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The Media

Submission + - UK charme offensive to extend copyright protection

Submitted by
benesch
benesch writes: "An ageing UK star lineup tries to charm parliament into exending copyright protection of their songs: "Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Cliff Richard are among the artists who will see the current 50-year limit on their early sound recordings expire soon. The House of Commons culture committee said people had a "moral right" to keep control of their creations while alive. The copyright term for sound recordings should be extended to at least 70 years, the committee recommended. That would allow ageing performers to continue to benefit from their early recordings throughout their lifetimes.""
Media

Submission + - Should Copyrights Last as Long as ideas?

Submitted by The_Rook
The_Rook writes: In an opinion piece in the New York Times, "A Great Idea Lives Forever. Shouldn't Its Copyright?" Mark Helprin, author of "Winter's Tale," equates copyrights on written works like novels, etc. with physical assets like houses, flour mills, travel agencies, and newspapers. Apparently 70 years after his death is not enough for Mr. Helprin. He wants his descendants to own the copyright on his works forever.

On the way he laments that the Constitution says copyrights are to be granted for "limited times" and is thankful that congress can and has periodically extended the length of copyrights.

Lost on Mr. Helprin is that the entire value of an idea is it's usefulness to others and that public domain enriches more than "stockholders of various businesses."

The essay is not particularly well thought out and is perhaps beneath the attention of the Slashdot community. But it needs to be refuted on the grounds that is perpetuates the fallacy that intellectual property is the same as physical property and that authors have always had right to their intellectual property (which the nasty government has seen fit to take away) rather than the real situation where intellectual property is a fiction created by the government to encourage the creation and publication of creative works.

The article can be read here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/opinion/20helpri n.html?pagewanted=1
Microsoft

Microsoft Using .MS TLD 308

Posted by kdawson from the step-right-up dept.
mqudsi writes "Microsoft is using the .MS top-level domain, assigned to the Caribbean island of Montserrat, for its Web 2.0-flavored Popfly project. You can get your own .MS name if you really want to — there are no restrictions on foreign ownership — at $180 US for 2 years. As of this writing microsoft.ms is available." In an obliquely related note, TechBlorge has up a rumination on the resemblance of the Popfly logo to Tux.
Google

Submission + - Vendors fudging prices for Froogle, others

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I recently stumbled across a case of an online vendor adjusting it's prices based on url referral; notably, SoftwareMedia.com, but I've noticed similar (though harder to trace) activity from other large vendors such as Dell and Amazon.

Take a look at this page: Exchange Software, then find it again through Froogle. Once you access the SoftwareMedia site through the Froogle link, they update (generally lower) their prices to match those found on Froogle. Accessing the exact same page after going through Froogle results in an entirely different set of prices. (In my case, Exchange 2003 Enterprise was 'discounted' by a whopping $1260)

Is SoftwareMedia trying to make Froogle Fudge? Should this sort of activity be allowed? Should users be presented with two different pages depending on referral? Shouldn't all users be presented with the same set of prices?

Feed Male And Female Brain Patterns Differ During Reaching (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Men's and women's brains "fire" differently when they are planning how to reach for something, so rehabilitation after brain injuries such as strokes may need to be tailored to the sex of the person, says a new study. Researchers found differences in patterns of brain activity in men and women preparing to do visually-guided actions related to tasks such as using a computer mouse or driving a car.
Privacy

Submission + - YouTube Takedowns: Any 15-year old can do it

Submitted by BillGatesLoveChild
BillGatesLoveChild writes: Recently Slashdotters wondered how easy it would be to take down YouTube videos. Wonder no longer:

A 15-year old Australian Boy with nothing more than a HotMail account emailed YouTube saying he was the "Australian Broadcasting Corporation" and under the DMCA ordered YouTube to take down hundreds of videos. They did without immediately and without question. YouTube did not try and call the ABC back, nor ask why the email came from Hotmail. Given Cringely's recent report which lead to Slashdotters asking the question, YouTube seem remarkably slow to learn. How many more DMCA attacks will there be before they get the message?

