345083
submission
azuredrake writes:
ZDNet reports on a Silicon Valley company named Willow Garage which is attempting to foster an open-source community to advance the field of robotics. Among other projects, the company is working on an autonomous, solar-powered boat for ocean research, and a car capable of driving itself through traffic situations and self-parking. The novel aspect to this company, however, is that it's a privately owned company which seems more interested in advancing its field of study than in turning a quick profit. Whether or not this proves a viable business model remains to be seen, but they seem to have the potential to revolutionize the field of personal robotics.
344127
submission
SailorSpork writes:
The Japanese government has formally asked the American government for their help in stopping the distribution of fan-subtitled anime, specifically via P2P networks like Bittorrent and video sharing sites such as YouTube. The full document (in Japanese) is available here, a Google translation of an article on a Japanese website summarizing the request is available here, and a short article is available in english here. In a nutshell, the Japanese government blames rampant filesharing with the recent decline of the industry both at home and abroad. While individual companies have made similar, targeted requests before to stop a few specific projects, this is the first time the Japanese government has asked for help in enforcing its international copyrights across the board.
Ironically, Geneon Entertainment, an anime distributor that had an agreement with Azureus to digitally distribute its titles via Bittorrent, has recently withdrawn from the American market.
