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Software

Feds Overstate Software Piracy's Link To Terrorism 448

Lucas123 writes "Attorney General Michael Mukasey claims that terrorists sell pirated software as a way to finance their operations, without presenting a shred of evidence for his case. He's doing it to push through a controversial piece of intellectual property legislation that would increase IP penalties, increase police power, set up a new agency to investigate IP theft, and more. 'Criminal syndicates, and in some cases even terrorist groups, view IP crime as a lucrative business, and see it as a low-risk way to fund other activities,' Mukasey told a crowd at the Tech Museum of Innovation last week."
Government

Submission + - Hiring candidates on H-1B visa a long shot at best (networkworld.com) 1

ddubie writes: "Companies sponsoring an H-1B visa applicant this week should not only be triple-checking paperwork as the April 1 filing deadline approaches, but should also be preparing alternatives to put in place if attempts to secure an H-1B hire fail. IT hiring managers familiar with the process say they expect their hopes of attaining one of the 65,000 H-1B visas allotted for 2009 to be dashed by midday April 1."
Censorship

Network Solutions Suspends Site of Anti-Islam Film 874

h4rm0ny notes the furor over an anti-Islamic movie due to be released on the Web in the next week. After Pakistan disrupted YouTube worldwide over an interview with right-wing Dutch MP and filmmaker Geert Wilders, Network Solutions, acting as host as well as registrar, has suspended Wilders's site promoting the 15-minute film "Fitna" (a Koranic term translated as "strife"). The site now displays a notice that it is under investigation for possible violations of NetSol's acceptable use policy. According to the article the company's guidelines include "a sweeping prohibition against 'objectionable material of any kind or nature.'" The article describes the site's content before NetSol pulled the plug as a single page with the film's title, an image of the Koran, and the words "Coming Soon." No one but Wilders has seen the film to date. The Dutch government has distanced itself from the film, fearing Muslim backlash. A million Muslims live in The Netherlands. Wilders's party, which controls 9 of 150 seats in the Dutch parliament, was elected on an anti-immigration platform.
SuSE

Submission + - HP adding Novell's Linux to its desktop lineup (linuxworld.com)

Anonymous writes: Novell Tuesday plans to announce that HP will begin loading Suse Linux 10 on its desktops, joining Dell and Lenovo as partners who pre-install the open source operating system.

The news comes just a few weeks after Novell announced server and desktop revenue had grown 65% over the past year. The company does not break down the revenue — which hit $30 million in its fiscal first quarter — by desktop and server, but CEO Ron Hovsepian says the desktop is "on a good track toward doubling its revenue."

Software

Submission + - Amazon has released Linux MP3 downloader (amazon.com)

ndogg writes: "The Linux Amazon MP3 Downloader has been released! Now Linux users can download whole albums as well. Ubuntu, Debian, OpenSuSe, and Fedora are officially supported, by the looks of it, and especially considering that the packages are specifically tailored for those distributions. I've downloaded a couple of albums, and so far so good! The free song that's available with it is pretty good too!"
Operating Systems

Submission + - Quebec's RRQ being sued for not considering OSS. (cyberpresse.ca)

Quebec writes: "Cyrille Béraud, in charge of Savoir-Faire Linux is suing the Régie des rentes du Québec in the province's highest court. He is contesting the fact that the governement administred office is about to spend 700,000$ to upgrade its workstations to Vista without tenders and without considering alternatives.

The document submitted to the Cour supérieure sustains the fact that Vista is so different from Windows 2000 (the actual operating system in use at the RRQ) that you cannot call it an upgrade but a replacement.

The author of the article is saying that this is a first in North America and that we heard similar stories in Europe."

Caldera

Creditor Objects To SCO's Plans 108

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "It seems that SCO is never without a trick up its sleeve. In the new '$100 million' reorganization plan, $5 million of which is cash and $95 million credit, one of the creditors is protesting because SCO is hiding the Definitive Documents until there's no time to object. In their own words, 'The debtors are proposing to file the Disclosure Statement 33 days before the hearing, in compliance with the requirement that it be filed at least 25 days before the hearing (F. R. Bankr. P. 3017). However, it is clear that this Disclosure Statement will be inadequate for evaluating the Plan, because it will not include any of the Definitive Documents. The Debtors are proposing to file the Definitive Documents separately, and to do so a mere five business days before the hearing, which is zero days before objections are due.'"
Sony

Submission + - Reasons Blu-ray will tank (computerworld.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Disgruntaled HD-DVD adopter (even admits it in the article!) tries to come up with reasons for the future demise of Blu-ray. Many comments in disagreement with the article author are being spam voted against due to Computerworld site not having any control over votes or posts other than cookie support.
The Internet

Former FBI Agent Calls for a Second Internet 486

An anonymous reader writes "Former FBI Agent Patrick J. Dempsey warns that the Internet has become a sanctuary for cyber criminals and the only way to rectify this is to create a second, more secure Internet. Dempsey explains that, in order to successfully fight cyber crime, law enforcement officials need to move much faster than average investigators and cooperate with international law enforcement officials. The problem is various legal systems are unprepared for the fight, which is why he claims we must change the structure of the Internet."
Censorship

Submission + - Mayor stripped down, then stripped of office. 1

Ogre840 writes: The mayor of Arlington Oregon has been removed from office after a 142-139 vote. The reasoning behind the removal? A picture posted on MySpace predating her election into office cause quiet a stir. Posing in nothing more than matching black bra and panties for a contest about fitness, the ex-mayor's relative (in hopes of getting the poor single mother a date) posted them on MySpace. When the now ex-mayor was elected, she didn't feel it was important to remove the pictures since they'd been up so long. More information can be found here, as well as prior articles
Security

Submission + - Pakistan Nukes YouTube? (arbornetworks.com)

canuck57 writes: Looks like this might have been what happened to youtube.com yesterday.

So, assume you're an ISP in Pakistan and, for whatever reason, you receive an order such as this (PDF) from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). The letter is from the Deputy Director of Enforcement with the PTA, and is requiring that you immediately block access to a YouTube URL, or more specifically (actually, less specifically, but that's a different issue), that you block access to 3 specific IP addresses: 208.65.153.238, 208.65.153.253 and 208.65.153.251. More...

But raises one huge question to Internet security. If a single country can do this, just how stable is the internet routing?

Media

Microsoft To Drop HD DVD 246

HockeyPuck writes to let us know that Microsoft has decided to stop making HD DVD players for the Xbox 360. No word on supporting Blu-ray on the platform though. "Microsoft said Saturday it would continue to provide standard warranty support for its HD DVD players. Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida last week estimated about 300,000 people own the Microsoft video player, sold as a separate $130 add-on for the Xbox 360."
United States

Submission + - you tube 1

MICHAEL GRACE writes: "I think youtube is now down or being blocked in the USA. At least on Netscape, Safari and Firefox. I had youtube on my site and it is now no longer available."
AMD

Submission + - Is AMD dead yet?

TheProcess writes: Back in February 2003, IBM predicted that AMD would be dead in 5 years (original article here), with IBM and Intel being the only remaining players in the chip market. Well, 5 years have come and gone, and AMD is still alive. However, its finances and stock price have taken a serious beating over the last year. AMD was once a /. darling; the plucky, up-and-coming challenger to the Intel behemoth. Do you think AMD will be here in 5 years? Can they pose a credible competitive threat to Intel's dominance? Do they still have the superior, but unappreciated technology, or are they finally old hat? Can they really recover?

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