Category Archives: Internet

Copyright, Copyright Status, Facebook, Food for Thought, Hoax, Internet, Internet hoax, Internet security, Social media, This is Life

Stop Sharing That Meaningless Copyright Status on Facebook

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Myself . 

By T. V. Antony Raj

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If you have been on Facebook for the last three or four days, you would have probably seen an almost serious looking post or one of its many garbled variations shared as someone’s Facebook status.

Here is a screen grab of one of the versions:

Permission for FB

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Various versions of this status have popped up on since 2012, which are just elaborate hoaxes that have plagued the social-network site for years, and you too might have seen them on your FB pages from time to time.

Do you think copying  and posting such a short note that seems to contain complicated and official legalese will protect the privacy and confidentiality of your Facebook account from that moment onwards and privatize the photos and videos you post?

In reality, posting such status on your Facebook page will not change any privacy rules.

If you think that posting such a status on your Facebook page is the right thing to do, then why are you still posting photos and other items on Facebook under your banner? Would it not be better to deactivate your account?

Remember that social media is not the place for “private and confidential” information. If you do not give permission to use your pictures, etc., how would Facebook show them to your friends?

When you agree to Facebook’s terms of use, you give Facebook a non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any content you post. You do not need to declare anything about copyright issues since the law already protects you. Hence, any privacy declaration on your part is worthless and does not mean anything.

On November 26, 2012, Max Read published an article titled “That Facebook Copyright Thing Is Meaningless and You Should Stop Sharing It” wherein he dissects this status post line by line and counters them with excellent explanations.

Facebook addressed the rumours years ago in a fact-checking blog post about the change related to ownership of users’ information or content they post to the site.

Copyright Meme Spreading on Facebook

Copyright Meme Spreading on Facebook

There is a rumor circulating that Facebook is making a change related to ownership of users’ information or the content they post to the site. This is false. Anyone who uses Facebook owns and controls the content and information they post, as stated in our terms. They control how that content and information is shared. That is our policy, and it always has been.

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Discovering the Real Togetherness

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Myself

By T.V. Antony Raj

.

“To become a true global citizen, one must abandon all notions of ‘otherness’ and instead embrace ‘togetherness’.“
― Suzy Kassem (American writer, film director, philosopher, author, and poet of Egyptian heritage.)

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Internet technology helps us stay connected with people living anywhere around the world, but the ability to speak face-to-face with ease has declined and, in fact, is dysfunctional severing kinship and physical interaction with those around us.

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Texting while driving (Source: ryot.org)
Texting while driving (Source: ryot.org)

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Now, with mobiles, people have replaced lively phone calls by texting mnemonic-like nonsensical internet slang words with little substance oblivious to what is happening around them. This indeed is an alarming trend.

This video shows how some simple actions can provide the impetus to bring about the joy in togetherness.

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The Heartbleed Bug Causes Vulnerability in the OpenSSL

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Myself . By T.V. Antony Raj
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Heartbleed

It has now been revealed that a very serious bug was independently discovered by a team of security engineers at Codenomicon and Google Security, and they reported it to the OpenSSL team.

Antti Karjalainen, Riku Hietamaki, and Matti Kamunen at Codenomicon found the bug while improving the SafeGuard feature in their Defensics security testing tools. They reported this bug to the NCSC-FI for vulnerability coordination and reporting to OpenSSL team.

Google Security’s Neel Mehta, who worked independently of Codenomicon team is also credited with being the first to discover the flaw and reported it to the OpenSSL team.

Now this bug has been nicknamed “Heartbleed” and CVE-2014-0160 is the official reference to this bug. Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) is the Standard for Information Security Vulnerability Names maintained by MITRE.

