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A Minnesota appeals court has ruled that the presence of encryption software on a computer may be viewed as evidence of criminal intent.

So, according to the morons on that court, even if you haven't actually encrypted any data, the fact that you had the tools to encrypt data was enough to judge criminal intent, sort of like possession of burglary tools. The problem, of course, is that encryption software has legitimate uses.

I wonder if any of those judges had Microsoft Office on their computers - if they did then they possessed encryption software and could be viewed as having criminal intent.

I am only aware of one case were the presence of encryption software (PGP in this case) on the defendants computer was considered by the court. http://news.com.com/Minnesota+court+takes+dim+view +of+encryption/2100-1030_3-5718978.html
The article covering the case doesn't spell out what effect the consideration had on the outcome. It does, however, point out the conviction was based on the in person testimony of the victim, the defendants browser history (frequent searches for "lolita"), and frequently hosting sleep over for little girls.
You can find the result of his appeal at http://www.lawlibrary.state.mn.us/archive/ctappub/ 0505/opa040381-0503.htm
as well as the discussion of it here on /. at http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/25/00 19217

It would seem encryption or other methods for hiding data alone are not by their mere presence a sign of guilt.
In the case I mentioned above it seems the issue of having PGP was relatively minor in ultimate conviction of the defendant.

As for being ordered to turn over a key for an encrypted file, you can always claim you have forgotten. TrueCrypt as well as other programs offer plausible deniability with hidden encrypted volumes.

We often find things funny because we see the inherent truth in them.

This (pdf) looks like the rebate form they've been using along with the list of discs you can choose from. That form expires in a few days, so there may be a new one somewhere else with different discs.

Sorry thats all I can find without taking forever to research, also perhaps Tivo preventing skipping (drm lock) would also be relevant. Oh and I found the original limiting storage article
  Personally I'm all for Tivo but in reality spending 50$ on a HD tuner card and 150$ on a 500gig+ hard drive to use in a PC seems better for recording/control/etc. However I hope this shows some problems with Tivo that are DRM related, including the bugs last year that you mentioned.

"more PCs running Windows in the world than there are automobiles"

soon to be

"more automobiles running Windows in the world, not just PCs"

and don't forget boats for that matter: Windows for Warships (not a joke)

luckily, even though one of microsoft's original software hits in the early 1980s was a flight simulator, this is still a joke... for now

someone else can find the reality/ joke based depiction of windows running submarines, or spacecraft... or donkey mule carts... (mind numbing complete)

> You get nothing for coming first in life. Just ask Netscape...
Ahem: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-218360.html?legacy=c net

http://news.com.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html?tag=l h

A trap to sell advertising?

Like Bill Gates needs to take business lessons from Businessweek:

"Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't pay for the software," he said. "Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

CNET News.com, July 2, 1998

To summarize, its all the same circular issues:
  Lack of competition, stupid people willing to pay extremely high demand and not seek quality, and rediculous lock-in contracts which most people don't have the common sense to know how to get out of (there are many ways). Most consumers don't even know the gov't passed a law some years back to make it legal to unlock your phone and yet people willingly let themselves stay locked in. Not to mention you can use roaming to cancel your plan without fees or cancel due to them changing the plan without your authorization (a letter doesn't count as an "okay, go ahead").
  The next problem is that even with such things, most providers have no competition, and still manage to lock people in due to stupidity. There's a lack of choice and excess of charges. Remember that USF charge? People are still being charged for that under a different name. (cnet news.com link)

There is no indication that it is going away.

Either you're a troll, or you haven't been paying attention.

Hopefully you'll hit a garbage truck instead of a cyclist, then.

http://bicycleuniverse.info/cars/cellphones.html
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-6090342-7.html

Copyright is different. For one, using a trademark is fairly obvious. Using Linux in some closed-source hardware such as a VOIP phone is not obvious - you'd have to do some technical analysis to fingerprint the OS remotely, or extract it and look for symbols/ strings that look familiar.

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9745926-7.html?pa rt=rss
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070424/064058.s html

Also as someone else noted, Wikipedia may be better off mentioning that there exists a different version of the information on Enclyclopaedia Brittanica on its own site than try and convert EB to its own set of facts.

ps: The redeeming qualities of wikipedia are ofcourse why I visit that site. As of today, the deathly hallows article comes with clear warnings on the stuff that I mentioned here.

Here's an article that summarizes the rift. This article, at least, talks about Linus Torvalds refusing to go GPL3 because of the provision in GPL3 that discourages or prohibits DRM. Richard Stallman is on the other side: "The foundation believes that free software--that is, software that can be freely studied, copied, modified, reused, redistributed and shared by its users--is the only ethically satisfactory form of software development, as free and open scientific research is the only ethically satisfactory context for the conduct of mathematics, physics or biology."

