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

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Federal Judge Rules Warner Doesn't Own Happy Birthday (washingtonpost.com)

turp182 writes: Direct quote from of the article's first paragraph:
"A California federal judge ruled Tuesday that “Happy Birthday to You” does not belong to the mega music corporation that has long claimed it. Instead, the world’s most popular song belongs to, well, the world."

Other details are that Warner was receiving at least $2 million per year in royalties, and that a class-action suit to recoup said fees over the years is probably in the makings.

This is a perfect example regarding copyright in perpetuity.

Comment How sad (Score 2) 167

My first experience with Linux was Mandrake back in 2003, when I was 16. I had to ask a mate to download the CD images for me because his street had ADSL and I was still on dial-up lol. Fun summer :)

Comment Declined, probably (Score 1) 244

What doesn't seem to have been mentioned here so far is how we define "watch TV", by which I don't mean nit-picking about if it's broadcast, on DVR or streamed from Netflix, iPlayer or your favourite torrent site. I often have the TV on, but just to provide "filler" noise in my house while I get on with other things - I frequently have the TV on, but I rarely *watch* it.

Comment What I want in my car... (Score 1) 148

What do I want in my car? 4 wheels (plus a spare in the boot), pedals and a gear leaver (that are physically connected to the things they control), an engine, seats, windows that open and maybe a radio. Anything else is just something to fail or distract me from what I'm supposed to be doing (driving). I'm not old enough to be a stick in the mud but I like having a car that is relatively simple and easily maintained.

Comment Re: Home server not the fix-all (Score 1) 166

I know none of this will help you sir, but I wanted to address some of these concerns for people in the UK, like me. I've been running a home server for a while now (and recently switched to a Raspberry Pi, mostly for the power savings). Anyway... For your Internet connection, I highly recommend Plusnet's fibre broadband, if you're lucky enough to live in an area where it's available. For £20/month (plus line rental) I get around 20mbps upstream. I've had their fibre broadband for about 6 months now without any downtime. They have no issues with me running a server, and offer a static ip for a one-of setup fee of £5 (which they say will make it easier to host your own website, etc, thus taking care of any worries about falling foul of their tos). Their sister company just-the-name will sell you a .co.uk domain for £9/2 years. In case you wonder, no I don't work for them, I'm just very impressed by their service.

Comment Good clean wifi? (Score 1) 390

“We are promoting good, clean, WiFi in local cafes and elsewhere to make sure that people have confidence in public WiFi systems so that they are not going to see things they shouldn’t.”

What on earth is good clean wifi? The wording here suggests that he thinks simply allowing porn is going to make it flash up on peoples' screens.

Slashdot Top Deals

New York... when civilization falls apart, remember, we were way ahead of you. - David Letterman

Working...