ESET, the makers of NOD32 Antivirus, were recently added to Bluetack’s level 1 blocklist due to some P2P activity Bluetack detected from an ESET netblock. Despite assuring an ESET representative that the level 1 list was doing its intended job correctly by blocking an organization with a suspected P2P presence, and that you, our users, do indeed choose to run PeerGuardian specifically for this purpose (and that those in our community who trust ESET could very easily set an allow entry for them), Bluetack apparently got a frivolous legal threat from them.

ESET’s solution? To classify PeerGuardian as a virus.

So if you’re a user of NOD32 you will have to make sure it knows PeerGuardian isn’t a threat. Or do what I would do: switch to an antivirus that doesn’t classify legitimate applications as a virus just because it conflicts with its company’s interests. Maybe Avast, or Symantec.

Edit: It appears ESET has reconsidered their decision, and PeerGuardian will be out of their definitions in a future update.
Edit 2: I’ve been informed PeerGuardian was classified as a general malware, not as a virus.

regards, braindancer.

Don’t worry, it’s only in console for testing. Keep a lookout.

The European Parliament is about to vote on the IPRED2, the Second Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive.
The vote is scheduled for tomorrow, wednesday 25th, so please act now.

If IPRED2 passes in its current form, “aiding, abetting, or inciting” copyright infringement on a “commercial scale” in the EU will become a crime.
Penalties for these brand new copycrimes will include permanent bans on doing business, seizure of assets, criminal records, and fines of up to €100,000.
IPRED2’s backers say these copycrimes are meant only for professional criminals selling fake merchandise. But Europe already has laws against these fraudsters. With many terms in IPRED2 left unclear or completely undefined - including “commercial scale” and “incitement” - IPRED2 will expand police authority and make suspects out of legitimate consumers and businesses, slowing innovation and limiting your digital rights.

If you live in the E.U., please, visit copycrime.eu .
They have instructions on how to Contact your member of parliament, and they also put up a petition. please sign it.
Please also sign the petition if you are a non-E.U. resident.

Please sign the petition below (even if you’re not from the EU)! We’ll use your support to help us lobby in Brussels for amendments that will fix IPRED2. Over 7800 people have already signed!

the original thread by jre can be found here

The Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC has more than tripled the royalty rates for webcasters[…]. These exorbitant rates go into effect on May 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!).

Of course such a change will put a lot of webcasters and services like Pandora out of business.
Last.Fm would be another candidate for bankruptcy.
So, please visit this petition page and tell your member of congress how you feel on this matter.

The other issues i wanted to draw your attention to are proposed changes in U.S. legislation.
Thanks to Spy1 for providing info about them.
Please read this thread on a draft regarding standardized, centralized and chipped IDs
It also holds links to petitions to oppose this draft.
Also, please read this post regarding how the “Justice Department Proposes Vast Expansion of Domestic Surveillance”,
effectively granting warrantless surveillance of private individuals.

Reduced to its’ most basic description, this change to the way things are done - or not - supposedly via the FISA court gives the government everything they could ever possibly want in the way of warrantless, totally-without oversight-or-recourse data-mining of every single citizen in the United States.

It needs to be opposed by everyone - in no uncertain terms and in every possible way.

(on a side note, some screenshots of the next PeerGuardian should be making their way online in a bit. stay tuned)