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Censorship

Submission + - Best Buy threatens to sue for blog about uniforms. (improveverywhere.com)

Submitted by arrenlex
arrenlex writes: Improv Everywhere (http://improveverywhere.com/), a NY-based comedy group, was served a Cease & Desist notice by Best Boy for selling "improv everywhere" shirts modelled after the blue BB uniform. But that's not the interesting part. From the blog post: "Here's where the story gets interesting. Today, Best Buy sent a C&D to our friend Scott Beale over at laughingsquid.com threatening legal action unless he removes the blog post referencing our shirts! They're threatening to sue someone for just covering the news story of the shirts!" First rule of Best Buy: don't talk about Best Buy?
Space

Submission + - The Solar System Is Bent (cnn.com)

Submitted by RWarrior(fobw)
RWarrior(fobw) writes: CNN reports today that Voyager 2 has found that the solar system is asymmetrical.

I suppose it's only a matter of time now before the Voyager crafts prove that the whole fabric of the space time continnum is not merely curved, it is in fact totally bent.
Education

Submission + - MediaDefender leaked shows lower student P2P (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The MPAA and the RIAA ,known affectionately as the **AAs, have been targeting Universities in a fury claiming that college students are causing them huge losses. However, some leaked MediaDefender emails may show that may be a huge exaggeration. "To make a long story short, MediaDefender's data shows that the average percentage of EDU IP addresses found to be on the Gnutella network during the time they sampled the data is 1.76%."
Censorship

Submission + - Is ISP Web Content Filtering Here? 1

Submitted by
unixluv
unixluv writes: "An ISP is testing web content filtering and content substitution software, see http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000337.html. While it seems innocent enough, is this the wave of the future? Will your ISP censor your web experience? Now consider it in the context of The MPAA asking for ISP Content Filtering on /. this week. Is the RIAA next? Will this spawn a war of web tools to circumvent ISP tools?"
Transportation

Submission + - Electric Cars to Help Utilities Load Balance Grid

Submitted by
Reservoir Hill
Reservoir Hill writes: "A team at the University of Delaware has created a system that enables vehicles to not only run on electricity alone, but also to generate revenue by storing and providing electricity for utilities. The technology, known as V2G, for vehicle-to-grid, lets electricity flow from the car's battery to power lines and back. When the car is in the V2G setting, the battery's charge goes up or down depending on the needs of the grid operator, which sometimes must store surplus power and other times requires extra power to respond to surges in usage. The ability of the V2G car's battery to act like a sponge provides a solution for utilities, which pay millions to generating stations that help balance the grid. Willett Kempton, who began developing the technology more than a decade ago, estimates the value for utilities could be up to $4,000 a year for the service, part of which could be paid to drivers. A car sitting there with a tank of gasoline in it, that's useless," says Kempton. "If it's a battery storing a lot of electricity and a big plug that allows moving power back and forth quickly, then it's valuable.""
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA steers clear of colleges that resist 4

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that 22 institutions have been targeted in the RIAA's new round of attacks. I notice that the RIAA continues to steer clear of Harvard. Could it be because of this or this? And I notice it isn't serving any more subpoenas on the University of Oregon... could it be because of this or this? And I don't see any more subpoenas to College of William & Mary or George Washington University or University of South Florida of University of New Mexico. Could that have to do with this or this or this or this? There seems to be a pattern here. The RIAA is staying away from places where it might have a fight on their hands."
The Media

Submission + - Congress Creates Copyright Cops (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "Not satisfied with pitiful potential penalties of $150,000 for infringing upon a $0.99 song, Congress is proposing new copyright cops in the "PRO IP" Act of 2007, specifically the creation of the Office of the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative (USIPER). They also feel that the authorities need the authority to seize any computers used for infringement and to send copyright cops abroad to help other countries enforce US laws. MPAA boss Dan Glickman praised the bill saying that, "films left costs foreign and domestic distributors, retailers and others $18 billion a year," though Ars points out that it allegedly costs the studios only $6 billion. However, even with the support of most of the top members of the House Judiciary Committee, the bill may require more work before it passes: USIPER needs a cooler acronym that doesn't sound like a combination of usurper and Lucifer."
The Internet