Many of the Video's were from the ABC's The Chaser, including one where a prankster rolling a cigar asked Senator Hillary Clinton if he could be her new intern. The Chaser Staff were impressed with the youngster, "I don't think we should prosecute him — we should probably hire him."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - "What If All the Ice Melts?" Myths and Rea

Submitted by petrus4
petrus4 writes: "What If All the Ice Melts?" Myths and Realities is an article which features images of what the globe would look like if all of the ice (both land and sea) on the planet melted, leading to a sealevel rise of around 66 meters. The change shown in global geography is surprisingly unremarkable, and the analysis seems sound, making this article a sober and very useful counter to some of the more hysterical FUD which has been circulated in relation to global warming.
Space

Submission + - Lost in space ...

Submitted by
clyde_cadiddlehopper
clyde_cadiddlehopper writes: "A review board has determined that the loss of Mars Global Surveyor probably had nothing to do with aging of the spacecraft hardware, but instead resulted from mistakes made by both the human operators and the spacecraft's onboard fault protection software. http://planetary.org/news/2007/0413_Human_and_Spac ecraft_Errors_Together.html It takes a million mouse clicks to build a system, unfortunately any one of them can bring it to its knees."
Security

Submission + - Home Depot Upskirt Spy Cam Is Hot Seller

Submitted by Funny Finder
Funny Finder writes: The new RIDGID SeeSnake micro inspection camera may just be the next great spy camera for pervs. This LCD screen equipped video camera with a 3ft flexible tip was designed for seeing down inside walls to find wiring or look for rat infestation.Rest Of The Story

Feed More Flight Than Fancy? (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Scientists have turned a textbook example of sexual selection on its head and shown that females may be more astute at choosing a mate than previously thought. New research shows that differences in the lengths of the long tail feathers possessed by male barn swallows are an example of natural selection, not sexual selection.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - IRS to go after eBay sellers

Submitted by
prostoalex
prostoalex writes: "Fed up with numerous violations of tax law by individuals and businesses selling goods on eBay, Amazon Marketplace, uBid.com, etc., IRS is pushing Congress to make online marketplaces responsible for reporting the sales information to the tax man, in order to prevent under-reporting of the income. eBay's "own statistics suggest that there are 1.3 million people around the world who make their primary or secondary source of income through eBay, with just over 700,000 in the United States", News.com.com.com says."

Feed 30-inch OLED TV from Toshiba in 2009 (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Displays, HDTV


Toshiba has announced plans to ship an organic electroluminescence (EL) display in 2009. The target size will be 30 inches, which beats most manufacturers' prototypes currently under development, like Sony's 27-inch OLED plans. Toshiba had previously planned 2015 as the launch window for OEL (more commonly known as OLED) sets, a launch timeframe which put them in that magical future land along with SED and FED displays. While Toshiba doesn't expect to compete directly against the behemoth of LCD at first, they believe the technology's superiority -- which includes lower manufacturing costs, and better viewing angles and contrast -- will be recognized as volume goes up. Your electroluminescent game of fl0w may never look better.

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Google

Google buys DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion 351

Posted by Zonk from the still-waiting-for-my-buyout-offer dept.
marvinalone writes "The New York Times reports that Google has purchased DoubleClick. That seems to be the conclusion to the speculation we've talked about earlier. From the article: 'Google reached an agreement today to acquire DoubleClick, the online advertising company, from two private equity firms for $3.1 billion in cash, the companies announced, an amount that was almost double the $1.65 billion in stock that Google paid for YouTube late last year.'"
Announcements

Submission + - Panel: US Faces Change As Climate Warms

Submitted by YonathanBegopa
YonathanBegopa writes: Chicago and Los Angeles will likely to face increasing heat waves. Severe storm surges could hit New York and Boston. And cities that rely on melting snow for water may run into serious shortages. These are some of the findings about North America in a report by hundreds of scientists that try to explain how global warming is changing life on Earth. The scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a summary of their findings on global warming last Friday and outlined details of the report focusing on various regions on Tuesday.

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