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Microsoft

Vista Taking a Nibble Out of Apple in OS Wars? 406

Posted by Zonk from the chomp-chomp-chomp dept.
PetManimal writes "Despite all of the positive buzz about the Mac operating system and the 'halo effect' of iPod sales, Mac OS X market share actually dropped last month, reports Computerworld: 'The share of PowerPC-based Macs fell ... from 4.29% in February to 3.94% in March. That dip was not fully offset by an increase in Intel-based Mac hardware, leading to a overall net decline in Mac share of 0.3%, to 6.08% in March.' Meanwhile, Vista is rising, the article says, with just over 2% of computers connected to the Internet using the new Windows OS. The figures are from a company called Net Applications, which collects its data from the browsers of visitors to its network of 40,000+ Web sites."
Science

China Systematically Developing New Technologies 261

Posted by Zonk from the having-goals-is-a-great-idea dept.
newsblaze writes "China, having recognized there are major gaps in its science and technology arsenal, released their Technology Development Plans. The plans cover five main areas — geology, mechanical engineering, metallurgical engineering and aeronautical engineering. Three areas are prioritized in space technology and six major goals are announced. All this comes after having first set out their 100 Year Vision of Greatness. They appear to be giving themselves a breathing space, telling the world they are interested in cooperation and also giving themselves a major target, in much the same way as John F Kennedy did for the USA."
Patents

The End for Vonage? 296

Posted by Zonk from the ohhh-they-can't-take-it-there dept.
TheRealSCA writes "The latest in Verizon vs. Vonage is in. The judge has basically stopped Vonage from accepting new customers. From the article: 'A judge issued an injunction Friday that effectively bars Internet phone carrier Vonage from signing up new customers as punishment for infringing on patents held by Verizon. Vonage's lawyers said the compromise injunction posted by U.S District Judge Hilton is almost as devastating as an injunction that would have affected Vonage's 2.2 million existing customers. "It's the difference of cutting off oxygen as opposed to the bullet in the head," Vonage lawyer Roger Warin said.'"
Music

Congress to Fight Piracy with Education Funds 163

Posted by Zonk from the wait-we-need-those-for-books dept.
Nomihn0 writes "The RIAA has announced that the House Education and Labor committee is considering an amendment, HR1689, to the Higher Education Act of 1965. The proposal would allocate federal education funds to anti-piracy measures on college campuses. Most concerning is the bill's wording. It's claimed that the proposal would 'save telecommunications bandwidth costs.' In other words, the government will fund private packet filtering and preferential bandwidth allocation. 'The Higher Education Act (HEA) generally allows schools to spend the money they receive only on certain prescribed areas such as financial aid grants and Pell loans. The new bill would allow that money to be used for more things, but does not contain a request for additional funding. Whether schools would be interested in using a limited pool of federal money to police student file-swapping remains to be seen.'"
Microsoft

Microsoft Set to Unlock EMI Songs, Too 171

Posted by Zonk from the very-brave-new-world dept.
linumax writes "Microsoft has stated that it may be close to reaching a deal with EMI to sell songs without anti-piracy protection via the Zune platform. This, from comments made by head of marketing for Zune Jason Reindorp. They come hard on the heels of EMI's announcement that a deal with Apple to sell songs without DRM protection through the iTunes Music Store has been struck. Mr Reindorp said: 'We've been saying for a while that we are aware that consumers want to have unprotected content. This does open things up a little bit. It potentially makes the competition more of a device-to-device or service-to-service basis, and will force the various services to really innovate.'"
Media

Submission + - Internet Radio to be killed by the RIAA

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Just got this in the mail from Tim Westergren, Pandora's CEO: "I'm writing today to ask for your help. We've had a disastrous turn of events recently for internet radio: Following an intensive lobbying effort on the part of the RIAA, an arbitration committee in Washington DC has just dramatically increased the fees internet radio sites must pay to the record labels — tripling fees and adding enormous retroactive payments! Left unchanged by Congress, this will kill all internet radio sites, including Pandora. Tomorrow afternoon there is an important U.S. Senate hearing on the future of internet radio."

This issue has started to get blog coverage: http://gigaom.com/2007/03/05/webcaster-royalty-rat es-go-up/ and http://www.rossdawsonblog.com/weblog/archives/2007 /03/the_vast_potent.html

If you live in the US, please contact your local Congressman now!

Please note that I have no Pandora affiliation except as a very happy user."
Music

Submission + - An open letter to Steve Jobs: Drop DRM in iTunes.

Submitted by
Max Romantschuk
Max Romantschuk writes: "In the wake of the recent EU stance on digital music and consumer lock-in, political pressure finally seems to be building up against DRM. Steve Jobs even claimed that he prefers DRM-free music. The EFF's DefectiveByDesign.org campaign has written an open letter to Steve Jobs. This excerpt pretty much sums it up: "It has been three weeks now since you published your pledge to drop DRM, and there have been many responses from commentators who have outlined actions you could take to back up your words. The fact that you have not taken any action leads us to ask the question: How genuine is your pledge?"

