June 30, 2009

Let's make the Web faster

Another piece I've nearly missed: Google runs a special page dedicated to "make the web faster", a topic which I find pretty important -- so check out the link, please.


Treten wir auf's Gas

Das hier ist wieder einmal etwas, das mir fast entgangen wäre: Google hat eine Aktionsseite zum Thema "Laßt uns das Web beschleunigen" -- eine wichtige Angelegenheit, wie ich finde, deshalb hier der Link. Schaut mal rein.

June 19, 2009

Facebook vs. StudiVZ

I nearly missed this piece: Facebook lost its lawsuit against German competitor StudiVZ. FB claims that StudiVZ infringes on FBs design and features, and that StudiVZ illegally stole source-code from Facebook. Well, at least the first claim seems to be pretty obvious; the only even more blatant FB-clone I can think of is its Chinese copycat Xiaonei (they did not even change the colors, like StudiVZ).


IMO German jurisdiction concerning Internet cases is inconsistent and weird at best, maybe a reason for this verdict. The court seems to have argued that "StudiVZ isn’t trying to trick users into thinking they are actually on Facebook. Another factor in favor of the German site: When StudiVZ went live in Germany in November 2005, Facebook was virtually unknown in that country."

Hmm, so it's okay to clone a web-service in Germany as long as the original is not really that well-known here, and as long as you do not pretend to be them; this seems to contradict normal German trademark-law -- I need to keep this in mind... 



Facebook gegen StudiVZ

Das hätte ich beinahe verpasst: Facebook hat im ersten Anlauf seine Klage gegen den deutschen Mitbewerber StudiVZ verloren. In der Klage bezichtigte FB StudiVZ, Design und Features kopiert zu haben, zudem ging es um illegal entwendeten Quellcode. Zumindest der erste Klagepunkt erscheint ziemlich offensichtlich; den einizigen noch frecheren FB-Klon, den ich kenne, ist das Chinesische Netzwerk Xiaonei (die haben sich noch nicht einmal die Mühe gemacht, so wie StudiVZ die Farben von FB abzuändern).


Meiner Meinung nach ist die Deutsche Rechtsprechung in bezug auf das Internet gelinde gesagt seltsam und wenig nachvollziehbar. Vielleicht ist das auch der Grund für dieses überraschende Urteil. Das Gericht entschied offensichtlich zugunsten von StudiVZ, da diese nicht aktiv vorgeben, FB zu sein und da FB beim Start von StudiVZ in Deutschland nicht bekannt genug gewesen sei: "StudiVZ isn’t trying to trick users into thinking they are actually on Facebook. Another factor in favor of the German site: When StudiVZ went live in Germany in November 2005, Facebook was virtually unknown in that country."

Hmm, es ist also ok, hier einen Webservice zu kopieren, solange dieser im Lande noch weitgehend unbekannt ist -- scheint reichlich im Widerspruch zum normalen Marken-, Geschmacksmuster-, und Patentrecht zu stehen; das muß ich mir im Hinterkopf behalten...


:P  <-  Lutz

June 12, 2009

China's government-enforced security-hole

The mainland government is soon to introduce a new local censorship software, called Green Dam, which is going to be required on all PCs sold in the country. The even lesser funny news here: Green Dam contains a serious security loophole, which can be exploited by any website the user visits -- issues that were discovered at the University of Michigan in less of 12 hours of examining Green Dam. As their report has it:

"Once Green Dam is installed, any web site the user visits can exploit these problems to take control of the computer. This could allow malicious sites to steal private data, send spam, or enlist the computer in a botnet. In addition, we found vulnerabilities in the way Green Dam processes blacklist updates that could allow the software makers or others to install malicious code during the update process.

We found these problems with less than 12 hours of testing, and we believe they may be only the tip of the iceberg. Green Dam makes frequent use of unsafe and outdated programming practices that likely introduce numerous other vulnerabilities."

That reminds me a bit of the German online tax-declaration system Elster... ;)



Von oben verordnete Sicherheitslücke

Demnächst wird die Regierung der Volksrepublik eine neue Zensursoftware namens Green Dam einführen, die dann zwangsweise auf neu-verkauften PCs installiert sein muß. Das pikante Detail: Green Dam enthält diverse schwere Sicherheitsmängel, die praktisch von jeder Website ausgenutzt werden können, die ein User besucht. Die Lücken wurden von der University of Michigan nach weniger als 12 Stunden Analys entdeckt. Die entsprechende Studie beschreibt die Situation wie folgt: 

"Once Green Dam is installed, any web site the user visits can exploit these problems to take control of the computer. This could allow malicious sites to steal private data, send spam, or enlist the computer in a botnet. In addition, we found vulnerabilities in the way Green Dam processes blacklist updates that could allow the software makers or others to install malicious code during the update process.

We found these problems with less than 12 hours of testing, and we believe they may be only the tip of the iceberg. Green Dam makes frequent use of unsafe and outdated programming practices that likely introduce numerous other vulnerabilities."

Hm, das erinnert mich ein wenig an die Steuersoftware Elster... :)


:) <- Lutz