NoScript For Android Devices Released 107
Trailrunner7 writes "The new version of NoScript, the popular browser add-on that blocks JavaScript and other embedded objects from running on Web pages, is out in alpha form. It can now run on Android-based smartphones, giving users protection against script-based attacks on their mobile devices. The release of NoScript Anywhere includes a variety of new features, but it's the support for Firefox Mobile that is the big attraction. The add-on for Android devices is meant to mimic the desktop version, giving users the ability to set permissions for each individual site and use a default policy for restricting content. NoScript also now includes an anti-clickjacking feature and an anti-XSS filter designed to protect users from cross-site scripting attacks. The new version also works on Maemo-based phones and tablets."
Submission + - Steve Jobs (1955-2011) (apple.com) 1
akahige writes: Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has lost his battle with cancer. The news has only just broken on Apple's home page, along with this brief announcement: "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."
Submission + - Patent Troll Says Anyone Using WiFi Infringes (patentexaminer.org) 1
akahige writes: The Patent Examiner blog has the incredible story of Innovatio IP, a patent troll that recently acquired a portfolio of patents that its lawyers (what, you think there are any employees?) appear to believe cover pretty much any WiFi implementation. They've been suing coffee shops, grocery stores, restaurants and hotels first — including Caribou Coffee, Cosi, Panera Bread Co, certain Marriotts, Best Westerns, Comfort Inns and more. The lawyer representing the company, Matthew McAndrews, seems to imply that the company believes the patents cover everyone who has a home WiFi setup, but they don't plan to go after such folks right now, for "strategic" reasons. More info at Tech Dirt.
Comment Re:Translation (Score 1) 390
Even if he flat out stole the thing, 1973 was almost 40 years ago -- long past any statute of limitations. So where's the justification in trying to force him to return it?
Comment Re:No surprises here (Score 1) 374
The setting isn't download safe files, it's run safe files after downloading.
Not even close to the same thing.
And yes, even the existence of such a setting is stupid.
Comment Re:Just like Windows, apples and amazons (Score 1) 414
You're saying that it's udderly ridiculous?
Comment Re:Not on Brainwave - the copyright lapsed (Score 1) 721
It looks to me like the Copyright Office accepted the renewal. Had they not, the record would/should show the original registration only, and you would be left to compute that since the original copyright was filed in 1954 and was not renewed, that the work was now in the public domain.
Also, the link you posted was for The Broken Sword, not for Brainwave.
Comment Re:Unwise move (Score 2) 721
About 12 years ago, I contacted PG because I was doing some work with pulp stories from the '30's that were public domain, and would have been great to get on the site. While they were a really flaky outfit to deal with, they did have a number of paranoid copyright attorneys at the top of the structure that carefully vetted anything that was even proposed to be included on the site.
There must be some kind of story behind how these sci-fi stories managed to bypass that process.
The instance cited in the article --
"However, even if ‘The Escape” had not been published as a novel, it would have remained under copyright protection until 1981 (28 years) and been eligible for copyright renewal. Authors of that era, and Anderson in particular, were very aware of the need to renew copyrights, and typically meticulously kept their copyright protections up to date. Copyright law for works created more recently is much easier: life plus 70 years. (Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, 1998)."
-- is irrelevant because as a general rule of publishing in those magazines, copyright was assigned to the magazine. If the magazine screwed up and didn't renew its copyrights; or simply went out of business, in which case no one was tracking their assets; or got bought out by some other entity and the record keeping went all pear shaped, copyright did not magically revert to the author. Nor is there any precedent to have an author reassert their copyright claim on works that have been assigned to others. The instance in which the magazine did not file a copyright is obviously a specialized case.
Sound As the New Illegal Narcotic?
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ehrichweiss writes "The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics is warning parents and teachers of a new threat to our children: sounds. Apparently kids are now discovering binaural beats and using them to get 'physiological effects.' The report goes on with everyone suggesting that such aural experiences will act as a gateway to drug usage and even has one student claiming there are 'demons' involved. Anyone who has used one of those light/sound machines knows all about the effects that these sounds will give and to state that they will lead kids to do drugs is nonsense at best. It seems the trend in scaring the citizens with a made-up problem has gone to the next level."
