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Comment Re:The Mysterious Reoccurrence of Mr. Freckles (Score 1) 290

by plague3106 (#28267867) Attached to: Most Blogs Now Abandoned

It all depends on who you follow. Maybe Bree Olson would be more interesting to you.

As for not listening, I'm not sure that's true. I use facebook mainly as a photo album for family and friends, but while I usually don't reply to their status updates, I check them out to see what they're up to. Sometimes I reply, and sometimes they reply to me, but no replies doesn't mean no one is reading.
The Courts

Record Company Collusion a Defense to RIAA Case? 275

Posted by samzenpus from the fight-the-power dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Is collusion by the record companies a defense to an RIAA case? We're about to find out, because the RIAA has made a motion to strike the affirmative defense of Marie Lindor, who alleged that "the plaintiffs, who are competitors, are a cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and of public policy, by tying their copyrights to each other, collusively litigating and settling all cases together, and by entering into an unlawful agreement among themselves to prosecute and to dispose of all cases in accordance with a uniform agreement, and through common lawyers, thus overreaching the bounds and scope of whatever copyrights they might have" in UMG v. Lindor."
Privacy

Submission + - Bloggers *Are* Journalists, at Least in Poland (newsvine.com)

Submitted by
artymiak
artymiak writes: "Bloggers who want to be treated as journalists should think twice for their wishes may come true in a surprising package. They may fall into traps they have not foreseen, when new technologies clash with old laws. In its recent ruling, the Polish Supreme Court has declared that websites, including blogs, fall under the articles of the Polish press law of 1984. The exact details of the ruling aren't know at this moment, but according to the Polish press law, sites updated more often than once a year will be treated as magazines and sites updated more often than once a week will be treated as newspapers."
Google

Submission + - Google and Microsoft Defend Fair Use (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward 11
Anonymous Coward 11 writes: Earlier this month, the Computer & Communications Industry Association filed a complaint with the FTC alleging that professional sports leagues, Hollywood studios, and book publishers were all using copyright notices that misrepresented the law. Now, the group has launched a web site called Defend Fair Use that shows they are serious about making the complaint stick.
Censorship

Submission + - A&P sues brothers over YouTube video 1

Submitted by im_mac
im_mac writes: Supermarket chain A&P has sued two brothers for $1million after they posted a parody entitled "Produce Paradise" on YouTube. The video "prompted at least one complaint by a 'disgusted and distressed' customer who said she will no longer shop at A&P thanks to the 'repulsive acts' in the video. Though how they knew it was A&P is questionable since the brothers took care not to feature any A&P logos or mention it in their lyrics. Trying to get $1million out of a couple of college students whose source of income was working at A&P until they were fired, might be rather difficult. More info is also posted on the pair's website: FakeLaugh, including their belief that the complaint that brought the video to the management's attention was prompted by some sort of personal vendetta.
Privacy

FBI's Unknown Eavesdropping Network 362

Posted by Zonk from the hiya-big-bro dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Building off the design mandates of CALEA, the FBI has constructed a 'point-and-click surveillance system' that creates instant wiretaps on almost any communications device. A thousand pages of restricted documents released under the Freedom of Information Act were required to determine the veracity of this clandestine project, Wired News reports. Called the Digital Collection System Network, it connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure. From the article: 'FBI wiretapping rooms in field offices and undercover locations around the country are connected through a private, encrypted backbone that is separated from the internet. Sprint runs it on the government's behalf. The network allows an FBI agent in New York, for example, to remotely set up a wiretap on a cell phone based in Sacramento, California, and immediately learn the phone's location, then begin receiving conversations, text messages and voicemail pass codes in New York. With a few keystrokes, the agent can route the recordings to language specialists for translation.'"
PlayStation (Games)

PS3's New Back-Compat Limit Outlined 108

Posted by Zonk from the less-is-more-i-guess dept.
We spoke last week about the EU version of the PS3 having a more limited backwards compatibility offering than its US and Japanese cousins. Now, via Gamespot, Sony's Phil Harrison has clarified what kind of support the machine will be offering. His comments in an interview on the 'semi-official' ThreeSpeech blog state that emulation of the PS2 won't be a huge barrier to backwards compatibility. "Our thinking involves being able to bring the latest hardware specification of the PS3 to Europe, although that does mean an initial slight reduction in the number of PS2 components. But it's important to put that into context: there will still be thousands of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 titles playable on the PS3 at launch ... The situation is changing every day, but on March 23, we expect the list to include over 1,000 PS2 titles." Harrison goes on to say that they'd likely be concentrating on 'big' titles, and that they generally don't consider back-compat very important in the grand scheme of things; in their view people buy the PS3 for new games, not old ones. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, there's an opinion piece over at Next-Gen that completely agrees with Harrison's statement. Colin Campbell penned a missive entitled 'Why Sony is Right', and lays out what backwards compatibility looks great on the side of a box, but just isn't that big a deal.

Feed HD DVD: No Copycats Allowed (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
SourceForge complies with a DMCA notice to remove open-source software designed to help you rip HD DVDs. But was it really infringing copyright? In 27B Stroke 6.


Feed The Onion Goes Viral With Video (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
Actual Expert Too Boring for TV! Lazy Scientists Discover New Cable Channel! TV-News Graphics Guy Gives Weatherman On-Air Surprise! Soon, you can have all the fake broadcast news you want from theonion.com. By Sonja Zjawinski.


Censorship

Dell Censors IdeaStorm Linux Dissent 228

Posted by kdawson from the why-bother? dept.
thefickler writes "It seems pointless to seek ideas and feedback if you're going to ignore and delete the opinions you don't like. That's exactly what Dell is doing with its IdeaStorm website, which the company set up to solicit such ideas and feedback. Dell deleted a post linking to an article that criticizes its handling of the 'pre-installed Linux' issue."
Music

Submission + - A way to break the major label monopoly?

Submitted by
Roger
Roger writes: "Who-is-roger.com is the homepage of a project intended to break the grip of major labels on the music industry and put power back in the hands of musicians. The idea is simple: use video sites like Youtube and Metacafe along with word of mouth advertising to promote the project while using online distribution channels like Myspace, iTunes, and Cafepress to sell the songs and merchandise. The videos tell a coherent storyline, with each one broken into an introductory video blog segment followed by a narrative video pertaining to the song. This keeps out all of the middlemen (managers, labels, etc.) and allows earned revenue to go toward ongoing recording and production expenses. Every penny the project makes goes to someone involved in the creative process, not to some label executive who is more concerned with the bottom line than good art. You can find their most recent video here. The songs are available for purchase on their home website, under the heading "Songs.""
Networking

Submission + - The IT Daylight saving checklist

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "A two-year-old federal law moves expands Daylight Saving Time by a month, starting this year. For humans, it means resetting clocks on a different weekend twice a year, but for computer systems it means upgrades that could cause headaches as the March 11 deadline approaches. Whether you're up to speed or in panic mode, here's a checklist of what you should be doing to prepare. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/030107-dst-s lides.html"

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