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The Courts

Submission + - Extortion, Conspiracy Claims Against RIAA Upheld

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "You may recall that back in June a Florida woman counterclaimed against the RIAA for Trespass, Computer Fraud and Abuse, Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices, Civil Extortion, and Civil Conspiracy involving use of unlicensed private investigators without license, unauthorized access to a protected computer system, in interstate commerce, and extortion, in UMG v. Del Cid. She amended her counterclaims in some respects in August, and the RIAA wasted no time moving to dismiss all six of the amended counterclaims. Judge Richard A. Lazzara of the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida has now issued his decision sustaining five of the six counterclaims, dismissing only the counterclaim for copyright misuse claim. Judge Lazzara's decision (pdf) rejected, in its entirety, the RIAA's assertion of the "Noerr Pennington" defense, since it is inapplicable to "sham litigations", and Ms. Del Cid had properly alleged that the RIAA's cases were indeed "sham"."
Google

Submission + - Will Google lose its trademark? 1

Submitted by 140Mandak262Jamuna
140Mandak262Jamuna writes: Once upon a time, Google was the new kid on the block in the search engine arena. Then it became the big kahuna of that area. There was a time when using google as a verb would have brought a smile. But now every body and his brother and even the prim and proper, stiff upper lip and what not types like the Deputy Attorney General Ronald Smetana are using it as a verb. The quotes have been dropped, the capitalization still persists as some vestigial token acknowledging it as a neologism.

Already a number of dictionaries define google as a plain English word. If OED or some such big name dictionary includes it, would Google lose its trademark? Does Google have lawyers who assiduously take steps to protect its trademark and not allow it to become a generic word to mean "search the internet"? Didn't Xerox lose its trademark or came close to losing it? Imagine a world where Microsoft Live could be branded as "Microsoft Live Google"!
Google

Submission + - Google Earth Flight Simulator (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
marcog123
marcog123 writes: "Last week Google launched Google Sky as an addition to Google Earth. However, what they didn't tell us is that the sneaked in another key addition — a flight simulator. They appear to have held back on publicising this new feature, although it could be considered by some as more useful than Google Sky. It is currently limited to an F16 and SR22, but the selection of runways is impressive for an under-the-radar release. It's a great new addition that complements Google Earth well!"
Communications

Submission + - 700MHz lobbying: FCC connections certainly help

Submitted by BiteBender
BiteBender writes: How does lobbying really go down at the FCC? A new report on the lobbying for the 700MHz spectrum auction shows that Frontline Wireless, a company with two former FCC Chairmen as advisors, managed to get the most meetings with the FCC of any group, including the telcos. Google did a serviceable job, but in terms of sheer number of meetings, was eclipsed by the wireless operators and Frontline. Was this the best set of auction rules that money could buy, or were the FCC's decisions good ones?
Google

Submission + - Request for Question to Dr. Larry Brilliant

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In a week or two, I am meeting with Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director of Google.org. What questions should I ask him?
Books

Submission + - Scholastic invokes DMCA for reporting Potter leak

Submitted by ISurfTooMuch
ISurfTooMuch writes: Looks like DMCA abuse has just been taken to a new extreme. TechCrunch is reporting that it has received a takedown notice for simply reporting that the latest Harry Potter book is available on Bittorrent. The post also says that USA Today is reporting that Scholastic is contacting any sites that have written stories on the leaked copy, demanding that the information be taken down. Note that these sites aren't hosting copies of the book; they're being sent notices simply for reporting that it is available. What's next, sites receiving takedown notices for discussing the fact that piracy is occurring on the Internet?
Space

Submission + - Six minutes of terror: landing humans on Mars

Submitted by OriginalArlen
OriginalArlen writes: Universe Today has a fascinating article discussing the difficulty of executing EDL (entry, descent, landing) on Mars for vehicles bigger than MER, Viking and Pathfinder, and for manned craft in particular. Airbags can't be used for obvious reasons, but the atmosphere is too thin to be used for parachutes or aerobraking by large heavy vehicles, and the stronger gravity (compared to the moon) makes an Apollo-style powered descent impossible. The best current idea is a huge inflatable torus called a hypercone.
Republicans

Submission + - Politicians want to cut protection provision

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Back in May it became known that a Circuit City clerk became suspicious of a video of some people planning an attack and reported the tapers to the FBI. Based on similar cases, where the potential attackers then sued the people who called the police, he was left open to potential legal problems.
In order to protect people who reported suspicious behavior Rep Pete King, of New York, sponsored a bill to grant immunity. Now politician are tring to find technical excuses to keep this immunity off the bill and remove any potential protection to people like the Circuit City clerk.

