Submission + - BSA Bully Over Small Businesses, Becomes RIAA-2 (techluver.com) 2
Tech.Luver writes: "Michael Gaertner worried he could lose his company. A group called the Business Software Alliance was claiming that his 10-person architectural firm was using unlicensed software._______________
The alliance demanded $67,000 — most of one year's profit — or else it would seek more in court. "It just scared the hell out of me," Gaertner said._______________
Targeting small businesses is lucrative for the Business Software Alliance, the main copyright-enforcement watchdog for such companies as Microsoft Corp., Adobe Systems Inc. and Symantec Corp._______________
Of the $13 million that the BSA reaped in software violation settlements with North American companies last year, almost 90 percent came from small businesses._______________
Gaertner, who worried his BSA encounter would crush his business, wants to rid himself of the Autodesk, Microsoft and Adobe software involved in the case."It's not like they have really good software. It's just that it's widespread and it's commonly used," he said. "It's going to be a while, but eventually, we plan to get completely disengaged from those software vendors that participate in the BSA."_______________
( http://techluver.com/2007/11/25/piracy-fight-makes-enemies-bsa-bullying-over-small-businesses/ )"
Submission + - Matt Groening Final Boss in Simpsons EA Game (filefront.com) 1
eldavojohn writes: "Announced at E3, Mr. Groening will be the final boss in the Simpsons game. Mr. Groening commented on the game: "They did a send-up of videogames. It's a videogame about videogames; and I'm in the videogame. I'm a boss that you have to fight at the end of the game. It was really fun recording a million ways of dying, going 'UGGH, ARGGH, EUURGH!'""
Submission + - Linux Developers Considering Move To Eclipse (linux-watch.com)
The Slashdolt writes: Has the time come for linux developers to move away from the trusty old tools like Vim and Emacs? Some linux developers feel that time has come and are proposing a move to Eclipse as a Linux development environment. I wonder if Linus' opinion has changed over the last seven years.
Submission + - iPhone hacked for Shell Access (engadget.com)
edward350z writes: "The Apple iPhone has been hacked to allow access to the bootloader shell. By using an iPod dock connector-to-RS232 cable, the guys at #iPhone have managed to get access to useful commands such as tftp and eload. It seems like those passwords discovered in the iPhone restore image were not a false trail after all!"
Submission + - California Realtors begin hiding Days on Market
An anonymous reader writes: It appears that the California real estate crash is so bad that the MLS service will now stop reporting days on market in an attempt to conceal how bad things are. Detailed announcement here.
Submission + - DOJ Accidentally Gives Lawyer Wiretap Transcript
good soldier svejk writes:
That is what happened to Washington D.C. attorney Wendell Belew. His lawsuit takes on special significance given today's Sixth Circuit Court ruling that surveillance victims can only sue the DOJ if they can prove they were affected. Also in light of that decision we can safely add Catch-22 to the list of literary references above.It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil. Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked "top secret." And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls. You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it.
Submission + - iPhone Researchers Gain a Shell (beskerming.com)
SkiifGeek writes: "A team of researchers (#iphone @ irc.osx86.hu) dedicated to finding means to fully control and interact with the new Apple iPhone claim to have successfully gained an interactive shell on the device. In order to achieve this feat physical access to the phone is required, as it relies on some minor electronics to be created and connected to the phone's serial port.
It is believed that general control over the iPhone will be available to the enterprising researchers within a week (after all, it has only just been a week since the iPhone was released), with the promise of enough control to allow for self-propagating code not very far away."
It is believed that general control over the iPhone will be available to the enterprising researchers within a week (after all, it has only just been a week since the iPhone was released), with the promise of enough control to allow for self-propagating code not very far away."
Journal Journal: RIAA tells YouTube to remove free guitar lessons 341
Is it so wrong to learn how to play the guitar? According to RIAA: Yes. According to NPR, a record company ordered YouTube to remove videos of a man who offered to show people how to play the guitar because the songs he was teaching violated copyright infringement rules. How could this constitute as infringement if most musicians usually experiement to find something that sounds familiar? I've never had a guitar less
AppleTV Hits the Streets 474
Stories are starting to pop up all over the web about the AppleTV, which evidently means that Apple has set loose the hounds of marketing and the units are (or will be tomorrow) available in Apple stores. Still no word on whether or not it plays DivX files. That will be the key to me purchasing one.
Submission + - CD music sales down 20% in Q1 2007
prostoalex writes: "Music sales are not just falling, they're plummeting by as much as 20%, when you take the data for January-March period in 2007, and compare that to 2006 numbers. Wall Street Journal lists several factors contributing to the rapid decline: Tower Records being out of business, diminishing record sales during the week 1 of the release (you only need 65,000 CDs sold in a single week to top the charts in 2007, while in 2005 this number would not even get you into top 30), and increasingly negative attitude towards CD sales from big retailers such as Best Buy, who now dedicate less floor space to CDs in favor of better-selling items."
Submission + - Be a Developer not a Coder
Submission + - RIAA must turn over attorney billing records
An anonymous reader writes: Usually most people settle with the RIAA for a few thousand dollars, but Debbie took the case to court and asked for the RIAA to produce records of what files she supposedly downloaded, along with the dates of the downloads. The RIAA couldn't produce the records and offered to withdraw the case. Now here is where it gets interesting, Debbie asked to be awarded reasonable attorneys fees for her ordeal and submitted her expenses to the court. The RIAA argued that the mother was asking for too much, to which the
judge basically said, "Well if you think her fees are too much, show me yours."
Submission + - Supreme Court to Hear 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' Monday
theodp writes: "In 2002, 18-year-old Joseph Frederick held up a 14-foot banner saying 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' as the Olympic torch passed by his Juneau high school, sparking a feud with the principal that heads to the Supreme Court on Monday. Legal experts say Morse v. Frederick could be the most significant case on student free speech since the days of Vietnam War protests."
Submission + - Microsoft pays companies to use LiveSearch
tsa writes: "On John Battelle's Searchblog there is a piece about how Microsoft pays companies to not only have them use MS's Live Search engine, but also get information about the amount of users and PC's in the company. Companies get paid a fee per PC. The height of the fee depends on the usage of the MS LiveSearch engine. The use of IE7 is mandatory for this, because MS wants the companies to use a plugin for this browser to be able to keep track of the user's searching habits. If you ask me, this is bribery."
