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The Courts

Oregon AG Seeks to Investigate RIAA Tactics 114

Posted by Zonk from the investigating-the-mafiaa dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Turning the tables on the RIAA's attempt to subpoena information from the University of Oregon, that state's Attorney General has now filed additional papers to conduct immediate discovery into the RIAA's 'data mining' techniques. These techniques include the use of unlicensed investigators, the turning over of subpoenaed information to collection agencies, and the obtaining of personal information from computers. The AG pointed out (pdf) that 'Because Plaintiffs routinely obtain ex parte discovery in their John Doe infringement suits ... their factual assertions supporting their good cause argument are never challenged by an adverse party and their investigative methods remain free of scrutiny. They often settle their cases quickly before defendants obtain legal representation and begin to conduct discovery.'"
NASA

Submission + - NASA Outlines Plan for Manned Mars Mission

Submitted by
Ponca City, We Love You
Ponca City, We Love You writes: "Nasa has released details of its strategy for sending a human crew to Mars within the next few decades. The US space agency envisages dispatching a "minimal" crew on a 30-month round trip to Mars in a 400,000 kg spacecraft. The mission's journey from Earth to Mars would take six to seven months in a spacecraft powered by an advanced cryogenic fuel propulsion system assembled in low-Earth orbit using three to four Ares V rockets. The spacecraft itself would be equipped with "closed-loop" life support systems, in which air and water would be recycled and plants would be grown onboard to feed the crew and contribute to the "psychological health" of the astronauts. The original presentation shows that astronauts could spend 500 days on the Martian surface (pdf, page 6). Nasa still needs to come up with solutions for effectively protecting the astronauts from high levels of cosmic radiation and astronauts will also need medical equipment for the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses or injuries. The Mars Design Reference Architecture also envisions using the Moon as a proving ground to demonstrate supportability concepts for long duration missions and component performance in dusty environments."
Space

Submission + - Earth's Evil Twin (esa.int)

Submitted by
Riding with Robots
Riding with Robots writes: "For the past two years, Europe's Venus Express orbiter has been studying Earth's planetary neighbor up close. Today, mission scientists have released a new collection of findings and amazing images. They include evidence of lightning and other results that flesh out a portrait of a planet that is in many ways like ours, and in many ways hellishly different, such as surface temperatures over 400C and air pressure a hundred times that on Earth."
Music

Submission + - Demonoid Shut Down by CRIA Again (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by Klatoo55
Klatoo55 writes: Demonoid has apparently lost its hosting after the company renting its servers caved to pressure from the CRIA. Any Demonoid URL now displays the text "The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding." Torrentfreak posted a comment from the site IRC saying to "expect the site to return" unless Deimos says otherwise.
Music

Submission + - Demonoid gone for good?

Submitted by acedotcom
acedotcom writes: It looks like the best North American torrent tracker on the net might be gone for good. Wired.com follows up... The popular BitTorrent tracker Demonoid has been taken offline again and this time it looks like the site is gone for good. A notice on the Demonoid homepage reads: "The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding." read more here — http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/11/demonoid-torren.html Maybe they hould invest in Sealand?
The Internet

Submission + - demonoid.com Is Closed Down

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding. http://www.demonoid.com/ Looks like another loss for file sharing.
The Internet

Submission + - CRIA forces Demonoid offline 1

Submitted by duh P3rf3ss3r
duh P3rf3ss3r writes: Popular bittorrent site Demonoid.com, still smarting from a recent agreement with the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) to block all traffic from Canadians, appears to have been forced entirely offline. Attempts to contact the main or the secondary server result in the message: "The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding." Is this the end for the demonoid folks?
Mandriva

Microsoft Denies Sabotaging Mandriva Linux PC Deal 161

Posted by Zonk from the fair-market-etc-etc dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has denied sabotaging Mandriva's deal with the Nigerian government to supply Classmate PCs from Intel along with a customized Mandriva Linux operating system. 'From Microsoft's perspective it's a matter of choice. In the statement sent to InternetNews.com, Microsoft said it believes individuals, governments and other organizations should be free to choose the software and other technologies that best meet their needs. "We are seeing strong market demand for Windows on low-cost devices to help governments in the areas of education, local innovation, and jobs and opportunity," the Microsoft spokesperson said in the statement.' The company's denial is in response to Mandriva's CEO Francois Bancilhon expression of disappointment with Microsoft."
Security

Submission + - Mac OS X users targeted by in-the-wild porn Trojan 1

Submitted by Anonymous
Anonymous writes: The Register is reporting a sophisticated Trojan has been released into the wide that targets Mac users. The malicious Trojan, dubbed OSX.RSPlug.A, is making the rounds on several porn websites. When Mac users try to view some videos, the site feeds them a page that says QuickTime is unable to play the file unless a special codec is installed first. If the user proceeds, a form of DNSChanger is installed that hijacks some web requests sent to eBay, PayPal and some banking websites, according to security firm Intego. Is this a sign that OS X is finally a big enough to be attractive to professional attackers?
Space

Submission + - Astronomers Again Baffled by Solar Observations

Submitted by SteakNShake
SteakNShake writes: Once again professional astronomers are struggling to understand observations of the sun. ScienceDaily reports that a team from Saint Andrew's University announced that the sun's magnetic fields dominate the behavior of the corona via a mechanism dubbed the "solar skeleton". Computer models continue to be built to mimic the observed behavior of the sun in terms of magnetic fields but apparently the ball is still being dropped; no mention in the announcement is made of the electric fields that must be the cause of the observed magnetic fields. Also conspicuously absent from the press releases is the conclusion that the sun's corona is so-dominated by electric and magnetic fields because it is a plasma. In light of past and present research revealing the electrical nature of the universe, this kind of crippling ignorance among professional astrophysicists is astonishing.

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