How Much Caffeine is Really in That Soda? 332

Posted by Zonk from the buzz-buzz-buzz dept.
The Fun Guy writes "The Institute of Food Technologists summarizes some recent research on food. All things considering, it should settle some arguments among geeks about the caffination of beverages. 'Caffeine is a well-known stimulant added as an ingredient to various carbonated soft drinks, but which drink contains the most, and how can consumers know? A study in the Journal of Food Science used high-performance liquid chromatography to analyze the caffeine contents of 56 national-brand and 75 private-label store brand carbonated beverages. Caffeine contents ranged from 4.9 mg/12 oz (IGA Cola) to 74 mg/12 oz (Vault Zero). Some of the more common national-brand carbonated beverages analyzed in this study were Coca-Cola (33.9 mg/12 oz), Diet Coke (46.3 mg/12 oz), Pepsi (38.9 mg/12 oz), Diet Pepsi (36.7 mg/12 oz), Dr Pepper (42.6 mg/12 oz), Diet Dr Pepper (44.1 mg/12 oz), Mountain Dew (54.8 mg/12 oz), and Diet Mountain Dew (55.2 mg/12 oz). The authors found that store-brand beverages generally contained less caffeine, and they also suggest that consumers would benefit from having the actual caffeine content labeled on the beverage.'"
It's funny. Laugh.

Pitting a Mac Plus Against an AMD Dual Core 364

Posted by kdawson from the computing-through-the-ages dept.
In the Age of Computer Bloat someone has decided to do a performance comparison between a 1986 Mac Plus and a 2007 AMD Dual core, each running appropriate software. Computer Bloat does not fare so well. "In order to keep the hoots and hollers of 'unfair comparison' at a minimum, we designed the tests to be as fair and equitable as possible. We focussed on running tests that reflect how the user perceives the computing experience... And no, we didn't include processing-heavy modern software like Photoshop or Crysis! We selected very basic everyday functions that were performed equally by the 1980's and the 2007 Microsoft applications."
The Media

HBO Exec Proposes DRM Name Change 544

Posted by Zonk from the that's-all-that's-in-the-way dept.
surfingmarmot writes "An HBO executive has figured out the problem with DRM acceptance — it's the name. HBO's chief technology officer Bob Zitter now wants to refer to the technology as Digital Consumer Enablement. Because, you see, DRM actually helps consumers by getting more content into their hands. The company already has HD movies on demand ready to go, but is delaying them because of ownership concerns. Says Zitter, 'Digital Consumer Enablement would more accurately describe technology that allows consumers "to use content in ways they haven't before," such as enjoying TV shows and movies on portable video players like iPods. "I don't want to use the term DRM any longer," said Zitter, who added that content-protection technology could enable various new applications for cable operators.'"
KDE

Submission + - Interview with Sebastian Trüg,developer o

Submitted by
AdamWill
AdamWill writes: "k3b is one of the most important applications for many Linux users. The immensely popular and fully-featured CD / DVD writing application has been a mainstay of the standard Linux desktop since its early releases. The Mandriva Club asked Sebastian a few questions about k3b, Mandriva and Nepomuk."
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - Second Life meets Real Life Trouble

Submitted by
Zephida
Zephida writes: "The BBC is reporting thatSecond Life is being investigated by German police following allegations that some members are trading child abuse images in the online world http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6638331.stm FTA: The investigation follows a report by a German TV news programme which uncovered the trading group and members who pay for sex with virtual children. The police are now trying to identify the Second Life members involved. Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, said it would help identify users and pass on details to prosecutors"
Communications

Submission + - Phil Zimmerman, "Manifest Destiny" kills C

Submitted by
newsblaze
newsblaze writes: "Phil Zimmerman, PGP king, describes movement away from cell phones to computer directed phone calls as "Manifest Destiny". Cingular, Verizon, and T-mobile see the signal — the handwriting on the wall — and they don't know what to do about it. Like the behemoth Railroad companies who thought they were in the railroad business, the cellphone companies are heading for the dinosaur graveyard. And all they can come up with, to counter that, is strong legal language to curb the right to free speech. Cingular and Alter-Ego Fear Empty Trojan on the Verizon"

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