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Businesses

Submission + - Broadcasters launch ads opposing wireless internet

Submitted by kaufmanmoore
kaufmanmoore writes: According to an AP report, The National Association of Broadcasters is launching ads to target lawmakers over a push by a consortium of technology giants including Google, Intel, HP and MSFT who want to use unused and unlicensed TV spectrum for wireless broadband. Broadcasters are airing concerns about the devices creating interference with broadcast television and in a statement NAB chairman Alan Frank takes a swipe at technology companies saying, "While our friends at Intel, Google and Microsoft may find system errors, computer glitches and dropped calls tolerable, broadcasters do not."
Security

Submission + - The Secret Sauce In Secure Software (360is.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at independent Three Sixty Information Security have analysed 7 of their most frequently recommended tools for network and system administrators. Among the regulars like ssh and nmap are some tools less commonly known for their security admin credentials. The article examines each on its merits and uses the results to build a screen for evaluating future projects. Finally it attempts to answer the question; "What makes this software so uncommonly good?"

The results may surprise you.
Software

Submission + - GPL Violations On Windows Go Unnoticed?

Submitted by Scott_F
Scott_F writes: I recently reviewed several commercial, closed-source slideshow authoring packages for Windows and came across an alarming trend. Several of the packages I installed included GPL and LGPL software without any mention of the GPL, much less source code. For example, DVD Photo Slideshow (www.dvd-photo-slideshow.com) included mkisofs, cdrdao, dvdauthor, spumux, id3lib, lame, mpeg2enc and mplex (all of which are GPL or LGPL). What's worse is that the company tried to hide this by wrapping them all in DLL's! There are other violations in other packages as well. It seems that use of GPL software in commercial Windows applications is on the rise based on my testing of other software. My question is how much are GPL violations in the Windows world being pursued? Does the FSF or EFF follow-up on these if the platform is not GPL? How aware is the community of this trend?
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft forces shutdown of Autopatcher

Submitted by kaufmanmoore
kaufmanmoore writes: Posts on Neowin and Autopatcher's site announce Microsoft has forced the closure of the Autopatcher download section. Details are scarce as to the exact reason for the take down after over 4 years of availability, but an official from Microsoft legal says that it has nothing to do with Windows Genuine Advantage. Goodbye to another useful tool that helped sysadmins apply Microsoft's numerous patches.
Media

Submission + - "Viacom hit me for infringing my own copyright (blogspot.com) 2

Submitted by
Chris Knight
Chris Knight writes: "Long story short: I ran for school board where I live this past fall and created some TV commercials including this one with a "Star Wars" theme. A few months ago VH1 grabbed the commercial from YouTube and featured it in a segment of its show "Web Junk 2.0". Neither VH1 or its parent company Viacom told me they were doing this or asked my permission to use it, but I didn't mind it if they did. It was great to see the commercial was being enjoyed by a far wider audience than I'd expected. I was honored that they chose to use it and thought that Aries Spears's commentary about it was pretty hilarious, so I posted a clip of VH1's segment on YouTube so that I could put it on my blog. This morning I got an e-mail from YouTube saying that the video has been pulled because Viacom is claiming that I'm violating its copyright. Viacom used my video without permission on their commercial television show, and now says that I am infringing on THEIR copyright for showing the clip of the work that Viacom made in violation of my own copyright! Talk about chutzpah! Needless to say, I would like to fight this: not for any kind of monetary compensation, but just for the right to employ my own self-created material per Fair Use."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Kills AutoPatcher

Submitted by Sounder40
Sounder40 writes: Sad news indeed from the AutoPatcher crew:

"Today we received an e-mail from Microsoft, requesting the immediate take-down of the download page, which of course means that AutoPatcher is probably history. As much as we disagree, we can do very little, and although the download page is merely a collection of mirrors, we took the download page down.

We would like to thank you for your support. For the past 4 years, it has been a blast. Unfortunately, it seems like it's the end of AutoPatcher as we know it.
Censorship

Submission + - Yahoo, MSN sign new Chinese gov't blogging pact (breitbart.com)

Submitted by kaufmanmoore
kaufmanmoore writes: AFP is reporting that Yahoo China and MSN have signed the new "self-discipline" pledge introduced this week and covered previously on slashdot. There are no more details at this point as to whether MSN or Yahoo will require detailed registration of personal information as encouraged by the Chinese government.
United States

Submission + - Rootkit installation hits PC gaming (gamingbob.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Sony (the owners of SecureROM copy protection) are still up to their old tricks. One would think that they would have learned their lesson after the music CD DRM fiasco. However, they have now gone over and started infesting PC gaming with their DRM ideas. Recent facts have surfaced that show that BioShock, a recently released PC game, installs a rootkit as part of its SecureROM copy protection scheme. Not only this, just installing the DEMO installs the rootkit on your system, which embeds itself into Explorer. This begs the question: Since when did demos need copy protection?

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