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Comment Re:what is so hard about it? (Score 3, Informative) 131

by David McBride (#25588337) Attached to: BBC Brings DRM-Free Content To Linux Users

The BBC is using open formats, protocols and systems to provide this service.

See:

http://uriplay.org/
http://open.bbc.co.uk/rad/uriplay/availablecontent
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=555823

This is a source plugin for content made available by the BBC, kindly sponsored
by the BBC and Canonical. It's still quite basic, but functional.

(Note: this has nothing to do with the iPlayer, it mostly just makes content
available in totem which is already available in some form or other on the BBC
website now, at least for the time being; server-side things are also still
work-in-progress, so expect the occasional hiccups and problems with the
content in the feed.)

The totem plugin's implemented in open-source python. Go play!
The Media

BBC Brings DRM-Free Content To Linux Users 131

Posted by timothy from the gnu-linux dept.
eldavojohn writes "The BBC is planning to release some of its programmes to users of GNU & Linux. You won't see Doctor Who or Dragons' Den on there anytime soon, but they have been working with Canonical & Collabora on getting this out there for Totem users. The developer blog mentions that the sheer number of options in the open source world actually makes this difficult to accomplish."
Government

H.R. 4279 Would Establish Federal IP Cops 686

Posted by kdawson from the lawn-forcement dept.
MrSnivvel writes "H.R. 4279, Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008, is gaining momentum in Congress. It passed the House a few days back. It would allow the Feds to seize hardware that has even one file coming from 'dubious origins,' e.g. downloaded from P2P. If passed into law, the bill would establish an Intellectual Property Enforcement Division within the office of the Deputy Attorney General. Rep. John Conyers says the goal is to 'prioritize intellectual property protection to the highest level of our government.'"
The Courts

Submission + - Jack Thompson threatens Bill Gates and MS

Submitted by
smitty_srs
smitty_srs writes: "Looks like old Jackie hasn't learned his lesson yet. Now he's threatening Bill Gates over Halo 3. [gamealmimghty.com]
From the letter: 'Here's the deal, Mr. Gates: Either Microsoft undertakes dramatic, real steps, through its marketing, wholesale, and retail operations to assure that Halo 3 is not sold, via the Internet and in stores, directly to anyone under 17, or I shall proceed to make sure that Microsoft is held to that standard by appropriate legal means. I have done that before successfully as to Best Buy, and I shall do so again as to Microsoft and all retailers of Halo 3.'
So, the question is: Why go after Microsoft and not retailers as he's done 'successfully' before?"
The Courts

Submission + - Copyright Misuse Claim Against RIAA Upheld

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA's attempt to dismiss a "copyright misuse" counterclaim against it has been rejected by Judge Charles L. Brieant, in a White Plains, New York, case, Lava v. Amurao. The counterclaim (pdf) calls for the record labels to forfeit their copyrights on the ground that they "are competitors in the business of recorded music.....[and] are a cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and public policy, by litigating and settling all cases similar to this one together, and by entering into an unlawful agreement among themselves to prosecute and to dispose of all cases in an identical manner and through common lawyers..... Such actions represent an attempt....to secure for themselves rights far exceeding those provided by copyright laws......Such acts constitute misuse of copyrights, and lead to a forfeiture of the exclusive rights.....". The judge also upheld (pdf) a counterclaim for declaratory judgment of non-infringement, and granted the motion for leave to file an amicus curiae brief filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation."
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - DEFCON for Linux Announced

Submitted by dylan_-
dylan_- writes: UK indie game developer, Introversion, best known for the weirdly retro Darwinia have released the much-awaited Linux version of their latest hit title DEFCON. If you liked the film "Wargames" then maybe this is for you.

As the website says:
"It's Global Thermonuclear War, and nobody wins. But maybe — just maybe — you can lose the least."
AMD

AMD's New DRM 382

Posted by kdawson from the for-your-eyes-only dept.
DefectiveByDesign writes "Remember how AMD said they'd make use of ATI's GPU technology to make better technology? Well, not all change is progress. InfoWorld's Tom Yager reports that AMD plans to block access to the framebuffer in hardware to help enforce DRM schemes, such as allowing more restricted playback of Sony Blu-Ray disks. They can pry my Print Screen key from my cold, dead fingers."
Hardware Hacking

LinuxBIOS Gets GUI 171

Posted by CmdrTaco from the well-isn't-that-pretty dept.
LWATCDR writes "Has a great write up on combining LinuxBios a Linux kernel, busybox, X, a window manager, and rxvt into a two meg flash chip. So what does get you? A six second boot time for one. All sorts of uses come to mind. Terminals to use with the Linux Terminal server. A very fast booting embedded system like a Car computer. With every one pushing for multi-core cpus, mega gigabyte drives and many gigabytes of ram it is interesting to see how small you can go."
The Internet

Submission + - U.S. Lobby Groups Criticize the World on Copyright

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The International Intellectual Property Alliance — a group that brings together several U.S. lobby groups including the MPAA, RIAA, BSA, the ESA, and publisher groups, has just released its Section 301 recommendations, criticizing 60 countries for their copyright laws. While the report leads to dire media coverage, Michael Geist has just debunked the lobby campaign demonstrating how "the U.S. approach is quite clearly one of 'do what I say, not what I do' (fair use is good for the U.S., but no one else), criticizing country after country for not enacting a DMCA, and blasting national attempts to improve education or culture though exceptions or funding programs."
Programming

Submission + - P = NP Finally Proved?

Submitted by Yosi
Yosi writes: Ashay Dharwadker claims to have proved that P = NP. In a paper he publishes on his website he claims to have found a polynomial algorithm for finding maximal independent sets in a graph and provides actual source code implementation of the proposed algorithm. If this is indeed true, I guess a lot of professors will start looking for a new job.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft support network down after vista upgrade

Submitted by
Oggie
Oggie writes: "I don't have a lot of detail since it wasn't me that made the call, but here's what I know. A co-worker called Microsoft Support for a normal support issue. He was told to call back in 24 hrs because they tried to upgrade to Vista and it crashed their network.... I wonder if we can get a discount for the poor support..."

Feed Microsoft Teams With ID System (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
The software giant will partner with a Web 2.0 effort to drastically change how users log into software services. It could spell the end of password woes. In 27B Stroke 6.


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