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

MY 2 BIG BIG BITCH'S OF THE MONTH,


Ripping DVDs may never be the same again

By Eric J. Sinrod
Published: November 29, 2006, 4:00 AM PST


perspective Just when you thought it might be safe to rip DVDs for use on your personal video player, the motion picture studios have filed a federal lawsuit in New York to put an end to such practices.

The studios certainly have financial and legal might behind them. But can they prevail?

In Paramount Pictures v. Load 'N Go Video, the motion picture studios brought legal action against a small company that loaded DVDs onto personal video players for its customers. According to the suit, Load 'N Go Video sold DVDs and iPods to its customers, and loaded the DVDs onto the iPods for customers who purchased both.

The motion picture studios assert that this practice violated the Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The studios say that before releasing their copyright works in DVD format, they employ an encryption-based DVD access control and copy prevention system that provides for protection of copyright content. According to the studios, Load 'N Go Video's practice of copying DVD content and then loading it onto the portable video players of its customers circumvents that copy protection system and thus violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

DVDs, as noted by the studios, are 5-inch-wide optical discs that contain recorded material in digital form. DVD technology, they add, has substantially improved the clarity and quality of viewing of pre-recorded content, and thus presents a heightened risk of unauthorized reproduction and distribution of copyright material because the material can be digitally copied and transmitted repeatedly without quality degradation. It is for this reason that the motion picture studios use CSS (content scramble system) to prevent the unauthorized access to and reproduction and distribution of copyright works contained in DVDs.

As acknowledged by the complaint, the customers of Load 'N Go Video purchase DVDs and portable video players, and pay a charge to Load 'N Go Video for loading the DVDs onto the portable video players. The motion picture studios highlight that a license has not been granted to Load 'N Go Video to copy, distribute or exploit their copyright works or to circumvent the CSS.

All well and good in terms of the complaint filed by the motion picture studios, right? Well, perhaps--and perhaps not. While the motion picture studios make technically valid legal points within the four corners of their complaint, there is another legal point of view that likely will be espoused by Load 'N Go Video, assuming the case continues to move forward.

The key point for Load 'N Go Video will be that its customers purchased both the DVDs and the portable video players. Thus, Load 'N Go Video simply has saved the customers the time and hassle of loading the content they paid for on the portable video players they also purchased.


Let's take the studios' argument to its extreme. A buyer could be subject to legal liability for ripping purchased DVDs at home onto a purchased portable video player without either first seeking permission or purchasing the content again for specific use on the portable video player. One wonders whether a court would embrace such an argument.

Load 'N Go Video likely will assert that it has engaged in "fair use" for copyright purposes, and that such fair use trumps the claims of the motion picture studios under the Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

While Load 'N Go Video under these facts does have a defense to assert, one must keep in mind that the motion picture studios, like the music industry, have been very successful to date in seeking to protect their copyright works. Stay tuned to see how this case plays out.
Biography
Eric J. Sinrod is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris. His focus includes information technology and intellectual property disputes. To receive his weekly columns, send an e-mail to ejsinrod@duanemorris.com with "Subscribe" in the subject line. The views expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of Sinrod's law firm or its individual partners.

http://news.com.com/2010-1030_3-6139129.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news




RIAA wants the Internet shut down

Interesting argument of the day

By Nick Farrell: Wednesday 29 November 2006, 08:38
ONE OF THE lawyers involved in defending cases bought against people by the RIAA claims that if the music industry wins a crucial case, the Internet will have to be switched off.

Speaking on the DefectiveByDesign anti-DRM campaign site, Ray Beckerman said the case of Electro vs. Barker has become very important for the web's future.

Barker was being defended by Beckerman who made a motion to dismiss the case because the RIAA had forgot to provide any acts or dates or times of copyright infringement as the law normally requires.

The RIAA argued that by merely making files available on the Internet Barker was making a copyright infringement.

Beckerman said that it was a shocking argument because if it were accepted by the court it would probably shut down the entire Internet. If you send any file on the Net the RIAA will be allowed to suspect that you are in breach of copyright.

What was more disturbing is that the RIAA called up its mates in Washington to back it up. Apparently the United States Government has put in motions supporting the RIAA. µ
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36027

 

A JOKE,BUT FUN TO READ..

RIAA, MPAA Blitz: Part II

p2pnet.net News:- It's almost the season of goodwill and Hollywood's MPAA and the Big Four Organized Music cartel's RIAA will be again teaming up to launch Part II of their Christmas Blitz.

Called the World Library Copyright Wake Up Drive, the aim is to alert libraries to the danger they're in each time they allow a borrower to remove an unlicensed CD or DVD.

"Criminal sharing of any kind must be stopped, and that includes stealing copyright content by taking CDs and DVDs out of a library," says the RIAA's Fritz Mainwoe.

"This isn't about us," states the MPAA's Dolph Hilter. "It's about our artists and support staff and their children. It's about honesty and integrity and the American way and the things our forefathers fought for when they wrote the constitution because every time someone takes a DVD out of a library without paying us, an American industry worker is threatened with eviction or even starvation and if we don't stop it, who will?"

Working together, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) will supervise local police around the world in raids on public libraries offering "illegal" CDs and DVDs.

Called Operation Santa, it's slated to run from December 24 until January 1, 2007, and will be coordinated by the US Department of Justice, supported by investigators from the Department of Homeland Defence and Microsoft, as well as CIA, NSA, RSPCA, SPCA and News Corp staff.

"We've put this together for months to coincide with the Christmas season," says Mainwoe.

RIAA and MPAA legal staff have drawn up World Library Copyright licenses which were hand-delivered in every country which has even one library, say the two entertainment organizations, going on:

"Under the terms of the license, libraries will charge borrowers an amount equal to 99 cents, or the local equivalent, for every track on a music CD, or $19.99 (or the local equivalent) for every movie DVD.

"Libraries which do not honour the license will be closed until they agree to fullfil their obligations to the record companies and music studios which work so hard to create and make available such superlative product."

====================

UPDATE - 9:00 am Pacific, November 29: THIS IS A SPOOF !!!! I can't believe the number of emails I've had on this, including several from alarmed librarians. That people believed this in spite if all the glaring (I thought) clues says a lot about Hollywood and the corporate music industry.

Also See:
Christmas Blitz - Xmas with the MPAA and RIAA, November 23, 2006


(Tuesday 28th November 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/10570?PHPSESSID=582bda7b031ebfab407148ed2a8721cb

 

P2p footie streaming a No-No,

p2pnet.net News:- German Premier League soccer club Bayern Munich recently said it was ready to sue GooTube for video copyright infringement, and about this time last year, the UK Premier League was tracking sites offering illegal streaming of live football and was planning legal action against the ISPs hosting the sites.

Now, "The FA Premier League, Uefa, Cricket Australia and other sport bodies have employed a company called NetResult to police the internet for unauthorised video," says the BBC.

"Unauthorised video" means p2p viewing and, "China, already in trouble with American entertainment and software cartels for failing to put a stop to the thriving underground counterfeit production industry, is also now under attack for its burgeoning p2p streaming TV enterprises," p2pnet reported in 2005, going on:

"And ironically, for a change, commercial p2p companies aren't in the firing line. Instead, the likes of Microsoft and RealNetworks are named as the preferred delivery vehicles."

Another BBC story says, "An independent website has been told to stop putting footage of FA Premiership goals on the video website YouTube. "NetResult - a firm monitoring the internet on behalf of the Premier League - emailed a warning to the website, 101greatgoals.blogspot.com. It told the website it was 'infringing' Premier League copyright. Links from 101greatgoals to YouTube were thought to have been disabled by YouTube itself but other links to Premiership goals stayed in place."

