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Novus Ordo Seclorum writes
"According to CNet, Linus Torvalds is 'pretty pleased' with the current GPL v3 draft. He said, 'Unlike the earlier drafts, it at least seems to not sully the good name of the GPL any more.' After his earlier criticism, some had questioned whether such controversies would lead to rifts in the community, especially if the kernel ended up under a different license than the GNU tools. But with the latest revisions, Linus will entertain moving the kernel over to the GPL v3."
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Anklehealer writes:
Companies are flocking to market themselves in virtual worlds, game-like and usually three-dimensional online universes, but the long-term shape of this fledgling industry is far from clear.
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hamtaro writes:
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, exchanged some words with an EFF lawyer at this year's EFF "Pioneer Awards" this week. What about? YouTube. Apparently Cuban feels that "everyone knows" that YouTube is host to tons of infringing content and therefore it should be exempt from DMCA protections. You read that right: the EFF, defending the DMCA against Mark Cuban.
Cuban is an interesting spokesman for copyright concerns since he has a broad perspective; as the owner of HDNet, he worries about having his content given away for free without his consent, but he's also someone who has funded EFF campaigns in the past, especially when the group defended Grokster's claim to legality.
...
One of the strangest aspects of the debate was seeing an EFF lawyer defend the DMCA, which usually comes in for a drubbing due to its anticircumvention provision. But von Lohmann told Ars Technica after the debate that the safe harbor section has actually allowed plenty of businesses to flourish that might otherwise have been mired in legal problems, and that it has generally worked well.
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WhoAmI writes:
European countries and Singapore have surpassed the United States in their ability to exploit information and communication technology, according to a new survey.
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chia_monkey writes:
Here's an interesting article on "Does DRM Enable Online Music Innovation?" from Tech Law Forum that looks "at the range of legitimate online music distributors to see just how much the presence or lack of DRM affected business models." It's a rather interesting read as the author breaks down seven online music stores (iTunes, Napster, Yahoo! Music, Zune, eMusic, Amie Street, and Magnatune...four of which use DRM and three that don't). The article mainly focuses on the ownership and "renting" of the music (which can be seen with the "buy the condo downtown" and "rent a mansion in the slums" analogies) and how it applies to innovation and perceived business models.
The numbers don't lie...price-per-download is the clean winner while DRM-based models also take the lead. Will the market shift toward subscription based models in the future or DRM go the way of the dodo bird (as Steve Jobs has already proclaimed his preference for)?
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jcatcw writes:
Jaikumar Vijayan says that TJX is finally offering more details about the extent of the compromise, which at 45.6M cards,is the biggest ever. He's has been following the story for Computerworld since it started. The systems that were broken into processed payment card, check and returns for customers of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and A.J Wright stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and customers of Winners and HomeSense stores in Canada and T.K. Maxx in the U.K. Customer names and addresses were not included in the stolen data. So far the company has so far spent about $5 million in connection with the breach, and several lawsuits that have been filed against it. It was sued recently by the Arkansas Carpenters Pension Fund, one of its shareholders, for failure to divulge more details about the breach.
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eldavojohn writes
"124 bands — including R.E.M., Sarah McLachlan, and Pearl Jam — and 24 music labels are sending a clear message to keep Net traffic neutral. The Rock the Net campaign wants all traffic to be equal instead of allowing providers to charge a fee for certain pages to load faster than others. These musicians are the latest to join the Save the Internet campaign, which has the chair of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet in its camp. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., spoke at the campaign's kickoff. I think it's obvious that musicians (especially independents and small labels) will find themselves with the short end of the stick if they are asked to pay a fee to have their music streamed as fast as larger bands or even corporations."
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cybermage writes:
Snopes.com, the resource for ferreting out urban legends, has engaged in a bit of editorializing about the ineffectiveness of online petitions. Many petitions sites have sprung up that seem to be mostly geared toward attracting traffic to ads more than having any tangible effect; but, at the same time, efforts like DraftGore.com and petitions from moveon.org seem to be having some effect — at least some of the time. Is snopes right? Are online petitions a counter-productive waste of time? What have you experienced?