After asking EFF to hold back the documents so that it could review them, the Department of Justice consented to EFF's filing them under seal -- a well-established procedure that prohibits public access and permits only the judge and the litigants to see the evidence.

"The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston.

"More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now," said Bankston.

The NSA program came to light in December, when the New York Times reported that the President had authorized the agency to intercept telephone and Internet communications inside the United States without the authorization of any court.

According to CDR Info, it seems that Suncomm and Starforce, two DRM offerings, don't get along. Violently. I could say that it is a surprise, but it really isn't, I am just surprised that it took this long. DRM works on the principle of undocumented hacks to the system that actively punish lawful users. Now that they are fighting, it appears that no one is willing to step up and talk about it.

If you have a game with the Starforce DRM infection, and the misfortune of supporting the RIAA by purchasing music with Suncomm infections, guess what, you can't use them on the same machine!

If you ask ask any of the companies involved, as is so clearly pointed out by Suncomm, they will tell you it isn't their problem. So, you are screwed, and no one will help you unbreak your computer, because that is illegal.

Is selling PCs without an OS installed a bad idea for retailers? Microsoft thinks so. In an article in Microsoft's Partner Update magazine, Microsoft's anti-piracy head Michala Alexander advises retailers to avoid selling "naked" PCs, saying that doing so puts the vendors at risk.

Microsoft will be backing up their admonitions against selling naked PCs with "feet on the street" personnel who will visit retailers and provide them with sales and other assistance. Chances are, they will also be looking to make sure everything is in order in terms of Windows licenses.

Systems with Windows preinstalled can be a source of frustration for shoppers. Even if you're only after the hardware and your plans for a shiny new PC don't involve Windows at all, you're still stuck paying for an operating system you don't want.

Microsoft denies that is the case, saying that the company is simply trying to assist its customers while admitting that the software giant would be keeping an eye on naked systems sales and piracy rates.

Two grandmothers have been arrested under the Government's latest anti-terror legislation.

Helen John, 68, and Sylvia Boyes, 61, both from Yorkshire, were arrested by officers acting under the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act while protesting outside the United States military base, RAF Menwith Hill, in North Yorkshire.

The women told the Independent that they were protesting against the act, which has designated some Ministry of Defence sites as subject to criminal trespass.

Mrs Boyes said: "I am quite willing to break the law and prepared to be charged and go to prison. The Government thinks it can do whatever it wants and that it has a passive public which accepts whatever it throws at it. I find it very worrying."

The US and the tiny island nation of Antigua have been fighting it out in the WTO over online gambling laws for quite some time. It started years ago, with the US trying to go after someone for setting up an online gambling operation in Antigua. The US government, of course, is no fan of online gambling -- even though it's legal in large parts of the world. Things got ugly three years ago, when Antigua went to the WTO to protest the US's actions, noting that it appeared to violate a fair-trade agreement both countries had signed -- especially since the US does allow some forms of domestic online gambling. The WTO agreed with Antigua that the US was violating the agreement -- a decision we noted the US was likely to ignore completely. Indeed, that's exactly what they did, so Antigua went back to the WTO, who once again ruled in favor of Antigua... though, amusingly, the US still claimed victory and then proceeded to ignore the ruling anyway.

So, what's a small country like Antigua to do? Normally, they could place trade sanctions on the US -- but that's likely to hurt Antigua a lot more than the US. Another option that's being discussed, apparently, is that Antigua would stop enforcing US trademarks and patents, allowing manufacturers in that country to start making knockoff goods.

It's definitely an interesting retaliation strategy, but Jerry Brito takes the argument one step further, suggesting that an even more compelling move might be to allow the creation of online music services that have been banned in the US, such as the original Napster or my.MP3.com. Or, at the very least, an online music store like AllofMP3.com that currently exists in a legal gray area over in Russia. That, clearly, could get the attention of politicians in the US, since they seem so tuned into the "concerns" of the entertainment industry these days. No matter what, though, it seems like this could be an interesting strategy for any country involved in a trade dispute with the US.

Cockroaches govern themselves in a very simple democracy where each insect has equal standing and group consultations precede decisions that affect the entire group, indicates a new study.

The research determined that cockroach decision-making follows a predictable pattern that could explain group dynamics of other insects and animals, such as ants, spiders, fish and even cows.

Halloy tested cockroach group behavior by placing the insects in a dish that contained three shelters. The test was to see how the cockroaches would divide themselves into the shelters.

After much "consultation," through antenna probing, touching and more, the cockroaches divided themselves up perfectly within the shelters. For example, if 50 insects were placed in a dish with three shelters, each with a capacity for 40 bugs, 25 roaches huddled together in the first shelter, 25 gathered in the second shelter, and the third was left vacant.

Five teenage girls from Portage County face potential criminal charges after attempting to play a real-life version of Super Mario Bros.

The Portage County Hazardous Materials Unit and Bomb Detection Unit were called in to downtown Ravenna on Friday morning after seventeen suspicious packages -- boxes wrapped in gold wrapping paper with question marks spray painted on them -- had alarmed residents.

Five girls -- age 16 and 17 -- claimed responsibility for making and placing the packages. The girls said they found an Internet site that included step-by-step instructions for creating replicas of blocks featured in the game.

The Ravenna Police Department will be working with the Portage County Prosecutor's Office regarding possible criminal charges as a result of the game.

On Jan 1, 2006, Rick Falkvinge founded the Pirate Party in Sweden, beginning a new era in the fight for legitimacy of P2P. Rick was tired of the MPA/IFPI lobbyers and politicians who would not listen to reason, so he resorted to taking to the streets in a battle for voters in this fall's general elections.

LinuxP2P: How did you guys come up with the idea of creating a whole new political party for file-sharing and privacy?

Falkvinge: Basically, because the politicians didn't listen to their voters, but to yesterday's industry interests instead, which led them to criminalize 20% of their voters (1.2 million file sharers, 5.2 million voters).

LinuxP2P: What are your main goals?

Falkvinge: To stir a debate about the hidden costs of copyright and patents, and to stop the big-brother society trend. This needs to be done on a European level; we view Sweden as a beachhead in this aspect. You gotta start somewhere.

Earlier this year, the EFF sued AT&T for allowing the NSA access to its databases, for the sake of the NSA's infamous wiretapping efforts. As the EFF went to file its motion for a preliminary injunction against AT&T, it appears that the Justice Department -- who is not a party to this case -- took it upon itself to ask the EFF to hold back some of the evidence. This is despite the fact that none of the evidence is classified and the EFF was providing the evidence under seal to the court, in order to keep it secret. Of course, doing so is only going to raise interest concerning what's actually in that evidence.

PC World's Techlog has a short piece talking about the upcoming emergence of 'Windows Vista Capable' PCs." From the article: "The Vista Capable designation doesn't promise that a PC will provide a great Vista experience, or even that it'll support all Vista features or features...just that it'll be able to run Windows Vista Home Basic in some not-very-well-defined-but-apparently-adequate way. At the moment, there are still new PCs on store shelves that don't meet the Vista Capable guidelines--for instance, low-end systems still sport 256MB of RAM in some cases. Wonder if that means that that A) we'll see some cheap systems that still have XP even after Vista ships; or B) the specs on even the cheapest machines will be beefed up; or C) we'll see machines that have Vista preloaded but which don't qualify as Vista capable?