According to the most recent Beeb item, it's an "ongoing challenge," says NetResult's Tim Cooper. "You could shut a website down today but tomorrow another 10 will appear."

Saturday premiership matches aren't shown on TV in the UK for fear that stadium attendances could suffer, says the BBC, but "most are available on the peer-to-peer services".

Some games are also streamed directly from individual sites, "and NetResult said it was lobbying internet service providers to shut these down," states the BBC, adding, "The BBC is currently prohibited from showing footage of Premier League goals on its website."

"The FA Premier League execs get their panties in a bunch everytime someone puts footage from Premiership matches online for public viewing without 'authorization'," says Ahmed on BlogFC, going on:

Considering that there are forums built entirely for this purpose and that there are thousands of such videos uploaded on YouTube every week, you can imagine the discomfort the Premier League has been feeling.

So what do they do? The hire NetResult to monitor the Internet, and they find, amongst other things, plenty of videos on YouTube. So they sent a DMCA notice to YouTube highlighting a bunch of videos (101greatgoals were not the only ones to suffer here - my 7 clips from the Chelsea - Reading match were ‘removed’) and now we have a mess where bloggers who don’t have the foggiest idea about copyright law are being bullied for sharing something they love.

I remember an earlier incident like this when I put up Arsenal's season fixtures on Soccerlens and got a similar email warning - the license for the right to display season fixtures is 1700 Pounds, or something of that sort.

So now the question is - where will this lead us and where does it stop? If NetResult manage to do their job right (something I doubt but fear might happen), every website showing footage from Premiership matches will start receiving copyright violation notices.

From what little I know of such situations…if things go from push to shove, the Premier League will have to serve a DMCA notice to a website’s hosting service in order to force them to shut down that website (until the copyrighted material is removed). And rest assured; these guys have the organisational clout, and more importantly the pigheadedness required for such an undertaking.

So now what?

I’ll tackle the 'copyright' issue another time - for now, I invite you to visit my YouTube profile and watch all the goals I've uploaded before they are removed

Update: This happened before Google’s acquisition of YouTube, but it is interesting nevertheless.

Stay tuned.

Also See:
copyright infringement - Bayern Munich takes on YouTube, November 9, 2006
BBC - Illegal net sport faces crackdown, November 29, 2006
p2pnet reported - Coming soon: p2p TV streaming, September 3, 2005
BBC - Goal footage warning for website, October 31, 2006
BlogFC - Premier League comes after football bloggers, October 21, 2006

p2pnet newsfeeds for your site.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss
Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php

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 website blocking outside of China.

Download it here and feel free to copy the zip and host it yourself so others can download it.

(Wednesday 29th November 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/10574?PHPSESSID=06750c599fde8e29e0848275039702ef

 

Hurricane Rita survivor RIAA victim

p2pnet.net News:- The Big Four Organized Music cartel's RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has claimed another victim.

This time it's an elderly lady, a survivor of Hurricane Rita, and once again, Sharman Networks' Kazaa p2p application features in the case.

But the woman, Rhonda Crain, is fighting back, demanding a trial by jury and saying the RIAA's actions "amount to extortion".

Pay us $4,500, the RIAA told her, and we'll leave you alone. Don't pay, and you're looking at $150,000 per song.

The RIAA lists more than 500 items, "some of which are not sound recordings at all, and none of which has been identified in any way as being possibly owned or licensed by Plaintiffs," says her lawyer, John Stoneham, in a court document.

Citing "a litany of other similar cases brought by the RIAA," she's also looking to the defence first raised in Arista v Greubel, says Recording Industry vs The People.

Kazaa paid a reported $115 million 'settlement' to move to the entertainment cartel side of the fence and David Greubel says the $115 million constitutes recovery in full for "injuries allegedly caused" by him and others.

"Plaintiffs did not seek to mitigate their damages, if any; instead, they filed their Complaint which was served upon Defendant with a cover letter offering to enter into settlement negotiations," says Stoneham, from the Beaumont, Texas, office of Lone Star Legal Aid.

Definitely stay tuned.

Also See:
Recording Industry vs The People - Elderly Survivor of Hurricane Rita Sued by RIAA in East Texas; Represented by Lone Star Legal Aid, November 28, 2006
$115 million 'settlement' - Kazaa deal paid for RIAA victim?, November 18, 2006



(Wednesday 29th November 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/10575?PHPSESSID=e688fd44f3b4225d7096c658d989e39a

 

Russian government says "nyet" to AllofMP3.com

11/29/2006 10:40:08 AM, by Nate Anderson

The international noose around AllofMP3.com has been tightening for some time, and now it appears to have closed: the Russian government has agreed to shut down the site.

Russian and US negotiators have agreed on a bilateral trade agreement that should pave the way for Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization, and one major part of the deal concerned intellectual property issues. Russia has agreed to a set of terms for fighting optical disk piracy, strengthening border enforcement against counterfeiters, bringing their laws into agreement with international standards, and protecting pharmaceutical test data. But the biggest news is that the Russians have agreed to shut down "websites that permit illegal distribution of music and other copyright works," according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. AllofMP3.com is specifically named in the agreement as an example site.

The Russian government must stop collection societies in the country from acting without the permission of rights-holders—a clear dig at licensing group ROMS. AllofMP3.com has claimed for some time that they are legal under Russian law because all of their works have been licensed by ROMS, and ROMS itself says that it "carries out its activity on the basis of the powers given directly by the Law, irrespective of the presence or absence of a contract with a rightsholder." In essence, ROMS has given out licenses to music without any permission from the copyright owners to do so.

Whether this is legal has been the subject of heated discussion for years, with AllofMP3.com most vocally asserting that it is. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry disagrees, saying, "Under the copyright laws of virtually every country in the world, including Russia, it is illegal to distribute recordings without the permission of the rights owners." ROMS was booted from CISAC, an international organization that represents 217 worldwide copyright societies, back in 2004.

Whatever the truth, Russia has agreed to modify its laws by June 1, 2007 to clarify that such activity is illegal. It will also implement the 1996 WIPO Internet treaties, and will take enforcement action against Russian websites that violate IP laws.
Mounting pressure

In recent months, pressure on the site has mounted. Visa stopped processing payments after being contacted by the IFPI, and a recent Danish court decision held that ISPs could be forced to block the site. Prominent US trade officials have been singling out the site by name for months, a sure sign that the bilateral US/Russian agreement wasn't going to pass without some action on IP rights.

The agreement was announced on November 19, but as recently as yesterday, November 28, AllofMP3 issued a combative press release arguing that the service is both fair to artists and legal in Russia. Mediaservices, the group that owns AllofMP3, even went so far as to issue a legal analysis of US law, claiming that US consumers have every right to download music from the site.

"If the RIAA had done its homework," said Vadim Mamotin, Director General of the company, "it would have discovered that even under U.S. law, consumers apparently have a legal basis to purchase music from AllofMP3. There is absolutely no legal basis for the campaign against AllofMP3."

The IFPI has not yet responded publicly to the news, but the RIAA's Neil Turkewitz said in a statement, "The US-Russia Agreement makes it clear that the US expects Russia to be in compliance with its TRIPS [Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights] obligations prior to concluding Russia's WTO accession. Permitting a site like allofmp3.com to operate is clearly not consistent with TRIPS, and the Agreement therefore calls for it to be shut down."

