*HOT* Tech News And Downloads, I Would Read This Thread And Post Any Good Info

go here to see the report
http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2007_05.php


Report: little-known AV packages outdo those of Symantec, McAfee, Microsoft

By Jeremy Reimer | Published: June 07, 2007 - 10:55PM CT

Andreas Clementi, who runs the web site av-comparatives.org, has released his latest report that looks at how well antivirus programs do against threats that have not yet been identified and included in standard AV signatures. The test looked at 17 different products, including offerings from Symantec, McAfee, AVG, Kaspersky, and Microsoft, and tested how well releases dated February 2 (with no updates) fared against a swath of new malware—viruses, scripts, trojans, and other nasties—that were discovered between February 2 and May 2.

The winner of this antivirus sweepstakes was a product called Avira, which managed to detect and defeat 71 percent of the unknown malware. Right behind it was the equally-obscure NOD32, which swept away 68 percent of the threats. The more well-known commercial products fared more poorly. Norton Antivirus and McAfee tied at a mere 24 percent, while Microsoft's OneCare did even worse by only identifying 18 percent of the new threats. Resting at the bottom of the barrel were Kaspersky and eScan at nine percent, and AVG, which detected only eight percent of malicious software in addition to producing many false positives.

Most virus companies proudly promote the ability of their software to "preemptively" fight viruses that haven't been identified yet, but it is surprising how poorly most of the programs fared at this task. While the chances of being hit by a virus that hasn't been found is low, it does happen: a few years back I worked at an office that got hit by a virus on a Friday afternoon, and Norton didn't have an update ready until the following Monday. New viruses can be created easily by making minor modifications to existing code, and such mutant strains often fly under the radar of traditional signature-based scanners.

Clementi has been running comparative tests of antivirus software for some time: his first test was back in February 2004, doing tests on both known ("on-demand comparative") and unknown ("Retrospective/Proactive") threats. The last test for known malware was released in February, and the winner there was TrustPort AV from AEC which had an overall detection rate of 99.36 percent, with Norton at 96.83 percent, McAfee at 91.63 percent, and Microsoft OneCare achieving the lowest score at 82.4 percent.

Overall, the tests seem to indicate that for dealing with malware, the two leading programs (McAfee and Norton) are quite firmly in the middle of the pack in terms of effectiveness, and Microsoft evidently has some work to do to bring OneCare up to the level of its competitors.

http://
arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070607-report-little-known-av-packages-outdo-those-of-symantec-mcafee-microsof t.html

http://www.avira.com/en/products/personal_premium.html

 

10 Ways to Outwit Your Appetite
Posted Mon, Jun 04, 2007, 8:28 pm PDT
POST A COMMENT »
You don't have to be smarter than a quiz show fifth-grader to learn how to control the urge to eat. Just follow these ingenious tips:

1. Feed it protein for breakfast. You'll be less hungry later on and end up eating 267 fewer calories during the day. At least that's what happened on days when St. Louis University researchers gave overweight women two scrambled eggs and two slices of jelly-topped toast for breakfast rather than about half that protein.

2. Make it climb a flight of stairs. At home, store the foods that tempt you most way out of reach. For instance, Cornell University food psychologist Brian Wansink, PhD, keeps his favorite soda in a basement fridge. "Half the time I'm too lazy to run down there to get it, so I drink the water in the kitchen."

3. Sleep on it. People who don't get their eight hours of zzz's experience hormonal fluctuations that increase appetite, report researchers.

4. Give it something else to think about. When scientists scanned the brains of people eating different foods, they found that the brain reacts to fat in the mouth in much the same way that the nose responds to a pleasant aroma. So if you feel a craving coming on, apply your favorite scent.

5. Never let it see a heaping plate. The more food that's in front of you, the more you'll eat. So at a restaurant, ask your waiter to pack up half of your meal before serving it to you, then eat the extras for lunch the next day.

6. Put it under the lights. You consume fewer calories at a well-lit restaurant table than you do dining in a dark corner. "In the light, you're more self-conscious and worry that other patrons are watching what you eat," explains Wansink.

7. Talk it down. Entertaining friends with a great story doesn't give you much time to eat up, so you'll probably still have food on your plate when they're done. Once they're finished, call it quits too.

8. Offer it a seat. If you sit down to snack -- and use utensils and a plate -- you'll eat fewer calories at subsequent meals.

9. Satisfy it with soup. Start lunch with about 130 calories worth of vegetable soup and you'll eat 20 percent fewer calories during lunch overall, say Penn State experts.

10. Give it little choice. Packages that contain assorted varieties of cookies, candy, dips, cheese, etc., make you want to try all the flavors. The effect is so powerful, says Wansink, that when people are given 10 colors of M&Ms to munch on, not seven, they eat 30 percent more!

Oh, and one more thing: Feeding your appetite a diverse diet that is low in calories and high in nutrients can make your RealAge as much as four years younger. Sweet.

 

JKDEFRAG.......... Disk defragment and optimize utility for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/X64. Completely automatic and very easy to use, fast, low overhead, with several optimization strategies, and can handle floppies and USB disks/sticks. Included are a Windows version, a commandline version (for scheduling by the task scheduler or for use from administrator scripts), a screensaver version, a DLL library (for use from programming languages), and versions for Windows X64.....(free).....GO THERE!

link
http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/

Download JkDefrag v3.12 (329kb) for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista
http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/JkDefrag-3.12.zip


Download JkDefrag64 v3.12 (318kb) for Windows X64
http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/JkDefrag64-3.12.zip

 

WHAT IS RUNNING..........Gives you an inside look into your Windows system.

Inspect your processes and find all the relevant details that you need! Get performance and resource usage data such as memory usage, processor usage and handles. Also you get all details about what dll's are loaded, what services are running within the process and what IP-connections each process has. Find out information about all active IP-connections in the system. Get a list of what remote connections each program have and find out what applications are listening for connections. Inspect what services are running and stopped, find the process for your services and inspect it's properties easily! Find information about all dll's and exe's in use in your system. For each module you can find all processes that have loaded the module. Also you can find the full path and immediately open the folder where the file is located. Find information about all drivers, for running drivers you can inspect the file version to find out the supplier of the driver. Manage all your startup programs. Disable, edit, delete, create new easily. Manage startup programs regardless of source (registry or Startup folder). Show important system information about your computer, such as installed memory, processor, registered user, OS and OS version.

FREE for personal use.....(free).....GO THERE!
link
http://www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/main.aspx

 

ULTIMATE BOOT CD FOR WINDOWS..........

UBCD4Win is a bootable CD which contains software that allows you to repair, restore, or diagnose almost any computer problem. Our goal is to be the ultimate free hardware and software diagnostic tool. All software included in UBCD4Win are freeware utilities for Windows®. UBCD4Win is based on Bart's PE©. Bart's PE© builds a Windows® "pre-install" environment CD, basically Windows® booted from CD. We include many free hardware and software diagnostic tools that allow you to fix almost any problem you will face with your computer. With network support, the ability to modify NTFS volumes, recover deleted files, create new NTFS volumes, scan hard drives for viruses, etc. this project includes almost everything you need to repair your system problems. This project has been put together to be the ultimate recovery cd and not a replacement OS (Operating System). Please visit the "List of Tools" page for a complete list of what is included in the latest version of the project

.....(free).....GO THERE!
http://ubcd4win.com/index.htm




notes

What is the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows?

UBCD4Win is a bootable CD which contains software that allows you to repair, restore, or diagnose almost any computer problem. Our goal is to be the ultimate free hardware and software diagnostic tool. All software included in UBCD4Win are freeware utilities for Windows®. UBCD4Win is based on Bart's PE©. Bart's PE© builds a Windows® "pre-install" environment CD, basically Windows® booted from CD. We include many free hardware and software diagnostic tools that allow you to fix almost any problem you will face with your computer. With network support, the ability to modify NTFS volumes, recover deleted files, create new NTFS volumes, scan hard drives for viruses, etc. this project includes almost everything you need to repair your system problems. This project has been put together to be the ultimate recovery cd and not a replacement OS (Operating System). Please visit the "List of Tools" page for a complete list of what is included in the latest version of the project.

There are requirements for building this CD which can and may make it difficult for everyone to build the project. Please understand that these requirements and restrictions are due to copyright laws, etc. When starting this project I wanted it to be as easy as possible. I wanted it to be a simple ISO file download just like the original Ultimate Boot CD. I had to weigh the ease of build and functionality very carefully. After much thought and research I decided that Bart's PE© was the best way to accomplish this task. That decision required a different type of build and more steps for the end user. Yes more complicated, but I prefer to think of these additional steps in a positive way. We provide detailed instructions, email support, and the forum for help. Inexperienced users will feel a sense of accomplishment and gain knowledge when they successfully build the CD.
How did this project start?

This project was started because of requests from members of the original Ultimate Boot CD yahoo group. Several members wanted a "Windows®" version of the Ultimate Boot CD. After a few days no one had volunteered! So I decided that I had enough time to do this and it was my way to give something back to the computing community. The "true" and "pure" ideal of helping people quickly spread, after 2 1/2 years the project continues to grow.