I love Google so much. Look for "blackberry snoopware" and see references like this.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-news/?p=785

Given the Blackberry popularity among the "power tie" crowd and among their account managers, if I were a stock investor interested in gaining some nsider information, or a reporter willing to bend some laws, I'd be sitting at the booth at Infoworld or the Republican national convention monitoring as much data as possible.

>Linux is free as in Freedom and this irks Stallman: he wants it to be free as in beer.

How do you explain the following from Linux maintainer Linus Torvalds:

"GPLv2 is about a "quid pro quo": If I give you my open-source software, you're free to use it but must give the world back any changes you make, Torvalds said. "The reason for the GPL as far as the FSF is concerned was never 'fairness.' It was all about a higher calling, and about something that the FSF thinks is much bigger--'freedom,'" [1]

More generally, your post is moot. The GPLv3 is the current expression of Stallman's ideas which counts the most, and nothing you have written challenges it.

[1]: http://news.com.com/2061-10795_3-6099985.html

the courts seem to disagree with your link

i believe that site is out of date in regards to the more recent court rulings regarding this.

But were I a Canadian and paid this tax, I would treat the tax as a license. Does anyone know the legal status of this?

But were I a Canadian and paid this tax, I would treat the tax as a license. Does anyone know the legal status of this?

http://news.com.com/Police+blotter+911+dispatcher+ misuses+database,+kills+ex-girlfriend/2100-1030_3- 6074559.html D'OH

http://news.com.com/Korean+Apple+online+store+hack ed/2100-7349_3-6067955.html

Do you want to guess what piece of software got raped?

Thank you so much!

It seems to be doing the trick.

When you have one of the most influential people in Open Source refuse to accept the license

In case you mean this recent /. story: it was utterly wrong and a FUD attempt by InformationWeek. They basically repeated a months-old quote by Linus about an earlier draft as if it was new and still relevant.

Linus is in fact pretty ok with how GPLv3 turned out.

File name based detection got the RIAA in trouble. File size is merely the bitrate times the length. A lot of these sites already take user history into account, as they allow 3 or fewer strikes before they ban a user. I don't see how downloads per hour would help. HTTP Referer is subject to joe jobs.

But here's why service providers don't take an active role: It appears that a more proactive service provider might be more likely to incur vicarious liability. Under U.S. law, a behind being sat on is covered.

Yahoo put a bid in, I believe, at $1B, but Facebook demanded $2B, and they are now considering an IPO, which would be the "first big IPO of web 2.0"

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9741016-7.html

FAQ: Net radio's mixed signals
By Anne Broache
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: July 13, 2007, 2:32 PDT
http://news.com.com/FAQ+Net+radios+mixed+signals/2 100-1027_3-6196666.html

This CNET article has more information. There is a vulnerability report at Sun. It is fixed in JDK and JRE 5.0 Update 10 or later, SDK and JRE 1.4.2_13 or later and SDK and JRE 1.3.1_19 or later.

Public realizes cure worse than the disease = -5,000 pts.
Sony recalls discs = +10,000 pts.
Sony releases BluRay and PS3 = 0 pts.
Sony sues DRM Manufacturer = + 1pts.

Being stupid enough to not drop DRM and add it to thier DVD's = Priceless
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38 938
Replacing some copy protected DVD's +1,000 pts.
http://digg.com/movies/Sony_Replaces_Some_Copy_Pro tected_DVDs
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004150 .html
Stating they are committed to DRM = Unbelievable!
EMI and Sony BMG each have committed to sharply increasing the number of CDs that are protected with technology that limits the number and type of copies that can be made.
http://news.com.com/iPods+to+support+copy-protecte d+CDs/2100-1027_3-5959341.html

So, in total, Sony is an unbelievable amount in the hole. I think its safe to say they're still pariahs here.

To top it off they are braging the Blu Ray format is secure for 10+ years. That's easy to say if nobody bothers to buy it and support it.

• He delegitimizes spam-fighting cases by attempting to ridicule judges with his website, judgejokes.com. This is even more instrumental than it seems:
  • It is registered by his censor-fighting organization, Peacefire. Because making fun of judges is totally a worthwhile project for an organization as such.
    
  • It documents both his solicitation of other spammers, and lack of understanding of the law.
• He's worked on filter-circumvention software, which made news years ago. A direct quote from that site: "That software, Haselton and the IBB acknowledge, could have other uses here at home".
  
