VERY,VERY HOT READS, I Would Read The News In This Thread This Thead Is To post Any Thing Ye Want About The News,,NEWS WAS MOVED,READ MY FIRST POS...

Windows Vista Editions.... Announced.
Wow... wonder what all mean.

go here to read it all,click on each title
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/c0680472-bb5f-4a9c-9480-b16ab3eeb8f51033.mspx


- Windowshelp.microsoft.com

# Windows Starter 2007

* Computer settings
* Security and privacy
* Networking
* Internet and online
* Files and folders
* Pictures, music, videos, and movies
* Programs and tools
* Games

# Windows Vista Home Basic

* Computer settings
* Security and privacy
* Networking
* Internet and online
* Files and folders
* Pictures, music, videos, and movies
* Programs and tools
* Games

# Windows Vista Home Premium

* Computer settings
* Security and privacy
* Networking
* Internet and online
* Files and folders
* Pictures, music, videos, and movies
* Programs and tools
* Games
* Mobile PC

# Windows Vista Business

* Computer settings
* Security and privacy
* Networking
* Internet and online
* Files and folders
* Pictures, music, videos, and movies
* Programs and tools
* Games
* Mobile PC

# Windows Vista Enterprise

* Computer settings
* Security and privacy
* Networking
* Internet and online
* Files and folders
* Pictures, music, videos, and movies
* Programs and tools
* Games
* Mobile PC

# Windows Vista Ultimate

* Running your computer
* Security and privacy
* Customize your computer
* Hardware, devices and drivers
* Printing and printers
* Maintenance and performance
* Networking
* Internet and online
* Files and folders
* Programs and tools
* Pictures, videos, and movies
* Music and sounds
* Games
* Mobile PC

# Windows Vista Home Basic N

* Computer settings
* Security and privacy
* Networking
* Internet and online
* Files and folders
* Pictures, music, videos, and movies
* Programs and tools
* Games

# Windows Vista Business N

* Computer settings
* Security and privacy
* Networking
* Internet and online
* Files and folders
* Pictures, music, videos, and movies
* Programs and tools
* Games
* Mobile PC

go here to read it all,click on each title
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/c0680472-bb5f-4a9c-9480-b16ab3eeb8f51033.mspx

 

McDonald's Sued Over Ingredients of Fries

Associated Press

February 18, 2006 08:36:01 PM PST

McDonald's Corp. faces at least three lawsuits claiming the fast-food giant misled the public after it acknowledged earlier this week its french fries contain milk and wheat ingredients.

Debra Moffatt of Lombard, Ill., seeks unspecified damages in a suit filed Friday in Chicago. Her attorney, Thomas Pakenas, said his client has celiac disease, which causes gastrointestinal symptoms set off by eating gluten, a protein found in wheat.

Jack Daly, McDonald's senior vice president, said in a statement the company had not reviewed the case yet and is testing its fries for gluten through a food allergy research program at the University of Nebraska.

Mark and Theresa Chimiak of Jupiter, Fla., sued Friday in Florida, claiming their 5-year-old daughter has an intolerance to gluten and became seriously ill after eating the fries. Nadia Sugich of Los Angeles sued Wednesday, saying she eats no animal products and would not have eaten the fries had she known they contained dairy ingredients.

McDonald's, based in Oak Brook, Ill., said Monday that wheat and dairy products are used to flavor its fries.

Before its acknowledgment Monday, the company had quietly added "Contains wheat and milk ingredients" to the french fries listing on its Web site.

 

XP SP2 SUPPORT TOOLS FOR ADVANCED USERS.......... Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP, intended for use by Microsoft support personnel and experienced users to assist in diagnosing and resolving computer problems.....(free).....GO THERE!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...76-9bb9-4126-9761-ba8011fabf38&DisplayLang=en

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Tools Genuine Windows download
Brief Description
The Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP are intended for use by Microsoft support personnel and experienced users to assist in diagnosing and resolving computer problems.

Overview
The Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP are intended for use by Microsoft support personnel and experienced users to assist in diagnosing and resolving computer problems. For individual tool descriptions, see the Windows Support Tools documentation (Suptools.chm).

The Windows Support Tools for Windows XP can be installed only on a computer that is running the Windows XP operating system. The Windows Support Tools for Windows XP cannot be used to upgrade Microsoft Windows NT or Microsoft Windows 2000 Support Tools installed on Windows NT or Windows 2000.

It is highly recommended that you remove all previous versions of Support Tools, including beta versions of the Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP, before you run the Support Tools installation program.

Important: These tools have not been localized; they are written and tested only in the English language. Using these tools with a different language version of Microsoft Windows XP may not work.

The following Support Tools have been updated in Service Pack 2:

* bitsadmin.exe
* extract.exe
* httpcfg.exe
* iadstools.dll
* ipseccmd.exe
* netdom.exe
* replmon.exe


The following is a list of all Support Tools in Service Pack 2:

* acldiag.exe
* activate.exe
* addiag.exe
* adprop.dll
* adsiedit.msc
* apimon.exe
* apmstat.exe
* bindiff.exe
* bitsadmin.exe
* browstat.exe
* cabarc.exe
* clonepr.dll
* depends.exe
* dfsutil.exe
* dhcploc.exe
* diruse.exe
* dmdiag.exe
* dnscmd.exe
* dsacls.exe
* dsastat.exe
* dskprobe.exe
* dumpchk.exe
* dupfinder.exe
* efsinfo.exe
* exctrlst.exe
* extract.exe
* filever.exe
* ftonline.exe
* getsid.exe
* gflags.exe
* httpcfg.exe
* iadstools.dll
* ipseccmd.exe
* ksetup.exe
* ktpass.exe
* ldp.exe
* memsnap.exe
* movetree.exe
* msicuu.exe
* msizap.exe
* netcap.exe
* netdiag.exe
* netdom.exe
* netset.exe
* nltest.exe
* ntdetect.chk
* ntfrsapi.dll
* ntfrsutl.exe
* pfmon.exe
* pmon.exe
* poolmon.exe
* pptpclnt.exe
* pptpsrv.exe
* pstat.exe
* pviewer.exe
* rasdiag.exe
* remote.exe
* replmon.exe
* rsdiag.exe
* rsdir.exe
* sdcheck.exe
* search.vbs
* setspn.exe
* setx.exe
* showaccs.exe
* showperf.exe
* sidhist.vbs
* sidwalk.exe
* sidwalk.msc
* snmputilg.exe
* spcheck.exe
* timezone.exe
* tracefmt.exe
* tracelog.exe
* tracepdb.exe
* vfi.exe
* whoami.exe
* windiff.exe
* wsremote.exe
* xcacls.exe

Top of page
System Requirements

* Supported Operating Systems: Windows XP

* 5 MB of free disk space
* Windows XP Service Pack 2

Note: The Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Tools are not supported on 64-bit platforms.

Top of page
Instructions
This download is available running genuine Microsoft Windows. Click the Continue button in the Validation Recommended section above to begin the short validation process. Once validated, you will be returned to this page with specific instructions for obtaining the download.

Top of page
Related Resources

1. TechNet Security Home Page
2. Windows XP Expert Zone Community
3. Windows XP Service Pack 2 for Advanced Users
4. Knowledge Base Article for This Download

 

Merrill Lynch: Sony PS3 may be delayed & possibly $900US
Posted by Dan Bell on 19 February 2006 - 16:46 - Source: C|Net

shimman used our news submit to tell us "I thought paying $500 US for the latest graphic card was a crazy idea, but I guess Sony might be thinking $900US console is not a crazy idea but a big idea considering BD players will cost at least $1000US, it might not a bad price to justify for some."

The North American launch of Sony"s much-anticipated PlayStation 3 could be delayed until next year, according to a research report issued by Merrill Lynch. In the report (Click here for PDF), the analyst firm proposed the idea that high costs and Sony"s decision to use an "ambitious new processor architecture--the Cell" is making it look like the company might not be able to meet its goal of getting the PS 3 out in the U.S. this year.

