EFF, LetsEncrypt To Offer Free Encryption Server Certificates.

Let's Encrypt.

There are millions of web sites that operates without encryption, simply due to the fact it is expensive to obtain a server certificate. Unlike HTTPS, HTTP protocol is unencrypted and anyone who wishes to eavesdrop may do so at ease. HTTPS on the other hand encrypts the communication and ensures that no third parties are diverting you from the proper destination and makes other factors like passwords, account numbers secure.
So it the secure server certificates are provided free, just like the Apache server, which most web sites operates on, many more web sites will be secure and making all our lives easier.
So EFF has teamed up with Let's Encrypt to provide no cost server certificates. Let's Encrypt is scheduled to offer free server certificates beginning in summer 2015.

"This project should boost everyday data protection for almost everyone who uses the Internet, Right now when you use the Web, many of your communications—your user names, passwords, and browsing histories—are vulnerable to hackers and others. By making it easy, fast, and free for websites to install encryption for their users, we will all be safer online." said EFF Technology Projects Director Peter Eckersley.

Let's Encrypt will be overseen by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG), a California public benefit corporation. ISRG will work with Mozilla, Cisco Systems Inc., Akamai, EFF, and others to build the much-needed infrastructure for the project and the 2015 launch.
"The Let's Encrypt certificate authority will dramatically increase the ability of websites around the world to implement HTTPS, increasing the security of hundreds of millions of Internet users every day," said Eckersley.
For Let's Encrypt: https://letsencrypt.org  Via EFF
For more on Let's Encrypt and how it will work:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/certificate-authority-encrypt-entire-web

EFF To Educate Developers : Patent Trolls and You : Virtual Boot Camp for App Developers

Patent Trolls and You: EFF Virtual Boot Camp for App Developers http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
We have seen heard and witnessed how patent trolls like LodSys are going against App developers, iOS, Android and BlackBerry OS.
But even being so interested in the subject, we do not know what to do if we are to recieve a letter from LodSys or another patent troll. So we were triple happy to hear about the EFF Boot Camp geared to educate App developers. Meanwhile big boys like Best Buy, CVS, and the New York Times Company are fighting Lodsys in court and trying to invalidate LodSys patents which could take years to complete and it could still be in either direction.
All those questions that have been burning inside our brains;

""Are you an app developer? Have you been targeted by Lodsys? Do you wonder what Apple’s Motion to Intervene means? How about Google’s Notice of Reexamination? Will the situation change because Lodsys sued large app developers like EA and Rovio, too? What are the elements of a patent license?"
Unfortunately, EFF cannot represent all of the app developers affected by Lodsys. But we can help answer some of your questions! So please join on us September 9 at 12:00 pm PST to talk with a distinguished panel of law professors and patent attorneys who will walk us through the basics of patent litigation. We’ll be streaming the panel live and taking your questions via twitter and email. If you’d like to join us, please email bootcamp@eff.org and include your name, email address, professional affiliation, and let us know if you’ve already heard from Lodsys. In the meantime, continue to watch this space for more details. We look forward to hearing from you on September 9!"

Follow this link to learn about EFF's Bootcamp on LodSysed App Developers.

Google Asks USPTO To Reexamine Lodsys Patents

Google Asks To Reexamine Lodsys Patents http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Some how I missed this report by Wired about Google reacting to Lodsys' litigation against App developers. Google have requested USPTO for reexamination of two of Lodsys's four patents: the '078 patent and the '565 patent, both of which were used in litigation against app developers.
But again, FOSS Patents tells us that this request by itself might not be enough unless Google supplements it with more useful and forceful measures. With our limited law knowledge we do not know what those measures are (you can follow and read those articles to understand better) but we applaud the Google's move. Those app developers do not have the means to continue in such quests.
Apple is also actively engaged in these litigious cases by Lodsys to support developers.
Hopefully this will get a stay on the lawsuits (FOSS patents think this is hard because Eastern Texas courts where Lodsys filled the cases has a habit of only staying 20% of the law suits) but I guess 20% is better than none. EFF has also sounded on the issue;

“Reexaminations are often times a tool used to stay ongoing litigation, It’s much, much cheaper than federal litigation, which on average costs between two and five million dollars.” ” said Julie Samuels, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit digital rights advocacy group.

Wired via FOSS Patents

Sony vs. Hotz. SONY Sues Researchers, EFF.

#Sony vs Hotz http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
It is just sickening even to write about this. Sony seem to be using anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to get at people who are more than mere users. Sony has sued several security researchers for publishing information about security holes in Sony’s PlayStation 3.
So how do you know that will not extend to Sony Android phones. As far as I am concerned, I will get another Android phone! Because I want to root my Android phone without getting sued.
What is more, according to EFF,

"Simply put, Sony claims that it's illegal for users to access their own computers in a way that Sony doesn't like. Moreover, because the CFAA has criminal as well as civil penalties, Sony is actually saying that it's a crime for users to access their own computers in a way that Sony doesn't like."

Well NO thank you SONY you forgot, we have better choices.! Welcome HTC, Motorola, Apple, LG, Samsung, and others. Oh WII and XBOX does not look bad either.
Sony v. Hotz: Sony Sends A Dangerous Message to Researchers -- and Its Customers

Email Privacy Protected by Fourth Amendment! The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals

#Email #Privacy Protected by Fourth Amendment! http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Email Privacy Protected by Fourth Amendment! in the criminal appeal of U.S. v. Warshak case.
The court has ruled, the government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers sighting that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their email as they do in their phone calls and postal mail.
Given the fundamental similarities between email and traditional forms of communication [like postal mail and telephone calls], it would defy common sense to afford emails lesser Fourth Amendment protection.... It follows that email requires strong protection under the Fourth Amendment; otherwise the Fourth Amendment would prove an ineffective guardian of private communication, an essential purpose it has long been recognized to serve.... [T]he police may not storm the post office and intercept a letter, and they are likewise forbidden from using the phone system to make a clandestine recording of a telephone call--unless they get a warrant, that is. It only stands to reason that, if government agents compel an ISP to surrender the contents of a subscriber's emails, those agents have thereby conducted a Fourth Amendment search, which necessitates compliance with the warrant requirement....
Since I am no lawyer and as this is a sensitive matter please follow the link below, which is to EFF, which has published a very descriptive post with links to many documents that is relevant to the case.
EFF Breaking News.

