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Hardware

Submission + - Could Amazon Be Planning An iPod Killer? (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Stoobalou
Stoobalou writes: Amazon.com has registered the domain name AmazonMusicPlayer.com, suggesting to some that the company may be planning to branch out into the portable media player market currently dominated by Apple.

Speculation about Amazon launching a music player goes back over four years, when a Wall Street Journal article incorrectly reported that the company was planning to rival the iPod.
Open Source

Submission + - Saga of Ryzom goes AGPL

Submitted by SBFCOblivion
SBFCOblivion writes: Saga of Ryzom announced the full release of their source code and artwork today. The world data is not being released so you will first have to develop your own world if you wish to run a server. Unfortunately the world creation process relies on proprietary 3-D modeling software; but there is work already underway to enable the use of free software alternatives such as Blender. They're also partnering with the FSF who will be hosting the game's artistic assets. Brett Smith over at the FSF has a writeup with some additional details.
Open Source

Submission + - Ryzom MMO becomes Free Software (ryzom.com)

Submitted by traldar
traldar writes: Ryzom has just been released as Free Software by Winch Gate. In a recognition to the efforts of people that proposed donations to open Ryzom, back in 2006. The whole source code of Ryzom (client, server and tools) is now under the GNU AGPLv3 Open Source license.But they've gone further! They have made available all the Ryzom art (textures, 3D objects, animations, particle effects) under the Creative Common Attribution-Share Alike license.
Open Source

Submission + - MMORPG 'Ryzom' releases code and art assets (fsf.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ryzom is a 3D science-fantasy massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. On May 6th of 2010, its developer and publisher Winch Gate Property Limited announced that they are working with the Free Software Foundation to release the game's client and server source code, along with most of the art assets, under the AGPLv3 and Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 respectively. Ryzom itself will remain an active commercial product.

What is not being released:
- Sound and music, because Winch Gate does not currently have the legal rights to release them. They are however "trying to find an arrangement that will see these files released under a free license as well."
- Level design files, a.k.a. the world of Ryzom. Thus "the integrity of the game and story line" will be undisturbed.

Everything else is available now at the following websites:
http://dev.ryzom.com/
http://media.ryzom.com/

Submission + - MMORPG Ryzom Released Under the Terms of the AGPL

Submitted by scottmaccal
scottmaccal writes: Winch Gate Properties Ltd, has announced that it will be releasing the MMORPG Ryzom under the terms of the Free Software Foundation's GNU Affero General Public License.

I'm excited by the prospects of more free and open source software MMORPG creations as a result of this source code release.
First Person Shooters (Games)

Infinity Ward Fights Against Modern Warfare 2 Cheaters 203

Posted by Soulskill from the be-careful-they-cheat dept.
Faithbleed writes "IW's Robert Bowling reports on his twitter account that Infinity Ward is giving 2,500 Modern Warfare 2 cheaters the boot. The news comes as the war between IW and MW2's fans rages over the decision to go with IWnet hosting instead of dedicated servers. Unhappy players were quick to come up with hacks that would allow their own servers and various other changes." Despite the dedicated-server complaints, Modern Warfare 2 has sold ridiculously well.
Science

The Incredible Shrinking Genome 113

Posted by Soulskill from the hey-it's-cold-alright dept.
Shipud writes "Mammalian genomes have been shrinking for about 65 million years, roughly since the dinosaur extinction. Why? And why were ancient mammalian genomes three times larger than they are today? A new article in Genome Biology and Evolution tries to explain this bizarre finding, and why the genomes of mammals (but not of other living groups) are still shrinking. 'Once [the dinosaurs] were gone, mammals started to radiate, fill those niches, and a whole new level of competition arose. The selective advantage of not having a genome encumbered by potentially damaging mobile DNA elements has probably become critical at this "be ye fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein" stage. In effect, the genomes of mammals has been shrinking by removing mobile DNA elements, just after the KT boundary. And according to the model presented in this study, this process is still ongoing: mammalian genomes are not at an equilibrium size. Unlike flies, mammals are still cleaning up.'"

Comment Re:In China, "copyright" means right to copy. (Score 1) 116

by byolinux (#28373699) Attached to: China's Green Dam, No Longer Compulsory, May Have Lifted Code

Maybe Green Dam contains copied without authorization -- I don't know.

But referring to copied code as "piracy" or "stolen" is propaganda, just as bad as the Chinese government's propaganda. The term "intellectual property" makes the article a vague and confused as the term itself -- http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html.

Whenever someone uses that term, you can't tell what in the world he might be talking about (unless you are an expert and can figure it out from other knowledge).
Image

Spider Bite Allows Man To Walk Again 221

Posted by samzenpus from the web-slinger dept.
Manastorm writes "A man who was wheelchair bound due to a motorcycle accident twenty years ago gained the ability to walk again after being bitten by a recluse spider. 'I can't wait to start dancing,' he said as he looks forward to a full recovery after experiencing what some call a 'true miracle.'" I think we all know how this story is going to end. I hope The Sinister Six have been practicing.
GNU is Not Unix

A Software License That's Libre But Not Gratis? 246

Posted by kdawson from the give-the-customer-what-he-wants dept.
duncan bayne writes "My company is developing some software using Ruby. It's proprietary software — decidedly not free-as-in-beer — but I don't want to tie my customers down with the usual prohibitions on reverse engineering, modification, etc. After all, they're licensing the product from us, so I think they should be able to use it as they see fit. Does anyone know of an existing license that could be used in this case? Something that gives the customer the freedom to modify the product as they want, but prohibits them from creating derivative works, or redistributing it in any fashion?"

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