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Vol. 7, No. 19
5-10-07
1 Frivolous laws and lawsuits
2 You want to be a WHAT?!?
3 DRM free music at Amazon, better searching, more patent nonsense, VT game
4 Another free spyware tool
5 Media players
Technology related legal wranglings in this country are out of control, and have been for some time. I think the RIAA/MPAA started the landslide when they began filing suits against dead people, grandmothers without computers and eight year old girls but it’s gone downhill in a big way in the last few weeks.
First and foremost is probably the current legislation working its way through the Congress Critters and pressed by embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that would make “Attempted copyright infringement” a crime punishable by 1-10 years in prison, the same term now levied against those who actually commit copyright infringement.
In other words, you downloaded Firefox and the Bittorrent toolbar extension; therefore you intend to infringe copyright and are culpable for the same punishment that the operator of a warehouse full of illegal copies of Spiderman 3 DVDs would be.
The Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007 (http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9719339-7.html) would also add suspected infringers to the secret and questionably legal wiretap list currently used for suspected terrorists, introduce a life sentence for people responsible for a death related to using pirated software (huh?) and “require Homeland Security to alert the RIAA” if they run across an infringer.
It’s not just Congress that is owned and operated by Big Entertainment. Rather than be happy with Congress in its pocket, the RIAA is wearing the entire government like a pair of pants.
Other atrocities include the Judges that make up the US Copyright Royalty Board levying royalty fees at four times the rate of satellite or land-based radio stations on streaming broadcasters.
This obvious attempt to shut down online radio will take effect July 15th and will be retroactive to January 1st 2006, meaning sites like Pandora, Live365, AOL Music and any site that streams music, including terrestrial stations that simulcast content, will be bankrupted almost immediately.
http://www.savenetradio.org/latest_news/index.html is gathering force to try to put a stop to this blatant abuse of power. I wish them luck.
Microsoft this week stated that Linux violates 235 MS patents and eluded to lawsuits against users of the free open source OS in the future. Like the bastion of truth, justice and the American way that Microsoft is they deemed it unnecessary to actually list the patents in question.
To that Linus Torvalds, the developer of the original Linux kernel and the holder of the trademark, quipped “Don’t you think that if Microsoft actually had some really foolproof patent, they’d just tell us and go “nyaah, nyaah, nyaah”.”
At http://www.theregister.com/2007/05/15/torvalds_microsoft_patents/ he also asserts that, since most of the basic work for an OS to communicate with PC hardware was done years before the birth of Microsoft, it’s far more likely that Windows violates multiple patents.
And now for the ultimate in weirdness, I give you http://news.yahoo.com/s/macworld/20070510/tc_macworld/mrt20070510_0, a report that a security company has once again decided to invoke the much-maligned DMCA to file suit against someone. The difference this time is that the company filing the suit isn’t claiming someone violated their copyright. Quite the opposite, they claim that Microsoft, Apple, AOL, YouTube, Adobe, Real and any number of other companies are violating the DMCA by NOT using said company’s proprietary DRM software to protect streaming video and audio from being “captured”.
Media Rights Technologies claims that by not using their “anti-ripping” technology the giants in the tech industry are violating the DMCA.
As Wolverine said when first introduced to the X-Men… “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard”.
MRT seems to think that by refusing to license their DRM technology to prevent ripping of streaming media the major players are somehow encouraging violations of the DMCA. I have no idea what these guys smoke for breakfast but I’d like the phone number of their supplier.
It’s like Chevy filing suit against ambulance manufacturers for using mostly Ford chassis. If Ford offered the best deal or had the most adaptable platform, where’s the rub?
Ripping streaming media can’t be done with most mainstream products like WiMP or iTunes so I don’t understand the thinking behind this. Maybe just a money grab, who knows, but any court with a modicum of technological savvy would throw this case into the street to await a sudden squishing by a passing motorist.
I’m somewhere between stumped and stupefied. I’m starting to get used to it…
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Editor’s note: To our old friends and new friends, we would like to invite you to the "84Online Reunion" in our chat room on Thursday, May 24 at 8:00pm.
Terry Wise
Tech News of the Week
Amazon.com plans to open an
online music store offering only songs
that are free of copy-protection technology and can be played on
anything:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4810739.html
Google Inc. said on Wednesday it is combining its different Web search
services into one "Universal Search" service that will present Web
sites, news, video and other results on one page:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=google-unifies-search-res&chanId=sa003&modsrc=reuters
Microsoft's accusation that the open-source software industry has
infringed 235 Microsoft patents has spotlighted a difficult issue: how
aggressively should a company police itself for patent violations?
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6184062.html
A Sydney, Australia man has generated international anger by
developing a video game based on last month's horrific Virginia Tech
massacre and demanding $3,000 to remove it from the internet:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21746421-2,00.html
Copy us on the good stuff, especially if it helps uncover dirtbag game
developers from Down Under.
Matt Dattilo
thepcgurus@gmail.com
http://mattstodayinhistory.podshow.com
Download of the Week
No matter how much anti-spyware protection
you've got on your PC, it's not enough. Spyware is notorious for being able to
slip through the cracks of anti-malware software, and you're best off if you
have more than one anti-malware tool on your PC. That's where a-squared
HiJackFree comes in. Use it as a backup to your main anti-spyware programs for
extra protection.
It doesn't offer "live" protection
like some other programs. Instead, use it to examine your system, to see if
it's been infected, then kill the malware. It's a surprisingly powerful tool,
and with far more features than I can cover here.
But here are the basics: Run it and click the
Online Analysis button, and it will check your system for malware, and issue a
report online. If it finds any nasties, it will tell you. You can then use the
program to delete the malware.
Get a-squared HiJackFree here: http://www.hijackfree.com/en/
Art Maley
Email
Question of the Week
Q: Are there any files that must be opened with
quicktime?
I sometimes get a message that "some of the mime types that were
associated with quicktime have been reset to another application" or
something like that. What does that mean?
A: The only files that "need" to be
opened with Quicktime are Quicktime
movie (.mov) files. The rest is personal preference up to you. The
reason you get that message is because every media application
(quicktime included) that gets installed / updated on your PC likes to
take over as the "default" application. It's annoying but it's
how
software companies spread their tentacles nowadays. The only way to
keep track without driving yourself nuts is to disallow an application
IF it asks to change your file associations, or use the "Open With"
feature to reset a file association if was changed without your
knowledge.
Hash
hash@ucanweb.com
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