"Contrary to reports that are circulating," he added, "allofmp3.com has not been given 6 months to continue to operate, and we fully expect the Russian authorities to quickly take action to prevent the continued theft of intellectual property."

No one's yet sure how this will play out. The site is still up and running, but its days appear to be numbered. If you have any credit left in the site, now would be an excellent time to use it up.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061129-8315.html

 

Which CPU to buy for Christmas gaming?

11/29/2006 8:24:17 AM, by Jon Stokes

For years, one of my own personal holiday traditions has been to take advantage of the cold weather, lack of daylight, and time off by holing up somewhere and playing a computer game. Now that I have a whole new family to visit (post-wedding) and a new set of demands on my time, I won't able to partake of any PC gaming Christmas cheer this year, but if I did I'd need a substantial upgrade.

I suspect that many of you out there are thinking about upgrading this month, and for any number of reasons (e.g., you're a Christmas gamer like me, or you're going to give yourself a nice hardware present, or you have a Christmas bonus burning a hole in your pocket). So for those of you who're planning a major, performance-enhancing upgrade soon, I've put together this short article to get you the lay of the land.

Note that this article is primarily focused on high-end and mid-range processor upgrades, but I'll also mention GPUs, because graphics definitely factors into the bang-per-buck equation.
Obligatory, timeless upgrade advice: wait a month or two

My first piece of advice is pretty standard, but it's especially true this time of year: it's best to hold off on a major processor upgrade for a month or two, if you can. The conventional wisdom is that December is typically a bad month for upgrades, because vendors are focused on using the holiday shopping season to move a lot of existing inventory. The new stuff typically comes out after Christmas, so you'll want to wait and partake of the post-Christmas round of updates.

There are rumors that Intel at least will fit the aforementioned pattern this year. For budget-minded gamers, Intel's long-rumored low-end E4300 (codenamed Allendale) is supposed to hit the streets early next year. The E4300 is an underclocked Conroe on an 800MHz FSB, so it's being eagerly awaited by overclockers. So if you really want to save a few extra dollars, it might be better to hold out for the E4300 than to pick up an easily overclockable and relatively inexpensive E6200 or E6300.

On the high end, January 7 is the rumored launch date for a new quad-core part from Intel, the Q6600. This is going to be a bit slower (2.4GHz) and cheaper than the current QX6700, so if you absolutely must have a quad-core chip soon then try to hold out for this one. More on the quad-core issue below, though.

AMD's 65nm Brisbane core (basically a die shrink of the current 90nm Windsor core) is allegedly slated for launch on December 5. These Brisbane chips will have a significantly lower TDP than their current 90nm counterparts, so if you're planning an immediate AMD upgrade just wait a week and pick up one of these.
For those who can't wait

If you absolutely must upgrade this month, you have a few main options from both AMD and Intel.

On the AMD side, the enthusiast options look as follows:

* High-end: AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 Dual Core (2.8GHz, 2x1MB, Socket AM2), $695.99
* Mid-range: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (2.6GHz, 2x512KB L2, Socket AM2), $350.00

As the list above indicates, mid-range AMD users who're planning on sticking with Socket AM2 are going to want to go with the very competitive Athlon 64 X2 5000+. This chip stands up pretty well to the E6600 in most games, so it makes for a great gaming processor that'll get you started on AM2. As I said above, though, wait a week for the Brisbane version of this part to debut.

For a high-end AMD selection, the Athlon 64 FX-62 is at the top of the Socket AM2 performance pile. But for what it's worth, if you're dying to spend north of $500 on a processor and you're also willing to get a new motherboard, then you'd be better off with the cheaper but higher-performing Core 2 E6700.

On the Intel side, the two best enthusiast choices are the following:

* Core 2 Extreme X6800 (Dual-core, 2.93GHz, 4MB L2, LGA 775), $966.00
* Core 2 Duo E6600 (Dual-core, 2.4GHz, 4MB L2, LGA775), $315.00

Notice that on the high end, I suggested the X6800 instead of the quad-core QX6700. For gamers, the much cheaper X6800 and E6700 beat the quad-core part in terms of raw performance. The vast majority of existing games and other applications do not take advantage of the two extra cores, so you're better off with the latter chips' combination of higher clockspeed (for the X6800) and lower operating system overhead (for both). Note that the story is different for video editors and 3D graphic artists, who will see major benefits from the two extra cores. If you absolutely must spend $1500 on a system upgrade right now, the best way to do it is to buy a X6800 and a GeForce 8800. For any game out there, that combination will handily beat a QX6700 plus a lesser card, and for the same amount of money.

If the application landscape changes in six months to favor quad-core, then you can go out and pick up a (by then) much cheaper quad-core replacement for the X6800.

As for the mid-range, some of you may have noticed that I skipped the E6700 in favor of its slightly lower-clocked sibling, the E6600. This is because I think the Core 2 Duo E6600 is clearly the best mid-range option from Intel. In most of the recent reviews I've read, the E6600, Athlon 64 X2 5000+, and E6700 are all neck-and-neck in most gaming benchmarks. Of course, the E6700 definitely outperforms the E6600, but not by enough to make it worth the $200 price premium. So skip the E6700, and put those extra two bills toward a good video card to go with your E6600.

So to sum up my main points:

* Wait until January or February to upgrade, if you can.
* For gamers who want to spend $1500 on an upgrade, hold off on quad-core for now and buy an X6800 and a GeForce 8800.
* For gamers who want the most bang for about $500, buy an Intel E6600 and good video card. Don't bother with the pricier E6700.
* For socket AM2 gamers who want to spend close to $700 on an upgrade, buy a new motherboard, a Core 2 Duo E6600, put the remaining $200 or so toward a video card. (Maybe sell your old AM2 motherboard on eBay, as well, so you'll have more GPU money.) Skip the AMD Athlon 64 FX-62, unless you're determined to stick with Socket AM2.
* For socket AM2 gamers who want to spend around $300, wait until December 5th and order an Athlon 64 X5000+ Brisbane.

I'm sure many of you will have a different perspective, so drop into the discussion thread and let us know your recommendations for pre-Christmas upgrades.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061129-8313.html

 

Maxtor drives get warranty cheer

11/29/2006 1:57:22 PM, by Jeremy Reimer

Seagate, owner of the Maxtor brand of hard drives since the company's purchase of the hard drive company last December, has announced that it extending the warranty on retail drive kits from one year to three years. The move brings the retail warranty in line with the offer the company previously extended only to bulk OEM purchases.

While not as significant a move as Seagate's 2004 move to standardize on five-year warranties for their own brand, the announcement should be good news for anyone purchasing hard drives at retail. All hard drives have a mean time before failure (MTBF) rating, due to their reliance on high-speed moving parts, so it is nice to have a warranty that lasts longer than one year.

The Maxtor brand name has been somewhat tarnished in recent year due to corporate troubles and manufacturing difficulties that ultimately led to the company being sold to Seagate. Personally, I experienced two 60GB Maxtor hard drive failures over a span of three years, and a friend of mine was unlucky enough to have had three such dead drives (two of them RMAs for the original failed drive!) Recently, Seagate announced that despite the bad image surrounding the Maxtor name, they would continue to use the brand for their "value" line of products, including the DiamondMax desktop and MobileMax laptop series of drives.

