DataBroker - Slashdot User

Submission + - AllOfMp3.com acquitted. RIAA demands pricefixing?

Submitted by DataBroker on Thursday August 16, 2007 @08:44AM

DataBroker writes: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/biztech/08/15/russia. site.reut/index.html

A Russian court found the former boss of music download Web site www.allofmp3.com not guilty of breaching copyright on Wednesday in a case considered a crucial test of Russia's commitment to fighting piracy.

Denis Kvasov, head of MediaServices which owned the site, always said he was within the law because the site paid part of its income to ROMS, a Russian organisation which collects and distributes fees for copyright holders. The court has agreed, stating "Everybody who uses soundtracks has to pay a certain amount of their income to the rights holders and this company has done that," she said. "MediaServices has paid a certain amount of money to ROMS."

In short, the court says "a certain amount of their income" is proper and legal. By the prosecution appealing, are they really complaining that AllOfMp3 isn't cooperating with the monopolistic price-fixing? The guise of "protecting intellectual property rights" is looking thin when the court is agreeing with the defense.

Submission + - Homework!?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @12:45PM

An anonymous reader writes: With all the talk about Blizzard lately, I was asked a question about Guild Wars and World of Warcraft. While both games address different aspects, how would you get Blizzard to drop the monthly fee for WoW without trying to generate a force needed to compensate for the entropy of the players' need to play the game? After all, the no monthly free works for Guild Wars, so the model itself is fine. Or perhaps the question should be stated, how would you get this model to be the accepted form for all MMORPGs? Also, assume that the person asking me will not accept impossible for an answer. I would like to know your thoughts.

Submission + - Vista loophole allows for cheap install

Submitted by

PetManimal

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @11:59AM

PetManimal writes: "A loophole in Vista's activation scheme that lets users install an upgrade version of Vista on Linux machines and save up to $140 is spreading over the Internet and causing Microsoft a fair amount of embarrassment. The trick involves installing Vista twice but not entering the product key the first time, which effectively fools Vista into upgrading itself. While most home users are unlikely to try this, it may appeal to some PC DIYers and other power users:

The type of person most likely to benefit from this workaround are power users and hobbyists who own multiple computers running Windows as well as Linux and Mac OS X. Indeed, one concrete scenario would be someone with a used PC that's just one or two years old running either Linux or OS X who decides to convert it to Vista and buys the upgrade version of the OS to do so.
According to the last article, Microsoft is aware of the scheme and says it violates the Vista EULA."

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