Submission + - P2P growth leads IETF to debate "fair" ban (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Bannerman
Bannerman writes: At the Internet Engineering Task Force annual meeting in Vancouver this week, one of the topics discussed is fairness in bandwidth use A draft paper presented by a British Telecom network engineer talks about how to allocate bandwidth fairly between interactive and unattended (e.g., BitTorrent) applications. 'Briscoe argues that fairness goes out the window with P2P applications such as BitTorrent. These applications may use as many as 40 to 100 TCP sessions at the same time, while a browser uses two to four... with 80 interactive users and 20 unattended users behind a 10Mbps connection, the interactive users would get 7.1MB per day and the unattended users 3.6GB. Peak use for interactive users is 10Kbps, with an average of 1Kbps. For unattended peer-to-peer users, peak and average are both 500Kbps.' The result is that ISPs have less incentive to upgrade their networks.
Yahoo!

Submission + - Church files order for Yahoo to release identities (ledger-enquirer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yahoo and consumer opinion site RateItAll had until Friday to follow an order by a Muscogee County, GA Superior Court judge to disclose the identities of 5 people who emailed and posted anonymously about Cascade Hills Church of Columbus, GA and its pastor Bill Purvis.
United States

Submission + - Senate Bill 1959 to Create Thoughtcrime (newstarget.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "The end of Free Speech in America has arrived at our doorstep. It's a new law called the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, and it is worded in a clever way that could allow the U.S. government to arrest and incarcerate any individual who speaks out against the Bush Administration, the war on Iraq, the Department of Homeland Security or any government agency (including the FDA). The law has already passed the House on a traitorous vote of 405 to 6, and it is now being considered in the Senate where a vote is imminent." Source: http://www.newstarget.com/022308.html
The Internet

Submission + - Gamespot editor fired over review of Eidos game 2

Submitted by PocketPick
PocketPick writes: Kotaku is reporting that following a unflatering review of the game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, long-time editor Jeff Gerstmann is no longer under the employment of video gaming website Gamespot and it's parent, CNET. Kane & Lynch, a game published by Eidos for the Xbox 360, PS3 & PC, has been heavily featured in flash, image and text advertisments on Gamespot's website since the release on November 13th, inevitably leading to questions whether or not Mr. Gerstmann's firing was motivated by pressure from Eidos.
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA runs into trouble in Ohio 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As the RIAA's war against college music sharers enters its tenth month, college students in Ohio are fighting back. At Ohio State University two John Does are fighting a single subpoena, while at Ohio University one student — who didn't respond to the RIAA's lawsuit for more than eight months — has escaped a default judgment. But Ohio hasn't been a total loss for the RIAA. More than 75 students at both schools have settled for at least $3,000 each and the RIAA's chief spokesman, Jonathan Lamy, is an Ohio U. grad.
The Courts

Submission + - Oregon AG Seeks to investigate RIAA tactics

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Turning the tables on the RIAA's attempt to subpoena information from the University of Oregon about the identities of the university students, the Attorney General has now filed additional papers requesting permission from the Court to conduct immediate discovery into the RIAA's 'data mining' techniques, such as the use of unlicensed investigators, the turning over of subpoenaed information to collection agencies, the obtaining of personal information from computers. The AG pointed out (pdf) that "Because Plaintiffs routinely obtain ex parte discovery in their John Doe infringement suits.....their factual assertions supporting their good cause argument are never challenged by an adverse party and their investigative methods remain free of scrutiny. They often settle their cases quickly before defendants obtain legal representation and begin to conduct discovery...... and have dropped cases, such as their case against Tanya Andersen, in which their methods and practices have been challenged through counterclaims...... While the University is not a party to the case, Plaintiffs' subpoena affects the university's rights and obligations. Plaintiffs may be spying on students who use the University's computer system and may be accessing much more than IP addresses." As one commentator succinctly put it, "They'll be going bananas in RIAA land" after reading this filing."

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