April 2, 2004, I created the UBCDWindows group. The first few weeks consisted mostly of discussions on how to accomplish this. We had to decide what should be included and searched for great stuff. After searching and reading a lot of web pages I finally decided that Bart's PE© was the best option.
One of the first issues I saw was one of the requirements for Bart's PE©, an XP CD with SP1. I personally had upgraded to XP right when XP came out so I did not have SP1 on my XP CD. I found several solutions for this issue but manually slipstreaming required several applications and would add more complexity to the project. I didn't like this added complexity but figured we would be able to do something about that. A better solution was created and is discussed below.

April 20, 2004 was an exciting day for me, I launched this site. After a few days of getting everything setup I realizing it was easy to setup a forum. So I announced the imminent closing of the yahoo group and requested that everyone join the forum. The project and forum have grown since it's start. Member registrations continue to grow and new teams have been created to help the development and support of the project.

The slipstreaming problem needed addressed so I contacted one of my friends that is a programmer. Raptor was glad to help and we started working together on creating a slipstreaming application. We worked pretty hard for several weeks creating the application. Well, he did all the coding work and I just helped with testing, minor details, and the dialogue for the prompts. On July 9, 2004 we released AutoStreamer 1.0!!

February 23, 2006 is another great day in the history of this project. Only a week after starting a "donation rally" to purchase an OEM license for Bart PE©, we hit our goal!! We now own a license for Bart PE©! This has helped simplify the project in many ways. Now when you download the project it is ONE download. There are no extra or complicated extraction steps, no "extract this here....delete....extract here", etc. Having the license has given us the ability to change and simplify many other things also. I thank all the great users who helped us purchase the license in order to make it better and easier for EVERYONE!!

February 2007, another donation rally and another OEM license for the project!! Thanks to everyone who donated towards our RamDrive license. That annoying little "popup" asking people to purchase RamDrive or error screen are gone. This is a newer version with few restrictions and is capable of creating up to a 2 Gigabyte RamDrive. Thanks again everyone for helping to make the project better and easier for everyone.

April 3, 2007 yet more capabilities are added to UBCD4Win. After over a year of my development team working with BTS driverpacks driver team, BartPE support is added to the BTS driverpacks! I can't congratulate or thank the members of my development team that worked on this enough. Bashrat has a great driverpack that he has been working hard on for years and we greatly appreciate his help and support. Kudos to OverFlow for all of his work and time spent working on this implementation.

 

Goodbye wires, Hello WiTricity

p2pnet.net news:- Electrical power cables and plugs may soon become things of the past thanks to WiTricity, a technique developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

WiTricity, wireless power transfer over two meters (about 6.5 feet), has been achieved from the coil on the left to the coil on the right, where it's powering a 60W light bulb.

The team which made it happen are: front row, Peter Fisher (left) and Robert Moffatt; second row: Marin Soljacic; third row: Andre Kurs (left), John Joannopoulos and Aristeidis Karalis.

And their experiment opens up a future in which cell phones, household robots, mp3 players, laptop computers and other portable electronic devices could charge themselves without ever being plugged in.

Even better, some of them might not even need batteries at all.

WiTricity is based on using coupled resonant objects, says MIT, going on >>>>>

Two resonant objects of the same resonant frequency tend to exchange energy efficiently, while interacting weakly with extraneous off-resonant objects. A child on a swing is a good example of this. A swing is a type of mechanical resonance, so only when the child pumps her legs at the natural frequency of the swing is she able to impart substantial energy.

Another example involves acoustic resonances: Imagine a room with 100 identical wine glasses, each filled with wine up to a different level, so they all have different resonant frequencies. If an opera singer sings a sufficiently loud single note inside the room, a glass of the corresponding frequency might accumulate sufficient energy to even explode, while not influencing the other glasses. In any system of coupled resonators there often exists a so-called "strongly coupled" regime of operation. If one ensures to operate in that regime in a given system, the energy transfer can be very efficient.

While these considerations are universal, applying to all kinds of resonances (e.g., acoustic, mechanical, electromagnetic, etc.), the MIT team focused on one particular type: magnetically coupled resonators. The team explored a system of two electromagnetic resonators coupled mostly through their magnetic fields; they were able to identify the strongly coupled regime in this system, even when the distance between them was several times larger than the sizes of the resonant objects. This way, efficient power transfer was enabled.

Magnetic coupling is particularly suitable for everyday applications because most common materials interact only very weakly with magnetic fields, so interactions with extraneous environmental objects are suppressed even further. "The fact that magnetic fields interact so weakly with biological organisms is also important for safety considerations," Kurs, a graduate student in physics, points out.

The investigated design consists of two copper coils, each a self-resonant system. One of the coils, attached to the power source, is the sending unit. Instead of irradiating the environment with electromagnetic waves, it fills the space around it with a non-radiative magnetic field oscillating at MHz frequencies. The non-radiative field mediates the power exchange with the other coil (the receiving unit), which is specially designed to resonate with the field. The resonant nature of the process ensures the strong interaction between the sending unit and the receiving unit, while the interaction with the rest of the environment is weak.

Moffatt, an MIT undergraduate in physics, explains: "The crucial advantage of using the non-radiative field lies in the fact that most of the power not picked up by the receiving coil remains bound to the vicinity of the sending unit, instead of being radiated into the environment and lost." With such a design, power transfer has a limited range, and the range would be shorter for smaller-size receivers.

Still, for laptop-sized coils, power levels more than sufficient to run a laptop can be transferred over room-sized distances nearly omni-directionally and efficiently, irrespective of the geometry of the surrounding space, even when environmental objects completely obstruct the line-of-sight between the two coils. Fisher points out: "As long as the laptop is in a room equipped with a source of such wireless power, it would charge automatically, without having to be plugged in. In fact, it would not even need a battery to operate inside of such a room." In the long run, this could reduce our society's dependence on batteries, which are currently heavy and expensive.

At first glance, such a power transfer is reminiscent of relatively commonplace magnetic induction, such as is used in power transformers, which contain coils that transmit power to each other over very short distances. An electric current running in a sending coil induces another current in a receiving coil. The two coils are very close, but they do not touch. However, this behavior changes dramatically when the distance between the coils is increased. As Karalis, a graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science, points out, "Here is where the magic of the resonant coupling comes about. The usual non-resonant magnetic induction would be almost 1 million times less efficient in this particular system."

Slashdot Slashdot it!

Also See:
MIT - Goodbye wires…, June 7, 2007

If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, and here for details. And if you're Chinese and you're looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.


(Friday 8th June 2007)
http://p2pnet.net/story/12449

 

BitTorrent site ordered to enable server logs, turn them over to MPAA

By Eric Bangeman | Published: June 10, 2007 - 11:21PM CT

In a ruling made last month but only unsealed last Friday, a federal judge ordered BitTorrent site Torrentspy.com to begin tracking its users as possible evidence in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by a handful of movie studios and the MPAA. According to the terms of the order (PDF), TorrentSpy will be required to keep server log files detailing its users' activities while on site, including IP addresses and torrent files downloaded.

The judge's ruling would force TorrentSpy to act in a manner contrary to its privacy policy, which says that the site does not collect any personal information about its users. In a message to the "friends of TorrentSpy" published on the TorrentSpy front page, its administrators say that they are appealing the judge's order and will not create logs of what its users do throughout the site without their consent.

TorrentSpy was targeted by the MPAA in a series of lawsuits that also named other BitTorrent sites IsoHunt, NiteShadow.com, TorrentBox.com, and BTHub.com, along with an eDonkey site and three membership-based sites that provide access to binaries posted on Usenet. The suit accuses the sites of providing illegal access to tens of thousands of copyrighted works, including feature films.

As part of the discovery process, the plaintiffs filed a motion on March 12 of this year seeking to force TorrentSpy to preserve and produce server log data. The MPAA was looking for IP addresses of those seeking "dot-torrent" files, the requests for the torrent files themselves, and the dates and times the requests were made. The defendants pointed out that they had never had server logs enabled because it wasn't a necessary part of their business operations, and because they believed that privacy laws in the Netherlands—where the TorrentSpy servers are located—prevented them from maintaining and turning over logs.

Judge Jacqueline Chooljian said that since the data sought by the MPAA was at least temporarily available in RAM, it was covered by the rules of evidence. Therefore, it must be logged.

The judge has stayed the enforcement of the order pending an appeal, which must be filed by June 12. Should the motion stand, users of TorrentSpy run the risk of having some personally identifying information fall into the hands of the MPAA. Unlike the RIAA, which has used IP addresses to identify and sue thousands of suspected file-sharers, the MPAA has yet to go after individuals, choosing instead to target BitTorrent sites.

TorrentSpy will be allowed to mask IP addresses in the newly-maintained logs, and the MPAA is prohibited from using "brute force" or other means to try and unmask the addresses once the log files are turned over. The original IP addresses, however, must be retained and could conceivably be turned over to the MPAA as well.

