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Movies

MPAA Botched Study On College Downloading 215

Posted by kdawson from the math-is-hard dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Associated Press reports that in a 2005 study the MPAA conducted through an outfit called LEK, the movie trade association vastly overestimated how much college students engage in illegal movie downloading. Instead of '44 percent of the industry's domestic losses' owing to their piracy, it's 15 percent — and one expert is quoted as saying even that number is way too high. Dan 'Sammy' Glickman's gang admitted to the mishap, blaming 'human error,' and promised 'immediate action to both investigate the root cause of this problem as well as substantiate the accuracy of the latest report.'"
Patents

IBM Patents Pricing Motorists Off Highways 805

Posted by kdawson from the prior-art-stuck-at-the-tollbooth dept.
theodp writes "Self-professed patent reformer IBM snagged a patent Tuesday for the Variable Rate Toll System, which covers the rather anti-egalitarian scheme of pricing motorists off of the roads by raising tolls as congestion increases. 'Congestion pricing of traffic is emerging as a completely new services market for IBM,' boasted Jamie Houghton, IBM's Global Leader for Road Charging."

Collapsed UK Bank Attempts to Censor Wikileaks 230

Posted by CmdrTaco from the this'll-only-happen-more dept.
James Hardine writes "Wikileaks has released a couple of hilarious legal demands over a confidential briefing memo entitled Project Wing — Northern Rock Executive Summary. Northern Rock Bank (UK) collapsed spectacularly late last year on the back of the sub-prime lending crisis and was re-floated by the Bank of England at a cost of over £24bn. The memo was used by the Financial Times, the Telegraph and others. It attracted a number of censorship injunctions, as reported by the Guardian, which only Wikileaks continues to withstand. In their legal demand to Wikileaks, Northern Rock's well-known media lawyers, Schillings, invoke the DMCA & WIPO, claim it'll be 10 years in prison for Wikileaks operators for not following the UK injunction, but then, incredibly, refuse to hand over a copy of the order unless Wikileaks' London lawyers promise not to give it to Wikileaks. Finally they claim copyright and more — on their demands! The letters raise a serious issue about the climate of censorship in the UK, where one can apparently easily obtain a censorship order — a judge made law — that everyone is meant to obey, but no one is meant to know."
The Almighty Buck

Copyright Lobbies Threaten Federal College Funding 277

Posted by Zonk from the i-went-to-school-in-a-very-different-time dept.
plasmacutter writes "The EFF is raising the alarm regarding provisions injected into a bill to renew federal funding for universities. These new provisions call for institutions of higher learning to filter their internet connections and twist student's arms over 'approved' digital media distribution services. 'Under said provision: Each eligible institution participating in any program under this title shall to the extent practicable — (2) develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity. Similar provisions in last year's bill did not survive committee, it appears however that this bill is headed toward the full house for vote.' Responding to recriminations over this threat to university funding, an MPAA representative claims federal funds should be at risk when copyright infringement happens on campus networks." We've previously discussed this topic, as well as similar issues.
Government

EPA Asserts Executive Privilege In CA Emissions Case 390

Posted by Zonk from the interesting-use-of-term-executive dept.
Brad Eleven writes "The AP reports that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has invoked executive privilege to justify withholding information in its response to a lawsuit. The state of California is challenging the agency's decision to block their attempt to curb the emissions from new cars and trucks. In response, the EPA has delivered documents requested by the Freedom of Information Act for the discovery phase of the lawsuit — but the documents are heavily redacted. That is, the agency has revealed that it did spend many hours meeting to discuss the issue, but refuses to divulge the details or the outcomes of the meetings. Among the examples cited, 16 pages of a 43-page Powerpoint presentation are completely blank except for the page titles. An EPA spokesperson used language similar to other recent claims of executive privilege, citing 'the chilling effect that would occur if agency employees believed their frank and honest opinions and analysis expressed as part of assessing California's waiver request were to be disclosed in a broad setting.'"
Music

Class Action Suit Against RIAA Can Proceed 133

Posted by Zonk from the nothing-but-net dept.
fourohfour writes "Ars Technica is running a story on Tanya Andersen, who was awarded attorney fees in September of last year after the RIAA dropped their case against her. The RIAA subsequently appealed that award, but a US District Court judge yesterday not only upheld the award, but also upheld the dismissal of her counterclaims without prejudice. They may now be heard as part of a malicious prosecution lawsuit against the RIAA. Andersen is seeking class action status for her lawsuit, so that anyone else who has not engaged in illegal file sharing but has been threatened with legal action by the RIAA may join in. This is the case that alleges that the RIAA attempted to contact Andersen's then eight-year-old daughter under false pretenses without her permission."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsft Vista will cripple PCs

Submitted by downundarob
downundarob writes: From a story at el reg (home of BOFH) comes this article:

