Submission + - Swiss DMCA quietly adopted (boingboing.net)
roady writes: We have seen a lot of talk about the Canadian DMCA. But few know about the Swiss version recently adopted by law makers, not even the Swiss people.
The government and media have been very quiet, probably to avoid a referendum. Indeed, Switzerland is a direct democracy and if 50'000 citizens sign a referendum, the whole country will have a chance to vote against the new copyright law. In this version of the DMCA, sharing a file on P2P networks will land you one year in jail, even though the law mandates a levy on blank media. The history of the law can be read here.
Submission + - FBI Spam Fighters - Operation Bot Roast Results (mailchannels.com)
daviddcawley writes: Earlier this morning the Federal Bureau of Investigation published an update to their crack down on BotNet's termed "Operation Bot Roast". The first phase commenced in June of this year and today announced phase two of the operation. The most interesting part of todays announcement was the results of the operation to date.
Submission + - Man sues 92 companies over chip patent (theinquirer.net)
snarfies writes: Ninety-two firms have received a writ from a man called Jerry Harthcock, who alleges they have all infringed a patent he filed.
Harthcock claims he registered patent number 6,347,368, "Microcomputing Device for Exchanging Data while Executing an Application," in 2002. All MIPS RISC cores include an element that infringes his patents, and the defendants all manufacture, use or sell products that so infringes this patent he claims.
lolwut
Submission + - Oregon AG Seeks to investigate RIAA tactics
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Turning the tables on the RIAA's attempt to subpoena information from the University of Oregon about the identities of the university students, the Attorney General has now filed additional papers requesting permission from the Court to conduct immediate discovery into the RIAA's 'data mining' techniques, such as the use of unlicensed investigators, the turning over of subpoenaed information to collection agencies, the obtaining of personal information from computers. The AG pointed out (pdf) that "Because Plaintiffs routinely obtain ex parte discovery in their John Doe infringement suits.....their factual assertions supporting their good cause argument are never challenged by an adverse party and their investigative methods remain free of scrutiny. They often settle their cases quickly before defendants obtain legal representation and begin to conduct discovery...... and have dropped cases, such as their case against Tanya Andersen, in which their methods and practices have been challenged through counterclaims...... While the University is not a party to the case, Plaintiffs' subpoena affects the university's rights and obligations. Plaintiffs may be spying on students who use the University's computer system and may be accessing much more than IP addresses." As one commentator succinctly put it, "They'll be going bananas in RIAA land" after reading this filing."
Submission + - Windows Vista keygen is a hoax
An anonymous reader writes: The author of the Windows Vista keygen that was reported yesterday on Slashdot has admitted that the program does not actually work. Here is the initial announcement of the original release of the keygen, and here is the followup post in which the same author acknowledges that the program is fake. Apparently, the keygen program does legitimately attack Windows Vista keys via brute force, but the chances of success are too low for this to be a practical method. Quote from the author: "everyone who said they got a key a probably lying or mistaken!"
Feed Social Networking’s Next Phase (nytimes.com)
More companies are helping large corporate clients create services resembling MySpace or YouTube to bring their customers together online.
Submission + - New Royalty Rates to Bankrupt Webcasters
scifience writes: "Earlier today the new royalty rates for US-based webcasters were announced by the Copyright Royalty Board. Under the new system, a station with just 1000 listeners will be charged over $150,000 a year in royalties. The worst part? The rates are effective retroactively to the beginning of 2006. The royalties were proposed and will be collected by RIAA-backed SoundExchange. Luckily, the rates are still subject to appeal. More information on the changes and what can be done to stop the RIAA from destroying internet radio here."
Feed Your Money: Using the Web to Get the Boss to Pay More (nytimes.com)
Most employees have little ammunition going into a meeting to talk about their pay, but a few Web sites are trying to level the playing field.
Submission + - Copyright Royalty Board Terminates Internet Radio
An anonymous reader writes: News of the new Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) rates retroactive to January 1st 2006 have leaked out today.
The new rates amount to well over the total revenues of all internet radio stations.
If the new rates are allowed to stand, every United States based webcaster will immediately owe more in back licensing fees to SoundExchange than the combined total of all revenues they have ever received.
More details are on Kurt Hanson's website here: http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/030207/inde x.shtml
Submission + - The RIAA is trying to kill internet radio
sgeirk writes: "The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB),announced the new Soundexchange royalty rates, which could spell the end for many independent webcasters, not to mention the simulcast signals for many commercial and non-commercial radio stations. In a nutshell, rates are going to double between now and 2010. Even webcasters who stream through services like Live365 may be in jeopardy, as such firms' business models never envisioned a royalty rate this high. For more information on this story go here."