They go on to say in the article that it is now clear that the PlayStation 3 will be a very expensive device to manufacture, at least for the initial couple years. They had stated at C|Net last November that the choices Sony had made for this gaming platform, caused it to become difficult and expensive to make. They point to the Sony Cell processor and the Blu-Ray drive as two of the reasons for their statement. They said that the bill of materials for the PS3 was approaching $900 dollars at the onset of production. However, they also predicted that the cost would drop to around $320 dollars in 3 years.

You can check out the story at it's source- C|Net, by following this link.
http://rsch1.ml.com/9093/24013/ds/276873_0.PDF

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13088

 

Google to feds: Back off
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: February 17, 2006, 1:32 PM PST
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Google lashed out at the U.S. Justice Department on Friday, saying that a high-profile request for a list of a week's worth of search terms must not be granted because it would disclose trade secrets and violate the privacy rights of its users.

In a strongly worded legal brief filed with a federal judge in San Jose, Calif., the search company accused prosecutors of a "cavalier attitude," saying they were "uninformed" about how search engines work and the importance of protecting Google's confidential information from disclosure.

This response came after the Justice Department last month asked a judge to force Google to hand over a random sample of 1 million Web pages from its index, along with copies of a week's worth of search terms to aid in the Bush administration's defense of an Internet pornography law. That information is supposed to be used to highlight flaws in Web filtering technology during a trial this fall.

The Justice Department subpoena normally would have been a routine matter, and America Online, Microsoft and Yahoo voluntarily complied with similar requests. But Google's resistance sparked a furor over privacy, with Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, asking the Justice Department for details, and a bill appearing in the House of Representatives that would require Web sites to delete information about visitors.

"The privacy of Google users matters, and Google has promised to disclose information to the government only as required by law," the brief says. "The privacy and anonymity of the service are major factors in the attraction of users--that is, users trust Google to do right by their personal information."

Google's opposition raised eyebrows last month after it stood up to the U.S. government but capitulated to censorship demands from China's ruling Communist Party. At a hearing this week, politicians said they were "sickened" that Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo chose to censor their search results for Chinese users.

Another reason for objecting to the subpoena, Google says in its brief authored by Al Gidari and Lisa Delehunt at the law firm of Perkins Coie, is that government lawyers might share the information with the FBI for criminal prosecution--say, of people who typed in search terms like "marijuana cultivation" or "directv hacking."

A protective order does say that only Justice Department attorneys "who have a need" for the information may receive it. But a department spokesman told Newsweek last month that, "I'm assuming that if something raised alarms, we would hand it over to the proper (authorities)."

"This is all part of a civil action, and so consequently it's strictly to get the information we specifically requested," Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, told CNET News.com on Friday. "As regards that material, that is what it is being used for and that is all."

A sex lawsuit's unexpected twist

The Bush administration's request is tied to its defense of the Child Online Protection Act, which restricts posting sexually explicit material deemed "harmful to minors" on commercial Web sites unless it's unavailable to minors.

In legal documents filed last month, prosecutors say compliance is necessary to prove that the 1998 pornography law is "more effective than filtering software in protecting minors from exposure to harmful materials on the Internet." For instance, Internet addresses obtained from the search engines could be tested against filtering programs to evaluate their effectiveness.

A divided U.S. Supreme Court in 2004 stopped short of striking down the law and instead said that a full trial--to take place in Philadelphia--was needed to determine whether the law is constitutional.

Because the ACLU likely will seek to dispute any conclusions the Justice Department draws from the data it receives from search engines, the civil liberties group apparently has been sending its own requests to other search companies. (The government has hired Philip Stark, a professor of statistics at the University of California at Berkeley, to evaluate the search logs.)

AOL has received such a request from the ACLU, Google disclosed in its brief, adding that its opposition to the subpoena was in part designed to avoid being enmeshed in precisely that kind of ongoing legal spat. That would place Google "in the witness chair, and exposes Google's intellectual property to cross-examination in open court by the ACLU, its counsel, experts, and consultants," the brief says.

AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo each have received two subpoenas from the Justice Department, one asking for information about filtering technology and the other asking for search terms. The ACLU has given AOL a subpoena to appear at a deposition "asking for testimony about their parental control technology," ACLU attorney Aden Fine said Friday.

A survey conducted earlier this month by CNET News.com of the four major search engines about their privacy policies found that some would reveal when they had received subpoenas and what they did to delete customer data, while others would not. Google and Yahoo appeared to be the most secretive.

Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL have said that they defend users' privacy vigorously and complied with the Justice Department's search request because it seeks only a list of search terms and Web addresses, and not individual user data. The government has not, for example, asked for information about who typed in what search terms.

U.S. District Judge James Ware has scheduled a hearing on March 13 to hear the case.

CNET News.com's Anne Broache and Greg Sandoval contributed to this report
http://news.com.com/Google+to+feds+Back+off/2100-1030_3-6041113.html?tag=nefd.top

 

On the go with upgraded ears

By Thomas J. Fitzgerald
The New York Times
Published: February 19, 2006, 6:00 AM PST
Tell us what you think about this storyTalkBack E-mail this story to a friendE-mail View this story formatted for printingPrint

Headphones that come with portable music players like the iPod are usually adequate in delivering an enjoyable experience, but often they are not the best choice for comfort, convenience or sound quality.

Earbud-style headphones that come with iPods, for example, can be uncomfortable after extended use and, if they do not fit properly, can jar loose. Moreover, many headphones are not effective at blocking outside noise, which can degrade sound quality and induce users to ratchet up the volume in loud surroundings.

A number of headphone options are available to improve the listening experience on portable music players. They include wireless headsets that can free you from having to deal with wires, sound-isolating earphones that form an acoustically sealed zone inside your ear canals, and noise-canceling headphones that reduce sounds in your environment. Some of the options can work with cell phones as well, allowing you to toggle between phone calls and music on the fly.

Wireless options
Several wireless headphones are made for use with iPods and other portable music players. These headphones employ the wireless protocol of Bluetooth to deliver stereo sound; a Bluetooth transmitter, included with the headphones, connects to the music player's headphone jack and broadcasts audio to the headset when within range. Bluetooth works at short distances, and these headsets typically enable roaming up to 30 feet from the music source.

For example, the iMuffs, from Wi-Gear, are about $130 and are compatible with many iPod models, including the Mini, Photo and third- and fourth-generation models (but not yet with the newest iPods, like the Nano and video iPod).

Buttons on the right earpiece control the iPod's volume and song selection, even when the iPod's hold feature is enabled, and the headset has a battery life of up to 16 hours of continuous use before it needs recharging. The transmitter, a white plastic enclosure, plugs into the top of the iPod and extends its length by about 1.2 inches.

In my tests using an iPod Mini, the sound quality of the iMuffs was about the same as that of the headphones that came with the iPod. For example, in a song with a moderate range of sounds, "Careless Love" by Madeleine Peyroux, the bass, vocals, keyboards and guitar were clear. The wireless connectivity worked well when the headset remained within a few feet of the iPod; when roaming away from the iPod, the music was occasionally interrupted.

A similar option is available for about $120 from Logitech, the Logitech Wireless Headphones for iPod. As with the iMuffs, the headset wraps around the back of your neck and is a "one size fits all" dimension, though it is slightly heavier than the iMuffs and provides a snugger fit. The Bluetooth transmitter that attaches to the iPod is bulkier--it includes its own battery whereas the iMuffs transmitter draws power from the iPod.

In my tests I found the sound quality to be roughly equivalent to the headphones that came with the iPod. The roaming range was good, and connectivity held up well through walls and windows.

Another wireless option is from Plantronics, the Pulsar 590A Bluetooth Headset. The device, about $250, has an adjustable headband that wraps over your head and a puck-shaped transmitter with a wire that connects to most standard 3.5mm audio jacks, including those on iPods, laptops, computers, portable CD players and minicassette players.

