Francis “Frank” Janosko, a Massachusetts prison inmate, has been given an extra 18-month sentence for hacking a prison computer while he was in jail. The computer had been provided to inmates to help them with legal research for appeals.
Janosko hacked the system and stole personal data on 1100 prison employees, including Social Security Numbers and home addresses.
ComputerWorld explains that the PC used was a “thin client computer that simply connected to another machine on the network and did not store any data itself. The only program it was supposed to run was the prison’s legal research application.”
Prosecutors say the inmate “exploited an idiosyncrasy in the legal research software” which allowed him to access other programs as well as send emails and even download videos.
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After last month’s announcement that the Apple TV would see an update, the “Take 2″ upgrade is finally available.
Users simply need to navigate to the Settings menu and hit Software Update. It will then download and install.
The new update, the first major update to the device, will offer new features such as “the ability to purchase and download video and music directly from iTunes instead of having to use a Mac or PC first.”
The Apple TV now supports HD movie rentals through iTunes. The new service allows users to download movies for $2.99 for SD or $4.99 USD for HD. The videos can be played once and then expire after 24 hours.
Another new feature is access to photostreams on Flickr as well as on .Mac Web Galleries.
The upgrade is free to existing Apple TV users and is also included on all new units which now retail for $229 USD for the 40GB model or $329 USD for a 160GB version.
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The US District Court has ruled in favor of Harry Potter author JK Rowling which was suing author Steven Vander Ark over his publication of the encyclopedia “Harry Potter Lexicon.” Rowling had called the publication “wholesale theft of her work” and it appears a judge agreed.
Judge Robert Patterson says the encyclopedia would cause “irreparable harm” to Ms. Rowling as a writer and with his decision the book is now blocked from publication, permanently.
Additionally, Ms. Rowling and the publisher Warner Bros Entertainment received £3,850 in damages.
“I went to court to uphold the right of authors everywhere to protect their own original work,” Rowling added.
“The court has upheld that right.”
RDR Books, who was publishing the Lexicon admitted it was disappointed with the decision but is considering “all of its options.”
The publisher did add however that “we are encouraged by the fact the court recognized that as a general matter authors do not have the right to stop the publication of reference guides and companion books about literary works.”
Judge Patterson agreed that reference materials are generally useful but that Vander Ark took too much of Rowling’s work.
“While the Lexicon, in its current state, is not a fair use of the Harry Potter works, reference works that share the Lexicon’s purpose of aiding readers of literature generally should be encouraged rather than stifled,” he said. “Lexicon appropriates too much of Rowling’s creative work for its purposes as a reference guide”.