C2 VoIP Patent Fails In Obviousness Test., Says USPTO

#EFF C2 VoIP Patent Fails In Obviousness Test.http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
In its war against worst patents, EFF has scored a minor but very important victory against one of the top ten worst patents in EFF’s Patent Busting Project,, USPTO has agreed that C2 Patent in question, “Method and Apparatus for Implementing a Computer Network/Internet Telephone System,” does not pass the obviousness test.
This is not a final decision by USPTO as it  needs to wait for C2 response and make an argument in support of it's patent. VoIP Patents
EFF Anouncement via FreeSWITCH

TechCrunchs Arrington Drops iPhone And Pickup Palm Pre!

TechCrunch drops iPhone for Palm Pre

I was wondering when is this going to happen and if the cost and inconvenience is not a factor, I think many would follow Arrington.
I absolutely love Google Voice and thanks to my multiple phones and accounts, I am using Google Voice, on all my phones.
Apple, I will jailbreak if I have to, because it is my phone, I paid good money making your financial statements, both Apple and AT&T look great in this hard times, and I want Google Voice or any other apps that does not break law on my phone. I am not looking to blow cell towers, I want to make my life easier and depend less on you to run it.
EFF free your phone initiative, here is the food for your case, Apple and AT&T wringing users necks with their profits and monopolistic practices keep poping up. Unlike Apples lame mass destruction argument, (which I have given Snap VoIP, tag because it is so unique) you can have a good argument just with this Google Voice Gaga. How Apple and AT&T uses it's high handedness to stifle users and developers. Yes Google is big yet it is a developer for iPhone. If not for Google Voice, this may have not come to light. How many other developers get rejected under the radar just because it is not ringing along with AT&T and Apple.
Arrington, good move! Jailbreak the bloody phone with Ultrasn0w and let us know how to run Google Voice On Jailbroken iPhones. Tell us more about Palm Pre as well.
And Apple, if you continue to do this, you might end up with iPhone 3Gi, your hands will be free, to scratch what ever you scratch when you think.
Mike Arrignton on quitting the iPhone!

Tags: Snap VoIP, Apple, iPhone, ATT, UltraSn0w 0.9, EFF, Free your phone

SNAP! Latest Apple Joke, Jailbroken iPhones Are Weapons Of Mass Destruction!

Update: Visit Free Your Phone (EFF). In January 2009, 8,200 people signed EFF's letter to the Copyright Office seeking protection for phone related innovations. Keep an eye on EFF.org to find out what happens next.

Freeing your iPhone
After becoming an AT&T bootlicker and banning Google Voice App (Perhaps it is anotherway of Apples control of threats to AT&T business), Apple now trying to be a national security advisor or member of comedy central. It is not clear which it really is.
In answering EFFs efforts to open up iPhone from Apple's monopoly clutches, and run software that people feel they need to run, like Google Voice App, Apple has told government(PDF) that jailbroken iPhones could crash cell towers. Well I guess government will have to ban all other phones now.
“a local or international hacker could potentially initiate commands (such as a denial of service attack) that could crash the tower software, rendering the tower entirely inoperable to process calls or transmit data,” Apple wrote the government. “Taking control of the BBP software would be much the equivalent of getting inside the firewall of a corporate computer — to potentially catastrophic result.
If that is not enough, drug dealers could use this to make anonymous calls using jailbroken iPhones.
( [E]ach iPhone contains a unique Exclusive Chip Identification, (ECID) number that identifies the phone to the cell tower. With access to the BBP via jailbreaking, hackers may be able to change the ECID, which in turn can enable phone calls to be made anonymously (this would be desirable to drug dealers, for example) or charges for the calls to be avoided.). Paranoia

Then again the security Apple seeking is a moot as taking the view of Apple not being able to mange the applications very well, like banned apps getting on the App store, like the Phone Porn apps. Those bad people could design apps that damage cell towers and pretend they are porn apps get in the app store. So government has to ban iPhone as well. On the other hand the danger is already there for iPhones as there are literally millions of Jailbroken iPhones and independent iPhone app stores. May be the Government should ban iPhone first.
Apple, you will do well at comedy central! I guess.
Via Wired

Tags: DCMA, Apple, iPhone Jailbroken, EFF, Google Voice App, independent iPhone app store

Cydia App Store Opens! And You Should Free Your Phone Too.

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
As we mentioned earlier, "Cydia Store, JailBroken App Store By Cydia" Jay Freeman. the author of our really wanted app, cycorder and the infamous installer Cydia,has opened their its own app store, and the other really really wanted app, PDAnet might be there. So are those countless apps that Apple blocks from App store to protect its own interests.
Aside from awaiting DCMA threats from Apple, all the people in the jailbreak friendly area seem to be happy. I too would like to install apps that I like on the phone that I paid too much for. For all those who are aon apples side, I have a question.
What if Apple said that you can only install apple approved apps on you Mac? what would you say?
So I think and wish, EFF will win the proposal. I signed the petition and if you think that you should own the phone you paid for, you should too.
Free your phone.
T

Tags: Cydia App Store, Free your phone, DCMA, Jay Freeman, EFF