Like some of the other wireless headsets, the 590A comes with a built-in microphone and can simultaneously connect with Bluetooth-enabled cellphones and music players. When calls are answered or initiated, music is automatically switched off and the call takes center stage.

Using buttons on the earpiece, you can initiate calls using voice activation (if the phone allows it), adjust the volume, redial numbers and reject calls. A cable converts the wireless headphones to wired headphones--useful if the battery in the headset or transmitter needs recharging and you want to listen to a laptop or music player.

Enhanced sound
While wireless headphones offer convenience, other options are aimed at delivering higher sound quality. One option, called sound-isolating earphones, works by establishing an acoustically sealed area inside your ears and uses components made for more accurate sound reproduction. Essentially, the phones are like earplugs with a thin tube in the center that pipes music directly into the ear.

Several such options are available from Shure. I tested the company's E4c earphones ($300 at Bestbuy.com). It took a while to get the hang of using them; several types of tips are provided, in various shapes and sizes and made from materials that block sound.

After choosing tips with a comfortable fit and learning how to create an acoustic seal, I found the audio clear and strong. For example, in a song with a mishmash of guitar sounds in the background, "Dance Little Sister" by the Rolling Stones, the guitars were clear and it was easy to follow them.

Other sound-isolating options are available from Etymotic Research, including the $150 6i Isolator Earphones. These earphones include enhanced bass and can reduce outside sounds by an estimated 35 decibels, according to the company. Two types of tips are provided, and I found the ones made of a foamlike material more effective at blocking noise. You squeeze them before putting them in your ears, and they slowly expand to form a seal.

Noise-canceling headphones are another option for reducing sounds in noisy places, but they use a different technique. Instead of simply blocking sound, they include electrical components that actively cancel out noise; the device produces inverted sound waves to offset sounds detected in the environment. They require power sources like batteries, and they filter out sounds mainly in the lower ranges--the drone in airplane cabins or noise on trains and buses.

A model from Bose, the QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise-Canceling Headphones, is one such product, available for about $300. They are bulkier than Walkman-style headphones but comfortable, and the fit is snug. The padded headband wraps over your head, and the earphones, also padded, totally enclose your ears.

In my tests, on a cafe patio within earshot of a noisy highway, the overall experience, from the comfortable fit to the noise cancellation to the audio quality, was good. Listening to some brassy swing tunes that featured prominent bass amid an array of horns, the low sounds, as well as the highs, were strong.

Noise-canceling headphones are also available from Sennheiser, based in Wedemark, Germany. The PXC 300 model ($200 at Amazon.com) is one of several portable options. The earpieces do not completely cover your ears and the headband folds up, a bit like a pair of eyeglasses, to fit inside a case. Because of the small headset size, an additional tube-shaped enclosure is provided to store the batteries and components.

In tests at a noisy cafe, the PXC 300 filtered out much of the din, with higher frequency sounds like chatter and laughter occasionally getting through at muffled and tolerable levels. The audio quality was good; in Pink Martini's "Clementine," which begins softly with piano followed by percussion, then vocals and eventually horns, the sound was vibrant and clear, and the world around me slowly dissolved away.
http://news.com.com/On+the+go+with+upgraded+ears+-+page+2/2100-1041_3-6041192-2.html?tag=st.num

 

Australian Kazaa case rolls on

p2p news / p2pnet: As you read this the duelling lawyers in the Kazaa case are back in court.

This time it's the appeal following the September decision. And the stakes are higher than ever. Where the earlier case was heard by a single judge, Judge Murray Wilcox, the appeal is to be heard by the full bench comprising federal court judges Justice Branson, Justice Finkelstein and Justice Lindgren over at least five days.

So what's happened, and what's going to happen?

On September 5, 2005, the record companies lost more than two thirds of their court case against Kazaa when Wilcox handed down a landmark ruling indicating that it wouldn't shut down Kazaa. And true to the court's word, Kazaa has not been shut down.

Despite this result, and despite criticism by Justice Wilcox, thed Big Four record companies sought to make the world believe they'd scored a major win.

Remember their famous words, "In an historic victory, the record industry has won its copyright case against Kazaa"?

The record companies even insisted on the steps of the court that there would be no appeal.

Now the record companies are showing their true colours. They're preparing to spend millions more of artists' money on an appeal against the very judgement they were, until recently, calling a victory.

But that's no surprise. Time after time they put their own interests ahead of the interests of recording artists and customers and it will be no different tomorrow in the Australian Federal Court.

The case promises excellent theatre. In a bizarre turn of events, the record companies come before the three judges having loudly declared, in an exchange between record industry lawyer Tony Bannon and Justice Wilcox, that they don't trust the full bench. (See page 45 of 52, of the transcript from January 30, 2006.)

The record company case has continued to unravel since judgement and now we'll see if this trend continues.

In any event, it's now evident the Australian record companies intend to shut down Kazaa, despite two years of promises not to do so.

In the meanwhile, the quotes have already started coming.

"Sharman Networks is determined to resist the record companies' appeal in this case with its own appeal presenting arguments against the record companies' position. We are confident of the ultimate outcome of this case."

And all of that is before a single word has even been uttered in the appeal.

The Wizard of Oz - p2pnet

(Sunday 19th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7965

 

Home-school sumo wrestlers

p2pnet special: We home-school our daughter, Emma, 9, and one our most valuable resources is the Net. When we get stuck, we're just as likely to go online as open a book, and Emma now uses her computer routinely.

We have a lot of reasons for teaching her ourselves, not the least of which is the fact it's becoming increasingly dangerous for kids' mental health to go to school these days. And that's as much because entertainment and software cartel 'educational' programs are increasingly showing up in classrooms around the world, as anything else.

But, thank God, that's not something we, or other home-schooling parents, have to worry about.

We live on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, and belong to the Cowichan Valley Home Learners Group, a loose-knit organization of mums, dads and kids who meet fairly regularly so the children can play with, and learn from, each other, and to organize events.

Last year one member, Heather Drew, was at a very cool annual contest staged by Camosun, an innovative community college serving Victoria, southern Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, and beyond.

It was for sumo wrestlers - robot sumo wrestlers - and Heather thought that somehow getting our kids into the project might be interesting.

Alan Duncan, chair of Camosun's electronics and computer engineering school of trades and technology, agreed it was an interesting idea and last Monday, just about everyone turned up for a special mini-sumo robot construction day at Camosun, with hands on help from the instructors.

The robots (made from kits developed at Camosun, powered by small motors and able to 'see' with electronic sensors sensors) try to shove each other off special circular mats.

The sumos are programmed with downloadable software developed in C by instructor Mel Dundas, and the units can be easiy re-programmed to perform new tasks.

The kids worked from detailed instructions posted on purpose-designed web pages. Above, Emma and her friends Sam (centre) and Amanda Anderson put their creations together.

"We've had school groups before," Duncan told me. "But this was a first time with home-schoolers and we were very impressed." And, "Some of the kids were doing a better job at soldering than our regular students," said Dundas.

The Cowichan Valley Home School Group sumo robots will be 'wrestling' at the next contest in May.

Meanwhile, it'd be interesting to see how many other home-school parents there are out there who use the Net in one way or another.

If you're one such, email me, with pix, preferably, and we'll run another p2pnet Home School special.

Cheers! And all the best …
Jon

Also See:
'educational' programs - They're brainwashing YOUR child, July 4, 2005

(Sunday 19th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7966

 

Fight Goliath fund nears $10,000

p2p news / p2pnet: We've moved this to the top because we don't want anyone to forget the Organized Music cartel, Vivendi Universal, Warner Music, EMI and Sony BMG, will stoop to anything to turn you into good little cash cows again.

And that includes terrorizing children.

Patti Santangelo is at the front end of the movement to expose the Big Four in full sight of the public eye so they can be seen for what they really are – savage, venal corporations without soul and without a shred of concern for their customers - the people who keep them fat and obscenely rich.

