aliensexfiend - Slashdot User

Submission + - Is EMI about to leave the RIAA?

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Wednesday November 28, 2007 @11:49PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "There is speculation afoot that the "Big 4" record companies may be about to become the 'Big 3'. Jon Newton at p2pnet queries whether a Reuters report that EMI, which has recently been taken over by a private equity group, is seeking to cut its funding of the recording industry "trade associations", signals that EMI will be "the first to opt out of subsidising Big 4 organised music hit squads such as the RIAA and IFPI"."

Submission + - EMI may cut funding to IFPI, RIAA (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by Teen Bainwolf on Wednesday November 28, 2007 @06:25PM

Teen Bainwolf writes: Big Four record label EMI is reportedly considering a big cut in its funding for the IFPI and RIAA. Each of the labels reportedly contributed over $130 million per year to fund industry trade groups, and EMI apparently believes that money could be better spent elsewhere. 'One of the chief activities of the RIAA is coordinating the Big Four labels' legal campaign, and those thousands of lawsuits have done nothing but generate ill will from record fans, while costing the labels millions of dollars and doing little (if anything) to actually reduce the amount of file-sharing going on. In fact, the RIAA freely admits that the legal campaign is a real money pit, and EMI's new ownership may be very leery of continuing to pour money down that particular rat hole.

Submission + - Alternatives to Google?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05, 2007 @07:24AM

An anonymous reader writes: It seems that more and more, we're hearing stories about Google that put its "don't be evil" philosophy into question. The problem, however, is that Google is very good at the services it offers. What other alternatives do the slashdot crowd use? Is there another search engine that comes even close to Google for relevancy, that at the same time is no more doubtable in terms of business ethics? What about a free email provider that offers comparible storage and reliability, not to mention free POP access?
I'm perfectly willing to explore alternatives, but I've been using Google for such a long time now that I barely know where to start looking. I can't imagine Yahoo! is much a better company (maybe I'm wrong?), and I don't want to go with Microsoft's offerings. Surely there have to be other worthwhile choices?

Submission + - Armadillo Aerospace Demonstrates LLC Stage 1 (armadilloaerospace.com)

Submitted by

QuantumG

on Monday June 11, 2007 @11:33AM

QuantumG writes: "John Carmack (of Doom fame) and his rocket company Armadillo Aerospace have demonstrated their entry into the X-Prize/NASA Lunar Lander Challenge, first stage, at the Oklahoma Spaceport. Representatives from AST and the X-Prize Cup were present. A 3 minute, 41 second video of the feat has been posted by Carmack to the company's web site in a recent update, where he complains that were the competition not tied to a promotional event later this year, his company could have already claimed the $500,000 prize. The challenge venue will be hosted at this year's X-Prize Cup on October 26-28, 2007, at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico."

Submission + - Linus says new GPLv3 draft not a total disaster

Submitted by lisah on Monday June 11, 2007 @11:13AM

lisah writes: Though Linus Torvalds isn't exactly tripping over himself to endorse the GPLv3 draft, he continues to warm up to it little by little and says the newest version is 'a hell of a lot better than the disaster that were the earlier drafts.'

Submission + - RIAA uses local cops in Oregon fleamarket raid

Submitted by

newtley

on Monday June 11, 2007 @10:26AM

newtley writes: "Fake cops employed by the RIAA started acting like real police officers quite a while ago, one of the earliest examples coming in Los Angeles in 2004. From a distance, the bust, "looked like classic LAPD, DEA or FBI work, right down to the black 'raid' vests the unit members wore," said the LA Weekly. That their yellow stenciled lettering read 'RIAA' instead of something from an official law-enforcement agency, "was lost on 55-year-old parking-lot attendant Ceasar Borrayo." But it's also SOP for the RIAA to tout genuine officers paid for entirely from citizen taxes as copyright cops. Police were used in an RIAA-inspired raid at two flea markets in Beaverton, Oregon. "Sgt. Paul Wandell, Beaverton police spokesman, said officers seized more than 50,000 items worth about $758,000," says The Oregonian. But this is merely the tiny tip of an iceberg of absolutely staggering dimensions, an example of the extent coming in a GrayZone report slugged RIAA Anti-Piracy Seizure Information."

Submission + - Woz on the Apple II at 30

Submitted by turnitover on Tuesday June 05, 2007 @03:50PM

turnitover writes: eWEEK has an interview with "the other Steve" — that is, Woz — who holds forth on what his greatest desire for the Apple II was, whether it was fulfilled, and where he sees great ideas coming from today. Hint: it's not from MBAs. This is in the context of the 30th anniversary of the first Apple II shipping (even though it was first unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in April 1977). There's also an overview of the history of the Apple II to put it all in context. Nice tidbit: how important the floppy drive was to sales. Happy birthday, Apple II!

