A man who was caught on camera shooting a change machine is now being hunted by police – despite the machine refusing to cough up a single cent. In a word, fail.

The armed robbery took place in Winter Haven, Fla., at the ‘Busy Bubbles’ laundromat. CCTV footage shows a man bursting into the laundromat, unloading several rounds from a semi-automatic handgun into the change machine, and then fleeing after the device failed to give up its bounty. Outfought by a change machine. No wonder he’s hiding.

Despite the fact that no money was stolen and nobody was injured (an unarmed change machine aside), police are still after the perpetrator because he fired a weapon in an attempted robbery – the official term for the charge is ‘criminal mischief.’

The shooting went unnoticed for some time before police were contacted, because it was only after the manager saw the machine and checked CCTV surveillance footage that the shooting was discovered.

The suspect is described as an African-American man, average height and weight, wearing a gray hoody and dark baggy pants.

Florida has some of the highest levels of weapons-related crime in the U.S., yet attacks on inanimate (and totally innocent) objects are, er, slightly rarer. Well done to the change machine for holding out.

Man Shoots Change Machine, Goes on the Run is a post from: The Inquisitr

Stores around the country have seen increased sales due to the holiday season, but they’ve also seen a rise in shoplifting. A new report estimates that $1.84 billion in merchandise will be stolen during the holidays.

The Global Retail Theft Barometer, which surveys retailers worldwide, says that close to $2 billion will be stolen during the four weeks prior to Christmas. That number is up 6 percent from last year.

Joshua Bamfield, executive director of the Center for Retail Research, said:

“They shoplift for Christmas gifts, they steal for themselves, for their family.”

The New York Daily News reports that the holiday atmosphere can give thieves the perfect opportunity to shoplift. Overcrowded stores provide an easy cover for Holiday thieves, and with the current state of the economy, many people can justify a little theft.

Joseph LaRocca, senior advisor of asset protection for the National Retail Federation trade group, said:

“It’s really a question of need versus greed. People will rationalize what they are stealing: ‘Oh, I’m feeling the economy. I lost my job’.”

Earlier this month, a report was released that detailed the 10 most shoplifted items. Among the objects chosen most be thieves were razor blades, electronics, and Filet Mignon.

Johnny Custer, director of field operations for Merchant Analytic Solutions, said:

“Most shoplifters simply succumb to temptation. But add a sense of desperation because of the economy and holiday pressures, and you have the recipe for theft soup.”

According to the NY Daily News, one in 11 people will steal this holiday season.

Did you give yourself a five finger discount this year?

Shoplifters to Steal $1.8 Billion This Holiday Season is a post from: The Inquisitr

A couple were thrown to jail in Honolulu for allegedly stealing two sandwiches at a supermarket. Because they’re both in jail, they also lost custody of their 3-year-old daughter for about 18 hours.

Husband and wife Marcin and Nicole Leczcyzynski were in a Safeway supermarket when they were arrested. The wife, 30 weeks pregnant, feeling faint munched on a chicken salad sandwich while shopping. She paid for about $50 worth of groceries but said that she forgot to pay for two sandwiches valued at $5 each.

The supermarket’s security stopped the couple and called the police. Despite offering to pay for the sandwiches, they were arrested and their daughter taken by Child Protective Services.

In a statement released by Safeway, they said:

“From our preliminary investigation, it appears we may not have handled this matter in the best possible way. We are taking this situation seriously, and giving it our full attention.”

The couple were charged with theft and set the bail at $50 each.

Was it an overkill for Safeway to call the police and should have just taken on the couple’s offer to pay?

Couple Loses Custody of Daughter for Stealing Sandwiches is a post from: The Inquisitr

In what must rank as one of the more audacious robberies of recent times, state police in North Beaver Township, Pennsylvania have revealed thieves stole a 50-foot steel bridge. Yes, all of it.

In a report filed Wednesday, local trooper Darren Vizyak wrote that the bridge was nicked at some point between September 27th and October 5th. He added that the structure was made out of corrugated steel, and had a scrap metal value of approximately $100,000.