This move to extend warranties on the Maxtor line shows that Seagate may be reconsidering their decision to split the line between "value" and "performance" on a strictly brand level. The lack of a longer warranty may have been reinforcing the image of Maxtor drives as unreliable, something Seagate is anxious to end as soon as possible.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061129-8318.html

 

US Bans Sales of iPods To North Korea
Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 29, @10:34AM
from the kim-on-a-segway-would-be-cute dept.
Businesses Politics
gamer4Life writes "The United States has created their list of products banned from being exported to North Korea. This list includes iPods, plasma televisions and Segway electric scooters. U.S. intelligence officials who helped produce the Bush administration's list said Kim prefers Mercedes, BMW and Cadillac cars; Japanese and Harley Davidson motorcycles; Hennessy XO cognac from France and Johnny Walker Scotch whisky; Sony cameras and Japanese air conditioners."


U.S. bans sale of iPods to North Korea


By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 56 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration wants
North Korea's attention, so like a scolding parent it's trying to make it tougher for that country's eccentric leader to buy iPods, plasma televisions and Segway electric scooters. The U.S. government's first-ever effort to use trade sanctions to personally aggravate a foreign president expressly targets items believed to be favored by Kim Jong Il or presented by him as gifts to the roughly 600 loyalist families who run the communist government.
ADVERTISEMENT

Kim, who engineered a secret nuclear weapons program, has other options for obtaining the high-end consumer electronics and other items he wants.

But the list of proposed luxury sanctions, obtained by The Associated Press, aims to make Kim's swanky life harder: No more cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles or even personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis.

The new ban would extend even to musical instruments and sports equipment. The 5-foot-3 Kim is an enthusiastic basketball fan; then-Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright presented him with a ball signed by Michael Jordan during a rare diplomatic trip in 2000. Kim's former secretary, widely believed to be his new wife, studied piano at the Pyongyang University of Music and Dance.

Experts said the sanctions effort — being coordinated under the
United Nations — would be the first ever to curtail a specific category of goods not associated with military buildups or weapons designs, especially one so tailored to annoy a foreign leader. U.S. officials acknowledge that enforcing the ban on black-market trading would be difficult.

In Beijing on Wednesday, U.S. and North Korean envoys failed to reach an agreement on when to resume six-party disarmament negotiations on Kim's atomic weapons program. Japan's Kyodo News agency cited unidentified people at the talks as saying that Kim demanded the U.S. freeze sanctions on luxury goods and other items imposed after the North's first nuclear test on Oct. 9.

The population in North Korea, one of the world's most isolated economies, is impoverished and routinely suffers widescale food shortages. The new trade ban would forbid U.S. shipments there of Rolexes, French cognac, plasma TVs, yachts and more — all items favored by Kim but unattainable by most of the country.

"It's a new concept; it's kind of creative," said William Reinsch, a former senior
Commerce Department official who oversaw trade restrictions with North Korea during
Bill Clinton's presidency. Reinsch predicted governments will comply with the new sanctions, but agreed that efforts to block all underground shipments will be frustrated.

"The problem is there has always been and will always be this group of people who work at getting these goods illegally," Reinsch said. Small electronics, such as iPods or laptops, are "untraceable and available all over the place," he said. U.S. exports to North Korea are paltry, amounting to only $5.8 million last year; nearly all those exports were food.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, the trade group for the liquor industry, said it supports the administration's policies toward North Korea. The Washington-based Personal Watercraft Industry Association said it also supports the U.S. sanctions — although it bristled at the notion a Jet Ski was a luxury.

"The thousands of Americans and Canadians who build, ship and sell personal watercraft are patriots first," said Maureen Healey, head of the trade group. She said it endorsed the ban "because of the narrow nature of this ban and the genuine dangers that responsible world governments are trying to stave off."

Defectors to
South Korea have described Kim giving expensive gifts of cars, liquor and Japanese-made appliances to his most faithful bureaucrats.

"If you take away one of the tools of his control, perhaps you weaken the cohesion of his leadership," said Robert J. Einhorn, a former senior State Department official who visited North Korea with Albright and dined extravagantly there. "It can't hurt, but whether it works, we don't know."

Responding to North Korea's nuclear test Oct. 9, the
U.N. Security Council voted to ban military supplies and weapons shipments — sanctions already imposed by the United States. It also banned sales of luxury goods but so far has left each country to define such items. Japan included beef, caviar and fatty tuna, along with expensive cars, motorcycles, cameras and more. Many European nations are still working on their lists.

U.S. intelligence officials who helped produce the Bush administration's list said Kim prefers Mercedes, BMW and Cadillac cars; Japanese and Harley Davidson motorcycles; Hennessy XO cognac from France and Johnny Walker Scotch whisky; Sony cameras and Japanese air conditioners.

Kim is reportedly under his physician's orders to avoid hard liquor and prefers French wines. He also is said to own an extensive movie library of more than 10,000 titles and prefers films about James Bond and Godzilla, along with Clint Eastwood's 1993 drama, "In the Line of Fire," and Whitney Houston's 1992 love story, "The Bodyguard."

Much of the U.S. information about Kim's preferences comes from defectors, including Kenji Fujimoto, the Japanese chef who fled in 2001 and wrote a book about his time with the North Korean leader.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061129/ap_on_go_pr_wh/nkorea_ipod_diplomacy

 

FOXY PROXY..........If you cannot get to MySpace from school, or cannot get to GMail at work, or Live in Belarus, or China, or one of the other nations who censor the internet, download this proxy manager and go around the block.....

(free).....GO THERE!

http://foxyproxy.mozdev.org/


what is foxyproxy?

* Live in Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkmenistan Uzbekistan, Vietnam, or one of the other nations who censor the internet?
* Can't get to MySpace from school?
* Can't get to GMail at work?

then foxyproxy is for you!
some foxyproxy features

* Define multiple proxies
* Define which proxy to use (or none!) for arbitrary URLs using wildcards, regular expression and other conveniences
* No more wondering whether a URL loaded through a proxy or not: FoxyProxy optionally logs all URLs, including which proxy was used (if any), which pattern was matched, timestamps, etc.
* Out-of-the-box support for Tor with the unique Tor Wizard - zero configuration!
* Temporarily or permanently dedicate all URLs to go through a particular proxy
* Temporarily or permanently disable use of a proxy
* Automatically add blocked sites to a proxy and have them reload through the proxy
* Optional status bar information about which proxy is currently in use
* Complete Proxy Auto-Config (PAC) support
* Download a link using one of your defined proxies with a simple right-click (coming soon)
* Unobtrusive presence, stable execution, premier support
* Optionally force Firefox to perform DNS lookups through a SOCKS4a/5 server. Note that Firefox without FoxyProxy always performs DNS lookups through a SOCKS5 server if you've defined one. Only with FoxyProxy can you instruct Firefox to not use defined SOCKS5 servers for DNS lookups.

 

MS Anti-Piracy Tool Gets More Friendly
By Nate Mook, BetaNews
November 29, 2006, 4:59 PM

Microsoft has rolled out an update to its Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications component, which pops up a notice on the desktop informing users that their operating system is not legitimate. The revision introduces a wizard to improve the installation and validation experience.

WGA is a controversial part of Microsoft's new approach to battle counterfeiting and illegal copying of Windows. The first piece of this initiative, WGA Validation, was launched in July 2005. Microsoft later expanded the program with WGA Notifications.

Although the program is technically "opt-in," WGA is required when downloading software and updates from Microsoft. WGA has been generally well received, but reports surfaced earlier this year that WGA Notifications connects to Microsoft servers on a daily basis, sparking an outcry from privacy advocates.

With the final release of WGA Notifications at the end of June, Microsoft disabled this daily check, although the software does connect to the Redmond company every 90 to 120 days to check for updates. One such update was released yesterday, and adds four known compromised product keys to the validation check.

