Comment One Word (Score 1) 475
DO NOT WANT!
Submission + - Wikileaks coup: Guantanamo and rendition manuals (wikileaks.org)
James Hardine writes: The Washington Post is reporting that Wikileaks has released another manual for Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay together with the US military's rendition operations manual. This release follows from the Wikileaks release of the 2003 SOP Manual as reported in Slashdot and the New York Times last month. Wikileaks compares the two manuals (2003, 2004) and reveals damning changes in official US detainee policy in exquisite detail. Who knew that diff could be such a powerful political weapon?
Submission + - Canadian Songwriters Call For Legalized P2P
Submission + - Lime Wire antitrust claims against RIAA dismissed (blogspot.com) 1
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The antitrust counterclaims interposed by Lime Wire against the RIAA record companies have been dismissed. In a 45-page decision (pdf), the Court relied principally upon the holding of the United States Supreme Court in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly that "A party's "obligation to provide the grounds of his entitlement to relief requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do." Ironically, the Twombly decision was the authority upon which the RIAA's copyright infringement complaint was dismissed in Interscope v. Rodriguez."
Submission + - UO Investigates RIAA for Spying (oregonlive.com)
Mr. E writes: "University of Oregon officials have asked a federal judge to let them investigate charges that the RIAA is spying on UO students. While it's not clear how they believe that the RIAA has accessed confidential student information, they make it sound like the RIAA was sniffing the network. Had the RIAA done so, they would have access to all unencrypted information on the network, which is likely to contain things like passwords and private emails in addition to evidence of copyright infringement they are after. UO officials note that, while they do not condone copyright infringement, they have a duty under the law to protect student privacy and to investigate those who may have violated it. RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth said that they were "surprised and disappointed" by this investigation."
Submission + - Software Piracy Fight Makes Enemies (ap.org) 1
Ron Paul Dennis Kucinich writes: "A BSA raid on musical-instrument maker Ernie Ball Inc. cost the company $90,000 in a settlement. Soon after, Microsoft sent other businesses in his region a flyer offering discounts on software licenses, along with a reminder not to wind up like Ernie Ball.
Enraged, CEO Sterling Ball vowed never to use Microsoft software again, even if "we have to buy 10,000 abacuses." He shifted to open-source software, which lacks such legal entanglements because its underlying code is freely distributed."
Submission + - BSA Bully Over Small Businesses, Becomes RIAA-2 (techluver.com) 2
Tech.Luver writes: "Michael Gaertner worried he could lose his company. A group called the Business Software Alliance was claiming that his 10-person architectural firm was using unlicensed software._______________
The alliance demanded $67,000 — most of one year's profit — or else it would seek more in court. "It just scared the hell out of me," Gaertner said._______________
Targeting small businesses is lucrative for the Business Software Alliance, the main copyright-enforcement watchdog for such companies as Microsoft Corp., Adobe Systems Inc. and Symantec Corp._______________
Of the $13 million that the BSA reaped in software violation settlements with North American companies last year, almost 90 percent came from small businesses._______________
Gaertner, who worried his BSA encounter would crush his business, wants to rid himself of the Autodesk, Microsoft and Adobe software involved in the case."It's not like they have really good software. It's just that it's widespread and it's commonly used," he said. "It's going to be a while, but eventually, we plan to get completely disengaged from those software vendors that participate in the BSA."_______________
( http://techluver.com/2007/11/25/piracy-fight-makes-enemies-bsa-bullying-over-small-businesses/ )"
Submission + - More Malicious TOR Nodes (f-secure.com)
You Read Browser Certificate Warnings... Right? writes: "Apparently the TOR exit node that recently sniffed embassy passwords wasn't the only bad node. F-Secure tested some 400 TOR nodes and found that at least one German node was performing man-in-the-middle attacks against SSL. While that node is now offline thanks to the German authorities, it does raise the question of how you know whether any given node is trustworthy. They note that there are still other "suspicious" nodes out there, like the one that only forwards for people logging into Google and MySpace."
Submission + - SenatorsUrge FTCtoReview GoogleDoubleClick Closely (techluver.com)
Tech.Luver writes: "Two U.S. senators on the antitrust subcommittee urged the Federal Trade Commission's chairman to only approve Google's purchase of Internet advertising company DoubleClick Inc. if it concludes there will be no adverse impact on competition in the Web advertising market as a result of the transaction.
In a letter, Sen. Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, told FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras that the outcome of the agency's review of the proposed merger would have far-reaching impact.
Senators argued that Google had a dominant position in a form of Internet advertising called contextual ads while DoubleClick was a market leader in display advertising. They said industry experts believed the deal could harm competition on the Web.