The 20-foot wide bridge was located in woods that ran alongside a railroad line, about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh. It’s thought the thieves used a cutting torch to dismantle the bridge, before taking it away piece by piece.

Police reported the owner of the bridge as New Castle Development. A message left for the company by authorities was not returned.

As you can probably tell from a town where a missing bridge goes unnoticed for eight days, North Beaver Township isn’t the most heavily populated of areas – the last count in 2000 showed 4,022 people spread over 43 square miles.

Locals could no longer be reached for comment.

Incidentally, this is not the first instance of crime against bridges. In 2008, an innocent 200-ton structure was stolen by Russian thieves, but that was ‘only’ 38 feet long.

Thieves Steal Entire Bridge is a post from: The Inquisitr

Vancouver housewife Marguerite Houghton decided she would honor the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks by hanging a huge American flag on her house. This flag was a little different from others lining her neighborhood, however: her father had brought it home after serving in the Navy in World War II.

Days later, on September 17th, the flag was gone, nicked by some ungracious douche from the front of her home. This rather scummy crime quickly attracted the attention of news networks (as it has all the right ingredients for a story: patriotism, sentiment, moral outrage, and crime), and before long Marguerite was hosting TV crews in her front yard.

Understandably upset, she told them: “That was sort of like a part of him. It just struck a note when somebody stole it.” Houghton added it was only the second time she had removed the flag from her home, where it usually stays in a “tucked away”" place.

In a bid to have the 10 feet by 7 feet flag returned, Houghton has erected a sign on her porch (above), urging the flag thief to return her stars and stripes. “It was so wrong for somebody to do this, and I couldn’t let it go,” she said. “Why would anybody want to take an American flag? To me, it’s a sin.”

While Marguerite would love to get her flag back, she says her expectations are not high. She filed a report with the Vancouver Police Department.

World War II-Era Flag Stolen From Home [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Extreme couponing has become a buzz term ever since TLC’s Extreme Couponing debuted in April 2011 but it hasn’t come without it’s consequences, for example some stores have had to revise their coupon policies, while some locations have reported newspaper thefts numbered in the hundreds.

In one case a female in Arkansas was arrested after she allegedly stole 185 Sunday newspapers from outside of a grocery store. Jamie VanSickler, 34, has been accused of stealing the papers from outside of a grocery store before they could be picked up by a newspaper carrier, however she claims the store gave her permission to take their unsold papers.

According to VanSickler’s attorney:

“Mrs. VanSickler is shocked and embarrassed by the whole situation, since she obtained permission from Harps prior to taking any newspapers, and she was just trying to save some money.”

In the meantime some of the worst hit states for newspaper thefts include,  Idaho, Texas, Alabama, Florida, California and Arkansas.

If you haven’t had a chance to watch the TLC show, coupon collecting people head to grocery stores where they buy bulk amounts of food for low costs, in some cases taking $1000 shopping tabs down to just a few dollars.

I just have one problem with Extreme Couponing and it’s not the theft of Sunday papers, I just don’t understand why buying 27 bottles of mustard is seen as a good idea, no one needs that much mustard and most of the foods bought on the show are unhealthy processed products that should be avoided when possible which is evident by the number of obese people who appear on the show to demonstrate their “couponing skills.”

Newspaper Thefts Blamed On TLC’s ‘Extreme Couponing’ Reality TV Series is a post from: The Inquisitr

A Nintendo 3DS has been stolen from a Chinese factory, more than eight weeks before the device goes on sale in Japan. The anonymous thief has since taken photos and shot footage of the console, spreading evidence of their crime Internetwide.

While this act doesn’t actually achieve much (the console doesn’t even turn on, and the perpetrator certainly can’t put it on Ebay, unless she/he wants to lose their job), I’m still weirdly jealous that someone has a 3DS on their mantelpiece.

