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Censorship

Submission + - New Jersey bans sex offenders from using internet

Submitted by the_humeister
the_humeister writes: According to the AP, New Jersey has just enacted a new law restricting internet access to sex offenders. Now this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing save for the fact that "sex offender" now covers such a wide range of actions such that getting caught urinating in public can get you such a label.
The Internet

Report Says 36.4% of World's Computers Infringe on IP 331

Posted by Zonk from the i-would-guess-it's-quite-a-bit-more-actually dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "According to a new report by Digital Music News, 36.4% of the world's computers have LimeWire installed. Given their claim that filling an iPod legally would cost about $40,000, they're pretty sure that most of those computers are infringing upon at least a few imaginary property rights. BitTorrent shouldn't feel left out, though. BitTorrent actually uses more bandwidth, but the article suggests that this is because it is used to share larger files, like movies."
The Courts

Submission + - Has RIAA expert Jacobson contradicted himself? (blogspot.com) 1

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "A year and five months after examining the defendant's hard drive in UMG v. Lindor, the RIAA's "expert" witness, Dr. Doug Jacobson, has issued a "supplemental report" which appears to contradict his earlier "reports" alluding to the hard drive inspection. In view of the superb job the Slashdot community and the Groklaw community did in helping first to prepare for, and then to vet, Jacobson's deposition, I humbly submit for your learned review the now three (3) versions of the "expert's" opinions based on the hard drive, for your analysis. As with almost all federal litigation documents nowadays, they are, unfortunately, in *pdf format: (a) December 19, 2006, declaration; (b) unsigned October 25, 2006, report, awaiting approval from RIAA lawyers; and (c) December 15, 2007, version. The initial observations of commentators on my blog are located here."
Microsoft

Submission + - The Economist says Linux is easier than Windows (economist.com) 1

Submitted by
alexsingleton
alexsingleton writes: "The Economist says Linux will become "the operating system of choice" for low-price PCs in 2008 and raves about the latest version of Ubuntu Linux: "No question, Gutsy Gibbon is the sleekest, best integrated and most user-friendly Linux distribution yet. It's now simpler to set up and configure than Windows. A great deal of work has gone into making the graphics, and especially the fonts, as intuitive and attractive as the Mac's.""
Software

Submission + - A new low in restrictive software licensing 4

Submitted by Coutal
Coutal writes: Licensing is usually looked upon as a burden by software customers, although one we're grudgingly used to living with. However, at times one encounters new lows which can still invoke sufficient outrage — a stealable license.
Recently, my i-go based pocket pc navigation unit was stolen. However, I still retained my valid serial number, certificate of authenticity, proof of purchase and even a backup of the software. I figured restoring my software to another device should be a matter of unit service or (tops) minimal fee for media restoration. Tech support, however, had other ideas in mind. They informed me that my license was stolen with the unit. No amount of explanation of the lack of logic in that statement made through. They insisted that my backups were also void because I no longer have the original SD card and that I am not allowed to use them (which kind of defeats the whole purpose of backup, as the device only stores extremely little other data than the original software — no more than a few points of interest and marginal settings).
Music

Submission + - MTV: 2007 borked the music industry

Submitted by
Sockatume
Sockatume writes: "MTV thinks 2007 was the year the music industry broke, and provides a hefty pile of examples to justify it. Unsurprisingly, most of them revolve around the collapse of CD sales and the rise of digital distribution (authorised and otherwise). Be advised that many of the examples are the continuations or repurcussions of old favourites (RIAA suits, the Sony rootkit fiasco)."
The Military

Submission + - Tiny morphing spy planes steal electricity 1

Submitted by tkohler
tkohler writes: The Air Force Research Lab is developing an Electric Motor-powered Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) that can "harvest" energy when needed by attaching itself to a power line. Not only is it stealing power from the people it is spying upon, it can morph shape, temporarily changing its shape to look more like innocuous piece of trash hanging from the cable. For domestic spying, maybe it will morph in to a pair of sneakers?
Microsoft

Submission + - Christmas Carol: Workin' in a Vista Wonderland

Submitted by
iweditor
iweditor writes: "InfoWorld's Cringely sings Grinch-like high-tech tunes , like this one about WIndows Vista, and others. To the tune of 'Winter Wonderland.' Laptop's on... is it frozen? No that's just Windows loading Your workday has stalled Your PC now crawls Working in a Vista Wonderland iPod fails, needs new software Microsoft — why should they care? You'll soon grow quite sick Of confirming each click Working in a Vista Wonderland When there's trouble you'll call their support crew And provide a credit card or two You'll reach a technician named Narasu And he'll help you to endlessly reboot Later on, when you downgrade Old XP will seem so great And you will regret The time that you spent Working in a Vista Wonderland"
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA "expert" Jacobson makes new accusatio