OpenSSL, used by most Internet websites, is a set of open source software tools to handle secure communication. This secure technology is represented in URL addresses by the “s” in HTTPS, indicating our communications with that particular site are encrypted and a third person would not be able to read any information sent or received. SSL turns our communication into a coded strain that has to be unlocked by a digital key. Here is what it looks like for the Facebook login page:

https on Facebook page

According to Matthew Green, cryptographer and Assistant Research Professor at the Johns Hopkins University, the Heartbleed vulnerability is in the OpenSSL software which was not cleverly engineered to be this way, but the result of a “mundane coding error”.

The Heartbleed bug allows an attacker to read sensitive information from vulnerable servers and possibly steal items like passwords, cookies, and encryption keys.

The author of the article “The Heartbleed Bug” published in heartbleed.com says:

“We have tested some of our own services from attacker’s perspective. We attacked ourselves from outside, without leaving a trace. Without using any privileged information or credentials we were able steal from ourselves the secret keys used for our X.509 certificates, user names and passwords, instant messages, emails and business critical documents and communication.”

To the question “How to stop the leak?”, he says:

“As long as the vulnerable version of OpenSSL is in use it can be abused. Fixed OpenSSL has been released and now it has to be deployed. Operating system vendors and distribution, appliance vendors, independent software vendors have to adopt the fix and notify their users. Service providers and users have to install the fix as it becomes available for the operating systems, networked appliances and software they use.”

Barry Abrahamson
Barry Abrahamson

In the post “Heartbleed Security Update“, Barry Abrahamson, the Chief Systems Wrangler at Automattic, responsible for running the globally distributed infrastructure that powers WordPress.com, Akismet, VaultPress, IntenseDebate, and others revealed that the WordPress.com servers “were running the latest version of OpenSSL, which was vulnerable. We generally run the latest version of OpenSSL to enable performance enhancements, such as SPDY, for our users. The non-vulnerable versions of OpenSSL were over two years old.”

Barry assures us that WordPress.com fixed the issue by patching all their servers within a few hours of the public disclosure and replaced all SSL certificates and private keys. He said:

“Out of an abundance of caution, we have replaced all of our SSL certificates, along with regenerating all of the associated private keys. In addition, our servers support forward secrecy so that even if our private keys were compromised, they could not have been used to decrypt old encrypted communication.”

About resetting password by users on WordPress.com, Barrys said that at this time, they will not be forcing their users to change their password. He added:

“If you want to, you are welcome to change your password. If you are using the same password other places on the Internet, we urge you to change your password and remind you to use unique passwords wherever possible.”

Now, with the assurance by Barry on behalf of WordPress.com, I feel secure.

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Photo of the ‘Syrian Boy’ Sleeping Between the Graves of His Parents

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Myself . By T.V. Antony Raj

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A little boy from Syria sleeping between the graves of his parents. (Photo by abdulaziz_099)
A little boy from Syria sleeping between the graves of his parents. (Photo by abdulaziz_099)

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If you regularly visit your social media pages, you would have certainly come across this photo of the little Syrian boy covered by a blanket purportedly sleeping between the graves of his parents.

This heartrending image is a fake and is not related to the current happenings in Syria. However, the image went viral on the net because many people appropriated it on social networks to reflect the tragic situation in Syria without knowing it was a fake that originated not from Syria, but from Saudi Arabia.

One source claims  it has been viewed over a million times on Imgur. It evoked lots of sympathy. Here are some comments I came across on Reddit:

  • I think the part that got me right in the heart is the fact that he looks peaceful and happy. Like nothings wrong. God damn it, I just made it worse.
  • He must have already seen some horrible things, and it seems he is now in peace, sleeping next to his mommy and daddy. Even if they aren’t alive anymore, they are still his source of comfort. This is sad on so many levels.
  • The more you think about it the deeper it goes until you’re looking down at the planet saying, wtf!
  • ****. Why’d you have to call them “mommy” and “daddy” that just makes it too real.
  • It’ll be a whole different world when he wakes.
  • This is actually the saddest picture I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen a lot of fucking morbid, disgusting, blood-soaked pictures and I’ve never batted an eye since I’m so desensitized to it, but I can barely hold in tears as I look at this one. What that kid has experienced is the epitome of non-physical human suffering. His parents aren’t coming back, man.
  • In the Middle East death is not something we’re not used to, unfortunately. Most simply embrace it due to how difficult life is.
  • I didn’t see peaceful and happy, I see a kid who doesn’t know what to do. His world is gone. I’m 40 and can’t stand the thought of losing my parents, and when they go I’ll be crushed. 8-ish years old? Jesus.

