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Submission + - EFF formally objects to inclusion of DRM in HTML5 (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a formal objection with the W3C against the inclusion of digital rights management (DRM) for streamed media in HTML5. The W3C HTML working group is developing EME (Encrypted Media Extensions) that would bring in standardized DRM plugins for streamed media. EFF, through its full objection, has pointed out that the creation of EME and the implementation of usage controls on the web platform do not fall under the purview of the HTML working group. Further, the existing web standards already support the use cases that are not related to usage control. EFF is of the opinion that usage control like the EME, which was declared ‘in-scope’ by W3C exec team in February, effectively point to options such as paywalls, subscription models, watermarked content, etc which are already supported by existing web standards.

Submission + - Now PETA Wants to Sue People Who Leave Anonymous Comments (yahoo.com) 1

Submitted by MarkWhittington
MarkWhittington writes: PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is incensed over an article in the Huffington Post that details that organization's unsettling practice of euthanizing animals in a Virginia facility that many have assumed is a no kill shelter.

According to the New York Post, PETA wants to sue some of the people who have left comments on the article. The problem is that, following the practice of many on the Internet, many of the comments are under assumed names or are anonymous. PETA is attempting to discover the true identities of their critics so that it can sue them for defamation.

Submission + - Step aside CISPA, SOPA, DMCA, PIPA, ACTA. Introducing CTAIP.

Submitted by Aaron B Lingwood
Aaron B Lingwood writes: Cory Doctorow unearths a plan by the US entertainment industry to lobby for the legalization of deploying rootkits, spyware, ransomware and trojans to attack pirates. The hilariously named "Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property" has finally released its report, an 84-page tome that's pretty bonkers. But amidst all that crazy, there's a bit that stands out as particularly insane: a proposal to legalize the use of malware in order to punish people believed to be copying illegally.

Submission + - Google Unable To Keep Paying App Developers In Argentina (theverge.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google has sent letters to app developers registered in Argentina saying they won't be able to accept payments on developers' behalf after June 27th. 'The change applies to both paid apps and apps that use in-app purchases. The move appears to be related to new, restrictive regulations the Argentine government has imposed on currency exchanges.' According to the Telegraph, 'The new regulations required anyone wanting to change Argentine pesos into another currency to submit an online request for permission to AFIP, the Argentine equivalent of HM Revenue & Customs. To submit the request, however, you first needed to get a PIN number from AFIP, either online or in person. Having finally obtained your number, submitted your online request and printed out your permission slip, you could then present it at the bank or official cambio and buy your dollars. Well, that was the theory. In practice, the result was chaos. ... damming the flood has come at a huge cost to the economy, especially since the currency restrictions were coupled with another set of regulations that effectively imposed a near-total ban on any imported goods.'

Submission + - Scanner Identifies Malware Strains, Could be Future of AV

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: When it comes to spotting malware, signature-based detection, heuristics and cloud-based recognition and information sharing used by many antivirus solutions today work well up a certain point, but the polymorphic malware still gives them a run for their money. At the annual AusCert conference held this week in Australia a doctorate candidate from Deakin University in Melbourne has presented the result of his research and work that just might be the solution to this problem. Security researcher Silvio Cesare had noticed that malware code consists of small "structures" that remain the same even after moderate changes to its code. He created Simseer, a free online service that performs automated analysis on submitted malware samples and tells and shows you just how similar they are to other submitted specimens. It scores the similarity between malware (any kind of software, really), and it charts the results and visualizes program relationships as an evolutionary tree.

Submission + - EU to criminalize nearly all seeds and plants (blakkened.com)

Submitted by NSN A392-99-964-5927
NSN A392-99-964-5927 writes: A new law proposed by the European Commission would make it illegal to “grow, reproduce or trade” any vegetable seeds that have not been “tested, approved and accepted” by a new EU bureaucracy named the “EU Plant Variety Agency.”

It’s called the Plant Reproductive Material Law, and it attempts to put the government in charge of virtually all plants and seeds. Home gardeners who grow their own plants from non-regulated seeds would be considered criminals under this law.

As you might suspect, this move is the “final solution” of Monsanto, DuPont and other seed-domination corporations who have long admitted their goal is the complete domination of all seeds and crops grown on the planet.

Submission + - Web of Tax Shelters Saved Apple Billions, Inquiry Finds (nytimes.com)

Submitted by mspohr
mspohr writes: Apple relied on a “complex web of offshore entities” and U.S. tax loopholes to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes on $44 billion in offshore income over the past four years, according to excerpts from a Senate subcommittee report to be released tomorrow as Apple CEO Tim Cook testifies on the company’s overseas operations.

