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The Courts

Federal Judge Rules P2P users aren't in a Conspiracy->

Submitted by
Fluffeh
Fluffeh writes "Judge Holderman ruled against copyright holders who were trying to paint a rather distorted picture. They sue just one Internet user, but use that lawsuit as a pretext to subpoena other defendants who had participated in the same BitTorrent swarm. The plaintiffs in these lawsuits claim that the other users had participated in a "conspiracy" to assist one another in distributing particular copyrighted works. Because the copyright holder's threat is based on the cost of litigation (and risk of public embarrassment — as this is a tactic used increasingly by the pron industry) more so than the damages a defendant would face in the event of a loss, innocent defendants have virtually as much incentive to settle as guilty ones do. That's not how things are supposed to work, and more and more judges are refusing to play along. Coupled with recent rulings in Florida, the copyright holders seem to be finding less and less favour with judges."
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Music

Music sales falling, despite French anti-P2P Laws->

Submitted by
Fluffeh
Fluffeh writes "France has one of the strictest "Three Strikes" laws in the world enforced by a French authority called Hadopi, but it is interesting to see that although the studios pushed so hard for these, they don't seem to be having the effect of raising sales, they are declining — even if they are slowing down piracy. Hadopi released a report this March saying French ISP users had significantly decreased their illegal file sharing. Despite that announcement, the French music industry still saw a decline in revenue. "For all the fanfare in Hadopi's 14-page report celebrating the crackdown on music and video piracy, the music and video industries in France did not see increased profit in 2011 compared to the year before. The overall recorded music industry saw a 3.9 percent loss, and France's video market dropped 2.7 percent overall.""
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Privacy

ACLU Obtains Cell Phone Tracking Training Materials

Submitted by guttentag
guttentag writes "The New York Times has published a large collection of law enforcement training documents obtained by the ACLU. The documents describe in detail what kind of information can be obtained from cell phones and cell phone carriers, and how to obtain it. The 189-page PDF also contains dozens of invoices from the major carriers for their services to law enforcement that describe the fees for those services."
Google

Google Maps Introduces 8-Bit Quest Maps->

Submitted by AbsoluteXyro
AbsoluteXyro writes "Today users of Google Maps will notice a new mapping option — "Quest" — alongside the usual "Map" and "Satellite" views. Quest view renders the planet in a retro 8-bit fantasy video game style, including renders of famous landmarks such as the White House and the Eiffel Tower. Even Pegman gets in on the game, now taking on the appearance of a sword wielding 8-bit adventurer, allowing you to witness Street View through 8-bit eyes. Basically, imagine a fully functioning Google Maps on an NES."
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Apple

Fired Employees Sue Apple over Dress Code->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Two former employees have sued Apple after being fired for flouting the company's famous dress code. Lawyers for John Doe A (the plaintiffs' identities have been sealed in court documents) allege their client was fired for wearing a blue oxford shirt from Brooks Brothers and brown courduroy pants instead of the black Nehru shirt and matching slacks required on One Infinite Loop. The suit alleges that a human resources rep reportedly told Doe A he looked "like some average dude, not creative enough for Apple", even though he claims to have fixed several P1 bugs during the stretch run for the new iPad. When first contacted, a spokesperson for Apple said that in addition to dress code violations, the terminated employees were also seen eating meals at McDonald's; afterwards, she declined comment, stating that the matter was under litigation."
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Software

Netflix to acquire OnLive, offer streaming video games-> 4

Submitted by
techfun89
techfun89 writes "Netflix revealed today, that they are acquiring the cloud based OnLive gaming company for $1.1 billion. Netflix said that the Netflix branded online streaming of games will keep the OnLive interface intact, but will offer different pricing plans yet to be announced.

Netflix has indicated that the existing mini-console offered by OnLive for playback of video games on TV's will also support the playback of all Netflix content, making it an all in one multimedia device. There are some rumors that Netflix may try to offer playback of video games on existing game consoles (where movie streaming supported), but some manufacturers may try to block this feature."

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AMD

Google NativeClient CPU Whitelist Maintained By Ex-Intel Director->

Submitted by HuvahCraftah
HuvahCraftah writes "Apparently, anti-competitive habits die hard. After leaving his Director position at Intel, Brad Chen became the gatekeeper at Google for which processors you are allowed to run NativeClient apps on. When confronted, he initially cites "incorrect x86 implementations" as the main concern and then bizarrely turns that upside-down and says that only processors with documented incorrect x86 implementations are allowed to run NativeClient applications."
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The Military

Cold Warriors to nuclear abolitionists: Kissenger, Sam Nunn & George Schulz->

Submitted by
Harperdog
Harperdog writes "Wonderful discussion of the changes in Kissenger, Nunn, and Schulz, as well as William Perry (former SecDef), and Sidney Drell, all of whom are former Cold Warriors who supported nuclear weapons and the potential to use them, and who now work to abolish those weapons. This is a fascinating article about a real change of heart and what led to it."
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