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Photographer Abdul Aziz
Photographer Abdul Aziz al-Otaibi

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Blogger Harald Doornbos claims he unearthed the truth behind the photograph by interviewing the photographer Abdul Aziz Al-Otaibi, a 25-year-old Saudi national and published it on his blog. 

According to Harald Doornbos, Abdul Aziz lives in Yanbu al Bahr, a major Red Sea port in the Al Madinah province of western Saudi Arabia, about 250 kilometers northwest of Jeddah.

Abdul Aziz is a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Savannah, Georgia in USA. His major is Photography. As a keen photographer brimming with ideas, Abdul Aziz as a project wanted to depict the irreplaceable love of a child for his parents, even  if they are dead. So, three weeks ago, he drove to the outskirts of Yanbu with his nephew. There after piling stones to resemble two graves, he bade his nephew lie between two ‘graves’ and covered him with a blanket.

Abdul Aziz  Al-Otaibi has the following social media accounts:

He posted the photograph on Facebook. He made it very clear on Facebook that the graves were not real. He even published pictures of his smiling nephew seated next to the graves. Abdul Aziz told Harald Doornbos: “I also published the backstage story. I just wanted to be sure that people drew no wrong conclusions.”

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Screenshot of Facebook page -abdulaziz_099
Screenshot of Facebook page -abdulaziz_099

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Though Abdul Aziz published this creation as an art work, an American Muslim convert posted the picture on his twitter account @americanbadu, that has over 187,000 followers. He claimed the picture was from Syria and suggested that the Assad-regime killed the parents of the sleeping boy.

The image spreads like wildfire. Hundreds of accounts, especially in jihad circles re-tweeted the picture from @americanbadu. An Islamic NGO from Kuwait, @Yathalema, with 175,000 followers tweeted the image. 

Even the Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Jarba failed to verify the authenticity of the image and tweeted it on Friday, January 17, 2014. He too did not fail to accuse Assad on wretched fate of the boy in the  picture. Here is the image of Jarba’s tweet:

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Source: blog.foreignpolicy.com
Source: blog.foreignpolicy.com

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Jarba deleted the photo of the boy beside the graves about 30 minutes after posting it.

Harald Doornbos says: “By now the picture goes viral. Nobody checks if the image was indeed from Syria. I was the first reporter who called Al-Otaibi to ask.“

In the meantime, photographer Abdul Aziz Al-Otaibi complained via Direct Message (DM) to @americanbadu: “Why did you take my picture and claim it as an image from Syria? Please correct it.”

@americanbadu replied via DM: “Why don’t you just let go and claim it is a picture from Syria and gain a reward from God. You are exaggerating.”

Shortly after, @americanbadu removed his tweet. Nevertheless, the  irreversible damage was already done.

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Beware of this “Microsoft Game Studios’ Microsoft Online Promotion” Scam

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Myself . By T.V. Antony Raj

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On browsing through the mails I received sometimes back, I came across an email similar to the Ontario Lottery Corporation scam email; however, this time purporting to be from Microsoft.

It said, “Please Read Attached Letter…” with the following image attachment labeled “MGS Awarded You 810,000.00 USD”.

MGS Awarded You 810,000.00 USD

If you receive an email with an attachment similar to the above DO NOT RESPOND.

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I Hate Internet Slang

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Myself . By T.V. Antony Raj

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Do you use text speak

What does LOL, LMAO, ROFL, BRB, AFK, TY, THX etc. mean? 

I hate Internet slang!

