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My mirror @home by pnevares · 2000-02-15 04:32 · Score: 1 · on Jargon File 4.2.0 Out

I have a mirror of the above-mentioned file (specifically the one from http://www.snafu.priv.at/jargon/jargon. html). Again, it's not "official", but if you want to take a look at it while jargon.org is tanked, go ahead.

http://members.home.com/pnevares/jargo n.html

(for the record, it does show version 4.2.0)

Pablo Nevares, "the freshmaker".

One More Time by Hubec · 2000-02-12 11:23 · Score: 1 · on Review of the Sony Vaio PCG-X9

Yes, I know Sony released the Music Clip, that's why I brought up the MP3 example. This device employs very intrusive measures in an attempt to prevent the copying of CDs. See a MusicClip review for more info.

My point (which is demonstrated by the example) is that because Sony is so diversified through multiple industries and service sectors and because it's so focused on domination, it acts in ways it's competitors would not. In this case a smaller competitor producing an digital music player would solely concentrate on producing the best player it could that directly reflects the consumer's desires. Conversely Sony will produce a player that ensures that it's music division isn't threatened.

Finally, it is my understanding that the Music Clip doesn't play MP3's, the desktop software will however transparently translate an MP3 into it's own proprietary format, a process which degrades the audio quality. There appears to be some debate on this matter however.

Also please keep in mind that this is just one example, run a Slashdot search on Sony for many more.

A review of this SDMI crap by Weezul · 2000-02-07 03:23 · Score: 2 · on Sony Digital Downloads

Here is a good review of this thing (which was posted in the previous article, but somehow failed to get moderated above 0). Look down at the bottom of the review to see exactly why this thing a piece of crap designed to trick consumers into buying it instead of an mp3 player.

Here is a post I wrote for the previous article which gives one idea about what we can do to kill the sails of these things.

Finally, I feal I should clear up a little miss understanding about the usefulness of this service to us. Many people have suggested that we will break the encryption and pirate the digitally distributed music via mp3. This is not totally correct. We will crack the encryption, but we will probable need to redistribute the songs as ATRAC3 files since the conversion to mp3 will lose a lot of quality. Note: the lose of quality in the MP3 -> ATRAC3 conversion is part of why the RIAA likes this thing, i.e. it prevents mp3 only artists from having good music. Distributing unencrypted ATRAC3 files will not be a problem, but playing them could be a problem and making our own could be an even bigger problem (Sony may have patents on ATRAC3 algorithms so that they can prosicute the people who write the decoding/encoding software). Plus, Sony charges more for the songs then they would cost if you got them via CD, so there is no advnatage in getting this kind of digital music.

The moral of the story is: SDMI and Sony are evil, they must die.

Jeff

BTW> Now, a project to do an ATRAC3 to mp3 transition without losing quality would be cool, but it would also be difficult (mathematically difficult so Joe Average Hacker could not do it).

Music Clip review by Anonymous Coward · 2000-02-06 02:14 · Score: 0 · on Sony Cigar-Sized MP3 Player

here

Re:At what rate? by jawad · 2000-02-06 02:09 · Score: 1 · on Sony Cigar-Sized MP3 Player

According to this article, it can't handle variable-bit rate encoding. And that's not the worst of its problems..

why this thing sucks by Anonymous Coward · 2000-02-06 00:45 · Score: 5 · on Sony Cigar-Sized MP3 Player

the musiclip isn't really an mp3 player; it plays atrac3 music files. if you have an mp3 file, it conerts it into an atrac3 file and plays it. not that atrac3 is that bad but that's one more level added on to degrade sound quality. it can change wav files directly to atrac3.. but this is sony, one of those big-wig corporate companies so they put in all this security junk on it to screw you over. read this.

Re:Better Way Still by bgarcia · 2000-01-28 02:53 · Score: 3 · on DoubleClick Taken to Court

We should setup a network of DNS resolvers (DNS nameservers that just resolve addresses) that have alternate entries for the hosts of ad servers.

If you don't want to figure out how to setup BIND to do this, you can do this very easily using DNRD.

Just setup a machine to act as the DNS server for your little network (or for your friends, or the whole internet - I wonder if it scales well?) and put those ad site (127.0.0.1) entries into the server's /etc/hosts file. Also, make a directory called /etc/dnrd (owned by root). Then run dnrd like so:

dnrd -s

Any entries in the server's /etc/hosts file will be answered by dnrd. Anything not found there will be forwarded to the real dns server.

Re: ADSL? by Scriven · 2000-01-27 21:54 · Score: 1 · on Linux and Satellite Internet Services

I'm sorry I gave that impression, as we have both kinds of access available.

For the cable modem users, there's the @Home network, through Rogers and Shaw (depending on who services your area, of course).
For the folks who prefer Telco based, Bell (and now other resellers) is offering what they call Sympatico High Speed Edition, and it's ADSL implemented with the Nortel 1-meg Modem technology, and PPPoE.

I've tried to get both installed, and the @Home installation was pathetic, but I have no respect at all for Rogers anyway, as their TV reception is shit, with frequent snow on channels, and horrible customer service. Bell's tech support is equally bad, with extra long waits on hold for tech support, and flakey PPPoE implementation, but I at least got that on installed in my apartment.

