173643186
submission
stikves writes:
Microsoft releases one of the most popular versions of MS-DOS as open source today:
Ten years ago, Microsoft released the source for MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 to the Computer History Museum, and then later republished them for reference purposes. This code holds an important place in history and is a fascinating read of an operating system that was written entirely in 8086 assembly code nearly 45 years ago.
Today, in partnership with IBM and in the spirit of open innovation, we're releasing the source code to MS-DOS 4.00 under the MIT license. There's a somewhat complex and fascinating history behind the 4.0 versions of DOS, as Microsoft partnered with IBM for portions of the code but also created a branch of DOS called Multitasking DOS that did not see a wide release.
https://github.com/microsoft/M...
173044402
submission
stikves writes:
Today, Broadcom announced immediate end of ESXi availability on their knowledge base website:
https://kb.vmware.com/s/articl...
ESXi has been an important tool for many "homelab" enthusiasts, which offered simple bare metal virtualization for small setups. Unfortunately they don't offer a replacement, except for paid subscription services.
132922678
submission
stikves writes:
The Senate committee has passed an amended version of the "EARN IT" acts that could end personal end-to-end encryption offerings to the public, and might make public forums liable for the content posted by their users. (Slashdot itself is too is a public forum).
Even though the initial language is heavily amended, the authority to choose whether to keep the existing protections is passed onto individual states.
From the article:
The amendments passed today strip the DoJ commission of any legal authority and will not require companies to earn Section 230 protections by following recommended practices. But the amended bill would change Section 230 to allow lawsuits from states, and state legislatures could restrict or outlaw encryption technologies. Plus, that could lead to inconsistent laws that vary state-by-state.
“The drafters of this bill obviously want to address real harms from abusive materials, but the amended bill creates an enormous opening for state-level liability,” said Gaurav Laroia, Free Press Action senior policy counsel, in a statement. “Even as amended today, it invites states to begin passing all sorts of laws under the guise of protecting against abuse, but replicating the problems with the original EARN IT Act’s text.”
The ACLU, which says the bill does little to “meaningfully address” the issue of child abuse,” also opposes the new amendments.
132014648
submission
stikves writes:
It looks like Twitch streamers are the latest targets for coordinated DMCA attacks. What is more concerning is that these could potentially cripple their accounts.
From the story:
"The company has acknowledged (via Evening Standard) a “sudden influx” of DMCA takedown requests against streamers for allegedly violating music copyright in clips captured by viewers between 2017 and 2019.
As each request potentially represents a strike against an account, this raises the threat of permanent bans for streamers who might get three strikes with relatively little warning — and for clips they didn’t even choose to create."
131224122
submission
stikves writes:
From https://www.engadget.com/barr-... (originally https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr... )
The FBI recovered two iPhones, and after failing to access their data, asked Apple to unlock them. The company refused, but eventually the FBI unlocked at least one of them without Apple’s help, and discovered substantial ties between the shooter and terrorist group al Qaeda. US Attorney General Barr suggests forcing Apple to take action in the future, saying “...if not for our FBI’s ingenuity, some luck, and hours upon hours of time and resources, this information would have remained undiscovered. The bottom line: our national security cannot remain in the hands of big corporations who put dollars over lawful access and public safety. The time has come for a legislative solution.”
130030290
submission
stikves writes:
Given the highly successful video on demand release of the recent "Trolls" movie, and the future plans to sidestep theaters for some content from Universal, AMC has struck back by blanket banning of all their content:
"As a result, Shell noted that as “soon as theaters reopen, we expect to release movies on both formats,” meaning some movies would continue with theatrical releases while others would go directly to digital retailers or possibly land on NBCUniversal’s new streaming service, Peacock. The move led to a lengthy statement from AMC Theatres chair-CEO Adam Aron, who claimed that Shell’s comments were “unacceptable.”