Internet slang refers to a variety of slang languages coined and popularized by internet users to save time on keystrokes. Internet slang saves the writer’s time, but most writers do not realize that the reader of the slang takes more than twice the time to understand what the writer is trying to say; that is why I hate Internet slang and I try not to use these slang words in my communications.

While surfing and searching the internet, I have come across many words used by the internet communities. Here, I would like to share some of them, and what they mean, with you. This list is not complete. It is difficult to provide a standardized definition of Internet slang due to the constant evolving of the gargantuan internet. If you are interested, there are many websites such as http://www.netlingo.com,where you can find more comprehensive listings.

A Listing of Internet Slang and Acronyms

Slang and Acronyms = Meaning

1 = One / exclamation mark
2 = To / Too / Two
4 = For or Four
403 = Deny Access To

A
AFAP = As Far As Possible
A&F = AAF Always And Forever
A3 = Anywhere, Any time, Any place
AAB = Average At Best
AAK = Alive And Kicking
AAMOF = As A Matter Of Fact
AAP = Always A Pleasure
AAR = At Any Rate
AAYF = As Always, Your Friend
ABD = Already Been Done
ABH = Actual Bodily Harm
ABT = Absolutely
ABT = About
ADL = All Day Long
ADN = Any Day Now
AEAE = And Ever And Ever
AEAP = As Early As Possible
AFAIAC / AFAIC = As Far As I Am Concerned
AFAICS = As Far As I Can See
AFAICT = As Far As I Can Tell
AFAIK = As Far As I Know
AFC = Away From Computer
AGW = All Going Well
ALOL = Actually Laughing Out Loud
ANY1 = Anyone
AYSOS = Are You Stupid Or Something?

B
B = Be
B4 = Before
Bb = Bye Bye, Goodbye
BBIAB = Be Back In A Bit
BBL = Be Back Later
BBS = Be Back Soon
BD = Big Deal
BRB = Be right back
BRB = Be right back / Bath-room break
BRT = Be right there
BTW = By the way

C
C = See
CSWS = Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
CU = See you
CUL = See you later
Cuz = Because
CYA = See you
CYS = Check Your Settings

D
da = The
dat = That
DBA = Don’t Bother Asking
der = There
DIAF = Die In A Fire
Dunno = Don’t know

E
E123 = Easy as One, Two, Three
E2HO = Each to His/Her Own
EAK = Eating at Keyboard
ED = Erectile Dysfunction
EE or EEs = Employee -or- Employees
EFT = Electronic Funds Transfer
ELOL = Evil Laugh Out Loud
EM = Excuse Me
EMBM = Early Morning Business Meeting
EMFBI = Excuse Me For Butting In
EMFJI = Excuse Me For Jumping In
EMI = Excuse My Ignorance
EML = Email Me Later
EMSG = E-Mail Message
EOD = End Of Day -or- End Of Discussion
EOM = End Of Message
ESEMED = Every Second Every Minute Every Day
EWIE = mailing While Intoxicated
EZ = Easy

F
FHO = Friends Hanging Out
FTL = For The Loss
FTUW = For The Uber Win
FTW = For The Win
FWIW = For What It’s Worth
FYI = For Your Information

G
G2G / GTG = Got to go
GAL = Get A Life
GFY = Good For You
GG = Good game, Good going
GIYF = Google Is Your Friend
GRX = Gracias, Merci

H
HAND = Have A Nice Day
HS = Holy Shit
HTH = Hope This Helps

I
IACL = I Am Currently Laughing
IANAL = I Am Not A Lawyer
IANARS = I Am Not A Rocket Scientist
IC = I see
ICYDK = In Case You Didn’t Know
IDGI = I Don’t Get It
IDK = I Don’t Know
IIRC = If I Recall Correctly
ILY / ILU = I Love You
IMHO = In My Honest Opinion
IMNSHO = In My Not So Honest Opinion
IMO = In My Opinion
IRL = In Real Life
ITT = In This Thread
IYDMMA = If You Don’t Mind Me Asking