The Fight Goliath campaign was started to make sure Patti Santangelo and her lawyer, Jordan Glass, are able to keep up with the Big Four with their bottomless pockets and endless streams of high-priced lawyers.

It's us against them – us, with Patti in the lead.

The Fight Goliath fund is getting close to the $10,000 mark - $9,519.75 as I write this - and that's terrific, but we'll need a constant influx of $ until this is over. So please keep the donations coming.

Show Vivendi Universal, Warner Music, EMI and Sony BMG that they depend on us and not the other way around ...br>

Go here to see how much has been contributed so far.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It's been a while since our last post on the Patti Santangelo Fight Goliath campaign, but that doesn't mean nothing is happening.

Patti was ill for a time (she's fine now) and Jordan Glass, her new attorney, has been marshalling his resources and, "putting every spare moment he has into our case," says Patti.

"Think of it as a 747 on the runway, powering up," says Glass. "Patti and I started together in the middle of things and there's much to do in terms of getting up to speed."

A New York discovery hearing was held before Judge Mark D. Fox today with another slated for February 17, although that may be moved.

"The importance of the discovery procedure makes it a bit difficult to share what's going on until it's been presented presented to the judge," Patti tells p2pnet. "But I hope that after this hearing, we'll be able to give you a complete breakdown of all that has happened thus far.

"And there will be a lot more to come."

This part of the case is, "primarily procedural and investigative," explains Glass. "The part people see - the trial - is a few months away and is based upon the foundation we lay now. The discovery phase is when cases are 'built' - when they're really' won or lost. The trial is when all the preparatory work is presented. If Patti doesn't build her case now, there will be nothing meaningful to present at trial."

What exactly is discovery? Here's how it works, he says:

Discovery, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, starting primarily with Rule 26: Discovery is a procedural tool for disclosing information, created with a public policy behind it. "Trial by surprise" is frowned upon, so the theory is that by both sides having all the information likely to be presented at trial (and even some information that can not be presented at trial), the obviousness of the result - or the risk to both sides - might persuade the parties to forge a settlement. When a settlement can be made, it saves everyone involved time, money, judicial resources (tax dollars), allows the parties to have certainty in their dealings, enables them to move on with the business of their lives instead of being mired in litigation, etc.

Both sides in civil litigation MUST "show their hands" (documents and other information) to each other prior to trial, with certain exceptions: some material is deemed privileged (such as the communications between attorney and client or the lawyer's strategy of the presentation); some material is deemed irrelevant or outside the scope of the litigation, and the reasons vary from "fishing" for information relevant only to other cases to trying to uncover personal embarrassing information to paint a negative picture of one party or the other; some information is deemed unreliable (such as certain types of hearsay), and so while the material might be "discoverable," it might not be presentable at trial (not everything can be presented at trial for additional reasons not presented here).

Discovery tools include: interrogatories (demands for written answers to questions); demands for the production and inspection of documents and other items (such as computers, audio tapes, video tapes, electronic information, such as e-mails, etc. - "documents" is a very broad term that includes most physical items (from entire buildings to particle samples) as well as electronic communications); demands for admissions (used to narrow the issues to be argued at trial); depositions of the parties -- and of non-parties - to the action; the exchange of expert's reports; and more.

Putting this material together invariably costs a huge amount, which is where the bulk of the money being raised in the Fight Goloiath campaign will go.

Meanwhile, as of tomorrow, Fight Goliath will have an official New York campaign War Room which Patti and Glass will use to carry the battle forward. He's already started contacting other defendants' attorneys about pooling informational resources in a way that's not been done so far - "at least that's what they are reporting to me," says Glass. "It should help in establishing some pressure in the other direction."

Donations have started flowing in to the new snail-mail address (see below) and so far, $125 has come in from supporters in the US and Canada, and PayPal contributions have also arrived from Europe.

The money goes straight into escrow and Patti personally approves all outgoings and expenses.

Although the Fight Goliath battle centres in the US, the Big Four record labels are also attacking their customers around the world and what happens in the Santangelo case will have powerful and lasting international repercussions.

For anyone who's new to this, the Big Four - Warner Music, Vivendi Universal, EMI and Sony BMG - are trying to blame downturns in sales created by bad business practices, out-dated sales and marketing models, inept management and other factors such as unpopular, over-priced, formulaic 'product,' competition from games, and so on, on counterfeiters and p2p file shares, collectively mis-characterized as 'pirates'.

Some 60 million Americans have shared music with each other online, but the labels' RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has so far only managed to victimize some18,000 - including children - as it attempts to use them as a means of bludgeoning online music lovers en masse into becoming consumers, using the mainstream media as its principal PR agents in a massive PR blitz.

Through their RIAA, the labels accuse file sharers of being thieves, although nothing has been stolen and no money has changed hands. It also says its sue 'em all campaign has significantly reduced the numnber of people using the p2p networks, although the exact opposite is true and in fact, the bizarre campaign is doing far more to publicize the opportunities offered by the networks than to stop people from using them.

Not one of the 18,000 former record label customers pilloried to date has ever been before a judge or a jury, or has been found guilty of anything. A few - some 3,500 - have bought the RIAA off through extortionate out-of-court settlements but Patti, a New York mother with five children, refused to admit to doing something she didn't do and instead became the first to take the labels on in open court.

The Fight Goliath campaign was organized to cover her legal expenses.

Patti started out with a big-name New York law firm, but is now represented by Glass, who runs a one-man practice without huge corporate office expenses to worry about.

As I write this, p2pnet readers have donated a total of USD $7,986.28 and, "The ability to continue the action at all is possible only because of the joint commitment of p2pnet readers and Patti's fortitude," says Glass.

Patti? ""I have to thank all of the p2pnet readers who've contributed to the Fight Goliath Campaign," she says, also pointing out their support buoys her and gives her strength.

But more - a lot more - will be needed. Use the donate button, or the snail-mail address below it, to make a contribution. Help Patti, an ordinary mother with guts and dermination, but no financial resources, take on the greedy multi-billion-dollar Big Four record labels.

And if you're thinking, Why should I bother? - bear this in mind. When Patti wins, you win.

If you'd rather mail your donation in -----

Patti Santangelo
C/O PO Box 274
Hartsdale
New York 10530-0274

Spread the word. Blog, post, use IM, emails, ICR, whatever. Contact your local tv / radio station / newspaper. Can you get something on slashdot? Can you get the Fight Goliath campaign on Digg or anywhere else?

Below is a list of the sites now carrying donation buttons, and under that are background links.

Cheers! And all the best. And thanks .....

* http://p2pnet.net $2908.13
* http://jasonrohrer.n3.net $2428.48
* http://www.fightgoliath.org $1317.76
* http://boingboing.net $1149.48
* http://www.downhillbattle.org $377.09
* http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com $329.78
* http://www.p2pforum.it $165.41
* http://boycott-riaa.com $139.47
* http://www.p2pjihad.org/ $79.69
* http://virtualturntable.fourstones.net $72.22
* http://www.p2pnet.net $61.86
* http://www.bl0g.co.uk/ $47.75
* http://psx00.com $45.10
* http://www.azoz.com $42.79
* http://www.bizzarscripts.com $33.68
* http://www.yourmercifulgod.co.uk/ $28.89
* http://theangrywoodchuck.blogspot.com/ $24.04
* http://www.swissreporter.ch $21.49
* http://psg.com/ $19.12
* http://www.boycott-riaa.com $19.12
* http://www.tomb-of-nil.com $19.12
* http://www.xanga.com/badxmaru $19.12
* http://johngray.blogspot.com $19.12
* http://www.pod2peer.blogspot.com/ $18.92
* http://www.suprnova.org $18.92
* http://www.livejournal.com/users/obscure411 $14.45
* http://blog.andrlik.org $14.26 http://www.annabet.com $14.11
* http://www.peteyp.com $9.60
* http://http://www.myspace.com/brizmo $9.41
* http://www.quiglag.com $9.41
* http://www.xnlb.com/ $5.65
* http://www.soundnet.co.uk/ $4.50
* http://bandnet.org/ $4.13
* http://www.pdmedia.org $2.61
* http://www.timcormier.com $2.31
* http://studentsoftwarepkg.tripod.com $1.64
* http://scattermall.com $0.67


