29
Sep
A new bill would mandate HD radio in all satellite radio tuners. But participants in the FCC’s proceeding on the matter hate the idea.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
All posts from April, 2012
29
Sep
The government of Venezuela has ordered one million low-cost Classmate PC laptops to be shipped to students with Linux preinstalled.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
29
Sep
Are technology manufacturers liable if customers use their products for piracy? The EFF, CDT and other digital rights groups submitted an amicus brief in the Arista v. LimeWire case asking the court to take care in weighing these issues, or innovation could be at risk.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
29
Sep
Over the years, of course, there have been plenty of stories about potential dates and potential employers reviewing social networking profiles to learn more about someone. Then, we just had a story about some
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
29
Sep
Developers attending Microsoft’s PDC event next month will be among the first to get their hands on a public beta of Windows 7. PDC is sure to cast light on Windows 7′s uncharacteristically secretive development process, but some mysteries are sure to remain, including the all-important question of the release date.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
29
Sep
A paper set to be published in an upcoming edition of Physical Review Letters postulates that dark energy may not exist. In order to explain this, however, researchers reject the longstanding Copernican principle which says that Earth does not exist in a “special” location.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
29
Sep
There’s this odd belief among some bloggers that defamation and libel laws don’t actually apply to bloggers. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. Some of the confusion may stem from court rulings about comment liability, suggesting that a blogger is not liable for defamatory statements made by others in their comments. Unfortunately, many have taken this to mean that there is no liability for blogging defamatory statements. Others believe that since it’s their personal blog, they can say what they want and there shouldn’t be any liability, because it’s not like a newspaper. While I tend to think the entire concept of defamation laws should be rethought in an era when everyone is a publisher, that doesn’t change the fact that they do exist and they do apply to bloggers. At least, that’s what one set of bloggers is finding out after a court refused to dismiss a defamation suit against them, when the bloggers insisted their statements weren’t defamatory because they were just their opinions. But the claim was pretty seriously undermined by the fact that many of the potentially defamatory statements weren’t just made as statements of fact, but were posted on a blog that exclaimed across the site: “OUR STORIES ARE TRUE.” Oops.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
28
Sep
Alcatel-Lucent’s struggle to receive the $1.52 billion it was once “rightfully” awarded in an MP3 patent infringement case against Microsoft may have been dealt a fatal blow on Friday, after the federal court of appeals upheld an earlier decision throwing out the damages.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
28
Sep
The music industry may be adrift, but there are still careers to be had if you don’t mind being a little adventurous. Jonathan Coulton has ridden geeky songs and the creative commons license to fame, and he makes a decent living doing it. Our interview with the master of robots and squids inside.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
28
Sep
The new SkyFire web browser uses server-side prerendering with Firefox’s Gecko engine to bring a desktop-like web experience to mobile devices. Ars puts SkyFire to the test and discusses some of the underlying technology with the company’s senior director of product management.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
28
Sep
Apple has final say over what apps can or can’t be sold via its App Store. A number of developers tell Ars that the company’s recent schizophrenia about which apps make it through and its extending the NDA to cover app rejection letters are alienating those who keep the App Store populated.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
28
Sep
Is product placement an unhealthy by-product of the TiVo phenomenon, or commercial broadcasting’s savior? All sides weigh in during the FCC’s proceeding on the issue.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
28
Sep
The European Parliament this week passed a major piece of telecom reform that will turn Europe into a single market for communications and data services. Packed with worthwhile provisions, the bill also demands that only judges be given the right to order the disconnection of ‘Net users. The EU looks set to ignore this idea.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
28
Sep
Retail behemoth Wal-Mart went MP3-only at its digital music store earlier this year, and now it’s shutting down the old DRM servers. Note to Walmart.com music lovers: time to stock up on blank CDs!
