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Media

Submission + - Digital 'Fair Use' Bill Introduced In Congress

Submitted by
d3ac0n
d3ac0n writes: "From the Washington Post: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2007/02/di gital_fair_use_bill_introduc.html

Today, Reps. Rich Boucher (D-Va.) and John Dolittle (R-Calif.) introduced what they call the "Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship" (or FAIR USE) Act they say will make it easier for digital media consumers to use the content they buy.
A refreshing bipartisan effort to return Fair Use to it's rightful place as the law of the land. (for media content, anyway)"
Announcements

Submission + - IBM SW evaluation DVD with all its Linux apps

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This is the easiest way to get all of the fresh releases of IBM applications for Linux. A DVD with all DB2, Rational, Websphere, Informix, Tivoli, and Workplace applications for Linux will be sent to you at no cost.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft: Google Was `wake-Up Call'

Submitted by wooha
wooha writes: Watching Google Inc. rake in advertising revenue was a wake-up call within Microsoft," the company's top technical executive, Ray Ozzie, said Tuesday. But he said Microsoft plans to do more than simply mimic Google by rolling out Web-based versions of desktop programs or following its particular search and advertising model. Ozzie, who has only made a handful of appearances since his promotion last June to replace Bill Gates as chief software architect, told analysts and investors at a Goldman Sachs conference in Las Vegas that he has been laying the groundwork for programmers across the company to build Internet-based software.
It's funny. Laugh.

Journal Journal: Al "Green" Gores Shocking Electric Bill 1

Journal by music2myear
Some interested person called the Nashville (TN) Electrical Service and under the Freedom of Information Act asked for the Academy Award Winning Ex-VP's energy bill. Apparently the publicly dull persona has quite the party life going at home. His usage last year? 221,000 kWh, that's a $30,000 bill, more than 20 times the national average. Last August alone he used 22,619 kWh, more than you or me (even with those massive 1000W PS' ru
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA letter sent to all presidents by ACE

Submitted by
JM
JM writes: "Sent via List-Serv today:

David Ward and the American Council on Education's
President to President
Vol. 8, No. 8
February 28, 2007
SPECIAL EDITION

Recording Industry to Announce Efforts to Limit Illegal Peer-to-Peer File Sharing on Campus
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will announce today that it is initiating legal action against individuals who engage in illegal file sharing of copyrighted materials using peer-to-peer systems. Roughly 400 of these actions will be taken against college students and the RIAA has asked that we share the following letter with you.
In the last three years, several higher education organizations, including ACE, the Association of American Universities, the National Association of State Universities of Land-Grant Colleges, and EDUCAUSE have worked with the entertainment industry to address this serious, continuing problem. The Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities, currently chaired by William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, and Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, has communicated regularly with campuses about this issue and the need to take appropriate action to stop it.

These efforts, along with the hard work of campuses, have undoubtedly deterred many individuals from engaging in illegal downloading but there is no doubt that this practice continues to be a significant problem that demands attention.
The RIAA's letter states that it will initiate a "pre-notice plan" that allows students to settle claims before a formal lawsuit is filed. A summary of their approach is attached to the RIAA letter. We have not had time to fully evaluate this idea and cannot, at present, formally advise you on this matter, but it may provide potential benefits to students facing lawsuits as well as to the RIAA. In the event that your institution is contacted, we encourage you to review the proposal with legal counsel and determine whether this approach makes sense for your campus.

An attachment to the letter outlines four ways to prevent or reduce the illegal file sharing problem on campus. One suggestion is to implement a network technical solution. While these products have become more sophisticated and powerful in recent years, we believe the term "solution" overstates the capacities of current technologies. In some cases, the technology may be too indiscriminate, blocking not only illegitimate peer-to-peer file sharing but also the legitimate peer-to-peer file sharing increasingly used in research and education activities. In other cases, the cost may be prohibitive. Nonetheless, because of the continued seriousness of the problem of illegal peer-to-peer file sharing and the promise of emerging network technologies, the Joint Committee has established a new technology working group which is actively addressing this topic and expects to issue a report to the higher education community within a few months.
For a more extensive analysis of the legal aspects of campus peer-to-peer file sharing, you might examine the November 2006 paper, Background Discussion of Copyright Law and Potential Liability for Students Engaged in P2P File Sharing on University Networks.

I underscore that illegal peer-to-peer file sharing remains a serious issue that all campuses must continue to address. My Washington colleagues and I appreciate the efforts you have already made in this area and encourage your ongoing attention to this matter.

