Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Hotmail Information Leaked, Intellectual Monopolies Now Applied to UK Post Codes

Summary: Microsoft service accidentally discloses information too easily, whereas the UK prevents disclosure of public information

MANY reports out there speak about attempts to address the brute force of botnets using a brute force of human workforce. Just the other day, Cringely explained why it's bound to fail, but this does not prevent the charade from living on.

Everyone talks about Internet security, but no one does anything about it. That's not true, of course -- there are many organizations and businesses dedicated to keeping the Web safe. Yet it is true that no one is taking ultimate responsibility for policing the Web. No one is willing -- or perhaps, able -- to say "the buck stops here." Perhaps that's as it should be?


A few weeks ago we noted that "Hotmail is currently a mess, which even some fans of Microsoft dislike (Microsoft censors critics of it). Hotmail is also a spam issue and it has security problems." According to reports even from Microsoft's circles, login credentials for Hotmail have just been leaked, allegedly after phishing. Under an alternative headline, the BBC puts "posted online" in quotes like it's a technical term (both myself and a reader called "ThistleWeb" have noticed this independently). It also says: "BBC News has seen a list of more than 10,000 e-mail accounts and passwords which had been posted online."

What this neglects to say is that phishing too is enabled by malign mail services such as Hotmail. So in a sense, Hotmail is a victim of its own incompetence; it's cyclic.

ThistleWeb also drew attention to this new report from the BBC, noting: "Whodathunk a postcode would be someone's "intellectual property"?"

Websites that help people find jobs or hospitals have been hit by legal action threatened by the Royal Mail.


"That could get interesting," argues Oiaohm. "If someone decided to charge you like 1 cent every time you used a post code, it would stack up."

The actual revelation is old, but the BBC is very typically left behind. The above helps prove that intellectual monopolies are out of control, even in Europe. The President of the FFII wrote some hours ago: "SAP lobbying for software patents at the US Supreme Court: http://i5.be/MR"

Here's another couple of Bilski amici indices.

Bill ski

Recent Techrights' Posts

Topics We Lacked Time to Cover
Due to a Microsoft event (an annual malware fest for lobbying and marketing purposes) there was also a lot of Microsoft propaganda
 
Links 23/11/2024: "Real World" Cracked and UK Online Safety Act is Law
Links for the day
Links 23/11/2024: Celebrating Proprietary Bluesky (False Choice, Same Issues) and Software Patents Squashed
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 22, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, November 22, 2024
Gemini Links 23/11/2024: 150 Day Streak in Duolingo and ICBMs
Links for the day
Links 22/11/2024: Dynamic Pricing Practice and Monopoly Abuses
Links for the day
Microsofters Try to Defund the Free Software Foundation (by Attacking Its Founder This Week) and They Tell People to Instead Give Money to Microsoft Front Groups
Microsoft people try to outspend their critics and harass them
[Meme] EPO for the Kids' Future (or Lack of It)
Patents can last two decades and grow with (or catch up with) the kids
EPO Education: Workers Resort to Legal Actions (Many Cases) Against the Administration
At the moment the casualties of EPO corruption include the EPO's own staff
Gemini Links 22/11/2024: ChromeOS, Search Engines, Regular Expressions
Links for the day
This Month is the 11th Month of This Year With Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (So Far It's Happening Every Month This Year, More Announced Hours Ago)
Now they even admit it
Links 22/11/2024: Software Patents Squashed, Russia Starts Using ICBMs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 21, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, November 21, 2024
Gemini Links 21/11/2024: Alphabetising 400 Books and Giving the Internet up
Links for the day
Links 21/11/2024: TikTok Fighting Bans, Bluesky Failing Users
Links for the day
Links 21/11/2024: SpaceX Repeatedly Failing (Taxpayers Fund Failure), Russian Disinformation Spreading
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Earned Two More Honorary Doctorates Last Month
Two more doctorate degrees
KillerStartups.com is an LLM Spam Site That Sometimes Covers 'Linux' (Spams the Term)
It only serves to distract from real articles
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 20, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 20, 2024