Should TorrentSpy fail to overturn the judge's order, the site would have no choice but to begin compiling log files on all its users. The prospect that their IP addresses would be logged and possibly turned over to the MPAA may be enough to discourage some users from using TorrentSpy, which would mark another small victory for the motion picture industry.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...nable-server-logs-turn-them-over-to-mpaa.html

 

RIAA uses local cops in Oregon bust

p2pnet.net news:- Fake cops employed by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, the venal members of the Big 4 organised music cartel, started acting like real police officers quite a while ago, one of the earliest examples showing up in Los Angeles in 2004.

"Though no guns were brandished, the bust from a distance looked like classic LAPD, DEA or FBI work, right down to the black 'raid' vests the unit members wore," said a feature in the LA Weekly.

"The fact that their yellow stenciled lettering read 'RIAA' instead of something from an official law-enforcement agency was lost on 55-year-old parking-lot attendant Ceasar Borrayo."

But it's also SOP for the so-called music industry 'trade' outfit to tout genuine officers paid for entirely from citizen taxes as copyright cops.

Police were used in an RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) inspired raid at two flea markets in Beaverton, Oregon.

"Sgt. Paul Wandell, Beaverton police spokesman, said officers seized more than 50,000 items worth about $758,000," says The Oregonian.

The emphasis is wholly on product produced by the Big 4 members of the organised music cartel, although also included were, "knockoff designer purses, sunglasses and clothing, and counterfeit brand-name toys," the story quotes Sgt Paul Wandell as saying.

Wandell said Beaverton police, "got a tip about counterfeit items being sold at a Beaverton market in December, and the investigation led them to the Hillsboro flea markets".

No prizes for guessing where the tip came from, and about "20 recording and movie industry investigators" arrived from California to "help" police identify counterfeit items, says the story.

But this is merely the tiny tip of an iceberg of absolutely mind-boggling dimensions. Under it, police forces across the United States are routinely used in purely commercial activities.

GrayZone says it provides "investigative, paralegal and research services" to members of the entertainment community, including the labels.

In an April, 2006, report slugged RIAA Anti-Piracy Seizure Information, for New York alone it lists:

New York

April 25, 2006 - The New York Police Department's 30th Precinct, assisted by the RIAA, executed a search warrant at a burner lab in New York City. As a result, five suspects were arrested and two towers containing five CD/DVD burners, 1,150 piratical CD-Rs, and 307 counterfeit music DVD-Rs were seized.

April 14, 2006 - The New York Police Department's 67th Precinct, assisted by the RIAA, executed a search warrant at a CD burner lab located on Church Avenue in Brooklyn. The enforcement action resulted in the arrest of three suspects and the seizure of eight CD-R burners, 10,396 piratical CD-Rs, 204 counterfeit CD-Rs, and 210 counterfeit movie DVDs.

April 13, 2006 - The New York Police Department, Midtown South, assisted by the RIAA, conducted enforcement action at a distribution location on West 39 Street in New York City. Seized in connection to the enforcement action were a total of 8,900 counterfeit/piratical CD-Rs and 7,400 counterfeit movie DVD-Rs.

April 6, 2006 - The New York Police Department's Midtown South Precinct, assisted by the RIAA investigators conducted enforcement action at a distribution location on West 35th Street in New York City. As a result, two suspects were arrested and 11,120 counterfeit/piratical CD-Rs and 5,750 counterfeit DVD-Rs were seized.

April 6, 2006 - Also on this date, the New York Police Department's 1st Precinct, assisted by the RIAA, executed a search warrant at a distribution location on Canal Street in New York City and arrested two suspects. Seized as a result were 6,880 counterfeit and piratical CD-Rs.

April 13, 2006 - The New York Police Department's 40th Precinct, assisted by RIAA investigators, executed a search warrant at a burner lab located on West 146 Street in New York City. Resulting from the enforcement action were one arrest and the seizure of two DVD/CD towers containing 14 CD-R burners, 785 piratical CD-Rs, 1,518 counterfeit movie DVD-Rs, 100 master CDs, and raw materials.

April 3, 2006 - As part of an ongoing investigation into "Operation Deceitful Wares" the New York Police Department's Organized Crimes Investigations Division, along with the United States Secret Service ECTF, executed seven state search warrants at a building on Broadway in New York City. As a result, eight suspects were arrested and charged. Seized in total as a result of the enforcement actions were a total of 20,800 counterfeit CD-Rs, 71,428 counterfeit movie DVDs, 5,597 counterfeit handbags, 2,866 counterfeit sneakers, 900 counterfeit wallets, 770 counterfeit sunglasses, 206 counterfeit boots, 176 counterfeit shoes and $9,898 in US currency. Several of the trademarks violated included Coach, Louis Vitton, Kate Spade, Prada, Gucci, Fendi, Nike and Timberland.

April 2, 2006 - RIAA investigators assisted the New York Police Department's 13th Precinct in enforcement action on West 28th Street in New York City that resulted in one arrest and the seizure of 16,600 counterfeit/piratical CD-Rs and 4,000 counterfeit movie DVD-Rs.

March 16, 2006 -The Spring Valley Police Department, along with the RIAA, executed a search warrant at a burner lab located on North Main Street resulting in one arrest and the seizure of five towers consisting of 11 CD-R burners, two printers, assorted raw material, 1,300 piratical CDs, 1,200 pirated CD-Rs and 500 counterfeit CDs.

March 16, 2006 - At another location, also on this date, the Spring Valley Police Department along with the RIAA, executed a search warrant at a burner lab also located on North Main Street resulting in one arrest and the seizure of one tower consisting of eight CD-R burners, 1,245 piratical CD-Rs, and various raw materials.

March 14, 2006 - The 67th Precinct of the New York Police Department, along with the RIAA, executed a search warrant at a CD-R burner lab located on Church Street in Brooklyn resulting in two arrests and the seizure of seven towers containing 46 CD-R burners, 3,200 piratical CD-R, three computers, two laptops, one mirage printer, one laser printer and a loaded 9mm handgun.

March 13, 2006 - RIAA investigators assisted the New York police with enforcement on West 37th Street in New York City. This action resulted in two arrests and the seizure of 12,600 counterfeit and piratical CD-Rs and 4,300 counterfeit movie DVD-Rs.

March 10, 2006 - The 70th Precinct of the New York Police Department conducted enforcement action at a retail store in Brooklyn. This resulted in one arrest and the seizure of 56 CD-R burners, 1,300 counterfeit and piratical CD-Rs and 450 movie DVD-Rs.

March 9, 2006 - RIAA investigators assisted the Bronx District Attorneys Squad in the execution of a search warrant at a burner lab on Morris Avenue. This warrant resulted in one arrest and the seizure of 25 CD-R burners, 900 counterfeit and piratical CD-Rs, 100 counterfeit music DVDs and 2,600 counterfeit movie DVDs.

March 9, 2006 - The New York Police Department's 25th Precinct, assisted by the RIAA, executed a search warrant at a storage unit acting as a distribution location on Park Avenue in New York City. Seized as a result were 4,000 counterfeit CD-Rs, 4,800 piratical CD-Rs and 2,800 counterfeit movie DVD-Rs.

March 8, 2006 - RIAA investigators assisted the Brooklyn District Attorneys Squad in the execution of a search warrant at a burner lab on Patchen Avenue. The warrant resulted in one arrest and the seizure of 80 CD- R burners, 5,850 counterfeit and piratical CD-Rs, one rimage printer, 5,000 insert labels and 1,980 counterfeit movie DVDs.

March 8, 2006 - At a separate location, RIAA investigators assisted the Brooklyn District Attorneys Squad in the execution of a search warrant at a distributor location on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. This warrant resulted in the seizure of 5,600 counterfeit and piratical CD-Rs, 2,600 counterfeit music DVDs and 14,500 counterfeit movie DVDs.

March 7, 2006 - RIAA investigators received information from the Suffolk County District Attorney's Rackets Bureau that a Queen's man pled guilty to a felony and was sentenced to 1 1/2 years in state prison. The suspect was arrested in August of 2003 with 725 counterfeit CD-Rs in his possession and again in July of 2004 with 48 counterfeit CD-Rs and 225 piratical CD-Rs.

March 2, 2006 - The New York Police Department's Organized Crimes Investigations Division, along with RIAA and MPAA investigators, conducted multiple search warrants in Brooklyn. This first enforcement action on Vernon Avenue resulted in the arrest of three suspects and the seizure of 69 CD-R burners, 1,200 piratical DJ mix CD-Rs, 1,606 counterfeit movie DVD-Rs, a laptop computer, one printer and several boxes of raw materials.

March 2, 2006 - A second operation was led on Fulton Street. This action resulted in the arrest of one suspect and the seizure of 28 CD-R burners, 16,900 piratical DJ mix CD- Rs, 1,900 music DVD-Rs, 9,909 counterfeit movie DVD-Rs and boxes of various raw materials. Also on Fulton Street, a further warrant led to the arrest of another suspect and the seizure of seven burners and 5,100 counterfeit movie DVD-Rs. A seizure at a third location on Fulton Street resulted in the seizure of 35 burners, 10,300 piratical DJ mix CD-Rs, 1,400 music DVD-Rs and 7,105 counterfeit movie DVD-Rs.