You're right about the wireless being a great solution for Rural Ontario (I've been looking into LookTV for my folks, who live in the boonies and right now only get antenna stuff), but LookTV isn't even out there yet, for the most part. They started out as an alternate to cable in an urban setting, not an alternate to antenna in a rural setting, so they're taking a while to get everywhere in S.Ont. Their high speed net access will roll out just as slowly to the rural areas too. That's the only drawback I can see with them, though. I've only ever heard raves about them.

I hope this makes the S.Ont situation a little more clear. I'm not sure about Satellite PC options, but I believe that the only 2 "legal" satellite providers are ExpressVU and StarChoice, and I don't think they offer Internet access yet.

This is my .sig. It isn't very big.

Re: ADSL? by Scriven · 2000-01-27 21:54 · Score: 1 · on Linux and Satellite Internet Services

I'm sorry I gave that impression, as we have both kinds of access available.

For the cable modem users, there's the @Home network, through Rogers and Shaw (depending on who services your area, of course).
For the folks who prefer Telco based, Bell (and now other resellers) is offering what they call Sympatico High Speed Edition, and it's ADSL implemented with the Nortel 1-meg Modem technology, and PPPoE.

I've tried to get both installed, and the @Home installation was pathetic, but I have no respect at all for Rogers anyway, as their TV reception is shit, with frequent snow on channels, and horrible customer service. Bell's tech support is equally bad, with extra long waits on hold for tech support, and flakey PPPoE implementation, but I at least got that on installed in my apartment.

You're right about the wireless being a great solution for Rural Ontario (I've been looking into LookTV for my folks, who live in the boonies and right now only get antenna stuff), but LookTV isn't even out there yet, for the most part. They started out as an alternate to cable in an urban setting, not an alternate to antenna in a rural setting, so they're taking a while to get everywhere in S.Ont. Their high speed net access will roll out just as slowly to the rural areas too. That's the only drawback I can see with them, though. I've only ever heard raves about them.

I hope this makes the S.Ont situation a little more clear. I'm not sure about Satellite PC options, but I believe that the only 2 "legal" satellite providers are ExpressVU and StarChoice, and I don't think they offer Internet access yet.

This is my .sig. It isn't very big.

Re:Whats the big deal? by Anonymous Coward · 2000-01-26 00:21 · Score: 0 · on SGI Gives Open Source some OpenGL Love

Welcome to the world of open source!

As explained on NVidia's driver download readme, you can read it at NVidia's driver page, their drivers are a work in progress. They put their necks on the line to provide a tentative solution for hardware acceleration until other frameworks which they are built upon (GLX, Mesa 3.1, XFree86 release 4, etc) become stable.

The fundamental beauty of open source software is that one does not have to wait until a product's near completion before being able to take benefit. As one piece of the puzzle falls into place you can snatch it up and make us of it. As more pieces become available you gain more and more capabilities.

Criticizing open source software in early stages of development is akin to mocking an artist's work after (s)he has only merely laid down a pencil sketch on the canvas.

--trout

A Canadian mirror by MatriXOracle · 2000-01-24 22:41 · Score: 1 · on DeCSS Author Arrested

I've posted a mirror of the DeCSS code here. The page is hosted on @home in California, but the actual code is on a server in Ottawa, Canada, so it should be OK.

Don't give in!

A Canadian mirror by MatriXOracle · 2000-01-24 22:33 · Score: 1 · on Jon Johansen Indicted by the MPA(A)

I've posted my mirror at this page. Although the page is hosted on @home servers in California, the actual code is on a server in Ottawa, Canada, so it should be OK.

Don't give in!

Mirrors part 1 by Anonymous Coward · 2000-01-19 02:42 · Score: 0 · on Corel Draw 9 for Linux Needs Beta Testers

Visit Humpin! (No, it's not what you think!)

Temporary restraining order DENIED!

Thanks to the efforts of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the organization and support provided by a few of our fellow defendants we are still here! Another hearing is scheduled for January 14th.

We would like to point out to all of the mirror sites with things like "fuck the lawyers" on them that it is because of a generous group of lawyers that we are still here. These lawyers are working for free (or much less than they could get by going over to the Dark Side) and don't deserve this kind of abuse.

Here is the EFF's stance on this case.

Save a copy of this web page now!

We have just been informed that the DVD Copy Control Association is seeking a restraining order against us (named as "Doe 28") for distributing DeCSS and linking to pages that distribute it and linking to pages that link to pages that distribute it.

Section 48 of this request states that we supposedly "have received notice through the MPA and refused to remove the information at issue". This is absolutely false! We have never received any such request (from the MPA or anybody else for that matter) and we obviously were not given the opportunity to refuse! Either Jared Bobrow needs to go back to law school or the DVD CCA needs to get a new firm. This is the kind of sloppy work that could get an important document thrown out.

Here is a 2600 story on this.

Explanation on legality of this information

The software (source as well as binaries) offered on this site can be freely redistributed because it was published under the GNU General Public License. The purpose of this software is not illegal copying of DVD disks. It is meant to provide information necessary to be able to program a DVD player for Linux. To do this, the CSS system needs to be incorporated in the player. Recently the (very weak) DVD content scrambling system was deciphered, freeing the way for a Linux DVD player. The CSS system is not a copy protection system, since it does not prevent copying of the disk. Writing information about the way an encryption scheme functions is completely legal. The source code and binaries on this site are completely legal too, since they contain no code from the DVD consortium or its members. The sources and programs on this site were written by third parties using clean-room reverse engineering methods which are (ready?) completly legal.

