Sometimes, I think it's better to leave the kids play on the computer various games, even silly ones like Counter Strike or Lineage (it's my opinion, so don't kill me!), instead of guiding them into learning something useful. I know it doesn't sound like a serious way of thinking, but I would rather have a computer games addict than a hacker as my kid! Anyway, today it's about someone who managed to break the Chilean government sites and grab a lot of data, a person which still remains unknown...


The hacker, who calls himself "Anonymous Coward," reported on a Chilean tech blog that he managed to get his hands on no less than 6 million confidential data sets corresponding to the same number of Chileans. To imagine as far this has gone, it's enough to say that one of those having the personal data revealed is one of President Michelle Bachelet’s two daughters!

Despite the fact that the original posting on the Fayerwayer.com site was promptly deleted, a lot of other blogs got the news and carried it on. According to PC World, the Anonymous Coward said "If you’re going to extract data from a server, it’s recommended to make a script that doesn’t connect directly to the server, but rather via [anonymous proxies]," and continued with a direct reference to the president's daughter:"Bachelet’s daughter has a school pass, although it’s not given to many people because their parents have earnings above a certain threshold."

As we speak, the investigation continues, and 6 million people should be afraid of having their names, phone numbers, addresses and identity card numbers turned into public domain information...

The fact that the European Comission plays hard with Microsoft is nothing new, but it seems Bill Gates' company is not just a sitting duck, after all. Anyway, it's their fault for not complying with the requirements of the European Comission, but that is already a part of the past. The case is not over yet, because Microsoft is appealing against the record fine they got on the 27th of February...


If you don't remember that old story, there's no need to look for it, because the amount Microsoft has to pay is enough to cover the rest of the details with a cloud of smoke - $1.39 billion, or 899 million EUR, that's it!

According to a statement coming right from the Santa Clara giant, "Microsoft today filed to the (EU) Court of First Instance an application to annul the European Commission decision of February 27."

It is funny to see how Microsoft claims to be on a "constructive effort to seek clarity from the court." Well, I would also call "constructive" and effort of shaking a pretty severe fine off my tail, but I can't see how would this be "constructive" for the rest of the world. I may be wrong, but I only see this as a selfish move from Microsoft. What do you think?

For a few years, TorrentSpy has been one of the most popular BitTorrent indexing sites, with more than one 1,000,000 torrents indexed back in August 2007, and a few thousands new ones being added daily. The battle against it was long, and the first successful move was made back in May 2005, when the site was forced to remove all torrents of Star Wars: Episode III, after a stolen workprint of the film was leaked to the Internet. Anyway, it seems now this is all a part of the past...


<-120x240 Vertical Banner - left->...because on May 7, a federal judge decided that TorrentSpy should pay the Motion Picture Association of America no less than $110 million, and despite the fact they may not be able to recover this amount from TorrentSpy's principles Justin Bunnell and Wes Parker, who have filed for bankruptcy, the message is clear - MPAA is on a killing spree, and the hunt is not over yet!

In the end, it's good to see that TorrentSpy went down with dignity, without betraying its users, and that's something more important than MPAA's victory. Here's the message present on the site now:

"Friends of TorrentSpy,

We have decided on our own, not due to any court order or agreement, to bring the Torrentspy.com search engine to an end and thus we permanently closed down worldwide on March 24, 2008.

The legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile. We spent the last two years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, defending the rights of our users and ourselves.

Ultimately the Court demanded actions that in our view were inconsistent with our privacy policy, traditional court rules, and International law; therefore, we now feel compelled to provide the ultimate method of privacy protection for our users - permanent shutdown.

It was a wild ride,

The TorrentSpy Team"

These being said, I have no other words than "Rest in Peace, TorrentSpy. You may be gone, but you'll never be forgotten!"