March 2006 - The enforcement actions in the state of New York resulted in the seizure of more than 70,895 counterfeit and piratical CD-Rs, 56,350 counterfeit movie DVDs and 365 CD / DVD Burners.

February 20, 2006 - The Suffolk County Police Department's 1st Precinct Crime Section, along with the RIAA, executed a search warrant at a burner lab located at 325 Merritt Ave in Wyandanch, resulting in the arrest of one suspect who is known to be a gang member. Seized from the lab were five CD-R burners, 1,050 piratical CD-Rs, 255 counterfeit music DVDs, two printers, 111 master CDs, 200 blank CD-Rs, $20,000 in US currency and 140 counterfeit movie DVDs as well as other trademarks that included Duracell Batteries, Nike and Reebok.

February 16, 2006 - The New York Police Department's Organized Crimes Investigations Division Unit executed a search warrant on Broadway in New York City. As a result of this enforcement action, one suspect was arrested and 6,300 counterfeit and piratical CD-Rs, 600 counterfeit music DVDs and 7,004 counterfeit movie DVDs were seized.

February 15, 2006 - The New York Police Department's 28th Precinct, assisted by the RIAA, executed a search warrant at a CD burner lab and a distribution operation located on 7th Avenue in New York City. As a result of these enforcement actions, three suspects were apprehended and seven towers containing 44 (52X) CD burners were seized. Also confiscated during the search were 16,000 counterfeit CD-Rs, 11,800 piratical CD-Rs, a printer, one shrink wrap machine, one heat gun, two boxes of raw materials, inserts and one box of CD Masters.

February 13, 2006 - RIAA investigators assisted the New York Police Department's 13th Precinct in the execution of a search warrant on West 29th St in New York City. This action resulted in the seizure of 12,200 counterfeit and piratical CD-Rs and 4,000 counterfeit movie DVDs.

February 9, 2006 - The United States Probation and Parole Department, while conducting a search on a supervised parolee, observed an active burner lab resulting in the arrest of one suspect and the seizure of 20 CD-R burners, 307 counterfeit music DVDs, 54 counterfeit CD-Rs, 74 piratical CD-Rs, 304 counterfeit movie DVDs, one computer, one printer and various raw material.

February 9, 2006 - The New York Police Department's 13th Precinct executed a search warrant on 5th Avenue in New York City that resulted in the seizure of 7,938 counterfeit and piratical CD-Rs and 5,450 counterfeit movie DVDs.

February 8, 2006 - RIAA investigators assisted the New York Police Department's Organized Crimes Investigations Division execute a search warrant at 247 West 35th Street in New York City. This action resulted in one arrest and the seizure of 8,300 counterfeit and piratical CD-Rs and 8,300 counterfeit movie DVD-Rs.

January 26, 2006 - The New York City Police Department Organized Crimes Investigations Division Unit with the United States Secret Service and assisted by the RIAA and MPAA, executed four search warrants on Broadway in New York City. As a result, three suspects were arrested and the seizure of 23,000 counterfeit CD-Rs and 32,000 counterfeit movie DVD-Rs.

January 18, 2006 - RIAA investigators assisted the New York Police Department's 79th Precinct in executing a search warrant at a retail record store on Fulton Street in Brooklyn. This action resulted in the arrest of 3 subjects and the seizure of 30,408 piratical and counterfeit CD-Rs. January 17, 2006 - RIAA investigators assisted the New York Police Department's 63rd precinct with the execution of a search warrant on Church Street in Brooklyn. This action resulted in the arrest of two suspects and the seizure of 4,734 piratical CD-Rs. It was later discovered that one of the offenders admitted to making the CD-Rs in the basement of his apartment. After giving consent to search his residence, 44 CD-R burners and other raw materials were seized.

January 10, 2006 - RIAA investigators assisted the New York Police Department's Organized Crimes Investigations Division Unit in the execution of a search warrant on West 27th St in New York City. Seized were a total of 8,100 counterfeit / piratical CD-Rs and 4,300 counterfeit movie DVDs.

January 5, 2006 - The New York Police Department's 13th Precinct assisted by the RIAA, executed a search warrant at a sandwich shop in New York City. The enforcement resulted in one arrest and the seizure of 13,000 counterfeit / pirated CD-Rs and 6,505 counterfeit movie DVDs. An additional search on 8th Avenue resulted in five additional arrests and the seizure of 33,600 counterfeit CD-Rs and 19,104 counterfeit movie DVDs.

January 3, 2006 - RIAA investigators assisted the New York Police Department's Organized Crimes Investigations Division Unit in the execution of a search warrant on Rosedale Avenue in the Bronx. The enforcement resulted in one arrest and the seizure of eight towers containing 74 CD-R burners (52x), 3,400 counterfeit / piratical CD-Rs and 2,304 counterfeit movie DVDs. A separate search warrant executed on West 36th Street in New York City resulted in the seizure of 12,400 counterfeit and piratical CD-Rs and 12,960 counterfeit movie DVDs.

The cost to New York taxpayers must have been, and no doubt still is, phenomenal, not to mention the fact they'd undoubtedly have been better employed serving and protecting New York citizens, not corporate music industry profits.
http://p2pnet.net/story/12469

 

Deal with it, Hollywood tells parents

p2pnet.net news:- How's this for the ultimate in hypocrisy?

"We've got to figure out a way to empower parents to exercise more responsibility than they do. It's tough. The world is different. Kids are more technically competent than their parents ... We've got to figure out a way to let parents know they can engage their kids in what they do, and that's a big societal problem."

The words are Hollywood spin doctor Dan Glickman's, quoted in the The Wichita Eagle.

Ostensibly in charge of Hollywood's trades union, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), he was emparting his wisdom to lawyers in his home town of Wichita:

Movies rated PG-13 may not be suitable for kids of any age, says the Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences unit.

"Violence permeated nearly 90 percent of the films in this study," says Theresa Webb, a researcher in the department of epidemiology and the Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences unit.

"And while the explanations and causes of youth violence are very complex, the evidence is clear that media depictions of violence contribute to the teaching of violence."

The MPAA hasn't changed its movie ratings since it added PG-13 in 1980 and it was recently forced to pull back from its position on smoking in movies.

"Descriptions on sex, violence and language that accompany movie ratings now will include such phrases as 'glamorized smoking' or 'pervasive smoking'," says MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) boss Dan Glickman.

And, "When we look back 10 years from now, this will be a defining moment," said Lisa Paulsen, president and ceo of the Entertainment Industry Foundation.

However, "This announcement is wholly inadequate and will cost countless lives," says American Legacy Foundation president and ceo Cheryl Healton "Since more than 80 percent of smokers start before turning 18, youth exposure to smoking in youth rated movies is a vital concern for our nation's health."

It goes on:

According to April 2007 data from the University of California-San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, 72 percent of all U.S. produced live action films that grossed at least $500,000 from 2004 - 2006 depicted smoking. Also, between 2004 and 2006, only 42 percent of movies that depicted smoking were already R rated, not the 75 percent claimed by the MPAA.

The MPAA quotes the 2006 Monitoring the Future Study and states that "the percent of smoking during a monthly period was down about 60%, 50% and 40% in grades eight, ten and twelve respectively." What it doesn't say is that the comparisons were to youth smoking rates in the mid-1990s when they reached a peak. MPAA's letter also fails to mention that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated four times in the last five years that high levels of smoking in movies are responsible for the fact that youth smoking remains as high as it is and that there was no decline in daily youth smoking rates between 2005 and 2006.

"Smoking is inherently a killer," Glickman told The Eagle, following his talk to the Kansas Bar Association convention. "It's not like moderate drinking - excessive drinking is the problem."

But, he went on, smoking itself isn't enough to affect ratings: content has to "glorify" smoking as something that might entice young people.

"It's not to censor," Glickman told The Eagle, "it's to try and give parents tools they need to exercise their responsibility."

So, mums and dads, Hollywood is blameless. If there's smoking in movies, it's up to you, not the folks who put it there in the first place, to deal with it. Exercise more responsibility.
http://p2pnet.net/story/12465

 

$3 DRM movies for iTunes

p2pnet.net news:- DRM king Apple, which for the past several months has been cynically milking a pseudo anti-DRM stance for all it's worth, now apparently wants to introduce DRM-loaded movies on iTunes.

A "rental" service is, " being pitched aggressively by Apple", with titles costing $3 "for a set number of days before expiring," The Wall Street Journal quotes two studio executives as saying.

"It is unclear which studios might participate, with Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures currently in favor and General Electric Co.'s Universal Studios Inc. currently opposed, for example," says the story, going on:

"If Apple can persuade Hollywood to offer its new movies for rent, it could pave the way to offering them for sale. Studios are balking at Apple's pricing, which is currently $14.99 for new titles, compared to around $18 for a new DVD, potentially undercutting a major income source for studios."

But, says the WSJ, "Many are concerned about Apple's copy-protection policies. Copy protection is an issue for the rentals, as Apple wants titles to be playable not just on the computer but also on a second device such as a video iPod. Some studios believe that policy might result in lost sales or rentals."

