FerociousFerret - Slashdot User

Submission + - Teens Kill Child While Acting Out Mortal Kombat (wired.com)

Submitted by on Thursday December 20, 2007 @01:58PM

An anonymous reader writes: A teenage girl and her boyfriend have been charged with beating the girl's 7-year-old sister to death while imitating moves from Mortal Kombat.

Heather Trujillo, 16, and her boyfriend Lamar Roberts, 17, were babysitting young Zoe and her 3-year-old twin sisters. According to Trujillo, the two teens began practicing Mortal Kombat moves on Zoe, who later died from blunt force trauma to her brain and central nervous system.

According to the police, Trujillo admitted that she punched Zoe "in the stomach, karate chopped her lower arms, punched and pinched the victim's thighs, kicked her in the shins, slapped her stomach and buttocks and poked at the victim's chest." Roberts told police that Zoe asked the pair to stop hurting her, but that he didn't because he was drunk.

Trujillo and Roberts are being held on $100,000 bail each, and are being charged as adults.

Submission + - Alienware M9700, Vista Lemon in a box?

Submitted by

Randy Karshner

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @02:33PM

Randy Karshner writes: "On may 5th I purchased an Alienware M9700 Laptop with Vista Ultimate. The Salesman talked me into purchasing Vista and upgrading to Ultimate. The only warning he had given me was that Dual SLI which I had purchased was not yet supported utnder Vista. I got my laptop on the 22nd, and it's turned out to be a complete disappointment. I get the Blue Screen of Death with Stop Errors (0x00000124) at least 3/4 times I boot the laptop. According to numerous calls to tech support this is due to an unstable sound driver. They do not have a stable driver ready and no time frame on it. Should companies like this be allowed to sell machines which will not even run correctly without informing the consumer first? I plan on returning this $3600 paperweight first thing on Monday along with a lengthy letter containing my personal opinion of the company which I now rate poorly. Its been said that there are no good gaming laptops but Im still in search of one. Im hoping maybe the Slashdot readers can help me pick a good laptop, and to warn others about Alienware and the shady sales practices."

Submission + - RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft & Co Form Copyright Alli

Submitted by

The Illegal Subset of the Integers

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @02:00PM

The Illegal Subset of the Integers writes: "Not satisfied with the current strength of copyright law, in which children and grandmothers who have never used computers can be forced to face expensive lawsuits to prove their innocence, the RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, Disney and others have banded together to form the Copyright Alliance. This new lobbying group's members have previously argued for strengthening legal protections for DRM, lowering the standards of proof required for successful infringement claims, and increasing penalties for copyright infringement, while wishing to limit defenses against infringement like copyright misuse and fair use. Reactions fall along predictable lines with Rep. Berman (D-CA), who cites Jack Valenti as his inspiration, praising the new group's creation as "a tremendous idea" while the EFF, CEA & co. are launching the Digital Freedom Campaign to support reforms like Rep. Boucher's (D-VA) Fair Use Act, that would repeal or weaken parts of the DMCA."

Submission + - Apple want to ban iGasms

Submitted by cyberianpan on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @01:32PM

cyberianpan writes: The UK News of the World reports that UK high street adult retailer Ann Summers has come up with a new product, the iGasm- it connects to any music player & reproduces the music as a sensual vibratory experience to bring a female to orgasm. Apple are threatening legal action claiming the ad poster image rips off iPod advertising. Have Apple finally succeeded in patenting the letter i ?

Submission + - Copyright Misuse Claim Against RIAA Upheld

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @11:24AM

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."

Submission + - Battle Over RIAA Expert Reliability Continues

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Thursday May 17, 2007 @04:24PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The battle over the "reliability" of the RIAA's expert witness, Dr. Doug Jacobson of Iowa State, continues, with the RIAA defending its expert by arguing that "everyone in his field proceeds the same way he did", to which the defendant responded by reminding the judges of the witness's own testimony that his "method" was invented by himself a year and a half ago, and has never been shared with, much less accepted by, anyone else in the "scientific community".... a prerequisite for admissibility of expert testimony in federal court under the Daubert case."

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