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
28
Sep
What would you do if you could see in the dark? Jakks Pacific has released a sub-$100 pair of night vision goggles as a toy, but we found them to be much better than expected. Our review inside.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
27
Sep
Dual-core Atom heads to market, performance details surface on AMD’s upcoming dual-core Kuma, Windows Mobile 6.1 arrives to mixed reviews, and Fit-PC wants to put a 486-class processor in your pants. We won’t ask why.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
27
Sep
This week’s top Apple news ranged from how the iPhone will be affected by the T-Mobile G1 to performance improvements in Adobe CS4 to Apple’s continued enforcement of its mysterious App Store policies. Also included was how Apple’s patch release policy affects enterprise IT, and more.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
27
Sep
Politics may take top billing, but the biggest news from the world of science this week is probably our first hint of something outside the observable universe.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
27
Sep
In this week’s top Microsoft news on Ars, we cover Windows Live, Windows 7, the “I’m a PC” ads, MSN, Delish, Microsoft Research, Live Labs, and Live Search Maps. See inside for details on what’s new with these products.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
27
Sep
Users flummoxed by popups, the Large Hadron Collider is up then it’s down, and Google’s possible reverse-engineering of Windows to build Chrome were big topics this past week. Ars rounds up the week’s top stories.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
27
Sep
This week in gaming saw the release of the Duke Nukem 3D on the Xbox Live Arcade, some new details about the Chrono Trigger remake and Cylon knockout Tricia Helfer, and more.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
27
Sep
In this installment of Classic.Ars, we take you back to April of 1965, when Electronics magazine published an article by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. The article and the predictions that it made have since become the stuff of legend, and like most legends it has gone through a number of changes in the telling and retelling.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
26
Sep
Last year, we had a post looking at the question of joke “stealing” and if it should be seen as infringement. Basically, there are tons of comics who are known for “stealing” the jokes of other comics, and there’s even been some questions about trying to copyright jokes. The whole thing seems ridiculous, frankly. The power of a joke is rarely in the joke itself, but the delivery — and you can’t copyright that. Plus, there seem to be social measures in place to deal with “joke theft.” Comics who are regularly caught doing it may have their reputations damaged, as was the case with Carlos Mencia last year.
But there’s even more to it than that. In an interesting post on his blog, Scott Adams writes about how he (not for the first time) was caught drawing a nearly identical Dilbert comic strip to one he had done in the past. He delves a bit into his creative process to explain how it works, noting that there are a ton of ideas flowing through his head at once and he just has to reach out and grab from that mass of ideas:
For me, ideas stream through my head at a frantic pace. I feel like a bear trying to grab a salmon. If my paw misses its target, that salmon is gone for good. I don’t dwell on it. I just lunge for the next salmon. I think people who have fewer thoughts per hour have time to let them settle in and form memories. It’s just a theory.
That’s likely true for many creative folks, including stand-up comics. As such, the ideas that you have in your head, and the ones that you hear and see from others end up getting mixed up in that mass of “idea salmon.” As such, it shouldn’t be surprising or scandalous or bad when someone ends up coming up with a similar (or even almost identical) joke or idea to someone else. It’s just part of the creative process at work. It’s not “stealing” and it’s not “infringement.” It’s just a recognition of the creative process that involves a large number of ideas flowing around that a content creator tries to bring together in some sort of useful or interesting manner.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
26
Sep
Does a more impersonal means of communication make it easier to… stretch the truth? Apparently, a new study found that people tend to lie more in email when compared to a written note (paper?!? pens?!?). The study involved people being given a pool of money and asked to divide it with someone else, who they could communicate with either via email or via written note. While pretty much everyone lied about the total amount of money, those who communicated over email lied by even bigger amounts. The writeup doesn’t really suggest why this is, but it makes you wonder what factors could be involved. People often talk about how sitting at a keyboard can make people “mean,” but they usually attribute it to the anonymity factor. However, could the “coldness” of typed words feel less personal as well?
