Kalriath - Slashdot User

Submission + - Blizzard Wins Bot Lawsuit, Validates EULAs (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Kalriath on Saturday February 07, 2009 @06:10PM

Kalriath writes: A story on ArsTechnica and discussed on Blizzards forums talks about the recent win in early January, where judge David G Campbell agreed with Blizzard that the use of a bot violates Blizzard's EULA, terminating a users license to use the software (and validating the belief that copying an application into memory to run it does indeed constitute copyright infringement without a valid license. From the story:

As we've noted before, Blizzard's legal arguments, which Judge David G. Campbell largely accepted, could have far-reaching and troubling implications for the software industry. Donnelly is not the most sympathetic defendant, and some users may cheer the demise of a software vendor that helps users break the rules of Blizzard's wildly popular role playing game. But the sweeping language of Judge Campbell's decision, combined with his equally troubling decision last summer, creates a lot of new uncertainty for software vendors seeking to enter software markets dominated by entrenched incumbents and achieve interoperability with legacy platforms.

Looks like a field day for lawyers everywhere.

Submission + - Symantec: Vista "fairly secure, but full of ho

Submitted by Kalriath on Thursday March 01, 2007 @06:33PM

Kalriath writes: Computerworld reports on Symantec's reports claiming that Windows Vista is "faily secure, but still full of holes". Symantec claims that in under a week, they have managed to disable PatchGuard and Code Integrity, which have hindered their antivirus and firewall product implementations on Vista, and also claim to be able to exploit UAC to masquerade untrusted code as part of the OS.

From the article at Computerworld:

The security vendor's Security Response Advanced Threat Research group has released four reports on the security implications of Vista — with two more to come next week — and found that while the underlying OS is more secure, there are still unplugged holes that will allow malicious code to penetrate a user's system, says Oliver Friedrichs, director of Symantec's Security Response Emerging Threats group.
It's really no surprise that Symantec has been researching ways to get around PatchGuard, and even they admit that their research is a little self serving. From the article:

Friedrichs acknowledges that it may be self-serving for Symantec, which offers add-on security products for Windows, to publish findings that the OS is not secure.
Unsurprisingly, Symantec claims that it's concerns are very legitimate, and Microsoft reiterates that Vista is the most secure Windows to date. Then, is that really all that hard?

Submission + - RIAA to Apple: Spread the DRM!

Submitted by Kalriath on Wednesday February 07, 2007 @11:23PM

Kalriath writes: Posted at The Register is the RIAA's official response to Steve Jobs open letter decrying DRM and asking the recording industry to seriously consider allowing DRM-free music. They have this to say about it:

The RIAA has seized on the weakest part of Steve Jobs' anti-DRM manifesto by banging on Apple to license its FairPlay technology to other companies.

"Apple's offer to license FairPlay to other technology companies is a welcome breakthrough and would be a real victory for fans, artists and labels," the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) said. "There have been many services seeking a licence to the Apple DRM. This would enable the interoperability that we have been urging for a very long time."
The section in question from Steves letter, which quite clearly states the problems with this approach reads:

The second alternative is for Apple to license its FairPlay DRM technology to current and future competitors with the goal of achieving interoperability between different company's players and music stores. On the surface, this seems like a good idea since it might offer customers increased choice now and in the future. And Apple might benefit by charging a small licensing fee for its FairPlay DRM.

However, when we look a bit deeper, problems begin to emerge. The most serious problem is that licensing a DRM involves disclosing some of its secrets to many people in many companies, and history tells us that inevitably these secrets will leak. The Internet has made such leaks far more damaging, since a single leak can be spread worldwide in less than a minute. Such leaks can rapidly result in software programs available as free downloads on the Internet which will disable the DRM protection so that formerly protected songs can be played on unauthorized players.
Jobs may be a smooth talker, but against such circular logic, even he can't win.

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