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Education

Submission + - Stanford kowtows to **AA campaign

Gogl writes: "With RIAA (read: Sony et al.) "pre-litigation" threats looming, Stanford has decided to (warning, PDF) pass the costs down to the students "who are jeopardizing the Stanford network by using it as platform to steal songs, movies, TV shows, video games, books and software." DMCA violations will result in a network disconnection, with reconnection costing $100 the first time, $500 the second, and $1000 the third. Stands in pretty sharp contrast to the stance taken by the Harvard law professor discussed here earlier."
Software

Submission + - Ubuntu Media Center to use Elisa instead of MythTV

clevelandguru writes: Canonical is working on a Media Center Editon of Ubuntu. Recently, the Ubuntu Media Center Team made a decision to use Elisa instead of MythTV. Elisa is still in development and lacks lot of features that are in MythTV, but It has a very impressive user interface. Here are some screenshots of Elisa. Elisa uses GStreamer Multimedia Framework which is legally appealing compared to FFmpeg that MythTV uses.
Announcements

Submission + - The reason for AAPL's plunge yesterday

stan1222 writes: "For those of you who, like me, own Apple stock, you must have gotten sick yesterday as the stock took nearly a 3% dive yesterday. It has since recovered (sort of) but I spent the day wondering what happened. This Engadget story is the reason and must have slipped through my daily apple news crawling. Apparently someone spoofed Apple's internal email system by sending an employee wide email alleging that the iPhone was delayed until October, and Leopard until January. Engadget got the story through a "reliable source". Makes me wonder two things: who within Apple leaks these stories, and how come a respected news source as Engadget doesn't double check their stories before posting FUD like this:
"we have it on authority that as of today, the iPhone launch is being pushed back from June to... October (!), and Leopard is again seeing a delay, this time being pushed all the way back to January. Of 2008.""
Politics

Conservative Sarkozy Wins Presidency of France 962

Reader reporter tips us to a story just up at the NYTimes reporting that the tough-talking conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has won election as the president of France. His opponent, Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal, the first woman to get as far as the runoff in a presidential contest in France, has conceded defeat. The vote went 53% to Sarkozy and the turnout was a remarkable (by American standards) 85% of registered voters. Sarkozy is seen as a divisive figure for his demand that immigrants learn Western values (and the French language).
The Internet

Submission + - OpenSource Documentary on Copyright - $250 contest

etherworks writes: "OpenSourceCinema.org is a website to make an Open Source documentary about Copyright in the digital age. All footage for the film is released under a creative commons license and made available on the site. The audience can then remix scenes of the film — including scenes with Lawrence Lessig, Girl Talk, Negativland, DJ Food, Jimmy Wales and more. The entire script of the film is also available as a wiki for the audience to edit. The documentary film created from the website, Basement Tapes, is a co-production with the National Film Board of Canada and will be broadcast on the documentary channel in 2008. Open Source Cinema is also announcing a remix contest, where the audience can remix scenes with mashup megaman Girl Talk. Winners will have their scenes included in the feature documentary and will also be up for $250 in cold cash!"
Enlightenment

Submission + - How does your company "recondition" gear?

dpbsmith writes: When the company you work for "reconditions" or "refurbishes" gear, what, exactly, do they actually do?

Actual stories, please, from people who actually know the process.
Spam

Utah Anti-Kids-Spam Registry "a Flop" 117

Eric Goldman writes "A couple of years ago Utah enacted a 'Child Protection Registry.' The idea was to allow parents to register kids' email addresses and then to require certain email senders to filter their lists against that database before sending their emails. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the Utah registry has been a 'financial flop.' Initially projected to generate $3-6 million in revenues for Utah, it has instead produced total revenues of less than $200,000. 80% of this has gone to Unspam, the for-profit registry operator; Utah's share of the registry's revenues has been a paltry $37,445. Worse, Utah has spent $100,000 (so far) to defend the private company from legal challenges by free-speech, advertising, and porn interests."

Microsoft Invents Split Screen PC 348

An anonymous reader writes "New technology from Microsoft Research India in Bangalore could end the waiting game in offices with limited computers. Researchers are developing software that splits a computer screen in two halves, each side with its own operating system, desktop, applications, cursor and keyboard." Mom! Timmy is on my side of the screen again!
Security

AOL's Embarassing Password Woes 192

An anonymous reader writes "AOL.com users may think they have up to sixteen characters to use as a password, but they'd be wrong, thanks to this security artifact detailed by The Washington Post's Security Fix blog: "Well, it turns out that when someone signs up for an AOL.com account, the user appears to be allowed to enter up to a 16-character password. AOL's system, however, doesn't read past the first eight characters." This means that a user who uses "password123" or any other obvious eight-character password with random numbers on the end is in effect using just that lame eight-character password."
Role Playing (Games)

The Elevator Effect In Second Life 167

There is an good video on NPR about how real human reactions translate to the virtual world. It's interesting in view of the question posted here about rape in Second Life. The video covers a little experiment in SL where a reporter gets together with a psychologist to see if some unspoken human rules apply in the virtual world — such as staring or standing too close to someone. Perhaps surprisingly, in this world where you can be or do just about anything, you can't break these unspoken rules with impunity.
Television

CNN To Release Debates Under Creative Commons 151

remove office writes "After calls from several prominent bloggers and a couple of presidential candidates, CNN has agreed to release the footage from its upcoming June presidential debates uncopyrighted. Senator Barack Obama was the first candidate to call for all presidential debates to be released under Creative Commons, with fellow Democratic hopeful John Edwards following shortly afterwards. CNN will be the first to do so with their June 3rd and 5th Democratic and Republican debates. MSNBC hosted the first presidential debates recently but refused to release them under Creative Commons, opting instead to post online only commercial-ridden clips in Windows Media format."
The Courts

Microsoft, Best Buy Face Racketeering Suit 153

15 judges of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals have unanimously reversed dismissal of a RICO class action suit against Microsoft and Best Buy, which claims the companies engaged in fraud in promoting Microsoft's MSN online service. (RICO is a statute originally intended to help prosecutors go after organized crime.) Quoting: "The case started after James Odom bought a PC-based laptop at a Contra Costa County Best Buy store. Data about the purchase was sent to Microsoft as part of a joint marketing agreement between the companies. Microsoft then signed Mr. Odom up for its MSN Internet service and, after a free trial period, began billing him for it." Howard Bashman's How Appealing blog has more details on the reversal, including a paraphrase from one of the appellate judges that "all blame rests with the U.S. Supreme Court for allowing the 'outlandish' result that a claim such as this can be pursued under RICO."
Patents

Brazil Voids Merck Patent On AIDS Drug 765

JoeBackward writes "Merck has this useful anti-AIDS drug Elfavirenz, and Brazil has lots of poor people with AIDS. So, after trying really hard to get Merck to cooperate on pricing, the Brazilian government has decided to take a 'compulsory license' to the patent, and get the drug from a factory in India. This compulsory license is basically a way to take the patent by eminent domain." This move gives Brazil one more thing in common with Thailand, both of which have blocked YouTube. Thailand's compulsory licensing of Elfavirenz and Plavix has landed the country on the US's watch list for piracy.

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