This means that users running versions of Windows XP installed with those product keys will be notified their operating system is counterfeit and be directed to purchase a new copy. Users who may have unknowingly purchased counterfeit software are eligible for a free genuine copy at no cost as long as they fill out a piracy report as well as provide proof of purchase and surrender the counterfeit CDs.

Microsoft is also hoping to give WGA a more friendly face with the update. A new wizard helps guide users through the installation process while providing more information on how the program works. In addition, customers will be give more details on their validation result, as well as resources to troubleshoot indeterminate results - which is a new category in addition to genuine and non-genuine.

Despite the implications behind Microsoft constantly checking up on a customer's computer, the company says over 60 percent of users who are prompted to install WGA do so. Still, that hasn't stopped two lawsuits stemming from WGA Notifications, alleging that the initial versions violated anti-spyware laws by "phoning home."

The new release of WGA Notifications will be available for download manually from Microsoft's Web site, and is being distributed through Automatic Updates as well.
http://www.betanews.com/article/MS_AntiPiracy_Tool_Gets_More_Friendly/1164837570

 

Wal-Mart to Offer AT&T High-Speed Services
By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews
November 29, 2006, 12:30 PM

AT&T said Wednesday that it had reached a deal with Wal-Mart to offer its high speed Internet service in 570 stores across 13 states. Consumers would be able to learn about and purchase services from Wal-Mart's "Connection Center" kiosks. AT&T pointed to the potential reach of up to 150 million customers who shop in the nation's largest retailer each week as a reason for working with Wal-Mart.

AT&T will also offer Wal-Mart gift cards of $25 for ordering the company's Express service, and $75 cards for ordering Pro and Elite Service. Service fees would begin at $14.99 per month, with no term commitment. "We offer the fastest Internet speeds in the market for the price, which fits perfectly with the Wal-Mart everyday-low-price model," AT&T Consumer chief marketing officer Rick Welday said.
http://www.betanews.com/article/WalMart_to_Offer_ATT_HighSpeed_Services/1164818706

 

Nero Premium Edition 7.5.9.0a


Author: Nero AG
Date: 2006-11-28
Size: 150 Mb
License: Shareware $70.00
Requires: Win All


Nero 7 Ultra Edition enables you to experience your digital media in completely new and innovative ways. With the addition of the Nero Home media manager, you can now have the complete PC and TV experience. Whether you want to access your media files from the comfort of your living room, or complete digital media projects on your PC, Nero 7 Ultra Edition is all you need.

Now, with more features than ever before, this powerful software can transform your digital photos into professional animated slideshows, backup all of your valuable data, manage and search your media files, edit video or photos, create DVDs (including menus), stream your files over a media server, and compress files to take on the go. Beginners and experts alike will be amazed by what one solution can do. Really, it’s that good.

Some New features in 7.x
- Full-o-meter automatically adjusts to you project type (DVD-1, DVD-5 or DVD-9)
- Intelligent size calculation will suggest a DVD if data will not fit on a CD
- New, easy-to-use GUI for Nero Express and Nero InCD
U- se Nero Scout to index your digital media making it easy to find the right video or song for your CD or DVD
- Support for Blu-ray (BD-RE and BD-R) media
Audio
- Support for 5.1 and 7.1 audio recording, editing and mixing
- Create beats, melodies and sound sequences
- HQ mastering (192KHz) resolution audio supported
- Up to 32 bit audio supported
- Sample looper
- Rip tracks from audio CDs (SoundTrax)
Sequencer and Text II Speech converter
- HDV capture support
- Compress video to fit mobile, PDAs, home theater and HDTV standards
D- olby Digital 5.1 Encoder integration
- Extend capture device support
- Export slideshows to share or archive
- New 2D and animated 3D menu templates to spice up your home-made professional quality DVDs
- Capture, edit and export High-Definition (HD) video files.
- Browse customized image directories
- Burn to DVD, SVCD and VCD or export to video file for sharing
- Stream media files across any UPnP™ compatible devices
DVD
- Support for chapter menus (DVD+VR)
Split and merge titles (DVD+VR)
Automatically overwrite unprotected titles if space on disc is low (DVD+VR)
Add/remove images from slideshows (DVD-VR)
Simulation/Preview of DVD-VR project
Looped DVD navigation
- DVD-Audio support
Backup
- Backup without logging in
- InCD 5 Drag&Drop file backup support for BDRE/R (Blu-ray)
- FTP backup
- Intelligent compression filter
- Shadow Copy feature used to ensure a verified backup
- and much more.

download
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Nero_Premium_Edition_d2228.html


or download from nero

Current version: 7.5.9.0A
Release Date: November 27th, 2006
Filesize:
150.95 MB (158290443 bytes)

download
http://ww2.nero.com/nero7/enu/nero7-up.php

 

If you don't laugh, you'll cry,

p2pnet.net News:- A spoof is a mocking imitation of someone or something and, "THIS IS A SPOOF !!!!" - I said in an update to p2pnet's RIAA, MPAA Blitz: Part II.

I went on, "I can't believe the number of emails I've had on this, including several from alarmed librarians. That people believed this in spite of all the glaring (I thought) clues says a lot about Hollywood and the corporate music industry,"

The post kicks off with:

It's almost the season of goodwill and Hollywood's MPAA and the Big Four Organized Music cartel's RIAA will be again teaming up to launch Part II of their Christmas Blitz. Called the World Library Copyright Wake Up Drive, the aim is to alert libraries to the danger they're in each time they allow a borrower to remove an unlicensed CD or DVD.

RIAA and MPAA World Library Copyright licenses were hand-delivered to libraries, we said, going on that libraries wold have to charge borrowers an amount equal to 99 cents, or the local equivalent, for every track on a music CD, or $19.99 (or the local equivalent) for every movie DVD.

"Libraries which do not honour the license will be closed until they agree to fullfil their obligations to the record companies and music studios which work so hard to create and make available such superlative product," the post added.

Coincidentally, on the same day I ran RIAA, MPAA Blitz: Part II, in a post, Rob Hyndman referred to another BBSpot story which declared:

The MPAA is lobbying congress to push through a new bill that would make unauthorized home theaters illegal. The group feels that all theaters should be sanctioned, whether they be commercial settings or at home.

Hyndman says he pegged it as a spoof, "but I’ll admit that for a moment I had my doubts".

Back to Blitz: Part II, "PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS A JOKE," begged one email and, "This is not really happening ----- is it?" asked a comment post, followed up by, "Despite the footnote, the story is not a spoof. Read the paper below and tell me which features have been implemented so far?"

This linked to a 1997 piece by Richard Stallman called The Right to Read and which includes such gems as:

For Dan Halbert, the road to Tycho began in college - when Lissa Lenz asked to borrow his computer. Hers had broken down, and unless she could borrow another, she would fail her midterm project. There was no one she dared ask, except Dan.

This put Dan in a dilemma. He had to help her - but if he lent her his computer, she might read his books. Aside from the fact that you could go to prison for many years for letting someone else read your books, the very idea shocked him at first. Like everyone, he had been taught since elementary school that sharing books was nasty and wrong--something that only pirates would do.

And

Later on, Dan would learn there was a time when anyone could go to the library and read journal articles, and even books, without having to pay. There were independent scholars who read thousands of pages without government library grants. But in the 1990s, both commercial and nonprofit journal publishers had begun charging fees for access. By 2047, libraries offering free public access to scholarly literature were a dim memory.