Scroll down for a nice comparison shot of the nabbed (and very, very glossy) handheld next to its many predecessors, and a video (which I don’t expect to hang around for long). How long before some miscreant nabs a working 3DS?:

[TGBus, via Kotaku]

[VIDEO] Man steals Nintendo 3DS from Chinese production line is a post from: The Inquisitr

The self-aggrandizing editor of small-town food magazine Cooks Source has replaced the full page apology on the magazine’s website with a passive-aggressive dig at writer Monica Gaudio and a suggestion that Gaudio is at fault for the magazine’s likely eventual collapse.

A few weeks back, Gaudio put editor Judith Griggs on Livejournal blast for failing to pay for a written piece of hers that Griggs sourced off the web, laughing off a suggestion she compensate Gaudio for the work and then suggesting Gaudio should have paid her for the editing work Griggs maintains she did to the piece. (Reading the lengthy missives penned by Griggs leads one to wonder whether she’s capable of even basic editing, though, given a distracting lack of proper punctuation and rampant other errors.) The internet, pretty much as a whole, reared up and breathed fire at the not very remorseful editor after the tale made the rounds.

Griggs, not exactly well-versed in sincerity, attempts again to appear apologetic for her transgression while publicly licking her wounds and blaming Gaudio for siccing the internet on Cooks Source:

Honestly, some of you have been pretty mean. I have been busy for the last week, apologising to these business owners and helping them to get things right again. If my apology to Monica seemed shallow it was because I was angry about the harm she has inflicted on others on behalf of her own agenda.

So let me say this now: Monica I am so sorry for any harm I caused you. I never ment [sic] to hurt anyone, and I think I did a nice job for you, but the fact remains that I took this without asking you and that was so very wrong. Please find it in you heart to forgive me. I sent the check  to the University and also, because so many people really need help, serious help, I am sending one to Food bank of Western Massachusetts (sorry, I got the name wrong the first time, even tho [sic] we did write an article on them).

Griggs then pretty much deflects responsibility for the debacle, as well as demonstrating that she still doesn’t understand why stealing the work of web writers for profit might make them angry. She contends that exhaustion lead to the lifting of the piece, something she wouldn’t have done if she thought she might get caught wasn’t working so damn hard all the time:

But one night when working yet another 12 hour day late into the night, I was short one article… Instead of picking up one of the multitude of books sent to me and typing it, I got lazy and went to the www and “found” something. Bleary-eyed I didnt notice it was copy written and reordered some of it. I did keep the author’s name on it rather than outright “stealing” it, and it was my intention to contact the author, but I simply forgot, between proofreading, deliveries, exhaustion.

Feeling any sympathy yet, meanies? You can read Gaudio’s response here.

[via, Image]

‘Cooks Source’ editor says internet meanies killed the magazine is a post from: The Inquisitr

Much maligned regional food mag Cooks Source has finally apologized to the blogger whose article “A Tale of Two Tarts” was ripped off for their print edition.

The furor began when writer Monica Gaudio posted an email exchange she had with Cooks Source editor Judith Griggs after the theft was brought to Gaudio’s attention. Griggs brushed off the writer’s request for token compensation and suggested the author pay the magazine for edits made to the piece. This did not go over well with the internet, who proceeded to flood the magazine’s Facebook page en masse, deluged the publication’s advertisers, and made endless jokes about the ill visited upon the world by Griggs.

Below is the statement posted on the website of Cooks Source- interestingly, every other bit of content from the site has disappeared. Is that to draw attention to their contrition, or is it because they can’t verify the sources of the images and text are legitimate? Does the magazine sound truly sorry, or is there more of a focus on how the scandal harmed them than how their actions were wrong in the first place?

We have cancelled our Facebook page on Thursday, November 4th, 2010 at 6:00PM. It has since been since been hacked by unknown parties and now someone else unknown to us has control of it. Their inclusion of Cooks Source issues and photos is used without our knowledge or consent. Please know that none of the statements made by either Cooks Source or Judith Griggs were made by either our staff or her.

We do not, and never have had a Twitter page, so what is attributed as our presence or our statements have nothing to do with Cooks Source or Judith Griggs.