Help the EFF fight DRM. Sign the letter and let Mr Reality Distortion Field know that you care about DRM-free music."
Patents

Submission + - PTO Rejects Instant Live Patent

Submitted by
Jivecat
Jivecat writes: "The U.S. Patent Office has issued a notice to cancel a patent held by Live Nation that allowed that company to monopolize live in-concert recordings, recorded directly from the sound board and quickly burned on CD so that audience members can buy copies of the show as they are leaving the venue. The patent concerned a technology to add start and end cues to a live performance so the resulting CD would not contain a single, massive track. The EFF and patent attorneys found prior work of an equivalent technology. This is good news for those who consider Live Nation to be the Evil Empire when it comes to concert promotion."
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Square-Enix scans processes, fails to disclose

Submitted by
TinyTim
TinyTim writes: "This is 100% verifiable. POL.exe calls Process32First and Process32Next in order to enumerate all processes running on your system. Then, for each process it attempts to use ReadProcessMemory in order to scan the memory being used by each application. I found this out because I use ProcessGuard, and have all of my services set up with protected memory, and set all applications I use to the bare minimum permissions. I noted that after the update, POL.exe was attempting to gain access to Apache, Ventrilo, MySQL, Oracle, ProcessGuard, Explorer, Norton AntiVirus, and teatimer (The Spybot S&D Resident).

Yet square-Enix says:
There has been no change in the PlayOnline software that would allow it to report on a user's active programs, or cause it to send the data back to Square Enix. We want to make this official announcement so that our members will not be alarmed or confused by a rumor that has no basis in fact.
Link(it's the sticky at the top): http://tinyurl.com/r8ns9

Since just running ProcessGuard proves otherwise, the company just lied.

Under California state law, the company has to disclose that it is scanning in it's privacy policy, or it's entire Terms of Service agreement in null and void."
Privacy

Audit Finds FBI Abused Patriot Act 341

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the watching-the-watchers dept.
happyslayer writes to mention that according to Yahoo! News a recent audit shows that the FBI has improperly and in some cases illegally utilized the Patriot Act to obtain information. "The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization. The 126-page audit also found the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances. The audit blames agent error and shoddy record-keeping for the bulk of the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct. Still, 'we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities,' the audit concludes."
Education

Submission + - BGSU Prof Responds About Academic Freedom Article

Submitted by
C.Rathsack
C.Rathsack writes: "Dr. Paul Cesarini, an assistant professor in the Visual Communication & Technology Education department at Bowling Green State University, began a discussion that we wanted to continue on Interact at the Center. The original article, Caught in the Network, from the Chronicle of Higher Education, began a discussion on academic freedom, IT controls and limits, and the fine balance between the two. Paul was kind enough to respond to some of the comments and questions he has received as well as reflect his experiences over the past few weeks:

I appreciate how many of you read my article, commented on it in various online venues, and linked to it so that others might read it... (more) If anyone else has some specific questions or comments about my article, I would love to hear them. ~Paul
See Paul's full response here: Interact at the Center"
Privacy

Blizzard Exposes Detailed WoW Character Data 233

Posted by Zonk from the seatec-astronomy dept.
Gavin Scott writes "Blizzard has introduced a new web site called the Armory which lets you get information on any World of Warcraft character, extracted from their live databases, in near real-time. This exposes a great deal of information that was not previously obtainable including profession choices, skill levels for all skills, and the character's complete talent specification and all faction reputation data, along with all gear currently equipped. The complete roster of any guild or arena team is also available. Some players are upset about this, such as arena PvP teams who now have all their gear and talent choices exposed to the world, or players with non-standard or less-popular talent choices who fear they will have difficulty getting into pickup groups now that people can instantly find out everything about them. Are these complaints fair? Blizzard claims to own all the data and the characters, but at what point does this data represent personal choices and information about their players which would be covered by their own privacy policy? In a virtual society, should people be able to present a view of themselves that differs from (virtual) reality, or should all details be exposed?"
The Internet

Berners-Lee Speaks Out Against DRM, Advocates Net Neutrality 187

Posted by Zonk from the papa-don't-speak-i'm-in-trouble dept.
narramissic writes "Speaking before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee advocated for net neutrality, saying that the Web deserves 'special treatment' as a communications medium to protect its nondiscriminatory approach to content. Berners-Lee's more controversial statements came on the topic of DRM, in which he suggested that instead of DRM, copyright holders should provide information on how to legally use online material, allowing users the opportunity 'to do the right thing.' This led to an odd exchange with Representative Mary Bono who compared Berner-Lee's suggestion to 'having a speed limit but not enforcing the speed limit.'"
Books

DRM Causes Piracy 413

Posted by kdawson from the obvious-when-you-think-about-it dept.
igorsk recommends an essay by Eric Flint, editor at Baen Publishing and an author himself, over at Baen's online SF magazine, Baen Universe. In it Flint argues that, far from curbing piracy of copyrighted materials, DRM actually causes it. Quoting: "Electronic copyright infringement is something that can only become an 'economic epidemic' under certain conditions. Any one of the following: 1) The products they want... are hard to find, and thus valuable. 2) The products they want are high-priced, so there's a fair amount of money to be saved by stealing them. 3) The legal products come with so many added-on nuisances that the illegal version is better to begin with. Those are the three conditions that will create widespread electronic copyright infringement, especially in combination. Why? Because they're the same three general conditions that create all large-scale smuggling enterprises. And... Guess what? It's precisely those three conditions that DRM creates in the first place. So far from being an impediment to so-called 'online piracy,' it's DRM itself that keeps fueling it and driving it forward."

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As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality. -- Albert Einstein

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