Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
The Internet

Submission + - Pirate Party not giving up after BPI legal action (pctechtalk.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: UK political group, the Pirate Party insists it will continue to fight for digital rights despite being threatened with legal action by the UK’s music industry body over links to the Pirate Bay website

Elected members of the parties National Executive Committee, along with the head of IT, received letters from lawyers acting for British Phonographic Industry (BPI), threatening them personally with High Court legal action.

A proxy server was initially provided in solidarity with other parties in Europe, but soon became an anti-censorship resource for UK users after the 'Big Six' ISPs were forced by court order to begin blocking The Pirate Bay. Access to the proxy server has been removed.

Frances Nash, IP Lawyer at Manchester solicitors, Ralli, commented on behalf of the Pirate Party:

"Despite attempts by elected members to resolve this situation, the law at present is clear and makes any decision to continue hosting the proxy untenable.

This is not the outcome the party wanted however, any challenge to this proposed action would make it financially impossible for the party to deal with other issues for which they actively campaign on a daily basis.

The Pirate Party strongly believe that site blocking is both disproportionate and ineffective and will continue to lobby for digital rights and their wider manifesto.”
Iphone

Submission + - Brazilian company launches IPHONE that runs on Android (engadget.com)

Submitted by rodmm
rodmm writes: Gradiente, a consumer electronics brazilian company filed for trademark registration in Brazil in 2000, years ahead of Apple's product. This week they launched Gradiente iphone Neo One, already available at company's website. Although we can imagine that there will be some legal fight around it, first impression is that, legally speaking, the brazilian company has a right in this issue.

Submission + - TSA detains 12-yo girl in wheelchair for one hour due to botched explosive test (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Shelbi Walser, 12, has brittle bone disease, and was flying to Tampa, Fla., to receive treatment on Sunday when she was randomly selected for an explosives screening on her way through security. Tammy Daniels, Walser's mother, said that her daughter tested positive for explosives when a screener swabbed Walser's palms and fingers.

Daniels was separated from her daughter for an hour while the situation was sorted out. All she was able to do was film the incident and her embarrassed daughter crying.

A petition has been filed on the "We the people" website to ask for an official response. Please consider signing it at http://wh.gov/RtwL
The Military

Submission + - Highly sensitive radar deployed to monitor N.Korean rocket launches

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. is moving a floating platform with a Sea-Based X-Band Radar system from Hawaii to the Western Pacific in preparation for North Korea’s imminent launch of a space rocket. The radar is supposedly capable of identifying a baseball from about 4,800 km away, operating on a wavelength of 2.5 cm and transmitting electromagnetic waves using a powerful generator. The shorter radar waves are, the higher the resolution. The SBX is a key component of a defense system the U.S. is developing to intercept missiles targeting the U.S. mainland. It is capable of detecting missiles thousands of kilometers away so that interceptor missiles can hit them with precision.
DRM

Submission + - New Humble Bundle is Windows only, DRM games (humblebundle.com)

Submitted by jbernardo
jbernardo writes: After all the indie, multi-platform (including 4 for android) and DRM free releases, the latest Humble Bundle release is a polemic one. It features non-indie games, it is Windows only, and the games are saddled with DRM. There is already a very vocal discussion on the Humble Bundle Google+ thread, but it seems it is selling well.
Android

Submission + - KDE 4.10 Brings Android MTP Support To Linux (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: KDE developers are working hard on making Dolphin 2.2 faster and better than before. They are brining back the Place Panel's icon resize feature, and the way users rename files. There are many notable changes listed by Frank. However the most important feature is the support for MTP which is the protocol used by Google in Android devices. Till now MTP is badly broken under Linux but KDE developers have worked hard to offer out of the box support for Android's MTP.
Piracy

Submission + - Dictionary App auto-posts false accusations on users' Twitter Accounts (pocketables.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Certain iPhone and iPad applications from a Japanese company have broken software piracy detection mechanisms that are sending out tweets on the user's own Twitter account saying, "How about we all stop using pirated iOS apps? I promise to stop. I really will. #softwarepirateconfession" The trouble is, it is sending these out on accounts of users who actually paid up to $50 or more for the software and who are legally using it. The app is asking for access to user's Twitter accounts, but does not give the reason why it is asking, so the author of the pocketables.com article concludes (rightly, I think) that things are being done deliberately.

