wjhoffman1983 - Slashdot User

Submission + - When will this poll be replaced?

Submitted by

TheRagingTowel

on Thursday October 18, 2007 @05:24AM

TheRagingTowel writes: "1. By tomorrow
2. In 2 days
3. In 2 weeks
4. Never, this is the last one
5. Yesterday
6. Yes
7. When CowboyNeal says so!"

Submission + - Thomas files appeal, cites "excessive" dam (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Peerless on Monday October 15, 2007 @06:58PM

Peerless writes: Capitol v. Thomas defendant Jammie Thomas has officially appealed the RIAA's $222,000 copyright infringement award. She is seeking a retrial to determine the RIAA's actual damages, arguing that the jury's award was 'unconstitutionally excessive': 'Thomas would like to see the record companies forced to prove their actual damages due to downloading, a figure that Sony-BMG litigation head Jennifer Pariser testified that her company "had not stopped to calculate." In her motion, Thomas argues that the labels are contending that their actual damages are in the neighborhood of $20. Barring a new trial over the issue of damages, Thomas would like to see the reward knocked down three significant digits — from $222,000 to $151.20.'

Submission + - School taking action against Network freedom 1

Submitted by

Tristan Stillwell

on Monday October 15, 2007 @06:10PM

Tristan Stillwell writes: "I am a teenage high school student in the municipality of Bunn, North Carolina.
Today I found out I was suspended from school for ten days for possessing programs that were "capable of doing damage to the private school network". The programs were Firefox Portable and VNC viewer, and BlueJ Java Development Environment. I, an 18 year old high school student, was informed through my aunt, who was called about this disciplinary problem ( Isn't this private information?). I have no chance to appeal this suspension and are being forcefully and permanently removed from my Java(c) Computer Science and US government and Politics courses which I was taking through the state. I will most likely receive grades of ZERO (0) for both classes, thus destroying any chance I ever have of getting into a decent college. I am initially receiving a 10 day suspension, and then possibly a longer suspension pending investigation. Note- the school has found nothing I might have done to potentially cause damage to the network, I was suspended for having the programs- nothing else. I plan to contact the Electronic Frontier Foundation for help with this clearly unfair oppression. The only (thought) crime I have committed is one arousing suspicion, not arriving from action. I will provide further information after I officially receive the suspension."

Submission + - Use a surge protector, Void your PS3 Warranty

Submitted by Direwolf20 on Monday October 15, 2007 @04:50PM

Direwolf20 writes: A friend of mine called Sony Customer Support when his 4 month old Playstation 3 bricked one night (while sitting idle). Customer support tried to tell him that it probably got hit by an electrical surge. When he told the CSR that the PS3 was connected to a surge protector, the CSR informed him that connecting his PS3 to a surge protector voids the warranty, and therefore he'll have to shell out $150 to get it fixed.

Submission + - Toyota Tacoma Makes WoW Cameo

Submitted by owlgorithm on Monday October 08, 2007 @09:04PM

owlgorithm writes: According to Autoblog, Toyota aired an ad during Sunday football in which a character "lays down the law" by conjuring a Tacoma pickup and charging into battle. Reminiscent of the Coke commercial that aired in China a while back, and the parody from The Simpsons, it's definitely one of the funniest car commercials this year and leaves me wondering what's in store for the Super Bowl.

Submission + - Canadian Mint claims IP rights to words "one c 1

Submitted by knorthern knight on Monday October 08, 2007 @05:44PM

knorthern knight writes: A weird intersection of copyright/trademark with Canadian politics. Short background. Various Canadian cities and municipalities have launched a publicity/lobbying campaign seeking a fixed take from the GST (Goods and Services Tax, a national Canadian sales tax similar to European VAT). The amount sought is 1 cent for each dollar of the purchase price. This is summarized by the slogan "One Cent of the GST NOW". Acoording to this press release, the Royal Canadian Mint (the federal agency that prints Canadian paper currency and stamps Canadian coins) has demanded royalties for use of the phrase "one cent", and the image of the Canadian penny. The Royal Canadian Mint, a corporation of the federal government, has now demanded that the City of Toronto pay $47,680 for the public education campaign. Included in this amount is a request for $10,000 for the use of the words "one cent" in the campaign website address (www.onecentnow.ca) and the campaign email address (onecentnow@toronto.ca), and an additional $10,000 for the use of the words "one cent" in the campaign phone number (416-ONE CENT). The remaining $27,680 has been assessed against the City for the use of the image of the Canadian penny in printed materials such as pins and posters.

