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

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Music

Submission + - HMV Canada Cut's music CD prices because of piracy 1

Submitted by umStefa
umStefa writes: For the last few years the music industry has claimed that reduced CD sales are the result of piracy, while slashdotters have constantly defended piracy on the grounds that main stream music was overpriced. Well know the largest music retailer in Canada has gone and cut their prices on CD's to try and increase sales (CBC article). If successful could this spur music stores in other countries to reduce their prices? and could it have an effect on piracy rates? or is this simply a move destined to fail (by not increasing CD sales), thereby giving the music industry ammunition to get governments to pass legislation that will support their outdated business model. Only time will tell.
United States

Submission + - Running trail mistaken for bioterrorism threat (msn.com)

Submitted by feuerfalke
feuerfalke writes: A flour-and-chalk trail marked out by Daniel Salchow and his sister Dorothee for their running club, the Hash House Harriers, sparked fears and evacuations Thursday night, and now the siblings are finding themselves in deep trouble with New Haven police. Police were called after they were spotted sprinkling "powder" in the parking lot of an IKEA furniture store, which was later evacuated. The "powder" was, in fact, flour, which the siblings have used plenty of times before, all across the country, to mark trails for their club. The Salchow siblings are now facing felony charges, and New Haven police seek "restitution" for the resources wasted in their mistake. This sounds familiar...
Businesses

Submission + - A&P Supermarket sues over spoof vid seek $1M (c-n.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: NJ Kids made a music video they called Produce Paradise, lost their jobs, and now A&P is suing them for 1 million dollars in damanges

CALIFON — It has already cost them their jobs. Now, the fictitious music video "Produce Paradise," created by two Hunterdon County brothers as a way to parody the outlandishness of gangster rap by using veggies as props, could cost them $1 million.

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., parent company of the supermarket chain A&P, recently filed a defamation lawsuit in state Superior Court in Flemington against college students Mark and Matthew D'Avella, who until recently stocked shelves at the Califon A&P.

The full article: http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2007 0828/NEWS/708280303

The video in question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5iDpxucNFE
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Copyright advocacy group violates copyright (scienceblogs.com)

Submitted by
word munger
word munger writes: "Commercial scholarly publishers are beginning to get afraid of the open access movement. They've hired a high-priced consultant to help them sway public opinion in favor of copyright restrictions on taxpayer-funded research. Funny thing is, their own website contains several copyright violations. It seems they pulled their images directly from the Getty Images website — watermark and all — without paying for their use! Clearly their agenda is simply to make using copyrighted materials inconvenient and expensive for everyone but THEMSELVES."
Music

Submission + - Judge: use P2P, you're stealing music (electronista.com) 1

Submitted by
JonathanF
JonathanF writes: "If you were hoping judges would see reason and realize that just using a program that could violate copyright law was about as illegal as leaving your back door unlocked, think again: an Arizona district judge has ruled that a couple who hosted files in KaZaA is liable for over $40K in damages just because they "made available" songs that could have been pirated by someone, somewhere. There's legal precedent, but how long do we have before the BitTorrent crew is sued?"
Privacy

Submission + - England's Database Of Children COmes Under Fire (timesonline.co.uk)

Submitted by
Mike
Mike writes: "A comprehensive database of every single child in England is slated to go live next year amid growing doubts as to the system's security and safety. Possible misuse by unauthorized users is only one concern. Ian Brown, a computer security research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, summed it up nicely: "When you have got more than 300,000 people accessing this database, it's just very difficult to stop the sale of information." With an estimated 330,000 "vetted users" and over 11 million children listed, can there be any doubt that this database will be a virtual magnet for pedophiles, spammers, and scammers?"
The Internet

Submission + - iLike site stolen wholesale by Beijing company

Submitted by
spectecjr
spectecjr writes: "iLike (a social networking site for sharing music preferences) is one of a number of social sites that have sprung into being since Web 2.0 became all the rage. However, in possibly a web first, a company in Beijing has entirely duplicated their site (translated version) down to stealing their flash code, and stealing their site design. Is this the first ever time that an entire site and business has been stolen wholesale by another company?"
The Courts

Submission + - Convicted BitTorrent Admin, Force to Dump Linux.