Mother of 5 takes on Big Music - p2pnet Q&A with lawyer Ray Beckerman, August 28, 2005
RIAA victim talks to p2pnet - p2pnet Q&A with Patti Santangelo, September 4, 2005
The 'We're Not Taking Any More' club - Patti isn't the only who's who's had enough, September 17, 2005
Wanted: p2p tech experts - Santangelo's lawyers aren't impressed by RIAA 'evidence,' October 24, 2005
RIAA mass lawsuits 'improper' - Beckerman believes the RIAA oversteps the mark with mass subpoenas, November 21, 2005
1st RIAA trial: victim to defend herself - First news that Santangelo is on her own, December 6, 2005
Teens next RIAA victims - Just before Christmas, the Big Four decide Patti's children might also make targets, December 23, 2005
Santangelo picks up steam - Forced to acknowledge the saga, the mainstream media finally pick it up, December 28, 2005
Tech expert hacks at RIAA evidence - Zi Mei sets out to debunk RIAA 'technical' evidence, December 29, 2005
Patti Santangelo fights Goliath: II - Patti says, 'Thanks for the support,' December 17, 2005
Patti Santangelo campaign launch! - It's the last day of 2005 and the Fight Goliath campaign officially goes up, December 31, 2005
Sceptical about Patti Santangelo? - p2pnet columnist Alex H has a few thoughts for doubters, January 8, 2006
Patti Santangelo's new lawyer - Jordan Glass enters the fray, February 6, 2006

(Sunday 19th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7964

 

Star Wars: Empire at War

By Ben Kuchera

Sunday, February 19, 2006
Introduction

Star Wars: Empire at War Developer: Petroglyph
Publisher: LucasArts
MSRP: $49.99 (shop for this item)
System requirements: Windows 2000/XP
Rating: T for Teen

There are some games that seem to be the holy grail for developers to make their mark on. Games that seem like they would be easy to make great, but for some reason no one does. Take Batman for instance. The guy knows martial arts, has a plane, and a ton of cool gadgets. The back story and rich set of characters to draw from are already there. Batman is tailor-made to have a great game built around him. Yet every Batman game has been terrible. What the hell is it going to take?

The same can be said about the Star Wars Real Time Strategy Game. Lucas made it easy on everyone. Every movie, from the original trilogy to the new films, is chock full of units that could be used in a game. We know what different kinds of Storm Troopers there are, and we know how the Rebels tend to build bases in out-of-the-way areas. Each planet in Star Wars seems to have only one overlying theme, so you can build maps around forests, hostile ice planets, or hellish lava worlds. You don't need to invent much to make a Star Wars RTS, you just need to balance your units, know your Star Wars lore, and have some imagination. It sounds easy, but so many people have tried and failed. Do you remember Force Commander? I hope not. Galactic Battlegrounds was better, but it was also little more than a Total Conversion of Age of Empires 2.

More than what everything looks like, it's important to realize that Star Wars also has a very special feel for most people. The space battles have always been epic, spread across huge distances with ships flying through space along with that music we're all so familiar with. Maybe that's why the games so far have failed; they have no imagination. They just plug in units without understanding what makes the Star Wars universe so compelling.

Petroglyph (this seems to be their first game) seems to think they can do it better. Like Mulder I want to believe, but I've been burnt so many times. Like an idiot though, I keep coming back to bed, hoping this time maybe LucasArts won't hit me. All I want to do is to have X-wings as my units and blow up TIE fighters. Just let me do that, guys, and I'll at least be middlingly happy. Oh yeah, and make the space combat 3D. Okay?

Guys?

Get that Star Destroyer! Right in the butt!
System requirements

Minimum system requirements

Test system
OS
Windows 2000/XP Windows XP Pro SP2
CPU
Pentium III or Athlon 1.0GHz Athlon 64 3000+
RAM
256MB 1GB (PC 3200)
Video
32MB 3D card with Hardware Transform and Lighting (T&L) capability NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT (256MB)
Sound card
100% directX 9.0c compatible sound card Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Hard drive 2GB Sufficiently large
Input device Keyboard and mouse
Optical drive 8x CD-ROM DVD
Networking 56Kbps or faster

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/games/empire-at-war.ars

 

Can Surround Sound Save MP3?

Commentary by Eliot Van Buskirk | Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Feb, 20, 2006

Ever since computers picked up the handy ability to play decent-sounding music, fans have overwhelmingly defaulted to the MP3 format for audio files because it sounds pretty good, doesn't take up much space and (perhaps most importantly) works with more devices than any other digital audio format.

It may seem as if the venerable MP3 standard is here to stay, but it faces attack from a number of angles. First, it doesn't sound as good, byte-for-byte, as files purchased from iTunes Music Store (in the AAC format) or any of the Microsoft-compliant stores.

Listening Post columnist Eliot van Buskirk
Listening Post
Second, the CD rippers/encoders that most people use -- iTunes and Windows Media Player -- have encouraged users to rip to AAC and WMA over the years. Third, only one major online music store, eMusic, proffers songs in the MP3 format, and it lacks most major releases. Fourth, geeks who love MP3 for its wide compatibility can now choose from preferable open-source alternatives such as Ogg Vorbis.

Finally, today's faster connections and more capacious hard drives have audiophiles turning to lossless codecs such as FLAC and those offered by Apple Computer and Microsoft.

Thomson, the entity that licenses the MP3 format to the world (it's not free or open source, as some suspect), tried to update MP3 for the first time in 2001, to the mp3Pro format. That effort failed. Only RCA -- owned by Thomson -- added mp3Pro support to its MP3 players, and consumers mainly ignored it.

In its second attempt to shepherd the MP3 format into the future, Thomson's MP3 Licensing Group unveiled a new format last year, a surround-sound version of the MP3 format imaginatively called MP3 Surround.
MP3 Surround files are essentially ordinary MP3s with an additional layer of information that tells compatible players where to place sounds. New devices designed to support the format deliver rich and accurate surround sound -- whether through a 5.1-channel system or simulated through a pair of stereo headphones. The format adds minimal overhead, consuming just 15 additional bits per second. And it is backward compatible, so MP3 Surround files will play on any device that supports plain-vanilla MP3, sans surround.

During my tests, MP3 Surround performed well enough to warrant serious consideration among device manufacturers and music fans. The songs sounded more expansive and present than their stereo counterparts, and I didn't hear any additions to the sound that marred the experience. I used Shure E3c earbuds for testing, so the surround effect is evidently not dependent on having full-size headphones.

In order for you to hear MP3 Surround today, you'll need a computer with the playback software installed (available on all4mp3.com). But computer playback is no longer enough. If a digital audio format is to succeed these days, it'll need support on a wide array of home and portable devices.

Several promising avenues for MP3 Surround home playback loom on the horizon. According to Rocky Caldwell, general manager of Thomson's MP3 Licensing Group, any DVD player could be upgraded with firmware to decode MP3 Surround files and pass the bits through to a 5.1 amplifier using a digital connection. RCA plans to release a player that comes standard with that capability later this year.

Because home theater-in-a-box units already have six channels of amplification, a manufacturer could include MP3 Surround support right out of the box. Caldwell told me Thomson is leveraging the strong relationships it forged with manufacturers to add MP3 Surround support to next year's devices.

The third possibility could be the most promising: Caldwell said "a major Japanese consumer-electronics manufacturer" will be releasing a device similar to the Xbox that might include MP3 Surround support natively. Needless to say, the integration of MP3 Surround into the Sony PlayStation 3 would be a huge shot in the arm to the new format, especially because so many PS3s will be purchased by tech-savvy types and connected to surround-sound systems.

