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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 10 declined, 3 accepted (13 total, 23.08% accepted)

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Encryption

Submission + - BD+ "reseal" "re-cracked", but not (hardforum.com) 2

Submitted by plasmacutter
plasmacutter writes: Perhaps, if they wanted their hemming and hawing about the effectiveness of DRM to be taken seriously, it wasn't such a wise move to place their prized road block between geeks and their christmas bonanza?

This did not, however, come without a cost. The DRM cracking titans have also announced they will be charging [slysoft.com] for the continuous maintenance required in a protracted arms race.

Given the fact they peddle freedom for the price of a dinner out, though, I'd say it's money well spent.
Republicans

Submission + - Pastors Flout Law to Preach Against Obama. (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by plasmacutter
plasmacutter writes: In yet another blow to the separation of church and state, preachers across the country have disregarded legal conditions to their tax exempt status, and begun to use their pulpits to wage a political war against Obama.

While this is a serious ethical and legal breach of conduct, the IRS has stated it's merely "monitoring the situation", bringing into question whether they will actually move to enforce the law at all.

In the mean time, the Alliance Defense Fund claim they will take this to the supreme court, defending their right to "speak biblical truth from the pulpit".

How McCain and Obama relate to "biblical truth", however, is beyond me.
The Internet

Submission + - UK p2p users' internet to be "curbed" and (boingboing.net)

Submitted by plasmacutter
plasmacutter writes: Cory Doctorow is spreading the word about a disturbing but not unexpected development in Britain

Parents whose children download music and films illegally will be blacklisted and have their internet access curbed under government reforms to fight online piracy.
Households that ignore warnings will be subjected to online surveillance and their internet speeds will be reduced, making it very difficult for them to download large files.

The measures, the first of their kind in the world, will be announced today by Baroness Vadera, who brokered the deal between internet service providers and Ofcom, the telecoms body.

They claim this is a "moderation" of their proposal to disconnect users, but I doubt anyone would call the reduction of their lines to 56k dialup speeds "internet connectivity" anymore than someone would call a car lacking the horsepower necessary to carry large loads of groceries home "transportation".

Maybe they should put spy cameras inside their homes too, surely they're ripping and burning their friends' CDs as well if they're engaging in such "deviant" everyday activity on the internet.

The Internet

Submission + - Political Abuse of TOS Undery Online Speech Issues (outsidethebeltway.com)

Submitted by
plasmacutter
plasmacutter writes: "Reports are arising lately of unidentified people abusing blogspot's (google's) TOS violation tool to silence blogs critical of Barack Obama. The tool, which is fully automated, works not unlike the DMCA's "notice and takedown" system. Reports are accepted, and queued for "human review". Of course, the reality is very little substantive investigation is done, with the "human review" presumably involving the entry of rm -rf ~/*.*

This is potentially good news for those out to reform the DMCA, as such abuse expanding and hitting major political campaigns could prompt legislation requiring greater responsibility on the part of web hosts or even reforming notice and takedown to notice and notice.

 "
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Clear Channel demands more conditions to xm merger (engadget.com)

Submitted by plasmacutter
plasmacutter writes: Following the approval of the XM/Sirius merger despite their best efforts, the radio giant Clear Channel has been vehemently demanding more conditions for the new satellite radio monopoly.

Among these demands, the most vocal is the FCC apply the same decency standards used for broadcast radio, citing the capacity for the new giant to siphon off "edgy" content thanks to the lack of regulation in that regard.

In the interest of the public, clear channel is also seeking requirements they lease their satellite capacity to nonexistent competitors and 5% of their satellite capacity be set aside for public interest.

Finally, mirroring demands made decades ago by incumbent cable networks when satellite was established, Clear channel is seeking restrictions against XM/Sirius broadcasting local programs or advertisements.

Personally, i'm very happy to see our staunch public advocates at Clear Channel fighting against monopoly power.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Copyright Lobbies threaten Federal College Funding (eff.org)

Submitted by plasmacutter
plasmacutter writes: The EFF is raising the alarm regarding provisions injected into a bill to renew federal funding for universities calling for them to filter their internet connections and twist student's arms hawking services such as itunes music store.
Under said provision:

Each eligible institution participating in any program under this title shall to the extent practicable —
[...]

(2) develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity.


Similar provisions in last year's bill did not survive committee, it appears however that this bill is headed toward the full house for vote.

Responding to recriminations over this threat to university funding, an MPAA representative claims federal funds should be at risk when copyright infringement happens on campus networks.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - WTO Announces Formalized Slavery Model for Africa

Submitted by
plasmacutter
plasmacutter writes: "In a scoop which sounds right out of the deep end of anti-globalist propaganda, the official WTO News site is announcing their spearheading of an effort to encourage full ownership of african workers..

"Full, untrammelled stewardry is the best available solution to African poverty, and the inevitable result of free-market theory," Schmidt told more than 150 attendees. Schmidt acknowledged that the stewardry program was similar in many ways to slavery, but explained that just as "compassionate conservatism" has polished the rough edges on labor relations in industrialized countries, full stewardry, or "compassionate slavery," could be a similar boon to developing ones.
"
Security

Submission + - "Will the next election be hacked?"

Submitted by
plasmacutter
plasmacutter writes: "A quote from this sequel article to "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?"
Diebold Insider "Chris Hood remembers the day in August 2002 that he began to question what was really going on in Georgia.....
'It was an unauthorized patch, and they were trying to keep it secret from the state,' Hood told me. 'We were told not to talk to county personnel about it. I received instructions directly from Urosevich....'
According to Hood, Diebold employees altered software in some 5,000 machines in DeKalb and Fulton counties — the state's largest Democratic strongholds. the tally in Georgia that November surprised even the most seasoned political observers. Six days before the vote, polls showed Sen. Max Cleland...Democratic incumbent...leading his Republican opponent Saxby Chambliss...by five percentage points. In the governor's race, Democrat Roy Barnes was running a decisive eleven points ahead of Republican Sonny Perdue. But on Election Day, Chambliss won with fifty-three percent of the vote, and Perdue won with fifty-one percent.""

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