Submission + - One-Click-Submission to German terror watchlist (www.bka.de) 5

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 30, 2007 @06:03PM

An anonymous reader writes: As the German daily Der Tagesspiegel reported today, the German federal criminal agency has a new strategy to catch terrorists: they put up an informational web page about the terrorist group "militante Gruppe" ("militant group") and now look at their web logs. If someone clicks on that link, his IP address will be investigated and he will be put on the terror watchlist. It would be utter madness of us to ask you to click on THIS LINK to put a billion people on their list so we are not even going to mention the URL. In case you find it, do not click on it! Thank you.

Submission + - Student Attacked After Dropping Cake (infowars.net) 17

Submitted by on Sunday September 30, 2007 @01:49AM

An anonymous reader writes: "School security guards in Palmdale, CA have been caught on camera assaulting a 16-year-old girl and breaking her arm after she spilled some cake during lunch and left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning it up. The girl, Pleajhai Mervin, told Fox News LA that she was bumped while queuing for lunch and dropped the cake. After being ordered to clean it up and then re-clean the spot three times, she attempted to leave the area out of embarrassment but was jumped on by security who forced her onto a table, breaking her wrist in the process."

Submission + - Police issue Death Threats to Man with Camera 9

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28, 2007 @07:00PM

An anonymous reader writes: Cops in St. Louis have taken objection over a local man filming their abuses of power, and have responded with death threats, and stalking. The guy they're harassing installed a pretty neat video system in his car after having received a speeding ticket that he that was unfair. What he ended up catching on tape was far worse than a speeding ticket. Luckily the news has picked up on it, so he is probably out of immediate danger.

Submission + - Should game reviewers penalize for excessive DRM? 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28, 2007 @03:27PM

An anonymous reader writes: The highest rated PC game on the market, Bioshock, also happens to contain an unusually agressive implemention of Sony's Securom DRM software. The single-player only game requires internet activation with serial key entry before it can be run. It can be installed and uninstalled on a PC a maximum of 5 times, after which it will permit no further reinstalls. The game also will not run without the install DVD present in the computer's drive, despite having activated online and placed Securom on the user's computer — without the user's consent. This has created a bizarre situation where game reviewers are positively gushing about just how good Bioshock is, and ordinary gamers who have bought the PC version intensely dislike its agressive protection system even if they like the game itself. Does a game that limits basic user rights like installing and uninstalling a game as many times as is necessary deserve scores like 10/10 and 95%? Or should game reviewers base their review on the complete product experience and penalize a game for overzealous activation and anti-piracy checks while rewarding games that do not burden the buyer with troublesome DRM, online activation and disc-in-the-drive with a higher score?

Submission + - Man Wins Partial Victory In Circuit City Arrest (michaelrighi.com)

Submitted by

JeremyDuffy

on Friday September 21, 2007 @07:07AM

JeremyDuffy writes: "Michael Righi, the man who was arrested at Circuit City for failing to show his reciept/driver's license, has fought a moral battle against the city for almost a month now. The case has already been settled and he emerged victorious... sort of. It turns out that he's already spent almost $7500 and would have kept fighting them too, but because his family would have been dragged into it, he was forced to take a deal. They've expunged his record and dropped all charges, but he had to give up his right to sue the city to do it."

Submission + - 700MB of MediaDefender internal emails leaked (torrentfreak.com) 2

Submitted by qubezz on Friday September 14, 2007 @11:46PM

qubezz writes: The company MediaDefender which works with the RIAA and MPAA against piracy (setting up fake torrents and trackers and disrupting p2p) had earlier set up a fake internet video download site designed to catch and bust users. They denied the entrapment charges. Now 700MB of internal emails from the company from the last 6 months leaked onto BitTorrent trackers detail their entire plan, how they intended to distance themselves from the fake company they set up, future strategies, and reveal other company information such as logins and passwords, wage negotiations, and numerous other aspect of their internal business! torrentfreak.com details some of the jems!

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