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NASA

Submission + - One ISP says RIAA must pay for piracy protection

t2000kw writes: We recently heard the announcement by the RIAA that it would stop pursuing individuals through the court system and it would instead forge "partnerships with Internet service providers and asking them to crack down on suspected file sharers."

One ISP in Louisiana, owned by Jerry Scroggin, doesn't feel it's part of his job to be their policeman. He said, "if RIAA representatives ask the help of his ISP, they had better bring their checkbook--and leave the legal threats at home."

Full article here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10127841-93.html

Comment Law may not have "teeth" (Score 1) 331

If the school administrators have a backbone and are willing to stand up to the RIAA, there may be some weak spots in this law. (I haven't read the whole law, just the excerpt here.) Define "reasonably" in the sentence "[R]easonably attempt to prevent the infringement of copyrighted works over the institution's computer and network resources" and it seems to be rather vague. It seems that there are no standards are set forth as to what is reasonble. The other weak point is here: "if such institution receives fifty (50) or more legally valid notices of infringement as prescribed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 within the preceding year" What constitutes "legally valid" notices of copyright infringement? Some courts are now alleging that the RIAA can't file suit against students unless they first have proof (not just allegations) that the individual(s) did indeed infringe on copyright(s). That would mean that they don't have a "legally valid" complaint, would it not? I'm not a lawyer, but it seems that if the law is rather vague about this, it will be tested very soon in the courts.
Printer

Submission + - Slow printing on GNU-Linux? A possible workaround

SixteenTimesFive writes: This kludge I devised is working on my Debian 4.0 box with a HP Deskjet D1460
using lprNG; otherwise you should check if it is applicable to your own setup. As always, back up your system
first. Better yet, test with a sacrificial system and printer, just in case something REALLY goes awry — this is a kludge, after all...

Alright, here it is — change the ":lp=" entry in /etc/printcap from:

" :lp=XXXXXXXX: \ "

to:

" :lp=| /bin/cat > XXXXXXXX: \ "

exactly as shown, spaces and all; the XXXXXXXX being the port the printer is attached to. Restart lprNG and the kludge is complete. Send a file to your printer and see if it's any faster.

PS: I notice that the the /. thread "Slow printing on Linux?" have been inactive since 2004 — there may actually be a proper solution out there, and I've just been using the wrong search terms...
The Military

Submission + - Bill introduced to reinstate the draft (govtrack.us) 2

X0563511 writes:
The Universal National Service Act of 2007 (H.R.393) was introduced to the United States House of Representatives on January 10, 2007 by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.). It proposed the requirement that all residents in the United States aged between 18 and 42 carry out national service, and be available for conscription during wartime. It would allow no deferments after age 20.
The text of the bill can be found at govtrack.

Unix

Submission + - Ubuntu USB Bug on Fast Track to Getting Fixed???

T2000KW writes: You may have read or heard about the problem some Linux kernels had with with USB devices not working. Some ditros worked hard at fixing the problem as soon as they realized that a feature for laptops enabled in the kernel caused problems on the USB port for some devices.

The Ubuntu bug reporting forum (https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/85488) had lots of chatter on this since the release of "Feisty Fawn" back in April of this year. There was mention of the Ubuntu Manifesto, which claims to make software usable by everyone, despite any handicaps they have, etc. Not having even basic support for many USB scanners certainly disables a critical feature of the OS for many people.

In that forum I mentioned the possibility of someone else writing articles for Slashdot and other tech news web sites to let the public know about this and Mr. Shuttleworth suddenly showed up in that forum. It was very soon after that some people in Ubuntu development started paying attention to the problem, gathering specifics on which USB scanners and other devices were not working, and it appears that a fix is on the way for inclusion in the next release, "Gutsy Gibbons" (who makes these names up, anyway?) :-)

It would be a shame for such a popular distribution of Linux to become unpopular due to something like this, and I personally hope that this bug gets fixed soon, perhaps even in an update for the current version of Feisty. It is rumored in the Ubuntu community that if Mark Shuttleworth gets involved, it's a simple matter of him saying "make it so" and it gets done. It appears that the developers now have that directive to "make it so" and get the bug fixed. Read the but reporting forum for a long thread on this topic and links to related bugs. I was impressed that Mark personally got involved in this mostly overlooked problem.

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