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HackingTeam's Global Export License Revoked
An anonymous reader writes: You might remember HackingTeam from an epic data leak back in July 2015. Now, the Italian Ministry of Economical Progress has revoked HackingTeam's licence to export their Galileo remote control software abroad, two years before it would expire, on April 30, 2018. Until the situation changes, HackingTeam will have to ask express permission for every single commercial operation that involves the sale of their Galileo system abroad.
Sounds like the perfect time for them to relocate.
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
The summary and TFA were no help at figuring out what exactly their software is.
Hackers, so guilty. Why would a company be different from individuals? These guys actually deserve it.
Government is just a bad company that won't go out of business because it decrees its income through the threat of violence.
There is nothing magical about the services a government provides; there's nothing government does that couldn't be handled directly or indirectly by organizations which compete for customers.
Until the situation changes, HackingTeam will have to ask express permission for every single commercial operation that involves the sale of their Galileo system abroad.
Or, they will simply move their operation elsewhere.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Reading the original article (in Italian): after having their global licence revoked, Hacking Team won't need to ask permission for every sale generically made "abroad", but only if they wish to sell their software to 46 specific countries.
This has been the front page story, until lately:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/04/06/1529210/nest-reminds-customers-that-ownership-isnt-what-it-used-to-be
Is slashdot applying censorship? Who are really the new overlords? Has Alphabet paid SlashdotMedia to silence its criticism?
The article's text:
Alphabet-owned Nest recently announced that it will be turning off Revolv Hub next month. An anonymous reader shares an article on EFF, a privacy rights group:
Nest Labs, a home automation company acquired by Google in 2014, will disable some of its customers' home automation control devices in May. This move is causing quite a stir among people who purchased the $300 Revolv Hub devices -- customers who reasonably expected that the promised "lifetime" of updates would enable the hardware they paid for to actually work, only to discover the manufacturer can turn their device into a useless brick when it so chooses. This is far from the first time that customers' software and electronics have been downgraded by manufacturers. Updates can disable features the customer paid for that have fallen out of favor with the vendor, as when Google disabled privacy settings on Android or Sony took away the ability to run GNU/Linux on a Playstation 3. Manufacturers can even render a device unusable until the customer "agrees" to new terms of use, as Nintendo did with the Wii U. Other software and devices, including some video games, are designed so they simply stop working when they can no longer dial home to a server run by the vendor.
TFA: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/04/nest-reminds-customers-ownership-isnt-what-it-used-be
I looked up their hipster web site and was so repulsed by their brain-dead stupid eye-destroying low-contrast color scheme that I was instantly prejudiced against them. My snap impression was then reinforced by their stupid pandering column on the San Bernardino iPhone controversy.
Tech support on the other hand is hella expensive, with the first call costing what the software used to cost, which is where they give you the keys to "unlock" the software.
. . . .why the US office they were trying to set up, disappeared. And the only reason I know about the prospective US office, is that I was being recruited for it. . . and then it suddenly went silent. . .
Could they move to a country that doesn't have IP laws tied to Italy
If by "IP" you mean copyright, then all WTO members "have IP laws tied to Italy", as the Berne Convention is an essential WTO treaty.
Once upon a time, when I was doing network security, I got thrown out of IT and into export control. They gave me enough money that I didn't quit. Logic was it was technical, byzantine and required insane attention to detailed regulation that'd make Cthulu go insane. Hey, infosec is virtually the same parameters.
Short story long, generally the US has among the most byzantine and archaic export control regulation in use by first world countries, specifically ITAR. It's largely unchanged from the 1970's/1980's notion of 'high tech', so you get a lot of interesting stuff that ends up on the US munitions list. Europe in general doesn't have nearly the same level of export control, and gives a substantial advantage in the global defense contracting world.
That said, many Euro defense contractors have extremely tight relations with their export licensing agency. They dance to the tune very closely, which does actually reduce the amount of legislation or regulation. As a government entity, why bind yourself with written rulings when your customers will do exactly what you tell them? I can very well imagine, and would be shocked to see otherwise, that any Euro export related tech organization that did not have extremely tight relations with their export licensing agency would be punished at least this harshly. Expect a LOT of foot dragging. Not enough for this company to win in court, just enough to cause them to lose business or go bankrupt.