I also had a brief discussion with one of the librarians who'd emailed me and in her last note, she said:

"Actually, I probably don't spend enough time on copyright law, what with the PATRIOT Act, CIPA, and DOPA, to name a few acronyms to worry about. (If only I could simply concern myself with putting the right book in the right hands at the right time!)"

Actually, she shouldn't have to worry about copyright law at all.

Nor should scouts or young children.

But the reality is: Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, the members of the Big Four Organized Music cartel, and, Hollywood's Big Six movie studios, Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney, have succeeded in elevating an arcane commercial matter of interest only to them and their bottom lines to the level of major crime, painting their own customers, as well as millions of men, women and children around the world, as "thieves" and "criminals".

As I said in a post following another p2pnet spoof, "Verbal and pictorial lampoons have for centuries been used to focus the public eye on matters of public import".

And when it comes to the entertaiment cartels and copyright, things have reached the point where if you don't laugh, you'll cry.

Cheers! And all the best ...
Jon


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(Thursday 30th November 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/10600?PHPSESSID=7e1e6967e083c44dd45470b92af7093d

"THIS IS A SPOOF !!!!"

RIAA, MPAA Blitz: Part II

p2pnet.net News:- It's almost the season of goodwill and Hollywood's MPAA and the Big Four Organized Music cartel's RIAA will be again teaming up to launch Part II of their Christmas Blitz.

Called the World Library Copyright Wake Up Drive, the aim is to alert libraries to the danger they're in each time they allow a borrower to remove an unlicensed CD or DVD.

"Criminal sharing of any kind must be stopped, and that includes stealing copyright content by taking CDs and DVDs out of a library," says the RIAA's Fritz Mainwoe.

"This isn't about us," states the MPAA's Dolph Hilter. "It's about our artists and support staff and their children. It's about honesty and integrity and the American way and the things our forefathers fought for when they wrote the constitution because every time someone takes a DVD out of a library without paying us, an American industry worker is threatened with eviction or even starvation and if we don't stop it, who will?"

Working together, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) will supervise local police around the world in raids on public libraries offering "illegal" CDs and DVDs.

Called Operation Santa, it's slated to run from December 24 until January 1, 2007, and will be coordinated by the US Department of Justice, supported by investigators from the Department of Homeland Defence and Microsoft, as well as CIA, NSA, RSPCA, SPCA and News Corp staff.

"We've put this together for months to coincide with the Christmas season," says Mainwoe.

RIAA and MPAA legal staff have drawn up World Library Copyright licenses which were hand-delivered in every country which has even one library, say the two entertainment organizations, going on:

"Under the terms of the license, libraries will charge borrowers an amount equal to 99 cents, or the local equivalent, for every track on a music CD, or $19.99 (or the local equivalent) for every movie DVD.

"Libraries which do not honour the license will be closed until they agree to fullfil their obligations to the record companies and music studios which work so hard to create and make available such superlative product."
http://p2pnet.net/story/10570

 

REGISTRY REPAIR----------
Almost all Windows users gradually experiences the downfall in their PC's performance. Much of it can be attributed to Windows Registry Errors. By using Free Window Registry Repair regularly and repairing your registry, your system should not only be more stable but it will also help Windows run faster. For your convenience it automatically backs up any repairs made so that you always can restore Windows registry to the original state-----(free)-------GO THERE!

http://www.regsofts.com/

 

Nike+ IPod = Surveillance

By Annalee Newitz| Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Nov, 30, 2006

If you enhance your workout with the new Nike+ iPod Sport Kit, you may be making yourself a surveillance target.

A report from four University of Washington researchers to be released Thursday reveals that security flaws in the new RFID-powered device from Nike and Apple make it easy for tech-savvy stalkers, thieves and corporations to track your movements. With just a few hundred dollars and a little know-how, someone could even plot your running routes on a Google map without your knowledge.

The Nike+ iPod gives runners real-time updates about the speed and length of their workouts via a small RFID device that fits into the soles of Nike shoes, and broadcasts workout data to a small receiver plugged into an iPod Nano.

While this setup sounds convenient and cool, it didn't sit well with Scott Saponas, a computer science graduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle. After enjoying his Nike+ iPod for a few months, Saponas began to suspect there might be other, more nefarious uses for the gear.

He brought his concerns to University of Washington computer science professor Yoshi Kohno and fellow graduate students Carl Hartung and Jonathan Lester. After just a few weeks of tinkering, the four researchers discovered that the Nike+ iPod is, as Kohno put it, "an easy surveillance device."

The first problem is that the RFID in the shoe sensor contains its own on-board power source, essentially turning your running shoe into a small radio station capable of being received from up to 60 feet away, with a signal powerful enough to be picked up from a passing car.

Compare this with the roughly 3-centimeter to 10-inch read range of a typical consumer-grade RFID, such as the kind you find in smart tags in Gap clothing or in credit cards, which is passively powered by the reader.

Additionally, the sensor will reveal its unique ID to any Nike+ iPod receiver. With a quick hardware hack that Kohno said "any high school student could do in the garage," the researchers hooked a Nike+ iPod receiver up to a Linux-based "gumstix" -- a tiny, $79 computer that could easily be hidden in door frames, in trees next to jogging trails or in a pocket.

In their report, the researchers detail a scenario in which a stalker who wants to know when his ex-girlfriend is at home taps into her Nike+ iPod system. He simply hides the gumstix device next to her door, and it registers her presence as she passes by in her Nike shoes. If he adds a small "wifistix" antenna to the device, it can transmit this information to any nearby Wi-Fi access point and alert him to her presence via SMS or by plotting her location on Google Maps.

A thief could use a similar set-up to case several houses at once, figuring out when Nike-wearing owners are at home and when they aren't.

Neither Apple nor Nike had comments at press time.

Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Lee Tien says the Nike+ iPod is a harbinger of things to come. "We're going to see more devices like this in the next few years," he said. "This isn't just a problem with the Nike+ iPod per se -- it's a cautionary tale about what happens when companies unwittingly build a surveillance capacity into their products."

UC Berkeley RFID researcher David Molnar agreed with Tien, adding, "This shows a need for independent oversight and investigation of these technologies before they go to market. These things happen because the people building devices don't think about privacy implications."

Molnar also speculated about how easy it would be for a company to build their own tiny readers and deploy them in a large environment, selling the data stream to those who would track spouses or teens, or collect information about how many people wearing Nikes visit malls or movie theaters. "Given that there are no laws about skimming data in California right now, it would be perfectly legal to do it there," he said.

The researchers, for their part, just want to see Apple, Nike and other manufacturers fix the problem. They offer a simple solution in their report, which is to build the sensors to speak to only one reader.

"Using relatively standard cryptographic techniques, you could make it very difficult to listen to broadcasts from somebody else's sensor," said Kohno. He hastened to add that he doesn't believe Apple and Nike purposefully designed the sensors to be surveillance-friendly. "I just think companies should be as aware of privacy issues as they are of safety issues," he said. "Too often, they aren't."
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72202-0.html?tw=rss.index

 

Increased DRM for iTunes?

p2pnet.net News:- If you think Apple's consumer control C.R.A.P. is already bad, Hollywood wants to make it worse.

It wants more DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), demanding that Apple changes the way iTunes, its user-funded iPod front-end, handles full-length movies online.

"Amid slowing growth of DVD sales, the studios - Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros - are keen to find new ways of delivering their content to consumers," says The Financial Times., continuing, "They have been in talks with Apple Computer for several months about making their films available on its iTunes platform."

And they want to achieve that by having Apple limit the number of devices that can use a movie downloaded from iTunes.

That would presumably mean to watch a movie you'd paid through the nose for, you'd have to have corporate consumer control DRM pre-installed on your computer so Hollywood can keep a beady eye on you.