We also cancelled our website on the above date, as our advertisers were listed therein, and with the harassment that has taken place on Facebook, we felt was unsafe for them.

Cooks Source will not be on Facebook again at any time in the future: hacking is too prevalent and apparently too easily performed by disreputable people. The email and Facebook abuse of our advertisers is the prime example: it is hurtful to people who are innocent of this issue, and can ill-afford the abuse — either emotionally or financially. Small business owners are being bombarded with hate mail, and distasteful messages because someone downloaded their contact information on these bogus sites. These small business owners work very hard to keep their businesses going in a bad economy. We respectfully request this harassment be stopped immediately. If you or anyone knows of this abuse, you should go to the bogus Cooks Source (or other bogus pages) Facebook page, look to the left side of the page and press “Report Abuse,” or else go to How to Report Claims of Intellectual Property Infringement, http://www.facebook.com/legal/copyright.php The Facebook Corporate phone number are 650-543-4800, 650-853-1300 and 650-543-4811which hopefully will assist interested parties who feels these snipers who are perpetuating hate have gotten out of hand and want to report it. Interestingly, this phone number and any other contact info is not listed on the Facebook site, and has taken four people a number of days to track down.

Last month an article, “American as Apple Pie — Isn’t,” was placed in error in Cooks Source, without the approval of the writer, Monica Gaudio. We sincerely wish to apologize to her for this error, it was an oversight of a small, overworked staff. We have made a donation at her request, to her chosen institution, the Columbia School of Journalism. In addition, a donation to the Western New England Food Bank, is being made in her name. It should be noted that Monica was given a clear credit for using her article within the publication, and has been paid in the way that she has requested to be paid.

This issue has made certain changes here at Cooks Source. Starting with this month, we will now list all sources. Also we now request that all the articles and informational pieces will have been made with written consent of the writers, the book publishers and/or their agents or distributors, chefs and business owners. All submission authors and chefs and cooks will have emailed, and/or signed a release form for this material to Cooks Source and as such will have approved its final inclusion. Email submissions are considered consent, with a verbal/written follow-up. Recipes created in the Cooks Source Kitchen are owned by Cooks Source and as such approval is given for chefs and cooks in our area to use them. Artwork used is created by our staff, or is royalty-free or purchased “clip-art.”

However: Cooks Source can not vouch for all the writers we have used in the past, and in the future can only check to a certain extent. Therefore, we will no longer accept unrequested articles, nor will we work with writers or illustrators unless they can prove they are reputable people, provide their sources, and who, in our estimation, we feel our readers and advertisers can trust and rely on for accuracy and originality. All sources will be listed with the articles, along with the permission, where necessary.

To say this has hurt our business is an understatement. But worse, it is harming the very people we are here to assist. Cooks Source’s is a small, free, local food newspaper-type magazine (called ‘magazine’ because it doesn’t generally include what is known as ‘news,’) whose mission statement is to assist small businesses and farms in our area and help readers learn about sustainable food issues. We promote small businesses and farms in our area, offer recipes because our readers request them, and because we are offered cookbooks and excerpts from distributors, publicists, agents and authors, non-profits, ag organizations, chefs and home cooks so as to help them promote their works. Cooks Source is so named because it reports on food sources: the farms, the bakers, the chefs and the foodie producers and purveyors– to the home and professional cooks and chefs in our area.

The misuse of Facebook discussed above also applies to Ms. Gaudio: she did what she felt was the right thing, and doesn’t deserve this kind of treatment, either. Regardless of what has been said, we liked her article very much.

[Image]

Cooks Source finally issues half-hearted apology to blogger they ripped off is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you were awake on the internet yesterday, there’s no way you missed the compelling narrative of Monica Gaudio’s stolen “Tale of Two Tarts.”

Gaudio, a self professed “medieval food nerd,” posted the story of how a for-profit, ad-supported magazine Cooks Source stole an article she’d written about the history of apple pie for their print edition. To briefly recap, when Gaudio contacted the editor to express her dismay, a chain of events that set the internet justice machine into motion was set off that was pretty awesome to witness. The editor in question has not been seen since the vengeance of Fark, Reddit, Boing Boing and even some mainstream media readers was unleashed on their Facebook page. (MSNBC was the lone voice sympathetic to reviled editor Judith Griggs during the saga.)