Attention www.rhythm.cx was hosting a list of mirrors for these files. That list of mirrors has been replaced with a page reading "This site has been taken down for legal reasons." Here's what the maintainer put on the site the day it was shut down:

NOTE (Thu, Nov 11, 12:17pm EST): I've recently been informed that a law firm which is likely to be one that would try get these mirrors taken down has been visiting this mirror site as well as others. With that said, there is a possibility that I may have to remove this site in the near future because like everyone else, I can't afford to go to court to fight it. Luckly, it seems fairly unlikely that any law firm will ever be able to get rid of all these mirrors at this point (there are currently 41 in 8 different countries and this list is growing every day). However, I have only seen very few mirror _lists_ like this one anyplace. If anyone has the resources, it might be wise to mirror this list of mirrors as well so that the right people will still know that these mirrors exist.

Here is a 2600 story with more details on how rhythm.cx was shut down.

Current Mirrors Last updated: Wed, Jan 19, 12:13am EST
Numbers are only for the maintainer's convenience

We apologize for the length of time between updates. This list has gotten quite large and thus more difficult to maintain.

Much thanks to this site for listing mirrors of the mirror lists.

Mirrors part 1 by Anonymous Coward · 2000-01-16 07:10 · Score: 0 · on New DVD Lawsuits Filed by the MPAA (UPDATED)

Note: This mirror list has been copied from http://www.humpin.org/decss/, on January 2nd 2000 13:13 GMT

Mirrors since 28-Dec-99 added by me.
To my main DVD page (containing list of lists of mirrors) Visit Humpin! (No, it's not what you think!)

Temporary restraining order DENIED!

Thanks to the efforts of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the organization and support provided by a few of our fellow defendants we are still here! Another hearing is scheduled for January 14th.

We would like to point out to all of the mirror sites with things like "fuck the lawyers" on them that it is because of a generous group of lawyers that we are still here. These lawyers are working for free (or much less than they could get by going over to the Dark Side) and don't deserve this kind of abuse.

Here is the EFF's stance on this case.
If you need a REAL reason to host these files, try reading this. Truth has never been more purely distilled.

Save a copy of this web page now!

We have just been informed that the DVD Copy Control Association is seeking a restraining order against us (named as "Doe 28") for distributing DeCSS and linking to pages that distribute it and linking to pages that link to pages that distribute it.

Section 48 of this request states that we supposedly "have received notice through the MPA and refused to remove the information at issue". This is absolutely false! We have never received any such request (from the MPA or anybody else for that matter) and we obviously were not given the opportunity to refuse! Either Jared Bobrow needs to go back to law school or the DVD CCA needs to get a new firm. This is the kind of sloppy work that could get an important document thrown out.

Here is a 2600 story on this.

Explanation on legality of this information

The software (source as well as binaries) offered on this site can be freely redistributed because it was published under the GNU General Public License. The purpose of this software is not illegal copying of DVD disks. It is meant to provide information necessary to be able to program a DVD player for Linux. To do this, the CSS system needs to be incorporated in the player. Recently the (very weak) DVD content scrambling system was deciphered, freeing the way for a Linux DVD player. The CSS system is not a copy protection system, since it does not prevent copying of the disk. Writing information about the way an encryption scheme functions is completely legal. The source code and binaries on this site are completely legal too, since they contain no code from the DVD consortium or its members. The sources and programs on this site were written by third parties using clean-room reverse engineering methods which are (ready?) completly legal.

Attention www.rhythm.cx was hosting a list of mirrors for these files. That list of mirrors has been replaced with a page reading "This site has been taken down for legal reasons." Here's what the maintainer put on the site the day it was shut down:

NOTE (Thu, Nov 11, 12:17pm EST): I've recently been informed that a law firm which is likely to be one that would try get these mirrors taken down has been visiting this mirror site as well as others. With that said, there is a possibility that I may have to remove this site in the near future because like everyone else, I can't afford to go to court to fight it. Luckly, it seems fairly unlikely that any law firm will ever be able to get rid of all these mirrors at this point (there are currently 41 in 8 different countries and this list is growing every day). However, I have only seen very few mirror _lists_ like this one anyplace. If anyone has the resources, it might be wise to mirror this list of mirrors as well so that the right people will still know that these mirrors exist.

Here is a 2600 story with more details on how rhythm.cx was shut down.

Current Mirrors Last updated: Fri, Dec 31, 8:18pm EST
Numbers are only for the maintainer's convenience

Much thanks to this site for listing mirrors of the mirror lists.

Time to spread the fun alittle more? by vividan · 2000-01-14 11:26 · Score: 1 · on New DVD Lawsuits Filed by the MPAA (UPDATED)

Well, I think it is about time to mention that you can get all this stuff at my server here: http://ct441 09-a.lafayt1.in.home.com/~vividan/dvd_decrypting_s oftware/

Re:@Home will prob ban static IPs. Thanks guys! No by overshoot · 2000-01-13 03:50 · Score: 2 · on @Home Responds to the UDP Notice

You are wrong on both counts

Maybe.

you only need the @home pluggin to access your user information.

IOW, you do have to be using "approved" software. Or is this plugin available for Linux?

The server issue varies by agreements(AUP) with the local cable operator.

