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Submission + - Police busted after tracking device found on car (stuff.co.nz)

Submitted by uh oh
uh oh writes: A New Zealand police operation to covertly follow a Central Otago man came to an abrupt halt this week when the man found tracking devices planted in his car, ripped them out and listed them for auction on Trade Me. Ralph Williams, of Cromwell, said he found the devices last week in his daughter's car, which he uses, and in his flatmate's car after the cars were seized by police and taken away for investigation.
The Internet

Submission + - Porn industry bands together against Bittorrent 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Acording P2P Blog to AVN: It's been a well-know fact that a lot of the content swapped on P2P networks is porn. Even so, adult entertainment companies have been on the sideline of the fight against P2P piracy, leaving the mass lawsuit campaigns to their colleagues from the music industry and relying on mainstream Hollywood for anti-piracy lobbying. Five companies nevertheless decided to go forward and form a lose alliance with the goal of eventually establishing an industry association to initiate anti-piracy lawsuits. More can be found here : http://www.p2p-blog.com/item-361.html and here : http://www.avn.com/index.cfm?objectid=70F9F731-B1E E-818D-931BEAF17B36C7C6&articleid=DD5F351A-D142-61 98-043BDF47539D8467
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA Complaint Dismissed as "Boilerplate"

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The decision many lawyers had been expecting — that the RIAA's "boilerplate" complaint fails to state a claim for relief under the Copyright Act — has indeed come down, but from an unlikely source. While the legal community has been looking towards a Manhattan case, Elektra v. Barker, for guidance, a case in which amicus briefs had been submitted by various industry groups and the US Department of Justice (see case file, and from Warner v. Cassin, a similar motion in the same Court's Westchester division, the decision instead came from Senior District Court Judge Rudi M. Brewster of the US District Court for the Southern District of California, in a decision denying a default judgment (i.e. the defendant had not even appeared in the action). Judge Brewster not only denied the default judgment motion but dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. Echoing the words of Judge Karas at the oral argument in Barker , Judge Brewster held (pdf) that "Plaintiff here must present at least some facts to show the plausibility of their allegations of copyright infringement against the Defendant. However, other than the bare conclusory statement that on "information and belief" Defendant has downloaded, distributed and/or made available for distribution to the public copyrighted works, Plaintiffs have presented no facts that would indicate that this allegation is anything more than speculation. The complaint is simply a boilerplate listing of the elements of copyright infringement without any facts pertaining specifically to the instant Defendant. The Court therefore finds that the complaint fails to sufficiently state a claim upon which relief can be granted and entry of default judgment is not warranted.""
Slashback

Charges Dropped In PA Video Taping Arrest 177

Posted by kdawson from the common-sense-prevails dept.
Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed has reversed himself completely over the charges against Brian Kelly, arrested for wiretapping after videotaping a police stop. Now let's see if they are good enough to compensate Kelly for the 26 hours he spent in jail and the anguish of the cloud over his future caused by a felony arrest. From the article: "... [DA] Freed said his decision will affect not only Brian Kelly, 18, but also will establish a policy for police departments countywide. 'When police are audio- and video-recording traffic stops with notice to the subjects, similar actions by citizens, even if done in secret, will not result in criminal charges,' Freed said yesterday. 'The law itself might need to be revised.'"
Space

Submission + - Scramjet Rocket Successful Test (news.com.au)

Submitted by Paul Murray
Paul Murray writes: News.com.au reports that the next test of a scramjet engine was undertaken today in the Australian Outback in a co-operative effort by the DSTO and the University of Queensland. Reaching an altitude of 530km, initially it appears that it was a success, however the goal was to reach 10 times the speed of sound, so they won't know for sure until they are able to collate all the data.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - IT ads from the past: From the quaint to the weird (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
PetManimal
PetManimal writes: "Computerworld has dug up some funny IT advertising gems from decades past. The highlights include "The Personal Mainframe", Elvira hawking engineering software, and an image of the earliest screenless "briefcase portables." Strange to think that people not only took these technologies so seriously, but also paid big bucks for gear that seems positively primitive now."
Links

Submission + - Is Scientific Consensus a Threat to Democracy? (ft.com)