While reaction was swift, it was also comprehensive. One advertiser for the small publication reports having been contacted over 100 times by angry internet citizens in the five hours from when the story first went viral. (The company immediately and publicly withdrew support from the magazine.) Web sleuths quickly deduced that Griggs has been sticky fingered for a long time, and that content has been stolen for the magazine from Food Network, Weight Watchers and NPR for starters. (Lifted images were found in print copies of Cooks Source as well, and the link above lists five definitive instances of items being reproduced in the magazine without permission.)

It seems Griggs really doesn’t understand the internet, because despite provoking its ire rapidly and thoroughly with a condescending attitude towarrds web content, she has seen fit to leave the following message up on her magazine’s Facebook page for over 12 hours at this point:

Well, here I am with egg on my face! I did apologise to Monica via email, but aparently it wasnt enough for her. To all of you, thank you for your interest in Cooks Source and Again, to Monica, I am sorry — my bad!

You did find a way to get your “pound of flesh…” we used to have 110 “friends,” we now have 1,870… wow!

Griggs has not spoken on her own behalf since her comment on Facebook, but you can read a fairly comprehensive timeline of events over here. Can anyone recover their career after a scandal that is so high profile? Does Griggs deserve any degree of a pass for her crippling ignorance?

Aftermath: Cooks Source debacle emerges as cautionary tale about provoking the internet is a post from: The Inquisitr

There are full-time bloggers, and there are people who just write for the sheer love of sharing their knowledge, perspective or creativity on the internet.

One of the pitfalls of publishing your work on the web (paid or unpaid) is that the risk of having it stolen, misappropriated or otherwise reproduced to someone else’s benefit is rather high, and it doesn’t take too long to experience the joy of having your hard work lifted by some unscrupulous party for their own gain. A woman named Monica wrote a piece for a website about apple pies back in 2005- the kind of post you or I probably refer to a number of times in any given day.

Monica’s apple pie post was reprinted in its entirety by a cooking magazine, an instance that in and of itself is pretty galling, Monica, who is a better woman than I, found out about the article-lifting and requested very simple recompense. She asked for a print apology, a Facebook apology, and a small donation ($130) to the Columbia School of Journalism. The editor of Cooks Source replied graciously. Just kidding! She told Monica that she should be grateful the piece ran at all, and that Monica really should be paying Cooks Source for the editing work that had gone into her “Tale of Two Tarts.”

Monica posted a portion of the email sent by the editor of Cooks Source on her website- an email, it should be pointed out, that in and of itself does not seem to be very well edited. Below, the excerpt- can you believe the chutzpah?

“Yes Monica, I have been doing this for 3 decades, having been an editor at The Voice, Housitonic Home and Connecticut Woman Magazine. I do know about copyright laws. It was “my bad” indeed, and, as the magazine is put together in long sessions, tired eyes and minds somethings forget to do these things.

But honestly Monica, the web is considered “public domain” and you should be happy we just didn’t “lift” your whole article and put someone else’s name on it! It happens a lot, clearly more than you are aware of, especially on college campuses, and the workplace. If you took offence and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than was originally. Now it will work well for your portfolio. For that reason, I have a bit of a difficult time with your requests for monetary gain, albeit for such a fine (and very wealthy!) institution. We put some time into rewrites, you should compensate me! I never charge young writers for advice or rewriting poorly written pieces, and have many who write for me… ALWAYS for free!”

You can tell Cooks Source how you feel about bloggers being ripped off by their editor on their Facebook page.

Update: A Facebook page that logs suspected content theft committed by Cooks Source.

[Monica's LJ via Consumerist]

Print editor tells web writer her work is “public domain,” suggests victim should pay for editing of stolen piece is a post from: The Inquisitr

The line between reality and the virtual world took another whack in the face today, with news that a player of popular MMO Eve Online has stolen in-game currency equal to $45,000. The scam was pulled off by a user called ‘Bad Bobby’ who defines himself as a pirate in the game, which you’d think would tip people off.

