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Censorship

Submission + - French three-strikes law deemed unconstitutional

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The French "Conseil Constitutionnel" just ruled that the recently voted "Hadopi" law, which enforces a "three strikes and you're out" system, is actually unconstitutional. They mainly make two points. 1) They argue that removing Internet acces is equivalent to hindering a person's freedom of speech, and as such can only be decided by appointed judges. This removes all punitive power from the administrative body supposed to enforce the three-strikes rule; all it can do now is warn you that "they're watching you". 2) When illegal filesharing is detected, users have to prove their innocence. This is obviously contrary to the constitutional principle of presumption of innocence. Article in french.
The Courts

Copyright Protection Business Model Expands, Plagiarizes Others 50

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the time-to-exercise-the-rico-lawyers dept.
Techdirt has an amusing story about the expanding adoption of the RIAA-style business model of collecting settlement money from threats of litigation based on copyright infringement claims. This story comes with an amusing twist with the two cited companies, Davenport Lyons and ACS, being clearly related and ACS publishing an article with clearly plagiarized selections. Anything to make a buck I guess. "TorrentFreak noticed that an article apparently published by ACS Law was actually plagiarized from a variety of different sources, basically cut and pasted together with no credit or citations given at all. Remarkably, in some cases, articles with the exact opposite view of ACS Law were copied with paragraphs that just had an added sentence to the end which completely contradicted what the original article said."
Games

When Does Gore Get In the Way of Gameplay? 141

Posted by Soulskill from the when-i-need-to-break-out-the-windex dept.
Wired is running a story inspired by the level of gore in the recent Wolverine game that wonders: how much is too much? It mentions a study we discussed in February which indicated that violence tended to interest gamers less than other characteristics. "... the longer you play a 'twitch' action game, the less you notice the cultural content — the gushing blood, the shrieks of agony. You're too busy focusing on the gameplay. I noticed this with Wolverine. For the first hour, I found the deranged bloodshed both shocking and exciting; it made me feel like I 'was' Logan, the grunting, killing-machine character from Marvel Comics' X-Men universe. But as I became more expert, the cultural shell of the game boiled away. In a sort of staring-into-the-cascading-numbers-of-the-Matrix way, I found myself looking past the visible aspects of the game and savoring the underlying, invisible mechanics of play. ... The game became pure physics and algorithms: Vectors, speed and collision detection. The gore had become mostly irrelevant."
Music

Danger Mouse Releases Blank CD-R To Spite EMI 296

Posted by Soulskill from the vengeful-rodents dept.
An anonymous reader writes "DJ Danger Mouse famously fought with EMI over his Beatles/Jay-Z mashup, 'The Grey Album,' and now seems to be battling with the label again. Rather than release his latest album and face legal issues with EMI, Techdirt is reporting that Danger Mouse will be selling a blank CD-R along with lots of artwork, and buyers will be responsible for finding the music themselves (yes, it's findable on the internet) and burning the CD."

Comment Re:Context? (Score 1) 343

by gowtah (#27925953) Attached to: French Assembly Adopts 3-Strikes Bill
Easy, they don't. The HADOPI authority harvests IPs from swarms, and the warnings are sent on the basis that your ip being there means you are a thief. Of course, as an added bonus, you cannot argue with them, unless you have installed a gov. spyware to 'secure your connection'. Oh wait, you still can't argue with them, you have to take it to courts, after your internets have been cut off. Actually, I'm not even sure you have any right to find out where or when your IP was sniffed. I, for one, heartily welcome the latest addition to our Great French Police State.
Transportation

Submission + - Do we need running shoes to run? (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by
prostoalex
prostoalex writes: "The Daily Mail takes a look at current research in the field of running and injuiries related to running, quoting a few interesting factoids: (1) the more expensive the running shoes, the greater the probability of getting an injury, (2) some of the planet's best and most intense runners run barefoot, (3) Stanford running team, having access to the top-notch modern shoes sent in for free by manufacturers, after a few rounds of trial and error still chose to train with no shoes at all."
Image

iTunes Prohibits Terrorism 124

Posted by samzenpus from the great-songs-come-with-great-responsibility dept.
Afforess writes "A recent closer look at the oft-skimmed EULA agreement for iTunes has an interesting paragraph in it, Gizmodo reports. 'You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.' Although humorous, some readers suggested that this may be a defense measure to previously discussed price changes in the iTunes music store."
Programming

Worst Working Conditions You Had To Write Code In? 1127

Posted by samzenpus from the 150-of-us-in-a-shoebox-in-the-middle-of-the-road dept.
sausaw writes "I recently had to write code in a hot dusty room for 20 days with temperatures near 107F (~41C); having nothing to sit on; a 64 Kbps inconsistent internet connection; warm water for drinking and a lot of distractions and interruptions. I am sure many people have been in similar situations and would like to know your experiences."

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"The urge to destroy is also a creative urge." -- Bakunin [ed. note - I would say: The urge to destroy may sometimes be a creative urge.]

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