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
26
Sep
We’ve already covered how Pandora will most likely need to
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
26
Sep
C-SPAN launches liveblog-friendly debate hub
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
26
Sep
Over the past year or so, we’ve noticed a string of stories coming out of Italy that suggests a rather odd legal viewpoint when it comes to the internet. There was the government’s decision to release everyone’s tax returns publicly online. Then there was an effort to put some Google executives in jail over videos that were uploaded to Google (not by those executives), and then, of course, Italy’s attempt to ban access to The Pirate Bay (since rescinded).
However, the latest report is that Italy was able to force a blog offline permanently by using a law that requires news publishers to register with the government. A judge ruled that since a blog has a headline and some text, it counts as a news publication, and thus anyone who hasn’t registered has violated this law. Of course, a politician (who used to be in favor of the law) is now warning that this could make an awfully large number of websites in Italy illegal, if the law is interpreted strictly. Basically, the Italian government now has the ability to force pretty much any blog site offline if they don’t like the content, just by making this type of claim.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
26
Sep
The Senate has now unanimously passed the new entertainment industry-approved copyright legislation that was proposed by Senator Leahy earlier this year. After the Justice Department complained about the provision that would grant it the ability to take on civil cases, that provision was removed, but there’s still plenty to be worried about by the bill — such as the creation of a “copyright czar” position in the White House. While some of the worst provisions were removed, this still remains a bill that has one purpose: to protect an obsolete business model, rather than letting more innovative models proliferate.
The House still needs to vote on its version of the bill, but it’s quite likely to pass quickly.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
26
Sep
Romenesko points us to the news that a judge overseeing a lawsuit between the OC Register (the newspaper) and newspaper delivery workers has barred the newspaper from reporting on any testimony in the case. Of course, the newspaper reported on that ruling, and it also dug up a bunch of constitutional scholars, who pointed out the unconstitutionality of such a ban.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
26
Sep
The Senate approved new IP enforcement legislation Friday, with the House expected to follow suit on Saturday. Missing form the final bill, however, was a controversial provision that would have turned the Justice Department into a free legal service for IP owners.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
26
Sep
26
Sep
Mathew Ingram covers the details of Muxtape’s run-in with the RIAA. As you may recall, last month the rather useful site that let people create online “mix tapes” that could be streamed to others was shut down thanks to the RIAA. The site’s founder has now admitted that he tried negotiating with the RIAA, but that it was nearly impossible. The RIAA’s representatives started the “negotiation” by saying they were about to shut the site down, and then complained to Amazon (whose S3 service hosted the files) to get access to the files blocked. Now, that concerns me for a few reasons. I had created a Muxtape when it first launched, but it had no RIAA label music on it. So, why would Amazon block access to it?
However, the real point of the post is just to highlight how the RIAA views these things. As has been discussed, the RIAA wants to shut down these types of sites. By now, we’ve seen the pattern over and over again. The RIAA has always been unable to actually innovate with its own online offerings — in large part because the record labels still think about how to control the music and how to limit what consumers can do with it. So, instead of learning what’s innovative, the RIAA has simply decided on a two pronged strategy: (1) get every new and innovative site shut down and (2) offer them one way to return: if they hand over a big chunk of equity.
Very few people seem to be talking about this, but most of the “agreements” that the big labels have reached with various new and innovative sites have involved handing over equity. Basically, the record labels are using a protection racket system: give us some equity, or we’ll shut you down. Of course, all this is really doing is slowing down much needed innovation in the music marketplace. Instead, we get bells and whistles like MySpace Music (owned, in part, by the major record labels), rather than something truly useful and innovative.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
26
Sep
A recently published patent from Google describes a device-based bidding system for consumers to pick and chose which services and providers they communicate over.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
26
Sep
With so many problems with various e-voting systems, many have wondered why various state governments don’t simply require any e-voting system to be open sourced. It makes a tremendous amount of sense. Any trustworthy voting process needs to require transparency in how the votes are recorded and counted. Letting a hidden algorithm do the counting makes no sense. Open source e-voting code would be open to scrutiny, and would almost certainly lead to fewer problems and greater security. Yet, for some reason, election officials have always bought into the e-voting vendors’ false claims that open source code is somehow dangerous to an election.