Not according to the @Home AUP

Re:Burn them at the stake. by overshoot · 2000-01-13 02:38 · Score: 2 · on @Home Responds to the UDP Notice

Also - @home has a strict AUP *against* security scans. They would be in violation of their own AUP to take action like what this guy has mentioned in the article. I was not able to locate their online AUP, but searching here or here should reveal it. If nothing else, I will scan it in and post it, as I still have the copy I signed.

The @Home AUP

Pay particular attention to the all-inclusive ban on "servers," broadly defined.

Burn them at the stake. by Signal+11 · 2000-01-13 01:04 · Score: 2 · on @Home Responds to the UDP Notice

Set phasers to maximum stun!

I'm at @Home customer who keeps regular logfiles and a firewall. I can tell you right now @Home does NOT scan anything except forwindows filesharing. Some of the @Home network blocks windowsfilesharing at the router, others scan for it and disable it. But if that's what they meant by "scanning for proxies", that's misleading.

Secondly, @Home has, at the time of this posting, not scanned the subnet *I* am on for anything on port 8000, or 8080. For that matter, I have heard a whole lot of nothing on the scanning front.

Thirdly, I have run nmap scans extensively across the @Home network. Sometimes not in stealth mode either. To date, I have received no e-mail from @Home asking me about this (it's for statistics, not hacking, incase they're reading this). This tells me security is very lax for @Home. I would not be suprised if spammers knew this. It's not hard to find out - ask any @Home customer.

Lastly, @Home customers rarely run proxies. I have scanned port 8000 and 8080 - there are maybe 2 per 1024 block of IPs. I have NEVER seen a scan from a remote site to port 8000 or 8080. So drop the charade about this being from "mis-configured proxies".

Also - @home has a strict AUP *against* security scans. They would be in violation of their own AUP to take action like what this guy has mentioned in the article. I was not able to locate their online AUP, but searching here or here should reveal it. If nothing else, I will scan it in and post it, as I still have the copy I signed.

Why do so many /. readers just not Get It (tm)? by Anonymous Coward · 2000-01-12 05:16 · Score: 1 · on @Home Gets the Usenet Death Penalty

You've never adminned a news server, have you? Until you do, please remember your opinions have about as much value as your usenet admin experience.

Use killfiles, content filters, etc.

Um... That what the UDP is. It's a sort of killfile for mail admins so spam won't kill their servers.

The UDP is also a 'weapon of last resort'. Beleive me, it would be a LOT easier for all concerned if @home would just do the right thing, police their own network, and actually enforce their own Acceptable Use Policy.

Don't like the UDP? Tell it to @home.

OOPS - Trying Humpin list again by Anonymous Coward · 1999-12-30 11:08 · Score: 0 · on DVD Hearing Victory: We Won - For Now

You have one bat and there are 100 million holes Visit Humpin! (No, it's not what you think!)

Temporary restraining order DENIED!

Thanks to the efforts of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the organization and support provided by a few of our fellow defendants we are still here! Another hearing is scheduled for January 14th.

We would like to point out to all of the mirror sites with things like "fuck the lawyers" on them that it is because of a generous group of lawyers that we are still here. These lawyers are working for free (or much less than they could get by going over to the Dark Side) and don't deserve this kind of abuse.

Here is the EFF's stance on this case.
If you need a REAL reason to host these files, try reading this. Truth has never been more purely distilled.

Save a copy of this web page now!

We have just been informed that the DVD Copy Control Association is seeking a restraining order against us (named as "Doe 28") for distributing DeCSS and linking to pages that distribute it and linking to pages that link to pages that distribute it.

Section 48 of this request states that we supposedly "have received notice through the MPA and refused to remove the information at issue". This is absolutely false! We have never received any such request (from the MPA or anybody else for that matter) and we obviously were not given the opportunity to refuse! Either Jared Bobrow needs to go back to law school or the DVD CCA needs to get a new firm. This is the kind of sloppy work that could get an important document thrown out.

Here is a 2600 story on this.

Explanation on legality of this information

The software (source as well as binaries) offered on this site can be freely redistributed because it was published under the GNU General Public License. The purpose of this software is not illegal copying of DVD disks. It is meant to provide information necessary to be able to program a DVD player for Linux. To do this, the CSS system needs to be incorporated in the player. Recently the (very weak) DVD content scrambling system was deciphered, freeing the way for a Linux DVD player. The CSS system is not a copy protection system, since it does not prevent copying of the disk. Writing information about the way an encryption scheme functions is completely legal. The source code and binaries on this site are completely legal too, since they contain no code from the DVD consortium or its members. The sources and programs on this site were written by third parties using clean-room reverse engineering methods which are (ready?) completly legal.

Attention www.rhythm.cx was hosting a list of mirrors for these files. That list of mirrors has been replaced with a page reading "This site has been taken down for legal reasons." Here's what the maintainer put on the site the day it was shut down:

NOTE (Thu, Nov 11, 12:17pm EST): I've recently been informed that a law firm which is likely to be one that would try get these mirrors taken down has been visiting this mirror site as well as others. With that said, there is a possibility that I may have to remove this site in the near future because like everyone else, I can't afford to go to court to fight it. Luckly, it seems fairly unlikely that any law firm will ever be able to get rid of all these mirrors at this point (there are currently 41 in 8 different countries and this list is growing every day). However, I have only seen very few mirror _lists_ like this one anyplace. If anyone has the resources, it might be wise to mirror this list of mirrors as well so that the right people will still know that these mirrors exist.

Here is a 2600 story with more details on how rhythm.cx was shut down.