Story continued on Page 2 »



On the portable front, Thomson would need to add MP3 Surround support to as many devices as possible that have the processing power to decode the files. Caldwell asserted that any portable video player would have the required processing power of 150 mips and could be upgraded to support MP3 Surround through a firmware update. The company will almost certainly have its RCA division create an MP3 player that supports MP3 Surround, but that won't be enough (as it discovered through its RCA-only mp3Pro experience).

Considering the lopsided nature of today's MP3 player market, Thomson would also need to convince Apple to put MP3 Surround on the iPod. Apple has never permitted any company to install third-party software on the iPod, but according to Caldwell, Thomson has a very close relationship with Apple.

MP3 Surround faces some stiff competition in this arena from SRS Labs' Wow plug-in (already found on Samsung MP3 players among others), Dolby Laboratories' Dolby Headphone technology (already found on some Sony Vaios), and Plantronics' Volume Logic (once the subject of a petition to force Apple to add support for it to the iPod, it's now available as an iTunes add-on for $20). None of these offer exactly what MP3 Surround does, but all of them are positioned close enough to capture the market for enhancing sound on portable audio devices.

Thomson has an ace up its sleeve when it comes to device integration: The new licensing fee for MP3 Surround is -- zero! Developers and manufacturers can add MP3 Surround for free (as long as they were already paying for MP3). This gives Thomson a considerable advantage over the other companies Apple might tap for such a project.

Even if MP3 Surround makes it onto enough hardware to succeed, one large question remains: Where is MP3 Surround music going to come from? Piracy-paranoid record labels would never consider selling their music in the MP3 Surround format because it lacks the digital-rights-management protection that prevents users from sharing (or in some cases even playing) their files. Fraunhofer once issued a press release announcing a version of the MP3 format that included DRM capabilities, but that never came to light.

According to Caldwell, MP3 Surround can succeed without the labels' cooperation. "MP3 never had major-label content, and seems to have been relatively successful. On the other hand, Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio both had major label content, and millions, if not tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars, spent promoting it and they haven't succeeded, (among other reasons) because they don't address the convenience issue."

Assuming the labels won't sell you MP3 Surround songs, you could try turning DVD-A or SA-CD recordings currently on the market into MP3 Surround files. That would require considerable technical sophistication, and either illegal software or tedious real-time recording (from a DVD-A/SA-CD player into a 5.1-capable soundcard's input).

Using software available on the all4mp3.com site, you could also choose to batch-process your own files to create backward-compatible 5.1 simulations that consume 15 bps more disk space than untreated stereo MP3s. But that process is quite time-consuming, and doesn't create true MP3 Surround files, since it only starts with two channels of data.

Thomson desperately needs a good source for MP3 Surround files to surface, whether that's a legitimate MP3 Surround store, a renegade application for converting DVD-A and SA-CDs directly into MP3 Surround files, or a file-sharing network where people can download pre-converted MP3 Surround files.

If that happens, MP3 Surround could succeed for the same reason that MP3 did and still does: its overwhelming compatibility. MP3 Surround files play just fine on MP3 players that don't support the "surround" part of the file, and users with MP3 Surround equipment will be able to enjoy the exact same surround-sound file on their headphones and 5.1 systems for enhanced sound.

If people have MP3 Surround files on their hard drives, you can bet manufacturers will fall over themselves to add MP3 Surround support to their 2007 lines of MP3 players.

- - -
Eliot Van Buskirk has covered digital music since 1998, after seeing the world's first MP3 player sitting on a colleague's desk. He plays bass and rides a bicycle.
http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,70230-0.html?tw=rss.index

 

iDefense $10K hack challenge

p2p news / p2pnet: iDefense Labs is challenging hackers to find a worm hole in Microsoft products and if they succeed, they're up for a cool $10,000.

But Bill and the Boyz are somewhat pissed by the project.

"One day after iDefense, of Reston, Va., announced the bounty as part of a newly implemented quarterly hacking challenge, a spokesperson for Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., said paying for flaws is not the best way to secure software products," says eWeek.

It's all part of VeriSign-owned iDefense's, "controversial VCP (Vulnerability Contributor Program), which offers financial incentives to anonymous researchers who agree to give up exclusive rights to advance notification of unpublished vulnerabilities or exploit code".

Company director Michael Sutton is, "insisting that it promotes the concept of responsible disclosure and keeps information on critical zero-day flaws away from malicious attackers," says the story.

"We want to use [the quarterly hacking challenge] to inspire our contributors to target their research in specific areas. We have a lot of clients running Microsoft products and they want to be protected from critical vulnerabilities."

The $10K would be paid as a "bonus" on top of fees paid for the initial vulnerability submission, and only for those bugs that result in a "critical" security bulletin from Microsoft, adds eWeek.

Also See:
eWeek - Microsoft Frowns on iDefense Hacking Challenge, February 17, 2006

(Monday 20th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7972

 

HD DVD Blu-ray launched with unfinished AACS copy protection
Posted by Dan Bell on 20 February 2006 - 18:34 - Source: Heise

Today, Heise Online is reporting that manufacturers of drives for HD DVD and Blu-ray discs still plan on a March launch date. This is even though the AACS copy protection is incomplete (Advanced Access Content System). The first devices will have an interim license according to Blu-ray manufacturers. These licenses will allow the drives to be upgraded with the necessary AACS keys before the specification is finished.

Hollywood movie studios are insisting that AACS be included in all drives. Without AACS, it will not be possible to play high-resolution movies at all. A Mandatory Managed Copy (MMC) can, however, be made. Only if the holder of the copyright gives explicit consent may a limited number of copies of the original disc be created; the movie may also not be streamed via a Media Center or to mobile devices without express consent. An online connection is required to check for rights to make a permitted copy. The holder of the copyright may, however, completely rule out copies or demand a fee. AACS can renew device keys, thereby blocking manipulated drives.

Wow! I can't wait to get in line for one of these puppies! /end sarcasm. The report goes on to confirm once again what we have been hearing, Toshiba plans to ship the first HD DVD players in the US as early as March. The HD-A1 will cost 500 USD; the XD-XA1, 800 USD. Toshiba pointed out that the devices will not initially support all of the interactive features of HD DVD, but they will be added later via firmware update. Both players will have an ethernet connection.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13093

 

DHS warns that continued rootkit usage may lead to regulation
Posted by Seán Byrne on 20 February 2006 - 00:29 - Source: Computer World - Security

Following the recent security issue Sony BMG caused with using rootkit technology, a US Department of Homeland Security official has warned that if software distributors decide to continue selling products with harmful rootkit software, new laws or regulation would come next to stop this activity. In Sony BMG's case, they were forced to recall millions of its affected discs due to the security risk it caused.

More recently, F-Secure revealed that Alpha-DVD used rootkit like technology in a German DVD release, which resulted in DVD writer problems on some PCs, not to mention a potential security risk where malicious software could also use its stealth technology to hide from anti-virus products. As rootkit based software gives the ability to hide software without the user's knowledge (particularly if no uninstaller is offered either), chances are that more companies are going to give it a try in a hope that their version turns out more successful and DHS is worried that further attempts of using rootkit based software may result in more serious consequences.

DHS has already warned copyright holders last November to be careful of how they go about protecting their discs, since these should not introduce other security problems, particularly without the user's knowledge of how their PC's security may be affected. While DHS does not have the ability to implement the regulation of dangerous rootkit software, they are aiming to increase awareness of the rootkit problems to try and help embarrass the labels. Thanks to mrdataNY for letting us know about the following news:

While Sony's software was distributed without malicious intent, the DHS is worried that a similar situation could occur again, this time with more-serious consequences. "It's a potential vulnerability that's of strong concern to the department," Frenkel said.

Though the DHS has no ability to implement the kind of regulation that Frenkel mentioned, the organization is attempting to increase industry awareness of the rootkit problem, he said. "All we can do is, in essence, talk to them and embarrass them a little bit," Frenkel said.

