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Submission + - Rowling Sues Harry Potter Lexicon (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Snape kills Trinity with Rosebud
Snape kills Trinity with Rosebud writes: "Apparently famous authors don't like it if you try to make a buck using their Imaginary Property because J.K. Rowling is suing the publishers of the Harry Potter Lexicon for infringement. This should prove an interesting test case for fair use given that the lexicon contains mostly factual information about the series, not copies of the books' text. Of course, both sides seem a bit touchy about imaginary property rights, with Rowling's lawyers being miffed after being told to print it themselves when they asked for a paper copy of the lexicon's website, and the lexicon website itself using one of those insipid right click disabling scripts."
Music

Submission + - AllofMP3 voucher resellers quit after police raid

Submitted by Broohaha
Broohaha writes: Europeans who resell AllofMP3.com vouchers are quitting the business after a UK raid against one prominent reseller there. A new article talks to several of them about their situations. "Until a few days ago, I had never heard of the IFPI [the international music trade group]," said one reseller. "But yes, I am concerned about them now. Although my attorney assures me that reselling gift certificates bought from AllOfMP3.com isn't breaking any laws, it isn't worth the possibility of engagement with their legal machine." The music industry seems determined to choke off AllofMP3's funding, no matter how small the source.
Power

Submission + - Scotland Building Wave Power Farms

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "Scottish engineers are taking advantage of the huge ocean coast that Scotland enjoys by building a 'wave farm' to harvest electricity from the ocean's powerful waves. These big red tubes have been named the Pelamis System after a sea snake. From the article, '"A bit like a ship at anchor or a flag on a flagpole, it self orientates into the waves," said Mr Carcas. "Waves then travel down the length of the machine and in doing so each of the sections, each of these train carriages, moves up and down and side to side." These snake-like movements push hydraulic fluid through generators to produce electricity. '"
Hardware

First Graphene Transistor 83

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the cool-under-pressure dept.
An anonymous reader writes "UK researchers are announcing the first ever workable transistor made of graphene — that's one layer of carbon atoms. It's thinner and smaller than a silicon transistor can ever be, and it works at room temperature. When silicon electronics are dead, this is what many speculate is going to take over. There's slight controversy as they decided to announce their results via a review article, rather than wait for their (submitted) peer review paper to come out."
Encryption

Submission + - Watermark web spider starts crawling

Submitted by DippityDo
DippityDo writes: A new web tool is scanning the net for signs of copyright infringement. Digimarc's patented system searches video and audio files for special watermarks that would indicate they are not to be shared, then reports back to HQ with the results. It sounds kind of creepy, but has a long way to go before it makes a practical difference. "For the system to work, players at multiple levels would need to get involved. Broadcasters would need to add identifying watermarks to their broadcast, in cooperation with copyright holders, and both parties would need to register their watermarks with the system. Then, in the event that a user capped a broadcast and uploaded it online, the scanner system would eventually find it and report its location online. Yet the system is not designed to hop on P2P networks or private file sharing hubs, but instead crawls public web sites in search of watermarked material."
Google

Submission + - Google acquires in-game advertising company

Submitted by
Firmafest
Firmafest writes: "According to Red Herring Google has bought an in-game advertising company called Adscape for $23 million. Is this the next logical step to delivering ads where there's sufficient potential buyers? Or is it simply a response to Microsoft acquiring a similar company. Considering the massive budget for product placement in movies, this could mean larger budgets for games resulting in better and/or cheaper games."
The Internet

Submission + - War of words over Wikipedia ads continues

Submitted by Willis W.
Willis W. writes: Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales reiterates his opposition to advertising in response to reports that Wikipedia needs a major cash infusion. Responding to Jason Calacanis' charges that he 'has a fringe, anti-corporate bent to him' that is 'holding Wikipedia back,' Wales says that running ads on Wikipedia is not his decision to make. 'Though he personally dislikes the idea of advertising on Wikipedia, any decision to utilize ads would have to come from the community. At the moment, he won't rule anything out. "I can't say if I would ever support something like that," he tells Ars, "but I can say that I currently maintain the same position I always have: I am opposed to it."'

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