Current Mirrors Last updated: Thu, Dec 30, 2:55am EST
Numbers are only for the maintainer's convenience

Much thanks to this site for listing mirrors of the mirror lists.

This site contains some good technical documentation as well as more source code that the DVD consorium's lawyers would rather you not see:
http://crypto.gq.nu/

Semi-broken Mirrors
(These mirrors sometimes work and sometimes don't)
http://joe.to/storage/files/decss.zip
ftp://eris.giga.or.at/pub/hacker/crypt/ DVD/
http://gullii.stu.rpi.edu/dvd/files/D eCSS.zip and http://gullii.stu.rpi.edu/dvd/f iles/css-auth.tar.gz
http://www.discordia.de/decss/DeCSS.zip and http://www.discordia.de/decss/css-aut h_tar.gz and http://www.discordia.de/decss/LiVid.tgz

Broken Mirrors
(These are listed here for the notification of the people who run them)
http://members.theglobe.com/avoiderman/css-auth.ta r.gz
ftp://mikpos.dyndns.org/pub/cssdvd.zip
ftp://195.115.63.44/pub/DeCSS.zip
http://home.c2i.net/buddha9/
http://frodo.campus.luth.se/~iocc/tip.html
http://home.t-online.de/home/skinner01/decss.zip
ftp://ftp.firehead.org/pub/
http://freeweb.digiweb.com/business/avoiderman/
http://www.hack.b3.nu/

Mirrors shut down by The Man
(A moment of silence, please.)
http://www.rhythm.cx/dvd/css-auth.tar.gz and http://www.rhythm.cx/dvd/DeCSS.zip
http://dvdcracked.tvheaven.com/index.html
http://home.worldonline.dk/~andersa/download/DeCSS .zip
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10079-100-143 3209.html?tag=st.dl.10001_104_3.lst.titl edetail
http://www.theresistance.net/files.html
http://cryptome.org/dvd-css.htm
http://www.d.umn.edu/~dchan/css/
http://caspian.twu.net/dvd/
http://mclaughlin.orange.ca.us/~andrew/
ftp://134.173.94.44

Keeping your geeks happy by bons · 1999-12-30 02:17 · Score: 4 · on On Keeping Geeks in a Metropolitan Area

Have fast net access, Omaha, NE for example has a lot of cable modems.
Have a good sized convention center. Without it you cant attract things like the Worldcon or any of the computer expos.
Have good colleges, including science and liberal arts. Geeks need schools, and when we're not learning cryptography we're learning egyptology. Don't skip on the science or the arts.
Realize that having a liberal police department and a liberal political system may become political realities. Geeks tend not to run with the herd. That skate punk the cops are harassing may be a lead analyst for one of your local corps.
Watch your parks and recs. Geeks like skateparks and disc golf courses just as much, if not more, than traditional sports.
Forget the curfews. Make sure there's at least a taco bell open at 3 am. It's better if there's a pizza place that takes internet orders.
Watch your taxes. We make money, serious money, and we hate losing it to the government. We know you want us for our money, so play that game carefully. We're much more likely to consider taxes an investment and want a good return on it than most citizens.
Watch your P.R. We're better connected than you think we are. We know B.S. and have a tendancy to want to find the "truth" out. Normals don't get as nosy as geeks on a rampage.

Most importantly, make sure you really want us. We may be serious income for a city, but we're also a headache. If you want our cash without being willing to seriously cater to us, then forget it. On the other hand, if you really cater to us, we'll hand over our money in the form of taxes without much worry.

Mirrors by Anonymous Coward · 1999-12-29 06:42 · Score: 0 · on DVD Hearing Today - Are You Ready to Rumble?

You have one bat and there are 100 million holes Visit Humpin! (No, it's not what you think!)

Save a copy of this web page now!

We have just been informed that the DVD Copy Control Association is seeking a restraining order against us (named as "Doe 28") for distributing DeCSS and linking to pages that distribute it and linking to pages that link to pages that distribute it.

Section 48 of this request states that we supposedly "have received notice through the MPA and refused to remove the information at issue". This is absolutely false! We have never received any such request (from the MPA or anybody else for that matter) and we obviously were not given the opportunity to refuse! Either Jared Bobrow needs to go back to law school or the DVD CCA needs to get a new firm. This is the kind of sloppy work that could get an important document thrown out.

Here is a 2600 story on this.

Explanation on legality of this information

The software (source as well as binaries) offered on this site can be freely redistributed because it was published under the GNU General Public License. The purpose of this software is not illegal copying of DVD disks. It is meant to provide information necessary to be able to program a DVD player for Linux. To do this, the CSS system needs to be incorporated in the player. Recently the (very weak) DVD content scrambling system was deciphered, freeing the way for a Linux DVD player. The CSS system is not a copy protection system, since it does not prevent copying of the disk. Writing information about the way an encryption scheme functions is completely legal. The source code and binaries on this site are completely legal too, since they contain no code from the DVD consortium or its members. The sources and programs on this site were written by third parties using clean-room reverse engineering methods which are (ready?) completly legal.