In fact, this is not the first time the department has expressed concerns over the security of copy protection software. In November, the DHS's assistant secretary for policy, Stewart Baker, warned copyright holders to be careful of how they protect their music and DVDs. "In the pursuit of protection of intellectual property, it's important not to defeat or undermine the security measures that people need to adopt in these days," Baker said, according to a video posted to The Washington Post Web site.

Even if rootkit technology is outlawed, chances are that this will not stop the record or movie labels from using other drastic measures to protect their discs. For example, even though Sunncomm’s MediaMax technology does not use rootkits, until recently their software installed without any user warning and could not be uninstalled easily either, since no uninstallation tool was included. On the other hand, any company who continues to use rootkit technology for now will be taking quite a serious gamble as we can see what happened with Sony BMG and Alpha-DVD (although with less consequences).

mrdataNY added: It's about time that the people we elect to look out for us actually starting to do exactly that.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13089

 

US film makers sue Samsung over glitches on DVD player
Posted by Dan Bell on 20 February 2006 - 04:36 - Source: Korea Times

Over the weekend, according to this story at Korea Times, US film makers have caused Samsung to go scrambling, since learning of a lawsuit filed by Walt Disney, Time Warner and three other major film makers in a US court. Apparently, Samsung is guessing it is over a model they have discontinued, the DVD-HD841 that would allow savvy users to circumvent certain copy protections.

In response, Samsung refused to confirm the high-profile suit that involves Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios on top of Disney and Time Warner.

"In fact, we do not exactly know the contents of the lawsuit and the intention of the plaintiffs. We have yet to receive the complaint, a Samsung spokesman said.

He guessed that the film makers take issue with DVD-HD841, which Samsung had sold in the United States between June and October 2004.

"If so, I do not know why the movie studios are complaining about the products, of which production was brought to an end more than 15 months ago, the spokesman said.

"We stopped manufacturing the model after concerns erupted that its copy-protection features can be circumvented by sophisticated users, he said.

In this climate, he said Samsung would react to the lawsuit after the outfit recognizes its real intention.

The DVD-HD841 was an upconverting DVD player for takng a normal DVD and presenting it in 720p or 1080i for HDTV sets. We will have to stay tuned to find out what the lawsuit entails specifically. Issues do crop up though, when people can through a secret code or sequence on the remote, disable region codes locks or HDCP controls. Possibly this suit speaks to one of these type issues. However, it seems odd that the suit is just now being filed.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13090

 

Sony denies Merrill Lynch report- no delay for PlayStation 3Posted by Dan Bell on 20 February 2006 - 05:15 - Source: Bloomberg

Well, that didn't take long! Sony says that Merrill Lynch is full of bull! We just read yesterday a report from the analyst firm that said Sony would have to delay the gaming platform, but today, Bloomberg is reporting that Sony shot back.

"There is no change in our original plan to release the console in spring 2006'' in Japan, said Kei Sakaguchi, a Sony spokesman in Tokyo. Sony may start selling the PlayStation 3 in Japan in autumn and by late 2006 or early 2007 in the U.S., Merrill Lynch's Joe Osha said in a report dated Feb. 17.

Any delay would give rivals Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co. more time to win market share with their new consoles leading up to the Christmas shopping season. Sony, which is adding its Blu- ray high-definition DVD format and the faster Cell chip to the PS3, is facing about $900 in costs to make the device, more than double the retail price of Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console, Merrill said.

Interestingly, we can read in the article that Microsoft is taking a pretty good hit on each Xbox 360 sold, about $153 dollars US. We can only imagine the loss Sony will have to take in order to move the PS3 when it sets next to the Xbox at $299 0r $399, depending on configuration. The PS3 cannot price itself too high against the Microsoft offering and still expect to take market share. Sure, it may play Blu-ray discs, but who has a compliant palyback device? The AACS specs for hardware playback are enough to confuse an electrical engineer! By the way, you have to chuckle at the AACS motto "Share the vision". How can you share something if you can't even see the darn thing to begin with? The report went on to say that Merrill Lynch adjusted Sonys stock from neutral to sell on February 17.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13091

 

US government may outlaw rootkits

2/20/2006 11:22:31 AM, by Eric Bangeman

Several months after the discovery that Sony included a dangerous rootkit on some copy-protected music discs, the reverberations are still being felt. Late last week, the US Department of Homeland Security said that if companies fail to clean up their act when it comes to rootkits, the government would take action. Although there is currently no legislation pending, the DHS said that new laws or other regulations "may be warranted" if companies continue to trample on the security of their customers' systems.

Last fall, a security researcher digging around in his system discovered a rootkit installed by a Sony disc and created by a UK company called First 4 Internet. At first, Sony brushed off the problem, but after several days of PR nightmares, the company caved in and announced it would stop using First 4 Internet's software and a few days later, decided to recall all infected discs.

Aside from raising the public awareness of the dangers of DRM—especially when companies are not forthright about its existence and functionality—Sony's monumental blunder led to the inevitable lawsuits and subsequent settlement.

What is not as widely known is that officials from the Department of Homeland Security met with Sony and read them the riot act, according to Jonathan Frenkel, direcdtor of law enforcement policy for the DHS's Border and Transportation Security Directorate. The DHS is concerned that the problem could recur, albeit on a larger scale. "It's a potential vulnerability that's of strong concern to the department," said Frenkel.

Despite the DHS's public warning, the problem of obtrusive DRM isn't likely to disappear anytime soon. MPAA and RIAA member companies are bound and determined to shove DRM down our throats, telling us that we need it in order to resist the temptation to become evil pirates. But DRM is not about piracy, it's about being able to charge multiple times for the same content.

At least Sony's blunder brought the issue of DRM into the public eye, with some results. SunnComm, a DRM software maker, said that future versions of its software would be better behaved. Based on the warnings emanating from the DHS, companies using DRM will have to learn to operate above-board if they want to avoid government intervention in the form of legislation. The threat of action is nice, but outlawing DRM that potentially compromises the safety of a user's system is a better solution. If such legislation was in place last year, tens of thousands of people wouldn't have had their PCs compromised by a rootkit from Sony.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060220-6217.html

 

its about time, for a while i was afriad to buy a cd from sony.

 

Fight Goliath questions and answers

p2p news / p2pnet: The Patti Santangelo Fight Goliath campaign is now approaching $11,000, which is pretty impressive. It's by the people, for the people, and to paraphrase Pogo Possum, the people is us, represented by a 42-year-old new York mother who's decided she's not going to be blackmailed by the Big Four record labels, Warner Music, Sony BMG, Vivendi Universal and EMI (all of whom have repeatedly been found guilty of numerous wrongs) for something she didn't do.

But one question apparently hasn't been satisfactorily answered: Is the money going into some already super-rich law firm's coffers?

In a word, No. In my last post, under the italicised quote on 'Discovery,' I wrote, "Putting this material together invariably costs a huge amount, which is where the bulk of the money being raised in the Fight Goloiath campaign will go --- NOT on lawyers' fees". But at least one person - a lawyer, as it happens - read this to mean I was saying none of the money was going to lawyers, which wasn't, the case.

So no one else would make the same mistake, I deleted " NOT on lawyers' fees".

The RIAA's sick sue 'em all campaign.
The entire Big Four legal strategy hinges largely on the fact victims are just ordinary people with ordinary resources who don't have a hope in hell of matching the virtually limitless amounts of cash the labels lash out for high-priced, expert legal teams, and associated costs such as researchers and professional investigators.

If every one of the victims had opted to do what Patti is doing - take it to the max - in all likelihood, none of this would be happening and the labels would have been forced to accept p2p as their future, not their enemy.

They'll have to do that eventually but not, it seems, until they're ruined the lives of thousands of people around the world.

Meanwhile, ironically, you're the one that's paying for the RIAA's sick, and unimaginably expensive, sue 'em all campaign, which relies wholly on victimizing people such as Patti Santangelo and, now, her children.