• He spams Slashdot with countless articles that could be summarized to 1-to-2 lines (and often are by comments shortly after being posted). A few of these are linked as related articles above.
  
• He takes huge issue any time that any of his emails aren't received. This article is evidence enough.
  
• And a few other things. I know I'm forgetting many. Anyone else want to step in?
  

According to http://news.com.com/Man+sues+Microsoft+over+allege d+Xbox+360+glitch/2100-1043_3-5982759.html?tag=nl this Reuters Story on CNET, which no longer exists, someone is suing over the overheating.This article has a little more info.http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Microsoft_sued_du e_to_case_of_Xbox_360s_overheating

Or do they have the license to damage your business at will?

It's in the EULA.

Forcing their hand does have it's drawbacks.. such as no MS software permitted anywhere..

http://www.penguinista.org/cgi-bin/article?article Id=723
http://www.qcs-rf.com/wordpress/?m=200703
http://bsadefense.com/resources/article_independen t-co-uk.asp

The bad publicity is supposed to shake up pirates to get legit.
The bad karma shakes up legal users into looking at alternatives.

This one swore off MS products entirely due to a BSA audit.
http://news.com.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html

Remember the Clinton sponsored government mandated cryptokey fiasco? They wanted to make sure that the govt could break all encryption.

Don't worry, some other administration will do something bad enough to make us forget all about Bush.

Wait a second. I guess you should worry.

Right, it's not as if Microsoft just bought a firm that does exactly what Postini does, or anything.

To point out the obvious, not all instances of child pornography is child abuse. For instance, a 16-year-old girl who sends nude photos of herself to her boyfriend is not child abuse. A neighbor that takes nude pictures of your 8-year-old after inviting him/her over for cookies is committing child abuse. Considering that the 16-year-old's boyfriend and the 16-year-old herself can be charged under child pornography laws and be convicted, I can understand the confusion.

Funny. I thought that was 2004.

Or was it 2006?

Or was it actually 2002 and then it burst in 2006?

Umm... 2003?

Oh! Stupid me! It was 1999! Yeah. definately 1999. I mean. It's not like Linus would the exact same thing five years later.
It had to be 1999, because it was Almost Ready(tm) for the desktop back in 1994 when I first used it!

Now, tell me again. Why do I have a mac? Oh that's right. It's Unix, but I don't have to sysadmin it like Linux.

Yes yes. "Some people like to learn about their machine." [emphasis original] Ahh yes. I was once like you, some 13 years ago this fall. Then I got a bit older, and perhaps a bit wiser, and learned that there was much more important things than screwing around with sendmail, or 3d acceleration, or hotplug vs devfs, or ipchains vs ipfwadm, or oss vs alsa, or cups vs lpr, or ... It's a tool. Nothing more. If the tool is working you, instead of you working the tool, it's time to get a new tool.

Like everyone else? this is what make them apple because they dont do things like everyone else. If you start allowing third party battery go into iphone, and the phone explode. Who will get blame? apple or the battery? http://news.com.com/Cell+phones+Too+hot+to+handle/ 2100-1041_3-5420076.html

... then Bill Gates will have to admit they're competitors!

> Given that Linden does not allow people to edit or copy scripts without your permission, how did this happen?

And as all Slashdot posters know, all DRM systems designed to stop copying always work properly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CopyBot
http://news.com.com/2100-1043_3-6135699.html

(I have no idea whether CopyBot is involved in this particular case, but it's relevent to the idea that no unauthorised copying could ever happen.)

Yes, probably this is the default phone password which the phone uses to "autologin" into itself on startup, and as such isn't useful for "hacking" into the phone remotely.

But you should consider: a) the phone doesn't support custom software b) thousands of geeks who bought the phone want to write apps for it.

Maybe knowing the root login is a tiny step in that direction, if you get what I mean. I have the feeling we'll be seeing AT&T disabling remotely phones that have been hacked with custom apps. Same as MS did with modded XBOX360.

MS didn't didn't disable any XBoxen, they disabled the Live accounts of users that were using a modified box.

So, mod the pants off the iCrap all you want, just don't expect to connect to anyone else's network after you've done so.

But I don't recall loads of stories for all the other successful phones out there such as the RAZR (Motorola sell up to 10 million in a single quarter, never mind a year!). Obviously it deserves a story, but even big-thing-of-the-week only needs to be posted once.

Honestly, it's bad when the Slashdot dupes become intentional :/

urban legend. fuck off asshole

http://news.com.com/5208-1030_3-0.html?forumID=1&t hreadID=2246&messageID=11919&start=-1

Mod Parent down

The poster is a troll

A source familiar with the deal said it is essentially similar to the last one, which calls for Intel to receive royalties from AMD. Intel has patents covering aspects of the x86 instruction set used in processors for Windows-based PCs.