At the moment, iTunes content can be uploaded to any number of iPods and users can copy music by synching their units with friends' computers. But limiting the number of video iPods used by a single computer to four or five, "will, they believe, deter professional content pirates," says the FT, going on:

"Although no such system is in place for music downloads, Hollywood is pressing Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, to make changes. At risk, the studios say, are their investments in feature film production. With the average cost of a studio blockbuster approaching $100m - far more than the cost of an album - the studios say they have more to lose than music companies."

Of the Big Six studios, Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney, only Disney - with Apple's Steve Jobs now among the company's movers and shakers - has a deal with Apple in place.

"Apple, meanwhile, needs the studios on board because a broader range of content on iTunes will help it sell more video iPods and, eventually, more iTV devices, which the group is set to launch next year," says the story, adding the situation is further complicated by the fact major retailers, with Target and Wal-Mart to the fore, see digital distribution as a direct threat to DVD sales.

But, "with Christmas approaching and the biggest film of the year - Disney's film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - now available on DVD, the rancour appears to have subsided," adds The Financial Times.

Also See:
consumer control C.R.A.P. - Apple and its C.R.A.P., March 4, 2006
The Financial Times - AHollywood hopes to weather piracy with a bite of the Apple, November 29, 2006
direct threat - Disney, Target row, November 20, 2006



(Friday 1st December 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/10605?PHPSESSID=df9e0e5f47909933b0ed3bf790b5fab8

 

Hollywood defends 'pretexting'

p2pnet.net News:- That Hollywood routinely uses "pretexting," the shady information gathering technique which landed Hewlett-Packard in so much deep water, has been confirmed.

The Big Six studios, Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney, have used their financial and political resources to have a California bill meant to stop companies and individuals from using pretexting, cancelled.

Written by state senator Debra Bowen, SB1666 would have barred investigators from making "false, fictitious or fraudulent" statements or representations to obtain private information about an individual, including telephone calling records, Social Security numbers and financial information, says Wired News.

"Victims would have had the right to sue for damages," it says, going on:

"The bill won approval in three committees and sailed through the state Senate with a 30-0 vote. Then, according to Lenny Goldberg, a lobbyist for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the measure encountered unexpected, last-minute resistance from the Motion Picture Association of America."

'A tremendous amount of clout'

The MPAA, owned by, and which acts for, the Big Six, "has a tremendous amount of clout and they told legislators, 'We need to pose as someone other than who we are to stop illegal downloading','" Goldberg said, according to the story.

"Consequently, when the bill hit the assembly floor Aug. 23, it was voted down 33-27, just days before revelations about Hewlett-Packard's use of pretexting to spy on journalists and board members put the practice in the national spotlight."

Wired says legislature records, "confirm that the MPAA's paid lobbyists worked on the measure".

"California went on to pass a much more narrow bill that bans the use of deceit to obtain telephone calling records, and nothing else.," the story continues "A similarly tailored bill languished in Congress this year, despite high-profile congressional grillings of senior HP employees."

Not that the MPAA is alone.

Normal operating procedure

New York mother Patti Santangelo defied the members of the Big Four Organized Music cartel, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, who accused her of being a "massive" and illegal online distributor of their copyrighted 'product'.

They tried to beat her down, failed and, in what's become normal operating procedure for them, are using the RIAA, one of their so-called trade organizations, to victimize her children, going so far as turning the best friend of one of her sons against him so they could use the friend as a weapon.

When it first became evident the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) was going to terrorize Santangelo's kids, "This case is jeopardizing the actual well-being of children and you're going to see problems develop which will be far worse than the mere 'shakedown for money' ['settlements']," the Santangelo's lawyer, Jordan Glass, told p2pnet.

"As just one example, it was deeply unsettling for us to learn just how much personal, non-public information the RIAA had collected on Patti's children. All parents should be concerned and I think people have to know the implications.

The case is, "jeopardizing the actual well-being of children and you're going to see problems develop which will be far worse than the mere 'shakedown for money' ['settlements']," Glass declared.

"As just one example, it was deeply unsettling for us to learn just how much personal, non-public information the RIAA had collected on Patti's children. All parents should be concerned and I think people have to know the implications."

Its', "going to become the new feeding ground for those who seek to exploit children, whether through improper contact or identity theft," Glass predicted.

'Ripple effect'

Meanwhile, Wired News has Sean Walsh, past president of the Califonia Association of Licensed Investigators, "whose current firm specializes in protecting the privacy of corporate clients, stating:

"Everyone wants a quick fix, but they don't see the ripple effect until much later. Our organization has been successful at educating legislators by saying, 'Wait a minute, but look at how it effects X, Y and Z.' They have to see those tangents so that if they are going to go ahead and pass legislation, they do it in a responsible and educated way."

Also See:
Wired News - MPAA Kills Anti-Pretexting Bill, December 1, 2006
victimize her children - Santangelo lawyer speaks out, November 11, 2006
personal, non-public information - RIAA targets Santangelo's kids, February 16, 2006

p2pnet newsfeeds for your site.
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(Friday 1st December 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/10615?PHPSESSID=3c1301bbe92fc0f405c86650893cea21

 

Microsoft Defends WGA Changes As 'Small Burden'

ms Microsoft on Wednesday defended recent changes to anti piracy software that's sent to Windows XP users via automatic updates, and said that the impact on consumer and business customers would be minor.

"The burden on users with genuine systems is small," said David Lazar, director of Microsoft's Genuine Windows, in an email reply to several questions about the revamped WGA Notifications Tool for Windows XP. "In fact, many users like the confidence of knowing their software is and continues to be genuine."

Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage program has been under fire since Microsoft debuted the notifications component in April. In June, Microsoft was sued as a spyware distributor after the company revealed that WGA "phoned home" to Microsoft's servers on a daily basis. Similar technologies and practices unveiled for Windows Vista also have come under attack. Microsoft Defends WGA Changes As 'Small Burden' - Technology News by TechWeb Linked by shanmuga Thu Nov30 2006 10:01pm EST





Microsoft Defends WGA Changes As 'Small Burden'


By Gregg Keizer,

Microsoft on Wednesday defended recent changes to anti-piracy software that's sent to Windows XP users via automatic updates, and said that the impact on consumer and business customers would be minor.

"The burden on users with genuine systems is small," said David Lazar, director of Microsoft's Genuine Windows, in an e-mail reply to several questions about the revamped WGA Notifications Tool for Windows XP. "In fact, many users like the confidence of knowing their software is and continues to be genuine."

Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage program has been under fire since Microsoft debuted the notifications component in April. In June, Microsoft was sued as a spyware distributor after the company revealed that WGA "phoned home" to Microsoft's servers on a daily basis. Similar technologies and practices unveiled for Windows Vista also have come under attack.

Tuesday, Microsoft announced it had posted an update to the Notifications Tool—software that sniffs out counterfeit copies of Windows XP then nags users to obtain or buy a legitimate edition—and would roll out the new version to some users through the operating system's automated security update service.

Among other changes to the software, Microsoft said it has added self-help tools to help users troubleshoot instances when Notifications couldn't decide if the copy of Windows XP was valid. Michael Cherry, an analyst at research firm Decisions on Microsoft, blasted that move as an attempt by Microsoft to shift more of its anti-piracy workload to customers.

"I shouldn't have to be sent off on a whole day adventure to troubleshoot validation for Microsoft," he said Tuesday. Cherry also suspected that the move is a way for Microsoft to avoid costly technical support calls by angry users told that their Windows was illegitimate.