J
JJ = Just Joking
JK = Just Kidding
JOOC = Just Out Of Curiosity
JP = Just Playing

K
K = Okay
KKOk = Cool / Ok Kewl
KL = kool, cool
Kwl = Cool

The future of texting

L
L8r = Later
LLAH = Laughing Like A Hyena
LMAO = Laughing My Ass Off
LMFAO = Laughing My F*cking Ass Off
LOL = Laugh Out Loud
LQTM = Laugh Quietly To Myself

M
M8 = Mate
MYOB = Mind Your Own Business

N
NLS = Not Life Safe
NOYB = None Of Your Business
NP = No Problem
NSFW = Not Safe For Work
NVM = Never mind
NWS = Not Work Safe

O
O = Oh
O3 = Out of Office
OIC = Oh, I see
OJ = Only Joking
OMG = Oh My God! / Oh My Goodness!,
OC = Out Of Character
OP = Original Poster / Original Post
OT = Off Topic

P
PEBKAC = Problem Exists Between The Keyboard And The Chair
Pic = Picture
PITA = Pain In The Ass
Pix = Pictures
Plz / Pls = Please
PPMSLL = Pissing/ Pissed Myself Laughing
POSL = Piece Of ShIt
PPLL = People
PTTLL = Pop To The Loo

Q
Q = Queue -or- Question
QAP = Quick As Possible, Quickly As Possible
QL = Quit Laughing
QOTD = Quote Of The Day
QS = Quit Scrolling

R
RL = Real Life
ROFL = Rolling On The Floor Laughing
ROFLMAO = Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off
ROFLMAOL = Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Out Loud

S
Shudda = Should Have
SMH = Shaking My Head
SNH = Sarcasm Noted Here
SO = Significant Other
SOS = Same Old Shit
Soz / srry = Sorry
SSDD = Same Shit, Different Day
STFW = Search The F*cking Web
sup = What’s up?
sup homes = What’s up, friend?
SWW = Sorry, Wrong Window – typing in the wrong box

Texting

T
Thnx = Thanks
Tho = Though
TIA = Thanks In Advance
TLTR = Too Long To Read
TTFN = Ta Ta For Now
TTYL = Talk To You Later
TTYT = Talk To You Tomorrow
TY = Thank You
TYT = Take Your Time

U
U = You
ULM = You Love me

V
VBD = Very Big Deal

W
W8 = Wait
Wanna = Want to
WB = Welcome Back
Wd = Well done
WDUWTA? = What Do You Want To Talk About?
Wile = While
WOOT = We Own the Other Team
WTH? = What The Hell?
WURSC = Wow, you are so cool

X
XLNT = Excellent
XME = Excuse Me
XOXO = Hugs and Kisses
XOXOZZZ = Hugs and Kisses and Sweet Dreams
XQZT = Exquisite
XTC = Ecstasy
XXCC = Kiss, Kiss, Hug, Hug

Y
YCM = You Copied Me
Ye = Yeah / Yes
YGTI = You Get The Idea
YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary
Yo = Hey / Your
YSVW = You are So Very Welcome
YW = You are Welcome

Z
ZZZ = Sleeping, Bored, Tired

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Texting language

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My Mobile number has WON the sum of £750,000

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Myself . By T.V. Antony Raj
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Fraud Alert

Yesterday I received the following SMS:

Your Mobile number 
has WON you the sum
of £750,000 from the
UK Nokia cash offer
send details for
claim:Name,Age,Address,
Tell:
free.rep3@outlook.com

Sender:
(no name)
+918373934464
Received:
04:58:12pm
02-07-2013

This is another instance of a phone text (SMS) message that claims the recipient has won a bountiful sum of money in an online promotion or in an online lottery. Contrary to the claim there is no prize money and the lottery or promotion mentioned in these messages do not exist. In fact, the messages are just lures used by scammers to entice recipients into replying and getting personal information first and  groom them to part with their hard-earned money.

