b0rsuk - Slashdot User

Submission + - Congressman Orrin Hatch caught pirating software

Submitted by

Rocketship Underpant

on Thursday June 07, 2007 @04:35AM

Rocketship Underpant writes: "Orrin Hatch, the Congressman viewed by many as a shill for corporate copyright interests, recently stated that people who download copyrighted materials should have their computers destroyed as punishment. However, as Wired.com reports, Hatch's own website uses copyrighted software without permission — a Javascript menu system developed by a British company. Is Mr. Hatch accepting volunteers to go through his home and office destroying all his computers, or were his comments to Congress just a bunch of hypocritical hot air?"

Submission + - Reporter Arrested for Asking a Question (lawbean.com)

Submitted by

Spamicles

on Wednesday June 06, 2007 @07:48PM

Spamicles writes: "Manchester, NH — Freelance reporter Matt Lepacek, reporting for Infowars.com, was arrested for asking a question to one of Giuliani's staff members in a press conference. The press secretary identified the New York based reporter as having previously asked Giuliani about his prior knowledge of WTC building collapses and ordered his arrest."

Submission + - Court Santions 'Anti-RIAA' Lawyer (com.com)

Submitted by

uolamer

on Wednesday June 06, 2007 @04:51PM

uolamer writes: "Last year, an attorney representing a woman sued by the Recording Industry Association of America claimed his client is innocent and asked a federal judge to levy sanctions against the association's lawyers.

Instead, in an unexpected legal twist, U.S. District Judge Terry Means ruled on May 16 that it was entirely likely that the woman was violating copyright law via the Kazaa file-sharing program — and ordered that her attorney be sanctioned for wasting the court's time with "frivolous" arguments.

CNET Story"

Submission + - Best Buy Lawyer Discovered Editing Documents

Submitted by tengu1sd on Wednesday June 06, 2007 @12:20AM

tengu1sd writes: A new chapter in the Best Buy Saga. Everyone's favorite vendor may have it's head in a noose. . . . revelations about the actions of Minneapolis attorney Timothy Block do not bode well for the company. The lawsuit, filed in 2003, accuses Best Buy of signing up at least 100,000 customers for trial subscriptions to Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Internet service from 1999 to 2003, in many cases without their knowledge. Once the trial period ended, the customers began incurring credit card charges they had not approved. He's accused of altering documents during discovery. Is Tim falling on his sword and taking one for the team and is Best Buy trying pull another over us?

Microsoft Slaps Its Most Valuable Professional 474

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday June 05, 2007 @11:47PM from the schizophrenic-is-one-word-for-it dept.

Violent Offender writes with a touching story in The Register about Microsoft's awarding of its Most Valuable Professional credential to a British hobbyist, Jamie Cansdale, then turning around and threatening him with a lawsuit for the very software that won him the award. The article links to the amazing correspondence from Microsoft on Cansdale's site.

Submission + - Microsoft threatens its Most Valuable Professional

Submitted by Violent Offender on Tuesday June 05, 2007 @02:53PM

Violent Offender writes: http://www.theregister.com/2007/06/05/microsoft_mv p_threats/

Programming hobbyist recognized as Most Valuable Proessional for innovative add-on, then sued by Microsoft in almost the same breath.

Submission + - DOJ calls copyright infringer's terrorists

Submitted by shaggester on Tuesday June 05, 2007 @01:11PM

shaggester writes: A recent article from Businessweek.com confirms the RIAA & MPAA (as many already know) have overwhelming policy making clout in Washington, D.C, and the DOJ recently confirmed it. So you thought terrorists were a threat, the DOJ insist you think again. Because if you even attempt to download that mp3, image, or video you might as well be rubbing shoulders with the likes of those who have been accused of, "bribing officials, taking hostages, and unlawful use of explosives," according to business week. To add insult to injury after your arraignment for "suspected copyright infringement" officials can confiscate any hardware or other device which was used in any manner to commit the infringement.

Submission + - Microsoft Gives Xandros Linux Users Patent Protect

Submitted by DigDuality on Monday June 04, 2007 @11:28AM

DigDuality writes: Microsoft, shrugging off licensing moves to prevent it from repeating its controversial patent deal with Novell, has signed a set of broad collaboration agreements with Linux provider Xandros that include an intellectual property assurance under which Microsoft will provide patent covenants for Xandros customers.

