Author: Cyrus Farivar

A local activist has won an important intermediary step in his legal quest to force the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to produce documents that fully explain the department's use of cell-site simulators, also known as IMSI catchers.

In a Monday opinion in Martinez v. Chicago Police Department, Cook County Circuit Judge Kathleen Kennedy denied the city’s motion to dismiss. This decision paves the way later this month for a closed-door hearing (in camera review) where the judge gets to privately review the documents in question.

Back in September 2014, activist Freddy Martinez filed a request under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Among other items, Martinez initially asked for:

It's been quite a few months for the Tor Project. Last November, project co-founder and director Roger Dingledine accused the FBI of paying Carnegie Mellon computer security researchers at least $1 million to de-anonymize Tor users and reveal their IP addresses as part of a large criminal investigation.

The FBI dismissed things, but the investigation in question is a very high-profile matter focused on members of the Silk Road online-drug marketplace. One of the IP addresses revealed belonged to Brian Farrell, an alleged Silk Road 2 lieutenant. An early filing in Farrell's case, first reported by Vice Motherboard, said that a "university-based research institute" aided government efforts to unmask Farrell.

That document fit with Ars reporting from January 2015, when a Homeland Security search warrant affidavit stated that from January to July 2014, a “source of information” provided law enforcement “with particular IP addresses” that accessed the vendor-side of Silk Road 2. By July 2015, the Tor Project managed to discover and shut down this sustained attack. But the Tor Project further concluded that the attack resembled a technique described by a team of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researchers who a few weeks earlier had canceled a security conference presentation on a low-cost way to deanonymize Tor users. The Tor officials went on to warn that an intelligence agency from a global adversary also might have been able to capitalize on the vulnerability.

On Thursday, Uber settled with New York state authorities, paying a $20,000 fine to end investigations into two data breach incidents from 2014 and 2015.

The first was in October 2014, when Valleywag reported on Uber’s real-time "God View" map of 30 of its "notable users" at a launch party in Chicago. One of those users on the map found out he was being tracked when an attendee of the party began texting him his Uber car's exact location. The following month, an Uber executive suggested that the company begin hiring opposition research to target journalists who reported unfavorably on the company.

The second incident, from February 2015, was when the company alerted the New York Attorney General to a data breach incident from months earlier. That resulted in 50,000 driver’s license numbers and driver names being stolen.

Two United States Marshals raided a booth at the Consumer Electronics Show on Thursday afternoon, walking away with several one-wheeled electric scooters.

The company that makes the scooters, Changzhou First International Trade Co., was sued by an American company, Future Motion, on two claims of alleged patent infringement.

Changzhou hasn’t made any formal legal response, or yet had a chance to defend itself against the claims. Future Motion’s lawyers filed their motion in federal court in Las Vegas on Tuesday, and then had a hearing by telephone on Wednesday. After the hearing, which lasted just seven minutes, US District Judge Miranda Du issued an order that Changzhou’s products be seized and that it stop sales.

The Latvian programmer who was involved in the creation of the Gozi virus—what American authorities called "one of the most financially destructive computer viruses in history"—has been sentenced to time served and will be sent back home soon. Denniss Calovskis previously pleaded guilty to one count of "conspiring to commit computer intrusion" in September 2015.

According to the Associated Press, US District Judge Kimba Wood said she was "impressed" by Calovskis' "rehabilitation" and that she would take into account the 10 months he already spent behind bars in Latvia prior to be extradited in February 2015. (Calovskis has also served 10 months behind bars in the US.)

“What I did was wrong. … I must say it was the biggest mistake,” Calovskis said, according to the AP.

On Wednesday, a federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld a 2013 settlement between Facebook and a number of advocacy groups representing minors whose images were used in "Sponsored Stories." That agreement resulted in Facebook paying each member of the class $15 and imposed some changes to the social media giant's disclosure policies.

"It is not clear whether Facebook’s use of minors’ names and likenesses in Sponsored Stories violated California law," the court wrote. "It is also not clear whether the settlement at issue—which provides more protection for minors from Facebook’s advertising practices than existed before—violates state law. The district court did not abuse its discretion in approving the settlement in the face of this uncertainty."

The original case, known as Fraley v. Facebook, was brought against Facebook in 2011, citing violations of both federal and California state law. The case alleged that when Facebook took a "like" of a user under the age of 18 and then used that data, name, and image in a Sponsored Story without the parents’ permission, the company was doing so illegally.

San Francisco’s largest taxi company is on the verge of filing for bankruptcy protection, according to a leaked letter from its president.

The San Francisco Examiner, which published the December 10, 2015 letter on Wednesday, reported that Yellow Cab Co-Op is the largest taxi firm in the city, with 530 medallion holding drivers. By comparison, there are thousands of Uber drivers on the roads of San Francisco nearly every day.

The taxi industry as a whole has been under massive pressure from startup newcomers such as Uber, Lyft, and the recently defunct Sidecar. Those companies are regulated under California’s “transportation networking company” (TNC) law, which is separate from traditional taxi law.

The Kentucky man whose drone was shot down by his neighbor last year has now filed a federal lawsuit, asking the court to make a legal determination as to whether his drone’s July 2015 flight constituted trespass. In the case, plaintiff David Boggs also wants the court to rule that he is entitled to damages of $1,500 for his destroyed drone.

"The United States Government has exclusive sovereignty over airspace of the United States pursuant to 49 U.S.C.A. § 40103," Boggs' lawyer, James Mackler, wrote in the civil complaint.

"The airspace, therefore, is not subject to private ownership nor can the flight of an aircraft within the navigable airspace of the United States constitute a trespass."

A Maryland lawyer has sued the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), asking that the agency’s new drone registration regulations be overturned.

According to the civil complaint filed December 24, 2015 at the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, John Taylor is a "model aircraft hobbyist" who owns "one or more small unmanned hobby aircraft" and intends on acquiring more. He does not describe himself as a drone owner in the brief, nor would he confirm himself as such in a conversation with Ars. However, a profile on DIYDrones.com corresponds to his name and location.

In the case, Taylor asks that the appellate court annul the new registration system that began on December 21. Taylor argues that the new rule is in violation of Section 336 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, which states that the agency may not create new rules if such model aircraft are "flown strictly for hobby or recreational use." If he is indeed a drone owner, then the suit would seem to turn on whether the courts consider drones and traditional model aircraft as distinct from one another.

Have something to complain about but haven’t found a top-level domain (TLD) with adequate panache? Fear not.

Nearly six months ago, .sucks became available, and, sure enough, people have been using it in spades to gripe about stuff. But in a new Monday blog post, Vox Populi Registry, the company that owns the venerable TLD, says that it doesn’t just want to be the place for complaining. No, it has a far more noble purpose in mind.

"We view it as a platform for innovation, a magnet for conversation, and a hub for discussion of those things that stir passion," the firm wrote. "By these measures so far, we have exceeded our modest expectations for the company."