Attention www.rhythm.cx was hosting a list of mirrors for these files. That list of mirrors has been replaced with a page reading "This site has been taken down for legal reasons." Here's what the maintainer put on the site the day it was shut down:

NOTE (Thu, Nov 11, 12:17pm EST): I've recently been informed that a law firm which is likely to be one that would try get these mirrors taken down has been visiting this mirror site as well as others. With that said, there is a possibility that I may have to remove this site in the near future because like everyone else, I can't afford to go to court to fight it. Luckly, it seems fairly unlikely that any law firm will ever be able to get rid of all these mirrors at this point (there are currently 41 in 8 different countries and this list is growing every day). However, I have only seen very few mirror _lists_ like this one anyplace. If anyone has the resources, it might be wise to mirror this list of mirrors as well so that the right people will still know that these mirrors exist.

Here is a 2600 story with more details on how rhythm.cx was shut down.

Current Mirrors Last updated: Wed, Dec 29, 3:14pm EST
Numbers are only for the maintainer's convenience

Much thanks to this site for listing mirrors of the mirror lists.

This site contains some good technical documentation as well as more source code that the DVD consorium's lawyers would rather you not see:
http://crypto.gq.nu/

Semi-broken Mirrors
(These mirrors sometimes work and sometimes don't)
http://joe.to/storage/files/decss.zip
ftp://eris.giga.or.at/pub/hacker/crypt/ DVD/
http://gullii.stu.rpi.edu/dvd/files/D eCSS.zip and http://gullii.stu.rpi.edu/dvd/f iles/css-auth.tar.gz
http://www.discordia.de/decss/DeCSS.zip and http://www.discordia.de/decss/css-aut h_tar.gz and http://www.discordia.de/decss/LiVid.tgz

Broken Mirrors
(These are listed here for the notification of the people who run them)
http://members.theglobe.com/avoiderman/css-auth.ta r.gz
ftp://mikpos.dyndns.org/pub/cssdvd.zip
ftp://195.115.63.44/pub/DeCSS.zip
http://home.c2i.net/buddha9/
http://frodo.campus.luth.se/~iocc/tip.html
http://home.t-online.de/home/skinner01/decss.zip
ftp://ftp.firehead.org/pub/
http://freeweb.digiweb.com/business/avoiderman/
http://www.hack.b3.nu/

Mirrors shut down by The Man
(A moment of silence, please.)
http://www.rhythm.cx/dvd/css-auth.tar.gz and http://www.rhythm.cx/dvd/DeCSS.zip
http://dvdcracked.tvheaven.com/index.html
http://home.worldonline.dk/~andersa/download/DeCSS .zip
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10079-100-143 3209.html?tag=st.dl.10001_104_3.lst.titl edetail
http://www.theresistance.net/files.html
http://cryptome.org/dvd-css.htm
http://www.d.umn.edu/~dchan/css/
http://caspian.twu.net/dvd/
http://mclaughlin.orange.ca.us/~andrew/
ftp://134.173.94.44

List of new mirrors by cyberdonny · 1999-12-28 01:30 · Score: 1 · on DVD CCA Applies for Restraining Order

Here is a list about new mirrors and lists that have popped up since the restraining order, and which will probably still be around when the others are dead and gone:

Re:DeCSS, LiViD, css-auth, link! by bons · 1999-12-27 07:08 · Score: 1 · on DVD CCA Applies for Restraining Order

Mirrored again

How many times does an item have to be copied until it becomes public domain?

Re:The Job by cabbey · 1999-12-09 12:08 · Score: 1 · on Open Source Job at Creative Labs

Jake,
As both a software engineer and an audio engineer I must admit I am HIGHLY tempted by this position, actually I was back when it was first posted on your site (almost as soon as opensource.creative went live wasn't it?) I'm also a long time Creative SoundBlaster customer... in fact I still use my original SB16Pro, my SBAwe32 and my SBLive! Three out of four sound cards I've ever owned came from you. (the fourth was an MWAVE in a thinkpad... not much choice there ;) As a geek I've always had rather cutting edge hardware in my hands and as such I can say with some certainty that the people implementing your drivers have never understood multithreading - infact NONE of these cards performs flawlessly under NT on a multi processor machine no matter how current the drivers - this is one reason why I'm pleased to see the rapid progress being made on the Linux drivers. Because of this belief I am even more attracted to a chance to work with your developers; assuming of course that they do not hold the same opinion of customers that the support people at creative obviously do.

All that being the case I'm happy where I'm at. (or maybe I'm just crazy ;)

I would however like to present an idea for your consideration: All work on the drivers and the GUIs need to be seperate and distinct; with a clean, public, documented interface between the two. They should be distinct entities. I say this because I know of NO ONE who likes and uses your GUIs. There were over 50 people in a group I formerly belongged to who used creative cards, and not a single one of them could tolerate the creative programs for more than a couple days after installing a new driver package. By providing a clear break between them you allow other developers to interface into your cards and take full advantage of the awesome capabilities you develop in hardware. It seems to be that Creative has an incredible talent in the hardware realm, but the software side just can't match it. So what. Those of us in the OSS community can and will if you'll let us.

[...]

I just read this in review mode and it sounds a lot more negative than intended, please understand that I perfer creative boards to the competition; however, realize also that as an professional engineer in both senses I have an amazingly low tollerance for bad design or function. Example: update a point realse of the drivers and all of a sudden the output gain control disapears and the level is hard coded at 4x. Example: removing a source from the speaker positioning mutes the channel rather than removes the 3D effect. Example: the presets for environmental audio configurations (just down right frustrating). If it wasn't so late I could probably go on... all the way back to the dos drivers for the SB16Pro. If you give me the interfaces, then I'll implement my own controls, and they'll look something like a Soundcraft Venue board and be wired by a virtual patch panel. ;) -=Chris

Anonymity banned on @Home by Anonymous Coward · 1999-12-09 07:23 · Score: 1 · on Anonymity on the Internet

@Home's Acceptable Use Polity bans anonymous chat: "Forging, altering, or obscuring your identity (other than using a nickname from which @Home could if necessary determine your real name) while participating in chat sessions is forbidden."

