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The Almighty Buck

Copyright Lobbies Threaten Federal College Funding 277

plasmacutter writes "The EFF is raising the alarm regarding provisions injected into a bill to renew federal funding for universities. These new provisions call for institutions of higher learning to filter their internet connections and twist student's arms over 'approved' digital media distribution services. 'Under said provision: Each eligible institution participating in any program under this title shall to the extent practicable — (2) develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity. Similar provisions in last year's bill did not survive committee, it appears however that this bill is headed toward the full house for vote.' Responding to recriminations over this threat to university funding, an MPAA representative claims federal funds should be at risk when copyright infringement happens on campus networks." We've previously discussed this topic, as well as similar issues.
Encryption

Loophole in Windows Random Number Generator 305

Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "A security loophole in the pseudo-random number generator used by Windows was recently detailed in a paper presented by researchers at the University of Haifa. The team found a way to decipher how the number generator works, and thus compute previous and future encryption keys used by the computer, and eavesdrop on private communication. Their conclusion is that Microsoft needs to improve the way it encodes information. They recommend that Microsoft publish the code of their random number generators as well as of other elements of the Windows security system to enable computer security experts outside Microsoft to evaluate their effectiveness. Although they only checked Windows 2000, they assume that XP and Vista use similar random number generators and may also be vulnerable. The full text of the paper is available in PDF format."

Comment Re:This is sad, but... (Score 1) 72

This is factually incorrect. Some of the points are correct, but several are dead wrong.

1) WizKids owns the Shadowrun tabletop game, as well as BattleTech and MechWarrior.
2) Microsoft owns all video game rights to SR, BT and MW. FASA Studios was part of MS.
3) Catalyst Game Labs currently licenses SR and BT from WizKids.

So it's not convincing WizKids to license for video games, it's convincing Microsoft.

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