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Piracy

RIAA Goes After CNET For Media-Conversion Software 257

Posted by timothy from the don't-you-know-this-pen-could-be-used-in-a-crime? dept.
First time accepted submitter moj0joj0 writes "Two days after YouTube-MP3.org, a site that converts songs from music videos into MP3 files, was blocked from accessing YouTube, the RIAA has asked CNET to remove software from Download.com that performs a similar function. The RIAA focused its criticism on software found at Download.com called YouTubeDownloader. The organization also pointed out that there are many other similar applications available at the site, 'which can be used to steal content from CBS, which owns Download.com.' CNET's policy is that Download.com is not in any position to determine whether a piece of software is legal or not or whether it can be used for illegal activity." For a sufficiently broad definition of "steal," you could argue that all kinds of software (from word processors to graphics programs to security analysis tools) could be implicated.

Comment Re:well, duh (Score 1) 433

by jwilcox154 (#40378315) Attached to: Bloomberg, WSJ: Student Aid Increases Tuition

No, starting out at a community college could actually be a smart move. All one has to do is start at a community college, graduate with an associate of science/art degree, then transfer to a state university with a transfer scholarship. When someone earns a Bachelor of science/art degree the employers will mainly look at that rather than the associate degree earned.

Comment Re:~79%? (Score 1) 1359

by jwilcox154 (#40193773) Attached to: In America, 46% of People Hold a Creationist View of Human Origins

True, however that would also could have a positive effect on those that are non-religious as well. When the religious right demand that prayer should be allowed in school they don't know that the same rights apply to all religions, not just one. Once it settles in they will no longer be any requests for prayer at school again. :

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6240/6323579499_56921e5b6b_z.jpg
Piracy

MPAA Agent Poses As Homebuyer To Catch Pirates 289

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the as-seen-on-tv dept.
bonch writes "The MPAA used an undercover agent posing as a potential homebuyer to gain access to the home of a British couple charged with running a streaming links site. UK authorities decided not to pursue the case, but the MPAA continued, focusing on a Boston programmer who worked on the site, leading to an unprecedented legal maneuver whereby U.S. charges were dropped in exchange for testimony in a UK fraud case."
Piracy

Campaign Urges People To Send MPAA and RIAA Copied Currency 413

Posted by samzenpus from the counterfeiting-equipment-not-included dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In response to the still-raging MPAA & RIAA, a kind of reverse piracy campaign has arisen. The "Send Them Your Money" campaign urges pirates and landlubbers alike to send scanned images of American currency to these agencies. According to the campaign's webpage, 'They've made it very clear that they consider digital copies to be just as valuable as the original.' The operation gained fame via sites like Reddit and Tumblr, inspiring citizens of other countries to send their legal tender to the MPAA and RIAA."
DRM

Thanks to DRM, Some Ubisoft Games Won't Work Next Week 332

Posted by timothy from the how-about-a-nice-game-of-chess dept.
hypnosec writes "Several of Ubisoft's biggest titles won't be playable as of next week thanks to a server move by the publisher and the restrictive DRM that was used in their development. This isn't just multiplayer either. Because Ubisoft thought it would be a smart plan to use always on DRM for even the single player portion of games like Assassin's Creed, even the single player portion of that title won't be playable during the server move. Some of the other games affected by this move will be Tom Clancy's HAWX 2, Might & Magic: Heroes 6 and The Settlers 7. The Mac games that will be broken during this period are Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell Conviction and The Settlers. This move was announced this week as part of a community letter, with Ubisoft describing how the data servers for many of the publisher's online services would be migrated from third party facilities to a new location starting on the 7th February. The publisher didn't reveal how long the transfer would take."
Censorship

Megaupload Drops Lawsuit Against Universal Music 439

Posted by samzenpus from the on-second-thought dept.
bs0d3 writes "Not so long ago, a legal video was taken down by repetitive DMCA requests to YouTube. In response, Megaupload filed a lawsuit against Universal Music. This past week, Megaupload was raided by U.S. authorities and forced offline, which is costing Megaupload millions of dollars in damage. Today; while employees are in U.S. custody, Megaupload has mysteriously dropped their lawsuit against Universal Music."
Democrats

White House Petition To Investigate Dodd For Bribery 596

Posted by samzenpus from the follow-the-money dept.
Walkingshark writes "Chris Dodd's recent statements complaining that congressmen who receive donations from the RIAA and MPAA should toe the line has spawned a firestorm of anger on the internet. Among the bits of fallout: a petition on the White Houses "We the People" site to investigate him, the RIAA, and the MPAA for bribery! This petition gained more than 5000 signatures in 24 hours and is still growing. When the petition reaches 25,000 signatures the White House is obligated to respond to it in an official capacity."
Crime

