Adobe hole allows free movies

A security hole in Adobe Systems software, used to distribute movies and TV shows over the Internet, is giving users free access to record and copy from Amazon.com's video streaming service, states Reuters.

The problem exposes online video content to the rampant piracy that plagued the music industry during the Napster era and is undermining efforts by retailers, movie studios and television networks to cash in on a huge Web audience.

"It's a fundamental flaw in the Adobe design. This was designed stupidly," said Bruce Schneier, a security expert who is also the chief security technology officer at British Telecom.

Apple will make iTunes more accessible to blind consumers, under an agreement reached with the Massachusetts attorney general's office and the National Federation of the Blind, says Cnet.

Under the agreement, Apple will make iTunes U, a portion of the iTunes Store dedicated to educational content provided by colleges and universities, fully accessible to the blind by 31 December. It will then work to provide full accessibility of the iTunes application and the remainder of the iTunes Store by 30 June 2009.

The blind and visually impaired will get fuller accessibility to the Apple application and Web site for downloading and purchasing music by means of screen access software that converts on-screen information into Braille or speech.

Mozilla has unveiled a new version of the Firefox browser to fix a number of security risks, including two critical issues, states My Broadband.

Version 3.0.2 of the browser fixes five security issues including two critical, two moderate and one minor risk.

Critical issues are those that "can be used to run attacker code and install software, requiring no user interaction beyond normal browsing".

Google has taken a public stand against Proposition 8, an anti-gay-marriage measure on the November ballot in California, reports Cnet.

Co-founder Sergey Brin, who made the announcement in a blog on Friday afternoon, acknowledged it is unusual for his company to take stands on issues outside the technology realm. The company "especially" avoids taking stands on social issues, he said, because of the diversity of its workforce.

However, Brin said: "It is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8."