Will the response to Xandros be similar to that of Novell? We can only hope.

Submission + - Microsoft Gives Xandros Users Patent Protection (eweek.com)

Submitted by

AlexGr

on Monday June 04, 2007 @10:42AM

AlexGr writes: "By Peter Galli (eWeek): Microsoft, shrugging off licensing moves to prevent it from repeating its controversial patent deal with Novell, has signed a set of broad collaboration agreements with Linux provider Xandros that include an intellectual property assurance under which Microsoft will provide patent covenants for Xandros customers. These covenants, which are almost identical to the patent agreement and covenant not to sue that Microsoft signed with Novell last November, will ensure that the Xandros Linux technologies customers use are compliant with Microsoft's IP, David Kaefer, Microsoft's General Manager for IP and Licensing, told eWeek. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2140955,00.as p"

Concerns Over Microsoft's Internet User Profiling 144

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 04, 2007 @10:42AM from the like-they-don't-already-know dept.

jcatcw writes "Microsoft research on Internet user profiling could lead to tools that help repressive regimes identify anonymous dissidents, the Reporters Without Borders advocacy group warned last Friday. Microsoft's new algorithms correctly guessed the gender of a Web surfer 80% of the time, and his or her age 60% of the time. "In China, it is conceivable that this type of technology would be used to spot Internet users who regularly access such 'subversive' content as news and information websites critical of the regime," the group said."

Submission + - Open Source License Staistics

Submitted by

dptalia

on Monday June 04, 2007 @10:08AM

dptalia writes: "I'm writing a paper on open source licensing, and have stumbled on an interesting question: what percentage of FOSS uses which license (GPL, BSD, Apache, LGPL, etc.). Does anyone have any statistics regarding this? I found a paper that states in 2004 70.3% used GPL, 10.8% used LGPL, and 7.1% used BSD. Are these stats still in the ballpark?"

Submission + - Why HD movie downloads are a big lie (com.com)

Submitted by jpfingst on Monday June 04, 2007 @09:47AM

jpfingst writes: "There's a lot of buzz lately about the delivery of HD TV and Movie content over the Internet with shows like Lost being delivered by ABC.com and other video download services with XBox360 or iTunes....But there's one dirty little secret that people are forgetting or that they don't understand, IT'S NOT HD they're getting over the Internet. Heck it's not even NTSC 480i (720?480 60 fields interlaced) DVD quality when you really look at the amount of video data you're getting!"

Submission + - Privacy concerns with Windows Vista's Shadow Copy (projectdream.org)

Submitted by

lukas84

on Monday June 04, 2007 @09:10AM

lukas84 writes: "I've written about privacy concerns with Windows Vista's Shadow Copy feature. This feature allows users of the better Windows Vista editions to restore files from a direct online backup, without having to restore from tape.

This however brings new problems, as many people do not know about this new feature, and might consider data deleted which is still on their computer. Especially clearing your browser history might not do what you expect it to do."

Putin Threatens US Missile Bases In Europe 997

Posted by kdawson on Monday June 04, 2007 @01:42AM from the reagan-won-this-didn't-he dept.

Melugo writes to let us know that Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned that US plans to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe would force Moscow to target its weapons against Europe. This reader notes: "It feels like the Cold War all over again." "'If the American nuclear potential grows in European territory, we have to give ourselves new targets in Europe,' Putin said... 'It is up to our military to define these targets, in addition to defining the choice between ballistic and cruise missiles.'"

iPhone Release Date Is June 29 515

Posted by kdawson on Sunday June 03, 2007 @10:28PM from the lines-form-now dept.

willith writes "Apple has placed three iPhone commercials on their Web site today, and each ends with a tag: 'Coming June 29.' This puts to rest the question of when the thing will hit the streets, but there are still worries about allocation — AppleInsider is reporting that the supplies at Cingular/AT&T stores may be relatively tight." And some fanatic sites are already parsing the ads for such enigmas as the "mystery app."

Slashdot Top Deals