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Not content with his prior testimony and his previous reports, the RIAA's "expert", Dr. Doug Jacobson, has submitted a new, "supplemental" report, making new accusations against Ms. Lindor's son, in UMG v. Lindor. He makes no mention of what new development occurred to make him change his mind. The RIAA appears to have become emboldened in Brooklyn by recent rulings there in which the District Judge David G. Trager held that (a) Ms. Lindor's lawyers are not allowed to see MediaSentry's compensation and retainer agreements even though MediaSentry is plaintiffs' primary trial witness; (b) Dr. Jacobson can testify as an 'expert witness' at the trial even though he satisfied none of the Daubert reliability factors, and (c) he will continue to personally control all RIAA cases in the Eastern District of New York, rather than allow random judicial assignment by lot, which is the general rule in federal court. Upon learning of the ruling, one commentator stated that the RIAA has "been foisting supposed tech expert Doug Jacobson on courts hearing specious RIAA sue 'em all cases even though the voracity of Jacobson's evidence has been proven to be highly questionable"."
The Courts

Submission + - Top three pay penalties for online gambling (stltoday.com)

Submitted by
denarn
denarn writes: "The ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH reports:
Three of the largest Internet companies have agreed to pay millions in fines, cooperate with investigators and stop accepting ads for online gambling.
Microsoft, Google and Yahoo neither admitted nor denied federal prosecutors' claims that as much as a decade of their advertising aided and abetted the crime of online gambling. But as part of the $31.5 million settlement, they have agreed to stop running online gambling ads and also agreed not to publicly contradict the allegations.
In the agreement, the companies agreed to cooperate with investigators, including the FBI and the criminal investigation division of the Internal Revenue Service.
Federal prosecutors in St. Louis have developed a specialty in combating online gaming."
Transportation

Submission + - EPA Stops States from Cutting Auto Emissions (nytimes.com) 1

Submitted by ahecht
ahecht writes: In response to the energy bill signed into law by President Bush on Wednesday, the EPA has denied California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and 13 other states from setting their own stricter emissions requirements. While the Bush bill requires auto makers to meet 35mpg by 2020, the new California law would have required 43mpg for cars (and 27mpg for trucks and SUVs) by 2016. California has long been a leader in driving the automobile industry to improve mileage and emissions, and this was the first time they were refused permission to impose their own pollution rules. The decision, according to industry analysts cited in the article, appears to be a reward to the auto industry for dropping opposition to Bush's new energy bill.
The Media

Think Secret Shutting Down 240

Posted by kdawson from the settled-out-of-existence dept.
A number of readers are sending in the news that the Mac rumors site Think Secret will be shutting down, as part of the (secret) settlement of a lawsuit Apple filed in 2005. Apple had claimed that the blog, published since 1998 by college student Nick Ciarelli, had revealed Apple's trade secrets. The only other detail of the settlement that has been revealed is that Think Secret was not forced to reveal any sources.
HP

Submission + - HP Unwilling to Fix BIOS for Linux Users (mattparnell.com)

Submitted by
ilikenwf
ilikenwf writes: "Many users have had issues with the HP laptops that are currently on the market as a result of a BIOS bug persists to pop up on HP's laptops, regardless of the various updates. This causes users to have to disable lapic, which keeps features like high resolution timers from being used to increase speed and drastically increase battery life. Contacting customer support has been less than helpful, as displayed by HP's arrogance. Any BIOS hackers out there?...And no, LinuxBIOS will not work on these laptops."
Supercomputing

Submission + - students power supercomputer with bicycles (computerworld.com.au) 1

Submitted by
inkslinger77
inkslinger77 writes: "A team of ten MIT students powered a supercomputer for twenty minutes by pedalling bicycles. They duly claimed the world record for human-powered computing (HPC). They powered a SiCortex SC648 supercomputer with a Linux cluster of 648 CPUs and almost 1TB of main memory in a single cabinet. The system is low-powered and draws 1,200 watts without needing special power supplies or cooling..."
Microsoft

Submission + - Cisco/Microsoft battle for unified communications (gigaom.com)

Submitted by BobB-nw
BobB-nw writes: The cold-war between Microsoft and Cisco for the much coveted "unified communications" market has escalated to all out war, with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates predicting "the death of the PBX." The oft-hyped Office Communication Server is essentially the PBX destroyer.

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