Submitted by
chance_encounter
chance_encounter writes: "President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus has published an article in the Financial Times in which he seems to equate the current global warming debate with totalitarian thought control: "The dictates of political correctness are strict and only one permitted truth, not for the first time in human history, is imposed on us. Everything else is denounced." He goes on to state: "The scientists should help us and take into consideration the political effects of their scientific opinions. They have an obligation to declare their political and value assumptions and how much they have affected their selection and interpretation of scientific evidence." At the end of the article he proposes several suggestions to improve the global climate debate, including this point: "Let us resist the politicisation of science and oppose the term "scientific consensus," which is always achieved only by a loud minority, never by a silent majority.""
Networking

Submission + - Controversy threatens 100G Ethernet work (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "A debate within the IEEE threatens to stall work on a 100Gbps Ethernet standard and the very existence of the working group defining it. Participants in the Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG) within the IEEE are divided on whether to include 40G Ethernet as part of their charter or stay the course with 100G. Proponents for 40G argue that it is a necessary, simple and cost-effective step that has broad market potential; opponents say it will unnecessarily bog down progress on 100G which, they claim, also has broad market potential addressing different applications — aggregation and long-haul vs. server interconnect. Seven months ago, HSSG's focus seemed like a done deal. But in January, 40G proponents became more vocal. Now, the integrity of HSSG itself is threatened by the row. The group's future hinges on a meeting next month in San Francisco where HSSG leaders will attempt to build consensus among members on the 40G/100G issue. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/061407-100g- standards-work.html"
Space

Submission + - Scientists discover radiation-eating fungi

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "Scientists have discovered that fungi are able to eat radiation, and since ionizing radiation is prevalent in outer space, astronauts might be able to rely on fungi as an inexhaustible food source on long missions or for colonizing other planets. Just as the pigment chlorophyll converts sunlight into chemical energy that allows green plants to live and grow, our research suggests that melanin can use a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum — ionizing radiation — to benefit the fungi containing it, the researchers explain."
Google

Google Bans Ads For Essay-Writing Services 264

Posted by kdawson from the write-it-yourself dept.
llamapalooza writes "Google announced that it will ban essay writing firms from advertising on their site. (The prevalence of cheating on campuses has been discussed here before.) While universities have welcomed the move, the affected firms are claiming it will 'punish legitimate businesses.' Google has specifically banned 'academic paper-writing services and the sale of pre-written essays, theses, and dissertations,' which now join other items on the banned list such as tobacco, drugs, weapons, and prostitution."
Music

Small Webcasters Offered a Rate Break, Reject It 123

Posted by kdawson from the hoping-for-a-better-deal-from-Congress dept.
Pontifex minimus writes "Music royalty collection group SoundExchange has offered an olive branch to small webcasters. They are willing to delay the exorbitant new rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board until 2010 for small webcasters in hopes that they can keep Congress from passing the Internet Radio Equality Act. Larger outfits, like Live365 and Pandora would not be affected and would have to pay the new rates. '"Although the rates revised by the CRB are fair and based on the value of music in the marketplace, there's a sense in the music community and in Congress that small webcasters need more time to develop their businesses," said John Simson, executive director of SoundExchange.' SaveNetRadio rejected SoundExchange's offer, saying that it 'throws large webcasters under the bus.'"
Google

Behavioral Search & Advertising On Its Way? 186

Posted by CmdrTaco from the its-not-hear-already? dept.
cyberianpan writes "Imagine a world where advertisers would be able to predict your detailed behavior online. They would know when you are about to buy a song, a car, a present for your spouse — they would know virtually everything you are thinking. With the acquisition of DoubleClick, Google now has access to the cookies and subsequently browsing history of vast numbers of web users. It would be fair to say that greater than 85% of Internet users frequently come into contact with ads served by DoubleClick. Google could potentially have access to not only the majority of the world's search history but its browsing and e-commerce history as well. The company could know more about web surfers than they know about themselves."
Communications

Submission + - Record High Frequency Achieved

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "Researchers at UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science managed to push our control of frequencies to another level when they hit a submillimeter 324 gigahertz frequency. As any signal geek out there might tell you, this is a non-trivial task. From the article, "With traditional 90-nanometer CMOS circuit approaches, it is virtually impossible to generate usable submillimeter signals with a frequency higher than about 190 GHz. That's because conventional oscillator circuits are nonlinear systems in which increases in frequency are accompanied by a corresponding loss in gain or efficiency and an increase in noise, making them unsuitable for practical applications." The article also talks about the surprising applications this new technology may evolve into including seeing through clothing. While one might dream up more perverse situations to use this in, it is unsurprising that this is instead targeting military/security applications for seeing hidden explosive devices and/or weapons."

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