Submission + - First peek at Netscape Navigator 9

Submitted by

lisah

on Tuesday June 05, 2007 @03:22PM

lisah writes: "Netscape released a beta version of Navigator 9 today that includes several new components while giving some old ones the boot. This release will no longer ship with mail or composer but does have URL correction, a pre-populated RSS feed menu, and a neat clipboard in the browser's sidebar that will hold links to websites you want to visit again but not necessarily bookmark."

Submission + - Casino Bans MS Word Author For Video Poker Win (turn.pro)

Submitted by

mbstone

on Tuesday June 05, 2007 @03:15PM

mbstone writes: "Richard Brodie, the original author of MS Word and a poker pro, has been banned from Caesars Palace and all other casinos owned by Harrah's Entertainment Corp. — including a ban on his participating in the 2007 World Series of Poker — because, get this, he got lucky and won three royal flushes on video poker for $240,000 each. Not for cheating, or even for card counting, just for being lucky. Harrah's management has obviously never heard of the law of averages!"

Submission + - Is Star Wars a "waste of mythology"?

Submitted by

Marc

on Tuesday June 05, 2007 @02:51PM

Marc writes: "What use have Star Wars and other "modern mythologies" been if by and large we haven't applied what we've learned from them to the real world? That's the question that blogger Christopher Knight is asking in Wasted Mythology: The peril of ignoring our modern fables". In his essay Knight says that instead of arguing about Han shooting first we should be impassioned against things like a real-life politician moving to seize power. He further writes that in spite of the Matrix movies most Americans are still "enslaved" to the media and that after almost sixty years of warning America is already much like Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. It's Knight's contention that all of these stories are worthless if we don't strive for the values that they preach."

Submission + - Looking for good DIY laptop resources

Submitted by foeclan on Tuesday June 05, 2007 @02:50PM

foeclan writes: After frequent and nightmarish experiences with Alienware's tech support, I've decided that no support is better than bad support. To that end, I'm interested in building my own laptop. I do this with desktop systems all the time, but laptop components are tougher to track down. What resources are out there for building your own laptop from parts?

Submission + - With RHEL 5, Red Hat goes to bat for SELinux (techtarget.com)

Submitted by

E. Stride

on Tuesday June 05, 2007 @02:36PM

E. Stride writes: "Leaving SELinux on everywhere, all the time, is a tough pill to swallow for many IT managers. Prepare for some tough love however, as Red Hat's Dan Walsh says it's the only way to ensure 100% protection in the data center."

Submission + - "First" OpenOffice virus emerges

Submitted by

NZheretic

on Tuesday May 22, 2007 @11:19AM

NZheretic writes: "According to APCmag the "First" cross platform OpenOffice.org virus "SB/Badbunny-A" has been emailed directly to Sophos from the virus developers. It has not yet been seen in the wild.

Despite Sun's OpenOffice.org developer Malte Timmermann's claims to the contrary this kind of embedded scripting attack represents a real threat to OpenOffice.org users.

Back in June 2000 when Sun first announced the open sourcing of OpenOffice.org the twelfth email to the open discussion list put forward a two part solution for to provide OpenOffice users with Safe(r) Scripting using restricted mode execution by default and access by signed digital certificates. In October 2000 the issue of treating security as an "add-on" feature rather than a "system property" was again raised. Is it time to now introduce such measures to the OpenOffice.org Core to greatly reduce any future risk from scripted infections?"

Submission + - Visual Effects Society Releases Top 50 List

Submitted by theguru on Tuesday May 22, 2007 @11:17AM

theguru writes: The Visual Effects Society has released it's list of the 50 most influential visual effects films of all time. Star Wars tops the list along with other effects blockbusters from the recent past, but there are some surprising classics on there that some readers may have overlooked. PDF link here. Let the debates about what they left off begin...

Submission + - RIAA, Supremes, want free radio play banned

Submitted by goombah99 on Tuesday May 22, 2007 @11:13AM

goombah99 writes: The LA times reports the RIAA and several artists' groups are getting ready to push Congress to repeal the exemption on royalties for radio play of recorded music. No this is not a headline from the Onion. And No that's not the supreme court but the singing group. The Times points out that "performance royalties are collected from traditional radio stations in nearly all major industrialized countries, but U.S. musicians and record companies can't because there is no similar royalty on the books here." Of course the original exemption was given because radio play is what drives records sales. Indeed it was those "top-40" radio stations that made the Supremes' music famous, and thus valuable, to begin with. But of course a similar statement might be made about internet radio which now must pay royalties. My suggestion is that the radio stations offer to pay the royalties in kind with free air play of music.

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