Slashback: DRM, MPAA, ADSL

Slashback tonight with a response from Sony that removes the DRM 'rootkit' that has caused so much commotion, more hijinks from the MPAA, continued battery advancement, a followup to the UK broadband plan that had so many American's drooling, a catch in the recent Netflix settlement, and continued financial trouble for Silicon Graphics. Details on these stories and more, below.

It's not evil, but just in case... gmr2048 writes "Sony seems to have heard the commotion. They have offered a "Service Pack" to uninstall the DRM Rootkit. From the announcement: 'This Service Pack removes the cloaking technology component that has been recently discussed in a number of articles published regarding the XCP Technology used on SONY BMG content protected CDs. This component is not malicious and does not compromise security. However to alleviate any concerns that users may have about the program posing potential security vulnerabilities, this update has been released to enable users to remove this component from their computers.'"

Obviously they have never heard the adage about deep pockets. Dieppe writes "The MPAA is at it again. This time they're suing a grandfather who didn't cave into the $4,000 blackmail offer for movie downloads his grandson downloaded from iMesh. Four movies in total, and they already owned 3 out of 4 with the grandson deleting them soon after download. This time the MPAA wants "as much as $600,000" in damages. The article also claims that "illegal downloading" costs the industry $5.4 billion per year. Not sure where the MPAA comes up with these figures."

Longer life and no charge time. It doesn't come easy writes "A press release from A123Systems announces another new lithium-ion battery technology that promises to deliver unprecedented performance (according to them). The technology is suppose to deliver 10 times the cycle life and 5 times the power over conventional lithium technology, and only require 5 minutes to recharge to 90% capacity. This is certainly not the first breakthrough for lithium based batteries that has been promised. I wonder if there is a patent lawsuit in the making?"

Fast net connection, but only if you live nearby. conJunk writes "The BBC is running an article about the ADSL2+ that touted a 24MB/s net connection. It seems that this number in fact only holds up if you live across the street from the service provider."

Always read the fine print. JeremyWall writes "The recent Netflix class action settlement has a catch. While it is nice that the average subscriber will be upgraded for one month for free, if you read the fine print in section 4.2 of the long form [PDF Warning] of the settlement you find that you will be automatically charged for the higher subscription going forward. If you don't opt back out when you get their email, you are gonna get charged from then on. If you opt in for the settlement - check your email box regularly!"

Know when to hold and know when to fold. psykocrime writes "According to a recent press release SGI stock has been delisted by the New York Stock Exchange, as a result of falling below the NYSE's minimum share price." SGI, the former darling of the high-tech world, has been in trouble for a while, perhaps this is really the end.

Comments

Re:"Service Pack"

[Software]

Well, they would have to extremely stupid to do that. They know they're going to have to get past Russinovich again, so I'd doubt they'd be dumb enough to think they can pull the wool over his eyes.

Oh, and don't bother to use Firefox to try to download the "Service Pack": it's IE only. Typical.

24Mbit already plentiful in Sweden

[Anonymous Coward]

The actual speeds usually ends up around 16-18Mbits, but we've had 24Mbit available here a long time. And, yeah, it's also ADSL2+

Re:I know where the MPAA got that figure

[tezzer]

I love this quote from TFA, hopefully frustrated judges will slap down the MPAA for bringing some of these ridiculous lawsuits:

Most cases have been settled out of court, he said, and the ones that aren't are moving slowly through the system, where judges have been baffled with how to treat many of the lawsuits.

"Frankly, most of the reaction I have seen from the federal courts has been bewilderment. They aren't used to having hundreds of people who can't afford attorneys coming in not knowing why they are there in the first place," von Lohmann said. Lawrence's case fits the norm in many of the file-sharing suits, where companies go after the parent or grandparent paying for Internet service, although it is often a child doing the downloading.

In some instances, parents have argued they didn't do the downloading and won, only to have the industry sue the child.

"That is not a very pleasant outcome, but if you truly can't afford it, it's probably easier for your child to file for bankruptcy than for you to file for bankruptcy," von Lohmann said.

The $600,000 figure

[cpt kangarooski]

This time the MPAA wants "as much as $600,000" in damages. ... Not sure where the MPAA comes up with these figures."

17 USC 504(c)(2) is where.

There are two types of damages available in a copyright infringement suit: actual and statutory. The plaintiff gets to pick which one he wants. The maximum possible statutory damages are $150,000 per work willfully infringed. In this case there are apparently four works. 4 times $150,000 is $600,000.

Of course, they would need to not only prove infringement, but that the infringement was willful. Furthermore, that only results in the court being able to award any amount it feels appropriate, within the range of $750 - $150,000 per work. The amount awarded may well be less than the amount sought.

Put the slashdot effect to good use

[Em7add11]

Send Sony some feedback about their DRM software: http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/english/form11.html I sure did.

Re:24mbit/sec?!?!?!

[MisterBuggie]

Erm, we've been using adsl2+ for a good year in France (with the ISP Free)... You can get 20Mbps up to around 2km. Afterwards it slowly goes down, but even around 5km away you can still get 2-4Mbps. And the 1Mbps upload isn't really affected by the distance, until you get really far away. It's odd, 5 years ago, France was far behind, with the US being in the lead. Now France is ahead of Britain which has barely discovered 2Mbps as a general public offer, and the US is drooling over the *British* adsl? And no, I'm not some snotty French idiot come to be arrogant as Americans seem to think all the French are, I'm a Brit expat. Oh, did I mention the fact that along with 20Mbps dsl, we get free VoIP (with a phone pugged into the modem, not through the PC), *and* TV? Oh, and it's only 30 euros a month ;o)

you forgot the worst thing SGI did.

[artifex2004]

I'm glad you're dying. You've made every misstep possible: lets sell Windows NT machines! You sell Fuels in regular ATX cases with rockin' 800MHz processors that start at something like $10k. Your video offerings, once your strong suit, suck -- all you offer is older ATI cards in crap configurations -- $40k for two cards since I needed a new node (didn't buy it, duh).

Don't forget they stopped using the cool cube logo, too.
Managers and clients don't want to see an effete little "sgi," that hardly inspires confidence.
Where's the logo that booms, "Damn straight, I AM graphics?"

Re:24mbit/sec?!?!?!

[InvalidError]

Phone wiring has uncontrolled impedance while Cat5E has well-defined limits. Cat5E has a usable bandwidth extending beyond 200MHz (some video extenders transmit analog RGB over three pairs, using the last pair for keyboard/mouse/usb) while ordinary phone wire is pretty much unusable beyond 10MHz due to excessive crosstalk.

They may both be copper but the way this copper is arranged makes a huge difference.

Re:Actually this is factually incorrect

[masdog]

I disagree that it would be unethical to refuse a case from the MPAA. We're not talking about defending a person accused of a gruesome murder who is most likely bound for death row. If lawyers refused a case like that, I could understand someone saying they are unethical.

But the cab rank rule doesn't apply in the United States.

In the United States and elsewhere, the general rule is that there is no duty for lawyers to accept work, except where the professional association or a court assigns them to the client. According to the International Code of Ethics of the International Bar Association, 'Lawyers shall at any time be free to refuse to handle a case, unless it is assigned by a competent body'.[62] While the cab rank rule does not apply in the United States, it has a strong foundation so far as barristers are concerned in England[63] and Australia.
http://www.law.qut.edu.au/about/ljj/editions/v3n2/ bagaric_full.jsp/

We're talking about an organization made up of one of the richest industries in America suing its own customers for even more money. While I don't agree with the concept of people downloading full movies, you have to wonder if the lawyers who take these cases are thinking with wallets when their firm gets the call from the **AA.