Would you want your legally purchased software to send out messages to all of your contacts on Twitter or on other social networks saying that you were a software pirate? Would you excuse the writers of the software if it was just an error in their piracy detection measures? Your opinions would be quite interesting. In the meantime, search for the hashtag #softwarepirateconfession on Twitter to see the many instances of this piracy feature operating and/or misfiring.
Politics

Submission + - Dad, Can We Legalize Pot Now? (economist.com)

Submitted by
retroworks
retroworks writes: "Two state initiatives, in Washington state and Colorado, will legalize and tax marijuana sales. Both conservative and liberal media have covered the issue calmly. Will budget pressures finally lead to reform of marijuana laws in the USA? Legalize + Regulate + Tax = Profit!"

Submission + - Racism Rampant in Mississippi (thedmonline.com)

Submitted by samazon
samazon writes: Last night on the campus of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) students watching the election began shouting racial epithets and offensive political chants. As a resident of the red state with a variety of acquaintances on both sides of the fence, I saw some pretty offensive things on Facebook, but you would think that the younger and arguably better-informed students of Ole Miss would at least realize that shouting racial slurs across campus might come back to bite them in a job interview (or class the next morning).
Apple

Submission + - Apple Refuses To Disclose When It Learned About Hogan's Previous Court Cases (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: You won't be Apple if you are not arrogant. Apple has now declined to answer Samsung's question in its motion that when did Cupertino learn about the jury foreman's previous court case with Seagate. Apple in its response says that it is not compelled to respond as it was Samsung who accused Hogan of misconduct and not Apple. Apple had threatened Samsung with the same question and Samsung told that it learned it only after Hogan started to talk to media. Does the denial mean Apple did know about it beforehand? So if Apple did know that Hogan was involved in a case with Seagate it may matter. Won't the chances of a verdict going against my opponent increase if I learn that the foreman holds grudges against my enemy? Will I want to disclose this fact and get such a foreman removed? Will I shoot at my own foot?

Comment Re:Bet has not failed yet (Score 1) 136

by jbernardo (#41891203) Attached to: Nokia "Suspends" Its Free Developer Program

The bet on WP8 might not have failed yet, but WP7 was an unmitigated disaster, that failed to convert most of the previous Nokia buyers. Even being given away in large quantities the lumias failed to attract more than a few Microsoft fans, and even some of those got upset with the way the platform got osborned with the announcement of WP8 and of the impossibility to update WP7 phones to it.

Submission + - Elgg Development with Elgg Developer (cisin.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Elgg is a social networking framework in other words, it provides the basic functionality to run a social network. However, since it is a framework you may need to do a bit of development in order to get your social network working the way you want it to. Elgg is an open-source, rapid development framework for creating social networks and applications. Elgg development provides the basic structure and building blocks that comprise any social application and includes an extensible plugin engine that allows us to create custom functionality and integrate with other platforms and APIs.
Android

Submission + - Only 3 Motorola smartphones to get Android 4.1 (blogspot.de)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Motorola and the updates, 2 worlds collide. Until the end of October was Motorola announce that the European Android smartphones will receive the Android 4.1 Update. Well, it’s early November, and now Motorola has announced which models will get the Android 4.1 Update. And — the result is disappointing

Comment Re:Biased (Score 1) 2

by jbernardo (#41879573) Attached to: Nokia "suspends" its free developer program

AAWP is a Microsoft-sponsored site, of course it would represent the story in a different light. As if paying $99 for a program that used to be free is now a huge advantage? Never mind that now a developer for Nokia's windows phones is targeting less than 5% of the market, when a couple of years ago a symbian developer, who would have free access to the Launchpad, would be targeting over 50% of it.

As for Apple's iOS program, I don't know what it has to do with Nokia's change of policy. Apple has a healthy market share, with as many developers as it wants. Nokia has a dwindling market share, and relatively few developers for its windows phone offerings. Shouldn't Nokia try to keep those developers and attract more, instead of adding extra barriers?

Slashdot Top Deals

The one day you'd sell your soul for something, souls are a glut.

Close