This is somewhat similar to the Ontario Lottery Corporation Scam.

Mobile Scams

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), scams delivered via landline and mobile networks remained the preferred delivery method for scammers, with combined voice and text messages making up 56 per cent of reported scams. Unsolicited telephone calls accounted for $24 million in reported losses while fake SMS messages, such as the one I received yesterday, netted criminals $759,986. Online scams increased to represent over 35 per cent of all approaches.

“Scammers continue to find sophisticated methods to deliver scams, taking advantage of new technologies and communication methods to try and slip under your radar,” said Delia Rickard, deputy chair, ACCC. “Nowadays it can take just the click of a button to fall victim to a scam, so it is more important than ever that we practice safe techniques when communicating with other-whether online, on the phone, at one’s business or even at home.”

The United States Postal Inspection Service warns that there has been an increase in the number of seniors victimized by foreign lottery scams by phone and by regular mail such as this one. Many of these lottery scams reportedly originate in Nigeria or Jamaica. At times, callers/scammers will claim the victim owes fees and/or taxes to collect their winnings. The perpetrators of these scams have been known are extremely pushy. They may find photos of the victim’s home on Google Maps and scare seniors by making them believe that they are being stalked.

So, beware! We are in for another spate of mobile scams.

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Internet Photo Hoax: “Skeleton of Giant Found in India”

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Myself . 

By T. V. Antony Raj

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Bhima's son Gadotkach-like skeleton found
Image courtesy IronKite

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The above image of a giant’s skeleton is in fact a digital collage of three different photos created by a Canadian illustrator using the alias IronKite. It was placed third in a 2002 competition titled “Archaeological Anomalies 2,” run by Worth1000, a website that hosts contests for digital artists. The website asked contestants to create a hoax archaeological discovery.

Blogs, emails, and even a newspaper have used the above “photograph” to give credence and to substantiate their so-called reports that the National Geographic Society had discovered an ancient race of human giants in India.

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Bhima's son Gadotkach-like skeleton found - 2

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Recently, I came across the above image of a news item included in a YouTube video titled “RACE OF GIANTS found in India” uploaded by YTABUSESusers on December 15, 2008. This news, submitted by G. Subramaniam of Chennai, in a less known Indian newspaper called “Hindu Voice” looked dubious. It does not carry the date of publication.

In the article titled “Skeleton of Giant” Is Internet Photo Hoax” in National Geographic News, James Owen wrote: “An often cited March 2007 article in India’s Hindu Voice monthly, for example, claimed that a National Geographic Society team, in collaboration with the Indian Army, had dug up a giant human skeleton in India.”

Subramaniam reported:

“Recent exploration activity in the northern region of India uncovered a skeletal remains of a human of phenomenal size.” The story went on to say “The discovery was made by National Geographic Team (India Division) with support from the Indian Army since the area comes under jurisdiction of the Army.”

Hindu Voice magazineHowever, the monthly, “Hindu Voice,” based in Mumbai (Bombay), published a retraction after readers alerted its editor P. Deivamuthu to the hoax. The editor said: “We are against spreading lies and canards,” and he added “Moreover, our readers are a highly intellectual class and will not brook any nonsense.”

On December 14, 2007, James Owen for National Geographic News wrote: “The National Geographic Society has not discovered ancient giant humans, despite rampant reports and pictures.”

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Canadian artist IronKite used this mastodon-excavation photo taken in 2000 in Hyde Park, New York as the basis for his entry in an online photo-manipulation contest

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IronKite used the above photo taken in 2000 of a mastodon-excavation in Hyde Park, New York as the basis for his photo-manipulation.

In December 2007, he told National Geographic News that he digitally superimposed a human skeleton over the mastodon-dig photo. Later on, he added a man holding a shovel and re-colored his clothing to match that of the man in the above, authentic picture. The goal was to make the shoveler appear to be part of the excavation team. “To create the photo collage, I kept most of the wood frame from the dig site and replaced most of the muddy dirt with ground from the skeleton picture, using a fuzzy ‘brush’ to fade the two so no hard lines would be visible,” IronKite said.