It looks like that may be changing. California’s Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, who has been a major critic of e-voting vendors, is now saying that open sourcing e-voting systems could help fix many of the flaws found in today’s systems. It wouldn’t solve all the problems, but it would be a huge step forward.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
26
Sep
Google views itself as an aggregator of information, so it’s no surprise that the company has taken all the arguments it has used in defense of its advertising deal with Yahoo and put them all in a single place. Google has enlisted the support of the Discovery Institute for the deal, among others.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
26
Sep
The Fiber-to-the-home Council calls on Congress to back 100Mbps symmetrical connections by 2015. Don’t expect any action this year, but next year could tell a different story.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
26
Sep
I was a bit surprised at how many people sent in the news that Trent Reznor had sent around a survey to fans who are on the Nine Inch Nails mailing list. After all, what’s so surprising about a survey? There was some cool stuff, where Reznor suggested that as an incentive for filling out the survey he’d consider offering some sort of one-time prize such as flying the fan to a gig somewhere in the world, but overall, what’s the big deal about a survey? But it appears Bob Lefsetz has put his finger on it. It’s a big deal because it’s exactly the sort of thing that the traditional labels simply can’t do any more, because you can’t ask your fans for a favor when you’re suing a bunch of them. While the RIAA still seems to think that its battle against file sharers is some sort of epic necessity, Reznor is out actually connecting with fans and giving them a reason to feel happy about sharing information with him (not to mention paying him money as well).
Sounds like Trent’s a real person. Like if you bumped into him at the mall, you could have a conversation. The Net has burned down the wall between artists and fans. You have to be accessible and human. You can’t talk down to your fans, you must respect them. They’ll do ANYTHING for you if you treat them right, if they think you’re really listening.If it’s all about money, and the major labels believe this, telling us they want 360 deals and ringtone fees, then an artist like Trent has got the big boys beat. Because his fans won’t buy only the single, but the album, the t-shirt, the concert ticket, the coffee table book, just about anything Trent can cook up! And the profit margin? ASTRONOMICAL! Not that Trent’s afraid of giving away his music for free. Kind of like Google. Search is free, click on ads if you’d like. You feel GOOD when you click on Google ads. You want to pay the search company BACK!
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
26
Sep
A few months back, we pointed out how ridiculous it was that a child advocacy group had put out a scary press release claiming that child predators could use Google Street View to
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
26
Sep
Google Moderator is a unique new project designed to help the audience decide the best questions to ask at events like city council meetings or tech talks. We had some questions of our own for one of Google Moderator’s engineers (who happens to be a long-time Arsian) about the project and where it’s headed.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
26
Sep
The Google co-founder blasted opponents of opening white space spectrum to unlicensed use at a Capitol Hill event Wednesday, calling them “despicable” and their arguments “garbage.”
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
26
Sep
Earlier this week, a trade group that represents college bookstores announced that it’s creating a subsidiary to conduct a pilot program that will place DVD-burning kiosks on several campuses. Today, movies, tomorrow textbooks?