Cogeco Cable's AUP (they are part of the @Home network, in Canada) has a similar section: "Forging, altering, or obscuring your identity while participating in chat sessions is forbidden. You, may, however, use a nickname as long as all chat participants are able to discover your real name via normal Internet conventions, such as the "whois" command."

Do any other ISP's have restrictions like this?

I did, and it's creepy. by Platinum+Dragon · 1999-12-08 21:21 · Score: 1 · on AT&T Re-ignites Instant Messaging War

if you couldn't call your friend's house because they were using Microsoft Phone and you had AOL's You've Got A Phone. Sometimes standards are a good thing.

Interesting you use the phone analogy; this is a little ditty I wrote some long night over the summer.

Re:What is up with Australia? by bueller · 1999-12-02 04:22 · Score: 1 · on Charging for Cable Internet Access in Australia

Telstra is behaving like a typical monopoly at the moment. In areas where they don't face competition they charge like a wounded bull so as to maximise profit while they can. As competition is introduced this changes, and they drop their prices, and introduce new services.

The cable situation in Australia is interesting. Initially cable was laid by Optus to give them access to the local loop so they could totally bypass Telstra. At the moment Telstra owns the local loop and other telcos don't have access to it, so Telstra gets a slice of every call made in Australia that involves a fixed line phone.

To protect its Telephony business Telstra rolled out cable to pretty much exactly the same places Optus did.

Both Telstra and Optus laid digital cable, with the aim of providing phone, internet and pay TV services on the cable. Optus made a lot of hoopla about 20c local phone calls across their cable network, but ran into technical problems and IIRC only in recent times has voice over cable worked for them. They had some similar problems with their cable internet service, which has been in beta for over a year. Telstra have never tried to carry voice traffic on their cable network -- they don't need to because they have the local loop.

Cable in Australia is about to change with Optus@home, a partnership between Optus and @home. They will be offering a cable internet service targeted at home and small businesses, with prices more competitive than those offered by Telstra.

AAPT are introducing satellite soon, which will also add pressure to the high bandwidth internet market.

But you get a hobbled IP address by Max+Hyre · 1999-11-11 01:08 · Score: 1 · on It's the Architecture, Stupid

In their paper, they refer to @Home's ``acceptable-use'' policy, which you would do well to read carefully before you decide that ATT+M1 will sell you ``an IP Address. That's it.'' They call out numerous things you can't do over their connection (set up a Web server, sell access to 3rd parties, etc. Hell, they even tell you you've got to authenticate anyone who connects to you:

For example, you must take appropriate precautions to prevent minors from receiving inappropriate content.

)

But the beauty part is that, with ATT+M1's proposal, you get no choice. ``Connect to the internet over our cable---sure, but you go through our ISP. Don't like it? Then keep dialing.''

In fact, IIRC, ATT+M1 said a few months ago that if they couldn't bundle, they wouldn't even try to merge. I wonder why? Could it be that they forsee money in forcing an ISP down peoples throats? Nahhh, couldn't be....

Radio Clambake by Wah · 1999-11-09 23:07 · Score: 2 · on Sony and Sun Form Net Appliance Pact

Another thing that he's developed is a nice little VB application that lets people at the part search through his tracks for an artist and then add it to the playlist in a similar way to a jukebox in a bar.

Net radio is already there. Just try here (You have to start the stream first, of course). I've seen a couple of these "program as you go" bitcasters, and I like 'em. Hats off to ya Nazz.

musings ala Hacker's Tarot by cabbey · 1999-11-05 12:41 · Score: 1 · on Linux on a Magazine Cover?

perhaps I've just been thinking about the Hacker's Tarot too much (some day I hope to illustrate them) but I can't help but think this is the kinda thing they're waiting for. For those not familiar I've tossed a copy on my homepage; I don't know the original author but they're truely a classic.

general idea design idea
basically the power of Linux is the open nature of the code, the distributed peer review, the flexibility of the development style and the wide range of people in the community. That's the secret to Linux... the community. the many hands of the community make lite work of the otherwise daunting.

so then... here's my idea for the cover....

center: an old cast iron vault stands open, it's contents - thick reams of printout - spilling out in bathed in a soft golden light. the smashed remains of various insectoid life forms litter the floor upon which the vault sits.
surounding it: a diverse group of people surround the vault, they all view the revealed source with avid gazes. Streams of code flow between them to form a web of thought; which swats at a still remaining flying insect that has emerged from the source of revelation.
bordering them: iconic representations of the various tasks performed in Linux are depicted as jigsaw puzzels, the pieces are being placed by many different hands. Some pieces come from the people; some from out of frame.
background: montage of various pieces of code blends together into abstraction behind details, crystalizes into focus elsewhere.
a lower corner: beaten up old double hung casement window, paint peeling sits in shadows. cob webs have formed clearly showing neglect and lack of use, one pane is cracked - the shards lie below. The windows is chained shut with rusty chains, locked with a large padlock. the glass has slight tints of red, blue, green and yellow - it is dirty and opaque: none of the code in the background shows through.