“It is disappointing to us, but Jeff’s comments as to Universal’s unilateral actions and intentions have left us with no choice,” Aron wrote. “Therefore, effectively immediately AMC will no longer play any Universal movies in any of our theatres in the United States, Europe or the Middle East.”
"
126445774
submission
stikves writes:
"An organization called Vista Group recently uploaded dozens of VHS and cassette tapes from the 90s and early 2000s to the Internet Archive, and the content within is worth a retro-nostalgia trip back to a simpler, weirder, more wavy time.
Vista Group uploaded nearly 200 in the last two months, most of which were uploaded on January 5—a rate noticeably higher than their usual 50-70 per month. They're being added to the VHS Vault, an Internet Archive collection of more than 17,500 VHS scans."
I am not sure about the content rights, but a large volume of older kids shows and cartoons are now available.
113072114
submission
stikves writes:
ANKARA (Reuters) — Turkey on Thursday granted its radio and television watchdog sweeping oversight over all online content, including streaming platforms like Netflix and online news outlets, in a move that raised concerns over possible censorship.
“The regulation granting RTUK the authority to censor the internet came into effect today... Soon, access to the Netflix platform or to news outlets broadcasting from abroad... could be blocked,” Akdeniz wrote on Twitter.
Critics have also voiced concerns that the move will allow the government to tighten its grip on media, which is largely under the influence of Erdogan and his AK Party.
Kerem Altiparmak, a human rights lawyer, said the move was the “biggest step in Turkish censorship history” and said all outlets producing opposition news would be affected.
100986600
submission
stikves writes:
According to online reports, a recent court order has banned Periscope across Turkey. The cited reason is the alleged violation of copyrights of a local company named "Periskop".
This adds to the list of online services no longer available in Turkey, including Wikipedia, PayPal, and WordPress among others.
98454459
submission
stikves writes:
The Raspberry foundation has launched an incremental update to the Raspberry Pi 3 model B. In addition to slight increase (200MHz) in CPU speed, and upgraded networking (802.11ac and Gigabit, albeit over USB2), one big advantage is the better thermal management which allows sustained performance over longer load periods.
Source:
[spam URL stripped]...
93256691
submission
stikves writes:
From:
http://www.eurogamer.net/artic...
Ex-Valve writer Marc Laidlaw, who worked on Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and its episodic expansions, has published a summary of the series' next chapter on his blog. Titled, 'Epistle 3', it details Gordon Freeman's next adventure.
Except, likely for copyright issues, the whole story has been genderswapped. So Laidlaw's tale speaks of Gertrude Fremont, Alex instead of Alyx, Elly instead of Eli, and so on
Naturally, Laidlaw's blog is currently down due to traffic, although you can read a backup of the page on Archive.org https://web.archive.org/web/20..., or on Pastebin https://pastebin.com/q9DMFa7c , where the names have been corrected.
93145211
submission
stikves writes:
This weekend Plex had announced they were implementing a new privacy policy, including removing the ability for opting out of data collection and sharing. https://entertainment.slashdot...
Fortunately the backlash here, on their forums, Reddit, and other placed allowed them to offer a more sensible state, including bringing back opt-out, and anonymity of some of the data.
from https://www.plex.tv/about/priv...:
We definitely hear and understand your concerns and really appreciate all the thoughtful feedback we’ve received over the last 24 hours. We’ve been working on this for weeks and many of us who use Plex every day have had to work through this carefully to get ourselves comfortable. That said, many of you have raised good points that (somehow!) we didn’t consider, so we are going to make some important changes to address those.
91754277
submission
stikves writes:
It looks like media and technology companies are forming a group to "fight piracy":
"The first-of-its-kind alliance is composed of digital media players, networks, and Hollywood outfits, and all recognize how the internet has paved the way to an explosion in quality online content. However, piracy has boomed as a result: ACE says that last year saw 5.4 billion downloads of pirated films and TV shows."
I'm not sure how these statistics hold against real revenue loss (or the imaginary one), however this might be a development to watch for.
