The operation of TOR exit nodes was also declared a criminal offense by a regional criminal court. The accused was operating a TOR exit node which was being used fraudulently by a third party to transmit content of an illegal nature.

The operator of an exit node is guilty of complicity, because he enabled others to transmit content of an illegal nature through the service.

Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL) is pushing for a formal investigation into the activities of General Keith Alexander now that the former head of the NSA has started his own very expensive security consultancy.

Grayson is not alone in his concerns. Security expert Bruce Schneier also raised questions about the move, and the price General Alexander is setting for his professional services.

"Think of how much actual security they could buy with that $600K a month," he wrote. "Unless he's giving them classified information."

The idea behind VCAP is to educate the casual file-sharer about legal alternatives in the hope he will change his ways, but the softly-softly approach has its limitations.

“Warnings and fines are obvious first steps, with internet access blocking and custodial sentencing for persistent and damaging infringers not to be ruled out in my opinion.”

A waste dealer has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for illegally exporting tonnes of hazardous electrical waste to Africa, the Environment Agency said.

Joe Benson, 54, of Broad Street, Loughton, Essex, was sentenced to 16 months in prison at Snaresbrook Crown Court for illegally exporting 46 tonnes of hazardous waste to Nigeria, Ghana, the Ivory Coast and the Congo.

The lawyers behind the "porn trolling" operation have already been ordered to pay more than a half-million dollars in sanctions in various cases, and two judges have asked law enforcement agencies to take a look at Prenda's activities.

Yesterday's order comes after US District Judge John Darrah found earlier that Prenda lawyer Paul Duffy had lied to the court about what happened regarding serving a complaint in another district.

John Lewis has been ordered to pay damages for sending "spam" emails in a privacy ruling that could open the floodgates for harassed consumers.

"John Lewis' lawyers then argued that because I browsed their website I had "negotiated" with them for a sale and a business relationship existed between us which would allow them to email me. The judge threw that out too."

A spokesperson for John Lewis said the case consisted of a "very specific set of circumstances" and while they disagreed with the judge's decision they would abide by the ruling.

A junior high school suspended a student and turned him over to police because of a "doodle" he drew showing a person being hanged, his father claims in court.

Keller, suing for himself and his son, B.R.K., claims that on May 2, 2013, his 13-year-old son "was interviewed at his school, Raleigh Hills, K-8, by officers of the Beaverton Police Department regarding an alleged threat of harm based on a doodle that was drawn during class.

The move would be “part of a broad effort to curb Chinese cyber espionage,” Reuters reported.

Wysopal noted that Black Hat talks are taped and sold after the conference, and preventing Chinese hackers from being physically there would not appreciably affect China's hacking abilities.

On Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder drew a distinction between the NSA's spying and the actions that the US government has charged five Chinese military members with, saying that China's alleged activities were "to gain commercial advantage."

People who disclose confidential information about hydraulic fracturing chemicals in North Carolina would be subject to criminal penalties and civil damages, under a bill in the state Legislature.

The state's Mining and Energy Commission, which is writing the regulations, drew criticism earlier this month when it rejected a proposal on chemical disclosure under pressure from the oil and gas industry, the Raleigh News & Observer reported.

"If an individual who has not been designated as a recipient of this data gets his or her hands on it, there will be big penalties."

The former operator of USAWarez.com and USATorrents.com, who has served more than two years in prison for copyright infringement, has outed several prisons for showing pirated movies to their inmates.

According to Humphrey the movies were shown while they were still playing in theaters and had clear earmarks of being pirated copies.

According to Humphrey, the Lorain Correctional Institution is not the only prison where pirated movies are shown to inmates. During his youth he was detained at Lorain County Juvenile Detention Center, where the same issues took place.