The “in-game” bit in the title is important, because as far as I know there is no way to convert ‘ISK’ – the currency of Eve Online – into actual dollars. However, ISK can be turned into something called ‘PLEX’, an in-game item that can be used to extend an Eve Online subscription. This means that Bad Bobby can now, according to Massively, buy 214 years’ worth of Eve Online subscriptions … yay?

Bad Bobby got away with over 850 billion ISK, and all thanks to an impressively long-term plan. His white collar crime began several years ago, when he set up a huge investment company called Titans4U. For years, fellow Eve Online players invested in his company, and Bobby always returned the profits they were owed, building up his reputation as he went.

To stop him running away with the fake company’s fake assets (still with me?), a board of five trustees were appointed, to ensure Bobby didn’t hold over 50 percent of the fake company’s fake shares. In recent weeks, however, he encouraged the board to give him more shares, then kicked them out and ran with the fake dough.

A smug Bad Bobby then turned up on the Eve Online message board to openly brag about the people he’d robbed. He might be a git, but you have to admire his cajones.

[Via Massively]

Eve Online player thieves $45,000 worth of in-game cash is a post from: The Inquisitr

A man accused of shoplifting tubes of toothpaste from a Chicago CVS has died of strangulation related injuries after an employee forcefully restrained him outside the store.

36-year-old Anthony Kyser was taken to nearby Mt. Sinai Hospital, reportedly in “fair-to-serious” condition, but died 45 minutes later from his injuries. Onlookers say the man was struggling while several people, including a CVS employee, attempted to prevent him from escaping:

Witnesses said Kyser, of the 1400 block of South Hamlin, cried, “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe!” as the CVS worker held him in a chokehold for what they thought was several minutes. Three other men attempted to restrain him in the alley behind the 2600 block of South Pulaski, the witnesses said.

The medical examiner later ruled that Kyser’s death was a homicide, but police have made a controversial decision not to press any charges in the case. Kyser’s family doesn’t understand why police are treating the man’s death as accidental:

“Why would you kill someone over toothpaste?” his ex-wife, Ann Balboa, said through tears Sunday.

“Why would you even chase them, and how is this not murder — it doesn’t make sense.”

Kyser’s family said that though he had served prison time for drug convictions and had a drug problem and “his ups and downs,” nothing he had done came close to justifying his death.

Kyser’s family is also demanding police investigate claims that an off-duty Chicago cop was at the scene when Kyser was strangled, as well as reports that the female officer drew her weapon on the victim.

…witnesses, whose homes back onto the alley where Kyser died and who asked not to be identified, say the officer announced herself, pointed her weapon at a bleeding Kyser and told him to stop resisting the CVS employee and other men who were holding him down.

Chicago Police say that there is “no reference” to the presence of an off-duty officer in the official report on the incident.

Alleged toothpaste shoplifter dies after being forcefully restrained outside Chicago CVS is a post from: The Inquisitr

Earlier today the pitchforks and burning embers came out in full force on the allegations that Microsoft China had blatantly ripped off code and design from Canadian based social network Plurk.

Duncan wrote about the whole mess earlier here at The Inquisitr and now we finally have a response from Microsoft beyond their typical “we’re looking into the matter”. Here is the response from the company via t heir PressPass page:

Earlier today, questions arose over a feature developed by a third-party vendor for our MSN China joint venture. We are working with our MSN China joint venture to investigate the situation.

Unfortunately, when these questions first arose, it was the middle of the night in China. Now that the day has begun in China, our teams are working hard to track down the information.

Here’s what we know at this point. Our MSN China joint venture contracted with an independent vendor to create a feature called MSN Juku that allowed MSN users to find friends via microblogging and online games. This MSN Juku feature was made available to MSN China users in November and is still in beta.

Because questions have been raised about the code base comprising the service, MSN China will be suspending access to the Juku beta feature temporarily while we investigate the matter fully.