Meanwhile, as has been proved over and over again, anything which can be seen or heard them be copied by one means or another, and any supposed copyright protection technology introduced by the cartels will be quickly hacked.
http://p2pnet.net/story/12471

 

Hollywood on The Hill

p2pnet.net news view:- When Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda and Industry Minister Maxime Bernier stepped up to the podium on Parliament Hill ten days ago to introduce new movie piracy legislation, the scene had an unmistakable Hollywood feel. Surrounded by movie posters and attendees munching on popcorn, the Ministers were given a standing ovation from the assembled industry representatives for their performance.

While the press conference had a few uncomfortable moments - Oda was forced to admit that the government had not conducted any independent research on the scope of the movie piracy problem and she implausibly told reporters that public pressure from U.S. politicians such as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins had nothing to do with the new bill - the intended storyline was of Ministers pleased to support the film industry and of an industry grateful for government action.

As with any Hollywood production, however, not everything took place while the cameras were rolling. According to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, Oda held a private meeting in Ottawa with Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association President Douglas Frith one year earlier, at which Frith provided the government with draft legislation - legislation that the lobby group itself had crafted - that likely served as the basis for what is now Bill C-59.

Moreover, a briefing note prepared by department officials for Oda in advance of the CMPDA meeting help explain the barrage of lobby pressure on the camcording issue as the Minister was advised that there was little evidence that the industry’s proposal would prove more effective that current Canadian law.

The CMPDA meeting focused on several issues, including counterfeiting and signal theft, yet it was a movie piracy amendment to the Criminal Code that was clearly top of mind. An advance CMPDA briefing document claimed that legislative reforms were needed to address the growth of unauthorized camcording in Canadian movie theatres.

Much like Bill C-59, which contains a maximum jail term of five years for the recording of a movie in a theatre for the purposes of commercial distribution without the consent of the theatre owner, the CMPDA draft bill similarly envisioned a maximum of five years imprisonment for "any person who knowingly operates the audiovisual recording function of any device in a public place while a cinematographic work is being exhibited."

In fact, the CMPDA bill arguably went even further than Bill C-59, as the industry also sought maximum penalties of $1 million per recording and an unspecified minimum penalty. Furthermore, it criminalized movie recording in any public place (C-59 only covers movie theatres) and did not require commercial distribution to invoke the toughest penalties (C-59 includes a lesser maximum sentence of two years in jail for movie recording without commercial distribution).

Department officials were not persuaded by the proposal, however, warning in the Ministerial briefing note that the penalty provisions in the Copyright Act are already criminal offences and that "it is unclear how these measures would prove more efficient." That conclusion is consistent with comments from Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, who in February rejected the calls for movie piracy legislation by noting that "the country is not completely bereft of laws in this area."

In light of the tepid response, the industry went on the offensive, threatening to delay the release of movies in the Canadian theatres, canceling Canadian pre-screenings, enlisting the support of U.S. officials, and floating inconsistent claims of Canadian responsibility for global camcording that ranged from 20 to 70 percent (the Oda briefing note stated that Montreal alone was responsible for 40 percent of unauthorized film reproductions in the world market, twice what CMPDA now claims for all of Canada).

The industry's lobby efforts were clearly successful. Ignoring the inconsistent claims, the absence of evidence that Canadian films are being affected, the contrary internal advice, and the bracing reality that Hollywood has acknowledged that the U.S. is by far the largest source of illegal camcording worldwide notwithstanding its movie piracy legislation, Bill C-59 is expected to sail quickly through Parliament.

In doing so, Ottawa is sending Canadians two messages. The first is what drew the industry standing ovation - unauthorized camcording will not be tolerated in Canada even if it means diverting law enforcement resources from health and safety issues to movie theatres. The second is that private meetings, foreign pressures, and lobbyist drafted bills is how law gets made in Canada.

Michael Geist
[Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist[at]uottawa.ca and is on-line at www.michaelgeist.ca.]
http://p2pnet.net/story/12470

 

Save Aunty from DRM

p2pnet.net news:- Britons and other fans of the BBC around the world fear the cherished national radio broadcasting service, lovingly known as Aunty and which kept spirits alive during World War II, may finally be killed ----- by DRM.

"We are deeply concerned about the BBC's use of 'Digital Rights Management' (DRM) to manage content delivered to users over the Internet," says Free The BBC, a campaign created by The Binary Freedom Press Office and Binary Freedom Boston, with help from Defective By Design.

"There are dozens of arguments against DRM, however we believe these are the most important and relevant to the BBC."

Click here to put your name to the letter, which goes on >>>>>>>>>>>>>

1. DRM simply doesn't work.
Producers of DRM technology tell copyright holders that DRM will protect their content from unauthorized copying and commercial piracy. This is completely false. All DRM systems, including new technologies like HD-DVD and Blu-ray, have been circumvented. DRM relies on users not knowing an encryption key that is widely distributed to devices that play content. Cracking DRM is then as simple as discovering the encryption key. In such a situation, the entire DRM system is circumvented and the argument to "protect copyrighted materials" is removed. In addition, many programs that may use DRM are already broadcast over-the-air and this content can easily be converted into unprotected digital format. Even if DRM worked it would not protect BBC content.

DRM's defectiveness, is part of the reason that Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, called on the music industry to release DRM-free music. ("Thoughts on Music", February 6, 2007)

2. DRM strips consumers of their rights.
By using DRM, the BBC is telling users that they are criminals. DRM assumes that a user will use the content they are provided with to violate copyright law and in response strips users of their normal consumer rights. In the United Kingdom, the fair dealing privilege is meant to provide an exception to copyright for "private study and criticism and review and news reporting" (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 s. 29, 30). DRM makes it illegal to extract portions of a work for criticism or review. Fair dealing is meant to allow, among other things, private copies for research purposes, or extraction of portions for a film review. DRM attempts to make both of these impossible, thereby depriving citizens of rights guaranteed to them by British law. Other countries, such as the United States, grant similar rights under other fair dealing or fair use doctrines. The BBC would also be similarly depriving citizens of those countries of their statutory rights.

Since the BBC is a public corporation, it should be acting in the interest of the general public. Any action that removes the rights of the general public is not acting in their interest.

3. DRM directly violates the BBC Royal Charter.
The BBC royal charter establishes a number of goals and operating conditions including "promoting education and learning", "stimulating creativity and cultural excellence", and "bringing the UK to the world". DRM runs contrary to all of these purposes. DRM limits education by restricting copying for public educational purposes, and even inhibits private study. It stifles creativity by trying to make even incidental remixing impossible. Finally, it arbitrarily limits the BBC's reach by forcing viewers to use particular proprietary software applications. DRM advances corporate interests over the public interest, which is in flagrant opposition to the charter.

4. DRM is a poor business decision.
If people are unable to take content they have purchased and use it for their own personal purposes, then they will choose other locations to receive that content. This is one of the reasons why EMI recently agreed to sell their music without DRM.

Additionally, the data is formatted to restrict access to Windows users. The BBC has decided to release content under the Windows Media Format. The Windows Media Format (WMF) is a proprietary system. As licenses for other operating systems are not available, users have to buy Microsoft Windows. This choice would restrict BBC content to a portion of the population, excluding users of operating systems such as GNU/Linux (which is powering the one laptop per child system). The BBC is also considering the use of REAL media, which has players for other operating systems. However, REAL is still unacceptable, because there are no libre/open source software that can play REAL media with DRM. This is an insurmountable problem common to all DRM systems. The BBC is a public corporation and its funding comes from public sources. If people pay for a service, they should only have to pay for it once. With WMF, REAL, and DRM, they are having to pay twice (once to have the content created and once to have it shown to them through WMF or REAL). In addition, since both systems require particular proprietary software applications, BBC is in effect subsidizing unrelated private enterprises.

5. The Industry has Ditched it
The media industry is already stopping the use of DRM. Apple iTunes, Amazon Music, PBS, C-SPAN, NPR, and many other large media outlets will soon offer DRM-free content or already offer it. Seeing as this is the way the industry is moving, it is an irresponsible use of public funds to force the use of a technology the industry is moving away from.

In conclusion, DRM is not the right path for the BBC to take. DRM violates the royal charter, attacks users, adds cost to production, subsidizes private enterprises, and simply does not work. We urge you to drop all plans to lock away content with DRM and to choose public interest instead. This is an issue of viewer's rights, free culture and the future of the BBC. Please respect the public interest, and your viewer interests, by not using DRM.
http://p2pnet.net/story/12472

 

Billions in new fees for webcasters?

p2pnet.net news:- Webcasters ranging from small college stations to major stations say they're in mortal danger following a Copyright Royalty Board decision to boost royalty rates, slated to go into effect on July 15.

But things could be worse, billions of dollars per year worse, say RealNetworks, Yahoo, Pandora and Live365

The companies say the music industry will also be demanding $1 billion annually from Yahoo, RealNetworks and Pandora alone, "in the name of covering so-called administrative costs," says CNET News.

