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Comment Why All or Nothing? (Score 1) 376

Wouldn't it be a simple matter to offer EVs with an optional small gas tank to run an electric generator on long trips? Anti-EVs are like, "new, cannot trust, 100% gasoline" and pro-EVs are like, "no more gasoline! think of the children and the pandas." It's like... how about make an EV that's totally electric 99% of the time, but I can drop some petrol into a generator the 1% of the time I want to take a road trip, go camping, or visit out of state? Pretty sure a 99% drop in emissions will let the planet recover AND prevent society from collapsing from running out of oil. It'll also make people feel a lot better about switching, I think, if they know they can pump a few gallons into their EV when they know they're going to need it.
The Internet

Submission + - Harvard Study Says Weak Copyright Benefits Society 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Michael Geist summarizes an important new study on file sharing from economists Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf. The Harvard Business School working paper finds that given the increase in artistic production along with the greater public access conclude that "weaker copyright protection, it seems, has benefited society." The authors' point out that file sharing may not result in reduced incentives to create if the willingness to pay for "complements" such as concerts or author speaking tours increases.
The Internet

Submission + - Could HTML 5 Kill Flash And Silverlight? (infoworld.com) 4

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "While Adobe, Microsoft, and Sun duke it out with proprietary technologies for implementing multimedia on the Web, HTML 5 has the potential to 'eat these vendors' lunches,' offering Web experiences based on an industry standard. In fact, one expressed goal of the standard is to move the Web away from proprietary technologies such as Flash, Silverlight, and JavaFX. 'It would be a terrible step backward if humanity's major development platform [the Web] was controlled by a single vendor the way that previous platforms such as Windows have been,' says HTML 5 co-editor Ian Hickson, a Google employee. But whether HTML 5 and its Canvas technology will displace proprietary plug-ins 'really depends on what developers do,' says Firefox technical lead Vlad Vukicevic. It also depends on Microsoft, the only company involved in the HTML 5 effort that is both a browser developer and an RIA tool developer. 'That's a big elephant in the room for them because you can imagine the Silverlight team [whose] whole existence is to add [this] functionality in. [But] if Internet Explorer puts it already in there, why do we have Silverlight?' asks Mozilla's Dion Almaer."
Censorship

Submission + - Iran Moves to End 'Facebook Revolution'

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Times reports that the Iranian government is mounting a campaign to disrupt independent media organisations and websites that air doubts about the validity of the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the nation's president. Reports from Tehran say that social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter were taken down after Mr Ahmadinejad claimed victory. SMS text messaging, a preferred medium of communication for young Iranians, has also been disabled. This is widely suspected to be the result of government interference, but could equally be caused by the poor quality of the network and the heavy demand it is experiencing. "The blocking of access to foreign news media has been stepped up. In addition to the blocking of the BBC's website, the Farsi-language satellite broadcasts of the Voice of America and BBC — which are very popular in Iran — have been partially jammed," says Reporters Without Borders, the media organisation that campaigns for a free press around the world. "The Internet is now very slow, like the mobile phone network. YouTube and Facebook are hard to access and pro-reform sites. . . are completely inaccessible." Mir Hussein Moussavi, the presidential challenger whom President Ahmedinejad claims to have defeated with 63.4 per cent of the vote and fellow presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi have urged the population not to accept the "rigged results." There have been violent clashes between opposition supporters and security forces, with at least one death in the capital."
The Courts

Camara Goes On Offense Against the RIAA 316

Posted by Soulskill from the balls-in-our-courts dept.
whisper_jeff writes "Ars has an excellent write up outlining how Kiwi Camara (Jammie Thomas-Rasset's new lawyer) is following the 'Best Defense is a Good Offense' philosophy and going on the attack against the RIAA. Not content to just defend his client, he is laying siege against the RIAA's entire campaign and beginning the work of dismantling it from the bottom up, starting with the question of whether they actually do own the copyrights that were allegedly infringed. And, if you're thinking this is good for everyone who's been harassed by the RIAA, you'd be right — Camara, along with Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson, plans to file a class-action suit seeking to force the RIAA to return all the (ill-gotten) money they've earned from their litigation campaign." We first discussed the efforts of Nesson and Camara to thwart the RIAA last month.

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