8245702
submission
Andorin writes:
An independently filmed adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, called The Hero Of Time, has been taken offline by Nintendo as of the end of December. The film's producers write: "We came to an agreement with Nintendo earlier this month to stop distributing the film... We understand Nintendo’s right to protect its characters and trademarks and understand how in order to keep their property unspoiled by fan’s interpretation of the franchise, Nintendo needs to protect itself — even from fan-works with good intentions." Filming for the feature-length, non-profit film began in August 2004 and the movie was completed in 2008. It premiered in various theatres worldwide, including in New York and Los Angeles, and then became available online in the middle of December, before it was targeted by Nintendo's legal team. As both an avid Zelda fan and an appreciator of independent works, I was extremely disappointed in Nintendo's strong-arming of a noncommercial adaptation to the Game of the Year for 1999.
7864168
submission
Andorin writes:
Section 92.a of New Zealand's Copyright Act, the name for a set of proposed "graduated response" laws, has been rewritten following widespread public opposition to the original. The result: "Guilt by accusation" is now out, and rightsholders will have a tougher time fining or disconnecting infringers, according to Ars Technica. "Under the new rules, rightsholders can now notify ISPs about alleged infringement, and ISPs will forward those notices to subscribers (called notice-and-notice). After three such letters, rightsholders can choose to go to a special Copyright Tribunal to seek a fine or go to court to seek a disconnection of up to six months." While the revised 92.a proposition is easier overall on Internet users, the fundamental premise of disconnection from the Internet for copyright infringement remains. The laws are slated for introduction in 2010.
7830640
submission
Andorin writes:
Ars Technica and The Register discuss the release of software called "Detect and Eliminate Computer Assisted Forensics" (DECAF), a tool developed to counter Microsoft's intelligence tool COFEE. DECAF will monitor Windows systems for signs of activity from COFEE, and according to Ars, it "deletes COFEE's temporary files, kills its processes, erases all COFEE logs, disables USB drives, and even contaminates or spoofs a variety of MAC addresses to muddy forensic tracks." At 181 KB, DECAF is lightweight and can be found on BitTorrent networks or on its own website.
7707854
submission
Andorin writes:
Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's director of community development, has published a brief blog post in which he recommends that Firefox users move from using Google as their main search engine to Bing, citing privacy issues. Disregarding the existence of alternative search engines such as Ask and Yahoo, Dotzler asserts that Bing's privacy policy is better than Google's. Dotzler explains the recommendation with a quote from Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time..." Ars Technica also covers the story.
6459467
submission
Andorin writes:
Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of well-known computer security company Kaspersky Labs, is calling for an end to the anonymity of the Internet, and for the creation of mandatory "Internet passports" for anyone who wishes to browse the Web. Says Kaspersky, "Everyone should and must have an identification, or internet passport... the internet was designed not for public use, but for American scientists and the US military. Then it was introduced to the public and it was wrong...to introduce it in the same way." He calls anonymity "the Internet's biggest security vulnerability" and thinks any country that doesn't follow this regime should be "cut off." The EFF objects, and it's likely that they won't be the only ones.
6442471
submission
Andorin writes:
Ars Technica writes about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, and reveals that while the public does not have access to the text of the agreement, a handful of lawyers representing Big Content and numerous companies and organizations do. "Turns out that the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will include a section on Internet "enforcement procedures" after all. And how many people have had input on these procedures? Forty-two. [...] Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) found out in September that the US Trade Representative's office had actually been secretly canvassing opinions on the Internet section of the agreement from 42 people, all of whom had signed a nondisclosure agreement before being shown the ACTA draft text."