When the CRB decided to change the rules for broadcasters, it also announced a $500 minimum annual fee per Net radio channel SoundExchange ( the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America spin-off used to collect royalties "and other fees" for the major record labels), says the story, going on:

"But since some of the larger Internet radio services potentially offer their listeners hundreds of thousands of unique 'channels' (RealNetworks' Rhapsody offered more than 400,000 in 2006 alone, according to a company spokesman), the companies view the ruling as forcing them to multiply that mandatory minimum payment accordingly (for Real, that would amount to $200 million).

"Such an amount would far outpace the $20 million in total royalty fees collected by SoundExchange from the Internet radio industry last year, the CEOs note in their letter. And besides, it's not even clear that those payments would go to artists, as royalty payments do, the companies argue."

SoundExchange hasn't so far commented, says the story.

Meanwhile, "Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!)," says SaveNetRadio. "If the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date."
http://p2pnet.net/story/12466

 

Google flunks major privacy study

p2pnet.net news:- 'Do no evil' Google was the only company to completely fail an important six-month investigation into privacy practices employed by key Net-based companies.

But, not one of the organizations included managed 'green' status and overall, "the privacy standard of the key Internet players is appalling, with some companies demonstrating either wilful or a mindless disregard for the privacy rights of their customers," says Privacy International., which produced the scathing study.

The exploitation of new technologies and tools, "will result in one of the greatest privacy challenges in recent decades," it states. We're, "witnessing an increased 'race to the bottom' in corporate surveillance of customers".

Some companies are leading the charge, "through abusive and invasive profiling of their customers' data" and, "This trend is seen by even the most privacy friendly companies as creating competitive disadvantage to those who do not follow that trend, and in some cases to find new and more innovative ways to become even more surveillance-intensive," says the report.

"Most importantly, we wanted to indicate to the marketplace that their surveillance and tracking activities are being scrutinised," it declares.

Companies surveyed included: Amazon; AOL; Apple; BBC; Bebo; eBay; Facebook; Friendster; Google; Hi5; Last.fm; LinkedIn; LiveJournal; Microsoft; Myspace; Orkut; Reunion.com; Skype; Wikipedia; Windows Live Space; Xanga; Yahoo!; and, YouTube.

The Net appears to be shifting as a whole toward this aim, "and the opportunity to create market differentiators based on responsible privacy may diminish unless those avenues are explored immediately," says PI, and consumers are right to feel aggrieved when companies fail to adopt the best privacy tools that are available.

Why Google?

"We are aware that the decision to place Google at the bottom of the ranking is likely to be controversial, but throughout our research we have found numerous deficiencies and hostilities in Google's approach to privacy that go well beyond those of other organizations," says PI, continuing:

While a number of companies share some of these negative elements, none comes close to achieving status as an endemic threat to privacy. This is in part due to the diversity and specificity of Google's product range and the ability of the company to share extracted data between these tools, and in part it is due to Google's market dominance and the sheer size of its user base. Google's status in the ranking is also due to its aggressive use of invasive or potentially invasive technologies and techniques.

The view that Google "opens up" information through a range of attractive and advanced tools does not exempt the company from demonstrating responsible leadership in privacy. Google's increasing ability to deep-drill into the minutiae of a user's life and lifestyle choices must in our view be coupled with well defined and mature user controls and an equally mature privacy outlook. Neither of these elements has been demonstrated. Rather, we have witnessed an attitude to privacy within Google that at its most blatant is hostile, and at its most benign is ambivalent. These dynamics do not pervade other major players such as Microsoft or eBay, both of which have made notable improvements to the corporate ethos on privacy issues.

In the closing days of our research we received a copy of supplemental material relating to a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission concerning the pending merger between Google and DoubleClick. This material, submitted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and coupled with a submission to the FTC from the New York State Consumer Protection Board, provided additional weight for our assessment that Google has created the most onerous privacy environment on the Internet. The Board expressed concern that these profiles expose consumers to the risk of disclosure of their data to third-parties, as well as public disclosure as evidence in litigation or through data breaches. The EPIC submission set out a detailed analysis of Google's existing data practices, most of which fell well short of the standard that consumers might expect. During the course of our research the Article 29 Working Group of European privacy regulators also expressed concern at the scale of Google's activities, and requested detailed information from the company.

In summary, Google's specific privacy failures include, but are by no means limited to:

- Google account holders that regularly use even a few of Google's services must accept that the company retains a large quantity of information about that user, often for an unstated or indefinite length of time, without clear limitation on subsequent use or disclosure, and without an opportunity to delete or withdraw personal data even if the user wishes to terminate the service.

- Google maintains records of all search strings and the associated IP-addresses and time stamps for at least 18 to 24 months and does not provide users with an expungement option. While it is true that many US based companies have not yet established a time frame for retention, there is a prevailing view amongst privacy experts that 18 to 24 months is unacceptable, and possibly unlawful in many parts of the world.

- Google has access to additional personal information, including hobbies, employment, address, and phone number, contained within user profiles in Orkut. Google often maintains these records even after a user has deleted his profile or removed information from Orkut.

- Google collects all search results entered through Google Toolbar and identifies all Google Toolbar users with a unique cookie that allows Google to track the user's web movement.17 Google does not indicate how long the information collected through Google Toolbar is retained, nor does it offer users a data expungement option in connection with the service.

- Google fails to follow generally accepted privacy practices such as the OECD Privacy Guidelines and elements of EU data protection law. As detailed in the EPIC complaint, Google also fails to adopted additional privacy provisions with respect to specific Google services.

- Google logs search queries in a manner that makes them personally identifiable but fails to provide users with the ability to edit or otherwise expunge records of their previous searches.

- Google fails to give users access to log information generated through their interaction with Google Maps, Google Video, Google Talk, Google Reader, Blogger and other services.

Microsoft is a, "better privacy performer than Google," a finding that's also likely to be contentious, says PI, going on:

Microsoft was awarded 'orange' status, two bands better than Google's position. However it is important, for the sake of clarity, to note that Windows Live Space received the more negative "red" rating, while Google's Orkut avoided a black rating and was awarded red status.

The true difference between Google Inc and Microsoft Corp can be defined not so much by the data practices and privacy policies that exist between the two organizations, but by the corporate ethos and leadership exhibited by each.

Five years ago Microsoft could reasonably be described as a fundamental danger to privacy. In more recent times the organization appears to have adopted a less antagonistic attitude to privacy, and has at least structurally adjusted to the challenge of creating a privacy-friendly environment.

But, Bill and the Boyz are by no means squeaky clean, says the report. There have been "notable privacy disasters,"it says, particularly with WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage), and, "It is equally true that Microsoft has failed to achieve the level of transparency that it proclaims to embrace (for example in withholding the length of time that data is retained).

"These instances have been compounded by a failure of oversight and management. However Microsoft has at least put in place the beginnings of a framework for responsible privacy practice and has created a corporate vision, cloudy though it may be. The organization appears now to be particularly sensitive in the most part to privacy issues and some parts of Microsoft have even pursued the concept of privacy as a market differentiator. We have no evidence that Google has achieved this level of awareness or development."

But, "in the words of the executives, continues PI, "ad space is now the only game in town," and with Microsoft needing to play catch-up with Google, "there is a real threat that the organization could abandon privacy reforms in favor of ad revenue - or at least divert funds away from real protection and toward PR. The 2008 rankings will identify whether this fear will be realized".
http://p2pnet.net/story/12468

 

Why French DSL Service Is Like a Rude French Waiter
Bruce Gain Email 06.11.07 | 2:00 AM

PARIS -- France has more broadband DSL customers than most countries, including the United States. But if you happen to be one of the millions of customers having major problems with your connection, then life can be a living hell. High-tech service in France is like service in a Parisian cafe -- intermittent and snooty.

Not a day goes by when 60 Millions de Consommateurs, the French equivalent of Consumer Reports, isn't inundated with complaints from DSL subscribers about a faulty connections, abusive pricing practices or incompetent technical support. Nearly half of all complaints are DSL-related, the publication says.

"Imagine if one customer out of four complained that a bakery's bread was not fresh," the publication wrote.

According to the magazine, one customer was charged more than $120 to call the technical-support hotline of ISP Neuf and still couldn't get a DSL or telephone connection for nine months. Another unhappy customer tried to cancel her service from Orange, but the company continued to debit her account more than $40 per month, even after it confirmed it had received her request in writing. Another customer's ISP admitted that an underground cable was damaged, but simply said they couldn't give a date when it would be repaired.

One government watchdog organization, the Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répressions des Fraudes, reported that DSL service complaints surged 17.4 percent in 2006.

A spokesman from France Telecom, parent company of Orange, acknowledged what he called "forces majeurs," which he said account for periodic broadband disruptions throughout the country. He listed typical causes such as power failures, floods and other "acts of God."

The France Telecom spokesman admitted that other problems crop up, such as router and PC conflicts, and software glitches, which the average consumer cannot remedy. These problems are compounded by the reluctance -- sometimes the outright refusal -- of French ISPs to provide onsite maintenance.

One ISP, Club Internet, recently remedied problems on its saturated networks only after weeks of outages all over France, without volunteering any reimbursement for lost service.

Requests for reimbursement for poor service are often denied or simply ignored. Legal recourse is an alternative, but litigation in France is significantly costlier and more cumbersome than in the United States.