Submitted by
loconet
loconet writes: "TorrentFreak is running a story about Sk0t, an ex-administrator of the EliteTorrents BitTorrent tracker, who is to have his internet connection monitored by the US Government. Further more, the monitoring software only runs on Windows, which, according to his parole officer, means that if he wants to use a computer, it will have to be a computer running Windows, where the software can be installed or face being barred from the internet."
Businesses

Submission + - Unlawful Restraint by Retail Security Guard 1

Submitted by neomage86
neomage86 writes: Yesterday I was falsely imprisoned by a security officer at a retail store near Chicago (Tigerdirect). As customers are leaving, a guard asks them to produce a receipt for items they are leaving with. I politely refused and continued to walk by, at which point the guard then physically prevented me from leaving. He also called me a thief, and threatened to have me arrested. Obviously the 4th Amendment doesn't apply to private security guards, but these guards are not allowed to physically detain you unless they have reasonable grounds to believe you committed theft. (Not showing the receipt doesn't constitute reasonable grounds, google "Shopkeeper's Privilege" or "receipt check".

After being detained, I called the police on my cell. When an Officer arrived, and the situation was explained, she ordered the guard to let me go. The manager then verbally banned me from returning to the store (which was fine, I understand it's their private property, and I'm happy to take my business elsewhere). However, the Officer refused to arrest the guard, even after acknowledging he unlawfully restrained me.

The store's official policy, according to the manager and security guard, is to physically (and illegally) detain customers who opt not to show a receipt. I would have been happy if they agreed to change that policy, but they would not. I then tried to press criminal charges, but the State's Attorney refused to prosecute (even though there is ample evidence, including dozens of witnesses and store security tapes). I then attempted to press civil charges, but no attorney I contacted would take the case (and refused to provide explanation).

Just because they're a big business (fortune 100), does not give them the right to unlawfully restrain a person. If I, as an individual, physically detained a person for an hour with no reason, I would be in jail right now. Why do these rules not seem to apply to them?
Censorship

Submission + - Brit social services try to censor Youtube

Submitted by Kedyn's Crow
Kedyn's Crow writes: Britain's social services, citeng the Data Protection Act, are trying to remove a audio recording from youtube. The recording posted by expectant parents Vanessa and Martin Brookes , shows social services attepting to force the adoption of her unborn child in spite of their own belief that there was "no immediate risk to your child from yourselves"
Software

Submission + - DUI Defendant Wins Right to Source Code

Submitted by freshman_a
freshman_a writes: The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in favor of a man, charged with a DUI, who claimed he needed the source code to the Intoxilyzer 5000EN to fight charges in court. From an article at the Pioneer Press:

"That's the gist of the decision, that it's discoverable," said Underdahl's attorney, Jeffrey Sheridan, of Eagan. "The problem is, the manufacturer of the thing thinks they can hold it back and not tell anybody how it works. For all we know, it's a random number generator."
The Courts

Submission + - Chair of BU Computer Science Dept Fights RIAA

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Two expert witnesses, one the Chairman of Boston University's Computer Science Department, have submitted declarations supporting the motion of a Boston University student trying to vacate the RIAA's ex parte discovery order in Arista v. Does 1-21. Prof. Bestavros stated that some of Linares's factual statements were "not possible" (pdf), while Jesse Stengel stated that some of Mr. Linares's contentions were "not true" (pdf). These declarations, attacking the underpinnings of the RIAA case set out in the declaration of Carlos Linares, were referred to in Arista v. Does 1-11, the Oklahoma case in which several Oklahoma State University students have attacked the order which had been granted ex parte permitting the RIAA to subpoena their names and addresses from the university. These filings come on the heels of rulings in New Mexico and Virginia denying the RIAA's ex parte discovery motions."
Music

Submission + - When IP Protection Incites Consumer Rage

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: How many industries of late have managed to generate such genuine consumer hatred over the last several years? says Richard Menta about the record industry. He was refering to that industry's aggressive activities to control its content in the digital age and he makes a solid argument that these efforts, including oppressive DRM tactics and legal actions, have alienated the consumer to the point where it is a key contributor to decreasing CD revenues. This quarter alone EMI saw a 20% drop in CD sales, while Warners 3rd quarter loss widened. The article lays out 17 events including the Sony rootkit scandal and the payola scandal that have tarnished the industry's public image and undermined its credibility with the average record buyer.
Google

Submission + - Google Filters Torrents From Search Results (torrentfreak.com) 1

Submitted by HiddenL
HiddenL writes: According to TorrentFreak.com:

Google has been filtering its search results for years. That's proven very useful for the Chinese government, and of course content owner representatives like the MPAA and RIAA. According to Google, the filtering of torrents from the search results is a response to the DMCA complaints they receive. The owner of SumoTorrent told TorrentFreak that he discovered that A search on Google for sumotorrent now triggers the following message at the bottom of the results page:

In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.
A search for other BitTorrent sites like Torrentspy and Torrentreactor comes up with the same message (note. the sites are still indexed but some results are removed).
Apparently "Do No Evil" includes mass filtering of legitimate content.

Slashdot Top Deals

In less than a century, computers will be making substantial progress on ... the overriding problem of war and peace. -- James Slagle

Close