If you read just one thing over the holiday break, make sure it's Peter Gutmann's cost analysis of Windows Vista, here. It's an eye opening 20 minutes. Gutmann describes in great detail the various measures Microsoft has taken to lock down Windows on behalf of Hollywood. This isn't a comprehensive look at all of Vista's DRM — Gutmann barely touches on Microsoft's new activation framework; (this is beyond the scope of his enquiry.) In order to playback HD-DVD and BluRay content, Microsoft agreed to degrade video and audio functionality in Windows. Gutmann points out that when "premium" content is being played, component video — YPbPr — and S/PDIF interfaces are disabled. Third party hardware that fails to obey these orders may have it's "certified" status revoked by Microsoft — leaving the user with minimal (eg VGA) functionality. With the introduction of tilt bits, all of the designed-in resilience is gone. Every little (normally unnoticeable) glitch is suddenly surfaced because it could be a sign of a hack attack. The effect that this will have on system reliability should require no further explanation. In short, the Vista specifications explicitly cripple the PC.
The Internet

Submission + - AT&T Offering Merger Concessions

Submitted by TheFarmerInTheDell
TheFarmerInTheDell writes: The Associated Press is reporting that AT&T is offering concessions to make their merger with SBC happen as fast as possible. From the Article : "AT&T filed a letter of commitment with the [Federal Communications Commission] Thursday night that adds a number of new conditions to the deal, including a promise to observe "network neutrality" principles, an offer of affordable stand-alone digital subscriber line service and divestment of some wireless spectrum." It is anyone's guess what "affordable" stand-alone DSL means, but it looks like a winning situation for consumers!
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Report: False Docs on Steve Jobs' Options

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "Apple CEO Steve Jobs was given 7.5M options in 2001 without board approval and documentation was falsified to indicate a full board meeting had taken place as required, according to a Financial Times report. Apple did not respond to a request for comment, but the proxy statement Apple filed with the SEC in March 2002 states: 'Since substantially all of Mr. Jobs' existing options are significantly underwater, in October 2001 the Compensation Committee recommended and the Board approved granting Mr. Jobs options to purchase 7,500,000 shares under the 1998 Plan in order to provide him with an incentive to continue to serve as the Company's CEO and maximize shareholder value.'"
Power

Submission + - Tesla's plan in action

Submitted by
parcanman
parcanman writes: "In North Attleboro Massachusetts, this house was built about 25 feet from 345,000-volt power lines. The house isn't connected to power service, but touching any metal object will still give you a shock. The guy even hooked a multimeter up to his metal sink and got 58 volts."
Operating Systems

Submission + - Converting to Linux in 2007: A Success Story

Submitted by
Matt Simmons
Matt Simmons writes: "Converting to Linux from any platform used to be a grueling task, but I wanted to share a success story with you. A visitor to our LUG's forum was fed up with his Windows XP install, and wanted to try Linux again. Five years earlier he'd tried and found the experience excruciating. This time he decided to seek out help. We suggested Ubuntu, and you have got to see how well it worked out."
Microsoft

Submission + - Now Microsoft Wants Its Laptop Back

Submitted by
Rockgod
Rockgod writes: "From the article:
Microsoft and AMD sent out a pile of very expensive (yet trashy looking) laptops to a number of bloggers over the past week. We were told we could keep them — now after a day of minor outrage by some people they are emailing us back with the following request that we not keep them after all! And to think, I almost smashed mine in the middle of the street 10 minutes into trying to use it! I did figure out some of the basics after awhile, but it's still nothing life changing.
"
United States

Submission + - Bush admits global warming endangering polar bear

Submitted by
oddmuse
oddmuse writes: "Bush embraces the endangered polar bear — and accepts the dangers of global warming http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2 108212.ece "In a landmark decision, the Bush administration has concluded that global warming is endangering the existence of the polar bear — an admission that could force the US government to act to curb the emission of greenhouse gases." Al Gore's inconvenient truth is slipping past the lips of his 2000 opponent in 2006. Maybe it just takes Bush a lot longer to realise the truth of a matter than the rest of society."
It's funny. Laugh.

Journal Journal: Consensus: Existence Confirmed 1

Journal by GMontag

A product of my extensive, soon to be self-published, research concludes that the consensus among Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) researchers have determined that extraterrestrials exist among us.

More than a decade of research was conducted by listening to Coast to Coast on late-night AM radio, as well as other related forums.
Education

Submission + - 100 facts we didn't know last year

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The BBC has a list of 100 things we didn't know last year. Among the many highlights:
27. Just one cow gives off enough harmful methane gas in a single day to fill around 400 litre bottles.
14. Online shoppers will only wait an average of four seconds for an internet page to load before giving up.
20. Sex workers in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine.
23. More than one in eight people in the United States show signs of addiction to the internet, says a study.

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