Annual contracts can oblige customers to continue paying for the service, while the glitches are ignored. Often, faulty DSL lines, modems or other problems that require onsite maintenance to remedy are left to the customer.

Ludovic Guyot, a technician for New-Tek Informatique, a PC reseller and onsite network-support firm in Brittany, said many of his clients are in a helpless state.

"My customers were calling me to come and I told them there was nothing I could do to fix their problems (as an onsite technician)," Guyot said.

French consumers having DSL difficulties usually must pay about 46 cents a minute to talk to customer support, but even if you're willing to spend the money, the quality of the call-center technicians is often poor. ISPs tend to respond to e-mails sent to technical support with boilerplate solutions that don't solve the specific issue.

The problem is that there are at least 10 DSL companies battling for a share of the French market. The companies do a good job of selling services, often bundling phone and TV service with DSL. Unfortunately, the companies make promises to gain subscribers without having the infrastructure in place to make good on them.

Despite often appalling DSL service in France, there has been no severe public backlash.

In a country where government controls keep most critical services -- like medical care -- reliable and affordable, people are used to taking their complaints through the proper channels.

Elected officials have pledged action to force ISPs to improve their services, but little has been done. Last year, for example, a meeting was held between government representatives, ISPs and consumer associations, during which the DSL providers agreed to allow customers to terminate service without having to pay for the full-year contract.

In addition, some ISPs agreed not to charge customers 46 cents a minute when they were put on hold when calling customer support. But, says Benjamin Douriez, a journalist with 60 Million de Consommateurs, this "courtesy" does not represent the norm.

"What they are offering is too late and too little," he says.

 

TO READ THE (Ars System Guide) TOTAL GUIDE IT'S A VERY LONG READ


PLEASE GO HERE,
http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/guide-200706.ars


Ars System Guide: June 2007

By Brian Won | Published: June 10, 2007 - 11:46PM CT
Doing it yourself

System recommendations are harder to do than most people think, but we've diligently worked to keep our guides up-to-date with the most mouth-watering hardware. Our last regular update saw us going dual-core across the board, and there are a few more changes this month.

Keep in mind that we're not going to just choose the cheapest or highest-quality stuff and throw it together and call it a system. Rather, our guides are meant to reflect real-world issues. For example, we'll tally up prices for you based on what we glean from our own online comparison shopping engine, not vendors that we have special deals with or, even worse, MSRPs. Real-world prices, baby.

And, of course, this is Ars Technica. We are not concerned with what you should be buying your 500-person company for the next mass upgrade. These are the systems that we, your fellow enthusiasts, either have, plan to have, or would love desperately to have. We know how you think; we think that way, too.
The criteria

Now, when recommending products, you've got to take two main factors into account: available funds and performance. Some lucky bastards have unlimited funds; some have to pinch every penny. Most of us are somewhere in between. So, when you say something is the "best thing out there," it's important to ask, "Best for whom?" In recognition of this fact, our recommendations come in the form of three hypothetical computers.
Budget Box (June 2007)

If you're trying to build an inexpensive system, we've got your answer: the Budget Box. This puppy is dedicated to finding the least expensive options possible while still giving you full functionality. The Budget Box may sound cheap, but it's not. It's simply inexpensive power, priced at under $800. It can also handle everything that Vista is able to throw at it.
Hot Rod (June 2007)

Next, there's the Hot Rod. This one's been juiced up, but with limited funds. Think of the auto hobbyist. He may not buy the fastest car out there, but he does the best he can with what he's got. Likewise, the Hot Rod is going to be based on a price/performance ratio, as we look for the best bang for the buck. It's also going to be a system that almost anyone can build. Rather than cook up some mineral-oil soaked, refrigerator-powered machine, we've set out to bring power users systems that will rock without having to be tweaked to extremes. Extreme tweaking is cool, but it's not the purpose of this recommendation.

We try to keep the Hot Rod under $1,600, but we don't always succeed because performance is sometimes worth a few bucks extra.
God Box (June 2007)

Last, but certainly not least, there's the God Box. This is for the guy who has just won the lottery, or whose company is funding the purchase (same thing). Of course, this doesn't imply adding stuff for the hell of it. Even on this spec, we don't want to be wasting money. It will be, however, generally beyond the range of mere mortals.

So how do we define performance? Well, it depends on a lot of things, and can change from day to day. Benchmarks are important, but so are quality issues. Is the video crisp? Is the sound realistic? For each component, we'll try to tell you what factors led to us choosing it. You may disagree. If so, we'd love to hear about it. Maybe you'll even make us change our minds... maybe. Keep an eye out to see what we put in these systems, and stop by often to see how they're updated.



Motherboard
Asus M2NPV-VM

Value is one of the key concepts in the Budget Box, and AMD remains the leader in the Budget Box's price range. Intel fans have some good choices with cheaper Intel P965 chipset-based Core 2 Duo boards, although the lack of a cheap enough CPU limits choices. Feature sets seem to remain fairly well-developed, with dual gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, four SATA 3.0Gb/s ports with RAID capability, PCI-e x16 expansion, four DDR2 sockets, and decent overclocking abilities.

A few dollars might be saved by going to a board without onboard video, Firewire, dual Ethernet connections, and other fancy features, but the additional cost for these features is fairly minimal. In a rig such as the more spartan Ultimate Budget Box, finding something more simple (albeit with onboard video) to save those few dollars might be worth it. A slightly different vein would be the Asus M2N4-SLI, which is slightly cheaper, skips onboard video, and supports SLI, but lacks onboard Firewire.

Cost: $84 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
Processor
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Retail (Socket AM2)

The Budget Box gets a swift bump from the previous X2 3600+ as dual core prices continue to decrease.

The Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 is very good but not yet price-competitive; for overclockers, it should be a particularly good choice if the price goes down. The Athlon64 X2 3600+ gets the price down to a level that even the Budget Box can manage, and it offers a far better performance/power ratio than the current low-end Intel Pentium D chips. The Core 2 Duo E4400 and Athlon64 X2 4000+ are only a little more expensive than their lowest-end counterparts in their respective line-ups and are also good choices for those who can afford a little more.

We go with the retail box Athlon 64 X2 3800+ CPU because the cost of a bare CPU with an aftermarket heatsink/fan does not give a significant price advantage, plus you get a longer warranty with the retail-boxed CPU.

Cost: $79.99 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
RAM
1GB DDR2-667

RAM is important and inexpensive enough that 1GB is the bare minimum now, particularly with Windows Vista now available. 2GB of memory would be very nice for Vista, but squeezing that into the Budget Box is difficult. We use DDR2 memory to match our motherboard and chipset requirements.

Cost: $39.50 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
Video
eVGA GeForce 7900GS

Budget DirectX 10 parts in the form of the nVidia Geforce 8500 and 8600-series have arrived to disappointing performance, much like their brethren from ATI. Until the release of more DX10-capable video games makes DX10-capable parts look good, sticking with DX9-capable parts looks to be the smarter move. The NVIDIA Geforce 7900GS is an excellent value at this price point, at least until DX10 titles show up, and ATI's Radeon X1950Pro is also very competitive.

Look closely when shopping for video cards, as core clock speeds and memory clock speeds may differ from model to model for the same chip, making a straight apples-to-apples comparison difficult. We're recommending the eVGA GeForce 7900GS, with 256MB of RAM, a 500 MHz GPU clock speed, and a 1380MHz effective RAM clock speed. With a power draw of less than +5A on the +12v line, power consumption is relatively modest, too.

Cost: $149.99 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
Sound
None—onboard

Onboard sound is adequate for most purposes. If you pick a motherboard like this month's recommendation that has a digital-out and feed it to speakers that accept a digital signal, then you have even less to worry about.

Cost: n/a
Communications
Modem—none

The adoption of high-speed Internet access by today's enthusiasts means the modem recommendation can be removed from the Budget Box. We used to recommend the US Robotics 2976/2977 and 5610A/5610B, but we're not up to date on current products.

Cost: n/a
Network card—none (on-board)

The motherboard has integrated Ethernet on board, which is adequate for the Budget Box.

Cost: n/a
Hard drive
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA

Hard drives are all very close in price in the lower-capacity ranges, and when sales and rebates are considered, buyers may find that drives as large as 500GB are affordable. The sweet spot for price/capacity seems to shift upwards every few months, from 250GB to 320GB to 400GB or 500GB now. While the value is nice, we stay with a slightly smaller drive in the Budget Box because we do not need the space. Considering "after rebate" prices in the System Guide is a bit too unpredictable for us, so do not expect them here—but be aware that they are an excellent way to save money and get a bigger drive in the process.

The fundamental goal is to buy what you need, but those seeking the lowest noise level should look at Samsung Spinpoint drives. Seagate drives have five-year warranties, which makes them our choice in the Budget Box when the price is equal.

The Western Digital Caviar SE16 is an excellent performer with a 16MB cache and a three-year warranty.

Cost: $66.50 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
Optical drive
DVD-RW/CD-RW: Pioneer DVD-112D

The new Pioneer DVR-112D is our choice in the Budget Box, a welcome 18X refresh of the 16X DVR-111D. Other solid choices include the Lite-On LH-20A1S/LH-20A1P, as well as the Samsung SH-183L and the Lite-On SH-16A7S. Plextor also remains a favorite for a few dedicated fans.