The maker of iPhones and iPads used at least three foreign subsidiaries that it claims are not “tax resident in any nation” to help it avoid paying billions in “otherwise taxable offshore income,” the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in a statement today. "
Coverage in Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/connieguglielmo/2013/05/20/apple-used-loopholes-to-skip-paying-44-billion-in-u-s-taxes-senate-committee-claims/
NYTimes also has coverage:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/business/apple-avoided-billions-in-taxes-congressional-panel-says.html

Submission + - A perspective: developers vs. Microsoft (reactos.org)

Submitted by jeditobe
jeditobe writes: Most people understand that Windows is used by a variety of people who have a variety of needs, ranging from corporate server to workstation to POS terminals to home PC and beyond. Most people accept that whenever Microsoft updates Windows, it has to balance the competing requirements to find some kind of workable compromise. There is however another set of competing requirements that many do not really register, even those that call themselves power users or are IT admins. It is a conflict between developers/programmers and Microsoft itself
Space

Submission + - Journey to the Limits of Spacetime (utexas.edu)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In a recent paper in Science, researchers predicted the formation of accretion disks and relativistic jets that warp and bend more than previously thought, shaped by the extreme gravity of the black hole and by powerful magnetic forces generated by its spin. Enabled by 3D simulations performed on the powerful supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, the National Institute of Computational Science and NASA, these predictions overturn an overly simplified view of jets and disks.

Submission + - Google versus the Amicus Briefs (groklaw.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday there were numerous amicus briefs filed all on the same day and all in support of Oracle against Google in Oracle's appeal at the Federal Circuit. None of the briefs are posted publicly yet, but they should be available soon.

Microsoft has filed one, together with EMC Corporation, and NetApp, Inc. Scott McNealy has filed one with Brian Sutphin. Can McNealy be a witness for Oracle at trial, which he was [PDF], and also file an amicus brief? Well, he has. The Picture Archive Council of America, Inc. has filed one with the Graphic Artists Guild. Also there's one from the BSA. And finally Eugene Spafford, Zhi Ding, and Lee A. Hollaar have filed an amicus in support of Oracle. Hollaar seems to file a lot of amicus briefs.

So why do these entities and individuals care about this Java API case, do you suppose?
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 7 still being sold on up to 93% of British PCs (pcpro.co.uk) 2

Submitted by
nk497
nk497 writes: "The vast majority of PCs sold by British PC makers are running Windows 7 — not Windows 8. PC Pro spoke to several PC builders, with some reporting as many as 93% of recently sold machines were on the older OS. One company initially sold its PCs with Windows 8, but feedback from users soon changed that. Customers quickly began to specify systems with Windows 7, those with Windows 8 "took delivery and wanted to change back to Windows 7" – a process the firm described as a "nightmare". Another firm found success by installing a "start menu" tool on Windows 8 machines, and others said the switch would have gone smoother if Microsoft has offered a Windows 8 tutorial or better explained the new OS."
Open Source

Submission + - Python Trademark Filer Ignorant Of Python? (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by
WebMink
WebMink writes: "Is it possible that the CEO of the company that's trying to file a trademark on "Python" was unaware of Python's importance as a programming technology? That's what he claims — despite running a hosting company that's trying to break into cloud computing, where Python is used extensively. Still, he also regards the Python Software Foundation as a hostile American company and thinks that getting attention from half the world's geeks is a DDoS..."
Microsoft

Submission + - GameStop's Mayan Apocalypse (goozernation.com)

Submitted by kube00
kube00 writes: The rumor mill is saying the next generation of consoles might not play used games. What does this mean for retailers such as Amazon, GameStop, and Best Buy? Will gamers flock to the one console that can still play used games? GoozerNation speculates if the Mayan apocalyspse draws near for used game sales

Submission + - A Cogent Presentation on the Untapped Potential of MMO Games - Emergent Gameplay (youtube.com)

Submitted by stilz2
stilz2 writes: In this video titled "Un-ruining the MMOs" by MrBTongue, he argues why the over-presentation of 'theme park' style MMOs, the most iconic of which being World of Warcraft, has led to few number of 'sandbox' MMOs, resulting in 'emergent gameplay' being even more of a rarity. Emergent gameplay, meaning gameplay elements or experience that were not scripted by the developers and arise from player action and interaction, though deemed by some to be yet another publisher buzzword, is a real possibility as demonstrated by the complex organizations and high-stake battles in Eve Online.
Open Source

Submission + - Hardware Hacker Ladyada Proposes Patent and Education Reform to President of USA (eff.org)

Submitted by
ptorrone
ptorrone writes: "In a welcome turn of events, President Barack Obama spoke directly to the patent troll problem and the need for more comprehensive patent reform yesterday in a "Fireside Hangout" — a live question and answer session hosted in a Google+ hangout. The President was responding to a question by the prominent electrical engineer and entrepreneur Limor "Ladyada" Fried of Adafruit Industries, who in 2009 won an EFF Pioneer Award for her work with free software and open-source hardware."

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