David Ward,
President of ACE
****For further information and complete updates, please visit ACE's web site at http://www.acenet.edu/."
Media

Submission + - RIAA Prepares to Sue 400 College Students

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The RIAA sent out "pre-litigation settlement notices" to 400 network users at 13 U.S. universities today, continuing a PR blitz that began last week with a much-publicized list of the 25 most notified universities for copyright infringement. Once again, Ohio University tops the list, with one out of every eight notifications. From the press release: "The RIAA will request that universities forward those letters to the appropriate network user. Under this new approach, a student (or other network user) can settle the record company claims against him or her at a discounted rate before a lawsuit is ever filed."
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - European PS3 Won't Carry Chip for PS2

Submitted by Goodasitgets
Goodasitgets writes: The PlayStation 3 going on sale in Europe next month will play only some of the games for its predecessor video game machine — a move designed to cut costs and speed up production. Backward compatibility with PlayStation 2 has been billed as a major feature for the PlayStation 3 that went on sale late last year in the U.S. and Japan But packing the machine with two expensive computer chips to play both PS2 and upgrade PS3 games has been racking up costs for the money-losing PS3, a big reason behind Sony Corp.'s flagging earnings lately.
Businesses

Submission + - The Green Grid helps IT to save money and power

Submitted by squishylimbs
squishylimbs writes: A new industry group called The Green Grid is made up of Intel, AMD, and other big tech firms, and it's trying to make the data center more efficient. Why? Because they claim that current servers are wasting almost 35 percent of their power through power conversion alone.

From the article: "Electricity is being wasted at an alarming rate by most current servers. A typical 2U server with dual processors runs on a 450W power supply. Of that, 35 percent (160W) is lost just in the power conversion process inside the machine. This doesn't just cost money for a bit of wasted power; it also costs money for the additional cooling required to keep the datacenter at a constant temperature, and it limits the total number of servers that can be installed in a datacenter due to power constraints."
Bug

Submission + - Daylight Savings Time the Next Y2K?

Submitted by turnitover
turnitover writes: It happens a few thousand times more frequently, but according to an eWEEK.com article, this year's change to Daylight Savings Time could be a bigger IT headache than the much-ballyhooed Y2K. From TFA: ""We are likely to see more issues than we did with Y2K because there is no visibility at the board and the CEO level, yet it's a similar risk to the business," said Tim Howes, CTO at data center provisioning provider Opsware in Sunnyvale, CA." This is despite numerous Windows and Mac and Linux patches... . How about you? Are you ready?
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Boston Bomb-Squad Strikes Again

Submitted by Brian
Brian writes: Boston Police discover (and destroy) the latest pseudo-threat. This time it's not an animated LED sign, but something far, far more nasty — A Traffic Counter. You know, the little boxes that the city (!) places on a roadside to measure the number of cars that pass in a given amount of time. Wow.

Link
via BoingBoing.

Canada Rejects Anti-Terror Laws 507

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the shot-down dept.
Coryoth writes "The Canadian parliament has voted against renewing anti-terror laws that had been introduced after September 11, 2001. The rejected laws included provisions to hold terror suspects indefinitely, and to compel witnesses to testify, and were in some sense Canada's version fo the Patriot Act. The laws were voted down in the face of claims from the minority Conservative government that the Liberal Party was soft on terror, and despite the fact that Canada has faced active terrorist cells in their own country. The anti-terror laws have never been used, and it was viewed that they are neither relevant, nor needed, in dealing with terrorist plots. Hopefully more countries will come to the same conclusion."
The Matrix

Submission + - NY Fed Paper examines IT effect on productivity

Submitted by li'l opie
li'l opie writes: While early studies on US productivity gains in the mid 1990s concluded that "IT was relatively unimportant", the latest report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York states it is "now widely recognized that information technology (IT) was critical to the dramatic acceleration of U.S. labor productivity growth in the mid-1990s." Brought to you by recently more productive "who knew?" department. Link to the paper-> http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/s r277.pdf Are we there yet?
Software

Submission + - MPAA Fires Back at AACS Decryption Utility

Submitted by RulerOf
RulerOf writes: The AACS Decryption utility released this past December known as BackupHDDVD originally authored by Muslix64 of the Doom9 forums has received its first official DMCA Takedown Notice. It has been widely speculated that the utility itself was not an infringing piece of software due to the fact that it is merely "a textbook implementation of AACS," written with the help of documents publicly available at the AACS LA's website, and that the AACS Volume Unique Keys that the end user isn't supposed to have access to are in fact the infringing content, but it appears that such is not the case. From the thread:

"...you must input keys and then it will decrypt the encrypted content. If this is the case, than according to the language of the DMCA it does sound like it is infringing. Section 1201(a) says that it is an infringement to "circumvent a technological measure." The phrase, "circumvent a technological measure" is defined as "descramb(ling) a scrambled work or decrypt(ing) an encrypted work, ... without the authority of the copyright owner." If BackupHDDVD does in fact decrypt encrypted content than per the DMCA it needs a license to do that.
Networking

Submission + - LimeWire Breaks Vow of Silence

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: LimeWire has been very quiet since it was sued by the music industry. However according to Slyck news, they have broken their silence to address several compatibility issues with Microsoft Vista. Although problems remain, this news proves they are indeed still working on the LimeWire project despite the RIAA lawsuit.

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