Separate DVD-ROM and CD-RW drives, or separate DVD-ROM and DVD±RW drives, are preferred by many, but DVD-RW drives now are cheap enough that just buying two makes unless there's some specific need the most sense to us.

The Pioneer DVR-112D supports DVD reads and writes up to 18x, CD reads up to 40x, and a PATA interface. The SATA version, the DVR-212D, is a few bucks more for those who prefer the neatness of SATA cabling; performance is otherwise identical.

Cost: $35.99 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
Case
Antec SLK1650B

Finding previous Budget Box chassis favorites has grown difficult, so we continue with the well-known Antec SLK1650. A quality chassis with a very good power supply, the SLK1650B is an excellent chassis for the money. Previous suggestions such as the In-Win C720T are still very viable solutions to save a bit of money, although sourcing them is somewhat more difficult, and the power supply isn't quite as nice as the 350W Smartpower in the SLK1650/SLK1650B.

Those who choose to go the microATX route will find that case selection is somewhat more limited than standard ATX, although many home theater PCs use that form factor. The Antec NSK3300 is an excellent choice for those with a little more money to spend. For those who want the extra expansion of an ATX chassis, good choices include the Antec NSK4400 and its siblings, the Coolermaster Centurion 5, Lian-Li PC1000, and many more.

Cost: $60.99 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
Speakers
Logitech X-230

Speakers have been fairly boring for quite a while in the Budget Box. The Logitech X-230 and Logitech Z-3 are passable, albeit bland, choices in this category. In this price range, a good pair of headphones might make more sense.

Cambridge Soundworks, Altec Lansing, Swan, and others have suitable setups as well. If better speakers are desired, all of these companies have good choices, including the Logitech X-620 and Z-560.

Cost: $29 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
Monitor
Hanns-G JW-199DPB 19" LCD

LCDs have become cheap enough that even a 19" model fits in the Budget Box. It's a TN-film based panel so viewing angles are not the greatest, but for a low-cost LCD, it suits our needs very well. CRTs are being replaced by wide-gamut LCDs that match or better the color gamut that CRTs offer, but W-CCFL and LED backlights needed to do this currently command premium prices, pricing such LCDs far out of the range of the Budget Box.

Stepping down to a smaller 17" LCD such as the Acer AL1706AB saves a few bucks, while a cheap 20" LCD such as the Samsung 204B is a substantial bit more.

We choose the HannsG 19" in no small part due to its 300 cd/m2 brightness and its 5ms response time.

Cost: $169.99 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
Mouse
Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical

Optical mice are downright cheap. Buy what you like, be it Microsoft, Logitech, or anything else. If you crave more buttons, higher-end mice from most companies including Microsoft and Logitech are readily available for more money. Logitech's new MX1000 is one very nice, very expensive example of a high-end mouse.

Cost: $11.09 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
Keyboard
Logitech Keyboard

If you find it comfortable, then buy it. Logitech, Microsoft, and other name-brand units are all pretty decent. Keep in mind the important nature of personal preference in this decision, and the fact that your keyboard is a critical piece of your interface to your computer.

Cost: $14.95 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
Total price: $741.99, not including shipping and handling (6/10/2007, no OS)
Recommended operating systems

Vista is upon us, but we're not quite ready to recommend it. The biggest issue at this point is driver immaturity. As a result, we suggest you stick with Windows XP for the time being. If you want to live on the cutting edge, Vista will run very smoothly on this box; just be prepared for the possibility of minor issues with the drivers.
Windows XP Home

Windows 2000 with a lot more glitz and a few improvements. Gaming support is further improved over Windows 2000, and while some quirks due to the high level of feature integration remain, XP Home is a choice many want to make. When buying with new hardware, OEM versions should be affordable. Keep this in mind, particularly if Windows XP Professional isn't too much more.

Cost: $69.95 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
Windows XP Media Center Edition

Windows MCE 2005 is another alternative for the Budget Box. The much-improved hardware support over MCE 2004, support for multiple tuners, and the familiar Windows interface greatly simplify setup for many. Easy rollout by OEMs has also furthered the spread of Windows MCE and the ubiquitous Windows interface.

Cost: $84.99 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

64-bit extensions arrive to Windows XP. Take advantage of performance improvements with programs that support 64-bit instructions enabled on the Athlon64, Opteron, Core 2 Duo, Xeon, and Pentium 4. When deciding between Windows XP in the (conventional) 32-bit and the newer x64 edition, keep in mind that hardware drivers for x64 edition are less mature and often slower as a result.

Cost: $133.89 (6/10/2007) [Comparison shop for this item]
Linux

Any computer enthusiast worth his salt boots more than one OS. Linux is a wonderful choice for the budget box: powerful, cool, and cheap. Take your pick of distributions and go nuts! Fedora Core, Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, and Mandrake, try Linuxiso.org or Cheapbytes.com, or others.

Cost: Free

 

MPlayer (2007-06-10)
Author: Mplayer
Date: 2007-06-11
Size: 24.1 Mb
License: Freeware

This is a full package of MPlayer for Windows and the MPUI front-end. This package contains everything you´ll need in one single download!

Key features are:
The award-winning OpenSource Movie Player available for Windows now
Plays almost every Audio/Video format that exists today, try out yourself!
Intuitive user-interface, no need to run MPlayer from the command-line
Full multi-language and Unicode support, more than 20 languages included
Self-contained "all-in-one" install wizard (made with NSIS)
More than 192 Video- und 85 Audiocodecs supported natively! (full list)
Latest optimized MPlayer builds by Celtic Druid for best performance
Improved version of MPUI front-end by MuldeR, compiled with Delphi7 Professional
Binary Codec Package for MPlayer included, no need to download/install manually
Optimized builds for: Athlon-XP, Athlon-64, Pentium-4 (Prescott), Pemtium-M
Also includes a ´Generic´ build with Runtime CPU Detection
about 17 MB total download size for the complete package


DOWNLOAD HERE
http://www.majorgeeks.com/MPlayer_d5663.html

 

AIMFix 1.6.61.938
Author: Jay Loden
Date: 2007-06-11
Size: 336 Kb
License: Freeware

AIMFix was created to remove all known AIM viruses in one consolidated removal tool. It is designed to end the virus processes, delete the files, and remove registry keys created by the virus.


DOWNLOAD HERE
http://www.majorgeeks.com/AIMFix_d4348.html

 

Ad-Aware 2007 7.0.1.2

Warp2Search News Ad-Aware 2007 Free remains the most popular anti-spyware product for computer users around the world, with nearly one million downloads every week. Our free anti-spyware version provides you with advanced protection against spyware that secretly attaches and takes control of your computer, resulting in aggressive advertising pop-ups, sluggish computer activity, even identity theft through stolen bank details, passwords, and credit card account numbers.

What's New in Ad-Aware 2007 Free?

# Redesigned Engine – Benefit from superior program flexibility and more accurate scanning methods with all-new program architecture.
# Improved Code Sequence Identification (CSI) Technology – Boost your privacy protection with precise detection of embedded malware, including known and emerging threats.
# Incremental Definition File Updates – Save precious time and resources with smaller update files resulting in faster download times.
# TrackSweep - Control privacy by erasing tracks left behind while surfing the Web on Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera, with one easy click.
# Multiple Browser Support – Choose Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera with expanded browser support.
# New Straightforward User Interface – Effortlessly maneuver the complexities of malware detection and removal with our new user-friendly interface.

Ad-Aware 2007 7.0.1.2


LINK FOR DOWNLOAD
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products...hp?PHPSESSID=d45dddee42e30654f3ece0971e4de342

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

 

WiFi mics used in exam cheats

p2pnet.net news:- National college entrance exams in China are "make or break," spawning a string of cheating scandals, says state news agency Xinhua.

Now three people have been arrested for running a money making conspiracy involving wireless mics, it says.

"Police in Jiutai, in the northeastern province of Jilin, became suspicious when a mini-bus remained parked outside a school hosting the exam Thursday, Xinhua said.

"Inside, they found three people, 'two of them staring at a computer screen and talking into a walkie-talkie'. A student in the examination hall used a wireless microphone to read out the questions and received the answers from the van, Xinhua quoted their confessions as saying."

The three charged the student 12,000 yuan ($1,500), it says.

Exam papers are considered state secrets before the tests, says Xinhua, adding:

Authorities in neighboring Liaoning province spent 100 million yuan fitting over 8,000 exam halls with metal detectors and cameras to prevent tech-savvy students from cheating on national university entrance tests.

Police had found some 42 pairs of so-called "cheating shoes" with transmitting and reception ability, selling for about 2,000 yuan each, in a flat in Shenyang, the provincial capital, state media said Thursday, adding that they - along with "cheating wallets" and hats - had proved popular this year.

Three men in the southwestern province of Sichuan received suspended jail terms of 8-12 months last year for using pinhole cameras to send out images of the entrance exam papers to be worked out by "hired guns" for 19 students.
http://p2pnet.net/story/12474