The lawsuits started in 1987. Rich Lovgren, former assistant general counsel for AMD, recalled that AMD founder Jerry Sanders sat through "every second" of one of the trials. "There were certainly bridges that were burned," he said.

Under the terms of the settlement, both companies gained free access to each other's patents in a cross-licensing agreement. AMD agreed to pay Intel royalties for making chips based on the x86 architecture, said Mulloy, who worked for AMD when the settlement was drafted. Royalties, he added, only go one way. AMD does get to collect royalties from Intel for any patents Intel might adopt.

AMD also agreed not to make any clones of Intel chips, but nothing bars Intel from doing a clone of an AMD chip, Mulloy added.

Think what you want, but I described the way things actually happened, while you're describing a gloss of revisionist history. Itanium was intended to kill off all other high end RISC development programs, and it very nearly succeeded despite being an "unsuccessful" and desperately late product.

SGI/MIPS canceled two high end CPUs, Beast and Capitan, specifically because of the threat of Itanium. I was there, I saw it happen.

http://news.com.com/Silicon+Graphics+scraps+MIPS+p lans/2100-1001_3-210024.html

Compaq killed Alpha before the HP merger, before Carly, with the intention of moving their high end business to IA-64:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_Alpha

Obviously, Itanium redirected HP's focus away from PA-RISC since it was a HP/Intel project.

Itanium failed to completely derail SPARC, but it caused a great deal of controversy inside SUN about the future of the SPARC architecture and disrupted SPARC development for a year or two.

http://news.com.com/2100-1001_3-237583.html

IBM's Power architecture was perhaps the least affected by Itanium. IBM was pretty skeptical about Itanium and kept the Power program very much alive. As a result, they are the only RISC family which still has a significant presence on the Top500 supercomputing list.

http://www.top500.org/stats/list/29/procfam
http://www.top500.org/stats/list/13/procfam

I have no idea whether all these other CPU families would have been successful in the marketplace without Itanium. However, the fact is they were killed due to one of the most influential vaporware announcements in the history of the computer industry.

Think what you want, but I described the way things actually happened, while you're describing a gloss of revisionist history. Itanium was intended to kill off all other high end RISC development programs, and it very nearly succeeded despite being an "unsuccessful" and desperately late product.

SGI/MIPS canceled two high end CPUs, Beast and Capitan, specifically because of the threat of Itanium. I was there, I saw it happen.

http://news.com.com/Silicon+Graphics+scraps+MIPS+p lans/2100-1001_3-210024.html

Compaq killed Alpha before the HP merger, before Carly, with the intention of moving their high end business to IA-64:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_Alpha

Obviously, Itanium redirected HP's focus away from PA-RISC since it was a HP/Intel project.

Itanium failed to completely derail SPARC, but it caused a great deal of controversy inside SUN about the future of the SPARC architecture and disrupted SPARC development for a year or two.

http://news.com.com/2100-1001_3-237583.html

IBM's Power architecture was perhaps the least affected by Itanium. IBM was pretty skeptical about Itanium and kept the Power program very much alive. As a result, they are the only RISC family which still has a significant presence on the Top500 supercomputing list.

http://www.top500.org/stats/list/29/procfam
http://www.top500.org/stats/list/13/procfam

I have no idea whether all these other CPU families would have been successful in the marketplace without Itanium. However, the fact is they were killed due to one of the most influential vaporware announcements in the history of the computer industry.

Thank goodness the "insightful" Steve Jobs has let us know about this problem. I'm sure that other people will realize that the iPhone doesn't surf the web fast enough only now that steve has let us know that he doesn't think it's fast enough. All hail Lord Steve Jobs!

My rule number one in dealing with Microsoft: Unless forced by circumstances, never upgrade to a new version of Windows until the second service pack is released. Let other people have the grief. The huge number of bugs in Windows XP before SP2 was very expensive for us. If I remember correctly, SP2 fixed more than 630 bugs, and some of the fixes were not documented. It is not only the vulnerabilities that are expensive.
Better yet:
Wait until the service pack is out and independent reviewers are happy with it. Because if people stick to the rule "after SP X things are fine", it is merely an incentive for Microsoft to rush the service packs until the number X in question is reached.
In the case of Vista, it seems Microsoft was already organizing the beta testing for SP1 before the OS was released to end users:
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-6152704.html
That article was from January 23rd. Looks like the beginning of a trend to increase the SP count as fast as possible.