informative)
I'd also like to point out that up until that point I never had a problem with the "law". Infact until my honorable discharge on Dec 5th 2002 I was an intel analyst for a Military Police Battalion and knew a truck load of police officers. The difference I realize is that I used to live in Suburbia.. Moving to Brooklyn changed the ideologies. Says alot about white people huh?
That incident, however, hasn't gone without challenge and the officers of the 79th precint who did this are being raked over the coals. The difference here is that my parents have money and my dad is in a position where he can make calls. Alot of the other black males out there don't have that. The contempt passes just the cops to their skin colors and this is why you sit there at your keyboard and make such assumptions about the social character of a black male in an urban area? You know nothing about it until you see it or experience it. So please, keep your ideas to yourself.
Re:It's not a fake. (Score:4, Informative)
(Allegdely)
Also, this only has to do with one of the isonews staff who sold these chips through the website that was already there. The 'krazy8 set up a website to sell illegal mod chips' statements are (as usual) a bit off the mark.
Yes, the news on isonews is about copyright infringement related activities, but you only get info about which groups released which title and so on, and discussion about the so called scene. You get no cracks, no serials, no software nothing that lets you actually 'pirate' the games. Giving out or asking for such info on the forums is not allowed. Go there and ask 'where can I download sim city 4?!?!?' and see how long you last, for example. Isonews is harmless and (apart from krazy8's little scheme
Mod Chips are *NOT* illegal. (Score:5, Informative)
A console that plays MP3s or DIVX over a network (or off its 100gb drive) as an entertainment center, or runs LINUX, is USELESS monetarily to Microsoft. This, like everything in the world, is about money.
The edited BIOS of the mod chip is the illegal thing under the DMCA. Almost all mod chip sites do *NOT SELL CHIPS WITH A BIOS*, you must download the bios from someone online. This is perfectly LEGAL (buying the mod with no BIOS), though it is illegal (under the DMCA) to download that BIOS. If he's being prosecuted and plead guilty, it was because he was selling mods preflashed with a bios. There are hundreds of MOD chip sites online, and they aren't being taken over by the DMCA.
CE
It's not just isonews that down! (Score:1, Informative)
xboxhacker.net
x-ecuter.com
BST-secure.com
v
Anyone got any idea what's going on here?
Luke