The multi-billion-dollar Warner Music, Vivendi Universal, EMI and Sony BMG's RIAA have the money to spend because you're still buying their over-priced, cookie-cutter CDs and downloading through the likes of iTunes --------- while they coldly use people like Patti to try to fighten you into buying more.

Meanwhile, as p2pnet's Alex H puts it here:

"Retaining a lawyer is not the extent of the total legal fees that can be racked up fighting a civil lawsuit. Need to file a document with the court? Pay up. Need to subpoena a RIAA "piracy investigator"? Pay up. Need a one-off conversation with an expert in a particular legal or technical field? Pay up. It's not a 'Lawyer costs $100/hour x 35 hours = $3,500 in legal fees' kind of situation."

A one-man business
What I meant by the sentence quoted earlier was: most of the money you're contributing is being spent on the materials and other expenses which are absolutely essential so Jordan Glass, Patti's lawyer, can defend her during the upcoming civil, not criminal, jury trial, slated for May.

And I apologise if I inadvertently misled anyone into thinking none of this would go on lawyers' fees. But I promise you: the donations are being used solely for Patti's legal defense and now she and one lawyer a (note: 'lawyer' - not legal team) are by themselves standing up to the multi-national corporate music industry from a small office they're renting to work from.

Why did Glass, who in effect runs a one-man business, take Santangelo vs Big Music on? "I think that what's happening is a social wrong," he told me. And I believe he means that.

"I told Patti that a proper defense would cost $240,000," he said. "Clearly, that's not going to happen. But if she can at least get past discovery, she has a fighting chance and, as you know, we are fighting, and it's making a difference.

"We need to know if we can pursue discovery by March 5. That's the deadline that was already here when I signed on, and it can't be change.

"And remember, the court has placed this on a fast track, so discovery must be completed by May 5. Whatever we have by that date is all we're allowed to go to trial with, and since everything has a 45 to 60 day turnaround, between the time to respond and the allowable objections, obtaining transcripts and supplying information to opposing counsel, this game is almost over: March 5 is around the corner, and it's just about 60 days from there to May 5th.

"If this doesn't get done now, it doesn't get done in this case. Ever."

'While I can control my own fees, I can't demand the same of others'
Glass and I have come close to trading words, a couple of times, because I've been pressing him on our behalf: after all, I donated money to the campaign just like everyone else; and on top of that, I have more reason than most for harbouring a deep and lasting distrust of lawyers.

But I have no doubts the money is being properly used. It's in an escrow account, controlled by Patti, and it's being spent on genuine expenses which are coming from all directions, expected and not, large and small, including, "a very small petty cash fund to buy lunch and dinner when work continues in the office and so far, that totals $6.00," says Glass.

Alex H referred to lawyer's fees at $100.00 per hour, he goes on, but, "First year associates in New York are billed out at over $200.00 per hour. Paralegals are billed out at between $50.00 and $125.00 per hour.

"While I can control my own fees, I can't demand the same of others. We'll need technical experts (even if I knew enough about that level of the technology, I couldn't testify), who'll be entitled to a disclosed appearance fee, and additional legal help at trial."

"Perhaps it's easiest to write, 'no economic profit'," he says. "Nothing to pay for my own food or home expenses, nothing to go into a retirement fund or cover taxes or social security payments or anything else that might be stretched as meaning 'to make a living,' no vacation, no cars, no back-door ways of claiming money isn't really money."

The bottom line
By far the vast majority of the people accused of sharing music with each other didn't know they were doing it, as the RIAA itself admits. They thought they were simply downloading songs for their own use and NOT for re-sale, as the Big Four keep trying to imply.

And as the EFF's (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Fred von Lohmann recently emphasised, the RIAA itself condones burning CDs for personal use, even though it was 100% responsible for driving 321 Studios, a company which made software to allow CD owners to do exactly that, into ruin.

Don Verrilli said to the Supreme Court last year, "The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it's been on their website for some time now, that it's perfectly lawful to take a CD that you've purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod."

And while the RIAA is targetting Santangelo and people like her, the RIAA openly admits most p2p users don't even know their files are in a shared folder.

"As an initial matter, P2P software may, upon installation, automatically search a user’s entire hard drive for content," states P2P File-Sharing Workshop – Comment, P034517 - Comments of The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), November 15, 2004, going on:

"Files that users have no intention of sharing may end up being offered to the entire P2P network. Continued sharing of personal information is hard to avoid and is facilitated by confusing and complicated instructions for designating shared items. A study by Nathaniel S. Good and Aaron Krekelberg at HP Laboratories showed that “the majority of the users…were unable to tell what files they were sharing, and sometimes incorrectly assumed they were not sharing any files when in fact they were sharing all files on their hard drive."

File sharers are not crooks or criminals. Nothing was stolen and no one was deprived of something he or she formerly owned. At the absolute worst, most of them have innocently and unknowingly infringed someone's copyright.

Not one of the more than 18,000 victims stood to gain a single penny from their file-sharing ventures. No money changed hands and no illicit profits were made.

The Big Four are not, as they claim, being devastated by people who download music. They are, however, falling prey to the reality that they're trying to do 20th century business in the 21st century.

File sharers are not causing unbelievable hardship to artists under contract to the labels.

The victimization of Patti Santangelo and others like her is not driving people away from the p2p networks to the Big Four backed and supported corporate download sites. To the contrary.

None of the 18,000 and more men, women and children being pilloried have been found guilty of file sharing not only because no such offense exists, but also because none of them have yet appeared in a civil court before a judge and jury.

Patti Santengelo will be the first.

Stay tuned and while you do, add to the Fight Goliath fund through the button below, or via the snail-mail address under it.

Patti Santangelo
C/O PO Box 274
Hartsdale
New York 10530-0274

Cheers! And thanks ...

(Monday 20th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7976

 

LA cracks down on CD/DVD pirates on trains & warns buyersPosted by Seán Byrne on 21 February 2006 - 00:15 - Source: TMCnet News

With physical CD and DVD piracy moving away from the streets, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department ran a sting on piracy carried out on the trains running between Long Beach and Universal Studios. Their sting operation resulted in the arrests of nine people caught illegally selling pirate DVDs, all operating independently (not of the same ring). These discs included all top 20 movies still in the cinema. According to the MPAA, they say that more work must be carried out on their part to target piracy in more closed environments, however they are happy that pirates are being forced further underground.

In an aim to catch further pirates, Metro employees took part in a training program to help identify and stop people from selling pirate goods on the trains. This operation resulted in a further 12 arrests including pirates selling counterfeit music CDs and cigarettes. Raids resulted in a seizure of an estimated 1,841 DVDs, 5,904 CDs, two CD/DVD writers, a portable DVD player and various other items related to the piracy. The LA Sheriff's Department Transit Services Bureau, MPAA and RIAA all jointly conducted the investigation.

The MPAA's director of US anti-piracy operations, Mike Robinson warned that while no customers have been arrested as a result of these recent operations, they warn that it is a crime to buy pirated goods and that consumers should think twice of buying counterfeit goods. He compares buying a pirate disc no different to one lifting a disc off a retail store's shelf and putting it in their pocket.

The Motion Picture Association of America announced Wednesday that a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department sting last week resulted in the arrests of nine people involved in the illegal sale of the DVDs on the trains, which run from Long Beach to Universal Studios.

"This was a shift from a person selling on the street on a blanket to being in a more closed environment," said Mike Robinson, the MPAA's director of U.S. anti-piracy operations. "It suggests that it requires a little more work on their part. It's good that we are forcing them further underground."

Robinson said those arrested Friday were independent operators and not part of the same ring. A few were even caught selling movies from a couple of train platforms.

It is interesting to see that it is not until now that the MPAA started helping to target piracy on trains, particularly with how strong they are targeting online piracy. Then again, the MPAA should put more resources in to fighting off pirates who gain financially from their piracy rather than put so many resources in to just fighting online piracy.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13096