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Media

MLB Fans Who Bought DRM Videos Get Hosed 299

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the digital-restrictions-management dept.
Billosaur writes "Major League Baseball has just strengthened the case against DRM. If you downloaded videos of baseball games from MLB.com before 2006, apparently they no longer work and you are out of luck. MLB.com, sometime during 2006, changed their DRM system. Result: game videos purchased before that time will now no longer work, as the previous DRM system is no longer supported. When the video is played, apparently the MLB.com servers are contacted and a license obtained to verify the authenticity of the video; this is done by a web link. That link no longer exists, and so now the videos will no longer play, even though the MLB FAQ says that a license is only obtained once and will not need to be re-obtained. The blogger who is reporting this contacted MLB technical support, only to be told there are no refunds due to this problem."
Music

Submission + - Can Govt Study Says P2P Downloaders Buy More Music 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Michael Geist reports that a newly study commissioned by the Government of Canada, which includes some of the most extensive surveying to date of the Canadian population on music purchasing habits, finds what many have long suspected — there is a positive correlation between peer-to-peer downloading and CD purchasing. The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study For Industry Canada was conducted collaboratively by two professors from the University of London, Industry Canada, and Decima Research, who surveyed over 2,000 Canadians on their music downloading and purchasing habits.
Security

Submission + - Dislike a Relative? Turn Them in as a Terrorist! 9

Submitted by Stanislav_J
Stanislav_J writes: A Swedish man who had less than fond feelings for his daughter's hubby, took advantage of the son-in-law's trip to America by reporting him to the FBI as a terrorist. The e-mail, which the father-in-law admits to sending, earned him a libel charge after his poor son-in-law was arrested on his arrival in Florida, handcuffed, interrogated, and placed in a cell for 11 hours before being released.

It's a brief article, but dovetails nicely with the recent Slashdot story about "The War on the Unexpected." That article touched on many examples of well-meaning, but misguided and paranoid citizens reporting innocent activities to the authorities. In the current climate, the potential also exists for maliciously false and far from well-meaning reports made to the Feds about people one simply doesn't care for, or those made merely as a sick prank.

While the man admitted to sending the e-mail to the FBI, he claims he thought no harm would come from it because "he did not think the US authorities would be stupid enough to believe him." To quote the great philosopher Bugs Bunny, 'Nyahh....he don't know us very well, do he?'
Microsoft

Microsoft Hires Director of Linux Interoperability 238

Posted by kdawson from the over-to-the-dark-side dept.
AlexGr sends us to Todd Bishop's blog in the Seattle PI for news that Microsoft has brought someone aboard to serve as its Director of Linux Interoperability and head up the Microsoft/Novell Interoperability Lab. "...his name will be familiar to people in the open-source community. In an e-mail late Thursday night, a Microsoft representative said the role will be filled by Tom Hanrahan, who was most recently the director of engineering at the Linux Foundation, the group created through the recent combination of the Free Standards Group and the Open Source Development Labs."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft defeats pro-ODF legislation (computerworld.com)

Submitted by ajanp
ajanp writes: Computerworld discusses the defeat of legislation in the states of California, Florida, Texas, Oregon, and Connecticut which "would have required state agencies to use freely available and interoperable file formats, such as the Open Document Format (ODF) for Office Applications, instead of Microsoft Corp.'s proprietary Office formats," although a bill in Minnesota that would have called for the state agencies to start using an open, XML-based format was changed to instead study the issue. There was heavy lobbying being done in private on both sides with one problem being "the jargon-laden disinformation that committee members felt they were being fed by lobbyists for both IBM and Microsoft. Although lobbyists would tell the committee one thing in private, they got cold feet when asked to verify the information publicly, under oath." However, "Despite the string of defeats, Marino Marcich, executive director of the Washington-based ODF Alliance, said the legislative fight has only begun."
Yahoo!

Submission + - Yahoo! Pipes Developer Wants Programmer's Feedback

Submitted by
lisah
lisah writes: "While some people are still trying to figure out how to apply the slightly enigmatic Pipes mash up tool to their daily lives, programmers, developers, website owners, and bloggers are coming up with new and wildly creative uses every day. Pipes creator Pasha Sadri says he's amazed at the brilliant ideas people have dreamed up so far but he's really looking forward to seeing what folks with a little programming experience can create and will welcome their feedback as Yahoo! continues to develop new ways to implement and improve Pipes. From the article, "'We encourage developers regardless of their programming expertise to try out Pipes,' he says. 'We look forward to tech-savvy users providing feedback to help as we expand the functionality of Pipes. The opportunities for Pipes are endless and we are planning to enable more complex applications in the near future.'""
Announcements

Submission + - New Zealand fishermen catch rare squid

Submitted by laejoh
laejoh writes: A fishing crew has caught a colossal squid that could weigh a half-ton and prove to be the biggest specimen ever landed, a fisheries official said Thursday.

Colossal squid, known by the scientific name Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, are estimated to grow up to 46 feet long and have long been one of the most mysterious creatures of the deep ocean.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Window Turns to Mirror with the Flick of a Switch

Submitted by chipster123
chipster123 writes: 'Once again life imitates Woody Allen's Sleeper' There is an article over at TreeHugger.com about a new switchable glass that 'scientists estimate that having buildings in mirror mode could save up to 30% on air conditioning, and we can design buildings like it's 1975 again'.
United States

Submission + - why do US citizens pay income taxes?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Why do US citizens pay income taxes?
There must be a law that requires them to do it, right?

Well, it seems it is not the case [google video].

The Constitution specifically forbids any direct tax on wages and salaries, and the Supreme Courts consistently ruled in the same way.
Not a single dollar of income taxes is used, as widely believed, to offer and sustain public services.

It was an interesting video to watch, and btw I am not an US citizen, have no affiliation with any of the authors or organizations cited or whatever.
Patents

Submission + - Control water with electricity

Submitted by
MattSparkes
MattSparkes writes: "French researchers have discovered a new way to create super-hydrophobic surfaces, which could make completely electronic control of water possible. This could replace messy pumps and valves. By passing a voltage across a water droplet on the surface, it's shape can be deformed, and when the voltage is removed, it springs back into shape. Although the distortion is small, it should be enough to push droplets around by controlling the voltage between many different surface electrodes."
Media

Submission + - Silicon Valley Documentary Ditches DRM

Submitted by DRMwatch
DRMwatch writes: While Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, said that given the choice, he'd drop DRM in a heart beat; the producers behind the silicon valley documentary, In Search of the Valley, have done just that, thanks to a next-generation download service. The documentary follows three friends' pilgrimage, where against the odds, they gained access to the founders of some of the Valley's most important companies, including Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak; Adobe co-founder, John Warnock; Macromedia co-founder, Marc Canter; Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media and Craig Newmark of Craigslist.
Quickies

Submission + - Monster squid caught in Antarctica

Submitted by
zakkie
zakkie writes: "New Zealand fisherman have caught a massive 450 kg colossal squid fishing in the Antartic waters. This is by far the biggest yet found, measuring over 10 metres in length and weighing 450 kg. It has been taken back to New Zealand to be studied."
Space

Submission + - New Software Stops Mars Rover Confusion

Submitted by
MattSparkes
MattSparkes writes: "The Mars rover Spirit used to get quite confused when it came upon a rock. Because it could only plan routes of a metre or two it couldn't understand how to navigate around large objects, and frequently used to rock back and forth for hours trying to figure it out. NASA have written new software called D* for the rover Opportunity, which should allow it to autonomously plan routes up to 50 metres long. The new software still won't be able to avoid sand-traps though."

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