We will provide additional information as we learn more.

hat tip to Long Zheng on Twitter

Microsoft responds to Plurk code theft is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a post back on September 23 New Zealand author Brian Edwards puts forth the proposition that our public libraries are just a form of theft and that people who lend their friends books are thieves.

Yes you read that right. Every time you take a book out at the library you and the library are stealing money from book authors. It seems that Mr. Edwards feels that book authors should be paid every time a library lends out a book. In his opinion the act of lending books is tantamount to taking food out of his mouth

Every public library in New Zealand bought at least one copy of Helen. And they lent each of those copies to other people to read for… nothing. Last year there were still 227.4 copies of the book in New Zealand public libraries. If each of those copies was taken out by one person a month, that’s 2,729 people who read but didn’t pay for my book – my six month’s work. At $4.50 per unsold copy (ed: his share of book sales in stores), that’s a theoretical loss of income to me in one year of $12,280.

He continues on and accuses libraries of grand theft copyright

But there’s a principle here: when one person buys a book and lends it to another person to read, they effectively become an accessory to theft. Their generous act amounts to little more than stealing the author’s work. When a public library buys a book and lends it to thousands of other people to read, it’s grand theft copyright and really no different from illegally downloading music or movies or copying CDs or DVDs on your computer.

I’m still shaking my head over this one. Michael Masnick at Techdirt puts it best

Edwards also seems fully enamored with the myth that copyright law is based on some sort of "labor theory" — that the more time you put in, somehow the more money you deserve to get out. While I’m unfamiliar with New Zealand copyright law, in the US, such theories have been widely discredited in the courts repeatedly. And, of course, they make no sense when viewed alongside the actual purpose of copyright law. Edwards seems to believe that copyright is welfare for creators, rather than an incentive to create.

In the meantime, perhaps the public libraries of New Zealand can do Mr. Edwards a favor next time he publishes a book: don’t buy it. Ditto for anyone who might think of lending it… er… I mean, being an accessory to a crime in distributing copyrighted materials.

I would add that maybe the libraries in New Zealand should pull his books – just to be on the safe side of the law.

New Zealand author thinks libraries are a form of theft is a post from: The Inquisitr

I realize there are stupid criminals out there after all we see them on half hour TV shows all the time I think this one has to rank up there as far as being a dumb idea.

Much like a robber trying to rob a bar where off-duty cops like to hang, the idea of someone putting a fake ATM machine meant to steal people’s information at this hotel where this year’s Defcon conference was held doesn’t show much in the way of smarts. That didn’t deter someone though as the conference goers found out when they noticed the machine that some said just didn’t look right.

As the conference was kicking off a few days ago, attendees noticed that at ATM placed in the Riviera Hotel, which plays host to the annual event, didn’t quite look right, according to a senior conference organizer who identified himself only as Priest. "They looked at the screen where there would normally be a camera," he said. "It was a little bit too dark, so someone shined a flashlight in there and there was a PC."

The ATM looked like a working system, but when people would put their cards in the machine, it would scan their card information and record the PIN numbers they entered. He didn’t know how long the ATM had been at the Riviera.

Conference organizers notified local law enforcement who hauled away the machine on "Thursday or Friday," said Priest, who said he works as a "civil servant" in his day job.

Source: Computer World :: Fake ATM doesn’t last long at hacker meet

The idiots may not have realized they were putting the machine into a hotel that would soon be the temporary home to 8,000 security professionals but given this is Las Vegas one would hope that it would have been found out in short notice.

Fake ATM at Defcon … not the brightest idea is a post from: The Inquisitr

“Ill-gotten, illegally accumulated” sand is at the center of a beachfront battle at a Mexico resort.

In what must be the silliest bust ever, Mexico’s environmental protection attorney general told the AP:

“Today we made the decision to close this stretch of ill-gotten, illegally accumulated sand,” said Patricio Patron, Mexico’s attorney general for environmental protection. “This hotel was telling its tourists: ‘Come here, I have sand … the other hotels don’t, because I stole it.’”