some various details:

the printouts in the vault are source code - given sufficient resolution it could be various portions of Linux. It is also possible that it could be in mixed media: hardcopy, tape, disk, CD, an editor window...
the people suroundding it should be recognizable... Linus must be there, as well as Alan, Eric and other luminaries of the Linux, Gnu, OSS world; equally important are complete anonymous unknown "Jon Q. Public" types. probably can go from shoulders up or so. folks like Bill Gates and Steve Balmer must not in any way be possible interpretations of any of them. There should be a good cross of gendre, ethnic and socio faces. (especially a good scarry biker beard and dark sunglass wearing Alan, and the mild manered geek next door-ish Linus in his specs).
the icons should be pixelated before being sliced into jigsaw pieces...they should also be generic enough to NOT look like any specific product. (the opposite would also be an idea... but then you're bound to leave someone out....) ideas for logos as follows:
- an envelope with an email address on it
- that "no clouds" picture of earth wrapped around a sphere, with "HTTP://" glowing like a firebrand
- an abacuss
- a typewritter
- a painter's easle
- a terminal window
- a file cabinet
- some documents on a silver tray
- a brick wall with flames on one side and a scroll on the other (or a theif on one side and a pile of gold coins on the other)
- . . .
the various mascots could go with either the people or the puzle pieces. tux, the bsd daemon, the gimp, shadow man, the suse gecko, the perl camel, the gnu...
The hands assembling the pieces, like the people should be a mix of people; a dainty feminine hand with manacured nails next to a knuckle sandwich maker with grime under the nails and hair on the knuckles; everything in between. (a robotic arm? a prosthetic hand?)
the code streams between the people should be both ascii and binary (hex??)
an alternate background would be the source as tux

I know there are more details floating in my head... but it's been a long week and I'm tired... I'll post others tommorow if the thread's alive.

Re:Someone please give a Stunner to M$ by Nagash · 1999-09-25 20:21 · Score: 1 · on The Continuing Rise of Linux and UNIX

That's funny, but I took the MIA (Music Industry Arts) program for record production at Fanshawe College before coming here to UWO for CompSci, but that's exactly what I though (except we used Macs. They didn't crash so much, but still weren't great).

Once I'm done school, I aim to start work on professional quality audio programs for Linux - possibly even during school, assuming I have the time.

I would very much like to chat with you about this. No email address is given and your homepage link doesn't seem to work. Can you contact me, please? Thanks. gzw@home.com

Re:ADSL any day by WNight · 1999-09-23 01:33 · Score: 1 · on Cable vs. DSL, Explained

You know, it doesn't sound much different than rogers@home cable. Except that we get 1 static IP.

btw, when I was helping a friend install ADSL he didn't get a static IP, it changed twice in a week (he shuts his computer off). Is the static IP thing from your ISP, or from BC Tel?

And only 2.5Mbit downloads? I'm sorry... I get 340k/s on a fairly regular basis (from large sites.)

I pay $45 for the cable modem, There is a cost for basic cable, but my roommate gets cable anyway, so it doesn't cost me anything. The $5 difference between the two I can live it.

There aren't actually any server restrictions from on @home (in our area). I asked the help desk before setting up my own ftp and web servers and they said as long as I don't attract attention by having a warez site running at full bandwidth all the time, they don't care.

A screenshot you might enjoy.

Oh yeah, I got the 10/100 card free with my free install. Lucked out and was able to talk the sales rep into a free install by dropping hints about ADSL.

Decoding the binary - Yet Another Post (YAP) by WNight · 1999-09-16 23:45 · Score: 1 · on Nitrozac Answers

I know we all need to prove our geekiness by writing a program to do this, but I decided to write something that will not only work, but that beginners could follow.

So, I wrote a C program, commented the hell out of it, and compiled it for msdos platforms (As such, it might not like LFNs, sorry, best I can do when not on a Win/DOS box right now).

C Source Code

MSDOS Executable

Full Package with input files

I saw the perl that was already here, and the C, but I thought this would be better because 1) it works 2) it isn't obfuscated to make it shorter, and 3) everything is commented.

The C code *is* a lot longer than the perl, but it's a lot more robust than what was posted here. It'll read from a file, prints a help message, prints usable error messages, has more robust parsing, etc.

Anyways, if you were baffled by the write-only perl posted earlier, read the code to this, it should be a bit easier to understand.

I won't include the answers, I'll assume you can find them (they're posted in this thread a fair bit.) if you want a spoiler, or will run the programs (this, or another) to get them.

As long as I'm linking to files, I'll mention some of the other files on my page.

Flashlight Quake2 - An x86-Windows Q2 mod. You run around in the dark with a flashlight and shoot your friends. Docs included.

Fire - A DOS/Windows program, basically a screensaver. It's 1238 bytes, you perl size snobs try that! :)

Q2 Screenshot of a bug in the lighting code. I think it happens when a texture is stretched or compacted.

Source and Executable for a program to decrypt WSFTP passwords. I wrote it when I switch to using BulletProof FTP.

swl2pcx.zip - A program to convert SiN (The Q2-engine game) texture files to PCX format. I used it for Blue's contest to find the Blue's News easter-egg texture in the game. Unfortunately, someone beat me to it. If you have the game, try this, there's some really funny stuff hidden in there. (You need to unpack the files first, use a standard .PAK explorer.)