Slashback: IP Protection, ReligiousDocument, LiPS Savings

Slashback tonight with updates and clarifications on recent Slashdot stories, including some more fuel for the Sony fire, a closer look at the Intellectual Property Protection Act, ministers jumping on the OpenDocument bandwagon, another spammer gets his due, founding members of the new LiPS board speak out and more - read on for details.

Sony leading a price-fixing cartel? Sheridan writes "Hot on the heels of the SonyBMG XCP rootkit fiasco The Times is reporting that Sony may have been charging online retailers up to 15% more for its products than high street outlets in an attempt to block online bargains from forcing prices down. Perhaps they're trying to recoup some of their losses on the rootkitted CDs, although somebody ought to let them know that most of their loss was to their reputation, which this certainly won't help."

Deconstructing the IP protection act. Brent writes "Ars Technica takes a more in-depth look at the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2005 and shows that some of the original fears of the Act were overstated. The article states that the act is primarily concerned with criminal acts of infringement, namely infringement done for commercial gain or competitive advantage, and not with criminalizing the mere attempt at commonplace infringement. In short, the act is aimed at commercial piracy. The article also ends with an reasonable challenge to the US government, including the call for a referendum on consumer rights and the penalization of the use of any digital rights technology that impedes fair use."

Even the clergy are jumping into the OpenDocument fray. da6d writes "The LXer has an article about clergy joining the fray surrounding Microsoft's refusal to support OpenDocument. From the article: '[they] see Microsoft's stance as intentionally withholding support so that it can turn a technical business decision into a political fight. By refusing to support OpenDocument, Microsoft is ignoring the cross-platform document sharing needs of visually impaired users, not only in Massachusetts, but also in the other 49 states, not to mention the rest of the world. The economically disadvantaged will also suffer from the lack of Opendocument support in Microsoft Office.'"

UK spammer gets his due. delete writes "Notorious UK internet spammer Peter Francis-Macrae, who referred to himself as "weaselboy", has been convicted of fraud. The 23-year-old earned more than £1.5 million through his activities, primarily through spam mails offering the registration of unavailable domain names. Up to £425,000 of his earnings remain unrecovered."

Linux to make smartphones and high end communication devices cheaper. nitinah writes "In an interview with Phonemag, the founders of LiPS comment that mainstream adoption of Linux would make smartphone and high end communication devices more affordable than ever before. Founding members John Ostrem, lead scientist of PalmSource and Michel Gien, EVP of Jaluna also commented that Linux would also extend the economics to not just phones but applications and services."

Comments

Re:OpenDocument

[suitepotato]

RTF, Rich Text File, MS and Linux apps can easily save to this, 99.9% of users are on Windows anyways or on MacOSX which can access most MS app files easily given MS support for the platform, next problem. MA residents aren't be shortchanged in any way, shape, or form by using MS apps.

They're being short changed by idiotic attempts to go away from them towards a software world ruled by masochistic morons, anti-useability clowns, and the true anarchistic scuttlers of real meaningful standards. Standards which don't seem to exist in the world of Linux, BSD, or anywhere else on the open source side of the fence because every other person in it is a veritable Donald Trump of ego who know what is best for the world of computer users. Meanwhile the users ignore them and continue to willfully purchase Windows and Office.

The problem isn't Microsoft embracing open standards, it's that the open standards being proposed are like the idiocy of the UN running the Internet: done for imposing power by one group on another for purely inane reasons of ego. The open standards and open source people in general want to humble MS. MS Office has no useability issues. OS office software does.

For instance, GnuCash bites compared to Money and even Quicken no argument (I've used both, only Money worked as needed every time). MS Word is well integrated to the whole of Windows which is the majority desktop out there and not one OS app ported to Windows even seems to take a portion of the time that long-time Windows closed source shareware/freeware writers do to make the integration seamless and the experience good.

It's not about the users. If it was, the Linux and other OS os/app people would actually try to honestly grok why the end users consistantly choose Microsoft Windows over Linux and BSD and so forth. It's about sticking it to Microsoft, it's about FUD about Microsoft, and paranoia about Microsoft. I don't expect too many on /. to grasp any of this, but it's true. OPEN is not some magic word and those who wield it are frequently like the political correctness wonks on campus who whine about free speech but only as long as it is theirs: "the users" only matter as long as it is their hated enemy Microsoft that is getting the buys. When it comes to the users using open source code, then screw em cause you get what you pay for and it was free, so stop complaining and rewrite it yourself is the attitude.