Bolding mine because HA HA HA! Can you just imagine busting that one out at a news conference? Officials believe Cancun’s sandiest hotel illegally circumvented the flow of sand onto the beaches of neighboring hotels via something called a breakwater. Following Hurricane Wilma in 2005, Mexico spent $19m on restoring Cancun’s sandyness but much of that sand has since washed away, and apparently hotels are so sand-starved they feel the need to snatch the crevice-invading substance from their neighbors.

The bust wasn’t a total success though- guests of the Gran Caribe Real Hotel are none too pleased with the closing of the hotel’s beach by armed navy personnel. One tourist from Uruguay told the AP:

“They promised us a beach. This is very unpleasant, we feel bad. This is intimidating.”

But Mexican officials regretfully stuck to the closures, citing a commitment to upholding the law. Burn.

Stolen sand scandal shuts beach at Gran Caribe Real Hotel is a post from: The Inquisitr

Servers at Clyde’s of Gallery Place, M&S Grill and 701 Restaurant, along with Maryland workers as Carrabba’s Italian Grill and the Gaylord Hotel are allegedly responsible for the theft of the credit card numbers using easily obtainable skimming devices. The DC skimming ring first rang the alarm bells of Citibank who noticed an increase in fraudulent transactions trailing legitimate card use at Clyde’s. In this case a single server wound up accounting for $107,000 in bogus charges.

The most prestigious, and recent, hot spot was 701 Restaurant, the clubby eatery where Hillary Clinton rang out her presidential campaign last June. Restaurant owner Ashok Bajaj says the Secret Service told him about the skimming earlier this month. According to court records, cash register logs tied $38,000 in fraudulent transactions to cards handled by server Lavelle Denise Payne from August 2008 until this month.

At the agency’s request, Bajaj kept Payne on for another week while the government firmed up its case. "We watched her very carefully for that week," says Bajaj. "She was the nicest person. I don’t know. Maybe this is a sign of the economy."

"It’s very sad when people do these things," Bajaj adds. "I mean, she was making excellent money working at the restaurant. But I guess it’s never enough."

Source: Threat Level

Along with the ringleader, Joseph Artemus Bush III, two alleged confederates Erick V. Burton and Aaron Gilbert were charged. The four servers that were charged were Lavelle Denise Payne, Shannon Eileen McLaughlin, Jamaal Snowden and Simone Carrie Diane Folk.

Washington DC hit by credit card cloning is a post from: The Inquisitr

Back in November 8th of 2008 in a coordinated move low level cashers hit ATM machines in 49 cities world wide for a haul of $9 million. The way it was done apparently is that a single hacker or a hacking ring broke into the computer system of RBS WorldPay and duplicated or cloned people’s ATM cards. At the same time they also lifted the daily limits that are typically placed on all ATM cards. This way the cashers could go back time and time again hitting those same accounts.

The RBS Web site says that card holders will not be responsible for any unauthorized transactions. But there is fear that the hackers might have had access to sensitive information used in identity theft for a potential 1.5 million customers — including their including Social Security numbers.

"The number of machines that were accessed, the number of cities that were targeted, and the number of people that had to be involved in this is quite significant," Agent Rice said.

Investigators are hoping a break in the case may come from one of the cashers. The theory is they probably were recruited, paid a small fee to be solders in the scam, and might be likely to rat out the people who hired them.

There are millions of people out there these days with these payroll cards. RBS officials say they have sent out letters to anyone who might have been affected. They are also offering one-year credit protection for people whose Social Security number may have been jeopardized by this scam. However, the good news is that it doesn’t look like any identity theft has occurred yet.

So far, the FBI has no suspects and has made no arrests in this scam. An attorney in Atlanta has filed a class-action lawsuit against RBS WorldPay for allegedly failing to protect personal information.

Source: Fox 5

Video courtesy of Fox 5

[hat tip to Threat Level]

ATM break-in nets hacker $9M in one day [VIDEO] is a post from: The Inquisitr