Where SunRocket's Minutes went ...

So apparently this guy and his buddy supposedly managed to get a few million dollars' worth of free calls: Fugitive VOIP hacker cuffed in Mexico

Nice. I am sure there is a lot of amortized equipment (corporate jets and the like) in that price. How many minutes does that work out to? Tens of millions? It's not like they're in orange tokens like AT&T commercials or anything. Let me guess - they looked for the guy with the missing jaw.

They're trumping it up like a BSA audit. Break the EULA for MS Office, you're paying for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access separately, and not the bundled price, even if your installation is a "MS Office" installation per the Windows Install/Remove Software applet. That's also how the cost of software "lost to piracy" and "lost to open source" is calculated.

Another Reason I left Canada: Bill C-61

Canada currently imposes a "fine" on all digital and analog media purchased, ostensibly to compensate artists for copyright infringement you'll do with that media. If you use your CDs for a more legitimate purpose than fair use, you paid the fine anyways.

Obviously, you're guilty, proof being irrelevant. This is akin to gasoline having a surcharge added for the speeding ticket you're expected to get.

This has backfired on the music industry. If you're on the side that states that the sales have fallen because the music industry hasn't made all much worth listening to in recent years, rather than piracy, you'll applaud this: Canada's RIAA arm got a serious smackdown about two years ago when the defendant successfully argued that no further damages were due because the fine for the crime had already been paid. That meant that because of the media reimbursement/fine/tax, copying music and video had basically been legalized.

Of course, copyright holders could not let this stand, and so had their henchmen in parliament propose a draconian addition, currently called bill C-61. Hon. Minister of Industry Bill Prentice deserves to lose his seat for this. Here is the summary - you'll note similarities with the US DMCA:

• Circumvention of encryption, no matter how trivial (like xor 81), is now a federal offence (called a felony in the US)
• $500 fine (not clear if it's a minimum or a maximum) for each copyright violation (so a Youtube posting will average $20,000)
• Unlocking of cellphones counts as circumvention of encryption (even if a provider locks your personal cell phone)

The issue, as always, is the fine print, usually skipped by the press. Critics who watch out for this sort of thing argue that the search and seizure rights granted by the bill and others on the books it refers to effectively make Canada a police state, like it isn't already (ask me about September 2003 at Vancouver International Airport one day).

Protests are cropping up all over the place, according to the CBC.

What's really missing from the debate are the following points:

• The new bill would empower distributors, who are the copyright owners (artists surrender this to get distributed), so it does not help artists, and thus does not help creativity.
• Security through Obscurity would also take over the Canadian technology market - it's okay for your bank to use XOR 81 encryption, since it's "illegal to circumvent." Tell that to your ID thief in Russia, and see if he cares. He's thankful his life was made easier.
• Security companies, those that nudge vendors to make their software more secure, now face legal penalties like they do in the United States. Point out another flaw in Internet Explorer, go to jail. There. Microsoft's happy.

Feel safer already?

The point is, the criminals on the networks don't care about this, and they are outside the reach of Canadian law. But the folks whom you trust to keep the people with your information honest will see jail if they tell the people with your information that they're not being responsible.

Good work, Canada!

Radio Interview w Rich Levin: Last call for sunscreen!

Here it is - I opened my big mouth again, and gave an interview to Rich Levin. Pardon the voice quality - it was over SunRocket. I also got some press coverage locally in Connection Newspapers.

As it turned out, he also interviewed my former boss from SunRocket. Interesting how seven months can change things.

My last points are important: I am as blunt as I am in bringing up mistakes because one needs open discussion to learn from them. Too much energy in corporations is expended hiding mistakes, and so lessons get lost. Think about that before you berate the next guy for telling you the truth.

In other news, Bush said this morning that "you cannot impose freedom." Duh. Or "fundamentational" I guess.

Whoa, SunRocket Zombie... and a Blender

(Corrected - thanks Chris!)

So late last night someone posted the email from "Sunrocket" that they had received, pointing at two "preferred" services.

One is Packet 8, whom we know, and some even love. I think their "Is the Sun setting on your phone service" ad is really cute.

The other is this company called "Teleblend". Name aside, they're offering service starting at $12.95 a month. If you enter your SunRocket number, it was reported that they showed all your account info. Put in someone elses SunRocket number and you can see all of their info. Scary. Apparently though, they read DSL Reports too, and so fixed that quickly.

But this gets weirder. Some checking around shows the following information:

• The domain was created on July 17, 2007 (link to whois database)
• Looking in the GoDaddy domain database shows different info (and the teleblend.com domain)
  
• Looking up the registrant on WHOIS proper (i.e. Network Solutions) points to the Overgroup, which claims to make telecom billing and provisioning systems, in Florida.
  
• GoDaddy's account shows an address in Kennebunk, Maine
  
• The secure certificate on their site is issued by GoDaddy, and also issued on July 17, 2007.

Tooling around, at least Teleblend/MyTeleblend has a press release.

What's scary beyond this?

• There is no "about us" section on their web site. Their FAQ states "We're your broadband phone company." I guess we're supposed to take them at their word.
  
• They don't list their place of business on the web site.
• Their domain name routes back to Florida or Maine, depending on the registrar.
• Their PR contact on the release has a number in central California.
• They claim to be "privately held, profitable voip provider" on their press release.

Some on Dslreports surmise Myteleblend(er) is owned by USA Telephone, owned by United Systems Access (no web site, showing Google search on filings instead). A link on Yahoo! Finance as well. The Gizmo Password site picked up on this too, although I cannot follow their connecting thread posted there back to Singapore.

Now, United Systems Access Inc. states that it is "focused on acquisition of young or ailing telecommunications companies that exhibit growth potential." The DSL Reports rumor mill feels that they're likely buying SunRocket's physical presence assets (i.e. servers and so on).

Is it just me, or does the attempt to obfuscate seem deliberate? It seems too much to just write off as accedental, and I would suspect even a private corporation like USA (hah! I get it!) would act a bit more transparently than the company it replaces. Riding in on that white horse might even be good PR, although that makes it tough to distance yourself from mistakes.

Stay tuned...