Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Can't prove it was willful? Don't shut it down. (Score 2) 268

by airfoobar (#38920935) Attached to: RIAA Wants To Scrap Anti-Piracy OPEN Act
Guess what... ACTA criminalises websites that "wilfully" infringe. And are the MAFIAA morons saying, quite clearly, that wilful infringement can't be proven. So why did you put it in ACTA, you sonsofbitches? Because you already know it can't be proven, that's why, so it opens the door to your next demands in the next undemocratic piece of crap legislation you write. Bollocks to this.

Comment Re:Key passage: (Score 4, Insightful) 97

by airfoobar (#38892407) Attached to: ITC Throws Out B&N Antitrust Claims Against MS

To be fair though, all of this is the result of google taking shortcuts in developing android instead of building their own product. No wonder they were able to create an os so quickly, then turn around and sell it for free.

You've got to be kidding. That sort of thinking not only undermines Google's effort of bringing a good product to market and making it so successful, it also undermines the very foundations of the OSS ideology.

The problem here isn't on Google's part, it's on the parts of the patent system (for allowing patents of highly questionable quality to be used in this way) and Microsoft (for being anti-competitive asshats as usual).
Censorship

Submission + - Protests erupt in Poland over ACTA

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This week, the Polish government, along with 21 other EU members, signed on to ACTA (the treaty still has to be ratified by the parliament in order to become binding). A lot of Polish people are not happy about this. Earlier in the week, protests were organized in most of the major cities; the biggest one, in Kraków, had an estimated 10,000 participants. At the same time, the USA embassy is putting pressure on the parliament to vote correctly [in Polish].

Submission + - We need a new model. (occupyinside.org)

Submitted by
John Sokol
John Sokol writes: "We need a new model. Treating intangibles as a service makes far more sense then placing the intangible on something tangible. With a bar code, or now days RF id. Then try to then charge for it as it it were a bar of soap or a bag of pretzels. That worked really well, ahuu for a while, maybe 80 years. Right until people started to gain tools work with the intangibles. So they thought they could fix it with laws, technical hacks, lawyers and finally police.

The Internet's created such apprehension for those in power and control the purveyance of intangibles.
It's up to us to re-invent, re-educate and forge new solutions or there only be further escalations.

I was thinking of compensation right instead of copyright. As much as I love FOSS and P2P, You need to be able pay if you want talented people. We weren't all born rich, or willing to live in abject poverty to hack code. Been there done that, not fun after a while.
Does anyone have any ideas or opinions?"
Censorship

Submission + - Legality Of ACTA In U.S. Questioned In Petition (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Techdirt reports that a petition on the US Government's We the People website raises the question of whether ACTA is enforcable as an executive agreement — which allows the President to sign the agreement without getting approval — when it covers intellectual property, which is the mandate of Congress, and would require a vote before it becomes a treaty.

Slashdot has previously covered Senator Wyden questioning the constitutionality of ACTA before its signing last year; while the EU is said to be signing ACTA into force from today.
Your Rights Online

Submission + - Petition Requests Formal ACTA Ratification In Sena (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Techdirt reports that a petition on the US Government's We the People website raises the question of whether ACTA is enforcable as an executive agreement — which allows the President to sign the agreement without getting approval — when it covers intellectual property, which is the mandate of Congress, and would require a vote before it becomes a treaty.

Slashdot has previously covered Senator Wyden questioning the constitutionality of ACTA before signing; while the EU will be imminently signing ACTA into force.

Submission + - Was mega upload crushed to stop mega box? (dslreports.com)

Submitted by
MrShaggy
MrShaggy writes: "Our friends at dsl-reports that 'The kicker was Megabox would cater to unsigned artists and allow anyone to sell their creations while allowing the artist to retain 90% of the earnings. Or, artists could even giveaway their songs and would be paid through a service called Megakey. “Yes that’s right, we will pay artists even for free downloads. The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works,” Kim Dotcom told TorrentFreak in December. Megabox was planning on bypassing the labels, RIAA, and the entire music establishment.'"
Google

Submission + - Changes coming to Google Privacy policy (washingtonpost.com) 1

Submitted by parallel_prankster
parallel_prankster writes: Washington Post reports Tuesday it will require users to allow the company to follow their activities across e-mail, search, YouTube and other services, a radical shift in strategy that is expected to invite greater scrutiny of its privacy and competitive practices.
The information will enable Google to develop a fuller picture of how people use its growing empire of Web sites. Consumers will have no choice but to accept the changes. The policy will take effect March 1 and will also impact Android mobile phone users. “If you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services,” Alma Whitten, Google’s director of privacy, product and engineering wrote in a blog post.
Privacy

Submission + - Senator Leahy newest IT legislation (thehill.com)

Submitted by CapitalOrange
CapitalOrange writes: Senator Leahy, of PIPA fame, is pushing one new bill and may be involved with a second. The first new tech bill is dealing with data breach legislation. Data breach, much like piracy is an important topic. Consumers deserve to know what information has been leaked about them. However as almost all the political blogs (and tech blogs have said) when one road closes for politicians, they often try to backdoor their message into other legislation, through a concept called riders. Riders equivalent in the IT world is the annoying animated gif in an email signature. They often serve no purpose, increase the bloat and are often used to introduce unpopular legislation into popular bills. Hollywoods bought and paid for senators and congressman are going to try to try to get SOPA/PIPA through congress another means and its up to the IT world to make sure they don't sneak it by on our watch.

Also he is working to create our next cyber security bill, which is a great chance for him to slip in SOPA related laws. The idea that someone with such a fundamental lack of understanding of the internet is going to write anything Cyber related is quite scary.

The bottom line, don't rely on the net coalition or the EFF to do this job by themselves. We need to stay vigilante in reviewing the proposals coming out of congress, because if we don't no one else will.

Slashdot Top Deals

UNIX is hot. It's more than hot. It's steaming. It's quicksilver lightning with a laserbeam kicker. -- Michael Jay Tucker

Close