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Mastodon-excavation photo taken in 2000 in Hyde Park, New York
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Though the above authentic photograph of the New York State mastodon excavation was not used to create the completed ‘giant’ skeleton image, it served as the foundation for the digital artwork.

Since 2004, this digitally manipulated artwork inspired unfounded reports of archaeologists unearthing a skeleton of an ancient human giant in India. IronKite, the Canadian digital artist, had nothing to do with the subsequent hoax.

Avi Muchnick who runs Worth1000, the web site that sponsored the photo-manipulation contests that inspired this fake photo said: “We have thousands of people who regularly create images like these in image-editing tools like Phoenix and Photoshop. So, it’s no surprise to us when some of these images get passed around the web as authentic depictions of actual events.”

James Owen wrote: “Variations of the giant photo hoax include alleged discovery of a 60- to 80-foot long (18- to 24-meter) human skeleton in Saudi Arabia. In one popular take, which likewise first surfaced in 2004, an oil-exploration team is said to have made the find. Here the skeleton is held up as evidence of giants mentioned in Islamic, rather than Hindu, scriptures.”

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Dubious Posts in Social Media Mislead Society About Anti-rape Laws

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Myself . By T.V. Antony Raj

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I have repeatedly said in my posts on my website “Impressions ~ of what comes to my mind” and in my Facebook page not to believe everything posted on social media websites such as Facebook. Here is one such post with dubious information that is  going viral on the social media:

Finally a new law passed

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The above message that I came across recently on Facebook was an outcome of the Delhi gang rape of December 16, 2012 that incited people nationwide, from every strata of our civil society, to demand for strict anti-rape laws. Everyone started exploring the existing laws for punishing the rapists under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Currently, a flood of Short Message Service (SMS) and social medium posts carrying information about a “new anti-rape law” being passed are misguiding people, despite the disclaim by legal professionals and members of the judiciary to the contrary. Even educated folk presume that it is their bounden duty to circulate these erroneous messages to all their friends thinking that it is a major development with the country’s leaders finally caring about the female population in our society.

This Section 233  in The Indian Penal Code, 1860 has nothing to do with “Rape”. In fact, it deals with counterfeiting coins. It states:

Making or selling instrument for counterfeiting coin.– Whoever makes or mends, or performs any part of the process of making or mending, or buys, sells or disposes of, any die or instrument, for the purpose of being used, or knowing or having reason to believe that it is intended to be used, for the purpose of counterfeiting coin, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extended to three years, and shall also be liable to fine.

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CISPA Passes in Closed Door Vote

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Myself . By T.V. Antony Raj

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At the Congress of the United States begun and held in New York, on March 4, 1789, several States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, wanted to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers by adding further declaratory and restrictive clauses.

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution in its original form is as follows:

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants
shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights ratified on December 15, 1791.

This amendment tries to protect two fundamental liberty interests – the right to privacy and freedom from arbitrary invasions. It guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially allowed and supported by probable cause.

Now, the United States Government is attempting to control and censor the internet by passing the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), a law that would allow for the sharing of Internet traffic information among the U.S. government and technology and manufacturing companies.

The stated aim of the bill is to help the U.S government investigate cyber threats and ensure the security of networks against cyber attacks. This bill would allow major internet entities such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google to share voluntarily our personal information with the U.S. Government. This will not only affect users in the United States, but also anyone with an account with these companies.

As written, CISPA will not protect us from cyber threats, but will violate our Fourth Amendment’s right to our privacy, and freedom from arbitrary invasions.

    • It lets the government to spy on us without a warrant. 
    • Companies cannot be sued when they do illegal things using our data.
    • It allows companies and corporations to cyber attack one another and harm individual people outside the law.

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