Microsoft's Lazar confirmed the desire to move users from the telephone support desk to online self-help. "[We want to make] the messaging and the self-help options so clear and simple that users will not need telephone support," he said. "Of course, telephone support is available for those who prefer this option, but ultimately, we think the system will run best if most issues have simple self-help solutions."

Lazar also explained that the update was prompted, at least in part, by Microsoft's discovery of four additional product activation keys that had been subverted and used to validate counterfeit copies of its operating system.

"As we continue our anti-piracy efforts, we discover new compromised keys," he said. "So each time we update the tool, we expand the blocked key list. Therefore, a system that validates successfully one month may not pass the next."

Microsoft has made this clearer to users, Lazar said, in Tuesday's update, which now includes new language in the Notifications Tool interface: "Your system may be revalidated periodically in order to take advantage of new information available from Microsoft that can help protect you against new forms of counterfeiting."

"Revalidation has been a standard part of our program since the start," said Lazar. "The threat of software piracy is constantly evolving, and as such we are committed to protecting ourselves and customers by updating and improving the technology we use to fight it."

To that end, Lazar said, users should expect updates to the Notifications Tool every 90 to 120 days.
http://www.techweb.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196600417&cid=RSSfeed_TechWeb

 

Testing DRM-free waters: EMI selling a few MP3s through Yahoo Music


12/6/2006 1:06:27 PM, by Eric Bangeman

Yahoo Music is selling the latest single from piano-playing songstress Norah Jones, along with a pair of tracks from Christian rockers Reliant K, in the MP3 format. Priced at 99¢ like the rest of the songs available from Yahoo Music (and just about every other US download site north of Wal-Mart), the three songs mark another timid step from the music industry away from DRM-encumbered formats that limit users to either the iPod, PlaysForSure, or Zune music ecosystems.

This marks at least the the third time Yahoo has sold MP3s from a major label. In September, Yahoo offered Jesse McCartney's album Right Where You Want for $9.99 in the MP3 format, with WMA as an option. Earlier in the year, Yahoo sold a non-DRMed single by singer-actress Jessica Simpson for 99¢.
Navigating the DRM maze...

Why the sudden interest in non-DRMed formats? It appears that the record labels are slowly beginning to realize that they can't have DRMed music and complete control over the online music market at the same time.

For years, the labels have insisted that nearly all music sold online contain DRM due to fears over piracy and file-sharing. That insistence ultimately left the labels reliant on other companies to come up with DRM solutions capable of pleasing both consumers and the music industry. Hence the dominance of Apple, the iPod, and the iTunes Store in the online music scene. There is competition for Apple in the form of WMA files and the ecosystem of PlaysForSure devices and music stores such as Napster and Rhapsody, as well as the recently launched Microsoft Zune which offers yet another walled garden of music, hardware, and software.

We know the result: if you want to download music that will play on an iPod, you get it from the iTunes Store. And if you own a Creative Zen, you can get your music from just about anywhere but the iTunes Store. It's good if you're the market leader, like Apple, but not so good for everyone else.

There are signs that consumers might be growing irritated by the Balkanization of the online music scene. Nielsen SoundScan reports that online music sales dropped during the second and third quarters of the year. After hitting an all-time high of 144 million during the first quarter, figures for the past two quarters have held steady at around 137 million.
...without finding the exit

One way to break the cycle is to sell music that is playable on any digital audio player. eMusic does exactly that, and their surprisingly extensive catalog of non-DRMed music has vaulted it into the number two online music store position behind the iTunes Store.

Unfortunately for music fans, the record labels appear completely unprepared to kick the DRM habit anytime soon, despite the continued lobbying of Yahoo Music VP and general manager David Goldberg. At the 2006 Music 2.0 conference, Goldberg told the audience that the industry would be better off if it dropped its insistence on DRM and has continued lobbying the major labels to rethink their stance on DRM.

Convincing EMI to release the MP3 of Norah Jones' "Thinking About You" was a struggle, according to the general manager of EMI's Blue Note label, Zach Hochkeppel. He told the Wall Street Journal that the decision was made despite "general resistance" from higher-ups in EMI.

Don't expect to see the latest album from Fountains of Wayne available as an MP3 anytime soon, however. Part of the rationale for releasing Jones and Reliant K's songs as MP3s is a belief that their core audiences—adults in the case of Norah Jones and evangelicals for Reliant K—are less likely to be offering up the non-DRMed tracks on P2P networks.

If history is any guide, it will take a lot more "cautious experimenting" before the music industry makes any sort of wholesale move away from DRM. After all, it was only after years of battling the original Napster while selling music with DRM restrictions so vile that consumers stayed away in droves that the music industry green-lighted the iTunes Music Store. Over three-and-a-half years after the launch of iTMS, the flat music download numbers may indicate that the industry needs to further adapt its business model. Selling three DRM-free tracks is a tiny step in the right direction.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061206-8368.html

 

UK report: make format shifting and parody legal, don't extend musical copyrights

12/6/2006 12:27:29 PM, by Nate Anderson

Andrew Gowers, former editor of the Financial Times, has spent the last year heading up a committee looking into intellectual property laws in the UK. The final report was made public today, and it offers 54 policy recommendations to the government. As is usually the case when someone tries to balance the rights of producers and consumers, everyone will find something to gripe about here, but there's also a lot to like for both groups.
Something for consumers...

Two of the most important recommendations come right up front. The report suggests that the European Commission keep the current 50-year copyright term for sound recordings, which the recording industry hopes to see extended to 95 years. In a related recommendation, the report also suggests that intellectual property rights should not be changed retroactively, something that has been done in the US on multiple occasions.

The BPI (Britain's version of the RIAA) was predictably unhappy with the decision, and said in a statement that they intend to keep up the fight for 95-year copyrights. "As Mr. Gowers says, the decision on extension is ultimately for the European Commission and we will be putting our case vigorously when it reviews the relevant directive next year," said Peter Jamieson, the BPI chairman.

But the BPI was pleased by another recommendation that will also be good news to UK consumers: a private copying exception that will allow for legal format shifting. Currently, ripping legally-purchased CDs and dumping them onto an iPod can result in prosecution, though the BPI has made clear it will not go after such people.

The Gowers report does contain the strange caveat that such an exception would only count "for works published after the date that the law comes into effect," which seems to indicate that ripping will remain illegal for all previous CD purchases. This is in line with the recommendation that IP rights not be changed retroactively, but it's still an odd decision; in the name of consistency, will every Brit who rips an Oasis CD remain a criminal?

There's plenty for libraries and research institutions to like, as well, such as broad research exceptions, the ability to format shift archival copies, and the authority to make backup copies of all materials.
...and something for producers

For content producers, the report recommends that the UK finally get its own copyright exception "for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche" by 2008. Currently, no such exception exists, but the report suggests that this will make it easier for artists such as Weird Al (yes, he's really mentioned, and right next to Tom Stoppard) to thrive.

The report also suggests more enforcement powers for the government to combat infringement, along with stiffer sentences. Recommendation 36 suggests that penalties for online and physical copyright infringement be made equal, which means that online infringement could carry a maximum 10-year sentence. The police would also pay more attention to IP crimes, and the cost of litigation should be brought down so that companies can more easily pursue infringement claims.

The complete report, which weighs in at 150 pages, is quite accessible in style and well worth a read by those interested in IP issues. Gowers and his team look to have done a solid job, but they have no guarantee that the government will adopt their suggestions, and the European Commission vote on sound recordings is beyond UK control.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061206-8367.html