rbrander - Slashdot User

Submission + - Israeli army developing robotic snake for recon (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by rbrander on Tuesday June 16, 2009 @10:57AM

rbrander writes: The IDF has released a video showing their new development, a robotic snake with a camera for a head. The camo-covered tube can wriggle through the smallest of openings and tunnels to feed back a continuous video to a field laptop.

Submission + - City of Vancouver, Canada adopts open standards (metronews.ca)

Submitted by

rbrander

on Sunday May 24, 2009 @01:27PM

rbrander writes: "Vancouver, Canada's third-largest city, has adopted a policy of "open standards, interfaces and formats" for all public data. They will also consider open-source software on an even footing with proprietary for all new software purchases. Fifteen of the fifteen people who signed up to speak to city council on the topic spoke in favour. Their only criticism was "can't you do more?" with one advocating that FOSS software be given preference, not equal footing."

Submission + - US Strong-Armed Canada to Have DMCA (thestar.com)

Submitted by rbrander on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @02:18AM

rbrander writes: Canadian copyright watchdog Michael Geist has written the story of How the U.S. got its Canadian copyright bill". The arm-twisting was pretty up-front: "Canadian officials arrived ready to talk about a series of economic concerns but were quickly rebuffed by their U.S. counterparts, who indicated that progress on other issues would depend upon action on the copyright file." ... "the USTR...made veiled threats about 'thickening the border' between Canada and the U.S. if Canada refused to put copyright reform on the legislative agenda."

Submission + - MPAA chases uploads, ignores open sales of DVD-Rs? (canada.com) 1

Submitted by

rbrander

on Saturday October 06, 2007 @12:43PM

rbrander writes: "Go to TVBoxSet.com and find a remarkable sales site for box sets of TV shows — including not only surprisingly cheap deals, but offerings not found elsewhere, such as all ten seasons of "JAG" in a box set, when the production company is only up to season 4 so far. Oddly enough, they are all described as "region free".

Then Google "tvboxset" and find every link below the first is to a complaint or news website complaining of the scam. Add "gazette" to the query and be quickly taken to this story in the Montreal Gazette ...which states that those who do get a product shipped find it to be a DVD-R apparently recorded off the air.

The really odd thing? They're still in business! The Montreal Gazette story is six weeks old. Now what's in it for the content industry to beat up private citizens with $220,000 judgements or scrambling to get DeCSS sites shut down within hours, while corporate scammers openly sell pirate DVDs for months on end, unopposed?"

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