( http://techluver.com/2007/11/19/senators-urge-ftc-to-review-google-doubleclick-deal-closely/ )"
Submission + - Universal Offers Classical, Jazz Catalog DRM-Free (gramophone.co.uk) 3
Mode_Locrian writes: Gramophone Magazine reports that Universal Classics and Jazz will be making its entire catalogue available for sale in DRM-free form. While Universal stresses that this will be a trial run, it certainly looks like a step in the right direction. Now, if only they'd offer downloads in formats other than mp3...
Submission + - Student Develops Cheap Open Source Video Card (mveas.com)
An anonymous reader writes: This guy started designing a low budget, open source video card. It's the same idea as the Open Graphics Project, but a lot smaller. He's planning to have a VGA compatible card somewhere next month! Schematic and lots of details are already online and community feedback is welcome.
Submission + - CCP Announces EVE Online Linux & Macintosh Cli (eve-online.com) 1
OS24Ever writes: "As announced earlier in this forum thread, Revelations 2.3 will be deployed on Tuesday, 6 November. This patch will contain a number of fixes which can all be viewed here, but most importantly it contains formal support for Mac OS X and Linux! If you would like to have a sneak preview of what it is going to be like playing on the supported OS of your choice.
Beta clients are available to download now and to connect to the test 'Multiplicity' Server. Users with a valid account on October 2nd, 2007 (last date of data copy) can join up now."
Submission + - Valve's Steam API uncovered (myg0t.com)
Anonymous User writes: "Programmers from the internet harassment group known as "myg0t" have recently released a source code to the public exposing some sensitive "hidden material" in the Steam.exe and steam_api.dll, this hidden content includes Steam's billing interface, utility interface, client interface, user interface and many login exports from steam.
In the news post it states:
"This is a 100% complete Steam API hooking base written by [myg0t]s0beit. It will allow you access to several well hidden interfaces inside the Steam application and some games as well. Here is a short run-down of the basic interfaces it will allow you to completely hook:
ISteamFriends — the steam friends and community class
ISteamUser — user information on the steam client
ISteamClient — client information
ISteamBilling — steam billing information
ISteamUtils — misc steam utilities
It's important to mention that while this is 100% fully functioning, it is outdated as of the release of TF2; they use several new interfaces inside the game and have moved other interfaces into the Steam application itself or vice-versa. That said, the current updated base will not be released anytime soon if ever, if you can understand this release well enough then this should be a non-issue for you.
We must insist that you use this proof of concept code only for non-harmful, peaceful, education purposes only and that it not be discussed anywhere outside of our news forum. myg0t does not and has never condoned illegal activity of any kind or activities with otherwise malicious intent. This is a learning tool so please use it responsibly, as we have for the last year."
No doubt this is something Valve must take seriously, hopefully they will fix this soon."
In the news post it states:
"This is a 100% complete Steam API hooking base written by [myg0t]s0beit. It will allow you access to several well hidden interfaces inside the Steam application and some games as well. Here is a short run-down of the basic interfaces it will allow you to completely hook:
ISteamFriends — the steam friends and community class
ISteamUser — user information on the steam client
ISteamClient — client information
ISteamBilling — steam billing information
ISteamUtils — misc steam utilities
It's important to mention that while this is 100% fully functioning, it is outdated as of the release of TF2; they use several new interfaces inside the game and have moved other interfaces into the Steam application itself or vice-versa. That said, the current updated base will not be released anytime soon if ever, if you can understand this release well enough then this should be a non-issue for you.
We must insist that you use this proof of concept code only for non-harmful, peaceful, education purposes only and that it not be discussed anywhere outside of our news forum. myg0t does not and has never condoned illegal activity of any kind or activities with otherwise malicious intent. This is a learning tool so please use it responsibly, as we have for the last year."
No doubt this is something Valve must take seriously, hopefully they will fix this soon."
Submission + - Japan's NEC boasts world's most powerful computer (physorg.com)
kcbanner writes: "
Japan's NEC Corp. on Thursday announced the launch of what it called the world's most powerful supercomputer on the market, meant for advanced use in the sciences.
Apparently they have the world's fastest supercomputer, although I wouldn't have expected it from NEC. http://www.physorg.com/news112525081.html"
Submission + - Italy: be reimbursed if you don't want Windows (corriere.it)
Paolo DF writes: An italian user asked for a reimbursement after buying a Compaq Computer which came with Windows XP and Works 8 preinstalled. HP tried to avoid the EULA agreement that -more or less- states: "If the user doesn't agree with these terms, he shall contact the manifacturer in order to return the software and receive a reimbursment".
The court ruled in fovour of the user, who received back 90 euros for XP and 50 for Works.
This ruling is particularly important in Italy, since it is one of those countries where computer=Microsoft Windows. Corriere della sera has a report (italian), and here is the ruling (PDF, Italian).
The court ruled in fovour of the user, who received back 90 euros for XP and 50 for Works.
This ruling is particularly important in Italy, since it is one of those countries where computer=Microsoft Windows. Corriere della sera has a report (italian), and here is the ruling (PDF, Italian).
