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Linux Business

Submission + - MPAA's University Toolkit May Violate The GNU GPL (ubuntuforums.org) 1

Submitted by
bobbocanfly
bobbocanfly writes: "It seems in a new level of hypocrisy the anti-piracy goons at the MPAA created a tool for spying on University students' computer activities called "University Toolkit", which they are heavily promoting to University administrators across the USA. The tool is actually a modified version of U/Xubuntu, and in fact doesn't change any of the default artwork. Against the terms of the GNU GPL no source code is provided on their website at http://universitytoolkit.org/
There would be reason to believe that they are at minimum violating Ubuntu's trademark, and likely also violating the GPL and thus committing copyright infringement or "piracy" as they like to call it.
Everyone knows this isnt the first time the MPAA has commited an alleged act of piracy. Remember the Forest Blog fiasco."
Media

Submission + - MediaDefender Leaks Saga : unexpected outcomes (p2pnet.net) 4

Submitted by ShakaZ
ShakaZ writes: Following the leaks of all the internal emails and later the source code of all the anti-p2p software of MediaDefender, the boss and an employee of the company have been arrested by the LA police. They are charged for illegal uploading with intent to deceive, bandwidth theft, and grievous misrepresentation.
More handcuffs there : http://www.p2pnet.net/story/13397

Due to the released emails, ThePirateBay have proof of infrastructural sabotage, denial of service attacks, hacking and spamming, for which they filed a complaint to the Swedish police. 10 companies of the music, movie and gaming industries are listed in the complaint.
More pirates here : http://thepiratebay.org/blog
Privacy

Submission + - 'Opt Out' soon or Verizon will sell your CPNI 1

Submitted by
Rothfuss
Rothfuss writes: "I actually opened and read one of the 'Updates to my Customer Agreement Terms and Conditions' that I received from Verizon today. I have no idea why. This one explains that they will be upgrading my service by assuming (unless I tell them otherwise) that I am willing to let them sell my Customer Proprietary Network Information or give it to anyone they choose. Apparently that will help me. However, the FCC won't let them do this without your permission — like, for example *not* calling them and opting out. If you are a Verizon customer and would like to opt out, you can do so by calling 1-800-333-9956. Ask to speak to Mr. Prosser."
Biotech

Submission + - Cure for cancer may be ready in two years (newscientist.com)

Submitted by GnarlyDoug
GnarlyDoug writes: Dr Zheng Cui has, through a stroke of luck, found that the granulocytes from some mice are up to 50 times better at fighting cancer than others. He has cured mice with simple transfusions of granulocytes. These cells seem to recognize almost all cancer lines, are extremely effective even in advanced cases, and and the resistance seems to last for the life of the mouse. So not only does this treatment cure many cancers, but it also provides resistance to future cancers as well.

Evidence suggests that this should hold true for humans as well. Because this is based on blood transfusions, a technology already long established, this could be ready to so very soon. The go-ahead for a human trial has already been given, and if it pans out then this could be available in as little as two years time. Some simple tests to find people with the resistant strain of blood and then a system of transfusions is all that is needed to get this started.

If it pans out, we may be looking at a general cure for cancer within a few years time.
Wii

Submission + - Wii uses elliptic curve cryptography

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A user at the Nintendo-Scene forums just posted a lengthy post about his discovery that the Wii savegame files are signed and encrypted with NIST B 233 bit elliptic curve cryptography. Could this be the first step for a Wii softmod the homebrew community have waited for?
Media (Apple)

Submission + - The largest underground Mac community faces coup (macserialjunkie.com)

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "In a palace coup only imaginable in one of Shakespeare's tragedies, a moderator faction of one of the largest underground Mac communities was shut out this weekend after it was discovered many staff members were staging a coup, including an attempt to surreptitiously acquire the domain. (http://www.macserialjunkie.com/) In an Steve Jobs-like "Open Letter to the Community", the founders of MSJ explain how a number of people at the highest levels of the underground planned their takeover activities for almost two years, only to be foiled at the last minute. In an age of terrorism, are Western societies now taking cues from hostile countries instead of the other way around?"
Supercomputing

Submission + - Einstein's spooky action leads to quantum computer

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: Physicists at the University of Michigan have demonstrated how two separate atoms can communicate with a sort of 'quantum intuition' which Albert Einstein referred to as "spooky". In doing so, the researchers have made an advance towards super-fast quantum computing and even a quantum internet.

The scientists used light to establish an "entanglement" between two atoms, which were trapped one metre apart in separate enclosures. "This link between remote atoms could be the fundamental piece of a radically new quantum computer architecture," said Professor Christopher Monroe, the principal investigator on the project who is now at the University of Maryland. "Now that the technique has been demonstrated, it should be possible to scale it up to networks of many interconnected components that will eventually be necessary for quantum information processing."
Wireless Networking

Submission + - Is "borrowing" Wi-Fi ethical? (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Z80xxc!
Z80xxc! writes: BBC has written an article about "stealing" Wi-Fi, and whether or not it is ethical. After all of the recent attention given to arrests due to wireless borrowing, it makes me wonder what will happen in the future. Do you steal wireless? Do you think it's ethical? I do.

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