Comment Even If They Lose the Appeal... (Score 5, Interesting) 371
...This has got to be seen as a win for the band. They have to pay royalties back to 2002... which is >20 years since the song was released and became a monster hit. Surely its earnings potential has slacked off some since then. Imagine how bad it would be if they had to come up with royalties back to its heyday...
Submission + - Fair Use, Free Speech, and Memory Holes
akahige writes: Copyright and fair use both see quite a bit of discussion here, and a news update sparked an interesting thought to which I have no answer — so I thought it would be interesting to see what the Slashdot pundits have to say... The judge in the Associated Press vs. Shepard Fairey copyright infringement suit over the Obama Hope poster today suggested that the parties come to some sort of settlement rather than dragging the issue into court where the AP, according to the judge, is sure to eventually prevail.
Fairey and his lawyers have been arguing fair use — and that seems to be how the media and copyright watchdogs have been treating the dispute, but there's something more interesting, subtle, and insidious going on that no one has touched on. The Fairey poster is not just the photograph with some Photoshop effects applied to it — which would have certainly brought up all manner of fair use issues. It's been demonstrated that the poster image was traced from the photo (no doubt by hand), but that would actually make it an original creation, even when using something else as a jumping off point. Here's the catch: the photo was not a work of art carefully composed in a studio, it was taken at a public event where anyone standing in roughly the same spot could have taken the exact same shot.
Apparently, what the AP is arguing is that no one has the right to make a artistic representation of anything depicted in a photograph to which they hold the rights. This is not a threat to fair use. It's a threat to free speech, and the willful creation of a memory hole.
Fairey and his lawyers have been arguing fair use — and that seems to be how the media and copyright watchdogs have been treating the dispute, but there's something more interesting, subtle, and insidious going on that no one has touched on. The Fairey poster is not just the photograph with some Photoshop effects applied to it — which would have certainly brought up all manner of fair use issues. It's been demonstrated that the poster image was traced from the photo (no doubt by hand), but that would actually make it an original creation, even when using something else as a jumping off point. Here's the catch: the photo was not a work of art carefully composed in a studio, it was taken at a public event where anyone standing in roughly the same spot could have taken the exact same shot.
Apparently, what the AP is arguing is that no one has the right to make a artistic representation of anything depicted in a photograph to which they hold the rights. This is not a threat to fair use. It's a threat to free speech, and the willful creation of a memory hole.
Comment HTML5 can't replace Flash in all cases, right? (Score 1) 468
Obviously, the biggest use of Flash on the web is embedded video, but this is hardly the only use, and those are seldom mentioned in the HTML5 v. Flash discussions. With Scribd converting to HTML5, the field seems to be opening up (though their use of Flash always struck me as being an anti-copying measure more than anything else).
So far as I know, HTML5 isn't suitable for things like graphical configurators or 3D models (allowing the user to rotate them) -- or is it? There's QTVR for 3D stuff, but it's always seemed clunky to me. And I haven't seen anything but Flash used for configurators. Are there actually reasonable alternatives to Flash for this sort of thing?
First MySQL 5.5 Beta Released 95
joabj writes "While MySQL is the subject of much high-profile wrangling between the EU and Oracle (and the MySQL creator himself), the MySQL developers have been quietly moving the widely-used database software forward. The new beta version of MySQL, the first publicly available, features such improvements as near-asynchronous replication and more options for partitioning. A new release model has been enacted as well, bequeathing this version the title of 'MySQL Server 5.5.0-m2.' Downloads here."
Linux Kernel 2.6.32 Released 195
diegocg writes "Linus Torvalds has officially released the version 2.6.32 of the Linux kernel. New features include virtualization memory de-duplication, a rewrite of the writeback code faster and more scalable, many important Btrfs improvements and speedups, ATI R600/R700 3D and KMS support and other graphic improvements, a CFQ low latency mode, tracing improvements including a 'perf timechart' tool that tries to be a better bootchart, soft limits in the memory controller, support for the S+Core architecture, support for Intel Moorestown and its new firmware interface, run-time power management support, and many other improvements and new drivers. See the full changelog for more details."