Anonymous Takes Down DOJ, RIAA, MPA and Universal Music 649

Posted by samzenpus from the pay-back dept.
First time accepted submitter EW87 writes "Shortly after a federal raid today brought down the file sharing service Megaupload, hackers aligned with the online collective Anonymous have shut down sites for the Department of Justice, Universal Music Group and the RIAA. 'It was in retaliation for Megaupload, as was the concurrent attack on Justice.org,' Anonymous operative Barrett Brown tells RT on Thursday afternoon."
Cloud

VMware, a Falling Giant? 417

Posted by Soulskill from the netcraft-yet-silent dept.
New submitter Lashat writes "According to Ars Technica, 'A new survey seems to show that VMware's iron grip on the enterprise virtualization market is loosening, with 38 percent of businesses planning to switch vendors within the next year due to licensing models and the robustness of competing hypervisors.' What do IT-savvy Slashdotters have to say about moving away from one of the more stable and feature rich VM architectures available?"
The Courts

Apple Threatens Bistro Over "AppleADay" Name 301

Posted by samzenpus from the take-our-name-out-of-your-mouth dept.
itwbennett writes "In today's edition of David v. Goliath, Apple lawyers have sent cease and desist letters to a tiny health food restaurant in Luxembourg named AppleADay. For their part, the owners of AppleADay, with help from a lawerly friend, have promised that they would continue to sell only food, not computers. Of course, Apple knows as well as anyone that promises are made to be broken, having famously promised Apple Corps, the Beatles' production company, they would never get into the music business."
Music

Universal Uses DMCA To Get Bad Lip Reading Parody Taken Down 298

Posted by timothy from the gang-fight-gang-fight dept.
Joren writes "Bad Lip Reading is an independent producer known for anonymously parodying music and political videos by redubbing them with his humorous attempts at lip-reading, such as Everybody Poops (Black Eyed Peas) and Gang Fight (Rebecca Black). According to an interview in Rolling Stone, he creates entirely new music from scratch consisting of his bad lip readings, and then sets them to the original video, often altering the video for humorous effect and always posting a link to the original off which it is based. Although his efforts have won the respect of parody targets Michael Bublé and Michelle Bachman, not everyone has been pleased. Two days ago, Universal Music Group succeeded in getting his parody Dirty Spaceman taken down from YouTube, and despite BLR's efforts to appeal, in his words, 'UMG essentially said "We don't care if you think it's fair use, we want it down."' And YouTube killed it. So does this meet the definition of parody as a form of fair use? And if so, what recourse if any is available for artists who are caught in this situation?"

Comment Facebook is a wonderful tool if used properly (Score 1) 40

by jwilcox154 (#37234308) Attached to: Facebook Kills Places, Deals Products

I do agree with you 100%, Facebook does make it easier to communicate with people over the internet. While the original poster did make some sense that it is best to meet others IRL sometimes it is impossible to meet all friends IRL. For example I have met a few good friends through facebook. One person I have met has been such a wonderful friend to me. She lives in Ilkeston, Derbyshire and we have chatted quite a bit over the past year about the FB games we play, our troubles, our interests, Doctor Who, forum based Role Playing, and many other things. In fact I feel I could trust her with my life even though we have never met face to face. I think it is because we both feel like we have known each other for years.

Back to the original point without Facebook I would not have met her, or my other online friends for that matter, at all. As far a privacy I don't see what the big deal as I don't place some of my deepest, darkest secrets on Facebook. People just need to be careful what the post online whether it is a social media site, or their personal websites.
Social Networks

Syrian Hackers Deface Anonymous' Social Network 80

Posted by Soulskill from the turnabout-is-fair-play dept.
CWmike writes "After the hacking gang Anonymous took credit for defacing Syria's Ministry of Defense website, a Syrian group retaliated on Monday by posting gruesome photos on Anonymous' embryonic social network. The defacement of AnonPlus — the site Anonymous set up last month when it was booted off Google+ — did not include the name of the group responsible. The University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, however, credited the AnonPlus defacement to the 'Syrian Electronic Army' in a message posted to Twitter. 'In response to your hacking to the website of the Syrian Ministry of Defence, the Syrian people have decided to purify the internet of [y]our pathetic website,' the defacement read."

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