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
26
Sep
Intel is famous for being overly aggressive in trying to enforce its trademark, often claiming rights over almost any use of the prefix “intel” to anyone using the phrase “something inside,” even if it’s completely unrelated to the business that Intel is in. Trademark, of course, is not intended to give a company “ownership” of a word or phrase. Instead, it’s a consumer protection system, designed to prevent consumers from being tricked into believing that they’re buying a good from one company instead of another. That’s why trademarks are only applicable in the business area that the company is using the mark. Thus, Johnny’s Soda doesn’t interfere with a trademark on Johnny’s Dry Cleaning — because they’re totally separate businesses. That’s also why we have the moron in a hurry test. If a “moron in a hurry” is unlikely to be confused by the use of the mark, then there’s no trademark infringement.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped Intel from trying. Over the years they’ve gone after a maker of jeans (Intel Jeans), a marketing firm (for using the term INTELMARK for one of its products) and an artist’s cooperative for using the name “Art Inside”) among various other cases over the years. Its latest is to go after a travel agency called Intellife Travel that books trips between the US and China. The travel agency clearly explained to Intel that unless Intel’s trademark covered the travel business, there was unlikely to be any infringement. Intel took a year to think about it… and then filed a lawsuit. Hopefully, Intel gets smacked down quickly on this clear abuse of trademark law.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
26
Sep
AMD’s Bobcat is a whisper on the wind, but the rumors in its wake are a virtual hurricane. We sit down to clarify what Bobcat is, what it isn’t, and why it’s still coming…at some point.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
26
Sep
Workers spend just over a quarter of their time in the office surfing online auctions and social networking sites, according to one network security consultant. This isn’t entirely bad, though, as it could help employees be more efficient with their time too.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
26
Sep
Ever since the film Minority Report came out, we’ve seen a series of stories about efforts to predict future crimes before they happen. Most of these are more about data mining to predict high crime areas and times — but some are going much further. Slashdot points us to a story about Homeland Security apparently making progress on a “pre-crime detector.” It was originally called “Project Hostile Intent,” but after some folks figured that the name was a bit… ominous, it seems to have been renamed as “Future Attribute Screening Technologies” (FAST). Basically the system is designed to spot “shifty” people who may be getting ready to commit a crime of some sort. The researchers behind it say that the early tests are incredibly effective: “We are running at about 78% accuracy on mal-intent detection, and 80% on deception.” Of course, there are tons of questions about privacy violations and how long it will take criminals to figure out ways to “beat the system.”
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
25
Sep
The success of MySpace was helped along quite a bit by independent and non-major-label musicians using the site as a distribution mechanism and way to reach out to and connect with fans. So that’s why we were surprised, earlier this week, about reports claiming that the new MySpace Music subsidiary was blocking out some indie labels and focusing mainly on just the major labels (most of whom own a piece of MySpace Music). After posting that message, we received a frantic phone call from someone at MySpace, angrily insisting that the story wasn’t true. Our response to that, as always, is that they are free to correct any misconceptions in the comments, and if there were factual errors, we would correct them in the post. Unfortunately, no one at MySpace took us up on that offer.
Yet, now the Financial Times is also reporting that a number of well known bands and independent record labels are complaining about being locked out of MySpace Music — including the Arctic Monkeys, a band who has been considered one of the poster children for using MySpace to become big. It looks like MySpace has become infatuated with the big labels, and the folks who made MySpace the success it is are being left out in the cold. MySpace, undoubtedly, will claim that it offered the independent labels fair terms which they rejected, but when the site itself is owned in part by the major record labels, it’s not hard to understand why the indies might feel that they’re not getting a very fair deal.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
25
Sep
The makers of Good Old Games, a service which specializes in selling DRM-free games via digital distribution, sound off to Ars on the recent Spore-inspired DRM frenzy, calling out the “idiocy” of over-intrusive piracy prevention methods.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
25
Sep
Earlier this year, the EU Parliament spoke out
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
25
Sep
Lots of people were surprised back in August when a prosecutor in Italy told Italian ISPs they needed to start blocking The Pirate Bay. That was problematic for a variety of reasons — from why ISPs should be responsible for filtering content to why The Pirate Bay had no chance to tell its side of the story to (the most questionable of all) the fact that ISPs were told to redirect people to a site run by the record labels. But, of course, as with any of these blocks, the attention only served to drive more traffic to The Pirate Bay in Italy.
Still, even ordering the blocks in the first place seemed highly questionable, so The Pirate Bay asked an Italian court to reverse the order — and that’s exactly what’s happened. The court has ordered that the bans be lifted. So, it appears that all the Italian prosecutor did was drive a lot more traffic to The Pirate Bay by getting it a lot more attention, without being able to actually ban the site.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Techdirt
Comments Off
25
Sep
AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable all told the Senate Commerce Committee that they support “opt-in” when it comes to using user surfing data to sell ads. But they’d like to see search engines and ad networks act the same way.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
Comments Off
